DIY Tutorials - 11/12 - The Idea Room

Spring Wreath with WhipperBerry

Hello all, this is Heather from WhipperBerry and I am soooo excited to blog swap with Amy today!

I have been desperately needing a new wreath for my front door. My Valentine red burlap wreath was still up and yes, I know it’s MAY! Time for something a little more spring and a lot more summer. Enter… some super cute sheets from Ross, a square wood frame, clear hair bands, hot glue and a little Lisa Leonard bling!

If you haven’t ever thought of sheets as a great fabric alternative, now’s the time to add them to your crafting arsenal! I found this great set of California king sheets at Ross for $15.00 I have no idea how many yards that translates to, but it’s way more fabric than you can get at the fabric store for that price!! I tore the sheets into 14 inch wide strips…

…using the clear hair bands I created two rows of gathered puffs down the center of the 14 inch wide strip leaving about an 1 1/2 on either side to glue to the frame.

Once the puff strip was complete, I glued it onto the frame leaving the edges free to wrap around to the back of the frame and glue on the back as well.

I know it’s not pretty, but really… who’s looking at the back of your fabulous wreath anyway?

I did find that after I had completed all four sides that it lacked a little oomph, so I created a single row of poofs with a 6 inch strip of the fabric…

… I then glued that onto the inside of the square to create a third row of poofs {technical word I know.}

I embellished the wreath with a Lisa Leonard Pennant Banner which I have fallen madly in love with!! Thank you Lisa for creating a home décor line!!

Isn’t it lovely?! Now I have a fabulously fun wreath for my sad little front door. Thanks Amy for having us over to your place today, you’ve been an amazing hostess!!

May 12, 2011 · Filed under: DIY Tutorials, Home Decor, Tutorials, Wedding Gifts Tagged with

Styrofoam 3-Dimensional Spring Sign

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I wanted to share with you my latest project that I created for my post as a Dare Blogger with the DIY Club. I have never really worked with Styrofoam other than using the styrofoam balls to make the various kissing balls I have shared here with you. So when I received some rectangle sheets of Styrofoam I had to really think out of the box.

I decided to challenge myself and made this 3-dimensional stryrofoam Spring Sign. I was a bit nervous when I started and was nervous about how it might turn out. But overall, I am really happy with how it turned out. I didn’t realize you could do so many fun things with Styrofoam.

Here is how I made it. First I found a frame that measured 24 inches by 8 inches. I really liked the shape of the frame and thought it was perfect for what I was going to use it for.

I took a rectangular piece of Styrofoam that originally measured 36 inches in length and cut it down to 24 x 8 inches so that it fit perfectly into the frame. I simply cut it with a box cutter that had a new razor blade in it. It worked like a charm.

Then on my computer program I measured out the word Spring so that it measured 22 inches by 6 inches. I wanted to have an inch around the entire word. Then I printed it out onto two separate sheets of paper to contain the whole word. Then as you can see below, I taped the word together and centered it in the frame. The Styrofoam is under the word and set into the frame.

Then taking the box cutter, I cut out each letter. *DO NOT CUT THROUGH THE ENTIRE STYROFOAM!! I only cut down into the middle of the Styrofoam. Then I took a Sharpie marker and traced around the letters so I would know exactly where the letters were when I removed the stencil.

Then I took a sharp kitchen knife and sliced sideways into the Styrofoam. I cut away all of the excess Styrofoam but made sure to leave half of the bottom layer. Does that make sense. When I was close to the letter, I used the box cutter to make more precise cuts so that I did not cut away any of the letter. I put x’s on the insides of the letters where I needed to cut away material so I wouldn’t accidently make a mistake. I found that if I used a vegetable peeler, the tip of it was a perfect tool for scooping away material in the tight small areas!

When all the excess Styrofoam was removed, I took this Magikote from DecoArt and painted the tops and sides of the letters. This will make the surgace hard and will allow you to lightly sand and paint your styrofoam. Isn’t that pretty cool? It soaks up quickly though so make sure you have enough to cover what you are making. I ended up having to do two coats and ended up having to do two coats and ended up having a little less than half of the Magikote left over.

Let the Magikote dry overnight. This is very important!! When it has dried completely, you can paint it with paint. There are some paints that will melt your Styrofoam so be sure to test it on a small piece of scrap Styrofoam to make sure you aren’t going to ruin all your hard work.

I painted mine white with this Americana acrylic paint by Decoart.

White Wash 2oz Bottle Americana Craft Acrylic Paint By Deco Art

Then after the white paint had dried completely, I took some moss and covered all the areas other than the letters.

