Happy Together

A DIY craft blog

Bead Bar Necklace DIY

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A few weeks ago for Mother’s Day I wanted to make something special to go with a shirt I made for my mom. I was browsing around at Michael’s and saw the perfect supplies to put together a bead bar necklace. I ended up liking the one I made for her so much that I even made one for myself.

There are only four things you need:

  • Connector Chain Necklaces (Here in Silver; Here in Gold)
  • 2 inch Eye Pins
  • Beads of choice that will fit on eye pin
  • Pliers (jewelry ones are best, but I couldn’t find mine and just used regular ones)

Lay out necklace pieces, eye pin, and beads.

Use the pliers to open up the closed eye pin side and place on the end jump ring of a necklace piece. Use pliers to close it shut.

Add the beads on the eye pin and then use pliers to curve end of eye pin.

Hook the half closed eye pin to the other necklace piece. Then use pliers to completely close the eye pin.

The fun thing with this if you can totally customize it. You could use colors of birthstones representing children/grandchildren or you could bend the wire and curve it instead of leaving it straight. Oh the possibilities! That’s what’s fun with diy. You can make exactly what it is you are wanting. Share your bead bar necklace on social media with #happytogetherbyjess. I would love to see it.

Paper Ball Ornament DIY

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Last Christmas I made a whole bunch of these paper ball ornaments to add some cheerful color to the trees in our church foyer. We didn’t have much to decorate the trees with, so I wanted to make something and this is what I came up with. It cost hardly anything since I had most of the cardstock already and they really make such a fun impact. I also saved time by using my Cricut cutting machine, but it’s totally doable without one.


The paper ball ornaments also hold up well for being made of cardstock. I saved a handful of these to take pictures of and they have been in a moving box inside a storage unit that was not air conditioned for six months. They were still fantastic! So if you store them loosely in a box I bet they can last a few years. Also, a tip for anyone looking for some large scale decor… I noticed all of these present boxes and those large snowflakes at a local clothing store (Gap). I asked the store managers if they saved these or threw them away and that if they just got rid of them I would happily take them and reuse them. They called me at the end of the season and said I could come get it all. How awesome is that? They were so excited it would be used again and we used them for quite a few years.

To make your own paper ball ornament you will need:

  • Cardstock (I used an 8.5″ x 11″ piece per ball and made extra smaller circles with the extra for garland)
  • Ornament Hangers or String
  • Scissors or Cutting Machine (you can find the 8.5″ x 11″ template I made for my Cricut here)
  • Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks


Start by cutting out four circles that are 4″ in size. You can increase or decrease the size depending on your preference. If you don’t have a cutting machine, you can use a round cup for a template to trace on the paper.


Then you will need to fold each one in half.


Run a bead of hot glue done the center of one of the folded pieces.


Place another folded circle on the glue and hold in place until it is cooled down.


Then put glue on one of the other folded circles and place on the seam of the two already glued together. Hold in place until cooled.


Turn the three glued ones over and add glue to the last folded circle to go on the other side (See picture above on how it should look all glued together).


You can then add your choice of hanging option and then fluff out the circles so it looks full. Above is a picture of using an ornament hanger. You can straighten out one end of an ornament hook and glue it down one of the seams.


Or you can use string, fishing line, or yarn to hang it. For those options I suggest glueing one end on one seam and then the other end in the opposite seam so it hangs evenly.



If you happen to have 12″ x 12″ pieces of cardstock, you can get quite a lot of circles out of it. I used the extra space on the paper to make smaller circles which I sewed together to make a garland.


It was a great addition to this backdrop I made and allowed it to fit in perfectly with the trees.


Make sure to share if you create any. I would love to see 🙂

Jess

Fireplace Makeover

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I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on some of our new home projects. It’s been a patience growing time for sure but it’s worth it now seeing things starting to come together. One of the very first projects I took on was this fireplace makeover. I wanted an instant gratification project to get me motivated and this fireplace makeover totally was that. The two main things I did was paint the mantle (we plan to have hardwood floors in here and with the wood beams and windows we were feeling like there was a lot of wood) and then add a white mortar to brighten up the brick. I love brick, well pretty brick, and I liked the color of the actual brick just not the yellowish tan mortar that was used on it.






Before beginning, I vacuumed the brick and wiped down the mantle. I prepped the mantle with a light sanding and did another wipe down with a deglosser. Then I taped it off so I wouldn’t get paint on the bricks. I painted it with Behr Ultra Pure White in interior semi-gloss enamel. It was straight off the shelf, but I always have them shake it up for me at the store. For a piece like this, I paint an area of it with a brush and then go over what I can with a roller so it looks nice and smooth.


