DIY Painting // A Lorax Quote

I knew I wanted to do a painting for our bedroom. I wasn't sure what I was going to paint until we watched the movie The Lorax. I wanted a positive message on my wall to read everyday. The Lorax had a great message and I knew right away what quote I wanted to paint. I designed it on Photoshop and then printed it out...


I decided to cut each word or sentence out so that I could choose the placement myself. I have a projector that I bought years ago at Hobby Lobby. It has come in handy for many projects. It's great for tracing images onto walls or canvases. All you need is a dark room and you are set to go...


I didn't know how all the wording was going to fit on the canvas, so I just freely moved around each word/sentence till I liked the way it looked. I loved the word UNLESS very large at the top. Of course, it would be better to measure this all out before hand,..but I never do things that way. HA! Then I started tracing...


As you can see even tracing is never perfect. Fast forward and can see the finished traced design...
Since I didn't measure the design out there is a blank spot at the bottom of the canvas.
I didn't think it looked bad so I left it that way. Plus I was just happy it all fit!!
Since my bedroom is painted pink I decided to decorate the room with touches of gold and silver. I have never like gold in the past but it's really grown on me. Someday I will get the room done and you will get to see it. I love the gold paint! It's so pretty. Here you can see the painting after one coat of paint...


Here it is finished...

I still have some pencil marks to erase. My O's got a little crazy. ;) It was hard to keep it perfect. I am happy with it though. I prefer just hanging my own paintings in my home or photographs I have taken.

What do you think? Do you make your own art for your home?
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DIY: Framed Map Heart Cutouts

Most of us have Pinterest addictions. Once I knew we were buying a house I started pinning decorating ideas like crazy. Many of them being DIY projects. One that I really found cute was an idea to cutout hearts out of old maps and then frame them. Most the time the hearts were the place you met your spouse, got married and where you bought your first home. I decided I really liked the idea and wanted to try it out myself.


My hearts represent everywhere we have lived or traveled. I was actually really excited to do this because I plan to just keep adding hearts to it as we travel more. I designed my hearts using Photoshop. I used Google maps to get photos of the maps I needed. Then I would edit them into heart shapes and even play with the colors a bit.


Once I printed them all out I started cutting...

I ended up with a lot of hearts! It took some time to figure out what pattern I wanted to lay them out in.
I just eyeballed the entire thing. I taped them down once they looked even.


The Santa Barbara heart is my favorite...

I should mention that my living room is where my globes are and where I have some other maps framed. I am also doing a painting soon to hang over my couch that kinda also fits into the same theme. I love traveling and thought this project was perfect for my home. :)


There you can see it with nothing around it on the mantel. I have since added plants and vases around it. I can't seem to get it right so I keep moving things. (Photos to come later.) I am happy with the end result. It's just a simple modern looking piece of art. I had considered putting the hearts on a bright colored fabric or place bright colored hearts behind the maps to make them stand out more. I like the simplicity of it for now.

You can see my original PIN that inspired me to do this project HERE.
View all my posts of my home HERE.

DIY: Homemade Laundry Detergent

Cody and I have been wanting to make our own laundry detergent for a while now. We finally got around to doing it recently and I wanted to share how easy it is to make. It will save you tons of money in the long run. The start up cost for us was around $20. That is for everything, including a bucket to store the detergent in. After you have used up your first batch, you will only have to buy a bar of soap the next time. We got our recipe from Tip Nut. They have multiple recipes on their website for making laundry detergent. We selected recipe number one. Here is a step by step look into how we made ours...



Before putting in the melted soap, we added about 18 drops of the scented oil.
Kara's cat was very interested in what we were doing. He is such a cutie.


Above you can see that your detergent will become a gel. This is how it's supposed to be.
You need to keep your laundry detergent covered while storing it in your bucket.
This is why we bought a bucket that came with a lid.
On a side note, I am upset that I bought Arm & Hammer washing soda because they test on animals. I did not know this till my sweet blogger friend Aubrey told me recently. (Thanks Aubrey.) When you think of baking soda, your brain automatically thinks of that orange box that says Arm & Hammer on it. So if you want this to be a vegan (not animal tested product) you can just buy another brand of baking soda. You can actually bake baking soda to make it into washing soda. (link HERE.) Also Aubrey has a great recipe for laundry detergent on her blog that you can also check out HERE. We had a blast doing this and plan to make bar soaps and body washes as well. I like that there are options for everyone.

