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Aged, arts and craft, decor, Decorating, fireplace, Holiday decorating, Home Decor, living room, mantles, Metal Tags, Stashbusting, thrifting, Trash to Treasure, Upcycling

Galvanized Metal Star Garland and Mantel Vignette

Galvanized Metal Star Garland | Pretty Handy Girl

Remember when I told you I’ve been on a galvanized metal kick? Yes, you may have noticed my Rustic Metal Magnetic Window Frame on Monday. When I put the windows over our fireplace mantel, I knew there was something missing. I tried a few different garlands in the space, but nothing felt quite right. When I gazed upon the leftover galvanized metal, the idea to create a Galvanized Metal Star Garland was born.

Today’s post is part of the Deck the Halls DIY-Style tour hosted by Jen Woodhouse, If you are just hopping over today from Sawdust and Embryos, amazing vignette, right?! My favorite is the monogrammed scroll snowflake. Welcome to my little slice of DIY Blog heaven. I can’t wait to show you how I made several elements over our fireplace mantel.

The Galvanized Metal Star Garland is so incredibly easy to make. You’ll be looking for more places to decorate with a garland of stars.

Ready to get started? Grab these things and let’s make something stellar!

Materials:
(contains affiliate links)

Instructions:

Draw stars on your galvanized sheet of metal. If you prefer a beautifully aged metal patina, you can follow this tutorial to make your metal age quickly.

Cut out the star shapes with tin snips.

Rub the pencil marks off the stars with a gloved hand. Read more

December 9, 2015/10 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

Rustic Metal Magnetic Window Frame | Pretty Handy Girl

I was really inspired by Laura Putnam’s new book: DIY Rustic Modern Metal Crafts. I love the look of aged galvanized metal and knew that our home needed more of it. Today I’ll share with you a tutorial to create your own Rustic Metal Magnetic Window Frame, inspired by Laura’s Vintage Window Memo Board. But, you’ll definitely want to get a copy of Laura’s book to learn how to make 34 more storage and decor items using galvanized metal!

Materials:
(contains affiliate links)

Old window
Galvanized Metal
Pencil
Ruler or Carpenter square
Tin snips
Flat head screwdriver
Staple gun with staples (1/2″ or longer)
Gloves
Safety glasses

Optional: Silicone Caulk (for more secure metal)

Instructions:

Ready to make your own Rustic Metal Magnetic Window Frame? If you have newer galvanized metal, you can easily add an aged patina to metal following this tutorial. Prepare ahead of time, because it might take up to 8 hours to get the look you want. The sheet you see below was left overnight in the solution to get a nice white patina.

Remove the glass panes from your old window.

Measure the size of each pane.

Transfer your measurements onto the galvanized metal sheet. Read more

December 7, 2015/8 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

arts and craft, Decor Adventures, Decorating, Holiday decorating

5 Steps for Beautiful Holiday Wreaths

Hello friends, it’s Jessica from Decor Adventures. December is the most wonderful month of the year and these early days are perfect for holiday decorating. I’m sure you are decking your halls and getting ready to have a festive season.

One of my favorite ways to decorate for the holidays is to hang wreaths. I admit, I’m a wreath addict. I have them in many sizes and many colors. They are the perfect holiday decor item and one of the easiest to use. Today I want to show you 5 steps for beautiful holiday wreaths, come see!

Materials:

A wreath
Holiday lights or fairy lights
Ribbon
Ornaments
Holiday decor accessories
Scissors
Green twine
Batteries

The type of wreath you use for this project is up to you. The most common wreaths are evergreen and can be found at many retailers including grocery and home improvement stores. They also come in different types such as boxwood, fir, pine, cypress, and more. Real or fake wreaths will both work for decorating. Grab a wreath (or three!) and let’s get started.

5 Steps for Beautiful Holiday Wreaths:

1. The fluffing. Wreaths often get smushed during shipping. Pull out the branches and shape them in a nice circle. The before and after will be dramatic and can make the wreath even bigger. Real wreaths may have some dry spots or unshapely branches, which you can easily trim off.

Halloween Canvas Door Decor

Today I have a special guest rockstar for you! Kim is here to show you how to whip up the quickest Canvas Halloween Door Decor.

Kim is the creative goddess behind Today’s Creative Life. She truly has an eye for the awesome. I mean have you seen her bathroom makeover for $110?

She effortlessly pairs colors and textures together in the blink of an eye. Get ready to learn how to make holiday decor as quick as a guitar riff.

Welcome Kim, our next Rockstar to take the stage!

