2014: A year of DIY

In the past year my hobbies have grown out of control to say the least. Being a new homeowner and planning a wedding only made it worse. Here are some of my favorite projects from the past year.

Burlap Spring Wreath
A trip to Micheal's Craft store to buy: Foam wreath, Burlap ribbon, lace ribbon, gingham ribbon, and faux flowers. The "Spring" sign is a simple banner put together using MS word, or just browsing Pinterest for free banner printables. Hot glue it all together with a twine string in the back for hanging and it's ready for the front door.

Primitive throw pillows
Using this tutorial - Easy DIY sewing Pillow case and a trip to JoAnn's fabric to pick up: Homespun fabric and 2 pillow forms.

Primitive kitchen canisters
Our kitchen isn't that big and I don't want to clutter up the counter space we have with big, bulky baking canisters so with some left over mason jars from our wedding along with left over fabric from my pillows I put together these simple primitive canisters. Signs were made using kraft paper found in the scrapbooking aisle and MS Word.

Repurposed Pallet wood sign
When we first moved into our home the previous home owners left behind some things that ended up being very useful to us, such as pallets in the basement. My husband cut up some pieces for me, screwed them together and here we have a rustic frame. I printed out some photos, made a chalkboard sign and it became the perfect Mother's day gift.

Liquor bottle tiki torches
My dad loves his Captain Morgan (and so does my husband) so when the bottles were empty and cleaned out this became my ideal Father's day gift. All you need is torch fluid, tiki torch wicks (all found at Lowes or Home Depot) and washers.

Office chair makeover
My husbands office chair that's probably on it's last leg has become the chair for my craft room, but it needed a girlish touch. Again, a trip to JoAnn's fabric for the fabric you see above. We disassembled the chair (you can find so many tutorials on this on pinterest) and using my new favorite tool the staple gun I got to work recovering this hideous office chair. 

DIY coat racks
When we first moved in our "Coat Closet" which is the walk way the leads to our basement had this plastic yellow coat racks that looked like they belonged in a daycare. The boards we used are OAK, but you can go with whatever works for you, different wood gives off a different look when stained and I wanted something rustic. Once the stain was dry we screwed on some bronze hooks (from Home Depot) and attached to the wall.

DIY sonogram ornament
This is probably my favorite DIY project yet. With the arrival of our sweet baby girl coming in April I wanted to start off her ornament collection a little early. Using old dollar store clear ornaments I added in epsom salt (or you could use the fake snow stuff, but this is all I had at the time) then on MS Word I resized my sonogram pictures to about 1 inch, printed them out and used packing tape as laminate.

My many wedding projects

With 1 month till the wedding... FINALLY! 2 1/2 years in the making we're finally getting down into the double digits....single digits! Awhile back we decided to plan a full on DIY wedding so I've been busting my butt the last couple months to get everything accomplished that I can. I wanted to share what has finally been checked off our list, and you just may get some inspiration for your own wedding.

Our Wedding: We will be celebrating our marriage on Saturday August 9th 2014 at 4:00 in the afternoon under our ceremony tree surrounded by family and very close friends. The ceremony is taking place in the backyard of Justin's grandparents property. I'm looking forward to seeing everything come together the weekend of our big day.

Everything from the ceremony music to the programs have been made by us! Pinterest has been a huge help through this process even though my husband sometimes gets tired of me being on it.
When we first started out on this wedding planning journey we had a guest list of 100+ for our outdoor ceremony and reception. As time went on and we got into planning the dollar signs started stacking up. We got an estimate for our caterer (at that time) who was practically our wedding planner for food, a large white tent, tables, chairs, linens, dessert, beverages for almost $5k... the stress quickly started getting to us. We couldn't justify spending almost $10k to plan a wedding that would last only a few hours so after many discussions Justin and I had decided to simplify things.

We said goodbye to our caterer and everything we had originally planned and started from scratching with a year out from the wedding. We now have a guest list of 40 which consist of family and very close friends. Everyone has been nothing but generous and supportive with our wedding. Our reception location has changed to a historic building turned restaurant downtown in our hometown. Working close with the owner the past couple months I'm realizing we made the right choice, and I know our bank accounts will continue to thank us years down the road ;) 

I'm pretty stingy when it comes to my money. I know every bride wants a big lavish wedding, but that just wasn't in the cards for us. Between being engaged and buying our first home our priorities quickly changed and trying to justify spending almost $10K on a wedding when we could put that money towards a nice honeymoon and fixing up and making our house a home it just made sense.

Pallet Table Projects

Who decides they want to build a pallet entryway/console table at 9PM? This gal!
Our upstairs hallway is pretty plain and boring, we've had a tall wood shelf sitting in the little nook since we moved in over a year ago and I guess yesterday I decided it was an eye sore. So off to pinterest I went, looking for ideas on how to make and design a small and skinny table to fit along the wall.

Here is our before cabinet which is now sitting in our office waiting to find a new home.

Justin my husband got the Best Husband award last night for helping make this rustic beauty, we finally finished it up around 11 PM. He's a keeper right? ;) The previous owners of our home had left behind 3 pallets in the basement which I've slowly been getting used up with projects around the house. Here is the sign I made for my mom for mothers day this year.

Now, back to that pallet table. Here it is all decorated with some primitive touches.
The table runner I made from scrap fabric I had left over from some throw pillows. Fabric was purchases at JoAnn's Fabric store. 

