Becca Creative

DIY Vintage Chic

2012-06-04T19:23:00.000-05:00

I've split off my blog and have a separate one for some of my home decor projects. Jump on over to DIY Vintage Chic and check it out.

Here's some of the latest and greatest...

Stump Side Table

Vintage Wine Crate Coffee Table

Flag Decor

Pallets... go find them, they're free~

2012-05-16T20:03:00.000-05:00

I've been on a quest for a new coffee table. I originally wanted to created a pallet coffee table like the one below but I've moved on to a new idea. (Stay tuned, it's almost done) However, I did become quite interested in other ways to use pallets. I hear they're free... I like free... now, where do I find them?

Joy Ever After

Life on the Balcony

Homedit - a number of ideas!

Better Homes and Gardens

Craftzine

Mother's Day Gift

2012-05-13T09:14:00.001-05:00

Create your own Mother's Day gift. Below are the steps for this 3 panel personalize photo collage.

Don't want to do 3 panels? Just do one!

Materials:
Boards - I used 3 but you decided (I would stick with an odd #; 1, 3, 5)
Matte Black Spray paint
Pictures - I was able to find three photographs from my childhood with my brother and sister. Print these pictures on thick paper. I used Card Stock.
Mod Podge
Eye Hooks - You'll need 10 if you create three panels
Twine

Start with the boards. Either buy some precut boards or cut them
down to the correct size.

Spray paint your boards. Be sure to cover the sides.

Once your paint has dried grab your eye hooks. I drilled a few
holes in the top and bottom of my boards to ensure they were
all in the same place.

Screw them in

Cover just the board with Mod Podge (without your picture).
Then place your photo on the board and cover the photograph
with Mod Podge too.
**** I used my inkjet printer but I think it would be better to
use a laser jet if you have one available.

Let the Mod Podge dry for about 12 hours. Then sand down
the edges. I roughed up other parts of the board and some
parts of the photograph too.

Use your twine to connect all the pieces. This was the
hardest part of this project for me. You want to make
sure the twine on each side is the same length or
your photos will hang crooked.

Here are my 3 photos: Summer time in the backyard

Building a snowman!

Summer vacation

And you're ready to wrap it up.

Twigs and Twine... the culprit has been identified

2012-05-12T19:20:00.003-05:00

Some of you may have read my Twigs and Twine blog and remember how one of my adorable fur-babies ~~destroyed~~ took creative liberty with one of my projects.

Before

After

I had a hard time trying to figure out who ruined my sticks. While terrified of the 3 lb Pomeranian next door, Nadia (my chocolate lab), is usually oblivious to my yelling, finger pointing and stomping. So the fact that I have a picture of what looks like her sitting proudly by her "work of art" well.... sometimes she's just ignorant.

And then there is Nate. Typically well behaved but he has been known to get into his fair share of trouble. Unfortunately for me he has learned that this Puss n Boots-pouty face gets me every time.

So who did it? Well I think I found the answer today. I was gone several hours having lunch with my mom for Mother's Day and then completed a little craft shopping (yes, a scary situation to let my mom and I run loose in a craft store but we did a very good job... the key, don't get a basket/cart, it'll limit what you can carry). I came home, let the dogs out and after several minutes of this crazy behavior I finally realized the culprit....

Dogs are just suppose to fetch their sticks, right? Keep in mind, she was running around, eating sticks before I started video taping and throwing them for her. I have no idea what's made her so angry at all the sticks in the world. But I think this the only proof I need.

Ivy Tower

2012-05-09T19:46:00.000-05:00

More Twigs and Twine!!! Let's hope one of my furry babies doesn't destroy this one like they did with my "Let's Stick Together" project. I'm still peeved about that one!

So this was a quick project I stumbled upon. I was actually looking for ways to create an attractive tomato cage. Living in a condo means finding creative ways to have a garden. I came across Carolyn's site DIY tomato cages and then continue on to find her smaller version where she makes it a Mother's Day Centerpiece.Glancing up from my computer I thought my own ivy plant might be in need of an accessory.

My ivy plant... beautiful. The plain old stick in the middle of
the pot... ugly! Plus with my Updated Plant Stand I needed to
complete the entire project. And how perfect is this pot for this
project? It already has twine (or rope) wrapped around it.
A perfect fit!

