feeling pinspired part deux

I would love to commit to a once a week craft or Pinterest inspired project but the reality is that I won't ever live up to that commitment. Not only because sometimes time gets away from me but also because I will run out of places to put things! I think, instead, I will just create a series of posts that are "pinspired" (like this one here). This way, they will all be organized, you can see if these projects are something you would like to try yourself and I don't have to lie to you about getting a post up each week! Deal? Deal.

This week I did a project for which I have had the materials for months. I like to have somewhere to stick notes that is a little more specialized than the calendar or the fridge, where things can get lost in the shuffle. So while watching Alias (the third to last episode, OH MY!) I decided to complete this project. 

Ikea sells cork hot pads for 2.99/pk of 3 and you just can't beat that price! I decided, after seeing a similar idea on pinterest, to use these to make cork boards for our kitchen. 

This project felt free because it took me so long to use the hot pads after buying them but in reality it cost me a whopping 2.99+tax. 

I used two t-shirts from Salvation Army that I had bought for another project a year ago and they just happened to be the right colors for my current use. All the other materials were things I had on hand and waaalaaa another "free" project! 

      

I opened up the t-shirts at one of the side seams and then looked for an interesting part of the shirt. After finding what I wanted, I laid the hot pad on the shirt and roughly traced a 2 inch border circle onto the shirt. Once it was outlined, I removed the hot pad and cut out the circle. 

      

I used the hand staple gun, with 1/4 inch staples, to fasten the material to the pad. I placed a piece of cardboard on our coffee table just in case of any rogue staples. Because the material of the shirts was nice and stretchy, I was able to get a nice smooth edge around the circle. 

I used one shirt for one circle and the other shirt for the other two cirlces, with plenty of material left over in both shirts! 

To hang them on the wall, I used a small piece of yarn knotted at both ends and secured them with two staples. These cork boards aren't heavy at all and adding notes won't add much weight so this hanging method is plenty sturdy! 

We decided to hang them in our side entrance hallway. Because of the way the stairs turn at this entrance, we are able to see these at eye level from the kitchen but they are above our head on the landing. It's a perfect spot so we don't forget important things as we are walking out of the door! 

   

As you can see, we haven't done anything in this area of the house yet: yellow door, cream organizer, etc... all to be addressed at another time! 

This was a nice little project that took me about twenty minutes once all my supplies were gathered and I even got my first note! He's my "most favorite" too! 

Have any of you put your own spin on something you found on Pinterest?

feeling pinspired

I always have a lot of projects rolling around in my brain, sketched out in some book, pinned on pinterest, etc. and because there are so many, I have to decide which ones are necessary.

I would love to do all the projects that I think of or find, but the reality is once you finish the project, you have to have a place for it. Well, our small house doesn't allow for much "extra" without looking ultimately more cluttered than decorated; it's a fine fine line!

When we first moved into the house we had a garage sale that was a joint effort between us, my mom, Rob's mom and my aunt. At the end of the sale I collected a couple pieces that I thought I could repurpose into other things (these Christmas trees were one of the things I gained). Another was a frame with a print of three peppers, a little dated but intriguing to me, so I snagged it! 

Originally, I was going to use this frame to create a dry erase calendar for the kitchen but as I was painting, I decided that I didn't want there to be a white background as a part of the calendar and so I decided to set it aside. 

   

I did go ahead and paint the whole frame black so that I could use it for a project in the future. I switched to a different floating frame that I wasn't able to use anywhere else in the house for my calendar idea. I used the same aqua cards, pictured above, to make the date squares - the pinterest idea suggested paint chips for an ombre affect but I thought that would look too busy. Because of the frame size I went with 1.5inch x 1.75 inch rectangles and I was able to get six from each card. 

   

After placing all the cut out rectangles on the glass with rolls of scotch tape, I simply put the frame back together. I didn't add all the dates because they change every month and I didn't want to have to take apart the frame every month. Dry erase markers, which was my idea from the beginning worked out perfectly. 

   

With such clean lines it adds nicely to the kitchen without adding clutter to the walls! Last year our calendar hung on the fridge with magnets so I wanted to put it somewhere near it's old location, hence the wall next to the refrigerator. 

Project one, complete!

Once I finished the calendar, I went back to the pepper print. I still liked it and thought it was interesting, it just needed some modernization. I first used an Xacto knife to remove the green matting. 

      

Removing the matting made a great difference but the print itself still looked quite dull. I decided to try my hand at adding some contrast to the image with a black ink pen. I simply followed along all the original lines with the pen to really make the print look modern and far more updated than before. 

I think that the black outlines did wonders for the print and made it good looking enough to live in our kitchen! The corner that I placed it in was one that I was never settled on before, thinking that something was always missing. I think this nice graphic of peppers is just was the doctor decorator ordered! 

Overall, these projects cost me... NOTHING. It was a free crafting day at the Rebhan house and I was so happy to be able to not only repurpose one item, but two for our kitchen! 

Pinterest is a wonderful thing and I like it even more when I can create something that I find without having to spend one single cent! Always a win in my book. 

Thanks for following along, we are tackling some fun projects coming up so stay tuned! 

Until next time,

Lindsey