Monday, August 26, 2013

Playhouse makeover!









After seeing a number of adorable playhouse makeovers I really wanted to do one for my son. We found a suitable one on craigslist and my husband kindly made two trips to disassemble it and bring home all the pieces. It was bright pink. I'm not a big fan of pink, even for girls, so I was off to walmart to find some paint. I'm kind of a big nerd. My dream playhouse would a hobbit hole big enough to play in. Unfortunately that is an dream unlikely to ever be realized, so I tried to incorporate some fantasy elements into the playhouse. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.






This was definitely a learning process. There are many things I would do differently if I were to do it again. It took me about a month to finish all of the painting. This had a lot to do with the fact that I was taking medication at the time that made me feel quite ill.
I recommend painting the playhouse at quickly as possible. I was constantly having to clean the playhouse every time I wanted to put on a little more paint, and it became a huge chore.
I used Krylon Fusion paint because I read it was a good option for this type of project. I ended up spending a fair amount of money on paint and have already noticed several small areas where the paint has started to chip. Oh well, too late now, I guess I'll just have to touch it up every now and then.
Also, if you are handier than I am, completely disassemble the playhouse before you paint it. I couldn't figure out how to take some of the pieces apart so I ended up having to cover them up while I used different colors of paint. This was a HUGE pain.
All and all I'm glad I did it.
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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Starting a crafting blog.

I'm pretty new to the blogging world, but I love to craft and share ideas. I get a lot of ideas by seeing what other people have made, so I thought I'd share my ideas with anyone who is interested!
Let me start off by saying that I am a perfectionist; that doesn't mean that what I make is perfect, it mainly means that I will spend hours, days, month, or years on certain projects to get them the way I want them.
I have always loved crafting and learning how to do new things. I am self taught, and spend many hours scouring the internet for ideas and 'how to' explanations of all kinds. Mainly I spend my time hand sewing because it is very easy to pick up or put down when I have a few spare moments.  
Right now I've got several projects in the works. The one I am most eager to finish is a quiet book for my 2 1/2 year old son. I've been working on it for quite a long time and have hand sewn almost all of it. I've never worked with felt before so it was definitely a learning experience, but I've found that I absolutely love it! I recently finished the pages and am now busy trying to put together the cover.
So far the cover has been my biggest challenge. I wanted a cover that had a zipper so that none of the small removal pieces would fall out. I also wanted it to be a bit more sturdy than the pages inside. I looked around a lot online but didn't find anything I loved so I decided to design my own cover. I'm still not entirely sure how it will turn out (I tend to just design as I go), but here is a preview of the front cover. More pictures to come soon!



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