Kids Bathroom DIY Art on Canvas - {Tutorial}

We are always whipping out the markers, chalk, paint, glue, and so on for the kiddos to make their own little masterpieces. I always think that each creation is as good as any Van Gogh or  Monet (I'm there mom, c'mon) and so when I was asked to do a guest post for A Couple of Craft Addicts for their Kids Craft Week, I knew I was putting my little prodigies to work.


The kids have a blank wall in their bathroom that was yearning for some attention, so we decided to spruce it up with some canvas love.

What you'll need:

Four 8x10 canvas 

Assorted acrylic paints

Paint brushes

Foil adhesive letters

1. Smock-up your kids.

2. Leave out the paint, brushes, and canvas. (They'll know what to do.)

Custom Family Subway Art - {Tutorial}

Hi everyone, I am so excited to be guest posting (my very first) here at Between U & Me.  A big Thank You to the lovely Courtney for allowing me to crash here today.

I am Kristel, from the Velvet Door, and I have been blogging for just a few months. I started this blog mainly for a way for my family and friends back home to see my house and what I have been up to in trying to decorate it.  I have also realized that it will be a good archive for me to look back and see all the changes I have made to our home.  

Today I will be showing you this subway art that I was able to make.

I have been playing around with this empty wall in my family room, trying to figure out what I can fill it up with.  For a few weeks now, I have been wanting to create a subway art picture, they are everywhere lately, and I love seeing all those city names on them.  I happened to have on hand some leftover MDF from a previous project, just lying in the garage. I had to do some very minor cuttings, to fit all the pieces to make the frame.  Once those where cut, all I used was wood glue to glue them all together.

The back part was really curved, so I had to put paint cans on top to lay it flat, once the wood glue dried, it couldn't curve anymore.

I then used wood putty to cover all the exposed edges.  Once that dried, I painted the inside with two coats of Annie Sloan old white chalk paint.  Then, the fun part begun:

I used my Silhouette to cut out vinyl letters and then drew a line into the board, and placed the vinyl there.

After that was done, I painted the whole thing, even the frame, in black satin paint, with two coats.  Once dried, I removed the vinyl, and was left over with a black frame, and white words, which I sanded to make it look a little aged.  I applied a clear wax at the end to protect it from sticky dirty fingers which I'm sure will be touching this.  And here is the final product:

The Best Of: Crazy Cute Party #34

Children's Desk Before/After - Life As A Thrifter

Master Closet Reveal - Two Oh Two Seven

Write It Down, Make It Happen - Etcetorize

Tripod Floor Lamp - Pondered Primed Perfected

Pillowcase Dress - About Blogging Time

Pallet Wood Word Wall Art - {Tutorial}

Pallet Wood Word Wall Art, say that 5 times fast. ;) Nevermind, let's just make some instead.

Hi everyone! It's Karah here again, from the space between. Thanks so much to Courtney for having me back. I'm like that last party guest who just. won't. go. home. ;) But, since you're here, stick around to see another pretty simple project I did with a pallet and some paint.

I've have been wanting to make some kind of word art forever, but have just had the hardest time deciding what I want to say. And, I have been collecting pallets here and there for awhile. They just always seem to be lying around this island. So, when I found this perfect little pallet I thought I might finally write something very profound, errr, I mean make some Pallet Wood Word Wall Art. 

Here's the beauty in her original glory.

I loved the aged grey color and I loved the width of the slats on the pallet, it's almost like they were aged down to a narrower size. Perfectly irregular.

I actually lived with the pallet awhile because I seriously considered just adding some wording to it as is. Maybe cut off the top and bottom of the pallet, but keep the slats where they were. I liked the spacing, but it was reeeeeally big. Talk about needing to be reeeeally profound. ;) Apparently "Now pump it up, and back it up like a Tonka truck" as sung by Pitbull in the J Lo song On the Floor was out. Bummer.

And, I don't know, the more I looked at it, the more I worried the end result would be too much like a...you guessed it...pallet. Uhh, yes, this took me some time to figure out. Not so smart sometimes. :/

But, in my defense we have had trouble taking pallets apart before. When we tried the ol' wonder bar (no, not wonder bra, but I could use one of those too!) and hammer technique to pry the slats off of the pallet they would crack or splinter or otherwise render themselves unusable. And, I was so much in love with the perfectness of these slats I was worried they would suffer the same fate.

