DIY Subway Art for My Son

Pin It

This week I created some easy DIY Subway Art! You don't need an expensive cricut or silhouette...but it would sure be nice to have. LOL Come on and I'll show you how to make one yourself!

After I found a quote I wanted, I created the layout I wanted on Picnik.

I recently learned about blockposters.com, thanks to Because (I Think) I Can! This is a site where you can create posters from any size image. You then print it out on our printer. I printed mine at the approximate size of the canvas I had.

I watched Celebrity Apprentice on my computer and I started cutting away each letter with an exacto knife. It was easy, just time consuming. It took the whole episode. :)

I then taped the sheets together for easy stenciling.

I got a 20''x 20'' canvas at Michael's for 40% off. I painted it a shamrock green color as the base. I placed my make-do stencil on top and stenciled away with white craft paint.

This sign was created for my youngest son's new room. I wanted something to best describe how mommy and daddy feel about him and inspire him as he grows. I took weeks looking for the perfect quote. Well at least it took me that long to decide on the perfect one.

This special boy has overcome many obstacles in the past year. We are so proud of him.

And he's super happy because his room is finally done! :) The reveal coming soon!

Linking Up HERE

Resurrection Eggs

Pin It

This is an old project I shared last year but thought I would repost for any newbies here at At Home With K!

Do you have any traditions to celebrate Easter with your family?

I have a fun and easy project to do with your family as you count down the days.

All you need is an empty egg carton, some recycled eggs from last year (or new) and some trinkets for each egg.

Label each egg from 1-12 with a permanent marker.

The trinkets can be found throughout your house. If you google Resurrection eggs then there are many examples on what you can use for trinkets.

Here is the list that I used for my family's set.

#1 The Palm branch/leaf--represents the triumphal entry. Matthew 21:8

# 2 The 3 Dimes--represent the money that was paid to Judas for his betrayal of Jesus. Matthew 26:14-15

#3 The cloth--represents the scarlet robe that was placed on Jesus during the trial. It was making fun of the fact that He was the "King of the Jews." Matthew 27:28

#4 The thorn--represents the crown that was placed on Jesus' head. John 19:2

#5 The knotted rope--represents how Jesus was bound and led away by the soldiers. Matthew 27:2

#6 The cross--represents the cross that Jesus was made to carry Himself. Along the way, Simon was ordered to carry it the rest of the way. John 19:17

#7 The nail(s)--represent the scars that were in Jesus' hands when He showed them to the disciples to prove it was really Him. John 20:25-27

#8 The dice--represent when the soldiers cast lots (gambled) to see who would get what was left of Jesus' clothes. John 19:24

#9 The sponge--represents the vinegar water that was offered to Jesus while He was on the cross. Matthew 27:34

#10 The Linen fabric--represents when Peter came to the tomb and found the burial cloths that had been around Jesus, but no body! John 20:6-7

#11 The rock--represents the rock that was in front of the tomb. It was rolled away by an angel of the Lord. Matthew 28:2

#12 The empty egg--represents the empty tomb when Jesus had risen from the dead. Matthew 28:5-6

I printed out the list and cut each egg description out into strips and slipped them into each egg.

A simple way to teach my kids the real reason for the season. It's also fun for mom and dad. :)

DIY Personalized Wood Sign

Pin It

I wanted a creative way to display my son's name letters in his new room. So I came up with a fun wood sign. I love the way it turned out!!

Let me show you how to do this simple DIY personalized wood sign!

First you need a piece of wood. Mine is 4 feet long (1x10), but you can use any length and width you want.  Then I found some very cool scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby that looked like chippy peeling paint.

I cut the papers down to equally to cover the length and width of the piece of wood.

I then mod podged the papers down on the wood.

Make sure not to use too much glue or it will make the paper bubble.

Don't worry about cutting the paper so neat and straight. The edges will be covered with trim pieces.

While the glue dried, I put heavy books on top of the paper to prevent any bubbles.

I then cut pieces of lathe to go around the edges of the wood and in between each piece of paper. I stained the lathe pieces with MinWax Early American Stain. I also stained the sides of the wood board as well. I attached the lathe with nails from a nail gun.

