DIY Chalkboard Fall Banner

Today, it is something new and special as I am collaborating for the first time with three beautiful friends from A Kaleidoscopic dream for Fall decor ideas.Check their blog for more fall ideas and also for some great cooking recipes !! you will never stop saying yum-yum!! ;)
Now to the banner, I tried something different this time compared to the regular banner.We change the banners for every season or for every occasion. And then ,Once it is done, what will you do with that ?? Will you re-use ??  I thought of using chalkboard paint in the banner so that you can reuse them with different designs and also for many other purposes such as place cards or for decor in many other ways.

Materials required :
Card stock in fall colours
Fall leaf template
Clear Chalkboard paint (I used decoart )
Different colour chalks
Scissors
Pencil for tracing
Clear tape
Cord

Step 1: Trace the leaf template on to the card stock and cut it with scissors.I cut 6 leaves as I decided to spell "Fall" along with two leaves on either side.

Step 2: Paint the clear chalkboard paint as per the instruction in the package.The beauty of this clear chalkboard paint is you can change any surface into a chalkboard.How cool?? If you have kids at home you should definitely give this a try.I tested using chalk on the paper without painting , It does work but if you try to erase and write many times it will ruin the paper leaving white marks however if you use chalkboard paint you can avoid that.Plus, you can reuse it .So, I will leave this to you.

Step 3: Season the paper leaves with chalk to make it as chalkboard surface.

Step 4: Draw your desired design on to the leaves. Try different designs ,different colors and chose your favorite. This is the fun part of using chalkboard.

Step 5: Secure each leaf on to the cord with regular intervals using clear tape.Voila!!! You are now ready with the beautiful FALL Banner.Chose a right place in your house to display it and enjoy your work.

Do you like this Chalkboard banner ??What do you think about the reuse ?? Just erase this design and write your guests name in it to use as a place card for thanksgiving dinner. If you don't decorate for seasons , you can do it for birthdays in the same way using birthday cones or cakes instead of fall leaves. Share what you think of this idea in the comments below or write to vikalpah@gmail.com . I would love to hear from you.

Note : This is not a sponsored post.

DIY Multipurpose Wall Art

When you live in a studio apartment you know about the space constraints, you will not have much space for decor items .If you are asked to chose decor or needs, you prefer the needs (Which include a place to keep your belongings , notes for stuffs not to forget for next day office(even that goes in the fridge door sometimes) , etc). So , I thought of combining the decor and needs into a single item which serves both the purpose.In our house , space is not a constraint but our living room space is already crowded with furnitures and so I don't want to crowd the wall and make the room look more clumpy.But I had some small problems to address such as a place to hang our keys and my husband's love for dry erase boards.Having a separate item for each purpose will end up in three items which will eventually crowd the wall.So, I ended up making a multipurpose wall art which serves as a wall art, dry erase board and also as a key holder.How great is that?? Now, lets move on to the steps.

Materials Required:
A large 22" X 28" canvas
Acrylic paints
Masking tape
Paint brush
Shipping tape to create a dry erase board
Double sided foam tape(Optional)
4 screw hooks
Poster board (Optional)
Pencil and Eraser (Optional)
Scissors(Optional)
An awl or drill to poke holes.
Newspaper to make template

I wanted to try a 3D effect like a real butterfly is sitting on a canvas , so I painted the butterfly in a separate poster board and glued it to the canvas using a stack of double sided tape. If you want to paint something other than butterfly directly onto the canvas , you can skip the steps and do it directly on to the canvas. And a important note is that I am not a artist , this is just my trial on making my coloring dreams true. :)

Step 1: Free hand the shape you want in a newspaper .In this case ,draw a one side of the butterfly by folding the newspaper into half and check whether it fits in the canvas. Use masking tape in the 3/4 area of the canvas and paint the remaining area grey using acrylic paint and brush.

Step 2: Trace the outline of the butterfly on to the poster board with  pencil and fill in with acrylic paints as desired. I decided I wanted a colourful butterfly so I made a rough sketch on a paper and replicated it on the poster board.

My rough sketch

Step 3: Once the paint is dry , lightly sketch the inside lines of butterfly with pencil and cover it with black acrylic paint.Once the paint is dry, cut the outline of the butterfly with scissors.Stack double sided tape one above the other and place it in the areas needed .Then, paste the butterfly on to the canvas.