You don't need many materials for this one! Twigs and twine
that's all, oh and a hot glue gun. I created 4 different stacks of
twigs. The 1st being the longest and then each stack going down
in size from there.

I started by building one "wall" of the tower so I could
be sure my measurements were correct. (You don't
want to make the tower first and then see if it fits in
the pot.) Use your hot glue gun to hold them in place.

Once I had one wall built I found it was easier to build
the other walls with them already inside the pot. The 2nd
wall I built was the opposite wall using my 1st wall as a
reference for where the twigs should be placed. Continue
on with the 3rd and 4th wall.

Next I brought out the twine and wrapped around each of the
joints. I am not a knot expert so I have no idea what you
would call this but I wrapped them in a cross-cross pattern.

Pull your longer pieces of ivy up through the top of the tower
and let some of the shorter ones fall on the lower twigs and
you have an Ivy Tower!

I admit, my ivy does look like it's having a bad hair day but with a few days of sunshine the leaves will flip over and it will figure out its way around the tower.

Animal Coat Rack... for the kids

2012-05-08T18:56:00.002-05:00

Need a unique coat rack for your kids? I saw something similar to this on Pinterest several months ago and thought of my nephew. He loves animals so I'm hoping he enjoys this.

The directions for the original website I found are on Apartment Therapy. Unfortunately I had to modify her instructions so there was some trial and error involved.

Find some animals you like. I wish I had found a few more.
As morbid as it seems, use a saw or utility knife and cut
the heads off.

Still think it's not morbid? Unfortunately a new dog sitter came
over to meet my furbabies with these out on my counter. I'm
hoping she didn't call an animal abuse hotline.

I bought a 1x4 board and cut it down to about the size I wanted.
I then sanded, painted.... sanded.... painted until I was happy.
I basically went with a white wash look on the front and then
painted the sides black

Here's the tricky part. Apartment Therapy must have bought
a different kind of toy animal than what I have here. The inside
of these heads were completely hollow. Long story short, I
eventually used some epoxy and glued around the neck of the
animals. TIP: the elephants ears kept pushing his head off the
board. I couldn't sit holding an elephant head to a board for 24
hours so I grabbed a juice cup, stuffed a plastic grocery bag inside,
flipped it over on top of the elephants face and then placed a
large book on top of the glass for extra weight.

And here we are!

Apparently I did a pretty good job arranging the animals
without even knowing. My nephew's fav animal is the
elephant. Front and center!

Pinterest for Dummies

2012-05-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't ~~made the commitment~~ joined Pinterest yet or even for those who have, the complaint I usually hear when surfing the internet for ideas is you see an image once and then it's lost in good ol' internetland, never to be found again. Of course when Pinterest became popular there wasn't an issue, right? Wrong, how many times have you pinned an image only to go back later and find the link is broken. Boo! Well, here's a helpful tutorial to solve that problem.

I stumbled on this by accident while searching for images on Goggle. My issue is I usually see an image I like, save it to my computer and later on forget why I saved it, where I found it, etc. I discovered Google has an Advanced Search option. http://www.google.com/advanced_image_search Pretty nice, eh? So I did some reading about using their image search and found you can actually search for an image by using that image! Craziness! Who would have thought.

Below are some screen shots and directions.

Go to Google.com and click on the Images tab along the top. The Google Images page will include a camera icon within
the search bar at the far right.

After you click on the camera icon, this box will appear. You can either paste the image directly into the field (Ctrl V) or
you can upload an image you've saved on your computer.

I decided to search for an image I saved. I know I copied the pic from Funky Junk Interiors (awesome blog!!!) but for
purposes of this exercise, we'll pretend I can't remember.

A window will pop open for you to search for the image you've saved, in this case a large # 2 Donna created. This one
was out on my desktop. Click 'Open' once you've selected the correct image

You should see it searching (or the little spinning wheel as some call it) .....

And voila! There's the image along with the correct website! MAGIC!

Here was the information Google Support provided. I did some more research to see if I was absolutely nuts or if other people were struggling with this too. One of my favorite sites, The Graphics Fairy actually has a blog on how to find Pinterest images too. Hope this helps!