StitchedTeagan is back

After a pretty long hiatus ST is back in business with a fresh new look and all new jewelry.
This time around it's been very relaxing and I've enjoyed spending my evenings making new jewelry to list in the shop. As I've probably said before that Jewelry and I have a on again off again relationship... well we're back together right now ;)
The style for this "season" is wire inspired (kinda catchy huh?) I've been trying to incorporate more wire wrapping into my pieces and keeping the designs simple, but eye catching.
I'm really proud of the new shop banner and avatar I designed using a chalkboard style background; very classic.

Be sure to stop by and browse my selection, be in mind it's small at the moment but growing day by day!
Etsy Shop - StitchedTeagan

DIY - Chalkboard using paint

Chalkboard paint.
5 months till the wedding, and I'm really enjoying any DIY projects I can throw together.
While shopping one evening my fiance and I stopped into a store called "Tuesday Morning" pretty similar to a big lots, or Ollies if you're familiar with that. I spotted this black board the resemble a chalkboard.

I love lettering, or calligraphy if you want to get serious about it. So I wanted to put my "handy work" to the test for a chalkboard to display at our ceremony and reception.

What you'll need:
- Chalkboard paint. I'm using Americana paint from Michael's Craft store about $2.99
- A roller (any paint roller will do. I'm using a small sponge roller also from Michael's)
- A surface to paint on :)

- Painters tape (I'm using Frog tape from Home Depot, left over from paint our master.)

I also picked up a chalk pen which was found in the paint aisle of Michael's for $1.99

• I taped off the area to cover the decorative white design that came on the board.
• As per the instructions on the paint bottle you want to apply 1 coat vertically, and 1 coat horizontally. 
• Let dry for 1 hour and repeat.
• Let cure for 24 hours and condition the chalkboard with chalk. (this part I didn't do)

(sorry for the poor quality)
Once it's dry you can remove your tape and there you have a nice even chalkboard area inside the decorative design.

And my finished project using the chalk pen.

Chalk and chalk pens will easily wipe off using a damp paper towel 

Calligraphy and Typography

In my spare time (or when I'm bored) I really enjoy lettering. I just love the way it looks with a black marker on white paper. Here are some of the ones I've created so far!

14 days of love. Day 1,2, and 3

I decided this Valentines I wanted to do something sweet for my fiance each day leading up to the 14th. All these ideas I found from pinterest :)
Day 1: I made a sign using card stock to place next to my fiances cereal bowl

Day 2: I picked up some of his favorite muffins (Blueberry) and using the website Picmonkey I made the sign to place with the muffins

Day 3: I made strawberry cake batter cookies with vanilla cream frosting and sprinkles. The cake batter cookies I made awhile back were a huge hit with him and so were these!

Dreaming of a craft room.

At the moment my tiny little craft space is sharing the smaller bedroom with our office. Hopefully when we finish off our basement I'll be able to make that dream come true of having my own craft oasis. Until then I'll keep on dreaming, and keep on pinning :)

I love the look of white, it's so clean and then paired with pops of color; so fun!

A super easy desk to make which I've seen on pinterest is taking 2 small bookshelves and a simple piece of wood to make the table top.  Unfortunately our "office" room is took small for a big table like this right now. 

Adding that pop of color using the desk chair. If you can't find a cute one at a reasonable price a good idea would always be to hit up the antique malls and get a cheapy and repaint it your desired color.

Guest Bedroom color palette

Guest bedroom color palette.
An idea of what I'm trying to go for, for our extra bedroom which right now is the guest bedroom but will one day (hopefully within the next 2 years) be a nursery. At that point I'd still like to stick with this similar theme, something that is gender neutral.

As of right now this is our guest bedroom. Hoping to get rid of the day bed once we find a nice twin sized bed frame. I'd really like to find a nice antique spindle bed.

Here are some color schemes I really love! Just something about this bright cheerful colors.

Half bath makeover

Our downstairs half bath was a spontaneous project I threw on myself this morning at 6 AM! Yepp, you read right, what else is there to do when you can't sleep? We had extra paint left over from painting the master bedroom so I decided to tackle the beachy blues! When we moved into our first home about a year ago I tried to work with what we had. The baby blue walls, and sandy colored hardwoods floors left only one theme to go with; BEACH! So I acquired some light house photo frames, nautical decor, and got to it. The more I looked at it the more I hated it. Our entire first floor is primitive decor so I wanted to stick with that theme. 

When we first moved in we installed a toilet paper hold which this bathroom didn't have, along with replacing the light switch plate which was a light house and did a dark wood plate.

Valspar - Aired Plaines is the color we used in both our master bedroom and the downstairs half bath.

To decorate I used what I had around the home. Dollar Store carnations put in a Ball mason jar with lace around the brim. I had plenty of extra fabric left over from making pillow covers for the living room so I measured and cut a piece to drape over the toilet. The photo frames are 4x6 from Walmart and the quotes are ones I just searched for on Pinterest. 

I have to give myself a pat on the back for this, I don't usually take on painting projects alone, but I feel very accomplished and happy with the results! 

Unique Jewelry Display

If you sell jewelry or are looking for a way to display your own collection. Here are some clever ways to re-purpose items into your own jewelry displays.

Do you hunt? A great way to re-purpose those antlers is to display chunky bangles.

Use an old tool box or fishing tackle box to hold and display jewelry at craft shows.

Take large wine bottles and cut them down to a size the suites you. Spray paint and use as a necklace display. This could work with any large bottle you may have around your home

Take clip boards (found at any office supply store) and use scraps of burlap to display necklaces

Use scraps of wood, paint and distress with sand paper. Put 2 nails on either side to display necklaces. Or using a large piece of wood do the same as above and add more nails to display bracelets.

If you sell on etsy here is a cute way to display and package your jewelry for shipping. Use a stack of playing cards (can be found at the dollar store) cut slits at tops to place necklaces through.