{pottery barn inspiration}: make your own guest cottage sign

This was posted over at Lemon Tree Creations last week, but I thought I'd post it here for anyone who hasn't seen it...

I was browsing on the Pottery Barn website and saw this sign and loved everything about it.   I loved that it was worn, distressed, and vintage-looking...but didn't love the price.  It's listed as "no longer available" on the website now, but I think it was well over $100.  I will just enjoy looking at their inspiring pieces for free and create my own!

The nice thing about this sign looking worn and distressed is that it doesn't have to be perfect!  That is definitely another plus in my book.

I'm going to take you through the project step by step...or at least the steps that I used.  I'm sure you could do things differently, but here's what I did to make my version.

First, gather your supplies:

• a board cut to whatever size you'd like your finished sign to be.I went to Lowe's and bought a 1x8x4.  I wanted something substantial, but not heavy since I'll be hanging this over the guest bed in our home.  I was in luck because the wood that I wanted ended up being the cheapest of this type!  It was a little less than $4. 

•  a variety of paint brushes (I used a sponge brush to paint the board and small artist's brushes to paint the lettering, but use whatever you have on hand)

• paint of choice (I used several different "white" acrylic paints, as well as brown and black)

• sand paper or a sanding block

• stain or watered down brown paint

•  a copy of the phrase you'd like on your sign

 

I painted the board white, with a little tan and brown paint mixed in...just so it wasn't stark white.  I didn't worry about sanding the board before I painted, because I knew I'd be sanding it later.  If your board is splintered along the edges, you might want to hit it with a piece of sandpaper before you start to avoid splinters!

While that paint was drying, I opened up my trusty Photoshop Elements and did my best to recreate the fonts and look of the Pottery Barn sign.  I made a canvas that was the same size as my board and sized the phrase to fit.  (I ended up using Edwardian Script for "guest" and IFC Railroad for "cottage".)  I printed this out actual size, which ended up printing on 4 sheets of paper.  It required a little trimming before I taped it together, but it was an easy step!

Once base coat dried, I painted some lines down the length of the board.  I liked that look in the Pottery Barn sign, so I did my best to mimic that.  I basically painted a straight line with brown paint, but wiped off most of what I painted....just leaving a faint line in the background.

I laid my printed phrase out on top of the board, lining it up exactly where I wanted to, and just traced over the phrase with a ball point pen using a good amount of pressure.  Because the board I used is soft pine, the pressure of the pen makes a faint outline of your letters.

Now it's time to paint your letters!  I found it best to use very small brushes and really taking my time during this step.  I don't have the most steady hand, so I took it slow.  It only took me about 25-30 minutes to trace and paint all of my letters.  Remember, we're looking for a vintage look so don't worry about it being perfect!

Some of you might be wondering why I started painting from right to left...I'm left-handed and always end up smearing my work if I paint from left to right.  :)


Now it's time to give it more of that worn look!  I let my sign dry overnight and then sanded down the edges with my sanding block.  I also sanded the words down a bit in some places.


I used some stain that I had leftover from my Ruler Growth Chart project to add a little more dimension to the sign.   I wiped it on and then wiped it off very quickly. You could easily use some watered down brown paint if you don't have any stain at home!


 The only step left is to add some sawtooth hangers to the back of your sign and find a great spot for it!

 

If you have any questions, ask away!  I'd love to help! :)

Thanks again to the ladies of Lemon Tree Creations for letting me guest post! 

Oak Leaf Pillow: Wisteria Knock Off

I definitely do not want to wish the last days of summer away, but I am SO looking forward to fall. Being a former teacher, fall has always seemed to signal a "new beginning" for me, usually meaning a new school year. But two years ago, fall meant a totally different new beginning...it was during that fall that we visited our future hometown for the first time. We were following God's leading to possibly move to Missouri, leaving a city that we loved and moving to a town that we'd never seen.


One of the things that I missed when we moved from Virginia to Texas was the beautiful fall. Well, God totally knew what he was doing (doesn't he always?!) when he placed us here during that beautiful fall weekend. The weather was spectacular, even cold for a girl who'd spent over 4 years in Texas, and the trees were amazing. I truly believe that we were here that weekend for a reason.


You're probably wondering what all of that has to do with a pillow knock off. I was reminiscing about fall one day, when it was over 100 degrees here, and came across this pillow on the Wisteria website. The price? $89!

Isn't it gorgeous? Definitely. But I'm too cheap crafty to spend $89 on a pillow.


I actually made a pillow cover to cover up some of my ugly old pillows, but you could certainly use this method to make your own pillow, with a few added steps.


To cover an 18x18" pillow, I needed a 19x19" cover (to allow for 1/2 inch seams), so I set about making a pattern that was 19 inches square. I just taped some paper together from my son's scrap box. I liked how the leaf seemed to go over the "edge" of the pillow, so I made my paper 19 inches. This would allow for the design to flow over the edges of the pillow.


I am not the best artist and usually like to trace any pattern, but part of the charm of the Oak Leaf pillow (for me) was the organic nature of the leaf. It wasn't perfectly symmetrical, so I figured that I could do my best to recreate it.


After pulling the photo up on my computer, I drew my version of the oak leaf and acorns:

You'll notice that the leaf is traced in Sharpie...that's because when you use Heat N' Bond to applique your fabric, you need to trace it in reverse. I simply traced the shapes on the front of the pattern so they would show up on the back....then traced the back of the pattern onto my Heat N' Bond. Make sense?


