Pottery Barn Jewelry Holder

Finally, I can write my post about an awesome Pottery Barn knock-off I created!  My friend just walked out the door with it as her 2010 Christmas gift.  I can only take credit for the grunt work not the inspiration.  I have been drooling over the real McCoy since I got the Christmas Pottery Barn catalogue (yes, I like to spell that word the British way...don't ask why...I've always been obsessed).  PB wanted $29-$49 dollars for this little invention:

I loved the idea for the earring hanger.  I think it would look so chic hanging in the bathroom.  Even a little vintage.  And the empty frames are so in right now.  I knew I could make it happen.


I bought some frames for $2.00 each at a local junk store.  Here are the ones I found:

My first step was to chose one and spray it.  I went with the square brown one.  My friend's bathroom is dark with brown and black accents, so I sprayed it black.  Next, I sanded it and distressed it for the Pottery Barn look I was going for.  This allowed the browns to show through.

The final step was to stretch the wire on the back of the frame to created a place to hang the earrings.  I used simple jewelry wire and thumbtacks.

I tried a few different ways, and after a little logical thinking and troubleshooting from the hubby, I ended up stretching the wire on the back of the frame as shown below:

Measure out where you want the wires and press the thumbtacks about 1/2 way in.

Tightly wrap the wire around one end and push the thumbtack firmly into the frame.

With gloves, tightly pull wire and wrap around opposite thumb tack.  Push deeply into frame.

Clip excess wire.

That's all it took, folks.  About $5.00 total for this project with plenty of paint, thumbtacks and wire to make about 20 more.  Here are some after pictures:

Instant art.  Functional.  Easy.
I'm excited because this project sparked an idea for an office project that I can't wait to get started when I find a large enough frame.


What DIY projects do you have brewing up?  Did you make any personal gifts to give this Christmas?


Linked up at To Sew With Love, The Shabby Nest, Today's Creative Blog, Funky Junk Interiors, Giggles, Glitz and Glam and Miss Mustard Seed.

From Me to You

I hope as this posts (set on auto-post from Thursday night) that we are all surrounded by family and friends eating great food and opening wonderful gifts.  I also hope that you all will enjoy this wonderful gift I am giving you.  If not for yourself, you might know a friend who will love it.

In search for some wonderfully free art, I ran across this project at one of my favorite blogs, Bower Power. 

Here's a little tutorial:

I typed my whole project in Power Point.  I am sure you can use Paint or Word.  All you need is something that has text boxes for you to play around with.

You will want to adjust the fonts styles ans sizes to get the look you want.  Play around with capitalization and the directions of words.  You will also want to think about the size frame that you will want to display this art it.  I chose to do one for a 5x7 frame, so I adjusted my margins to be 4.75"x6.75" to allow for a little room around the edges.

Then you print it out.  I used regular printer paper because that is what I had, but card stock would be wonderful.

All that is left is to place this in a frame.

I think it looks wonderful, and it is very personal to me.  For example, not everyone calls their town "The Land of Milk and Honey" or "The Promise Land" or has friends who call it "The Galapagos".  But I do.  I also know that Amicalola Falls is in Dawson County, but it was my 1st real taste of Dahlonega when Rusty chose it as our 1st date and the place where he would eventually propose to me.

You could make this for a specific state, a city, a school or college, a couple, a special friend, or even a family.  All it takes is a little time thinking of personal words to describe it.

Since it is Christmas, I would love to e-mail the template I already have set up for this project in a 5x7 size.  You can use what I already have and change the words around for your own art.  If you would like the file for free, just leave me a comment with your e-mail address.  I will send it over.

Again, I hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas!

Love,
Heather

Making the Daily more Beautiful!

I want to share with you a quick little trick to adding a little shabby chic to your kitchen.  This literally took me 5 minutes.  

I completely borrowed the idea from a great post over at PinkSuedeShoe.  She pitches it as a quick gift idea.  I interpreted it as a quick gift to myself idea.  I could not have found her blog post at a more perfect time.  I completely ran out of soap in my cheap little plastic container just last night.


Here is what you will need:

I had all of these supplies already.  I just snipped a few branches off of a flower arrangement that I made for my master bathroom a few months ago.


You will also need a glass container.  Any of these will do.  I found so many of these out in the thrift/antique stores today, but I found this one in Wal-Mart for $2.97.  I think it was made to hold olive oil.

All you do next is drop in a few flowers and leaves and pour in the hand soap.

When you are done, you are left with a totally chic soap dispenser.

I put this one in my kitchen.

You could make one with dish soap, too.  Maybe it would make hand-washing dishes less dreadful.  My trick for making hand-washing dishes less dreadful is my dishwasher!  Either way, this would make a great custom gift for anyone.  I could see a cute little handmade tag hanging from the handle to make it even more personal.


Linked with The Shabby Nest and Today's Creative Blog.