Halloween Project: Paranormal Portraits Tutorial

I have to begin this post by saying 100% (well... 97%) of the credit of this project goes to Will.  It would have been one of those great ideas that never came to fruition if he hadn't taken it on and gotten it done! We originally saw this idea on Country Living but had to figure out how we could make it work.  I remembered this stack of antique negatives I got for FREE at a yard sale and they were the perfect jumping off point.

Step 1:  Gather Supplies

-Old Pictures.  If you do not have anything old like this check yard sales or go online and print something off.  Graphics Fairy has tons of things that would work.
-Wood or a frame
-Foam board
-Spray adhesive or double sided tape
-Finger lights (like these)

Step 2:  Have your pictures blown up.
I suggest to a standard size so you do not have to build a frame!  We took ours to a little print shop in town (Hey NC Printing!  They were fast, fun and did an amazing job!)  They only cost us around $7-$8 per print!!)

Step 3:  Mount to a piece of foam board using spray adhesive or permanent double sided tape.

Step 4:  Carefully cut out holes in the back of the foam board to hold the finger lights.Trace the exact size of the end of your light and cut the hole a tad bit smaller. Prick a small hold with a pen to help the light come through. This {freaky} picture is from the back and shows the holes for the lights and also the tiny holes on the picture for light to come through.

5.  Mount your lights (we used electrical tape to hold them in place). 

6.  Add your frame.  We also had to add small wooden spacers on the back to help hold it off the wall because the lights stick out a good bit.

7. Hang and be prepared for your guests to ask where you bought them!

Later this week... Halloween mantle and our Adult Only Halloween recap (prepared to be WOWED by some amazing costumes!!)

See other Halloween posts here and here.

Happy Haunting!

Kandi

Growing "pains" and my most favorite Halloween project EVER!

I put "pains" in quotations because it sounds kind of negative.  It's not meant negative at all.  But, that is the best description of what has been going on here at Woven Home. Coming off of a huge sale at Finders Keepers and in the midst of our flagship store opening in Lynchburg, VA, on top of everything we were doing before those two projects came busting onto the scene.... growing pains.  More on all that to come! So, if we seem sporadic, we are.  Even if our blogging isn't super frequent for a while you can bet we'll do our best to at least make it awesome!  Now, for the awesome part!

Can I start by saying this idea just came to me.  I'm sure I'm not the first one to do it.  Positive, in fact.  But, I didn't see it on Pinterest or another blog and go do.  I thought of it and did it.  Am I the only one who feels completely unable to come up with an original idea these days?  And, like this one, even if I think its original...I'm sure its probably just not.  But, that doesn't take away from how thrilled I was when I thought of this and executed it!

I was perusing Graphics Fairy and came across this excellent skull.  I originally printed it and was going to Mod Podge it onto white salad plates... it was too big.  I threw it down and kept throwing plastic spiders and skeletons everywhere.  As I walked by my white lamp I stuck the image behind it... magic!!!  I absolutely LOVED it!  Although we were late for a birthday party I had to go print one more for the other lamp shade. 

Directions for this project.
1. Print your graphic of plain white printer paper
2. Cut out
3. Tape to inside of lamp shade (just scotch tape will do)
4. Turn it on and ogle at your creative genius!

Skull link
Spider link (I used the second graphic and cut off the branch)

That's it!  5 minute project tops!  HAPPY HAUNTING!

Kandi

PLAYROOM REVEAL!!

I guess I've been promising this post for some time now.  The problem is I can NOT get this room finished.  Now, it is "finished"... but it's not perfect.  Is any room ever going to be perfect?  I have decided the answer is NO!  So, I'm going to show you this room in its current state.  Looking at these before pictures I can see we've come a very long way so the few things here and there that I want to add and change will just have to become future blog posts!

This room started as a weekend project with an accent wall, new furniture arrangement, and a few pillows.  3 months later it had grown into new floors, painting all the trim and doors, curtains, etc. etc. etc. The main wall color is Pale Smoke and trim and cabinet color is Super White both by Benjamin Moore. My husband saw the slight transformation and got on board!  He decided we needed new floors and enlisted his buddies to come help lay them one weekend.  BUT... before we could do that... all the trim and doors were wood tone so we decided they needed to be white!  It was one of the best choices we made and the worst task to complete!

Early morning painting... no fun! 

The payoff was totally worth it!  Goodbye 1981! 