I already had these letters from Hobby Lobby that I painted black, distressed and stained. We had these displayed in my son's old room just by adding sawtooth hangers on the back. I didn't want these go to waste, so I used these for his new sign.

If you don't want to use wood letters, then you can easily stencil letters directly on the the paper or use vinyl letters from your Cricut or Sillhouette.

 I nailed each letter on each section with nails from a nail gun.

Now my son has a fun sign for his new room that is colorful and a little rustic (for mom's taste).

Here is the close up of the 'wood' paper. When I showed my hubby the finished sign he asked where I got the old wood at. :) He was surprised it was only scrapbook paper!

Here's the breakdown of the costs:

4 foot 1x10 wood board: $3.50

5 pieces of scrapbook paper at 36 cents each: $1.80

Wood Lathe: Free-Had on hand
You can buy a bundle of wood lathe for around $7 or $8. It will last you forever! I used it for a lot of projects!

Wood letters: Free-Already Had

Total: $5.30!

Another fun and easy project! And most importantly, I have a very satisfied customer. :)

Linking up HERE

DIY Pillows

Pin It

Well I took the plunge this past week and did some sewing projects. Sewing is really out of my comfort zone. Give me wood and a big saw and I'm fine...a sewing machine intimidates me. :) Sadly, my husband knows more about a sewing machine than I do! He gave me a mini lesson on our hand me down sewing machine from his grandma. I only had to sew straight lines so it wasn't too hard after I got the hang of it. It was actually pretty fun and I can't wait to do some more easy sewing projects in the near future!

Do you want to see what I whipped up?

We recently moved our youngest son to a bigger room in our house. So I'm in the process of sprucing up his room with some new accessories. Some cool DIY pillows were on the list to add to his door bed!

I first started with a no sewing machine pillow project first. My son and I found this cool placemat at Target. I think it was around $3.

I took a seam-ripper to the side of the placemat and made a hole big enough that I could easily stuff the pillow with poly-fil.

The poly-fil I already had on hand for several years. That just gives you an idea on how I've been dragging my feet learning how to sew! :)

Once the placemat was stuffed with enough poly-fill, I hand sewn the opening with a needle and thread.

This was a super easy pillow to make! It literally took me minutes to make.

I love the stripped pattern!

Then I wanted to add a little graphic detail. That was easily done by doing the freezer paper stencil method to a couple pillows.

I found a 4 pack of bright green napkins at Target for $1.78. I couldn't pass them up with that great price!

This is where our sewing machine came in! I sewed 2 sets of napkins together to make 2 pillow covers.

My son loves cars and trains, so I googled car and train silhouettes. I found several images to choose from and I chose some very simple ones that I could easily print and cut out with my exacto knife. Click HERE to see my full tutorial on how to freezer paper stencil. It's fun and easy to do!

Once the paint was dry, I filled the pillow covers with the existing batting I had on hand and then hand sewn the opening I left on the side.

All 3 pillows cost less than $5 to make! Gotta love that!

And most importantly I have one happy 4 year old!

Do you sew? If not, then maybe it's time to try! If I can do it, anyone can!

Linking up HERE

Chevron DIY ART

I love the popular chevron art all over design and blog world. But I was kind of unsure for my home and style. So with our bright craft room makeover, I thought it would be a good opportunity to whip up a little art for our bright and cheery room!

I went to my wood stash and found 2 (approx. 7 inches wide) pieces of wood that are 26 inches long.

I connected the the 2 pieces of wood with 2 short firring strips of wood with just a nail gun. You could also use glue or screws.

I painted the front side only with white craft paint.

After it was dry, I used painter's tape to create my own twist to the chevron pattern. I didn't take a picture of that part because I did it more complicated than it should of been. LOL

I then stenciled my boys' names using their favorite colors.

After the paint was all dry, I sanded down the surface and edges with sandpaper to give it a worn look.

I stained over the paint and sides with Early American MinWax Stain, to look a little more worn. :)

I purposely didn't paint the sides of the sign, I like the look of the wood/paint contrast.

It looks super cool in our vivid turquoise craft/kid room!

I was about to pull out my hair creating the chevron pattern, but I love how it turned out. Adding a little fun design to our fun room!

And best of all, this project was free! Now who doesn't like free?!

Let's stay connected!

