Spring Pinterest Challenge Round-up

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Danielle

A few weeks ago, I shared the Subway Chalkboard Art that I did for the Spring Pinterest Challenge. Seriously guys… I still can’t get over the fact that I was able to pull off this project.

This is the fifth challenge I’ve participated in and I can honestly say that each one has been a blast. However, I can also honestly say that I never get to go back and fully appreciate all the other contributors of the challenge. At last count, there were over 450 people that shared their projects on Young House Love alone. That’s a lot of blogs to go check out!

So I decided with this challenge, I would intentionally go back through and share my top favorites with you. My main goal was to feature projects that I love and ones that I would also want to tackle myself. Also, I sought out blogs that I haven’t read before, since meeting new people is half the fun of a link-up. Hopefully, these will be new for you too. I’ve received permission from each of these bloggers to include their projects here. The only thing I ask is that if you decide to pin something, please do so directly from their blog. They worked hard and I want to make sure that they receive the credit on Pinterest where it is due.

After spending some time playing with chalk for my own project, Jamie’s project immediately caught my eye.

She used the same technique that I used to transfer the lettering, but for her project she used a chalk marker instead of chalk. I’ve been curious to know how that might work and the marker resulted in some nice crisp edges. Plus, I love the monogram! I’ll be filing this font away for future reference.

Continuing on with typography, Becky used thumb tacks instead of chalk or marker to create her lettered sign.

I’ve never seen this technique before and I was instantly enamored. Oh the possibilities… Especially when combined with all the varieties of nail head trim! This will be popping up somewhere in our home for sure.

Carolina made these very cute wooden pendants that I can’t wait to try.

They’re a completely unexpected look and would be a quick and easy project. There’s a ton of possibilities with this project too and I like that she used Mod Podge to finish off the back so that the threads are protected.

Ashley made this thread holder which I think is just brilliant.

Not only is all of her thread easy to get to and makes for a beautiful display, I think it’s so clever that she included a peg for her threaded bobbins.

Tanya from Dans le Townhouse has an amazing home with mid-century modern furnishings. I love this updated side table that she did for her space.

Tanya did an incredible job of updating this piece, but at the same time staying true to the period. It’s so fresh and classic!

Lyndsey is proving she truly can do A LOT in fifteen minutes with this outstanding stenciled wall.

I’ve seen a lot of stenciled walls on Pinterest lately, but this is one of my favorites. It’s a completely different look and I think this pattern would be cool done on canvas too.

Anna did this gallery wall that I find utterly stunning!

I think the white, empty frames and mirrors create a graphic display that is really interesting and fun. Plus, I’ve been eyeing the giraffe from Z-gallerie for months and would’ve never thought to display it in this way. We recently had a large amount of wall space become available in our home and I would LOVE to try this.

Lastly, you have to check out Katrina at SotaIsSexy. I’m not including a photo because… well, you’ve just gotta see her project for yourself. Katrina ALWAYS does her own unique twist on the Pinterest Challenge and she never disappoints. I make sure to never miss out on her latest offering. This one is the ultimate grill.

Did you participate in the Pinterest Challenge? Do you have a favorite among the ones that I mentioned? Anything you saw during the challenge, that I didn’t mention here?

PS. I actually have one more favorite that I haven’t mentioned, but I will be giving more attention to on Wednesday. I guess you could say we created another Pinterest inspired project. Looking forward to sharing all the details with you then.

My IKEA Wish List

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Danielle

Last week, I went to IKEA to pick-up the wooden KNUFF organizers that I mentioned here. When I went, I promised myself I was only going for the one item. Get in, get out. I know how foolish that sounds to some of you, but I promise, I had good intentions. However, much like Target, IKEA has a way of sucking you in and you slowly find yourself wandering the aisles wondering if you need another pair of Swedish salad tongs.

So I started taking note of things that caught my eye to share with you here. A couple of items I purchased, but most of them are now on my IKEA Wish List.

