Scraplog

Spray Painted Travel Case

Last summer my Mom and I found the end tables that are in my bedroom at a yard sale for $30 for both. They are faux bamboo and fabulous! After a quick job of spray painting them silver, they were just what we had envisioned and were now chic and updated. I would love to show you the before picture but I actually had it saved on my laptop and it died a few months ago along with the before picture. Sad day.

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Although I love my new-to-me end tables, they only had one little drawer in them. I usually like to keep a few things in my nightstand and so one little drawer wasn’t going to cut it for me. My solution for this little inconvenience came in the form of a travel case that I had picked up at a thrift store for $1 a couple of years ago.

travel case

It had super cute lines and the price was right but it was a bit banged up and not the right color scheme for my room. So if you were me, what would you do? That’s right, I spray painted it! I grabbed my can of white paint and sprayed a few coats on it and it’s as good as new. I set it on the shelf of my nightstand and now I have a bit more space to store a few more things like books and papers and such all while keeping it hidden in a cute container :)

bed pillows 3

I have another one of these travel cases that I think would be super cute to use as a charging station. What do you think? After painting it, I could just drill a hole in the back and feed a power strip though it and ta-da! You have yourself a charger station for your ipods, phones and the like. Good idea?

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Tutorial: Zig Zag Pillow

I love zig zags! Whenever there is a pattern that I really like I want to put it all over my house. A few years ago it was damask. Then it was zebra. And for the last year or so it has been zig zags!

There are some really awesome zig zag fabric out there but I had yet to find it in the color and price that fit my needs. The other day I happened to be at Walmart (our Wally world has a fabric department) and I found a remnant of fabric for $.79 in the perfect wide stripe and perfect color for my bedroom. I originally was just going to make a pillow with it as is but then I got to thinking that just maybe I could turn it into zig zags. And amazingly enough, my little plan worked. Here are the steps I took to make my own chevron stripe:

1. Fold your fabric to create a 45 degree angle. Iron along the fold and then cut the fold. This will be your new edge.
stripes 1

2. Measure from your new edge how large you want each zig zag section to be. For example, I chose to make each section 3 inches so I cut several 3 inch sections. To do this, I just folded the fabric over 3 inches and then cut on the fold.
stripes 2

3. Now go to the opposite end of your fabric and repeat steps 1 and 2 but fold it the opposite way. If you fold it the same way, you will just be making stripes. To insure that I fold it the right way, I took the first corner that I cut off and put it on top of the new side. If the stripes lined up and made a zig zag then I knew they were right. It’s very important to make sure your angles are right or they won’t line up properly so make sure you are cutting on the same degree.
stripes 3
stripes 4

4. After you have cut all of your strips, line them up in sections of two, right sides together and sew along on edge making a seam. Be sure the stripes line up before you pin and sew them.
stripes 5

5. After sewing them together, iron the seams open. When you flip it over, it should look like this:
stripes 6

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 with all of your pieces and then start sewing them together. Once they are all sewn together, your finished piece should look like this:
stripes 7

7. Cut off the points from the top and bottom of the fabric and you will have a nice rectangular piece. Then, you can sew a pillow or whatever else you want with your new zig zag stripes!! Take note that you lose some material when you line it up and cut off the excess so be sure to make it bigger than you think you will need. Each of my strips were 3 inches wide by 15 inches long to make a 12 inch pillow.

Happy sewing! If you have any questions, let me know!

Also note, if you have previously left me a comment and I didn’t respond to it it’s because when I was replying it was not sending the reply to the person who commented and I didn’t realize it. This issue has been fixed and I am trying to go back and answer questions so I’m sorry if you haven’t gotten an answer yet :)

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Another Bedroom Sneak Peek

You are probably getting tired of the master bedroom sneak peeks and just want to see the whole finished product but… it’s still not done :) I have been busy with other things (including designing new Christmas product for every jot & tittle!) and so the bedroom gets pushed aside and I work on it here and there when I have time. But today, I will show you a bit more of the room than I have previously and hopefully you will get a feel for it.

A couple of days ago I worked on making some throw pillows for the bed. All of our bedding is white and so I wanted to bring a bit of color and pattern to the room in the form of throw pillows.

bed pillows 5
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All of these pillows have an envelope closure of the backside so they were very simple to make and probably only took about 20 minutes for each one (except for the front pillow). There are tons of tutorials out there for making an envelope pillow cover so instead of me trying to explain the process, just do a quick google search and you will find a tutorial really easily!

For the zig zag pillow, I used a plain striped fabric and made it into a zig zag pattern. It took a little bit more time and I actually took pictures of it along the way so I will post a tutorial for it later this week.

Do you want to know the best part about this whole project? My total cost was $.79! I already had all of the pillows forms, I just recovered old pillows with the new covers. The striped material in the back was found at a thrift store for under a $1 and my Mom actually purchased it and then gave it to me when I told her how perfect it would be for my room. The floral pillow fabric I already had on hand and I have had it for a few years. And lastly, the zig zag fabric I bought as a remnant for $.79. Amazing :) Inexpensive projects are some of my favorite!

