Chevron Wrapping Paper Covered Bookshelves

Though I love the look of bookshelves, decorating them is not my favorite thing. Why you ask? because I'm of the opinion that bookshelves should be practical, and used according to its destination...you know...holding books. However, if they hold only books and trinkets, they can look messy and chaotic.  I did my best at marrying practical, organized and pretty. I still have boxes full of books that haven't made the cut for displaying rights, but hopefully their turn is coming soon.

Here's what I started with...

                 

and here's what you'll need to achieve the same look:

• wrapping paper (when I saw this chevron one at HomeGoods I felt like the angels were singing Hallelujah and so I snagged 3 rolls (which is all they had)
• double sided tape 
• scissors and/or X-acto knife

Here's what I did:

• cleared everything off the shelves and dusted. This was the hardest or longest part of the project (you know...since I can hardly remember when I dusted there)
• removed shelves
• This is when you start measuring your wrapping paper. I was soo lucky because the width of the paper was exactly the same as the width of my bookshelves backing. Remember those angels I heard at the store?...yeah...now you know why - it was a match made in heaven.
• I actually didn't have double sided tape and tried using regular tape. That was a bad idea, as the paper would fall 2 seconds after i put it up and overall it made everything so much more frustrating, so I abandoned the tap route and went with push pins in the corners. You can barely tell they're there and most of them were covered by books anyway.

• After I attached with two pushpins at the top, I rolled out the wrapping paper all the way to the bottom of the middle shelf that doesn't come off, made a crease and used the X-acto knife to cut. I did the same for all the rest. 

It only took me one roll of wrapping paper, so for under $5, I was able to get a whole new look for the room. I like that it looks sort of nautical and will work out well for summer. 

What do you think? Do your books get dusted more often than mine?

Hugs,

 

Continue Reading ...

Simple Chevron Baby Shower

A friend of mine is having a baby girl after two boys. I wanted to do a baby shower for her and wanted it to be low key, that didn't overwhelm her with girly stuff, but that in the same time gave her a taste of girly -ness.

Having all these parameters in mind, the obvious course of action was to go chevron (right? I am not the only that thinks it obvious, right?).

I went with very simple decor - a white table cloth with a chevron runner (really it was just a piece of chevron fabric I had, and it wasn't even hemmed), my cute cake platters, most of which were DIYed.

For food, there was just a simple pasta salad, rolls, butter and a fruit plate. I took care of the desserts: Gluten Free Cupcakes (one of my friends actually frosted them because I am a terrible froster), cake pops, meringues, chocolate covered oreos, and a yummy european marshmallowy thingy my mom used to make that I don't know the name of (pictured above).

I love this next appetizer food - just absolutely love it. It is very simple and fast to prepare and I make it for all parties and it is the first thing to be gone.

Recipe for the Caprese Skewers will come in another post. If there is anything else you would like the recipe for, let me know and I can share it with guys.

For party favors, I made marshmallow, candy melts popcorn - bagged them and topped them with a chevron label. I also brought all the favor supplies with me and bagged left over desserts for people to take with.

Although it seems as a very simple shower, and it was, none of that simplicity was present at my house. See the shower was at another friends' house, and I prepared everything at mine. It seriously looked like a tornado hit my kitchen and craft nook. There was pop corn everywhere, pots and pans, dishes, melted chocolate splattered on walls, butter exploded in the microwave - just a big mess.

I am also glad my dessert table at the shower didn't reflect how it took me a few hours to find my card stock paper which I had only purchased the week before - now my craft nook is a total disaster and few things have been saved.

Other than that it was all nice and peachy. I hope you guys have a wonderful week.

Hugs,
                                                 Linking to these awesome 

parties, as well as here and here

Would you like to see similar projects? Please consider following or subscribing 

 to my blog by clicking on one of the icons below:

Continue Reading ...

How to make your own Chevron Lamp {Tutorial}

Let me just start by saying that me and stenciling don't get along very well. 

I have failed so many times, that it's not even funny.

When we moved into this apartment, the walls were all white. I kindda liked it, because in previous apartments they were all different shades of tan. We rent, but are allowed to paint. I haven't painted anywhere, because white just felt so refreshing. However, that meant that different

 shades of white would look funny. Plus, I was craving some color, so in accessories it went.

So was the case of our bedroom lamps, which I got at a garage sale for $1. It had ugly lampshades and the cheapest replacement shades I could find were at Ikea. If you've ever bought a lamp shade at Ikea and have tried to put it on a non Ikea lamp, then you know that doesn't really work. 

Go here to see the Ikea Hack I did.

I then taped a stripe all around at the height where I wanted my first row of chevron to end.

I created a chevron pattern using  ScotchBlue Advanced Delicate Surface Tape. I have used other painters tapes before and have hated any sort of stenciling, because of how much paint seeped through. However, this particular tape works like magic (and no..they didn't pay me to say this, although I would happily welcome that kind of thing, as I already love this product). 

I used a small piece of the tape to create spaces that would be of equal size of my painted zig zags. And  don't worry if your chevrons aren't perfectly symmetrical. Some of mine were wider than others, but I found that as long that the spacing between the lines was the same, then the result was totally acceptable to me. 

For the paint, I  decided to go with some Martha Stewart Crafts Paint (I bought a set when it came out and it was all over blogland. Oh...I remember entering numerous giveaways for one of those sets, and never won. I gave in and bought one from Michael's) and rolled the paint with a brush that came in the set, that attaches directly to the paint bottle.

