DIY table runner, on a budget

After putting away Christmas decorations, it always feels so bare in the house. At least at mine anyway. While decorating for the holidays, I came across a festive table runner that I had forgotten all about. Yes.....had forgotten all about when I had just purchased and used it last year. I know, pathetic...but what can I say? Moving will do that to ya.

Remember this?

The placement of the runner sort of was an accident, but I loved having something under the tv so that it wasn't just a bare cabinet underneath.

So I set out in search of an everyday option. I looked at several stores and just wasn't finding anything that appealed to me. There were lacy numbers...bleh. Stripes...again.bleh. Florals..uh uh. I'm not quite sure why it took me so long to get to my next conclusion. Why not just make my own? Oh that's right...cause

I DON'T SEW!

So what is a non-sew-er (it looked strange w/o the dash) to do in times like this? Turn to blogland for inspiration of course.

I've seen so many neat projects others bloggers have done using burlap, and even seen Nate Burkus endorse it on his show.That's it!

Today I set out in search of the burlap. Not knowing my way around the fabric section, I had to ask for help finding it. They had light brown, tan, white, black, sage, and hunter green. I had given thought to some green to add a little color, but really liked the natural raw look of the natural brown. But oh crap! I forgot to measure the cabinet top before I left. So I got 2 yards just in case. And thank goodness!

I had more than I needed, but 1 yard would have some up short. That just means I'll have some leftover to use on other things...yippee!

I then eyeballed about how long I wanted the sides to hang off..

And then made a cut. Of course as soon as the scissors made the first cut, I realized that I was cutting into the unwrinkled end of the burlap. Crap. I could have easily cut off the other end so that I didn't have to iron it. Oh well...ya live and learn. It was too late at that point.

After cutting off one end, I folded the material in half lengthwise to cut the width to the correct size. I'm horrible at cutting a straight line, so I wanted to lessen the length I'd have to cut. The burlap was a little hard for my scissors to cut through since it was 4 layers thick, but they also have a hard time with paper..lol. So I cut 2 layers at a time up to a point, and then followed with the same cut on the remaining layers, making sure to follow the same line as the first cut. (That made sense in my head. Hope the picture helps)

It was than time to fray the edges. Here is where I'd like to give first time users of burlap a little piece of advice. Do not sit on the floor, in dark jeans while fraying the edges of burlap. Don't say I didn't warn ya.

It gets messy. Just sayin.

But it's worth it. It has the natural look I was going for and has just enough color to be a good backdrop for other decor. Oh and it's CHEAP! At only $3.99/yard, you can't go wrong.

Oh yea, and I also bought a couple yards of burlap webbing. I had originally planned to wrap it around a few vases, but the burlap needed something a little more to go along with it. But at 79cents/yard, I can easily go back for more.

I've had this frame for only a whole year and a half, and just now filling it with pictures. I love when projects motivate me to finish others. It's sat in a box, unfilled until now. (Bought from Michael's some time last year cause I HAD to have it....yep)

On the left are 2 of 3 whiffle balls from the 99cent store covered in hot glue and jute string. I love all the ideas you can find for cheap. Decor balls can get so pricey!

On top of this thrift store book find, is a glass piece that belonged to my grandmother. On our most recent trip to Indiana for Thanksgiving, my dad got some of her things out of their storage. I didn't see a lot that I could envision using in our house, but this way too cute to pass up. In person it looks almost like lace. I had originally thought it would make a great landing place for jewelry while doing dishes.

Not bad for a little over $10 right?

The tv doesn't look so bare anymore :)

Green in the new black

For the last few days I've been in full craft mode. I've looked at probably over 20 blogs, marveling over everyone's creativity. They inspired me to take a trip to my local Goodwill for my little diamonds in the rough. And I have to say, when you go looking for things that aren't perfect on purpose, it opens up your eyes to the possibilities.

