Category Archives: Decorating

DIY ACTION SQUAD: 15/15 Challenge!

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GUYS! Are you ready to be so wow’d by the DIY Action Squad that you won’t even know what to do with yourselves? I sure am. I also MIGHT be exaggerating. But seriously, we’re coming at you today with projects that can be completed in 15 minutes, for under $15. Who doesn’t love that?

Also, we invite you to link up any project you’ve done that meets that criteria too! We’d love to see what you’re up to.

PicMonkey Collage

I am trying my best to make my kitchen as organized a landing spot as possible, which started with my canister set cord storage. No matter what I try or intend, basically everything gets dropped in the kitchen and I just need to embrace it rather than try to change my habits. So I created a cute little key holder for the side of my fridge in an effort to stop me from throwing my keys on the counter next to it.

To do this project you will need:

  • scrap wood
  • leftover spray paint
  • hooks
  • velcro or magnetic strip (I used velcro, but I would have used magnetic if I had it)
  • super glue or power drill (keep reading, the drastic difference will be explained)

Because I’m a hoarder, I had all these things on hand. So my cost was $0. However, if you need to get hooks and magnets you’d still safely fall in the under $15 range.

And here’s the crazy easy step by step that anyone can do:

Step One: Cut a hole in the box…… wait, wrong process…. Let me try again:

Step One: Spray paint your sorry slab of wood and hooks. Because these parts are so small, you can totally get away with spreading out a paper bag on your basement floor and spraying them indoors, just maybe do it while your significant other is at work so he/she doesn’t catch you. I did two coats of spray primer and one coat of color- each coat took about 30 seconds and I did it the night before. So technically my 15 minutes was divided up over two days.

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Step Two: I used a thin piece of leftover wainscoting to make this project, so I chose to super glue my hooks to it. But if you use a thick piece of wood I would definitely recommend screwing your hooks in for extra sturdiness.

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Step Three: Add your velcro or magnetic strip to the back. Most velcro and magnetic strips are sold with adhesive backing.

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Step Four: Hang it up & stop throwing your damn keys on the counter. Use your cute new hook!

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We can still completely open that cabinet, the hooks only stick out about two inches.

We can still completely open that cabinet, the hooks only stick out about two inches.

Now be sure to go check out projects from Kenz, Tracie, and Emma  & link up with us!

Next Monday we’ll each be featuring our favorites from the link up  so share as many as you’d like and come back next week!


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I’m linking up with the “Make It” link party!

How I changed my life with a wire shelf

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This whole post is going to sound sarcastic but seriously, the tiniest little thing in the world got rid of a good 5 minutes of frustration that I feel everyday.

Basically, my pots and pans cabinet is a disaster because the lids are (were!!) in a complete state of chaos. Every single time I opened it they came tumbling down, or I couldn’t find the one I wanted, or I’d have to rearrange it completely because they were in the way of other things I needed. And then yesterday the heavens opened up and a light shined down and it was SOLVED.

I have had this white wire shelf sitting around in the office doing nothing since we moved here, we couldn’t find a use for it with the new desk but I did want to throw it out because, well, I don’t want to throw anything out ever. Then yesterday it suddenly dawned on me to turn that sucker on it’s side and use it to organize my lids. BAM:

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holy organization, Batman!

 

Everything is good and right with the world now. You can go about your day.

 

AND ALSO, bonus, we got an awesome wall map from Matt’s parents the last time we visited them and I’m super in love with it. Right now it’s just hung on the guest room wall with push pins (gasp!) because I’m trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with it. Originally I was just going to frame it out with some trim or molding and call it a day but now I’m thinking I want to coat a board of mdf or drywall with magnetic paint, adhere the map on top of it, and then frame it out. That way, whenever Matt and I travel somewhere together we can mark it off on here without having to put a hole in it.

I am totally on board with the map fad.

I am totally on board with the map fad.

Because I’ve declared December to be the month I get all partially finished projects completed I have high hopes this map with be taken care of by January 1st.

So now I invite you to join in on a little impromptu Facebook chat- are you a 95%-er? Do you get so close to finishing a project and then get distracted by a new one and never finish? Or do you follow through like a rock star?

Stencilled Name Cake

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Ok, I’ll admit I’m stalling a bit with this post- but I’ve got several projects in the works right now that are totally worth waiting for. I promise :)

I’m almost positive I got this idea from Making It Lovely, but it was definitely over a year ago and I can’t find it on the site. Either way, it’s so super easy anyone can do it.