Hello Pretty Handy Girl readers! I’m thrilled to be hanging out at Brittany’s place today sharing a quick and original way to decorate for Halloween with this DIY Halloween Canvas Door Decor.

DIY Halloween Canvas Door Decor

If you follow Today’s Creative Life (formally Today’s Creative Blog), then you know I’m not talented like Brittany in the ways of building, but I sure do love me some quick and easy ways to bring more creativity to my home!

I share DIY Decor, DIY Projects and Recipes for families. You’ll find easy to follow tutorials for bringing creativity to your home and a lot more for holidays!

I’m always looking for something a little out of the ordinary for decorating my door for Halloween. Sure, I could just slap a wreath on the door and call it good, but that would be way to sensible.

Last year, I created a fun Halloween wreath from a ceiling medallion.

I love the way it turned out and may use it for my Halloween mantel this year.

This year, my ideas kept coming back to using fabric or canvas somehow. My first idea was to use Iron On Transfers with the fabric from a drop cloth and then, I remembered I had some printable cotton canvas that was printer ready.

Materials:

Printable Graphic (I used The Graphics Fairy)
Printable Cotton Canvas
Ribbon
Stick
Paper hole punch
Paper Trimmer

Instructions:

1. I found and downloaded the image I wanted from The Graphics Fairy, as I do for all my iron on transfer projects. She has just about any image you’d ever want for any time of year. Such a great resource.

2. I used PicMonkey to create the text and frame, but any photo editing tool would work. Of course you could just print the image only and keep it really simple.

3. I printed it on printable cotton canvas. This particular paper ended up having a self adhesive backing, so I just left the protective paper backing in place.

4. Using a paper trimmer, I trimmed the bottom.

5. I punched a hole in each upper corner with a paper hole punch.

6. I tied a coordinating ribbon to a stick from the yard (actually I broke it off my lilac bush) and called it good!

After I got it hung up and looked at it for a day or so, I think I may try to age it a bit for an older distressed look. You can do that easily by brushing on brewed tea and lying it out to dry.

I like the way it looks. It’s original and can be used anywhere in the house. The possibilities are plenty!

Here’s more creative Halloween ideas from Today’s Creative Life.

DIY Halloween Table Decor

DIY Halloween Terrarium

Simple Halloween Decor

Are you running off to make your own Halloween decor now? Me too! I hope you are enjoying the Rockstar DIY series and are ready for more talent next week.

October 9, 2015/4 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

accessories, arts and craft, Build It, jewelry display

PB Teen Inspired Jewelry Organizer

Today, I’m super excited to have Jen Woodhouse here to present the tutorial to make this Pottery Barn Teen Inspired Jewelry Organizer.

Jen is the creative muscle behind The House of Wood. She recently knocked my socks off with this West Elm Inspired Queen Bed.

And let me tell you, besides being a kick ass builder and crafter, she can sign! Whoa, can she sing. But, today we’ll find out if she can sing and build at the same time!

So, put your hands together and let’s hear it for our next Rockstar to take the stage! Take it away Jen.

Hi Pretty Handy Friends! Jen Woodhouse from The House of Wood here, thrilled to be hanging out with y’all today, sharing my PB Teen-inspired monogram wall jewelry storage. While flipping through the PB Teen catalog, I spied this pretty jewelry organizer and instantly thought, “I bet I could make that!”

So I did.
The End.

Only kidding. I’ve got you covered with free plans and a tutorial so you can build it yourself!

Click here to download the PDF plans for this PB Teen-Inspired Monogram Wall Jewelry Storage.

*This post contains affiliate links.

I’ve gotten pretty handy (see what I did there?) at using a jigsaw because I sell these custom wood name signs in my Etsy shop, so I knew cutting out the monogram wouldn’t be too difficult. It was a bit time-consuming, especially because I had to break out the scroll saw for those teeny tiny spaces, where my jigsaw blade wouldn’t fit. As you can see, I am less adept at using a scroll saw.

Then I dug through my scrap wood pile and found a few 1×2 boards, which I planed down to 1/2″ thickness, to match the thickness of the plywood. I used only wood glue to construct this entire thing – no screws or nails! Cut, join, glue, clamp, and dry.

Then I picked up a couple packages of wooden pegs, round wooden balls, and a 3/8″ wooden dowel at the home improvement store. I found it in the hardware section, where all the different types of screws and fasteners are kept in those long metal drawers.

Next, I made a drilling template out of a piece of scrap wood, so that my drill holes would be evenly spaced and perfectly aligned. I used a 3/32″ drill bit for the small earring holes and a 13/64″ drill bit for the wooden pegs then hammered the pegs into place. Read more

October 5, 2015/2 Comments/by Brittany Bailey