It took me three coats to get the coverage I wanted. Now, I think two coats would have been okay, but I’m picky and really wanted it fully covered. I also did two coats of matte polycrylic on the top shelf to protect it from all the things that would be placed on it.


For the mortar I found this at Lowes. It was the only white mortar that wasn’t in a giant bag. I could have tried somewhere else, but I just bought it and gave it a try. I used a plastic bucket and mixed up a little bit at a time with water. This allowed me to work in small sections without it all drying up in the bucket. Oh, and as always, I went for a peanut butter consistency of the mixture before applying.


I used a small plastic spatula to put the mortar on the cracks. I thought about using a grout bag and piping in on the lines like I have done on brick backsplashes, but this was such a large area I felt this would be easier.


This method worked well and let me be a bit creative with the placement and such.


As you can see, it looks kind of messy and lumpy after first applied.


Once I had done a small area I went over the mortar with a damp sponge. I tried just dabbing it with the sponge and then I tried gently wiping over it. I ended up preferring how it looked when I gently wiped it. I was able to finish this mortar part in about four hours and that included going to pick up my kids from school. It went a lot faster than I thought it would for sure. I have done quite a few backsplashes and other similar projects so I felt really confident in what I was doing and with the material I was working with.


It brightened up the room so much and we are all so happy with it. I also like that if I wanted to add more mortar later for a german schmear look or even paint the brick I can still do that. We have had about 8 fires since I finished this and so far it’s holding up really well. I’m aware that I might have to freshen it up periodically, but I’m okay with that. That’s part of having a real fire no matter what the brick/mortar is. After I did the fireplace I painted all the trim and walls and have decorated some. We even changed out that old ceiling fan last weekend, after I took these pictures of course lol. So the last two big items is to figure out that track lighting situation above the fireplace (we are considering can lighting so it doesn’t compete with the main light) and then to get the flooring changed. My girls are loving the carpet for now though. They think it’s so soft!  And I’m glad they are enjoying the comfort of it 😉

 

Barn Quilt Garden Flag Tutorial

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Have you ever seen a barn quilt? If you have not, it’s a large piece of wood that’s painted to look like a quilt or a quilt block and placed on the side of a barn. I first noticed them on a trip to Tennessee a few years ago. I thought they were so beautiful and recently I wanted to replicate it in someway. I have no barn but I have seen people create these for indoor wall art on a smaller scale. I kept thinking about ideas though. Then I thought how pretty it would be as a garden flag. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I am happy to say it turned out so good! They look so pretty sitting among the plants or even on a mailbox. Though they are heavier than a fabric garden flag, the metal flag holders are stable enough to hold them. Read on for the tutorial.


Supplies:

  • Wood Cut in a Square Shape (I used a 1″ x 12″ x 4′ piece of whitewood and was able to cut four pieces out of it…. If you are not familiar with buying wood, note that they aren’t usually the width it says it is. For instance, it says this was 12″ wide but it’s really 11.25″, which means I had to cut them every 11.25″ instead of 12″)
  • Optional: Wood Stain
  • Paint (I used acrylic craft paint and chalk paint. I recommend the chalk paint as it goes on thicker. I only had to do two layers of paint with the chalk paint versus many more of acrylic to get the coverage I wanted.)
  • Small Angled Paint Brushes
  • 2 Screw Eyes (I used the #12 x 1-3/16 in size)
  • 2 S Hooks (the ones that are closed and look more like an 8…. I used size 1-5/8 in)
  • Optional: Black Spray Paint (I used Rust-Oleum Flat Protective Enamel in Black)
  • Outdoor Sealant (I used Minwax Spar Urethane Indoor/Outdoor Clear Semi-Gloss)
  • Print out of desired quilt square (Make sure it’s a square and in the size that you are making. I made mine so they were slightly under 11.25″)
  • Pen or Pencil
  • Chalk
  • Pliers
  • Other supplies: Cup with water for cleaning paint brushes/Paper Towels for clean up/Something  to protect surface where you are painting


1. Find a Quilt Square that you would like to paint. I just went on Pinterest and searched “quilt square” to find images. The simpler patterns are the easiest to paint. That pineapple one took a lot longer than the others. Save the image you want and resize it to the size of your wood. The images I found had some space on the edges so when I cut it out the paper was the same size of the wood but the image was smaller.

2. Stain the wood if desired and let it dry before the next steps. I used Minwax Dark Walnut.


3. Flip the print over and use chalk to go over all of the lines of the image.


4. Flip back over and place on top of wood. Use a pen to go over all of the lines. Press down hard but not too hard that you go through the paper or make huge dents in the wood.


