Dare to DIY: Christmas Vases

I'm finally joining in one of Kim's Dare to DIY parties @ Newly Woodwards! This week, it's Dare to Deck the Halls... and I had the perfect project in mind.

So, ever since I joined Pinterest, I’ve been a pinning maniac. There are so many amazing DIY projects that I want to try, but I don’t even know where to start. Over the long Thanksgiving break, I was getting a little bored and decided I needed a Christmas project pick-me-up. So I turned to my Pinterest boards and this pin in particular:

via BadderHomesandGardens.com

Hot glue, a wine bottle, and spray paint? It seemed super-easy and super-cheap (read: right up my alley). So I headed to Hobby Lobby to get three glass “wine bottles” ($1.50 each at 50% off). Since I wanted to use my bottles as vases, I also bought some frosted Christmas berries (64 cents each at 50% off).

Then I started thinking that while I was there, I should probably look for a back-up plan in case my hot glue words didn’t look so…well, hot. In the sticker aisle, I found some glittery foam letters for $4.99 (full price). They’re actually called "Thickers" – clever, right?

American Crafts Thickers Glitter Foam Letter Stickers, Fancy Black 

Back at home, with glue gun in hand, I was ready to write some Christmas sentiments on these bottles (I chose Love, Peace, and Joy). I started with the word “Love” first.

Let's not sugar-coat things - it looked like it was written by a third-grader. (No offense to any third-graders out there.) My hand was obviously not steady enough to do this with the glue gun, and I’m really impressed with the one that looked so nice on Pinterest. I didn’t even bother trying the other two words. Accepting my failure, I turned immediately to the back-up stickers.

The glue letters peeled right off, and I proceeded to adhere the stickers to the bottles instead. Much better. I was actually kind of digging it just like this, but I wasn’t going to let myself off that easy. (And frankly, I was just really itching to paint something.)

At first I thought about doing each bottle in a different color, then decided to keep it simple (and cheaper) with all white, which would look nice with the red berries. Since I had never spray painted glass before, I decided to buy the Krylon Fusion, which is specifically for slick surfaces like plastic, glass, etc. (Krylon K02320000 Fusion For Plastic Aerosol Spray Paint, 12-Ounce, Gloss White). 

I put one of the bottles in a big cardboard box in the backyard, so I could spray all the way around it and try to keep the over-spray to a minimum (since I have been known to be a little careless with my spray paint in the past).

After a couple coats, I could tell that the white paint was not going to cover up the black stickers very well. Drat. I didn’t remember seeing any white stickers like this at Hobby Lobby, and I didn’t have the patience to paint 10 coats on each bottle just to try and make these stickers white.

Time for Plan B. (Or I guess Plan C by this point?) Since I did actually like the stickers as they were – black and glittery – I decided to just paint the entire bottle white and add the stickers afterward for a contrasting effect instead of a subtle effect.

Each bottle still needed about 3 coats of paint to get solid coverage, which was already stretching the limits of my patience. But finally they were all Satin White and wonderful!

Once the paint was almost dry, I put on the sticker letters. Loving it!

The final touch was to add a berry pick in each one. And here are my Christmas vases on top of the piano (aka my "mantle"):

Even though they didn’t turn out exactly like the ones I saw on Pinterest, I really like my version! It would also be cute to use other short words or phrases, such as
 - ‘tis the season
- deck the halls
- peace on earth

You could even package the bottles up all nice and give them as a gift set. Oh, the possibilities!

The overall cost of this project (bottles, berry picks, stickers, and paint) was about $15, but I still have leftover paint and stickers to use for something else. So, have you done any Christmas crafting yet?

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When one door opens...

For quite some time now, we’ve talked about installing a screen door on our front porch. We only have one operable north window in our house, so it would be nice to be able to open up the front door and let in a breeze every once in awhile. On the other hand, it would also provide more insulation, since our front door alone is a little drafty when cold winds blow during the winter.

