Tutorial Tuesday #10: DIY Napkin Holders and Christmas Tablescape

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I can't believe it's already December. Holy cow. But I'm so glad it is because with the month comes Christmas movies, drinking hot chocolate in excess amounts, the justification to pig out on every dessert imaginable, and all things red and green. Oh, and penguins. I love penguins. Obsessed is probably the better word to use. Today I want to show you my Christmas tablescape and my super easy and festive DIY napkin rings.

I mean, these were seriously easy and they make such a big impact on my table! Here's what you need to make your own. They literally take like 3 minutes. 

 Supplies:

Hot Glue Gun

Bouquet of small poinsettias 

(I got mine at Old Time Pottery for $1)

Elastic Hairties

To put them together, I cut the stems off the flowers and hot-glued the flowers to the hairties. The gold balls were actually on another bouquet of poinsettias that I bought at the same time. I thought they added an extra pop. I just cut them off of their original bouquet and stuck it through the holder. And there you have it. Super easy 3 minute napkin holders for your Christmas table!

I pretty much love them. I ended up changing my placemats to the ones in the picture below because I had forgotten I had them and I liked them better than the ones in the pictures above. Pardon the terrible picture quality of my tablescape. I ended up taking these on my phone. Also ignore the mess in the background!

The tablecloth was one of our wedding gift card purchases and we will be able to use it year round. The chargers and napkins were from Old Time Pottery as well. OTP is the best. So cheap. I bought the votive holders and the glass Christmas tree a long time ago. Pretty sure I got them at Wal-Mart after Christmas one year when everything was on sell.  It's really simple but as a poor medical student, simple is really all I can do. That's all I have for today! Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Tutorial Tuesday #8: More Upcycle Frames

Hey again! Today's post isn't anything very special. In fact, I shouldn't even label it a tutorial. I've been working on more wedding stuff, mainly gifts, but I can't post about them quite yet! I'm pretty sure I mentioned in my last upcycled frame post that I had a bunch of other regular photo frames to use for the wedding that I wanted to spray paint brown. Well, I finally am getting around to posting pictures of those.

Basically it started with a bunch of $0.39-$0.59 thrift store frames that looked like this

I tried really hard to pick out frames with some sort of detail around them because it just looks a lot nicer to me. I first sprayed them with gray primer. Notice how spotty it looks? Yeah, well that's because I ran out of the primer. I'm pretty sure I used up every last drop.

The last thing I did was spray them with 2 coats of Krylon "Brown Leather."  I added some of our engagement photos and I now have some more decor for the wedding!

Just 66 more days to go! Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week!

Thrifted Frame Makeover

Like I said before, I have been wedding crazy lately. Therefore, I've been running lots of errands and popping out lots of projects. As one of my wedding stops, I decided to try the thrift store to see if there was anything I could make something from. My main idea was to look for frames that I could use to hold our engagement photos and have them sit around the venue. And boy was I in luck. I found a bunch of different sized frames that had cool detail and all I had to do was spray paint them brown. I'll have pictures of those eventually. 

As I kept searching the shelves, I came across this super cool frame! 

It was pretty dingy and dusty, but nothing a little spray paint can't fix.  Plus, it was only 3 bucks and I had the perfect idea of how to use it.

Like I've said before, we are having a photo booth at the wedding. (Thanks to dad!) Not to mention, I've already shown you some of the props I've made for it. Here and here. I decided this frame would be perfect to use as a chalkboard to just "display" the photo booth. 

Kind of like this one. 

Except, this is mine 

It really doesn't look like I did anything to it, but I promise I did. It desperately needed a new coat of paint.

 Before I did anything, I took off the back and the glass. I was slightly taken aback when I saw I needed a screwdriver to take the back off. I have never seen that on a frame. Maybe I just don't get out much. 

I then took some ivory spray paint and went to town on the frame. 

To make it a chalkboard, I cleaned off the glass piece and used 2 coats of my chalkboard spray paint. This turned out to be disastrous on the first try. While it was drying, the wind decided to blow really hard causing all of my newspaper to fly up and hit the freshly painted glass, leaving streaks and chunks of paper stuck to it. Epic fail. However, I accidentally found out one time that Goo-Gone takes off spray paint. Who knew? So, I decided to start over. I took my messed up glass, soaked it with Goo-Gone, and started scrubbing. (FYI, this was done over the bathtub). It worked great getting it off the glass...but then I had another problem. It was now all over the bottom of the bathtub. And my hands. And my arms. I felt like I was in the Cat in the Hat. You know that scene, where the kids can't get rid of the pink junk? Yeah, that. It was miserable. But thankfully it eventually all went away and I was able to try spraying it again. In this case, the second time was a charm!

I also absolutely adore the detail on this frame. And I could not be more excited that we are officially down to the double digits! Happy weekend!

Tutorial Tuesday #3: DIY Kitchen Decor

Another Tuesday is here yet again. Summer is going way too fast. Today's project was supposed to be last weeks. I finally got around to going back to WalMart to get hooks to hang these babies. Also, this project is so simple, I almost feel like I'm cheating you. So instead, I'm going to tell you how I made both parts to my kitchen wall decor.

The EAT was ridiculous how simple it was. It honestly shouldn't even count as a craft because I don't feel like I did anything. Basically, I went and bought 3 chipboard letters at the Hobs Lobs, used some black spray paint I already had, and sprayed away. I think the hardest part was waiting for it to dry. Sad, right?

I used a small sawtooth photo hanger on the back of each letter and hung them with a nail to give my final project.

The framed silverware was a project I found and completed a little over a year ago when I was first getting started with my crafting obsession and hadn't started medical school yet. It was right after Pinterest had first gotten started and I pretty much made every little craft I could find. Literally. I did two months of "a craft a day." You know, sort of like everyone does that "photo a day" thing. Now I don't have the time or the money for that. Sad day.

But, back to the framed silverware. I bought 2 forks, 2 spoons and 2 knives at the dollar store and spray painted them red. I did the same thing to the frames tht were also snagged from the dollar store. I bought 8.5"x11" damask scrapbook paper and glued it to the cardboard back that came with the frames. I used some E6000 to glue down the silverware to the paper and it's been holding steady ever since. I wish I had thought to spray the paper with some sealant before gluing down the silverware, but I guess it wasn't crucial since they still look as good as the day I made them.

And there you have it. Another Tutorial Tuesday has come and gone! Hope everyone has a great week. Happy crafting!

Fave Things Thursdays: Pillows

It's time again for some weekly Pinspiration. Today's fave thing is something that has been a big project on my to-do list for quite some time. Pillows! There's only one problem. I have not the slightest clue how to use a sewing machine. Teaching myself to sew is also on the to-do list. I am in desperate need for new couch pillows for our future apartment and there's so much great diy inspiration out in craft world that I would feel like I was betraying my love for crafts if I just went and bought some plain, boring, store pillows. Just saying. So, to get on with my post, here are a few a bunch of my favorite diy pillow ideas!

Word pillows

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Stenciled pillows

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Ruffled Flower pillows

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Pleated pillows

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Fringe pillows

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Rosette and Burlap pillows

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Bow pillows

My love for bows would probably be considered a problem to most people

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Fabric flower pillows

Words cannot describe how beautiful I think this is!

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And because nothing is complete without a little chevron print

Chevron pillows

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 Well, that's all I have for today's fave things post! Hope everyone has a great weekend!