I don't know if it was the long time I let the baby sit in the harsh sun and often pelting rain, or just the nature of the beast, but these slats came off like buttah. 

To back up just a minute, I had to use a small spackle knife to remove some stuck on spackle (oh, the irony) from the pallet. I had picked it up at a construction site. On a rainy day the blobs of spackle loosened right up a bit and then I just scraped away.

{Home Decor} - Color Trends for 2012

Many people use the start of the new year to ring in a fresh new look for their home. Changing up the paint color is an easy and inexpensive way to create a whole new feel and 2012 is sure to be the year of some exciting color trends! Experts say that home renovation will be more popular than ever this year because of the current real estate situation and the difficulty to sell houses.

Let's look at what 2012 has to offer, as interior designers have new ways to play with the look of your home.

Photo courtesy of Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore has four amazing collections they have created for 2012 and one of my favorites is the one pictured above: Earth & Sky. These colors echo the colors of nature and it's soothing effect. Everything about the room above is calm and beautiful. Benjamin Moore has even selected "Wythe Blue" as their color of the year. (That's the color on the walls in the room pictured above.)

Holiday Season Custom Art - {Tutorial)

Hello everyone! I'm Sarah from over at Just The Bee's Knees and I am thrilled to be guest blogging here today on Between U & Me! 

Today I am going to be sharing with you how to make your own custom piece of art for the Holiday Season! It is so simple & easy and requires little to no artistic talent! ANYBODY can do this!

But first, let me share a little bit about me & my blog:)  I started blogging just a few months ago as a creative outlet for me, and I truly enjoy every minute of it! My life has been a whirlwind the past few years. Right after graduating from Interior Design school, I got married, had a baby,  moved form Canada to the U.S, had another baby, and now here I am staying at home to raise my 2 boys ages 2 &4. Staying home with them is the best decision I have ever made, but while concentrating so much on (trying) to be a good mommy, I realized that I was really neglecting my passion and love of design & decorating. So Just The Bee's Knees was born to help me re-connect with the Design world & quite frankly, give me the kick-start I needed to get some projects done around the house! 

I recently finished creating a Command Center for my home office, complete with tutorials on how to make your own stylish Dry Erase Board and Linen covered Cork Boards. I'd love for you to head over and check them out!

But enough about me....let's get on with the project!

The supplies you will need are:

1. A stretched canvas, any size (I used a 24 x 36 that I bought from Micheal's with my Coupon! Total: $14)

2. Some artist acrylic paints and brushes. I used Liquitex Basics which you can find on sale at Arts & Crafts store anywhere from $2 -$3 a tube.

3. Wood letters. (Mine were from Hobby Lobby and cost just over $1 each!)

First you need to slap on a coat of your base colour. And I am serious when I say slap on! No need to be perfect here...let your brush strokes show through! Adds a little texture.

While that is drying, start painting your letters. I just used some craft paint I had on hand.

After your base coat on the canvas is dry, start to put on your Faux Bois texture. (I'm just loving this Faux Bois trend right now!)

This is so easy. Just paint circles and lines in a random pattern in a contrasting color. (I used Martha Stewart Metallic Craft Paint to add a little shimmer.) The messier the better! Wood grain is imperfect, so your lines don't have to be:) If you need a little guidance, find a Faux Bois image. I had a piece of scrapbook paper that I used as a cheat sheet.

The Best of: Crazy Cute Party #28

Here are the most popular links from last week's amazing link party!

Give Thanks Mantel @ 52 Mantels

Christmas Twig Vase @ I Can't Stop Crafting

DIY Book Ledge @ Craft Crazy Mom

Laundry Room Sign @ Ginger Snap Crafts

Furniture Facelift with Chalk Paint - Before/After

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be here today…and so honored! I love Between U & Me…super fun and makes me feel oh so happy!

I am Janel and I blog over at Hating Martha. My blog is all about imperfection and the perfect life chaos and mistakes create. I have a lot of fun doing crafty things, homey stuff, cooking, parenting, and all kinds more craziness. Stop over some time and say hi…I promise to give you my best smile! Today I wanted to show you a quick furniture facelift I did recently. It was done just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas guests to ooh and aah. Cause when you see her…you can’t help it!