Linking up HERE

Art Display Board

I have been busy adding to the details of our kid/craft room. My hubby has been an excellent helper as well. He helped me a great deal with this project I'm going to share with you today.

We had a large art display board in our mudroom area. Well now since the current mudroom makeover, we needed to move it to another area of the room.

The downside of our new craft room is 2 cement walls. The 'perfect' spot for the peg board was on a cement wall of course. :) I wasn't too keen on drilling a bunch of holes in the wall and neither was my hubby. So we decided to adhere the peg board the the wall using 1x4's.

We figured out the placement of the pegboard and we placed 1x4 wood pieces around the perimeter and also a couple in the middle.

We used Power Grab Molding and Paneling Adhesive. It is great stuff!

We allowed the adhesive to dry overnight before we added the peg board.

Before we attached the peg board to the 1x4 boards, we added plastic clothespins to the holes. These clothespins are actually magnets that I found at Office Max. They already had a predrilled hole in the back. So it was easy to add a screw to thread through the holes.

These clothespins were also clear when I bought them. I spray painted them with a primer and then a textured black paint.

To attach to the back, we add small washers.

We could of easily used peg board hooks, but I loved the look and function of the clothespins better.

We attached the peg board to the 1x4's using screws.

Now we could of been done after this but I wanted to add some trim to cover up the edge of the 1x4's peaking through the sides.

I went to my local salvage center and found 24 feet of lovely thick old molding for only $5!

I didn't even have to paint it. I love the chippiness and crackle of the old paint. We attached the old molding directly on the cement wall using the same Adhesive above.

And I didn't even bother to fill in the corners with spackling. I love seeing the mitered corners to match the imperfection of the old wood trim.

So with a little team work, we have a wonderful diplay board ready to fill with our boys' art.

Did you see our oops? It doesn't bother me now...but imagine my disappointment when I brought this lovely wide trim home to realize we calculated enough room between the peg board and ceiling for thinner trim. And the 1x4's were already glued on the wall. LOL I had no intention for the trim to bud up against the ceiling like that. And yes, the trim is exactly 5 inches wide, just enough space to squeeze in there. :)

So keep that in mind when you are shopping for all your supplies to allow room for everything. I just fell in love that trim so much that I couldn't pass it up!

When I originally did this peg board a couple years or so ago, I originally got it unfinished at our local home improvement store. Stores carry many different sizes, I really liked the 4 foot x 4 foot size. I painted the whole piece red and then added the white stripes using painter's tape. I also stenciled my boys' initials and some stars on it as well. I then sanded it all down and then added MinWax dark walnut stain to richin' it up a bit.

 Our boys love arts and crafts (my 4 year finally caught the craft bug a couple months ago), so this space is going to be filled with creations and imagination for years to come.

Do you have a fun space to display your child's art?

Stay tuned for more craft room projects...

Kindra

Linking up HERE

Craft Room Peak

We have one room in our house that used to be a real embarrassment! It's a partially unfinished room in our basement that I mostly used for crafts. It is also the first room that we walk into our house from the garage. So we put up this door wall to divide the room for an unofficial mudroom entrance and to block off the craft mess. :)

The half painted floor was driving me nuts as well. Whenever I came home, it felt like a big DIY project slapping me in the face every time I would come home. Not a good feeling to greet me.

 Behind the doors is my craft area. I used to do craft fairs for several years so this space was perfect to create. I no longer do craft fairs...so the room was becoming a dumping ground with thrift finds and extra decor. Very embarrassing. LOL

So a few weeks ago, I said enough was enough! We cleared the room out. Now my garage is full and my husband can't park in there now... :)

But the room looks so much better and bigger with everything removed and the door wall down. Our boys had fun playing around in the big open space!

Our boys were also our big helpers for the day. They helped us clean the walls and floor for painting and floor prep.

We cleaned everything with, what else...Basic H2! Love this stuff!

This room is going to now be a kid rec room and craft room. My son got to pick the color. Vivid Turquoise! Him and his brother are so excited for their new room!

 So here it is today!

We still have many more details to finish in the room. But this is what is keeping us busy these days. The floor is almost done, just a little to finish close to the walls.

Do you have a craft or kid room? Got any clever organizing ideas for all the supplies and toys?