The cabinets were all taken apart, sanded, primed, painted, and then got a coat of poly.  Then, about a month later all the cabinets were taken apart {again}, sanded{again},  primed{again},  painted {again}, and then got a coat of poly {again}.  I wasn't aware that oil based polyurethane would turn my white cabinets the color of a banana!  Sad and frustrating, but lesson learned.  While we had them down anyway we chose a brighter white (Super White by Ben Moore) and also painted the hinges in Krylon Fusion Metallic Shimmer.  The ACRYLIC top coat was tinted to the exact white as  the cabinet color to avoid the banana debacle from happening again.

The Hubs doing the sanding as I go right behind him priming with the big can of Kilz you see in the forground.

Benjamin Moore's Super White with newly painted hinges.

Two rounds of sanding, priming, painting,and sealing ended up

being totally worth it in the end! Look at the difference

in color from the above picture where we are sanding!!



Once all the painting was done and the floors were down it was just a matter of rearranging furniture and accessorizing.   I made two curtain panels to hide the giant holes on either side of the fire place.  I am assuming they were put there to store wood.  We use them to store toys, fabric, craft supplies, etc.  If you remember from the original post I wanted sliding barn doors to cover them.  Sliding doors are impossible because the actual fireplace sticks out about 4 inches past the wall.  There may be barn style doors in my future but they will be on hinges.  For now, these panels do the trick of hiding the junk. 

Good storage but U-G-L-Y!

The accent fabric here is "Spot On" by Waverly and the rest of the panel is a white cotton duck.  They are hanging thru a rod pocket on $3 tension rods from Big Lots.   Notice in the before picture the cubby on the left is perfect size to hold fabric bolts!

The wet bar cabinets received that same paint treatment as the other cabinets (both times) and you can read about the fridge transformation here.  The mirror was a gift from my sweet mom she picked out just for this spot.  I love how much light it reflects back into the room!  It is from Pier 1.

What were they thinking in the 80's?!?

Perfect place to clean dirty hands or mix a drink.  It's inevitable that people end up down here whether we are hosting a kids party or an adult party.

In came a new rug.  The one I was coveting from Dash and Albert!  We got rid of the worlds heaviest TV and sold the TV cabinet (it was where the gallery wall is now).  The new TV was a Christmas present from my sweet in-laws.  The couch was reoriented which completely opened up the room.  The gallery wall went up and that was enough for me to call the room "finished enough for now."

Gallery wall and custom lamp shade how-to found here.  I left plenty of room to add to it over the years.

I made this pillow from an old bird seed sack.  Love it!

Before

Inspiration Room from Traditional Home Magazine

The overall cost of this room was very inexpensive considering the amount of work that went in. We purchased the floors from Lowes on Black Friday for right at $700 ($1/sq. ft). We recruited friends to help install (cost... 1 case of beer for the boys :-). We spend about $200 on paint for the baseboards, doors, walls, and cabinets and still have some leftover. The Dash and Albert rug was 30% off so I got it for less that $250 including shipping which is pretty good for an awesome 8x10 rug. I owned most all the frames and just made them cohesive with paint. Mirror was a gift. Lamp $5 from Goodwill and refurbished. Waveryly fabric was $12.99/yd and I bought 2 yds for all the pillows, curtain trim, and bench cover. Other odds and ends maybe $50. Total cost came in under $1300. I'm OK with it because it feels like a brand new space that we want to spend time in rather than a dark, cold, dingy basement.

I wanted this room to have a playful feel because that is where we plan on keeping most of the toys (now I just need to work on my scaredy cat son so he'll go down there alone...). But, when we have big parties at our house this is the room where a lot of people end up so I needed it to also function that way. I hope you enjoy checking it out! If you have a suggestion for the TV wall PLEASE pass it on!!

 

Kandi

Valentine's Day Ideas

This week has been exciting and crazy! Woven Home has been invited to sell our products at a local store, here in Lynchburg Va.  I will share more about this in a future post, but I have been cutting and sewing all day, everyday to make enough product for our display.  As therapy, in my down time I have been surfing Pinterest looking for Valentine's Day ideas, here are a couple of my favorites.....(all of these images can be found, and linked back to the original creator if you go to my pinterest page ((Rebekah Moody)) and look under Valentine's Day ideas)

how cute and easy is this wreath!

homemade valentine's day card

candy cane hearts

hearts can be found at Michael's, paint with chalk board paint

paper love art, easy to do with a cricut

These are just a few of the images I have found and loved this Valentine's Day season.  I think I will be running out to Michael's tomorrow morning to buy hearts and chalk board paint.