Step 4: Now the painting part is done.Take the shipping tape and paste it in the remaining  1/4th area of the canvas.The tape should be overlapping each other.You can now use it as dry erase board.Have you ever thought of using shipping tape as dry erase board ?Oh ya, you can even use a piece of shipping tape to  use it as dry erase post it notes :)

Step 5: Mark the areas for screws hooks on the bottom of the canvas and make holes.Screw the hooks and that's it!!In this case ,an awl was sufficient to poke a hole and screw the hooks.If you have a drill ,then go ahead and use it. Now you are done with your multipurpose wall art .

If you don't want to make a bigger one, you can make something easy and small like the one shown below. All I did was paint the canvas in random fall colour and placed a fall leaf in the center. Then painted the whole thing in gold covering the leaf. When you take the leaf, you get a beautiful fall wall art.I did this last year before I started this blog , so that I will share here for your inspriation to make one.

So what do you think about the multi purpose wall art? Do you think it serves many purpose and also as a decor item??If you are making one, what will you include ?? Share your views about this wall art in the comments below.

I have a another exciting news , I got fourth prize in "Make it yours Krylon Contest".Thank you everyone who voted for me. Here is the project I submitted - DIY Kitchen Storage Cabinet Makeover.

If you want to check the page , http://www.favecrafts.com/krylon-contest

DIY Decor plates for Kitchen

Does your kitchen has any form of art displayed like a wall art , decor item or any other fancy things ? Oh ! you are asking me , Is kitchen a place to display all those items ?? Well ! Yes, who said you should not ?Today I will show you a simple DIY to spruce up your kitchen.

Materials Required :

Plastic Plates

White Spray paint 

Colour prints

Scissors

Mod podge

Sticky back Industrial strength Velcro

Step 1: I was searching for a plain white plastic plates but I couldn't find .So, I got a little grayish colour plates and spray painted them.You can also use white ceramic plates but you have to use plate hangers to hang them on the wall plus you have use nails on the wall to hang the plates .I don't want to use nails on the wall so I chose plastic plates and velcro.

Step 2: Allow the paint to dry if you are spray painting the plates like me. Print some colorful images of fruits or vegetables or anything which you like to hang in your kitchen. Use laser prints for this as you are going to use mod podge.(Ink jet prints are not mod podge friendly ).Use your local library printer in case you don't have one.I printed my images from http://pngimg.com/ .

Step 3: Use scissors and trim the images as desired. Apply mod podge on the back of the print and paste it to the plate. Let it dry .Have any doubts on how to apply mod podge ?Amy from Mod podge rocks discusses everything you need to know about Mod podge , here .

Step 4: Once it is dry, apply 2 to 3 coats of mod podge over the print to seal it.Attach velcro to the back of the plates to hang it in the wall. Voila !! Now you have a beautiful kitchen decor !! I made these plates to display above my new kitchen cabinet , Oh ! I mean newly painted kitchen cabinet. If you missed the post, click here to see the makeover .

How easy was that ??What images will you put on your plates , if you are doing this DIY ? If you are coffee/tea lover, collect pictures of various coffee blends and put it as collage or various flavors of donuts or muffins if you are sweets lover.  You can customize it according to your taste.What do you think ?? Let me know in the comments below.

Kitchen Storage Cabinet Makeover !!

If you are following me, you may know that I like participating in contests as I love challenges. When I participate in contest , I feel like I think more and come up with new ideas just with one product in mind. Which according to me is kind of Challenge ! Don't you think so ?One product , I mean if I participate in a contest by velcro brand ,I have to think a idea with velcro and how to use it in my project. (This was the very first contest I participated last december , Here is the project link ).Next Scotch brand ,with tape ,I came up with DIY Pendant lamp . This time it is Krylon Spray paint .
        Actually this contest started earlier in august but I got little busy with other works and also had relatives at home.So, I had to work in the last minute for this. When it comes to spray painting , it is always good to paint outside but nature did challenged us with some rain when we decided to take our cabinet outside for painting and so we couldn't make it. :( . As we didn't have much time we ended up painting inside with all windows open and covering almost all the areas of our kitchen.But, it was fun and we enjoyed the process.And now, my husband is asking whether we can paint the all the kitchen cabinet in teal.(You may soon see a post on that ;)). Okay!! So now after all that story ,lets move on to the procedure.

