Dream Canvas

Pinterest is probably my favorite source for ideas and, well, favorite website in general. I happened to pin this idea a while ago and when my grandma had found some old canvas in her basement that she didn't want. I knew this was exactly what I was going to do with it. I did everything the same as the original pin I had seen except I didn't use just corkboard. The blog this idea is from is called "Honey & Fitz." This lady has tons of great ideas! Here's her picture of the complete project:

And here's mine:

Supplies:

Canvas

Cork (Try to use as thick as possible cork so the nails will hold)

Linoleum nails (I used a little over 2 packs)

Embroidery string

Black paint

Painter's tape

Paint brushes

Hot glue gun

Directions:

1. On Honey & Fitz's blog, she makes it really easy for you to complete her project by giving you a PDF of the font she used for her letters. To use her font simply download it off of her blog at: Honey & Fitz. If you scroll right after the supplies list there is a link that goes to a Google Doc of the font. I had to download it and resize it to be smaller so it would fit on my canvas. 

2. Once I did that, I taped together the paper and positioned in on my canvas where I wanted the "dream" to be and started nailing along the outline of the letters!

3. The next part is a little tricky. Once you have all of the letters outlined, you need to take off the paper. I slowly lifted the paper and had to tear it at some points so the nails wouldn't lift out. There isn't really a method to it but just try to be as careful as possible or you'll find yourself lifting all of the nails out of the cork and having to re-nail them in.This is what it will look like after you're done!

NOTE: The canvas looks a little rough right now (mine is really old but on top of it, gluing the cork behind the canvas left dents in places. Don't worry though! When you add a trim of black paint, it helps disguise it and you can barely tell)

4. Now it's time to start stringing! I liked the way the rainbow colors looked on Honey & Fitz's version so I stuck with that but you can really do any colors you'd like! I started at the top of the "d" by tying a knot around one nail and then just criss-crossing it until I was ready to switch to another color. Once again, there is not true method to stringing the letters. If you don't like the look of it, just undo your string and start again! 

5. After getting the entire word strung with the embroidery string, it's time to mask off the border with painter's tape! I did my border fairly thick (approx. 3 inches) but again, you can do it however you like!

6. And the final step...PAINT! I did two coats of black paint and also painted the outside edges of the canvas to make it look more crisp and clean.

Starbucks Door Decs

The spring semester starts tomorrow and God knows I'm not ready for the work to start piling up again! A month long break just never seems long enough...Yet, there is an exciting factor to starting a new semester for any R.A. that is new floor themes!
Each semester R.A.'s go through the process of figuring out what the exciting theme of the floor will be this semester. What do my residents like? What is something completely unique and never been done before? Of course, there is your typical Disney theme or superheroes but I wanted something new.
The weather in Cape has been pretty gloomy and the temperature seems to be dropping by the minute. When classes begin and the university opens, every student on campus and their brother will be hitting up the Starbucks on campus. It's, without a doubt, the most popular dining establishment for Southeast students.
So I got to thinking....cold weather, Starbucks, deliciousness, nectar of the Gods...I'll do a coffee theme!
Luckily, I have a friend who's dad is a Starbucks manager and hooked me up with 30+ Starbucks coffee sleeves or I would've had to made a lot of trips to Starbucks to nibble away at taking the amount I needed for all of my residents.
The coffee cups turned out cute and they were really simple to make. I just made a template for the cup and the lid, traced, and cut! I thought it would be more fun to get cute, colorful scrapbook paper for the cups rather than plain white. My floor is also all girls so that added to it being okay.
Door decs is the slang term resident assistants use for door decorations, which are what go on each residents door with their name on it.
Here's how they turned out:

Shutter Headboard

With about a week left of winter break, it's time that I post the projects that I've been working on while being stress-free of homework and enjoying the holiday season! The month of December has flown by and 2013 quickly crept up to me. Along with the typical New Year's resolutions of getting into the best shape I can and pledging to take time out  of my busy schedule every once in awhile to enjoy all that life has to offer, I'm making the resolution to hopefully post projects more frequently on Diary of a Crafty Girl and to really get my blog on a roll. Therefore, starting 2013 off with a bang, I'm posting a project that I've been working on for awhile (basically on weekends I was home from school over the past two months). 

This project is what I call a shutter headboard. The name says it all. I took four shutters that you would normally use for your windows on the outside of your home, spray painted them, stenciled an elegant design, and hung them behind my bed as a headboard. It was a really simple, affordable way to transform shutters into something that looks a lot more sophisticated. My room consists of a Paris theme with three of my walls painted the light purple that you see in the photo and the fourth wall a dark purple. Throughout my room I have mostly black accents so that's why I went with spray painting the shutters a shiny black and the stenciling really popped against it. I'm thinking about adding a strand of lights along the edge of the headboard, but that's still up for debate. Check it out and I hope you're inspired to make your own!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Christmas Beer Bottles

This post is dedicated to my Aunt Karen. She emailed me asking what she can do with a bunch of empty beer bottles she had from the brewery she owns. She wanted something crafty and creative to do with the so I put on my thinking cap and this is what I came up with! With Christmas on the mind, and just around the corner, I used the bottles to make Christmas inspired decorations that could be used along a fireplace mantle or anywhere in your home.