Metallic Flower

2012-05-01T22:34:00.000-05:00

There's not much of tutorial for this one, it's pretty simple. I used the same technique from my Song Lyrics Artwork, using contact paper and peeling off parts of the design. I used the design from my Skittles watercolor piece. And I also had a piece of sheet metal leftover after my Scrabble Board artwork.

So I already had almost everything I needed. Sheet metal, contact paper and a design. The only item I had to buy was some spray paint.

The contact paper does leave some stickiness when you pull it off the metal. I used some Goo Gone to remove it.

I'm curious to see if I could do a multicolored pieced..... oh, the projects will never end. :)

Removing Wine Labels

2012-04-29T16:43:00.000-05:00

No, unfortunately I don't have a new project to show... but I do have a great tip for removing those stubborn wine labels!

Tada!

It still took a little bit a work. Some labels are harder to get off than others but here's the secret.... the next time you're making dinner and using your oven, throw in a few wine bottles after you're done cooking. Let them sit in there for about 10 minutes and the labels will be peal right off... most of them anyway. I used the back off a butter knife to scratch off a few labels. \

After letting some bottles soak in my tub....

.... and still no success, this is the best method I've found so far.

*CAUTION*
Please be careful when doing this. Those bottles get hot fast! I used an oven mitt and a towel and sometimes they were still a little too warm for me to hang on to. Also make sure the bottles are completely empty of any liquid. You don't want to have it boiling up inside a bottle only to pull the bottle out of the oven and pour steaming liquid on your little toes.

And out of about 2 dozen, I did have one that just shattered on me. You should probably wear some eye protection. Luckily I heard this one cracking and set it down before it completely broke in two.

Photo Challenge

2012-04-10T21:16:00.000-05:00

10 weeks ago when Jason left for Basic I knew I would miss him like crazy.... but I thought there might be a few things he would miss too. So everyday I took a photo of something that made me think of him... I should say, I took a photo everyday of ONE of the things that made me think of him. We finally got to see each other so I put the finishing touches on the book to give to him.

I had this pic laying around but I'd like to put one of us from
his graduation.

My 1st shot at binding. It was actually pretty fun once I got the
hang of it. Sorry there's no tutorial with this blog. This book came
together in a rush and I wasn't quite sure what or how I was going
to make it.

My stitches need to be tighter but still fun.
I found instructions by watching a video
on youtube.

Pic of the beautiful flowers he sent

Mail from him!

Some of my messages for him

I miss having a ~~glass~~ bottle with him

I miss watching the sunset with him

While he might not admit it I think he misses his little girl

Beach Bath Redo

2012-04-04T21:09:00.000-05:00

The bathroom remodeling is done.... almost. I think we're going to put in a new vanity so until we do that I'm going to wait to paint. But with the Beach Table done and a few more pieces finished up it's looking pretty beachy.

I had this old mirror sitting around so I painted it up

Same color on this little shelf

Add assorted beachy knickknacks

I already had these shelves in there but added
some jars, shells, sand and candles.

Next I took a couple of boards and found these 3 cheap
squares which work perfect

Again, I found some odds and ends

And glued them on the squares

I used epoxy to attach them to the boards

I used some fabric to hang it up

Song Lyrics Artwork

2012-03-29T20:43:00.003-05:00

Have a favorite song? Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is a favorite of Jason and I. (Video's at the bottom of the blog. Watch out it's catchy and gets stuck in your head!) We love the lyrics and usually catch ourselves singing a line or two... or whistling it. So I thought I'd make some artwork.

You don't need many materials for this project: A piece of wood,
some lyrics, paint, exacto knife and contact paper.

I had this piece leftover from my Scrabble Board project

I typed the lyrics out and designed them to fit within the right size.

I taped off my border

I laid down the contact paper and then the lyrics

I started by covering the back of the lyrics page with
graphite and then traced over the letters.

You can see it transferring over here. But I soon learned
just cutting out the letters of the paper with an exacto
knife will transfer the graphite too. For an easier way
to transfer your lyrics view Living with Lindsay's blog

I'm pretty sure I just about broke my fingers cutting
these letters out.