Rebekah

Canvas Heart Garland

I am so excited to share this post with y'all.  (Okay I wrote y'all and I am from Wisconsin, but living in Virginia, and being married to a man from Mississippi definately has a way of changing one's speach.)  I thought about writing you, but if I was talking to you, I would have said y'all.....so there you go....


As y'all know I am working on my mudroom, and it is almost finished.  The painting is done....and I am waiting for my contractor to help me with a couple of projects before I can show you the finished product. 


So I started decorating for Valentine's Day....hope you enjoy!

Heart Garland, and Canvas Wreath

I used a heavy linen for my hearts.  I cut two identical hearts, and sewed them together, leave an opening so you can stuff it with a poly fill.  Sew the opening closed.  I sewed a little ribbon hanger at the top of each heart.  Finally I put my hearts in the washing machine...easiest way to fringe the edges.

The garland and wreath on the wall were made from torn pieces of painters canvas drop cloths. You can purchase these at any hardware store.  For the wreath, I used a metal wreath form, and for the garland I cut a clothes line to my desired length.  Rip 1" wide strips from end to end from you canvas.  Then cut so your strips are appoximately 1" wide by 8" long.  Tie the canvas strip to the wreath form or line.  Repeat a million more times!  It is easy, but monotomous.

Happy Decorating!
Rebekah
p.s. my hearts are two different sizes....

Christmas Pillows

If you haven't noticed Rebekah and I have a little pillow obsession. 
I just wanted to share some I've made over this holiday season.  

A couple yards of red and white stripe linen, solid white linen, and one set of red and white striped tea towels. For the JOY pillow just cut your letters our of your fabric, pin onto pillow front, and zig zag stitch around the edges.

The one in the front of the picture is the backside of the "JOY" pillow pictured up top.  Tutorial on this cut and re-sewn pillow front to come later.

From L to R:  Embroidered "Merry 12-25" on painters canvas, Mitten (cut from a Goodwill sweater and zig zag stitched onto pillow front), stockings (also cut from Goodwill sweater and glued onto pillow front).

This is my "you live, you learn" Camouflage deer head pillow.  Can I make it clear that I hate camo... Can I also make it clear that when you cut a lovely green and cream ikat into a deer silhouette is miraculously turns to camo... sad but true!  Especially since I didn't even realize it until I was completely finished and stepped back to admire my work!!  I still love the idea of this pillow... just not so much my finished product!

Here is the tutorial I used, along with a template for the deer silhouette. 

Rebekah has made about a million more and if she hasn't sold them all I bet we can talk her into sharing hers as well.

Kandi

Antique Sheet Music Tree

Good morning everyone!  I just don't seem to be able to sleep much past 5 am these past few days, so I thought instead of lying in bed for another morning and looking at my ceiling while asking myself why I can't fall back asleep, I would just get on up and do something productive.  So here I am, about to explain to you how to make one of our antique sheet music trees.  It is really quite simple.  If you do attempt this project, just make sure to use paper that still has some bend.  If your paper is too old, when you fold it, it will tear.

Materials.......

 sheet music

cutting tool

hot glue gun

glue sticks

felt/velvet

tree form

star (optional)

The first step is to cut your sheet music into 1"wide by 4" long strips.  I did not count how many strips I needed for the tree, I just estimated, and then cut more as I needed them.  I think you will be surprised how many strips you will need.  I used my rotary cutter with  a

pinking sheers blade, a self-healing mat, and a straight edge.  However if you do not have these tools, a pinking sheers scissors would work just fine.  Other versions of this tree can be made with plain scissors, or by even folding and tearing the sheets of music to create a soft edge. 

For the sake of time I cut all my strips 1" wide, and then went back and cut them into 4" lengths.

Hot glue velvet onto the bottom of the form tree

Hot glue strips to form starting at the bottom of the tree and working up.
Before you glue on the top layer, glue one 4" strip around the form.  Then cut a small circle out of your sheet music to cover the top of the form; glue.  Once all of the green is covered you can glue the last row of loops to the form.  Because the form is flat on the top I placed a glitter star on the top.
We purchased these stars at Pottery Barn last year, but similar stars can be bought at a craft store.  I love my trees grouped together to create a small forest. 


The same process can be used to create the pine cone trees seen here in this picture.  Instead of cutting strips of paper I pulled individual pine cones apart, then glued the petals to the tree.  Always start at the bottom of your form and work your way up.  Good luck with this project, please send me pictures of your finished trees.


Love,
Rebekah @Woven Home