I am also fed up with buying animal tested products by accident. It angers me.
PETA has a list of companies who DO NOT animal test on their website HERE if you are interested.

DIY: Crayon Art & Paintings

It's been ages since I shared any type of DIY project here on the blog! Basically because I had no more projects to really do at my current home. Now that we are moving into our new house you can expect lots more projects, especially things that involve paintings!! My friend Kara decided she wanted to try making a Crayon Painting over the weekend and asked me if I'd like to join in on the fun! I said YES of course. :)


Have you heard of paintings with crayons? I had not and was very excited to see what it was all about. I am going to show you what we did and how we made it happen! Let's start with your supply list:


For the glue, you should use a strong epoxy. I tried using my hot glue gun and some of my crayons got blown off by the hairdryer. Most stayed on, but it's best to use something stronger I think. I also suggest a HUGE drop cloth because once the wax starts to melt it kinda just goes EVERYWHERE. There were 3 of us making paintings: Alex, Kara and myself. First I will share Alex's painting...

She decided to paint her canvas black and leave a white opening in the center in the shape of a heart.
She then broke crayons in half and glued them around the heart.



Once the glue dried for a few minutes, it was time to start melting the crayons with the hairdryer.



If you have the hairdryer on high, it melts pretty fast. The lower setting is good if you want more control.
Alex let one side dry before flipping the canvas over to melt the other side of crayons.



Then she decided to paint the center of her heart blue.
It think it turned out pretty cute!


Now I'll share with you Kara's painting.
She also painted her canvas black and glued the full crayons at one end of it.



Kara wanted to melt all of her crayon out, causing waves of color....



Her painting had a very textured look to it. Layers of wax...



Now we'll look at mine. I decided to paint my canvas pink, go figure!
I tried to pick coordinating colors for mine....



I started with fewer crayons and ended up adding more later...



I also felt my painting needed something else, so I painted the words over the wax...



I love color so much, so I thought it was fitting. So, what do you think of our paintings??
It was really fun, just make sure NOT to forget lots of drop cloths!!
Pinterest is full of all kinds of inspiration for all different types of "crayon wax" paintings, you can view them HERE.

My Jewelry // Thrifted Shelves

I wanted to share some photos of my very small yet cute jewelry display in my bedroom. I have two shelves that I had purchased on two different thrifting trips. I had just grabbed them in hope of being able to use them in the future. One day the light bulb went off over my head and I knew what I wanted to do with them! Here's a look....


The shelves also ended up being the perfect place for my "nerd" Vinylmations!
I spray painted both of them with Rust-Oleum Paint: Real Orange & Berry Pink
My tiny jewelry box & glass ring holder

Sadly I do not have a lot of jewelry or accessories. This is something I am trying to work on. I would like to make some jewelry this winter and find some more fun things to wear. I love big rings, especially owls. I can totally see myself ending up with a collection of owl jewelry. Most everything in my jewelry box above is vintage family pieces or things that hold sentimental value to me. You may or may not have noticed I have a rock in there, yes a rock. It's shaped like the state of OHIO and I've had it since I was a child. I found it one day while playing in my backyard.

I really enjoyed photographing my jewelry display and Vinylmations. They are so cute.
Since I can't paint in my stupid rental house, this is how I add color. Toys and spray paint. LOL

Thrifty Finds: My Painted Nightstands

This isn't a major "diy" project, but I am excited to finally have my nightstands in my bedroom painted! I purchased the pair over 7 months ago for only $18! The were really beat up but I loved the style of them. Cody begged me to not paint them pink. I figured since he would actually have to look at the pair everyday and use one of them, I would give him his way. So, I have yet another white piece of furniture in my home, imagine that? HA!
I decided to not paint the hardware. I really like it the way it is!
I may consider putting new hardware on the nightstands someday.
I do think they would be pretty in PINK.
I am still loving my Union Jack painting! You can see how I painted it {HERE}.
I also found my orange lamps at a thrift store, $20 for the pair. I really love them!
I want to hang mirrors or some pictures over the lamps. The walls look to empty to me.
I just haven't found anything yet. Once I feel the room is more finished I will post more photos.
For now, Cody's side of the bed...