And after taking notice lately of all the screen/storm doors in our neighborhood, I was really starting to get door envy. A couple weeks ago, we finally turned our talk into action. I had already done some research and decided that the Larson Lakeview storm door was the way to go. This particular model (Screen-Away) has a retractable screen that rolls up into the frame, so you can choose whether or not you want the screen open. Genius!

Menard’s happened to be having a sale on storm doors, so we got the 36" Lakeview for $268 ($30 off the regular price). We chose white with aged bronze hardware, to coordinate with our existing trim and hardware.

Having never done this before, we didn’t really know how long it would take to install the door, but figured at least a couple of hours. Even though it claimed to have “Easy-Hang Installation,” I wasn’t going to be too optimistic.

Although I have to admit, my heart sunk a little when we opened the packaging and saw all the pieces and parts that we had to put together first. I had foolishly hoped the door would be ready to hang right out of the box. But since it was made to be either right-hinge or left-hinge, we had to assemble the hinges and hardware ourselves.

It took awhile to drill all the holes for the screws we needed, but the instructions were pretty easy to follow (and in color, too!). And I have to say that the hinge rail did allow for easy hanging onto the door frame, once we reached that part.

Here is proof that I did more than just take pictures the whole time.

Following the instructions for the hardware was a little more tricky, but we figured it out. The scariest part (for me) was drilling the ½” and ¾” holes into the metal frame. All we had were paddle bits made only for wood, but Luke went ahead and used them and they still cut through the metal (even though it made some awful noises).

Once the hardware was installed, we had to put up the latch rail and mortise on the other side of the door frame, so the door could close and lock properly. And it did! Woo-hoo!

Not quite done yet... We still had to install the bottom of the door, which was adjustable based on how much space you need to the sill.

FINALLY, we had to add the top and bottom closers. With the turn of a screw, they allow you to adjust how slowly the door closes.

All in all, it took about 5 hours from opening up the box to finishing the installation. Okay, so a little longer than we had planned… good thing we started early in the morning. But we really didn’t come across any major setbacks during the process, which is pretty amazing. (Well, except for when Dudley almost swallowed a tiny O-ring that was crucial for the closer installation.)

I’m so glad we have a storm door now, and I think it looks pretty good. It’s been great being able to let more natural light in, and we were even able to open up the screen a few times last month. But when Old Man Winter gets here, the door has heavy-duty weatherstripping to help keep that cold air out. There's also a deadbolt, which is a nice added security feature.

Oh, and I'm not the only one who loves it:

Which means I’ll probably be cleaning the glass every day now to keep up with their snout smudges. Oh well, still worth it!

Photo Gallery Wall: Part 2 (The Reveal)

If you missed the first installment of my photo gallery wall, here's a quick reminder of what our empty stairwell looked like:

Then I spray painted a bunch of different frames white and ivory for a slight two-tone effect.

Then I used frame "templates" to determine the placement on the wall. For the most part, I just eyeballed the spacing between all the frames (I prefer this method over measuring).

Then I had to decide on what photos to display. I went through a bunch of our digital pics and chose several from various vacations, a couple from our wedding, and a couple more random ones. And because we don’t have any kids yet, I of course had to include the dogs. So other than that, we probably look really conceited by having so many pictures of ourselves. But in my defense, I do have a separate collage frame in our living room with photos of our families, so that counts for something…Anyway, I now present to you several gratuitous pictures of the finished wall!

Overall I really like it, and I'm glad I chose to do both white and ivory frames for a subtle contrast. Although now I kind of wish I would have used a couple round- or oval-shaped frames to break up all the square-ness. But I must say, having all our photos displayed on this huge wall really makes a big difference and makes our house feel more “homey” (3.5 years later)!

Here's a more recent picture taken after we painted all our walls gray.

Someday -- maybe when our basement is finished -- I may add more frames on the second flight of stairs to keep the gallery wall wrappping around the stairwell. (Update as of November 2016: This still hasn't happened yet... but a girl can dream!)