The chocolate cake is from I box, I know bad blogger, but like I said I have several other projects going and Papa doesn’t care if it’s from a box or from scratch as long as it’s chocolate. The name is written in powdered sugar and it’s literally so easy anyone can do it.

I’ve got letter stencils that my grandmother gave me, but if you don’t just print out the letters you need on your computer, probably in a thick font like Arial Black, and cut them out- any size you want. My stencils are thick cardboard, but computer paper or construction paper would work just fine because you’re only using it for the outline.

The plaid pattern on the cake was made by just lightly dragging a fork horizontally then vertically across the top- nothing fancy going on there.

Then, just lay your stencil on top of the cake and sprinkle on the sugar! I used a spon to sift it over, because I didn’t have a sifter, and it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Sorry for the terrible picture- between 3 cats and a dog any sort of food decoration needs to be done quickly and efficiently.

And that’s all she wrote! Now it’s time to go see Skyfall…

Oh and hey, have you liked Sandpaper & Glue on Facebook yet? There’s all sorts of extras on there!

99 cent graphics

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Good afternoon all!

I am feeling SUPER under the weather so this week will be slow on the home front, but I thought I’d share a little Etsy shop I stumbled upon. Popalicious advertises on the sidebar of The Shabby Creek Cottage and I fell in love when I clicked over.

The shop sells dozens of 99 cent graphics, which are all emailed to you so you can print them and use them as you choose. There’s also a bunch of specials, I did the buy 3 get 1 free.

I’m starting think about wedding colors and designs and things are erring towards the vintage side so I scooped up the following 3 images (which I will receive in the color you see here and in black and white):

The shop will switch out the monogrammed P for any letter you want, I chose M.

 

They are sent without the watermark and without the number in the bottom corner, and honestly even if I change my mind on what things are going to look like for the wedding I only spent $2.97 so it’s not a big deal- I’d rather have it now then completely forget about it in a year when I actually need them.

I figure these images may come in handy when I design our wedding invitations, or maybe when I design my centerpieces. And if not, well they’d look cute in frames or in our scrapbook any way!

 

Everyday Halloween

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I was going to write up a little post about all the fall decorations scattered around the house right now, but so many other blogs are doing that and doing it better than me that I thought I’d personalize it a bit more because fall is just the most wonderful time of the year to us and it deserves some special attention.

Last night I recited this haiku to Matt:

Dear sweet fall

You rock my socks off

Pumpkin pie

We love, love, love Halloween in this house. In fact, pretty much all of our friends are Halloween nuts as well. Matt and I have even talked semi-seriously about spookifying our wedding if we end up in a venue where that might work. So in this house, there a little secret Halloween out and about all year long:

Whooo? Whooooo could it be?

I picked this little guy up at a Tj Maxx a year or two ago from the Halloween display.

But of course there’s more! Here’s our built in living room bookshelf from afar:

And here’s our little hidden gems:

But our living room Halloween adventure doesn’t stop there:

This lantern pops up in arrangements all over the house, but it was labeled “Spooky Lantern” when I first grabbed it.

Downstairs in the movie room is where it’s super easy to leave Halloween out and about all the time because such a large portion of Matt’s collection is horror based:

Two graves, two skulls, and a frankenstein candle! (And my batman figurine…)

Just this week we decided to add one more all the time Halloween accessory to our house:

Hooray!

So maybe we’re totally weird, but at least we’re both on the same page about it! Do you have any repurposed holiday decor around your house, or is it just us?

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Linking up with:

Chick on a Shoestring

 

Mom Swag

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I saw something similar to this on Pinterest a little while back, and decided to make my own version of it to give as a mother’s day gift. It’d be so cute on a baby boy nursery shelf!

Spacing and choosing text took way longer for me then I expected it to- I always go into graphic design projects thinking they’re just 5 minute things and I end up agonizing over each space, line break, angle, etc. I’m no superstar at graphic design, but I like the preciseness of it and the control and manipulation that’s involved so admittedly they probably are 5 minute projects that I just turn into something longer..

This particular piece I designed as a 5×7, and framed in a 5×7 frame- though looking at it, I think it would be better in an 8×10 with maybe some scrapbook paper matting behind it:

It came out slightly more blurry then I made it, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

For some reason Walgreens.com & CVS.com told me something was wrong with the image when I tried to upload it to their photo shop, but Target.com had no problems.