Isn’t she a beauty? She cost me $35.00. No joke. I actually wanted to offer more because I felt so bad. But, I sucked it up and walked out with her for cheap, cheap, cheap. I have been seeing chalk paint all the time now that I have joined bloggy world. Bloggers seem to love it. But, it was rather expensive. And I would need to order it. Too complicated. So, I tried the homemade version.

This is the color I ended up with. It was in the oops paint. The whole gallon was $5. I used about 2 cups. So…how much does that end up costing me? Like….75 cents? Ouch. Expensive… Anyways, I was happy because I couldn’t decide if I wanted yellow or orange. Then I saw this in the oops and I said…yellow!

Another view of the color…with a bit different lighting (funny what a difference that makes!)

The Best of: Crazy Cute Party #27

Hey party people! Y'all are a-ma-zing! Simple amazing! I am loving all the Christmas crafts slowly starting to make their way in to the link parties. It makes me smile! Let's take a look at a handful of some of the most popular links from last week! ;)

Anthropologie Knock Off Vase @ Blue Cedar Lane

Farm Fresh Apron @ Ruby Jean

Command Center @ Just the Bees Knees

Turkey Cookies @ Craft Buds

An Heirloom Classic Revamped - Before/After

Hi, BU&M readers! Today I want to introduce you to Angi from AKM Designs. She is this fantastic new blogger (since October) and she is just amazing! Her tutorials are way easy to understand, her projects are awesome, and her blog is just too cute for words! She has the kind of personality where you just feel like you've known her forever and you're super great friends from way back. Here is a little bit about her and her amazing blog:

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Hi-ya!  My name is Angi McCarthy and I am a married thirty-something (we’ll just keep it at that) year old, working, mother of two amazing young men, keeper of two dogs, two fish and an abundant amount of "mommy can I please keep these" lizards, that spends all of her free time (yeah, right, who am I kidding, who has "free time") re-purposing, painting, decorating and when it all goes wrong, baking!
AKM Designs and Delights blog will be a collaboration of our family, our projects, missteps, brownie baking, cookie eating, wine guzzling, hair pulling, laughter filled, moments of sheer frustration, wanna kill each other, MAN DOESN'T THAT LOOK AWESOME!, journey to making this house our Home!
And now that you know me, I welcome you to... AKM designs and delights! I hope you find something you like!

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  First of all I want to thank Courtney at Between U and Me for having me as a Guest Blogger!  I am so honored to be here!  I struggled with an idea on what I should post about today.  After much speculation, I decided it was time to dive into some serious Chalk Painting!   I was over-the-top a bit nervous with this project as it is a family heirloom.

We’ve had this cabinet for years.  It has sat un-noticed, stuck in a dark corner forever filled with our DVDs.  It was functional.  That’s about all I could say about it.  While I did like the looks of it, I wasn’t in love with it.  I did love the little glass knob on the door; however.  And the beadboard on the back and I REALLY loved the shape of it.  But more than looks, I loved the history of this piece.  You see, it belonged to Mr. AKM’s grandmother.  If memory serves correct, his grandfather actually made it.  I love the way it smells of old wood…not musty and gross…but rather more of history, time and use.  Sometimes I would just run my hand over the top to feel the indentations and wonder how they got there.  The glass on the front cracked during a move across the country.  I went to have it replaced but they could not match the glass.  The glass is the original glass from the early 1900’s.  It’s not smooth like glass is now.  You can see small ripples or waves in it.  I love that about it so I opted to not replace it but instead stuck a piece of tape to hold it together.  I am hoping to find someone that can repair the glass as opposed to replacing it someday. 

So why paint it?  Well, there is this wall in my dining room that has been BEGGING for something to fill it.  I’ve looked all over the place for a small table or hutch but nothing seemed to fill the “void”.  When one day it hit me…I mean like literally HIT me.  Like I opened the cabinet door and it fell over and hit me kinda thing.  Not cool.  But while I was picking up the spilled DVDs I realized what AWESOME potential this had!  It’s like it called out to me…Paint me!  Paint me!  Who was I to deny it it’s true self? So, I did just that, I painted it!

So let’s get on with the pictures shall we…because we all know that is why you are really here!  It’s ok…I can handle the truth.  Here it is.  The piece de resistance (say it with a French accent).  Go ahead, try it again…piece de resistance.

Isn't it GOR-geous?  I am seriously in love with this piece now.  I mean like over-THA-top in LOVE!  I know the lighting is a bit off...Daylight savings has seriously messed with my photo ops!