I used 1 and 1/4 packages of the moss to cover the entire sign. I glued the moss on with my glue gun and just pieced it together like a puzzle. Pretty easy really!

But really, really messy. This WHOLE project was actually really messy!

But I am really happy with how “springy” this project turned out. Nothing says spring to me like bringing greenery inside after a long dreary winter!

What do you think?

May 9, 2011 · Filed under: Crafts, DIY Dare Blogger, DIY Tutorials, Home Decor, Tutorials Tagged with

DIY Hand Carved Monogrammed Soaps

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Okay…I love giveaways, but it is going to be nice to get back to some regular posting. What about you? As you know, I have a love for all things MONOGRAMMED! I have been wanting to make some monogrammed soap for quite a while now, but have been unsure about how to go about it. So the other day, I just thought I would do a test run and see what happened.

Overall, I am happy with the turnout. I practiced on one bar of soap first to get my preferred carving technique down. I highly recommend a practice run before making an attempt if you would like to try to make some for yourself.

Then I let my 3 year old carve my practice soap while I worked on one of “the real things”. I actually really enjoyed working with the soap. Here is what I did:

Supplies:

Lever Soap 2000 (I liked how soft and easy this soap was to carve and work with)

glue dots

length of ribbon

scrapbook paper

vegetable peeler

standard screwdriver (smaller the better)

Q-tips

monogram pattern

non-permanent marker

straightened paper clip

First I started with the vegetable grater and gently shaved off the Lever 2000 logo that was imprinted in the soap. I did this by laying the vegetable peeler flat and gently curling the soap off layer by layer. This will take a little practice to get it smooth and flat. I made sure to catch all my soap shavings in a container and saved them to reuse.

As soon as the logo is almost completely gone you can finish and just smooth any uneven areas. You can do this on both sides of the soap if you would like.

Then I took my circled monogram and printed it out. The circle measured 1.5 inches square. The font I used was Times New Roman in bold and just stretched it in my photo program till I was happy with how it filled up the circle. Then I printed it out and cut out the circle.

Center your monogram in place and hold it with your finger while you take a pencil lead or straightened paper clip (which I used) to mark around the edge of the circle. Then I dug the circle out so that there was a nice deep groove.

Now cut out the letter of your monogram but be sure to leave all of the white area. Take a fine tip marker and trace the letter.

This will let you know where to stop when you begin to dig out the excess soap.

Now, take your screwdriver and gently and carefully scrap out the soap on the inside of the circle. You will want to keep the letter raised and untouched. You will need to be really careful around the edges of the letter and the circle so that you don’t accidently scrape into an area you don’t want touched.

When you scrape the bottom, be sure to pull the screwdriver so that is lays flat against the soap. This will give you a nice smooth layer. When you are happy with the monogram and have scraped out enough soap, you can take a Q-tip and smooth out areas that may be a bit rough. Simply dip the Q-tip into hot water and gently rub on the rough surface. The hot water will melt the soap and smooth any edges. Do this very carefully and be sure your Q-tip is not dripping wet. You can also gently remove the marker with the wet Q-tip.

And that is it! Done with the soap carving. You can see my practice soap in the picture below (before it was carved up). The practice soap is on the right hand side next to one of my better attempts. I learned how to be extra careful around the letter to make sure it held it’s shape nicely.

Now, you want to prettify your soap packaging. I simply cut off the ends of the soap box leaving just an open rectangle. Then I simply glued some cute scrapbook paper around the box.

Then taking a long strip of ribbon, I forgot to measure it…Just wrap it around and eyeball it. I fastened one end of the ribbon on the top of the box in the middle under the monogram (see top picture). Then using another glue dot, I attached the monogram to the other end of the ribbon. Then simply used a glue dot to place the two ends of the ribbon on top of one another.

Print out another monogrammed circle on white cardstock and use that as the decorative top. To open you will simply lift up the monogram and the soap will just slide out one end.

I thought these would be fun to have in your guest bathroom for special guests. Or they would be fun to give as a small little gift for a friend or a newlywed couple. Or…carve up your mom’s favorite soap with her initial. Monogrammed soaps are just a fun little gift idea that can help make someone feel a little extra special!

And just in case you LOVE monogrammed items as much as I do, I pulled together a list of some of my past monogram projects:

Monogrammed Hand Towels

Monogrammed Mugs

Monogrammed Hand Soap Bottles

Moss Covered Initials

Decorative Initials

Linking up here:

Tidy Mom