I am currently looking for anyone who would like to be a guest blogger on Crafting With Training Wheels. Please contact me via E-mail which can be found on my "Contact" page if you are interested. Thank you!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Headboard to Entry Table

I was able to move my new entry table mentioned here into its home and add the items I had been saving for it's tablescape. I LOVE how it turned out!


I painted the table with Krylon Dual in Black Gloss. It matches the dining table perfectly! More on the table scape accents later! In case you forgot, here is what it looked like before:




Friday, July 15, 2011

Entry Way Make Over- Cork Board

I know that I have a million few unfinished projects out there that I need to finish and share with you but I did start on another one last weekend with this piece I showed you last week:


It is nearly finished and will be part of my entry way/dining room makeover. We use a side door off of our drive way to come in and out of the house and it is currently the dumping ground for everything. I'm pulling together some items to dress it up and make it more functional. Here is a quick fun project that I really enjoyed.



I took a frame that I got at Good Will months back and spray painted it with one of my new dining room colors Ivy Leaf from Krylon. I had some cork squares from another project and they were the PERFECT width for the frame. I did have to trim one down to make it fit but all in all, they worked great.

To make the tacks, I used the method that is all over blogland and mod podged some scrap book paper to the back of some vase decor gems I had on hand. (These gems were tinted different colors so I used corresponding scrap paper to make them especially vibrant.) Then I hot glued some thumb tacks to the back of them. This is going to look great on my mini gallery wall in then entry way.

I'm hoping to actually be able to do a reveal of part of this area sometime next week!



Thursday, July 14, 2011

I've been featured!

I am so psyched to tell you that I have been featured on a fantastic blog! The blog is called Momnivores Dilemma, here is what she says about herself:

Hey all. I'm Nicolette from Chicago. Welcome to the carnival of fun that is momnivore's dilemma. MD is a wild mix of craft, home, parenting, and gluten-free eating. By reading my blog daily, you will become skinnier, happier, and richer. All yours for the low, low price of internet access.






Photobucket 
 
 
 

Go check out her fabulous blog and link up to her Thursday party!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Lamp Makeover in Progress

Last night I was in the mood to paint something but my spray paint muscles were sore. Yes you read that right. The attachment I use on my spray cans broke and I was forced to do it the old fashioned way and it made my arm sore. SO, I got out my handy foam brush and went at it.

I know that the before picture is not pretty but you get the idea. Boring black lamp that sat on a black table. I decided it needed some color. I painted it with Rapids from Valspar. It is a nice Aqua color. I'm hoping it goes nicely with my old door turned coffee table once that is finished. I left the top of the lamp base black incase I ever want to change it back or to another color and I didn't feel like taping it off. The next step will be to slightly destress the lamps and decide what I want to do with the boring lamp shades.

I have so many projects in mind for the weekend that I don't even know where to start! Most likely it will be giving this little fellow a makeover:


Have a great weekend!



Thursday, July 7, 2011

Insomnia = T-Shirt Refashion

So last night I could not fall asleep to save my life. So I did what any insomniatic crafter would do, I refashioned a t-shirt. I will admit, initially I was resolved to simply watching multiple episodes of Pawn Stars via Netflix. BUT I decided to take some inspiration from Ellie G over at Less Cake More Frosting and this productive insomnia post. Not only did she use her insomnia to create the fab journal below, but she also may have helped solve her insomnia issue in the process! Go check out her post and see for yourself!


LCMF
I had been wanting to do a t-shirt refashion project for a while and decided to have at it. Unfortunately I was in that tired but not tired state and didn't take any process pictures but here is how it turned out:


Basically I just cut some strips from an old shrunken t-shirt, set my sewing machine on the highest tension level and longest stitch possible and ruffled my strips. I scrunched (yes, scrunched. This is a very technical term for those of you who are not aware) the strips down by holding on to the bottom "tail" thread to create an extra ruffled look. I placed and pinned them on my shirt and sewed them on, following my ruffle lines as best I could. I intended on adding some flowers but I liked how the ruffles turned out.

Although I did need to enjoy and extra large Diet Coke this morning, the insomnia was worth it.

More home decor updates to come soon!

*This post was brought to you by the letter 'I' for insomnia*



Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Major. Craft. Fail. & Thanks for hanging in there

I just realized that it has been almost a month since I posted last. Man has it been busy. I have been sewing and crafting things for a new local store that is opening and requested some of my baby items (more on that some other time). Also, I have been in a bit of a craft funk. I try to do things on the cheap or wait until funds are available to do things and that is becoming fewer and farther between as with summer comes fun activities, and those cost money.

Renting a house was what worked for us when we moved here since we weren't/aren't ready to buy but let me tell you it has been difficult. Our house is old and made up of plaster walls which equals a decorating disaster. It is almost impossible to hang anything of substance on them. Last night I rearranged our bedroom and was attempting to create something like this:


Via Pinterest
I used a much smaller and lighter curtain rod to hang the curtain, not even thinking that it wouldn't hold in the plaster. After measuring and marking everything, I went to hang the first hook and this is what happened:



It is a little hard to read but in short, I was left with three screw holes and a hot glue mark. Yes, I was that desparate that I tried to HOT GLUE the hook to the wall. It worked for the most part and then gave way. 

I left it alone for now hoping that tonight I will come up with something that will make it work. If anyone knows how to hang things from plaster, PLEASE help so that I don't go insane end up with multiple holes in my walls.

I don't even have a clue as to how I'm going to hang this beast:




Thursday, June 9, 2011

A little bit of this

Last night we had a bonfire in our back yard and I decided I wanted some s'mores. Now usually I am the person who piles all of the s'more supplies in my arms and gets outside as fast as I can before I drop anything. This time I decided to be smart.

(sorry for the blurriness, it is dark in my kitchen at night)

I took a cookie sheet and threw all of my supplies on there and carried them outside. I even had a free hand to grab my water to take with. Now this may seem like common sense to everyone but it was a revolation to me! I'm planning on making a decorative backyard/s'mores tray in the future once I finish all of my other in progress projects have time. 

This is a project I have been working on. (Dark photo due to dark garage).

I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll be working on it this weekend!

And just because they are cute, here are my babies!