Projects made from my finds are to come at a later date. But to begin with, I worked on a birthday present for a friend's daughter. There's something about this little girl. She is such a great child....warm, kind, compassionate, artistic, smart (oh-so-smart!), and an all around great kid. Of course her mom would say that she's a typical tween. But see, because I'm not her mom, I get to see all her good attributes. And this girl knows what is important to her as well. She has a great passion for being eco-friendly.

So for her birthday, I wanted to honor that. Other than a couple dollars spent, I used supplies that I already had around the house.

Supplies (I had everything on hand except for the ones with prices):
8x10 picture frame
3x3 picture frame ($1 at the Dollar Tree)
pages from an old book
mod podge
cardstock
green ribbon
green button
glue gun
printer photo paper

The project started off with the idea of making her a picture frame with rolled up magazine pages. I tried and tried to get them to roll up perfectly, but it just wasn't working for me. I couldn't find something small enough to get the rolled as tight as I wanted, but also to be able to get that item out of the middle of the roll. I tried and tried and finally gave up. That's when I had a lightbulb moment. Her and her family love to read. And I have a couple old Reader's Digest hardback books that I had bought a long time ago at a thrift store. I had used them at one point as decoration. But for now they were just collecting dust in a box. So how cool would it be to decoupage them all over these two frames?

I didn't think to take a before picture of the frames because I was so excited to start. So let's just use our imagination for a bit...lol. I took the glass and backing out of each of the frames. Located my bottle of mod podge and a small paintbrush. Then tore random pages from the books. (I'm not 100% sure of what the stories were in said book, but I tried to scan the pages for any bad words or inappropriate language. Sorry ahead of time if I missed anything...LOL) Then I commenced to tearing the pages into smaller, more manageable pieces. Using the paint brush I slathered the frame with mod podge, making sure to wrap the paper all the way around. Once I had it all covered, and it had dried, I then covered the whole thing in another layer of mod podge.

Again, beginning this project I had envisioned the 8x10 frame holding a mirror for her room. But the only mirror I found must not have been the right size because when I tried to put it in the back, I broke it. (Hope the 7 years of bad luck doesn't find me. I was just working off a few I broke quite some years ago) At first I was really bummed. But my inner crafter got to work on another idea. Using my skills in Photoshop I got to work on some artwork. I've drooled over typography art for some time but never had the guts to try it myself before now. Her name starts with an "h".....so I found one that I liked and covered it with tons and tons of other h's.

It was easier than I expected, but very time consuming. The perfectionist in me started out carefully placing them in just the right spots. But I soon had to give in at the end to just filling in space. I printed it out on offwhite colored cardstock. And I had already planned to print out a picture of her and her family that I took of them to put in the small frame.

But while I was extremely happy with how they turned out, they still both needed color. I chose to print their family picture in color, but it just didn't seem to be enough. So I did a search for "how to make paper flowers". I found a few but the one I really liked seemed perfect for this project. I found it here . So I got to work cutting out 1 inch strips of cardstock and more pages from the old book.

My first attempt at the flower started off really well. But as I got to the middle, it wasn't working out as well. The reason for that was that I don't have a regular sized stapler, therefore the staples I used weren't able to get to the very middle like the example on the blog showed.

But that didn't stop me. I gathered up another set of paper strips and started again. Only this time I tied them together with embroidery floss that I had on hand from making friendship bracelets with my daughter.

That did the trick.

I love the alternating book strips and colorful cardstock. It was perfect for adding a touch of color along with more pages from the book. With a little bit of help from my hot glue gun, I added some pretty touches with a button middle and ribbon leaves.

I then added a small paper flower embellishment to the small frame using the supplies I had on hand from this recent project.

I love how they turned out! I WILL be recreating the typography in some form for my own household. I don't know what form it will be in, but I must do my own! :)

The flower vase behind the frame is Brianna's.
But we made one for the birthday girl as well.

So if there's anyone reading that knows the intended recipient of these gifts, please don't ruin the surprise. It's going to be hard for me to keep these until her birthday. I usually give in and give people their gifts early. I'm horrible at keeping ahold of them until the right time. So I'm going to go ahead and wrap these up so that hopefully it will help me stay strong and not give in...lol :)