French Chic Wall Art for Ensuite Bathroom

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art, bathroom, crafting, crafts, decor, DIY, en suite, ensuite, french chic, home decor, master suite, triptych, wall art, wall prints

Perhaps you remember the French Chic (Monogram) Wall Art I made for our family room. When I created it, I immediately planned to create more pieces in the same style (Mom, I know I still owe you and Dad a monogram one…). I’ve had my plan and materials ready, but kept them pushed aside until now.

Young Wifey’s French Chic Wall Art for Ensuite Bathroom

The Prints:
Of course keeping both poems in their native French, I chose one poem by Baudelaire and another by Apollinaire. The Apollinaire poem was a bit longer, so I split it in half to create two pieces. The text (using a script-like font in grey) created the background image on off-white paper. On each print, I layered Victorian clip art of three perfumes bottles with atomizers from The Graphics Fairy (Thanks Karen!). These images were printed in black ink. Once dry, I sprayed my prints with a layer of clear acrylic sealer.

Framing:
I had thee 8″x10″ bronze frames for my triptych of prints. I layered each print with a white mat that provided a 5″x7″ window for my prints. Once assembled they were ready to hang.

How do you like my wall art project?
What home decor projects do you have in progress?

XOXO,
Young Wifey

Shutter Earring Rack: 5 Minute Project

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5 minute project, closet, crafts, earrings, jewelry, organization, organizing, repurpose, shutter, upcycle

Two summer’s ago, I picked up a small shutter at a yard sale and knew it was perfect for my earring rack. I cleaned it, sat it on my dresser, and organized my earrings. I thought about re-staining it, painting it, replacing the knob, etc. My goal was to hang it on the wall. Unfortunately, I never got around to it…

Until now, when I decided that I liked it almost as it was. Hubster helped me push two metal picture hangers into the back of each panel.

Step 1: Add Mounting Bracket

The decided that the shutters look better hung separately and that the knob was the perfect place for my hoops. Hubster quickly mounted them on the wall for me and I arranged my earrings.

Shutter Earring Rack

What do you think?

From Recycled T-Shirts to Fringe Scarves

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accessory, crafting, crafts, DIY, fashion, no sew, scarf, scarves

Scarves are my favorite autumn & winter accessory. I love to wear one over a short or long sleeve t-shirt, with skinny jeans tucked into my knee-high boots. I have at least 20 scarves in my closet (well, Hubster DID insist that I reduce the amount of shoes I own)…

I saw this quick tutorial for a fringe scarf last year and added it to my to-do-list. While cleaning out my closest, I pulled aside a few stretched out & stained shirts that don’t get worn. I decided it was time to tackle this quick craft. It was so simple! I used my rotary blade to slice the fringe.

Before: Three Worn T-Shirts

After: Purple Fringe Scarf

Are you a fan of fringe scarves? What is your favorite autumn accessory?

Potted Orchids: Pop of Purple

Tags

bedroom, crafting, crafts, home decor, houseplant, potted plant

I love house plants just as much as I love my outdoor plants. The problem is, my furbaby Rory, loves them too… to eat them that is. I had a beautiful orchid on a high shelf far away from where he could reach or climb… but he figured out a way to the top. I would love a live purple orchid in our master bedroom (remember before, I talked about sneaking in hints of purple?), but Rory simply won’t allow it.

I saw this realistic potted orchid when we were picking out our bedroom set and didn’t like the price tag that went with it. $89.95! Seriously? You want me to pay how much for a plastic plant?

While at the craft store I saw this blue pot on sale for $3.99 ($3.39 with my 15% teacher discount). Add three stems of faux orchids that were supposed to be $6.99 each  (I used a 40% coupon on each of them, spending $12.58).  A little trimming and rearranging and I was done in less than 10 minutes. Out of Pocket Price: $15.97

Potted Orchid

The river rocks we had left over from our wedding centerpieces. To make it realistic you could add stakes (2¢ each when you use bamboo skewers) and paper twine (use less than 5¢ worth). Be I went for a cleaner line and omitted this step!

$16 for my potted orchid or $90 for theirs (I can make almost 6 for that price!)?

What have you created recently cheaper than the original?

Guest Room Mirror

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crafting, crafts, DIY, guest room, home decor, mirror, mosaic, tile, tile craft

When replaced the boring mirror in the powder room with something more luxurious, we still had the plain old mirror. I wanted to keep, frame and use it in the guest room. This summer I found this tutorial and thought it was a great idea. Recently, I saw it again, floating around on Pinterest. I headed to Lowe’s to pick of the perfect tiles.

