How to Embroider Leaves the Easy Way

This post for How to Embroider Leaves the Easy Way contains affiliate links. I make a small portion when these links are used, at no additional cost to you.

Today, I'm sharing how to embroider leaves the easy way...well, at least I'm calling it the easy way. Embroidered leaves have always fascinated me. This method isn't too overly neat and orderly...it leaves a little room for your own interpretation, regarding stitch lengths and shapes. Hope you enjoy this little tutorial for how to embroider leaves...at least, the easiest way I know. 

I feel like leaves are such a big part of embroidered designs...they can anchor and really make smaller floral embroidery pieces work together perfectly. For the longest time (well, relatively speaking, I've only been embroidering for about a year), I would stick to the crazy daisy stitch and change it up for different leaf sizes. The only issue was that all of my leaves were hollow. I played around with lots of filling and satin stitches and kind of married two methods in this tutorial for How to Embroider Leaves the Easy Way. Check it out below.

DIY Weathered Chevron Canvas {with tutorial}

This Weathered Chevron Canvas has been my little side project for a while now. If you follow my Instagram Feed, you know my recent quest to find out if I could weather canvas. And the verdict is in. YES, YES and YES. Canvas can be weathered {by hand}. You can all breathe a sigh of relief...I know you've been on pins and needles waiting to know. Well, at least my mom has been. 

This was actually a fairly simple project...just needs some considerable drying time between each step. Annnnnd...it only cost me $6 total. 

I often purchase canvases at my Goodwill. Then I just paint over them and do my own thang. Canvases at art stores can be quite pricey...why spend that much when a coat of white paint can make an old one new again? The above was what this looked like when I #PoppedSomeTags {yes, sadly, I kind of like that song...only because it's about my favorite pastime. I don't love the language. But I do like that he bought a broken keyboard. And I did invent that hashtag back in April. It's a thing now. At least, in my mind it is}.

I digress. 

After coating it with just one coat of white acrylic paint, I measured out and lightly penciled lines across it. There was no rhythm to this. I totally stink at any mathematical equation, so I'm not much help there. But I own a crazy awesome art ruler from the one year I was an art major in 1996. It's the one thing I took away from that year that I still use. And it helped me measure these out and space them to work well for the pattern I wanted. 

I used a double width of painters' tape to create my chevron. Then I smoothed my tape out like crazy.  

In order to prevent that annoying seepage, I used my fail-proof trick that I've shown you before. I went back over my tape with more of my white base coat to seal the tape down. Works like a charm. Every. Single. Time. 

{Let's not talk about the fact that I slightly messed up the pattern a bit on this edge in the above photo...I sanded it out later and weathered it up as best I could. Weathering covers a multitude of sins.}

All sealed up. 

After letting the "sealing" paint dry overnight, I used my black acrylic paint on the top to paint the actual chevron on. I accidentally used my gloss kind of acrylic here...it was what I reached for and, honestly, didn't even realize I had it. But, I'm actually pretty okay with the results. The different textures are kind of interesting.

 Peeling the layers is my FAVE.

After peeling all of the tape, I did the thing I thought I couldn't. I sanded canvas, y'all. And it flippin' worked. Like a boss, it did. 

The only regret is not sanding even more. I just took off a bit of paint here and there. And roughed up the edges quite a bit.  

To give it more of an aged look, I brushed some stain all over the canvas and let it sit for ten minutes or so.

Then I wiped it off, just to give it a slightly dirtied up look. 

It's easiest to keep using the same paper towel and wadding and re-wadding it. Once it's nice and soft and somewhat stain-soaked, it's really easy to work the stain around with.  

Super happy with the way it turned out. 

Details, details. 

I'm about to redo the hallway where my kids' bedrooms are located and plan to put this up in there, along with a gallery wall {that's been a long time coming} on the opposite wall.

What are your favorite things to makeover from thrift stores?

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and at Coastal Charm and Savvy Southern Style

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Wall-to-Wall DIY Hook Board

A custom hook board can help control clutter that comes with everyday life. This one we put together for our laundry room makeover has helped our jacket/backpack/hat/anything-that-hangs-mess tremendously.

I wanted a board with hooks that spanned the entire blank wall in our laundry room. Our previous hooks were on a one foot board with only four hooks...it was always overloaded.

This new one has more hooks than we'll probably ever use...but I'm soooo okay with that. I even have a hook for the little wall pocket I keep my plastic bags in.

The other day my dad was over and he referred to it as a hooker board. Three times. Without batting an eye. Bless him, Lord. He's too pure of heart to even know the humor the rest of us gutter-minds find in that term. I snicker every time I think of it. 

This hooker board started out as a 1x4 piece of pine {cut to size} that I slapped some of my blue oops paint on. I like to work with pine since it's a bit softer and easier to distress.

 I distressed it with my palm sander.

Used some stain with an old kitchen sponge I had laying around in the garage. It's laziness at its finest. I couldn't even take the time to find the proper tool.

I let the stain sit for a couple of minutes and then wiped it down to remove the bulk of it. 

Then the men hung it. It was a three person job. Apparently.

We managed to get it in studs so we didn't have to use wall anchors 

{the bain of my existence}.  