Here are a few pictures of the whole bed:

bed pillows 1
bed pillows 2

I think it’s coming together. At least, my list of things to do is getting shorter :) The next thing on my list is to make or buy curtains. I can’t decide what I want. Should I do something black and white with pattern? Or should I just do a simple white? Please give me your opinions!!!

Another thing I’m hoping to do requires a bit of help from my Dad. My Dad made the bed for us for a wedding present almost 11 years ago. I still love it but now I would like it to be stained darker. Hey, styles change in 11 years!! So he said he might be able to spray it with a tinted lacquer and that would make it look like it was stained darker. Now that he told me that, I have added spraying the bed to my list but that’s not something I can do myself so I have to wait for him to be available.

And lastly, Jason and I have been working on the closet. Our room is not very big and the closet is tiny. There used to be a built in desk in the room which was wasted space for us since we each have our own office. So we have ripped out the desk and are trying to turn it into some more closet space. That is the main hold up in the room redo. But, we are getting closer and I’m happy with the results!

Next up, the tutorial for the zig zag pillow!!

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Scrapbooking: Seattle Mini Book

In June, Jason and I went home to Oregon to visit family. While we were there, we took a little road trip to Seattle with Jason’s parents for a vacation from a vacation :) We had such a wonderful time together. All of us love Seattle and I’m so glad we had a chance to hang out there together.

I made a little mini book of our time in Seattle (and of another day when we went to the Oregon coast) for Jason’s mom and I took pictures of it before I gave it to her so I could share it with you! Here are a few pages:

seattle book 1
seattle book 2
seattle book 3
seattle book 4
seattle book 5
seattle book 6
seattle book 7

Now I just have to make one for myself!!!

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Bedroom Wall Art

As promised, here is another sneak peek of what’s happening in the bedroom redo. Like I said before, it’s taken me a lot longer to finish than I thought. Sometimes life gets in the way and I have to do other things first! But it’s coming and I really love how it’s turning out.

When I started working on this project, I knew I wanted the bedroom to be personal. Especially since it was so impersonal before. It basically lacked color, style, and thought. It was one of the last rooms in our house that I hadn’t done anything to. Last summer when my mom and dad were visiting, they gave me a good start but I still had a lot to do before it was where I wanted it to be. When I painted it last month, it really helped things. And then when I started adding artwork, it started gaining the personality that I wanted.

I originally thought I was going to put up some pictures of the two of us to make it personal. But once I started, I actually ended up framing some notes and sentiments.

bed art 6

I really love the wood of the frames on the dark wall. Since I love the black on (almost) black so much, I wasn’t sure if I would like the wood but I love it! Sitting on top of the bottom frame is Dykast spelled with old letterpress letters. And for some close ups:

bed art 1

The top note is an excerpt from my diary from when I was 8 years old (and I didn’t know how to spell Dykast!). I have had a crush on Jason pretty much my whole life. And I still do :) I thought this would be fun to have on our wall but it was on pink diary paper which I didn’t really like. So I scanned it in and manipulated it in Photoshop and then printed it out on creamy white paper. Then I put a black piece of paper behind it. If you’re interested, you can see the original and read our love story here.

bed art 5

The bottom frame holds an original note from Jason. I’m not sure of the date that he wrote it but I do know that it was the first time he told me he loved me. Yes, he wrote it on a note and stuck it under the windshield wiper of my car. I remember being unsure if it was actually from him or not (I thought it might have been a joke) because I didn’t know his handwriting well enough and he had never told me he loved me before. But, it WAS from him and I was thrilled!

And the whole cluster of artwork:

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bed art 4

I didn’t realize it until everything was hung and in place that it tells our story. She loves him, he loves her. J & K. And they lived happily ever after :) I tried really hard to get a picture without a glare but I didn’t succeed. Oh well :)

On the other side of the room, there is one more little thing. I got the inspiration from here.

bed art 2

This is on Jason’s side of the bed. I made it, put it up, and surprised him with it. We always say that phrase to each other, “you’re my favorite” and so I thought it was appropriate to put on the wall so he can see it right before he falls asleep. I wanted it to look hand drawn so I wrote it backwards with a Sharpie on the back of white contact paper and then cut it out. That way it’s removable without having to paint over. It sounds tedious but it actually was very easy (if you can write backwards!). And what do you think of my new lampshades? They were a birthday gift from a friend. I’m in love :)

I suppose I’m just revealing the bedroom a bit at a time. But it will all come together. I promise!

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Kellie

Hello, and welcome to my scraplog! What started out as a blog to show some of my scrapbook pages ended up being a blog that shows all of my projects, ranging from scrapbooking to decorating to sewing to photography. I also run a little online shop called every jot & tittle where I sell handmade paper products. Take a look and leave me a comment to say hi! (Photo by Heather Smith.)

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© 2010 Jason and Kellie Dykast. Published with Textpattern and built using the 960 grid system.