When you remove the paper you will be able to see the chalk lines.


5. Paint in areas with desired colors. I found that using angled brushes make for a much easier painting job. Trust me 🙂 If you can, grab a few sizes so you can find the size you like best.


6. Flip over and repeat steps 3-5 on the other side, making sure to have the pattern and colors all the same way as the first side. Then when it’s up, it looks like the same on both sides, unless of course you want to do two different things on each side.

Note: You might find you will need to do more than one coat of paint for good coverage. I discovered I liked using chalk paint better because it had better coverage and I didn’t have to do more than two coats.

Tip: I found that I could flip the wood and place on it on these painters’ tripods after the first coat so I could start painting on the second side while I waited for the first side to dry.


7. When the paint is all dry, wipe off any extra chalk with a wet paper towel. Then you will need to add two or more coats of an outdoor sealant. You can do more coats if you want, but I think two will be sufficient. If you keep these outside often, you will probably want to reapply every few months or so. This will help protect it from the outdoor elements.


8. Spray paint the metal screw eyes and s hooks if you like. I wanted them to be black so it blended it with the black flag hook we already had.


9. When those are dry, hand twist the screw eyes into the wood. I went in two inches from each side for placement.


10. Use pliers to slightly open one end of the S hooks. This makes it easy to place the flag on but it’s still closed enough that the flag won’t fall off.


11. Place the closed ends of two S hooks on the garden flag holder. Then put the S hooks through the screw eyes and slide flag into desired placement. Make sure to bring it inside if the weather is going to be bad (ex: hurricane, snow, windy, etc).


I took the above pictures so you can kind of see how it looks with each side looking the same. The colors really pop! This is such a fun project for a craft night or to make for gifts. You can pick seasonal or holiday colors to make it festive. Please make sure to share if you make one! Share on instagram and tag me and use #happytogetherbyjess so we can all see them or share on the facebook page 🙂 Happy crafting! -jess

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY

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Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY
This month’s issue of Food Network Magazine is showcasing fifty different eggs from fifty different bloggers (you can now see them all online here: Easter Eggs Across America). Each state is represented! I am honored to represent Louisiana as this is the state I have lived in for the past six years. I have grown to love it here as it is a state full of it’s own unique culture and such wonderful people. I had to share a few ideas on what type of egg I could create that would showcase a bit of the state. I secretly really wanted to make a crawfish egg, but Mardi Gras beat it out hahaha. That is one thing this state is known for and we have enjoyed all the family events that come along during that time of the year. I now get to share the Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY for anyone who might want to make one or create their own spin of this type of egg. Or, as i like to call it, a Masquer-Egg…..get it? 😉

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY | happy together Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY | happy together
Materials needed:

  • Boiled Egg or Fake Egg (I used an Eggnot)
  • Mardi Gras colors of acrylic paint (purple and green)
  • 2 Paint Brushes
  • Gold Leaf Flakes
  • Gold Leaf Adhesive (my local craft stores were all out, so I used Mod Podge and it worked great)
  • Optional: One Step Crackle Finish (I used this to try to create more texture, but it didn’t make enough of a noticeable difference in my opinion)
  • Mask: black card stock, toothpick, small feathers, small rhinestones, glue, and small scissors or exacto knife)
  • Optional: Egg Carton

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY
Begin by painting the top of the egg purple. Allow to fully dry. I found that using an old egg carton upside down was a great way to set the egg in place during drying times (see picture further down of this).

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY
Once the purple is dry, paint the rest green. Allow it to fully dry. If you like, this is when you can add the one step crackle finish to one side at a time. Allow to dry.

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY
Now for the fun part. I had never used gold leaf flakes before and was excited to try it out. It was fun! It made me want to gold leaf all the things. I painted on a layer of Mod Podge to one end of the egg. Then I took a dry brush and placed it in the gold leaf flakes and applied them. I just added the flakes until I was happy with it. Then I took the brush I had applied the Mod Podge with and added a top coating of Mod Podge to the flakes to seal them in place.

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY
Once that half is dry, flip the egg over and repeat on the other end.

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY
For the mask, I found a simple outline on the internet. I printed it to the size I wanted and used that as a template to cut out the black card stock. I had no small scissors, so I used an exacto knife to make the small intricate cuts.

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY
You can decorate your mask how you like, but I glued on small feathers and two small rhinestones for a simple look. Then I painted a toothpick black to be the holder. Glue the mask in a place you like and let it dry. Now you have a fancy Mardi Gras Easter Egg. Don’t forget to check out the Food Network Magazine to see all the other state Easter Eggs.  -jess

Mardi Gras Easter Egg DIY