Heart Shaped Ice Tray

My friend, Alex at Northstory does amazing things with shaped ice trays. Where I think “just add water”, she sees the possibilities of so much more. You can see some of her fun ideas here and here. For .99 cents, I knew it was time to take a page from Alex’s playbook pick up this little heart ice tray.

Cute Daisies

I mentioned in my Mother’s Day post that I love the simple elegance of daisies. I even keep some permanently in my workroom. However, these guys are the perfect size for a small vase and at $1.49, they make an easy home accent.

Springform Pan

This is one of the items I truly regret not getting. This springform pan has heart shape embellishments on the bottom and it has an insert to easily convert it into a bundt pan style. 2 for 1 and all my future Picaken problems would be solved.

Plants & Lace Pots

I passed these up the first time I saw them in the store, but when I hit the second display, I knew they would come home with me. There’s something about the lace like trim and the playful little leaves that I love. I’m not sure where in our home this set will end up, but everywhere I place it, it just makes me smile.

Bedspread & Cushion Covers

I love grey and red together so when I came across a display of this red bedspread set next to the same set in grey, they immediately caught my eye. If we were in the market to replace our summer coverlet in our Master Bedroom, I think this would be the perfect option. It’s understated by being just one color, but the decorative stitching keeps it from being boring.

Akerkulla Fabric

If I hadn’t already done Tessa’s desk chair in IKEA’s Janette fabric, Akerkulla would be my fabric of choice. I really like the playfulness of the pattern and the simple grey color allows the pattern to be the star of the show.

Leather Chair

I SO wanted this YSTAD chair to come home with me. It would be perfect for the family room. Not too big, not too small, just right! It was in their “As Is” section and marked down to $450.00. Someone in Portland has a great new chair.

Mini Globe Lights

This little impulse buy has left my family asking “what’s up with that?” I thought they’d be cute out on the patio table when we BBQ this summer. I picked up the aqua colored ones and they look like little eggs (or aliens… I can’t decide) next to our owl candle holder.

Have you had any success during a recent trip to IKEA? Do you get sucked in by the wonders of their store? See anything here that you would add to your IKEA wish list? Let me know which are your favorites or something that you might already own.

The Fine Print: This is NOT a sponsored post. I’m just a girl sharing her infatuation with swedish home furnishings.

Spring Pinterest Challenge: Chalkboard Subway Art

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Danielle

One of the very first projects that I shared on this blog was how I turned a cabinet door into a chalkboard for our laundry room. It was a project I loved and it seemed like a cute way to kick things off here. On it, I simply wrote “Welcome”.

Welcome to my home, to my life and to this blog.

It was the very beginning of EVERYTHING and I wasn’t sure if I could even write a blog let alone get this one word looking right. I was pleased that it looked fairly neat and I had another post written.

Fast forward a year plus several months later and that sign still says “Welcome”. And I’ve been wondering if there’s something more that I can do with it. So when Young House Love and Bower Power announced that it was time for their Spring Pinterest Challenge, I knew it was time to update my chalkboard.

The Pinterest Challenge this season is hosted again by Sherry Petersik and Katie Bower and this time they are partnering with Emily from Sparkle Meets Pop and Renee of Red Bird Blue. The goal is to get everyone to put their own unique twist on something that they’ve pinned.

My Inspiration

Dana Tanamachi is hands down one of my favorite artists. You may have seen her artwork at West Elm or on the cover of Oprah Magazine. She is a hugely talented hand letter artist and does stunning things with chalk.

Following Dana’s lead, I am combining two popular trends and hoping to create subway art with chalk.

My Pinspiration

There are loads of tutorials on Pinterest of how-to create subway art and chalk lettering. A few that I referenced were here, here and here. However, I found My Sweet Savannah’s post to be the most helpful.

I began brainstorming laundry room words: soap, bubbles, clean, iron… you get the idea.

Then I used Adobe Illustrator to help me create a subway art design with those terms. There are a lot of programs online that you can download to use, but since we already own Adobe Illustrator, I went with that. Sometimes being married to a graphic designer and illustrator has it’s perks.