Materials Used:
Any item you would like to do a makeover, In my case it is a Storage cabinet.
(Check whether the item you wish to makeover can be spray painted !! Test a small area
before trying )
Spray paint colour of your choice .
(I used  2 cans of Krylon Colormaster Enamel paint - Gloss Blue ocean Breeze
2 cans of Krylon Dual Superbond Paint + Primer - White
1 can of Krylon Colormaster - Metallic Gold
1 can of Krylon Fusion for plastic - Gloss black)
Painter's tape
400 grit wet or dry Sandpaper
Wax paper for stenciling (Optional)
Drop cloth & Newspaper
Xacto knife (Optional)
Marker for tracing the stencil (Optional)
Scissors (Optional)
Wood grain Contact paper (Optional)
Gloves and face mask for safety.


Step 1: Cover the entire area with drop cloth. Wipe the cabinet with the damp cloth to remove any dirt, rust or dust and allow it to dry. Tape off the handle and top wooden part with painter's tape. Wear your gloves and mask.Wet sand the whole cabinet with sandpaper. (I am mentioning wet sand as dry sanding may release lead which is toxic , refer the back of paint for instructions.)

Step 2: Spray light coats (Don't spray in the same area for long time, do it in side to side motion or you will end up in dripping --> I experienced!!)of primer until your cabinet is fully covered  and allow it to dry.You may require 2 to 3 coating to cover it completely and be sure to allow it to dry completely in between the coats or you may end up spoiling the surface.You can actually skip this step if your paint already has primer in it. I personally felt priming the surface is good to prevent the surface from rust ,it helps the paint adhere well to the surface and also gives a pop of main color you are going to use.
If you are going to try spray paint any item for first time like me, do it at the back of the item first so you may learn the don'ts .Because , if you end up in dripping you can't mask it when spray painting the main colour. The dripping will still be visible.So, I advise you to practice at the back first before painting the front.

Step 3: Once the primer is completely dry, start the main colour in the same way as the primer and completely cover the cabinet. Allow it to dry.

I forgot to take photo and started the next step and suddenly remembered to take photo.So dont't confuse with the tape in the middle.

Step 4: You can wind up at step 3. But I wish to add some design elements to the cabinet to make it more interesting. I thought it will be cute to add some designs of  kitchen utensils in the cabinet as I am using it as a extra storage in my kitchen .If you are like me ,then go ahead I searched for right template online but I couldn't get it and also there was no time for shipping to reach me . So, I decided to make my own.
Use waxpaper and strips of painter's tape to make your own stencils. For this,download and print  the vector images of the items you want to paint.Trace it with marker on waxpaper. Cover one side of the waxpaper with strips of painter's tape overlapping each other. Use Xacto knife to cut the stencil.

Step 5: I decided to go with gold color for stripes and black for utensils.So,paint the areas of gold first.For this, cover the areas of utensils design with newspaper and tape to paint black later. As you normally do , spray light coats of gold spray paint and allow it dry. Apply 2 to 3 coats to cover the entire area and allow it to dry.

Step 6 :Cover the entire cabinet with newspaper leaving the areas to painted black and spray light coats of black for the utensils design.Allow it to dry.Now comes the interesting part.Remove all the tape and newspaper covered to admire your beautiful work. If you see any areas where the paint has seeped into the tape, give a little bit of touch up with multi surface paint and paint brush.And you are done!!! How cool ??

On the sides of top wood part , a little piece of wood was missing (Picture below )and so we decided to cover the whole thing with the wood grain contact paper.(Sorry, I forgot to capture the close up photo after sticking the contact paper :( ) Now it is totally new. The contact paper seriously made a great change to the look of the cabinet.What do you think? Have you covered any items at your home with contact paper to give whole new look ?? If not, you should try it .

Can you see the missing piece of wood there? 

 

Hope you enjoyed my makeover process and gained some ideas .Oh!! About that plates??  I will do a separate post(click here for DIY Decor plates for Kitchen) on that next week as there is already a lot of things in this post .I don't want to overflow all the ideas in one shot :) as it will be difficult for you readers :) So, what do you think about this makeover ??Did I do justice to the word " makeover" ? Share with me in the comments below .