And if the last step didn't break it then going back
over the contact paper to ensure the cuts were all
made correctly definitely broke my fingers

The fun part... peeling the contact paper off to leave the letters

I ran my brayer over the letters to make sure they
were nice and snuggle against the wood before
I started painting

I brushed paint on but I think I would use spray paint
next time, for one, it would be a faster way to paint. But
also I noticed the paint I used was a little too liquidy
and ran under my letters

I wanted the black paint to pop so before I pulled up in letters
I sprayed the board with a glossy clear coat

Here you can see where some of the paint seeped
under the contact paper.

Definitely like it though. Now I just need
to figure out how I want to frame it.

Your own custom side table

2012-03-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

This table has been in the works for a number of years but I finally finished it... and love it. Customize it to fit your style. Fill it with decorative rocks, seashells, corks. The possibilities are endless!

Materials:
A large pot (go with something plastic so it's not too heavy)
Glass top
Filler (I went with rocks but again it's up to you)
Wood panel

Extras:
This is the part that took so long to finish. My pot wasn't as tall as I wanted to I grabbed a circular panel and 4 little chair legs... table legs... sorry, I'm not exactly sure what they are.

My pot

My rocks - I found a huge bag at Garden Ridge for $6

As usual I was hasty and wanted to start on my table. I didn't
have a panel wide enough for the pot but I did have 2 piece
that fit together nicely. You'll want to cut your panel so it sits
just inside the pot leaving a couple of inches from the top
for your filler.

My glass top. It took a while to find a piece the
right size. I finally found it at Hobby Lobby. Used
a 40% coupon and scored it for about $15.

Here are the extra pieces I bought to give the table some height.

Sorry it's blurry. I marked off where I wanted to screw in
the little table legs

I predrilled some holes

Screwed in the legs

I spray painted the base.

Filped the pot over and aligned the base

Screwed the base into the bottom of the pot. I also
ran a line of epoxy along the bottom of the pot
for extra strength.

Flipped the pot (and base) upright. I placed my panel inside
the pot and dumped in my filler.

I also purchased some little plastic sticky cushions so the glass
doesn't rub on the top of the pot.

I'm thinking I might have to switch it out
for wine corks in the near future.

This wasn't necessarily the cheapest project for a new side table but it's definitely something you won't see anywhere else.

Fancy decor for a couple of bucks!

2012-03-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Want some fancy decor? Hit up Goodwill!

Materials:
Hurricane (found at Goodwill! You can buy a new one but they're usually at least a couple more bucks)
Candlestick (again, found it at Goodwill for a buck!)
Rubber bands
Spray paint
Epoxy

So I got a little exited and started working on this before I took pictures. And I probably completed my steps in the wrong order. I epoxied the hurricane onto the candlestick first. I would wait to the end. :/ Sorry!

So the hurricane I used was similar to this one. You
can use any candlestick you find too.

Add the rubber bands randomly or create a pattern.

Spray paint the hurricane in a color of your choosing.

Let the paint dry and careful peel off your
rubber bands. If you have a light coating the
paint will scratch off so be careful!

I squeezed some epoxy around the top of the
candle stick and let dry.

Grab a candle and enjoy your cheap decor!

Trying to sleep... custom pillow cases

2012-03-13T21:26:00.000-05:00

Since Jason's been gone I've found myself falling asleep holding a framed picture of him that usually sits on my nightstand. I thought creating these pillow cases would be a good alternative to save me the bumps and bruises from smacking my head on the frame after I've fallen asleep.

I found a couple of my favorite pictures and quotes

Materials you'll need:

Pillow cases

Iron on Transfers

Pictures

Quotes

Fabric marker

I started by following the directions for the iron-on transfers.
Sorry there are no pictures. I then printed out my quotes (in
reversed) and traced over the backside of the paper in pencil
(your quote will look correct)

Flip your page over after you've traced the quote and center it
on your pillow case. Now trace over the correct side of the paper.
I used an extra fine tip pen. It's a little hard to see but the pencil
will transfer onto the pillow case.

Use your fabric marker to fill in the letters.

Here are my iron-on photos

Still working on a quote for the back of this one

And before I can even try them out my little Nate snuggled up
next to them. He sure misses his best friend. Hurry home Jason!

My Scrabble Board Project

2012-02-26T10:06:00.000-06:00

Words with Friends is going crazy and there's a sudden popularity with using scrabble letters as art so I thought I'd make an art piece that works for us in the house.

