CraftWells

Things I Make

Posts tagged diy

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Cloth Napkin Pillow Cover

I had an old throw pillow whose cover was getting worn and boring, so I decided to change it up. I also bought a pack of four Dwell Studio cloth napkins on clearance at Target a long time ago, knowing that I would eventually do something with them. Match made in heaven!

First I lined up the seams of two of the napkins and attached them by sewing three buttons down the middle.

I laid the napkins face down, and placed the pillow on top of it, directly in the middle. I then folded the ends of the napkins in towards the pillow, just like you would wrap a present.

I pinned each corner in place, and then sewed them down to the pillow to keep the cover secure.

That was it! Altogether it was a 30 minute project. 

Filed under pillow cover diy napkin pillow cover diy cloth napkin pillow cover

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Homemade fruit pops

I found this idea on Pinterest and couldn’t believe I didn’t think of it myself. I got a set of popsicle molds from Casa.com, sliced up some strawberries and kiwi and threw them in. Then I filled them with pineapple juice, popped them in the freezer for a few hours, and they were good to go! So delicious and good for you too!

Filed under diy popsicle summer treat

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Plant holder

I turned this thing that holds yogurt:

Into this thing that holds a plant:

I took a swatch of fabric that was leftover from the fabric-lined tray project, and cut it to the length of the container plus an inch to wrap under the bottom. I used modge podge to adhere the fabric to the container, and then put another couple of coats of modge podge on top to water- and dirt-proof it a bit. I used my handy household drill to punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage:

That’s it! It took all of 7 minutes plus drying and planting time.

Filed under diy plant holder modge podge fabric quick craft idea

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Spray Painted Lamp

I don’t have a before picture for you, but a while back I bought a lamp for $5 at a thrift store. It was off white with ugly brown flowers (I’m pretty sure brown flowers don’t exist in nature). I really liked it’s shape, though, so I bought it with the intention of doing something to fix it. I bought a glossy navy blue spray paint from Home Depot, laid out a bunch of garbage bags on the front stoop, and went to town. The lamp has four rings around it that I wanted to pop, so I decided to paint them white. This was the hardest part. I used painting tape around the bottom and top of each ring (one at a time) and carefully painted on layer after layer of white craft paint. I had to wait until each ring dried before moving onto the next so that I wouldn’t mess up the one before with the tape.

The rings still aren’t perfect, if you look closely, but I’m OK with that. I like the way it came out overall.

Filed under spray paint repainted lamp diy

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Scrabble Tile Coasters

Craftiness runs in the family! My sister-in-law made me these Scrabble tile coasters for Christmas. They combine three of the things I love the most: word games, crafts, and drinking wine.

Oh, she also found the idea on Pinterest and was the one to introduce me to the site (my new favorite time killer) in the first place. Does she know me or what?

Filed under Scrabble coasters diy crafts

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Revived Writing Desk

I came home late one night after going out with friends and this gem was just sitting on this sidewalk outside my neighbor’s house. Why would you ever get rid of this?? Sure, it’s in rough shape but I’ve never seen anything like it. My mom says it’s a writing desk from way back when (but the “when” is unclear. I have no idea how old it is).

So I rescued it from the curb and brought it inside. I don’t have the room or the know-how to do fairly major restorations like this, so I brought it to my parents’ house. Over the course of the next few months, my dad helped me refinish it whenever I came home for a visit. 

First we unhinged the legs to make them easier to work on, and then stripped and sanded the whole table. That’s the worst part. Seriously, it takes forever. There were a few layers of brown stain on it that had to be removed, which took several rounds of sanding and stripping. I have to be honest and confess that Dad did most of this step in the process. What? He’s just better at it than I am. I’m not lazy, I swear.

Then the fun part is painting it! Dad and I went to the paint store and picked out a lovely yellow-gold, which we were a bit nervous about it being too bright, but willing to take the risk. We did a couple coats of paint, making sure to get in all the crevices on the side-panel details (again, took forever). We hinged the now-painted legs back on and put reinforcing brackets on the inside of the legs to make the table a bit more sturdy (it was slightly wobbly before).

Here’s the finished product. I love it, don’t you?

My advice for taking on this kind of project would be to A) Be ready for some hard work and elbow grease. B) Allot much more time and energy than you think it will take. I’ve done projects like this before and expected to get it done in an afternoon. Foolish. C) If you don’t have your dad or equally handy adult help you, make sure to read up (or You Tube up) on how to do this type of project. There are lots of little tricks (like the direction you should sand in) that I never would have known. D) Don’t be afraid of color! I initially thought of going with a neutral like brown or grey, but I love the yellow and how it brings a pop of color to my otherwise-neutral living room.

Filed under refurbished furniture desk painting furniture diy sidewalk find

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Fabric-lined tray

I bookmarked this post on Centsational Girl a while back and finally got around to giving it a shot recently.

I bought a white tray from the clearance end cap at Target (you know what I’m talking about) and spray painted it silver. Rather than using a cloth placemat, I used a swatch of fabric that I had picked up for super cheap at Michael’s. I measured the base of the tray and folded over and ironed the edges of the fabric so that it matched the exact dimensions.

I used modge podge to glue down the fabric to the base of the tray, and for good measure put a layer of modge podge on the top of the fabric as well. This makes the tray less fabric-y, but I like that it’s more protected now.

This is what Kate’s (aka Centsational Girl) final product looks like:

Now, because I prefer to make things that have at least a small purpose and aren’t merely decorative, I put mine to a more practical use on our coffee table:

Filed under crafts fabric lined tray diy