Printing on Burlap

I read awhile ago about being able to print on burlap using your home printer so I decided to try it out. To print on burlap you need freezer paper, an iron, and an idea. And now I am obsessed with doing it! 

I love having wreaths on my front door. I made a wreath that goes up for Christmas, and Halloween, and Easter, and the 4th of July. But I didn't have a wreath that I kept up in between Holidays...until now! :) I went to my craft shop and picked up some burlap flowers, burlap fabric, and the wooden letter 'O' for Ortega. The first thing I did was snip the stems off the flowers and stick the flowers on one side of the wreath. I then spray painted the 'O' a really pretty blue (which I might spray the other side yellow for a more summery look) I didnt really like burlap plain so I printed a chevron pattern!

 

 



Heres how I did it. I cut my piece of freezer paper the exact same size as the printer paper. Then with the shiny side up and your iron on the hottest setting, iron your burlap to the freezer paper. I was a little skeptical and scared to try it too but trust me, its really cool. Then make sure you load the burlap in the printer the correct way (I tested mine out to make sure before I loaded in the burlap) and then I printed out a simple chevron design. I told you it was cute! :) 

 

Awhile ago I also made these picture frames with the same burlap chevron pattern that I did on the wreath but I used it to display some of our wedding pictures.

 

 (one of these days I will actually hang them up)

Heres how I did it the picture frames! I went to my dollar store and picked up 3 small picture frames for $3. I spray painted them white and then sanded them down a little to give it an antique/rustic look. I glued with spray adhesive the burlap onto a square piece of wood that I painted white and sanded down as well, and then glued the picture frame with the picture inside onto the board.

I used the exact same technique of printing on burlap to make my daughters wall decorations for her room. I cut out a bunch of square pieces of wood and glued the printed burlap onto the wood and hung it up!

 

 

Cute right?! I did a scrabble theme to it as well just to make it a little more interesting. (yes I know those are not the correct numbers on the letters, but Lilliana was all 1 score words so I improvised :) )

I love them all! I told you I was obsessed with printing on burlap :) Pin It Now!

Tire Ottoman

Sorry for the delay in posts! This latest project took more time than I thought! Not that it was hard to do but I couldn't find fabric that I loved! I am probably one of the worst decision makers in the universe, I tend to over think EVERYTHING. I took about a week and a half searching for fabric, then I found two I liked and took another few days deciding between the two. I finally just chose one and then came the dreaded shipping wait...I love online shopping (there are so many more options on the web) however, I am not the most patient person, so waiting 7-10 days for my fabric felt like an eternity!! Enough with my rant.... 

TIRE TURNED OTTOMAN........

8 years ago I went to a meet and greet of a Nascar driver to try and get an autographed picture, I ended up winning one of the door prizes instead!!........an autographed car tire that was driven on in one of the races. A little weird yes but I was still so excited that I won! Until it started collecting dust in the garage and taking up space. What was I going to do with an autographed tire? Most people might have put it up for sale or just dropped it off at the dump but I am a sentimental person and didn't want to just get rid of it. I saw a post about recycling a tire into an ottoman! Very unique! However, I wasnt a real fan of the look of it but it was a great building block for new ideas! So with some leftover wood in our garage I sent my husband out to cut me a top piece for the new ottoman.

Our house isnt a very big house so any way to conserve space is a must. I decided to try and make this into a storage ottoman to hide our extra throw pillows and blankets or better yet, another toy box for our daughter's endless amount of toys. My husband cut a thick piece of wood the same size as the tire for the top. To prevent the top from slipping around and to make a nice snug fitting top I had him cut another smaller piece that I attached to the bigger piece to make a fitted top.

                  

My husband really wanted an extra soft top to the ottoman to rest his feet on so I used some old seat cusions I had around the house and cut them to fit on the top. I then used quilt batting to cover the top wood pieces to soften it up just a little bit more and to keep the foam in place.

Once my fabric arrived I traced the top of the ottoman (allowing extra inches around the entire circle so that I could tuck and adhere it underneath) Then I cut 3 long strips of fabric that was wide enough to be tucked under and inside the tire. This part was tricky and took the longest because I had to keep going back and forth making sure each side was tight. And here it is....my ottoman that was made from a tire!

The picture on the left is the ottoman I really wanted for my house...except for the fact it was selling for $399.99. My top on my ottoman is extra thick and soft without the button, both per my husbands request of wanting his feet to sink into it and not have his heels resting on hard wood and a button. The only thing I might change to this is to add legs like the other one has but hey....I saved myself $375 by reusing this tire!!

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Wallpaper Dresser Update (Part 2)

My last post was showing how I turned my old brown outdated dresser into a new looking dresser for my daughters room by using wallpaper. After the dresser was done and had sat in her room for a week, I decided it washed out the colors in her room and seemed a little too boring for a little girls room. So I decided to bring out the hot pink aspect of her room and I painted the drawers a nice pink and spray painted the old knobs white. I think this is much more appropriate for a little girls room. 

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Wallpaper Dresser

I recently redesigned a pair of nightstands that I found at a Goodwill and fell in love with refurbishing old pieces of furniture. I have a dresser that I recently put in Lilliana's room that I believe I bought about 10 years ago. It is really outdated and I have been meaning for awhile now to try and refurbish it but thinking back on how long it took me to sand down those 2 nightstands, I have not been wanting to willingly go down the sanding road again. However, going into her room about 10 different times a day and every one of those times looking in disgust at the dresser, I couldnt stand it anymore and decided to brainstorm. It is the dead of winter and I did not want to go into my freezing garage and sand down the dresser. I even bought a can of liquid sander (deglosser) but it needed to be applied at a temperature above 50 degrees, Michigan winters barely get into the 40's so I needed another option. I came across an article about applying wallpaper to dresser drawers and that was it...I am going to try and wallpaper Lilliana's entire dresser.

It was actually pretty simple...I went to my local hardware store and found plain white, pre-pasted, paintable wallpaper and bought 2 rolls (I didnt even use up one whole roll for this dresser.) And then it is just a matter of outlining and tracing the pieces and then following the directions that come with the wallpaper. I started with the drawers and laid the drawers on the back of the wallpaper and traced out my lines. Then, depending on brand of wallpaper, dip it into water for a few seconds and apply. It took about 24 hours to fully dry but when it dried the dresser looked just like it had been painted! It was a quick and easy fix to an ugly dresser!



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