AI works like several of the online design programs. It’s a matter of typing in your words, playing with fonts and sizing and moving the words around until you have a layout that you like. Seriously, I may be married to a graphic designer and illustrator, but I am not one. I was able to easily figure this out by just playing around to see what happens.

That was the easy step.

This next part would, as my son says, separate the pretenders from the contenders. That is, I had no idea if I could actually get the chalk lettering down the way I had designed it.

I was hoping to use an image projector to help in this process. However, once I started pricing them out and realized we were looking at a few hundred dollar investment, I decided I would need to consider other options.

My chalkboard space is 17.5 inches square. I printed the design off on to two 11 x 17 sheets of paper that I could overlap and leave myself with a half inch border.

You can also take your image file to a local print shop and have it printed on one sheet, but I wanted to see if I could do this challenge completely free and the legal size paper worked.

Once I taped the two sheets together, I rubbed chalk over the entire back of the paper. I then flipped the design over so that the chalk side was against the chalkboard and taped it down to keep it from shifting.

I was able to carefully trace the outline of the letters to get a copy of my subway art transposed onto the chalkboard.

I then began the process of going over the letters and filling them in… one letter at a time.

At first, I thought all the hand lettering would take forever, but it was oddly therapeutic and went quickly. I had the added benefit of being able to take the cabinet door off the wall and work on the floor, moving the board all around.

I also used Q-tips and a touch of water to “erase” and clean up any areas that needed a little extra help.

Unfortunately, there is no natural light in our laundry room, so this photo is not ideal. But I am beyond thrilled with the final artwork.

I still can’t believe it worked the way I had hoped. Tyson keeps asking if I need to seal it so the image doesn’t get smudged or lost, but I would gladly come up with something new, if the need or inspiration strikes.

Speaking of inspiration… it’s party time. Time to check out all the great links that are being shared at the Spring Pinterest Challenge. There is sure to be tons of inspiration and more things to pin. I’ll be linking up at:

Have you ever done chalk art or hand lettering? Are you participating in the Spring Pinterest Challenge? Ever take on a project and wonder if you would find yourself a pretender or a contender? That kid cracks me up!

For even more inspiration, check out these blogs that I’ll also be sharing this post at:

Chessboard Review

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Danielle

When I moved Storypiece from wordpress.com to wordpress.org a few months back, I realized that some additional housekeeping would be in order. I knew part of the move would include updating keywords for SEO, improving photo tags and tightening up some of the post formatting. For those that don’t blog, this essentially all comes down to reviewing my older content and making changes so that people can find me on the web and when they do, it doesn’t take a thousand years for the page to load.

All good things, but surprisingly tedious.

As I’ve begun this process, I’m also realizing that if you are new to this blog, you may not have seen some of these older posts. Some of which I’m still pretty excited about. Okay… many of the photos are painfully embarrassing, but the projects themselves are fun.

Like the custom chessboard I made for Tyson.

Last Spring we were given several unexpected items from Tyson’s step-mom, Patty.

One such treasure was a handmade chess set that Tyson’s Mom had made for his Dad when Tyson was a baby.

Tyson didn’t remember the set from his childhood and so I called his Mom to get the full story.

I also decided to make a custom chessboard for the pieces to complete the set. It included the vintage newsprint that the pieces had been wrapped in and really cool metallic paint.

Through the process, I even learned that you can iron old crinkled newspaper. Who knew?!

Of course, we still don’t know how to play chess. But when we learn, we’ve got the perfect set.

So periodically I may bring back a few of these stories. I promise not to reblog every one, just to share the highlights. If you’ve read them before, feel free to skip over the review. And if there’s something that speaks to you, let me hear that too.

Any new tasks in your life that are giving you time to reflect? Have you taken a recent walk down memory lane? Do you know how to play chess and want to come teach our family?

Storypiece

Stories About Life & Home

Category Archives: home accents

Spring Pinterest Challenge Round-up

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My IKEA Wish List

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Spring Pinterest Challenge: Chalkboard Subway Art

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Chessboard Review

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