I’m over on Breathe Magazine’s blog today getting a tad bit emotional - At least for a Thursday morning! Read up on my legacy as a DIY-er and why I am the way I am by clicking here. Also, feast your eyes on some tree trunk coaster eye candy while you’re there…
Ever since I saw this post over on the Young House Love blog, I knew what I was getting my mom and future mother-in-law for Christmas…
My mom has collected Cat’s Meow figurines for as long as I can remember. Part of the reason they are so special to our family is that our first cat was a black cat named Belle, and we always associated the signature black kitty printed on all Cat’s Meow homes and building with our Belley-Boopster (one of Belle’s many odd family nicknames). Now having spent time over at John’s parent’s house, I noticed that his mom is also a collector of Cat’s Meow. All the signs were pointing to a custom Cat’s Meow piece for their Christmas gifts.
But let’s talk numbers…A custom Cat’s Meow to replicate your personal home comes out to $69 apiece. This seemed like a LOT of money until I saw that you could get a multiple keepsake discount if you bought more than one. In this case, each one would cost $49. Not a huge difference but that extra $20 in savings sealed the deal in my mind.
After waiting until it was time to start thinking about actually ordering the pieces for the holidays, I got my pen and order form ready and started to read the fine print. The words “Multiple quantities must be of the same design” broke my heart a little…I wanted two different designs, so my idea was now out the window. I was about to scrap the whole plan when it suddenly occurred to me that I have a degree in art (and a father who is a professional wood craftsman) that should have been employed from the get-go.
I looked through dad’s wood scraps in his shop and found a piece of poplar (or pine – I always mix up the two) that would do just fine, then penciled on the shapes of the two homes for dad to cut around. A quick turn through his saw, and we were ready to paint. Here is the beginnings of the one for my mom:
With as steady a hand as I could manage, I was able to get the base coat on the majority of the piece. I just used some acrylic paint I had on hand, so the grand total of this project (including scrap wood from my dad’s shop) came in at $0 – Not bad when I had originally been planning on spending about $70!
The painting aspect of this project ended up being a little more involved then I had anticipated, but I think it was just because of all the detail work. I am not a painter by trade (I draw graphite portraits) so all of those tiny windows and color changes were enough to put this very impatient girl in tears. But (trust me mom, if you are reading this) it was definitely worth it in the end.
This is a photo of John’s childhood home that we asked his dad to send us for reference during the painting process:
And here’s my version of the Cat’s Meow with its first coat:
The rest of the process was just a lot of layers and coats to get the paint nice and smooth so you couldn’t see the wood beneath. Did I mention this project required a lot of patience?? Again, it was so worth all of the effort in the end.
Here’s a detail of the little black kitty (my favorite part)!!
The details definitely aren’t crisp and the lines definitely aren’t straight, but based on the happy gasps and plentiful “Thank you!”s from the two main ladies in my life, I feel like this is one of those times when “it’s the thought that counts.” I am very happy that I decided to DIY these little keepsakes and I am so pleased that my mom and John’s mom loved them – That’s really all that matters.
What kind of gifts did you guys DIY this Christmas?
(Photo credit for Cat’s Meow “My World Keepsake” image: here)
It’s SOOOOOO close!!!!!! Only two more days until Christmas – It really is “the most wonderful time of the year.” My sister is home and my family’s well-deserved gifts are piled beneath our tree ready to be hauled over to my parent’s house tomorrow night (I’m super lucky that they live only 12 minutes away). The lot of us are headed to John’s parent’s house tonight where they are hosting a Christmas desserts party – Looking forward to some tasty treats and family time.
But before all of the big festivities draw me away from the internet and this here blog, I wanted to give you the low-down on a DIY Secret Santa gift I made for one of my good friends, Alyssa. We had our gift exchange on Tuesday so I’m free to share this project with you all – No surprises to ruin here since she is (I hope) already enjoying her gift 
Oh and since I love showing off my LOVELY, gawwwwgeous friends, meet Alyssa (and her sweet boyfriend, Casey, too):
You may actually recognize this project…It was one of my very first do-it-yourself projects – In fact, I didn’t have the tutorial photographing know-how back then and showed mostly “After” shots…So this time, I made sure to photograph the heck out of the steps so that you can try it out for yourself!
Here’s how to make your very own framed necklace organizer:
Supplies:
The very first thing you need is a frame. This will dictate the size of the peg board, so go ahead and track that down first. I have a go-to vintage frame shop in downtown Lynchburg when I need an old, open frame, but you can find new ones at craft or framing stores. Or just go to your local thrift store and look for an old painting – More than likely you can pop the old art out and give the frame a new life.
Here’s the one I picked up:
Now you know I’m not going to give my sophisticated and hip friend a dawdy old wood frame…The size and curvy edge was right, but I knew I was going to hit it was a bright color to bring it into the modern age. I chose a soft yellow to give it feminine pizzaz.
Much better…I wasn’t expecting the grain to show through (that’s what I get for taking home an oak wood frame, which has a deeper grain then most woods), but I actually learned to like the lines and cracks through the paint. I feel like it gives it a bit more character.
As you can see from the photo above, we also picked up our peg board. If you’ve read the first post where I originally documented this project, you’ll note that John cut our peg board to size using a hack saw…This time, we took the easy route and had the handy-dandy lumber department man at Lowe’s cut it down to size for us. We brought the frame in to the store one night and the guy measured and cut our piece of $8 board to fit perfectly inside the lip of the frame in about five minutes. For FREE! Love love love that they do that for their customers…And I have plenty of leftover board for future projects – Bonus!
After letting the spray paint dry over night, I flipped the frame over and put a line of wood glue down all four sides of the frame’s inside lip. Then I gingerly laid the board on top and, being too lazy to trek downstairs for clamps, I proceeded to weigh it down with odds and ends from the kitchen: A cookbook, a platter of fruit and our new dog treat jar.
See the wood glue there on the edge above? Don’t worry – It dries clear and you won’t see it once all is said and done. That sat for another day to dry completely and then it was time for the f-u-n part…The drawer pulls!!!
I actually picked up a handful of painted drawer pulls from Anthropologie a few months ago with no idea what to use them for. None of them matched but I fell in love with the different colors and patterns. When I decided to make this gift for Alyssa, I knew I had stumbled upon the perfect use for the pretty pulls.
Now this is where the peg board comes in handy…All I did to attach the pulls was to unscrew the bolt on the back and play around with the placement by slipping the screw through the different holes on the board. When I found a spot I liked, I screwed the bolt on the back and we were done! Two more placements later, the piece was almost finished.
The last step was to grab John’s bold cutters and snip the protruding screws off the back. Drawer pulls need long screws to attach to a drawer front, but we don’t need all that extra metal for this project. The bolt cutters are an absolute God-send – It takes NO strength at all to bite through tough metal. I highly recommend picking up a pair. I think ours cost about $15.
In no time, we went from this…
…to this!
Now the frame can lay flush against the wall. And perhaps the easiest part of all is the hanging – All Alyssa needs to do is decide on where she wants to hang it and put two nails through the peg board holes towards the top. Can’t get much simpler than that!!!
To imagine it hung and full of necklaces, here’s what mine looks like today:
I hope she loves her new necklace organizer – I had so much fun making it for her!
Merry Christmas to Alyssa, her family and to all of you – I’m planning on lying low the early part of next week, but I’ll be back with a holiday recap and more fun projects on Wednesday. See you then!
Psst – I did more of my blogging thing over on Breathe Magazine’s website yesterday – This time, we are talking pattern trends of 2011. Be sure to check it out and throw in your own two-cents in the comments section! I know you have a lot of creativity to add…
