Ikea Desk Upcycle

In need of a desk and inspired by Kelly, I decided to grab the Vittsjo desk from Ikea for a DIY project. It's only $39.99, so I figured my project couldn't go too badly. The desk is the perfect size for me, and I like the streamlined, open/airy feel.

I picked up a jar of Liquid Leaf from a nearby craft store for just $6 and started applying it all over the steel frame using gloves (very important!) and a paper towel. I prefer liquid leaf to spray paint because it has additional depth. An old dress bag served as a drop-cloth to save my kitchen tile. This is what the first coat looked like: 

After allowing it to dry, I went back and applied a second layer of Liquid Leaf with a foam brush. The desk also comes with a little shelf, so I used plain old masking tape to create stripes. I subconsciously tried to channel Kate Spade a little, maybe?

Aaaand the finished product (although the space is certainly still in need of some styling): 

Stay tuned for more DIY projects! The joys of a new apartment...

xo,

Rachel

Easy DIY Monogram Tutorial (No Photoshop Required!)

Creating your own monogram on your computer can be useful for all kinds of projects. You can print your own stationery, use it to design business cards, or just make an iPhone wallpaper. Most tutorials require Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. These programs can give you great versatility because you can make the image as large as you want without losing integrity (making the product look all pixelated). If you don't have access to those programs, however, you can use plain old Microsoft Word!

Once you open Microsoft Word, use the "View" tab to make sure the Gridlines box is selected. This will help you get the perfect alignment.

Next, create a text box for each of your initials. Remember, monograms are displayed in the order of first initial, last initial, and middle initial.  Make sure your text boxes have no line (border) and no fill selected. You can do this by right clicking the text box border and going to "Format shape."

Here's an example with lines, and it's obviously not the look you want:

You can create a monogram in any font you like, but I downloaded the free font "Monogram KK" here. I made my first and middle name initials ("R" and "E") 100 pt and my last name initial ("M") 175 pt. You can play with the size ratio until you achieve the desired look.

 The image below is what you get once you format your font size and text boxes. The grid really helps check your letter alignment!

After you're happy with the alignment, you can play around with font colors. I used Word's Insert > Shapes tool to create a circle around my letters. The potential combinations for shape outline, shape fill, and font color are pretty much endless, so you're sure to find a look that is perfect for your project.

Finally, I inserted a photo of a Lilly Pulitzer print to create the background. (The alignment is a little off here due to imprecise cropping, but you get the idea!)

To save the final product, I just took a screenshot of the Word screen and cropped the extra space out using Paint.

If you create a cute project, tag me so I can see!

{Pinterest - Twitter - Instagram}

xo,

Rachel

DIY Bridesmaid Boxes

My wedding might be nearly a full year away, but I have been diving headfirst into planning and projects. I especially wanted to ask my bridesmaids early, since several of them live out of town and all of them have busy schedules. Rather than just make a phone call, the sorority girl in me felt the need to do something crafty.

Supplies:
Wooden boxes from your local craft store
Acrylic paints in the colors of your choice, small paintbrushes
Printer access
Pencil
Confetti
Examples of your colors (I got mine from the paint section at Lowe's)
Ribbon
Scrapbooking supplies (paper, stickers)
Any small items you'd like to include (I chose tiny bottles of limoncello and Tazo "Zen" tea)

For each box, I used an antique-y white and pale pink, which are part of our wedding color scheme. After painting the boxes inside and out, I decided my handwriting was just too terrible to freehand the lettering. The following is my favorite technique to use when painting just about anything! I printed out "Be My Maid?" and "Maid of Honor?" from my computer ("bridesmaid" wouldn't fit on the boxes) and roughly cut around the wording area. Next, I colored the back of the letters with plain old No. 2 pencil:   

 

I placed the printed wording in the desired position, then began tracing over the outline of the letters with the pencil:

 

 

This is the result you get when you remove the paper - pretty simple, right?

 

 

Now that I had an outline and my horrible handwriting couldn't ruin the wording, I painted the lettering with metallic paint from Martha Stewart Crafts.

 

Next, I cut paint cards from Lowe's into little circles. I hole-punched each of the shades and threaded some wedding-themed ribbon through to hold them together. I threw in some confetti, and a small bottle of limoncello. Jeff and I traveled around Italy right after he proposed, so it was a very personal touch.

 

I also printed out information for each of the girls on scrapbooking paper. I used the business card template on Microsoft Publisher to create little cards for "Our Day," "Your Role," "My Girls," and "Your Dresses." Obviously the date and location of the wedding are important, but I also wanted them understand that I wasn't interested in asking my bridesmaids to pay tons of money for a dress or slave over little wedding tasks. The "My Girls" section just gave a short introduction for each bridesmaid, since they don't all know each other. Instead of filling the boxes with a bunch of dress images, I just provided the information for my Pinterest board that we can all pin to. That way, we can easily share ideas and opinions on the dresses.

 

I put all that information in a little booklet fashioned from textured cardstock and embellished the front with a scrapbooking decal.

 

 

For the final step, I used the same pencil transfer technique mentioned previously to put their initial on the top of each box.

I completed five boxes total, in a relatively short amount of time. Since I had many of the supplies already on hand, this project wasn't expensive either. I'm sending them out this week!

Cheers,

Rachel