Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Curtain Makeover....Finally

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I have been dying to put this post up for you all to see! 
This past weekend I planned to spend most of my day Saturday making new curtains for my house, and it did take me practically the entire day! From about 11:30am-5:00pm (with a little lunch break).
I am so happy with them though. 
You see when we moved into our new house in August, the previous owners left all the curtain rods and curtains for every room.  Which is actually an amazing budget saver...because purchasing rods and curtains for four bedrooms, a living room, and dining room would cost A LOT OF MONEY! So we were actually pretty thankful for them, except they didn't all totally match our stuff.  The boys rooms don't really matter, and the dining room is okay, but my bedroom ones don't match our stuff at all (another project later I hope), and as for the living room, they match our stuff, but weren't exactly what I wanted...so that's where I started! Since the summer I have loved the horizantal striped curtains I have seen on Pinterest and Blogland! And I knew I just had to have those in my house somewhere.  So recently I found the most brilliant way to do this project, using freezer paper...so I decided I was finally going to do it! 

So check out what I did: 
Supplies: 
-Curtains
-Latex Paint
-Paint Trey
-Textile Medium (to soften the paint on the fabric)
-Roller Brush
-Drop Cloth
-Roll of Freezer Paper
-Scissors
-Measuring Tape
-Iron


First thing I did was spend time laying out and ironing my curtain to make it straighter, this will make the lines more accurate and straight. 
 The next thing I did was get all of the freezer paper ready.  You measure it out over the width of your curtain and cut strips...how many you need will be different for different sizes of curtains.  Then you take the freezer paper, fold it in half, and cut the half mark all the way down.  This makes the stripes a nice width.  Do your best to cut as straight as possible. 

Then you iron on the freezer paper...YES FREEZER PAPER WILL STICK TO YOUR CURTAIN when it is ironed on! I loved this and would love to learn other crafts you can do using freezer paper! 
You measure 9 inches between each freezer paper (because that is how wide the freezer paper is, so you are making all the stripes the same size)


Then pour your paint into the paint trey. I then added a good amount of the textile medium, (which I purchased at Hobby Lobby). This will make the Latex paint softer once it dries on the fabric. 


Then you just take the roller brush and paint down the sides that are not covered by freezer paper. 


Once you have painted a whole curtain, you want to take the freezer paper off before the paint dries. 


See how clean and crisp it turns out. 


My final two curtains once they were in the drying stage. 
I would recommend using a lighter fabric, I used a thick 100% polyester and the only thing I have a problem with is how they lay on the window, they are very stiff all together.  If I did it over I would honestly just use white sheets as curtains. 


BEFORE: 

Here's the before--the curtains that were in the house when we moved in and have been in our living room the past 4 months. 


And here was the outcome of my 5+ hours of work! 

AFTER: 



 I just love them! 





Anyways, I hope you enjoy my hard work as much as I do! Check out my right-lower bar for all the parties I am linking up to! 

Also don't forget that our GIVEAWAY closes this Friday night at 10pm! You still have a chance to get your name in the drawing for the awesome kitchen mixer/blender/chopper from Nutrition Lifestyles! 
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Monday, January 16, 2012

Swiffer Sweeper

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I have been loving this long weekend we have had! I have literally done some sort of craft every day! It has been so fun and I cannot wait to show you all of them. 

One of the first things I have done is going to be very helpful around my home.  This past year I purchased my first Swiffer Sweeper...it isn't a fancy one, but just a plain ol' Swiffer Sweeper, and I love it! So the way I clean my floors is I use a regular broom, then my wet rags attached to my Swiffer Sweeper.  I love the idea of the dry towels that Swiffer sells, but I don't want to spend the money on both the wet and dry ones.  I have noticed though that after sweeping my floors there is always residue around that could easily be gotten up with a dry cloth.  So, I decided to make my own. 

Here's what I used: 
-Old Towel
-Scissors
-Tape Measure
-Sewing Machine
-Your Swiffer Sweeper (for measuring)

Sounds simple huh! 
Well it was! You can definitely make one of these in just a few simple steps, it only took about 15minutes once I figured out all of the measurements. 

This little guy wanted to join me! Isn't he so cute! 

Here are the three pieces I cut: 
Long piece: 5 1/2 inches x 11 inches
Small pieces: 5 1/2 inches x 3 inches

Sew the two small pieces to the ends of the long piece, leaving the openings facing each other, and you got it.  You have to make sure not to add width to your small pieces or it will not slide on. 

Doesn't it look great! And even if it doesn't, it was made from an old towel and will be cleaning your floors! ha so it doesn't have to be beautiful or perfect! 

I will be using mine very soon.


I went ahead and made two so that I could have another while one was being washed! 

So definitely try this, it will help out when cleaning your floors, and save you money. 
I believe you could even use this as a broom itself if you commonly clean your floors.  

Let me know if you try it out! 

Also, don't forget to stop by and Enter in the GIVEAWAY I am doing with Natural-Nurturer.  
The GIVEAWAY ends this Friday at 10pm (Central)
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