How to Make a Rustic American Flag

May 23, 201619 Comments

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well! We are coming to the close of school with our preschool graduation this week and then next week is the last week. I am so ready for some vacation time! I would love to get some more projects done! Lauren and I plan to work on updating the blog this summer and there are other exciting things in the works! Stay tuned!

I have been wanting to make a flag like this for a long time. I figured since Memorial Day is next Monday here in the states and 4th of July is coming soon, this was a good time. I originally was going to use pieces of molding, but that never happened so I decided to use some pickets I already had. Another free project!!

We had gathered some pickets from a neighbor a couple of years ago when he took down his fence. I have used them for a potting table and also a little side table. I wasn’t using the small table anymore, so I took it apart and used the pieces.

Steve removed the nails from each of the pieces, than I gave each one a good scrubbing.

I painted 4 pickets antique white and 3 pickets grey. I didn’t cover them too thoroughly, just enough to freshen them up.

I took one of the squares from the table that was taken apart and painted it blue. After the paint dried, I sprayed a little bit of turquoise over the top and then sanded it down.

These pieces also came from the table and they were attached to the back to hold all the pickets together.

Here is the front with the blue square attached.

Here is my bottle cap collection! My girls and I have collected these for years while taking walks around the neighborhood. We have an alley behind us and there are always treasures to be found. The girls and I picked out caps with blue, gold, silver and a little bit of red. We tried to get them all different and then placed them on the blue square in random order. I used my nail-gun to attach them.

All done! This was such a simple project to put together and I love how it turned out!

I don’t really decorate with red, so I tried to keep this as neutral as possible.

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and have some time to relax! Here a couple of other posts you might enjoy!

Laundry Room Update! Still Not Done :(

May 9, 2016May 8, 201623 Comments

Is it summer vacation yet! I feel like I am really falling behind on getting things done around the house! This laundry room has been a looooooong process. Honestly, I am not sure it will ever be completely done. I will just keep calling it my ‘half’ room. Half of a floor, half painted, half a washer and dryer… see what I mean? Maybe someday. But I can give you a little update :).

Remember the lockers? They are successfully installed into the laundry room! I love them! Haley keeps telling me I need little chalkboards on each one labeling what’s inside! Steve added some shelves inside a few of them so I could store more items, like cleaning supplies and such.

Here you get a little peek at them on the sides. The big door hides the water heater plus stores a few other items like the mop and broom. Steve added some wood around it so it wasn’t just a big piece of plywood, but obviously that is only half done too. I haven’t got the painting done yet.

I also have been working on a sign for the room that should have only taken a couple of hours, but has been weeks instead. I think this whole project is just not supposed to happen! It has just been one thing after another.

I took a scrap piece of wood and painted it white. I had a frame which was cut down to fit around the piece of wood. But…it didn’t fit quite right either. Wow. Oh well. I used it anyways.

When I started writing this post, I realized I didn’t have the pictures for the letters that spelled out ‘laundry’, but I did have ones for ‘patio.’ So that is what we are going to work with! I have had these chipboard letters for years and I am trying to use them up by making words with whatever is left. I had some for ‘patio’ and ‘laundry.’

I picked out pieces of scrapbooking papers that were in the colors I wanted to use. I had lots of pieces at home, but there are lots of pretty designs at the craft stores too. Then I figured out the order I wanted them to go in. Play around with different layouts until you find what is pleasing to you.

I turned my paper over and laid the letter on it backwards. I traced around the letter and then cut it out.

Now I am ready to attach them. I used Modge Podge for mine. I brushed some onto the letter and then smoothed my paper down on top. I also brushed some Modge Podge over the top of the paper after it was aligned with the chipboard.

After all my letters were dry, I glued them onto the board. I laid them out first so I could see how much spacing I would need. I used tacky glue to attach them. I weighted them down with some book for awhile so they would be firmly glued on.

Now that you have all seen the ‘patio’ letters, let’s move on to ‘laundry’, shall we?

Here it is! The letters attached really well after being weighted down. Just that corner thing…

Here’s the corner, in all its glory. Maybe I can figure something out to cover it or put over it. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear it!

I hope you all had an enjoyable Mother’s Day weekend. Here I am with my ‘little’ girls!

Have a wonderful day!!

Toolbox Restyle-Blue Coastal Style

May 2, 2016April 30, 201616 Comments

Hello! How was your weekend? We spent Friday night watching our local Triple A baseball team play, Saturday was a catch-up on blogging day and Sunday, I volunteered at the shelter after church. I would say it was successful!

I also worked on this Toolbox Restyle. As you know, I love the coastal and beachy style. And Lauren is kind of moving that way too when she moves into another place. She made this toolbox years ago as part of a 4-H Woodworking project. I have mostly used it outdoors with candles and such, but decided to fix it up for her to use in her new place. In the meantime, I get to enjoy it in my living room!

I cleaned the box up and gave it a good polish and then wound some rope around the handle. I secured the ends with a little hot glue.

Next, I searched around the house for a few things to fill it with. I tried to add a little bit of navy blue, since that seems to be what Lauren is moving towards.

I found this old paper spool of ribbon in Lauren’s stash. It had pink lace on it. I removed the lace and wrapped white and silver ribbon on it instead. I love the old spool!

This bowl had been green. I liked the design and the shape, but not the color, so I spray-painted it white. I added some white rocks to the bottom, ‘planted’ the (faux) succulents and added a little garland of seashells. The bowl was the perfect fit for the middle section.

I didn’t get a picture of the mason jar, but it hold some seashells and rocks Lauren had been saving. I covered the top of the lid with some scrapbooking paper.