Here are my materials:
Scrabble game; old Dictionary ($1.00 at Goodwill!), magnets,
24"x24" sheet metal, frame

I glued the magnets to the back of each scrabble letter

I used some Mod Podge to glue some dictionary
pages to the sheet metal

One layer of pages done. I added a 2nd layer to make sure all
of the sheet metal was covered.

I created my own scrabble board and printed it out. I didn't
see any free printable scrabble out there though so maybe
you can make a photo copy of the board if you don't want
to make your own. I then went over all of the pages with
a coat of Mod Podge to protect the pages.

I bought a frame you can put together yourself. It's a little thin
so I may still look for a 2'x2' frame or maybe make my own.

Hang it up!

Then write your own message or have an ongoing game.

Twigs and Twine .... with some help from the dogs

2012-02-24T18:55:00.000-06:00

I decided to get a little crafty with some twigs from the yard and some leftover twine.

Twig Votive

I grabbed some twigs and broke them off in even pieces.

I used my hot glue gun to paste them onto a votive

In some areas I doubled up the twigs

And then added my twine

A little gift for my sweetie

I gathered a few twigs about the same length

Using a knife I CAREFULLY shaved off the first layer of bark
on one of the twigs

(A little hard to see) I wrote my quote in pencil

I broke out my wood burner and copied over my text

I used a rubber band to hold all the sticks together

I wrapped the twine around both ends to hold the sticks together

Let's stick together

Grrrr...... so I finished this last night and was going to publish my blog tonight. Unfortunately it totally slipped my mind that my precious little fur-babies LOVE to chew on sticks. And where did I leave my newest little craft project? On a side table... right where they could reach it.... this is what I came home to....

Not much left

So who did it? This one sure loves munching on sticks

But he looks pretty guilty.

Spring's coming!

2012-02-23T18:20:00.001-06:00

A high in the 70's... in St. Louis.... in the middle of February??? I'll take it! And it was a perfect day to finish my Spring Wreath!

Makes me feel warmer just looking at it. Can't
wait for more warm weather!

Materials:
A wreath; your choice of yarn; flowers; a decorative item (I
selected some pearly beads), and I decided to use some
leftover burlap to hang the wreath.

I wanted to stagger my yarn so I marked off where I would
change colors. I made mine even but making them uneven
would be a nice effect too.

I started wrapping the yarn around the wreath and used my hot
glue gun but you can also use fabric glue.

1st round done.

I went back around each color to cover any uneven spots.

Add in your flowers and beads

Attached your burlap and hang!

Letter Art... with a twist

2012-02-17T18:52:00.000-06:00

The alphabet letter art is huge right now. I wanted to create a more personal one with my soon-to-be new last name! ;)

I realized how light the H and M are once I stepped back and
snapped a photo. I'll have to go back and redo those.

I took pics of some of our important items

W - Our first engagement gift! A large W to display
O - The logo from my Christmas boots Jason bought me. I love them!
O - I kept a charm that was from the first wedding Jason and I went to.
D - From our WorlD Series tickets from 2011. Go Cards!
H - Stole this image from my Beach Table.
A - From one of Jason's National GuArd bags.
M - Go Mizzou! Jason's favorite college team.

From a previous project I had an extra board and an extra dowel
rod. I purchased a smaller size board to glue to pictures to. I
cut them down to 4x4 inch squares and also cut the dowel rod at
varying lengths.

WEAR EYE PROTECTION! I'm not sure if I didn't have a good
hold of the rod when I was cutting or if there was a bad spot but
my saw kicked this piece up at me. Luckily there was no injury!

Let a piece of Steel Wool soak in Apple Cider
Vinegar overnight. Then scrub your board and
let it dry. Instant aging

I used Contact Cement to glue on the 'nubs'
but eventually I switched to an epoxy. I was
afraid the contact cement wouldn't hold the
weight. It was soaking into the wood too much

Missing a photo here but I printed out my pics and
glued them to my 4x4 pieces of wood. I then glued
the 4x4s to the nubs.

Almost done!

I drilled two holes (equal distance from the sides)
in the top of the wood

Screwed in two eye hooks

And thread some twine through. I went back
and forth 3 times but that adjustable.