Oh, and if you're curious about the cost of this project, here's my estimated breakdown:
Frames: $25 (I used several I already had, then bought a few more on sale)
Spray paint: $10
Photos: $10 (printed at Sam's Club)

So, whaddaya think?  Was it worth the wait and the 2-part blog post?

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Linking up to:
Made by you Monday @ Skip to my Lou
Make It Great Monday @ Etcetorize
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Show Me What Ya Got #51

November Updates

Okay, so November’s been a little slow around here, as you can tell from my one measly post this month. Aside from being pretty busy in general, I’ve also been having some computer issues, so I really haven’t been able to blog (or check out other blogs) lately. This makes me sad, but I should hopefully be back in business soon. A few things you can look forward to:

- Photo gallery wall reveal
- New storm door on the front porch
- A Christmas project (or two…or three?)

Oh, and I’ve also finally succumbed to the peer pressure and joined Pinterest! Better late than never, right? I think I had been putting it off because I knew it would become dangerously addicting…and I was right. (I'm pretty sure I could spend days on end just pinning things.) Anyhow, I’d love for you to check out my boards and follow me! I’ll also start adding the “Pin It” buttons to some of my projects on here, so if something really strikes your fancy, you can pin it and make me feel special. ;)



In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving! I can’t believe it’s just a few short days away. Where has this month gone?!

Photo Gallery Wall: Part 1

Dry your eyes, my bloggy friends -- I'm back! But my little hiatus over the past couple of weeks doesn’t mean nothing’s been happening. In fact, I’ve been feverishly trying to finish my latest project to share with you lovelies.

Let's remember a couple months ago when I first hatched the idea for a photo gallery wall...I knew I wanted to display my frames in our stairwell, but I had to choose between the large wall next to the stairs, or the smaller wall above the landing.

Yuck, bad lighting (or bad photographer?). It's not really this orange-y.

Originally, I thought I was going to do the smaller wall above the landing. So I gathered all my existing hodge-podge frames, but my collection seemed a little sparse.

After trips to Goodwill, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby, I had acquired several more cheap-o frames in a variety of sizes. I also bought two small ledges and a decorative "D" from Hobby Lobby (for our last name). Then I laid everything out on the floor in our office to visualize how it would look on the wall.

But first… Since the frames were all such different styles, I wanted to make them a little more cohesive, but not ALL the same, so I decided to buy white and ivory spray paint. This would also provide contrast with the dark reddish-brown wall color and tie in to the white trim in our hallway.

And so began the spray painting. I spray painted like I've never spray painted before. Unfortunately, most of the dark frames needed several coats. Needless to say, I was probably high on the fumes on more than one occasion.

It was definitely an exercise in patience, but finally – after painting in my spare time over the course of a couple weeks -- all of the frames were painted. Because of the materials a few of them are made of, they almost have a distressed look to them, which I actually like. I didn't want everything to look "perfect."

At some point during this process, I changed my mind and decided to put the frames on the wall next to the stairs instead. It was just such a big wall that it really needed something on it. Plus, the photos would be more visible from upstairs then.

So to help map everything out on the wall before going crazy with a hammer and nails, I traced all the frames onto paper and cut them out to make templates. Then I used ScotchBlue painter's tape to place my paper “frames” on the wall. (I'd seen this idea on another blog before - genius!) It really helped to visualize what it would look like.

I ended up switching around a couple of the frames once they were up on the wall.

Once I was finally happy with the placement, I measured where the hangers were on the backs of all the frames, and used this measurement to place my nails in the wall. Luckily, most of the frames had only one hanger on the back instead of two, which made my job easier. Gradually, the paper frames came down, and the real frames went up...

However, I'm not quite finished putting the pictures in the frames (deciding what pictures to use is the hardest part...I'm tempted to leave some of the nice-looking fake people in them). So you'll have to wait until next time to see the final reveal! Yep, I'm totally leaving you hanging.