Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Vintage Pottery Barn Lockers

Remember I was working on a project?  Well here it is....

Eeeeek!    I'm so excited with how they turned out and the kids are pumped too!!!


I've been needing to re-work the garage.  Since I built our last set of lockers, we have added two more children to our family and needed more locker space.  While Ryan and the boys were gone for 3 days, I kicked into project mode and  I built these!  Whoo-hoo!  They feel so good to have completed!


I built one for each of the kids to keep their stuff in and of course, I had to number them.  

I was inspired by these Pottery Barn Lockers.  Mine aren't as big due to the area I had to work with, but I really loved the old look of these and did my best to re-produce them for our garage.

Here are ours with the doors open to see how I placed the hooks.  I did some taller and some smaller due to the different sizes of clothing that will be hung up on them.
I built and painted mine as I went because our lockers were more narrow and once they were finished, I wouldn't be able to fit the drill in them to place the hooks.  I had to build, fill nail holes, sand, primer, paint then place the hooks one locker at a time.  In another post, I'll show the process of how I built them!

A view with some items in them...

and a little person's belongings...

They really weren't too bad to build.  Just took some figuring out of the area and space.
Now I need to get busy and move all their stuff in!!!

I'll do another post to show the process soon, I was so excited to share with you how they turned out I had to show you all these sneak peeks of the finished product!  


Thanks for reading!


With much Love & Gratitude,

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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Cupcake Topper Winner...

 And the Winner of the cupcake toppers is....

Honeybee!!   Congratulations Melissa Q!  These adorable cupcake toppers are yours!!!





Thanks to everyone who entered!  


I'll work on some more giveaways I promise!!!


P.S.  Remember I told you I was going to get out my saw and work on something?  Well, I'm about 99% done with my project.  I literally worked on it for 3 days straight!  (yes, I'm still recovering, but so excited with the outcome!)  I'll share my finished project soon!  


Thanks so much for reading!  Have a fabulous week!




With Much Love & Gratitude,

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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Idea for a Baby Announcement...

 I wanted to share with you a fun way to announce if  you are expecting a baby.  With each of our Children, when we found out we had a new little arrival coming in 9 months, we of course wanted to share the news!  I always tried to do something a little clever to announce.  With our last baby, we used some  colorful chocolate candies to help us out...







It really was pretty simple to do.  I took some candies.  I used one to represent the color of each of my kids.  Spread them out on some white paper.  Lined them up and took a picture of them. I also put a little more space between the new baby's color and the rest of the kids' colors, for a little more focus and emphasis on the news of the new arrival...


  I next took it into photoshop and typed my kid's birth dates on them with each of their names below. Layered it on a brown color for the background.  For the new little arrival coming, I used a yellow candy since we didn't know if it was a boy or girl yet. I typed on the due date and just left a question mark below for the name.  When we were ready to announce I just sent it in a large email for everyone to get at once. Everyone was thrilled when they received the news and ok, a little shocked too! Hee Hee!  This could also be done by printing it off and mailing them as cards too!


That's it pretty simple. 


I'll share in some future posts the birth announcement I did for this little one once she arrived!  It was a blast to create and put together!


P.S.  I'm starting up another project. I've been wanting to get out the saw and re-work some things around here! :)
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With Much Love & Gratitude,




Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Cupcake Toppers & a GIVEAWAY!!!





 Ok, so I have to confess.  I think I have an addiction to cupcake toppers!  I think we could all agree there is something so wonderful about a Cupcake in general!  That little wonderful confection of  Heaven.  More recently, Gourmet Cupcakes have become such the rage!  Sweet Tooth Fairy came to our neck of the woods not too long ago!  Yippie! Anyways, back to my thoughts.  I have this obsession with cupcake toppers.  I love to see something on top of a cupcake that correlates to a party, Holiday, Birthday theme etc.


 I just have such Fabulous Blog Readers so I thought I would do a giveaway with some everyday cupcake toppers I made up to say Thanks for being a part of my blog! Here are the toppers you can win!

I made up some fun little owls....

A little bike with some cherries that I cut out.  They are so tiny and cute!


some polk-a-dot flags with a ruler flag!

A big ticket...


And several others that I combined...

So here are the rules for the Cupcake topper Giveaway!


     This Giveaway is now Closed, thanks to all who entered!!


The Giveaway is for 1 dozen of these fun little cupcake toppers to use as an everyday topper for summer cupcake toppers or you could save them and use them for Back to School toppers too! They are pretty versatile...


      Just sign up as a follower on my blog and leave a comment at the bottom of this post!  (See that wasn't too bad) :) Out of state readers may also enter!  These toppers can go in the Mail!


You have until This Sunday, July 29th to enter.  I will announce the winner on Monday July 30th!
Good Luck!


I have some fun cupcake toppers I have made in the past, you might remember,
Mckay's Baseball party toppers... Read more Here or click on the pic below...


The toppers I made for my Friends Melissa's Surprise Party... read more Here or Click on the pic below...

Ivy's Birthday Party... read more about them here or click on the pic below...

Ava's Birthday... read more here or click on the pic below...


 And Madi's Photobooth Cupcake Toppers... read more about these Here or click on this pic below...

I have some more topper ideas swirling around in my head that I will make for up coming events and share!  Yay!  So stay tuned!  


Have a great day and good luck on the topper Giveaway!


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With Much Love &
Gratitude,

Friday, July 20, 2012

Old Window & Shutters -- Tutorial!!!



Today's tutorial is a DIY Old window, shutters and shelf!


When I made this, Blogs were not common place to do a step by step process with, so I have to do this tutorial using my existing window, shutters and shelf.  