This candle holder was purchased by my mom from Goodwill. It came in a set of three and I liked the height in the back of the box. Lauren and I talked about possibly cutting the little part off the top so she could use a pillar candle instead.

I found this block of wood in our wood stash and added some burlap and navy blue ribbon. A blue candle is perfect for the top and the block fit perfectly in the toolbox.

There are so many different uses for this box. This would be great to change out for the different seasons too!

I’m glad I was able to do something with a piece of art Lauren made so many years ago. It will make a great conversation piece in her new place!

Want to see more coastal decor? Click on the pictures below!

Old Drawer Recycled to a Purse Organizer

April 25, 2016April 23, 201619 Comments

We live on an alley. Needless to say, we find a lot of junk! One day, Haley found these 2 drawers sitting out there, just calling to her that they needed a new home. So they came home with us! Now just to figure out what to do with them!

I was talking with Lauren one day and mentioned that I didn’t know a good way to store my purses. They always seemed to be getting lost in my closet. Voila! An idea was born!

We actually have 2 of these, but I will start out with just one today. I have a couple of ideas for the other one, but I have to pick which one! As you can see, they are pretty big drawers. They were 18 inches across, 23 inches tall and 9 inches deep.

Steve took apart the old cupboards in the laundry room to make space for the lockers, so we had a bunch of wood left from that. Since this would be going in the closet and wouldn’t be a show piece, we just used particle board for the shelves and dividers.

Steve even made the braces for the shelves to sit on. This was a completely free project!!

I measured out some of my purses and then comparing that to the size of the drawer, I came up with the measurements for the cubbies. I wanted 3 large spaces on the bottom for large totes and bags, 4 small spaces for wallets and small handbags, and 2 on top for the medium size purses (sounds like the 3 bears!-sorry! Preschool teacher here!)

Yep! I pulled all this out of my closet and this was just one corner! I found purses in every nook and cranny. I was putting them wherever I could find space. I pulled boots out too because the new organizer would be occupying that corner.

After a couple of coats of white paint, it was ready to bring in the house and organize!! I love how well it fit everything!

I should be able to find what I am looking for now!

These are the cubbies for the smaller purses and wallets.

Here are the larger ones.

I always love finding ways to get more organized and a way to recycle old stuff!

Now I just have to figure out which idea to use for the other one! I will keep you updated! Have a wonderful week!

2 Projects in 20 Minutes (ish)

April 22, 2016April 21, 20168 Comments

So, this week, I have 2 projects. I was going to split the into 2 separate blogs, but realized that they were too short and sweet to post separately. So they are here together! Because, as you know, sharing is caring.

The first thing on the docket is a Poshmark binder.

I was looking through my Poshmark sales (shameless plug: follow me on Poshmark @2smallofacloset), and even though I have a full spreadsheet on my computer of my sales and all the information, I wondered what would happen if my computer completely died. Like, blue screen of death, never turning back on died. How would I have all the information besides on the app?

Oh yeah, I have all the info on the app.

But what if something happens to my phone?????

Anyway, I decided that I wanted to print out all the information on separate pieces of paper to file in a binder. It would be easy for me to look through and find out my sales and what my items are selling for.

Here are my supplies: A pink binder (duh), a pink folder with a cute typewriter on the front, pink and purple glitter tape, pink and purple gel pens, and my sales paperwork. I also used a hole punch and scissors, which are not pictured.

The first thing I did was take the pink glitter tape and line the top and the bottom of the binder. I just used a long strip and went along the edge of the binder. I then took the purple tape to make a second strip on the binder. I finally added two small strips on the spine of the binder so I know which side is the top and the bottom.

The second thing I did was hole punch all of the paperwork. To make sure that they were all hole punched the same distance apart (because I don’t actually own a 3 hole punch), I placed one paper in the folder and hole punched it. Of course, I then took that paper and used it for the rest of the papers.

The third thing I did was write single sale or bundled sale on the paperwork. This is just for “office work” so I know if my bundled sales are working or not. I wrote single sale in pink and bundled sale in purple, and even added a glitter tab to each paper so they are easy to page through.

And this is the final product. I’m really happy that I got it to work and look this nice. It took me approximately 10 minutes to put it all together. It will take a little longer if you still have to type out all of your sales from Poshmark.

The second project I have is a nautical plaque. Mom and I found a blue piece of wood in our shed and I took it to figure out what I wanted to do with it.

Here are my supplies: a blue piece of wood, rope, design of your choice, and sparkly glitter glue. You can use paint if you want, but I found this glue at Michaels and had to buy it because of reasons.

The first thing I did was hot glue the rope to the board. When I got it around the edges, I cut the end and hot glued the end of the rope so it wouldn’t fray. I don’t know if it will help, but it worked for me.

The second thing I did was trace my design onto the board. I found this compass on Google images and decided to use it on the board. I covered the back of the piece of paper with pencil and then traced it onto the board. The only issue I had with this was that it was a little difficult to see the design on the board because it is blue.

The third thing I did was use the silver glitter glue to cover the pencil design. I really like how it turned out, but I do wish that it was a little thicker. I thought that it would be much brighter where you could see the design better. Oh well, I still like it.

And here is the final product.

I like how it turned out. It’s very simple and perfect to hang in a nautical themed room (maybe my living room when I move into a house?). I am happy with how it turned out and can’t wait to actually have it as a decoration.

So, I hope this gave you some inspiration for some easy projects. They took about 20 minutes to finish both of them all together. The Poshmark binder has already come in handy when looking at sales and the board will come in handy very soon. Thanks for stopping by and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow for the Corner News!