I didn’t use the adhesive she did, instead I tried DAP StrongStik, Instant Grab Adhesive. I spotted beautiful mother-of-pearl type of tiles that would match the curtain rods and holdbacks in the master suite and knew it would be perfect, since I like cohesive design elements throughout my home. Since the tiles were smaller than the ones she used and my mirror larger, I decided to do a double row of tiles. I placed my mirror flat on my craft table while working on it and to let it set. Hubster will hang it in the guest room soon.

Tile Frame Mirror

Excuse my crafty mess in the reflection of the mirror.

Completed Mirror

What home DIY project do you have in progress now?

French Chic Wall Art

Tags

art, bathroom, crafting, crafts, gift, gift giving, gift idea, home decor, monogram, postaday2011, powder room, wall art

Two summers ago I met a woman selling her work at a local craft/art fair. She had some cute framed pieces where she had layered a bold silhouette image over a page from an antique book. None of her pieces appeased me, but I did appreciate the artistic concept.

I’m working on a French Chic powder room makeover and I wanted to create some wall art that would give it a personal touch. I had planned for this piece to be in that powder room. However, since I used a monogram, it looks really good in many different rooms of our home… Decisions, decisions.

Step 1
Type a personal message and translate (optional). Print in a lighter color on aged paper. Or tear a carefully selected page from your favorite novel, script or sheet of music.

Step 2
Choose a silhouette in a bold or dark color and print centered on top of script page. Try using The Graphics Fairy for great ideas.

Step 3
Add matting and frame.

Voilà! Ready to hang and enjoy!

I translated a poem about marriage into French and choose a curly font in a light color. I printed this in a light color on a natural colored piece of paper. I printed darker color D and used a black thin-tip marker to track over a few piece, I wanted to make the monogram dual-tone. Then I add the white matting and bronze frame! So easy to make, that the decisions are the most difficult part of the process.

These would make great Christmas gifts or wedding gifts for a newly wed couple!

If you could choose a page from any novel or script, what would you choose?

Fourth Day of Christmas – Crocheted Fan Bookmark

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12 Days of Christmas, book club, book lover, bookmark, Christmas, Christmas gift, crafting holiday craft, crafts, Crochet, crocheted, crocheted gift, fourth day of Christmas, gift giving, gift ideas, gift tag, gifts, handmade, homemade, literature, personalized gifts, present, reader, reading, twelve days of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas Young Wifey shared with me her Crochet Fan Bookmarks, Crocheted Snowflake Ornaments, Wine Glass Charms and Glass Globe Ornaments…

With eReaders becoming more popular, bookmarks may become a thing of the past. I haven’t giving in yet to the craze. There’s just something about the weight of the book in my hand, the texture of the pages on my fingertips and the aroma of the ink that just seems to allure me. With the amount of time so many of us spend on the computer, I can’t justify more time staring at a screen. This gift is for the book lovers like me…

Crocheted Fan Bookmark

I had the directions for this crochet fan bookmark, bookmarked on my computer for years. I had yet to make it and I thought now that I had started to crochet with thread, I’d give it a whirl. It took my a while for my to get started, unsure if I was following the directions correctly. You can customize the bookmark to the recipient’s favorite color, using multicolored thread is a nice touch. For easy blocking, I suggest you lay the bookmark flat in a book for a few days, remove it and spray it slightly with fabric starch.

How to:
Follow the directions in the link above, remembering to block it and starch it when you’re done.

Approx. Cost:
Spool of crochet thread about $5.  It you already have a hook, it’s about 20¢ a piece.

The perfect gift with a book, or alone, whatever the occasion. Attach a bookmark as a gift tag to the outside of a wrapped book. Give bookmarkb to the members of your book club at your holiday meeting.

Even Rory liked the bookmark so much that he pounced on it once it was finished and ran off with the prey in his mouth…

What book are you reading right now?

2009′s Christmas Countdown – On the twelfth day of Christmas Young Wifey shared with me, her chocolate Christmas fudge, chocolate bonbons, coconut clusters, cranberry almond bark, chocolate amaretto cherries, pecan turtles, raspberry chocolate truffles,gingerbread fudge, peppermint bark, dark chocolate peanut butter balls, cracked glass candy, and her peanut butter fudge recipe…