I just squeezed the bottle, and rolled the excess paint on a paper plate. I then rolled the paint on the white space between the tape. I removed the tape immediately after every row I completed. It was amazing. I had crisp lines! I couldn't believe it!

Here's my new lamp in all it's glory!

 After completing this project, I feel more confident in tackling projects that involve stenciling. What about you...are you good buddies with stenciling?

Have a wonderful week and big hugs,                                                                    

Linking to these awesome 

parties, as well as here and here

Would you like to see similar projects? I have a lot of fall projects coming up,
so please consider following or subscribing 

to my blog by clicking on one of the icons below:

Continue Reading ...

DIY Countdown Halloween Frame

I haven't decorated my house for fall yet, because it still feels like summer here, and as much as I love fall, I am not ready to put away my flip flops or stop going to the pool.

I have started making little crafts here and there, so that I when I do decide to decorate for Fall I'll have everything ready, without needing to go buy stuff, which is so easy to do for me.

Anyway, I made this cute little Halloween frame with just scrap paper that I had on hand, and a Dollar Tree frame. I modpodged the paper and made a little pennant banner, by cutting little triangles and then using some washi tape to attach it to some twine. I had a sheet of sticker letters and numbers, and used those to spell October 31.

Ridiculousness Alert: You're not gonna believe this, but I had to google when exactly Halloween is. I know...pathetic. In my defense, I am European and I didn't grow up with this tradition. So, I guess this frame is not only decorative, but also serves its purpose as a reminder to silly Europeans that have to google when Halloween is. (You just wait when it's time for Thanksgiving. I don't know when that is either).

So, go grab a frame and make your own little free decor to put on your mantle. Are there common sense things that you have to google, or am I the only one that does that?

Hugs,

Linking to these awesome 

parties, as well as
here and here

Would you like to see similar projects? I have a lot of fall projects coming up,
so please consider following or subscribing 

to my blog by clicking on one of the icons below:

Continue Reading ...

Chevron Wreath {Tutorial}

I have been wanting to make a chevron wreath for awhile, but of course...like anything else, I find myself procrastinating ALL.THE.TIME. This was a very easy project and can be done with any kind of fabric.

For this project you will need:

- wreath form (if you have a foam one, it will turn out more uniform, 

but I only had this ugly twisted thing and using what I have is my kind of project)

- canvas (or burlap, or felt, or fabric, or ribbon)

- main feature fabric (you'll need one 3-4 inch wide strip of fabric. 

I cut out along the width of my fabric)

- glue gun

TUTORIAL

As you can see in the picture above, there are legos all over the place in the background. It's just how I like pictures to be - with a very artsy background...ha! (right....it had nothing to do with the fact that I'd rather craft than clean up the toys all over my living room floor).

Step 1. So I basically just wrapped my canvas fabric around occasionally adding some hot glue to keep it in place. I don't have a picture of the next step, but I just took my chevron fabric strip and sowed it by hand, so I can gather it at the to make a long ruffle, enough to go around my wreath

Step 2. The last step was to hot glue my chevron ruffle to the canvas covered wreath form. And that's it.

Step 3 - I just hung it up by sliding the wreath holder in between the canvas and my ruffle, but you could probably finish the project properly and just hot glue some ribbon on the back making a loop to hang the wreath from.

Step 4 - is an actual step back to admire your new wreath. 

The project took 20 minutes to complete, so put it on your crafting calendar and whip it up in no time.

Hugs,

Would you like to see similar projects? Please consider following or subscribing 

to my blog by clicking on one of the icons below:

Linking up to these awesome parties,
as well as here 

Make sure you go visit them 

and show some comment love.

Continue Reading ...

Elmo Party

I can't believe my baby is two already! How is it that time flies so fast? To celebrate I organized an Elmo party for her - yes...she loves Elmo. She loved everything and kept pointing at all the 
Elmos that were everywhere.

Oh...and this my friends....is my creation. I actually made it. It's a Street Sign inspired by
 Sesame Street with my baby's name on it.

 How cute is that? I saw one on Etsy and as much as I would've liked to buy it, since it was handmade and I like to support handmade, BUT...a big BUT...I could not afford it, and as much as the party guests (my husband included) thought I spent a lot of money on the party, I 

had a VERY small budget and mostly stuck with it.

  Do you see those cookies up there? AmAAAzing! They were made by my awesome friend Ashley. I didn't even have time to take them out of the bags or take pictures of all of them, because they were gone sooo fast. So here are a few pictures Ashley took before she mailed them to me.     

                                                                              

Source: ashley-and-john.blogspot.com via Iuliana on Pinterest

                                     I don't think Elmo ever looked better than this!

Source: ashley-and-john.blogspot.com via Iuliana on Pinterest

                                           "a" is for Abby, that's good enough for me! The colors, 

                                     the polka dots ...just perfect!

Source: ashley-and-john.blogspot.com via Iuliana on Pinterest

        And, of course, my favorite... the Chevron Cookies. Seriously...the cutest cookies ever!

Source: ashley-and-john.blogspot.com via Iuliana on Pinterest

I had a really stressful great time putting this party together. There are a lot more things that I just didn't have time to take pictures of...you know...something about toddlers...party...all in the same room...you get the idea. But it was all worth it, for my baby was so happy.

If you're looking for more party ideas,please  consider following my blog! That way you won't miss any posts and I would love to have you!  You can subscribe using the Google Friend Connect widget, through a reader, or signing up via email.  Just click on one of the icons below:

Hugs,

                                                                   

Continue Reading ...