Ummm... back to work. Need to fix
the H and M. It'll drive me nuts otherwise.

Wooden Letter Quote

2012-02-16T20:44:00.002-06:00

I combined a couple techniques I've found. Trying to decide if I like it...

Thoughts?

I found a quote I liked and bought some wooden letters

I also had a couple of flowers I had doodled

Sorry for the lack of the next few pictures. I grabbed an
extra canvas and mod podged some phone book pages to
the canvas (I have to use the Yellow Pages for something).
I then painted over the phone book in white. Don't worry
about trying to smooth the pages down.


Once my paint dried I went over the canvas with some sandpaper. The wrinkles of the phone book will ware off.

Glue down your wooden letters

I enlarged my flower doodle

And traced a copy onto the canvas

I then went over the flower with white paint

Almost done!

A little hard to see but I watered down some brown
paint and covered the canvas in small sections. Before
the paint dried I wiped off the excess paint. This will
give it an aged look

All done!

A quick and easy update to an old plant stand

2012-02-12T09:02:00.000-06:00

One of my plant stands was looking a little... worn. So I decided to give it a little update. I had a extra scrapbook page laying around that was just perfect!

Some water spots and the wood was starting to show in some spots

I grabbed some Mod Podge and put a base coat down

My extra scrapbook page

I added a layer of Mod Podge on top of the paper
and used wax paper and my brayer to get out any
air bubbles.

I added an extra coat of Mod Podge just to make sure

It's like a new table!

Personalized Valentine's Card... figure out those self timers!

2012-02-09T22:10:00.000-06:00

I was getting ready to mail my latest stack of letters to Jason and realized it would probably be my last chance to get him a Valentine's Day card by early next week. So I made my own!

I hope he likes it!

Homemade Apple Butter

2012-02-08T19:03:00.000-06:00

I had a craving for apple butter on my English muffin the other morning. And since I'm so brilliant and bought a bag of apples not realizing I already had a bag at home, I figured I had a few extra to try out a homemade recipe. Below is my concoction. I cut the original recipe down and adjust the sugars a little. It called for something ridiculous like 5 pounds of apples and made 7 pints. (I wasn't craving it THAT much). It's delicious though!

7 apples - dicing them smaller will make the cooking process go faster
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
Pinch of ground cloves
1/2 T Vanilla extract

Cook for about 8 hours, or until apples are soft. I put the apples in a container and used my emulsion blender for a smooth texture. I'm sure your blender would work just as well. I also saw a recipe instruct you to mash the apples with a fork (seems a little labor intensive) for a chunky texture. I placed part of the apple butter in a canning jar and the rest in a container in the freezer for later.

Upcycled Side Table.... Beach style!

2012-02-04T15:18:00.000-06:00

I definitely have to have some small projects to keep me busy while Jason's away at Basic Training. My first one is complete... or at least part of it. I've decided to make our 1/2 bath beach themed. I started with an old table I already had sitting in there.

Here's my plain ol' table. You can see I already
started with some seashell decor

I had some of this sample paint laying around

I painted up the table. I wasn't too worried about
an even coat. I had plans to do a little sanding.

I found a few images online to work with and put them together.

I scribbled on the back of the page, taped the paper to the table
in the correct place and then traced over the design

Image transferred

I used a thin brush for the outlines. Again, I didn't worry too
much about the details, this is suppose to look old and worn.

Filled in with my muted beach colors

And sanded down

I sanded down the entire table especially
on the edges.

Let the countdown begin....

2012-01-26T18:56:00.000-06:00

Monday, January 23rd, 2012 my finance left for 10 weeks of Basic Training immediately followed by 18 weeks of Advanced Individual Training (AIT). Fingers crossed, August 13th will be his graduation for AIT and I can finally bring him home! I can't spend my days counting down to August. That's too far away! So in my head I'm trying to make it to April 4th when he graduates from Basic and I'll finally get to see him again.

But I saw this idea for weight loss and thought it would be the perfect way to count down the days until August... 203 days to be exact. :/ 4 days in... 199 to go!

I can't wait until the vases are reversed and
there's only 4 rocks left in the one on the right.

Miss my honey! LUMU