Target sent me 4 copies, even thought I only ordered one, and I have since given 2 of the additional ones away. If you’d like the last extra email me your address at sandpaperandglue@wordpress.com or message me on Facebook if we’re friends there- I’m happy to send it out!

Lists

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Well December is almost over, which means it’s time for 2012 lists!  We’ve officially been in our house four months and there’s still so much to do, but I feel like there always will be. Instead of depressing myself with a list of everything we need to do up in here, I’ve put together a top 10:

Top 10 “Things I’d do if I had Time to do Things”

- Paint the 2nd level landing: This project requires the wallpaper border to be removed, 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of ceiling paint, and 2 coats of White Truffle colored paint. Luckily, I have everything but the White Truffle paint on hand and I’ll only need a gallon of it so this will cost under $30.

- Paint the guest room: This project requires 2 coats of primer, 1 coat of ceiling paint, 2 coats of White Truffle colored paint, and 2 coats of orange sherbet paint (thick stripes, just on one wall). I’ll still have enough ceiling paint and primer, so this will cost under $60.

- Paint the 2 entrance doors: No matter what type of cleaner we try, these doors are permanently stained and disgusting. This project is “free” because we have enough primer and white paint…. are you starting to figure out that we bought certain paints in bulk?

- Paint the sill to the living room bay window: The window sill is stained wood but it is all jacked up, so repainting it white will do several things- match it to the sunroom bay window, hide the grosso wood, and blend it better with the rest of the room. Another “free” project

- Paint our bedroom dresser: Our bedroom dresser is a hand-me-down from Matt’s stepmom and it’s in really great shape structurally, but it doesn’t match the wood of our bed and tv stand and I’d really like to try a furniture redo. We also have a power sander that I’m dying to try. This project would cost under $30, just to buy the navy blue paint I’d like to refinish it with.

- Paint the wood trim in our bedroom: Like the window sill, it pains me to paint original wood but it has been destroyed by children who were allowed to paint their own room. The room is a very pale orange-y beige so I think we’re just going to go with a white trim paint. This is another “free” one.

- Redo the office bookshelf: the office bookshelf is a hand-me-down from my aunt’s house and it is beautiful and really well made, but the wood just isn’t doing it. I’d like to paint this black, to match the steel blue and black we’d like to have the office themed with. This is an under $30 project.

- Paint the office: I almost forgot about this one until I started typing about the bookcase! I actually like the color this room is already, but the filthers that used to live here left it with holes and bumps and dust stains so it needs to be redone. It’d take just a gallon of paint, because yes we’d still have plenty of primer and ceiling paint, so it’s under $30 (these under $30′s are starting to add up now…)

- Replace the knobs on the second floor landing built in: I just need to pop in the habitat for humanity restore store and get some new knobs! I think this is going to be under $10

- Redo the 2 kitchen stools: I have 2 barstools that are hand-me-downs from a friend, I traded her my old kitchen table for the stools when we moved. They’re in good working condition but they don’t match at all, so I need to paint the base and sew up some seat covers. If there’s leftover fabric after my grandmother makes me my curtains I may use that fabric, or I may go for something a little funkier. I’m not sure yet.

Runners Up

- Redo the half bathroom downstairs: I think this project is going to be the death of me. I don’t even want to talk about it now… but if I do it it’ll be a week long project done with lots of stored up vacation hours.

- Stencil the built in living room bookshelf: I’d like a nice yellow pattern in there, but I’m going to wait until we get a rug and potentially create a stencil to match the rug pattern

- Redo the hanging for behind the kitchen table: There’s this wood hook situation that was left in the basement… I don’t know how to describe it. But it needs some sanding, painting, and crafting to be awesome

- Spraypaint the living room ceiling fan: It’s currently got brown wings (are they called wings?) and since the room is gray/black/yellow themed they’d just look better black

 

 

There’s just so many things to do, good thing I’ve got a personal assistant:

Much Ado about Nothing

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Things have been a bit intense now that I’m working 13 hour days… just 5 more weeks left until I have a normal schedule again! I’m hoping when I get my check on Friday it’ll make this all feel more worthwhile…

Because of my insane amount of working, things are definitely a little laxi daisy on the home front. I will say there’s a crime-scene-esque rug outline currently taped down onto my living room floor and I’m pretty sure I’ve settled on a rug that I need to have in my life. I’m waiting (not very patiently, if I may add) for my curtains to arrive so I can make sure it’ll all look nice together and I won’t over-grayify my living room.

