Mixed Frame Wall Collage

This project was done as a Christmas gift for my brother Konnor. He had asked for a wall collage of sorts down with different kinds and colors of frames. He is an avid reader with a wide range of genres and authors represented in his resume so it seemed fitting to choose lines from his favorite books and quotes from his favorite authors. 

This was his inspiration:

Don't tell him, but I picked up nearly all of these frames from Goodwill on the cheap. I don't really have any great "before" pictures so these will have to suffice. 

So we got to work collecting quotes from Hemingway, Bukowski, Fleming and others and set them against beach scenes.  

Next, it was time to paint! Some of the frames were fine as was but others didn't quite jive with the color scene in his dorm room (remember this is the boy who wanted/has an oriental rug in his dorm room). 

This one required a bit more work than the rest. The gold frame was sprayed dark bronze. The backing was covered in blue burlap and I spray-mounted letters that were cut out with scrapbooking di-cuts on top of the burlap. 

I think it all turned out pretty well, but more importantly Konnor was happy with it!

I have a collage in my room at my parents house made up of my artwork, baby pictures, etc.

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DIY: Anthropologie Inspired Cable Headband Ear Warmer

Wow! Just when we thought that we had escaped winter, this happens. Today the temp with windchill is -26*! Mother Nature had decided to show us her frosty side so it's time to layer up. Today's post comes in the hope of keeping you a bit warmer until Punxsutawney Phil tells us when winter will come to an end!

No doubt if you have been on Pinterest in the last few months you have seen this super cute headband/ear warmer by Anthropologie. Like everything Anthro, this is out of stock/sold out/whatever but that's ok because it was probably crazy overpriced anyways. This just leaves the option of making your own. I haven't knitted in a really long time and never anything very complicated so if I can do it so can you! This project just requires some Youtube-ing to learn the stitches.

Materials:
          1 ball yarn (87 yards/100grams) (I used 1/2 skein left over from another project)
          Size 10.5 knitting needles
          Cable needle (not required)
          Yarn needle or crochet hook for seaming

The Pattern:    (k = knit;   cn = cable needle;   p = purl;   sl sts = slip stitches)

          Cast on 13 stitches.

          Row 1: k13

          Row 2: K2, p9, k2.

          Row 3: k2, sl next 3 sts to cn and hold in front, k3, k3 from cn, k5.

          Row 4: K2, p9, k2.

          Row 5: k13

          Row 6: K2, p9, k2.

          Row 7: k5, sl next 3 sts to cn and hold in back, k3, k3 from cn, k2.

          Row 8: K2, p9, k2.

          Repeat Rows 1–8 roughly 10-14 times, or until you reach your desired length. I did 10.
               Tight is good! It will stretch and you won't want your new headband/earwarmer slipping off constantly.

          Bind off, seam the short ends, and you’re done!

Here are some tutorials for each step of this project:

Cast On Video Tutorial

Knit Stitch Video Tutorial

Purl Stitch Video Tutorial

Slip Stitch Video Tutorial 
With the slip stitch, you will put the 3 stitches on another needle/pencil/bobby pin/whatever (see picture below, I used a stitch holder) and then reintroduce the 3 stitches into the main line later to make the cable.

Binding Off Video Tutorial

Joining Your Ends Video Tutorial

You can chose to block your new project or not. Blocking allows you to slightly reshape the piece, making it wider, flatter, etc. It's totally up to you which route you choose to go.  

Here are some helpful links about blocking. I had never attempted this before, so I had to look all this stuff up and thought I would pass on my findings... I did wet blocking.

Blocking Video Tutorial

Blocking Information

Here is the finished project!

Pre-Blocking:

Post-Blocking:

Here you can see the seam in the back. 

To be honest, I didn't really see a major difference with blocking except that I was able to make the edges a bit straighter, pull it wider and pop the cables out slightly. The above pictures show the true purple color but the pictures below show the detail more. I still need to practice getting lighting right for pictures...

In case you don't like that pattern I chose here are three others:

Here is the pattern for the headband above

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DIY: Refinished Card Table and Chairs

When my father cleaned out his parents' garage a few months ago he brought home a card table and matching chairs. It wasn't the most attractive set but it was free and had some potential. 

 The chair had a bar along the back of the seat that I removed and the seat slid right out. Getting the bar back on proved to be harder though because I had to bend the metal back into place. 

Laminated fabric and oilcloth are good to consider for this project if you think that your table will be used often or there is risk of things being spilled, etc. During previous visits to Hobby Lobby I had seen this laminated cotton and knew that when I got around to doing this project this would be the print I would use. I love all things French and knew that this was not a super trendy print that I would get sick of quickly - I like to make/recreate things in such a way that I would keep them around for a while. This often means putting in some extra elbow grease (sanding, painting, etc.) but I think that it is well worth it in the long run. Do it right the first time and you won't have to redo it - right? 

Anyways... my table was 35x35 and the chair seats were 13x13 so I got almost a yard and a half. It was on sale (orig. 17.99/yd) so I got it for about $12.  

Between coats of spray paint, I started cutting out the fabric. I allowed room to wrap the edges so the table fabric was cut to 37x37. For the chairs, I took the old cushions and traced them with about 3/4"-1" of extra room around the edges. 

I painted the undersides of the table and chair seats because they were just plain plywood before and not too attractive. Because the pieces all fold up, I wanted to make sure that the pieces still looked nice when folded. There were some bolts attaching the table top to the table base/legs so after I detached the pieces I painted the bolts white to match the underside. 

I cut down batting (weight: J10 - I wanted to have some cush) to fit the seats. I didn't worry too much about making them fit perfectly to the edges because the edges were covered by the metal part of the seat.  Using fabric sheers makes cutting batting much easier than regular household scissors. I used a heavy duty spray mount to adhere the batting to the wood so that it wouldn't slide around at all. 

I used this Arrow stapler to staple the fabric around the wood, making sure to pull it taught as I worked. 

I followed the same process for covering the table but I used a thinner batting. I just wanted something to go between the fabric and the wood because the fabric wasn't super thick and also something to soften the edges of the table.  Here is the table batting:

I picked up this spray paint in Ballet Slipper at Hobby Lobby for 5.99/can. I ended up needing 4 cans to get full coverage because the original color of the chairs/table was so dark. 

Here you can see the chairs and table after I painted them. It took about 2 coats to get full opaque coverage. 

Here are the finished products! I'm so happy with how everything turned out! 

In all this project came out to $42 (spray paint, batting, fabric)

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