And you'd think, between the two of us, doing math to hang hooks to put on the board wouldn't have been as time consuming as it was. But, this was seriously the hardest part. We had charts and graphing calculators {that hadn't been used since college} and rulers and phone apps and everything under the sun. I have no idea how we finally got them up there in some semblance of even spacing. At one point, I walked away in frustration and said "call me on hook seven so I can take a picture". My husband really puts up with a lot from me sometimes.  

But I think it turned out great, in spite of our poor math skills. We got the hooks at Lowes...they were the cheaper ones that are toward the bottom of the display.

We're still a considerable way from calling this room done.

If you remember, this room-redo was a product of a broken washer that our warranty replaced for us. The issue that washer had left a streaky mess {from humidity and leaking} all over the walls.

This is the other hook board in the room...it was a HobLob find. I considered duplicating its pattern on the larger board...and then said nahhhh. 

Above the hook board, Board Dudes from RoseArt is sponsoring my new command center that I'll be putting in {hopefully next week}. Can't wait to show you everything when it arrives.

Annnnd...on my top shelf {which I now can't reach since my new machines are taller}, I splurged on the vintage metal letters from HobLob. I can't wait to show you guys the entire room when it's all done! 

This was where this room started...almost six years ago when we moved in.

Shortly after moving in, my dad helped me redo the room and add the shelving {and remove the cabinetry}. This was a great set up for us, and would've still been had we not encountered washer issues. But, stay tuned...more laundry room adventures to come!

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Board & Batten on a Budget

This post for a board and batten tutorial contains affiliate links. I make a small portion when these links are used, at no additional cost to you.

Board and Batten is a great way to give a new place a classic and timeless look. But, it can get a bit expensive. By using a thin underlayment instead of heavier lumber or boards, we achieved this fun look on a very tight shoe string budget. See the tutorial below!

In the summer of 2011, we did our first board and batten project in our hallway bathroom. You can see the post on that here. While it was a nice project and still looks great, it was a bit pricey (we used the Cadillac of lumber...apparently). And, it was very labor intensive. We did things completely different this time...and LOVED the result (and our pocketbooks are super happy, too). See our complete step-by-step tutorial below.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts {with kids}: DIY Snow Globes

Hi there, friends! So excited to be a part of a group of 11 other bloggers for the 12 Days of Christmas Crafts for Kids series. And thanks bunches to Claire form Polka Dot Pretties for organizing such a fantastic time!

The 12 Days of Christmas Crafts for Kids series is a blog hop. You can visit each blog on their special day to see a different holiday craft designed to create with your kiddos!

Our Schedule of FUN:

Dec 1st – Fancy Frugal Life
Dec 2nd – Alderberry Hill
Dec 3rd – House on the Way
Dec 4th – Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom
Dec 5th – I should be Mopping the Floor {woohoo!}
Dec 6th – Season Gredings
Dec 7th– A Night Owl Blog
Dec 8th – Mamma Marchand’s Nest
Dec 9th – Cherised Bliss
Dec 10th – Little Inspiration
Dec 11th – Aubrey Plays
Dec 12th - Polkadot pretties

Today, I'll be showing you how my boys and I put together these super easy {and very budget friendly} Snow Globes.

These were the basic supplies...a few jars, "friends" to fill the jars {purchased at the Dollar Tree}, bottle brush trees, glycerin, bleach and GLITTER {not pictured...how did I leave that one out?}!

After researching how other crafters had created their snowglobes, I noticed a lot of folks had trouble with their trees turning their water in their globe green after a few days. After seeing Amanda Jane Brown's Snow Globes {she linked them up to a Mop It Up Monday recently...and was a reader favorite}, I realized a great solution for this is to BLEACH the trees first!
Great idea, Amanda!

The bleaching process was very quick...we're talking ten minutes {don't blink}. I used a 5:1 water:bleach ratio and submerged my trees in a glass container in the sink. They literally changed colors before my eyes. I let them dry out for a few hours before starting the project.

Then I let my boys arrange the little people with a tree or two on the lid bottoms.
{Excuse our under-shirt and pajama-filled photos...that's how we get our craft on around here}.

I purchased a special water-proof adhesive.

Since the adhesive was a bit toxic, this was a mom job. After the boys arranged the figures, I glued them to the lids {the bottoms of them}.

To make sure the bushy trees didn't push each other away, I zip-tied them to keep them centered and "together" on the lids. My dad would be so proud of my use of zip ties. After the glue dried, I simply clipped the ties off.

You'll want to let your figures dry several hours before submerging into the globe.

Then we went glitter-crazy. I let the boys add the glitter to the bottoms of the jars.

The amount of glitter you use is totally your call...we went a bit, errr....overboard.

I added a splash of glycerin to each jar.
{Glycerin is inexpensive and can be found in the first aid section of any drug store}.

Fill to the top with water.

Add a bit of the adhesive to the top of the lid jar.
Invert the lid onto the jar. Try not to turn over for a few hours so your adhesive can cure.

Then....skakey-shakey!
The glycerin helps the glitter to stay suspended in the water longer...creating the "floating effect".

These can be dressed up and embellished even more. My boys are of the "as-is" sorts and didn't want mom to add her "fluff" to these babies.

Be sure to check out the other bloggers involved in this fun series! Yesterday, Jamie from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom, created the most adorable Paper Christmas Tree Ornaments. And tomorrow, be sure to pop by Gillian's place at Seasons Gredings to see the fun she has in store for us all!

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