Also, dun dun DA (please read that triumphantly), today I picked up the prints I’m going to use in my shutter project! I ended up hating everything I designed myself, which is no real surprise because I tend to be very critical of my work. So, Etsy.com to the rescue! I ordered digital prints for $3 and they were emailed to me within an hour, then I picked 5 of the 10 prints I received and placed a Walgreens.com photo order. Here’s a little preview of what’s to come:  Isn’t that the cutest little pattern ever? I’m swooning a bit over it…

So, with any luck, the shutter project will be officially completed on Friday! I am going to hold off on actually hanging up the shutters, though, until we’ve got furniture finalized in the room. No need to make holes in the wall if things may need to get shuffled around when I find and can afford two more chairs for the room.

And on that note, back to my supervisor duties for the next hour and a half… whine whine whine. More tomorrow!

Touches & Accents

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Yesterday my parents came up for the day to help me work on the house, and that means it was all business all day- they get things done. Dad spent about five hours painting all of the trim on the first floor, and it looks so bright and white now! What I like about it is that every room is a different color, but every room has white trim so it’s the first floor is really starting to look more united.

From 11:30-5:00 he painted 5 window sills, 3 doorways, 2 radiators, and all the floor molding. And, because it was such a nice day, it was all dry by the time my mom and I got home from our massive adventure… curtain shopping! We hit up all of the following on a hunt for bargains: K-Mart, Big Lots, Walmart (twice), Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, Sears, and JC Penny. Mom is serious about deals, and because she and dad were so gracious as to foot the bill (because, in her words, she doesn’ want “The Grabber” to see in the windows) I trucked along.

Our main goal was to find thermal curtains to hang above the sliding doors in the sunroom. It’ll be cold out soon… I think, it’s about 80 degrees today… and there’d be a lot of heat loss through these doors if we didn’t cover them up. Originally, I wanted something I could push all to one side so the door could be easily opened and shut in the summer. However, the curtains are heavy so we ended up needing to put a middle brace on the wall. Here’s the curtains in all their daytime glory:

I ended up settling on a set of beige-y/burlap-y curtains we found at JC Penny, Sonoma by Cindy Crawford. They’ve got a subtle gold hue to them and they’re not just a solid color, they’re textured. I want all of the window dressings in the sunroom and kitchen to match since the rooms open up to each other, but matching all the dressing and the door curtains is impossible so I figured a neutral color would be best and the rest can match. The curtains also came in a nice sage green, but I didn’t want to match the sunroom walls to closely because, again, the goal is to bring two rooms together.

Here’s the curtain closed, sort of. The cats refused to move from their chipmunk watching positions so it’s bubbled over their fat little bodies… but you get the idea. They work great! The curtains have grommets, which is a word I just learned the definition of yesterday. It means they have big silver holes for sliding over the curtain rods, so they open and close more easily.

At the end of the day, we bought curtain rods for the sunroom and living room (Walmart), blinds for the whole first floor (Home Depot), thermal sliding door curtains (JC Penny), and living room curtains (ordered at Bed Bath & Beyond). Great success!

Look at how lovely our sunroom is coming together! Imagine the two camp chairs are a futon or love seat, the cat scratcher is a buffet or bar, and we’ve found lovely green and yellow valances for the bay window and regular window. I’m lovin’ it.

 

Now I’m off to finally get going on this whole living room shutter project- and just wait till you see how the living room is shaping up! I’ll save that for tomorrow…

It’s the small things

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Today in between jobs I rushed around reattaching outlets to the downstairs switches and plugs. We finished painting downstairs weeks ago, so it was long past due.

In the living room we have all new black outlet plates, which look really nice up against the gray walls, and in the kitchen and sunroom we scrubbed clean the existing outlets and put them right back up. They were filthy, and greasy, and I’m continuously fascinated with how unkempt the previous owners seem to be.

I also got to see Matt long enough to give him chores for the night, and it reminded me that I wanted to post our cute new kitchen gadget. I noticed at my friends house that she keeps her dish soap in an oil/vinegar dispenser and I thought it was just the cutest way to disguise something you need so often.

Please excuse the cheap Photobooth pictures, I snapped it on the way out the door.

I picked up this white one at Christmas Tree Shops while we were there, for under $5, and it is a great solution! We don’t have under the sink space so I had just been keeping the bottle on the counter, and it was just so ugly, I’m quite pleased with this simple and cheap remedy!