Materials:
1.  An old window.   (I found mine at a glass company.)
2. 1-  Pine or Mdf board for the shelf.  (Mine is a 1x7 and is cut 341/2 inches long, but depending on the size of your old window, yours will be a longer or shorter length.)
3. 2-  Decorative Brackets for underneath the shelf. I found mine at Home Depot.


4. Bi-fold Shutter style closet doors  I bought mine at Home Depot.


5. 4- Vintage hinges to secure window to shutters.  I bought mine at Home Depot.


6. Small Flat metal brackets to secure shelf to window.
      1-  2 inch bracket
      2-  3 in. brackets
7. A handful of various sized grabber screws
8. Paint to match your old window
9. Gel stain to antique.




Process:
Build your shelf:
1.  Take your old window.  Measure the bottom of it to cut your pine board or Mdf board to the length you measured of the bottom of the window.  Cut your board.  (Remember this is not assembled yet, I'm only using my finished window to demonstrate.)

Figure out how far you want to space apart your brackets on the underside of your shelf from both side ends of the board.  Mine are fairly far apart, about 3-4 inches in from the edge.  Its totally up to you where you want your brackets placed.


Attach the brackets to the bottom of the pine board.  Make sure you line up your brackets flush with the back of the board.
Also Note:
That these brackets are smaller at the front of the bracket as opposed to the back of the bracket. When you attach your bracket to your shelf board, remember you are going to need shorter grabber screws for the front to drill down into the bracket to anchor it.  You will need longer grabber screws at the back obviously because your bracket is longer at the back.
(Remember this still is not assembled yet, I'm using my finished one as an example.)

Here is a shot of where the I placed the grabber screws.
(Again, still not attached to the window).
There is a grabber screw at the front of the bracket, (needs to be a shorter in length grabber screw because your bracket is shorter in length at the front.)
There is a longer grabber screw at the back of the shelf. (its under the window at this point on my photo.)  Still shelf is not attached yet.
Now that your shelf is built, put it aside.  

Next:  Cut the shutters to match window.

1.Take your bi-fold doors.  Unwrap them.  You will need to dis-assemble your bi-fold door.  They usually have some type of hardware.  Take apart the hardware. You will need both panels from your bi-fold doors to create your shutters.  One for each side of the window.  
2. Lay your your shutter panel flat on the ground.  
3. Lay your old window next to the shutter panel to get your measurement.  
I made a simulation here with the one that's in the package still at the store for demonstration only.  Please have your shutter door out of the package, dis-assembled and laying flat on the ground.

Make certain your shutter will line up for the cut on the solid part of the shutter.  Do not cut your shutter below the solid surface or your shutter slats will fall out.  You want your shutter to have some solid space at the top of the shutter and at the bottom of the shutter like in in this photo.
 Double check your measurement of the window with a tape measure before you cut.  Make your cut of the panel door to make your shutter.  Repeat the same step for the opposite side with your remaining shutter panel door to create a second shutter.

Time to Paint!
Once your shutters are cut and your shelf is assembled they need to be painted:


  I had Home Depot mix me some paint to match my window.  I took in a small paint chip off the old window.  They did a great job. 


Paint both your shutters.  I did the front and back of the shutters because you can move the shutters once they are attached with the hinges to the window, so the backs of the shutters will actually be seen when it is all assembled.  


Paint your shelf. 
Once the shelf and both shutters are dry, you can antique them.  I antiqued mine because I wanted them to match the old window.  


You can use sand paper and do it by hand or if you have a palm sander that will work too.  Sand various areas (like the edges and shutter slats) of the shutters and the shelf to reveal the wood again... it's up to you how much you want to sand down.  


Once you have sanded down various spots of the shutters and shelf then take some Gel Stain or stain.  I use the Minwax.  You don't need very much stain.  Use an old towel, dip it in the gel stain.  Rub it lightly over the whole surface of the shelf and the shutters, take a clean towel and wipe it off lightly.  This will give it a stained and antiqued look, its up to you how much stain or gel stain you want to apply to get the look you want.


Next...
Turn your window over to the back of it.
At the top of the old window, drill two holes at each end so you will have them to hang your window with when it is finished.


Now you need to attach your shelf to the window. 


Keep your window turned over and line up your shelf flush with the window.  
Attach them together with some metal brackets and shorter grabber screws. Be careful not to drill through the front of the window when you attach the brackets.
You will use your longer flat brackets at the ends and the shorter flat bracket in the middle.

Close up of the end bracket attachment. 


Attach shutters:
Once your shelf has been attached to the window, turn it back over to the front and lay it flat.  Lay your shutters next to your window and determine where you want your hinges to be placed.  


Attach your hinges in place.  Now you are finished.  It's time to hang it and enjoy.  We made certain to place our screws that we hung our window with into the studs in the wall, due to the heaviness of the window and shutters.   Make certain to measure your distance between to your holes on the back of the window and line them up with the screws you put in your wall. If you do not have a stud you can anchor your hanging screws with, I would recommend getting a wall plug that goes into the sheetrock to anchor and support the weight of the window and shutters.  


Once your screws are mounted in, hang your window and shutters.  Here is a sampling of the different options you can do with your window and shutters.


I have put my kid's pictures in them:

Some different seasons like fall...



Christmas...


Spring...

4th of July...

So there you have it!  If you do make one of these I hope you enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed ours!

Also I note, I have finally (I can't believe it has taken me this long) signed up on Pinterest, AND added a pin it button to my blog posts. You are welcome to pin anything on my blog, and follow me on Pinterest, I'm still in the process of creating my boards!  


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Thanks again for being my fabulous blog readers!
With Much Love & Gratitude,
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