Supplies:

3 glass beer bottles

Green Valspar spray paint

Christmas ribbon- thick and thin

Wooden glitter letters

1 purple plastic snowflake ornament (used behind the "o")

Fake glittered branches from Hobby Lobby

Hot glue gun

Directions:

1. Make sure that the bottles are clean of sticky residue left over from the labels. I used Goo Gone to get it off but hot water and soap should also do the trick. 

2. Spray paint the bottles by using long even strokes. Avoid the paint from running down the bottle. I sprayed the bottles in my garage and sat them on cardboard so I didn't have paint everywhere!

3. After letting the bottles dry completely, I wrapped the thick Christmas ribbon around the bottle and then used hot glue to secure it. 

4. For the J and Y bottle, I took the thick ribbon again and cut 2 6-7 in. pieces of ribbon. I took the ends of the ribbon and folded them towards the center and put a dab of hot glue.

5. After folding both pieces of ribbon, I glued one on top of the another in a cross. Then, I took the thinner ribbon and did the same and glued that on top of the thicker ribbon.

6. For the "O," I used a snowflake ornament behind it instead and put some of the thinner ribbon along the edge of the snowflake to add some pizzazz. 

7. Lastly, I hot glued the wooden letters on top of the ribbon bows and put the glittered branches in the bottles.

8. YOU'RE DONE!

Halloween Wreath

Gosh college gets busy! Between classes, meetings, and homework, I've had zero time to upload any more projects but the time has finally come! Since it's already Halloween time, I decided to make a Halloween inspired wreath from inexpensive supplies found at Michael's and the Dollar Store.

The supplies I used were:
-1 plain wreath
-a bag of plastic Halloween rings
-candy wrappers
-black glitter leaf garland
-silver skull garland
-ribbon
-gemstones
-clear ornament
-orange construction paper
-green pipe cleaner
-Sharpie marker
-hot glue gun

When making wreaths, there's really know set way of going about it. The key is finding good supplies that work well together. I also like having a focal point with my wreaths. In the Halloween wreath, I made the focal point the pumpkin in the middle. Other types of focal points may be wooden initial letters, bigger flowers, or a bow. It all depends on the theme of your wreath!

DIY Decorative Vases

I am an avid drinker of Snapple, specially Diet Peach flavor. I always felt bad buying the 6-pack case of Snapple bottles and once I got drinking them, just throwing away (or recycling!) perfectly good glass bottles. So I started saving (some might also say hoarding) them in my dorm room until I came up with the perfect use.
I kept seeing decorative vases becoming more and more popular to add a special touch to a room. However, there was one small problem. A lot of the vases I saw in magazines, online, etc...had more of a "older" look to them, although very beautiful, it would not go with a college girl's dorm room necessarily. I needed a bright color scheme, something fun and exciting! That's how I came about making my own vases. The best part is that you can personalize them for any room color scheme, holiday, season, whatever you want!

Supplies Needed:

-Yarn in the color of your choice (I suggest getting multiple colors)

-Hot glue gun

-Glass bottles (Snapple, wine bottles, etc.)

-Charms, beads, or other knick knacks that you want on your vases

Directions:

1. To start, put a small dot of hot glue at the top of the bottle right below where the lid screws on. Trying to wrap the yarn at the top where the spiral-y part can be very difficult and look uneven because the yarn doesn't lay flat. 

2. After the initial dot of hot glue at the beginning you do not need to keep gluing around the entire bottle. As you keep wrapping the yarn around the bottle, glue will most likely be needed when the bottle gets to the bend where it stops curving. Other than that, you will not need glue to the very end.

3. Keep wrapping the yarn around the bottle. Try to get it as close to the very bottom as possible. Add a final dot of glue at the end and you're set!

4. Now, to spice the vases up a little bit and add the charms. Really, there is an endless amount of ways to add charms, beads, or other embellishments. I added them by threading the yarn through my circles and straws and wrapping it around the bottle. Then I simply tied a knot in the back to keep it in place and voila!

Paper Cup Lights

As you might notice, I have a common theme with my posts. I'm trying to spice up my dorm and my projects have been centered around it. This is another one. However, you can use these ideas for other rooms besides a dorm. 

The dorm that I currently live in is the oldest one on campus to the extent that it does not have overhead lighting (or central air conditioning for that matter :P). Therefore, I've had to make do with a floor lamp to light my entire space, but that wasn't cutting it. I wanted another form of lighting and I always thought that white Christmas lights in a room was cute and feminine but I wanted to take it up a notch. That's when I found this project on Pinterest from http://totallyloveit.com/diy-decorative-paper-cups-lights/

ADORABLE, right?!

So I decided to add the paper cups to a string of white Christmas lights. The directions were quite simple and easy. The worst part was probably wrapping the scrapbook paper to fit around the cups. 

Supplies needed:

Christmas lights

Paper cups (I would suggest the mini cups)

Scrapbook paper (pretty good amount, depending on how many lights are on your string)

Mod Podge

Scissors

Directions: 

1. Start by taking one paper cup and cutting it down one side vertically and removing the bottom circle. This way you can make a template on the scrapbook paper that will fit around the paper cup exactly.

2. Then start tracing onto your paper! 

3. Cut out your stencils and start applying Mod Podge to the paper cups and wrapping the scrapbook paper around them.

4. Finally, once the Mod Podge has dried, take your scissors and make an X on the bottom of the cup. 

5. All that's left is to slip the light bulbs through the X and they stay on perfectly! 

Voila! You have paper cup lights that can be tailored to any room color/theme :)