Normally I would would have appliqued the leaf first, but I liked that the stems of the acorn seemed to be "behind" the leaf on the original pillow. So I laid everything out (after ironing the Heat N' Bond on and cutting out my patterns), finding a placement I liked, and only ironed the acorns down. I then used a pencil to draw the placement of the stems. I would have used my fabric marker but it has disappeared! :)


I machine-stitched around the acorns and used a "straight stitch" to sew the stems. It's much thicker than a regular stitch and almost looks hand-stitched.


Here's my pillow with the acorns and stems:

Next up, adding the vein pattern to the leaf. I drew the veins on the leaf and used the same straight-stitch to add them in brown:

A close up of the straight-stitched veins...

One more tip, I actually sewed the details on the leaf while the Heat N' Bond paper was still attached. It makes it much easier to manipulate and it isn't as "floppy". The paper didn't seem to bother my machine, but be careful with yours!

This is what the back of the leaf looks like with the paper still attached. The stitches created a sort of perforation in the paper, so it was easy to take off. You might have to work a tiny bit to get the pieces out from under some of the stitching, but it wasn't much trouble at all for me.


Now it's time to iron your leaf on! I peeled the paper off, ironed my leaf on, and then machine-stitched around the leaf with the same straight-stitch.

If you want to make a pillow, you'll need to cut the same size for the back (19 inches square) and put right sides together. You'll sew almost all the way around, clip your corners, turn it inside out, stuff your pillow, and then stitch the opening closed!


I wanted an envelope-style pillow cover, so I followed those steps. There are LOTS of great tutorials for that if you need help.


My oak leaf pillow looks right at home on my chippy painted chair on the front porch!

Is fall your favorite season? Or are you hanging on to the last bits of summer?

** edited to add: I used cotton fabric and a linen-like fabric for my appliques.  The body of the pillow cover is made with an Onasburg fabric.**

Linking up to:

DIY Fall Festival

Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrap-Up
Thirty Hand-made Days Pity Party
Kojo Designs Friday Fun Finds

Tutorials and Tips Tuesday

RH Knock Off: Vintage Synonym Flashcard Art

While looking through the RH Baby & Child website a few weeks ago, I came across this boy's room:

                                                                           Source: rhbabyandchild.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

I love the bed, the grayish/tan color on the walls, the navy blue accents....and I especially loved this:

                                                                 Source: rhbabyandchild.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

"Brave" and "valiant" are definitely 2 words that I'd like Grayson to look at every day!  I love the vintage flashcard look and LOVE the sheet metal frames, but didn't love the $65 for a set of 2 price tag.  

I had some dark wood frames laying around so I turned to my faithful friend, Photoshop Elements, and attempted to recreate the flashcards.  Here is my version hanging up in Gray's room:

I will probably buy some larger frame - or look for some at garage sales that I can spray paint to look metallic - and reframe these.  There's not enough "white space" around the words for my liking, but they look cute for now.

Would you like to print your own Vintage Synonyms?  Here you go!  Just save the file and print it as you would a picture.

  Linking up to:

Be Different Act Normal: Show and Tell Saturday

Anthropologie Knock Off: Cummerbund Pillow

Can we just talk a minute about my love for Anthropologie? They have amazing clothes, fabulous shoes, and awe-inspiring home decor items.  Their prices?  Not so fabulous...unless you have a money tree growing in your backyard.  Which, if you do, could you send me your address? :)

When we lived in Austin, there was an Anthropologie in the area, and I loved to walk through the store and browse.  Now that we live in small-town Missouri, there isn't a store within 100 miles.  So I tend to browse their website and dream of walking through that amazing-smelling store!

While browsing the site recently, I cam across this Cummerbund Pillow.

                                                                               Source: anthropologie.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

Love.it.  The $128 price tag? Not so much.  It is a silk pillow with a down insert, and hand-made in Ethiopia, but still!  I thought I'd try to recreate it out of the fabrics in my stash, so this project was FREE!

Here's my knock off:

This was my first time sewing a pin-tuck and it is a little tedious.  But, I'd say the whole pillow cover project took me a little over an hour.  Luckily the pin-tucks on the Anthro pillow are a little "wonky" so it made the ironing and sewing that much easier.

**I'm working on a tutorial for this pillow.  It will be posted as soon as these thunderstorms clear up and I can take pictures! :) **

Linked up to:

 

Another Pottery Barn knock off...by Wal-Mart?

I have been looking for new chairs to fit our kitchen table since we moved into our new home.  The table and chairs that we had in our previous home, though beautiful and a hand-me-down from family, just didn't fit our new space.  We had a round pedestal table from Scott's parents that never really seemed to fit my style...until we put it into our new space.  It just seemed to fit perfectly.

The chairs that we have are very cool and were hand-me-downs from Scott's grandparents.  Two of them are chippy, and painted my favorite shade of green.  But, the top-heavy ladder back style is a little tall for the table and tips very easily when Grayson is scooting around in them.

I have loved this table and chair combination from Pottery Barn since I first laid eyes on it.  However, I did not love the price tag of the chairs.  I'm sure they're wonderfully well-made, and they are certainly beautiful, but they just don't fit the budget.

                                                                       Source: potterybarn.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

Imagine my surprise when I came across these chairs...

                                                                              Source: walmart.com via Mary Jo on Pinterest

You will NEVER guess where they're from...well unless you looked at the link below the photo. :)  Wal-Mart, people! I am definitely more of a Target girl myself, but I can buy 4 of these chairs from Wal-Mart for the price of 1 of the PB chairs!  Now I know they are a little different - they don't have the rush seat - but you can't beat the price!

Has anyone else seen any great department or discount store knock offs of Pottery Barn?