DIY Words with jute twine + 10 Awesome DIY Twine projects to try

Today I am sharing with you something which I wanted to try for long time.Ya ! Those rope words.After having seen them in many places , I myself have asked the questions like , Do they really get stiffer and stand on its own? will they not come apart? Will the paste be that strong? To answers all those questions, I gave a try on this DIY rope words.Lets see ,How it turned out.

Materials required 

Wax paper / any plastic sheet 

Marker

Jute twine / or any twine

1 1/2 warm water , 1 cup Corn startch, 1 cup all purpose flour ,

1 cup craft glue & 1 teaspoon salt --> for paste

Step 1: Write the word you want to try in the plastic sheet with the marker in cursive letters, so that you will know how the rope should go.(as shown below)

Step 2: Prepare the mixtue without any lumps and soak the twine in the mixture. You can actually make a mixture with half the quantity specified above . As it is a small project you definitely don't need that much.

Step 3: The twine need not be soggy but it should be completely coated with the mixture to retain the shape.So squeeze out the excess mixture and write the letters with twine on the plastic sheet.

Step 4: Use any small piece of wire for shaping , if your twine gets twisted. For me , the end of the speech bubble was twisting and creating a loop(Picture above) , so I took a wire in "V" shaped and wrapped the twine on it.Be sure, to overlap the twine on the places like the start of "W" on the lines of the speech bubble. If it doesn't overlap then , you will not get a complete form to hang it.(I didn't do this in the start but I made it after sometime, forgot to take picture:( .You can see it in the final result).

I would suggest you to chose small words instead of large words or use thicker rope or use thinner twine twice the time for larger words. I am insisting you this, because you can notice the words are little curvy inside the speech bubble.If you want to avoid this, do it twice.So that , it will be stiffer.

I am happy with the end result.:) The words are stiffer enough to stand on its own and I got my doubts clarified. As we are renting a house in upstairs , we don't have a front porch or something to hang this, but we have a small wall in between the connecting room when we open the entry door, so I have hung this in that area.I think this would be perfect for "Fall".You can "Welcome" fall with this cute twine project.

If you are trying this, what words will you try making it ??If you have some extra jute twine , I have rounded up some wonderful twine projects by beautiful bloggers which would be perfect for "Fall".Check them out.

Twine for wall art ??That supposed to a great idea.If you are a geometry lover, this will suit your room.

DIY Jute twine Wall art by Jamie from [Kreyv]

Any of your friends getting married this Fall??This would be a great way to display the rings.



DIY Ring pillow by The Paisely Press

Even though the below tutorial will take you to the DIY Spring Wreath , the technique she has shown can be used to create the twine wreath below.Won't this wreath be a perfect one or "Fall decor"??
And also ,do you know you can use a pool noodle as wreath form?Just saying, in case you don't know.



DIY Fall wreath by Cat from Mary Martha Mama

With simple knots and twine ,you can beautifully revamp a candle jar.Check this tutorial.



DIY Nautical Upcycled Candle Jar by Carol from Through my front porch

I got the same questions striking in mind, will the glue gun alone hold the shape to make this rug.Check this, if you want to try a jute rug.I am awestruck with the designs!!!



DIY Jute rope rugs from Home dzine

An easy tutorial to make a simple and elegant bottle display.


DIY twine wrapped decor bottles from Mango & Passion Fruit

Are you a crocheter? Then , you should try this. Asking me ?? I am waiting for some good day to start learning crocheting.Anybody ready to teach me ??You are most welcome !! :D


DIY Jute twine belt by Angela Lynn Via HubPages

This is not a DIY, but I found this on Etsy and thought it was cute .So sharing!!


Twine studs by SakieJdesigns

I know it takes hours and patience to do this. But it is worth the time.What do you think ?? A simple Ikea stool makeover.Have a stool like this?Then you should consider this tutorial.



DIY Ikea stool makeover from Designsponge

Are you a kind of person who like personalized, customized things like me ?? Then here is a DIY for you.


DIY Jute wrapped letter from White light on Wednesday

Hope you all enjoyed the DIY's I shared with you.Feel free to share your comments below.As always I am happy to hear from you.Have any doubts?? or want to say hi?? E-mail - Vikalpah@gmail.com.