Hand painted wood signs

Now that it's finally warming up I can work in the garage again! This weekend I took full advantage of the warm sunshine and worked on some new wood signs.

My mom owns a green house and is making a gift shop this year!

I love to paint signs and this was a great reason to do so! Each sign is hand painted with decor arts chalk paint. I really love the finish of their paint and wax. I also stain some of the wood and distress with a palm sander. I use my silhouette cameo machine to make all of my stencils.

This guy above is pained onto a reclaimed wood pallet board. I am in love with how it turned out. I may just have to keep this one for myself!

I have several others that I am working on and wanted to share a few with you. 

I added burlap flowers that I used my sizzix to cut out. I sewed cute little buttons in the center and glued them in place. 

I really love mixed media, so I am working on adding in different elements to each sign. 

More to come later this week and if they do well, I may just have to add some to the shop!!
 Thanks so much for stopping by!

How to dye burlap-a tutorial

Happy Friday!! The sun is shining and I hear robins singing!
So it's really no secret that I love to dye burlap! I use the liquid rit dye and it's so easy!

You can make any color you want! 

Today I'm going to make coral. I simply did this in a washtub in my craft room. 

I used Ivory burlap to start. 

Mix 1 tablespoon of tangerine and 1/2 tablespoon of scarlet into hot water. Remember, the more water you add the lighter the the color will be. 

Add your burlap, and let soak. Stir it around a bit and continue to check the color often. The longer it soaks the darker it will get! 

Once you have your desired color remove from the water and wring it out well. Depending on how much color you have added you may want to wear gloves so you don't stain your hands! 

The color will get lighter as it dries. I did 3 different shades. I used the same batch of dye, I just added a little more color to deepen the shade. 

Now is the toughest part, waiting for it to dry!!
 I have this awesome metal shoe rack from Amazon that works great to dry fabric in front of my fireplace! 

Here are the 3 colors all dry. So yummy! 

Now you're set to create your fun project! 

I made flowers for a pillow!

Now you have the entire weekend to go & play with some Rit dye and burlap!!
Have fun! 

Scrap map tutorial

I am just in love with the the "scrap maps" I have been seeing recently!!

I decided to try making one myself for my craft room. I have so many pieces of scrap fabric I figured this would be a great way to use them!  I just pulled from the bin, 50 different pieces to use! It was so hard to resist the urge to coordinate it all.

First I downloaded the states from Dream a little bigger  she has each state ready to download and import into the silhouette!! 

You can then cut them out using your silhouette cameo machine! 

I couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to do this so I tried cutting the fabric with the silhouette directly first. 

The only problem with this is it was very tedious to cut each scrap to fit the state and then arrange them all the right way on the mat. 

Next try- cut the states out of heat n bond, iron onto fabric and hand cut! That worked! 

That went much quicker!! Now I will tell you, the states are not all the right size. Most of the east coast is too big, you will need to re size them before you cut! See New Jersey here, way to big! 

Once I had all my shapes sized to fit like a puzzle & cut out, I appliquéd them to the burlap! 

Next up, the sewing. I did not want this to be super perfect. I call it intentionally messy! Zig zags and straight stitch! I used black thread and simply started sewing. 

This took a lot less time than I thought it would! And I just love the result!!

Tonight I'll be mounting it and finishing the edge! I can't decide, scrap edge or fray the burlap?!

I can't wait to hang it in my room!! I do plan to mount it to a painted board and hang on the wall. There are so many ways you could do it!

I will also be adding this to my shop in March after I get back from a much need week in the Dominican!!! Stay tuned!

You can follow The little Green Bean on instagram for updates on the maps, and so much more!

Happy Thursday!

Closet turned office

January has been the month of purging for me! I have cleaned out so many spaces in my home and gotten rid of a ton of stuff! It feels great and should have been done years ago!! This weekend the kids and I tackled a closet. This area used to be an entry way to the home. Once we added on, the closet became a catch all. 

So we emptied it out and I made an office for my hubby!! 

The kids helped remove old wall paper. And we peeped the walls for paint!

Removing the wall paper made me so glad we hung it properly! It was so easy! 

The space is quite small so I wanted to keep it neutral and functional!

This mirror was glued to the wall and I didn't even want to attempt removing it for fear of a giant hole in the wall. I painted it with chalkboard paint and trimmed it out with vintage rulers! Perfect for the construction office! 

Here's how it came together:

We built the desk from plywood! It will be perfect for the computer and doing paperwork. 

We made this bench form an old door. Perfect below the window for reading! 

I love the space! It adds so much to this part of our home!! 

I hope this leaves you feeling inspired! You don't need a ton of space to create a perfect little office!!

Missy

The little green bean

Ps! I almost forgot! I am part of a fun giveaway on Instagram today! Be sure to check it out! There are some fun Valentine's Day prizes from several businesses! 

Transformation Tuesday-My workspace

I have posted about my craft room several times over the years. What can I say, I love my space! I also love to share and hope that it inspires even 1 person! I have an amazing room thanks to my hubby, he owns his own construction company and he really can build anything! So 1 1/2 yrs ago when I decided I needed him to remove a wall to join 2 rooms and make my room bigger, he didn't even argue! (yes he is a saint!) When we did that re model the room was primarily gray, and while I love neutral, after some time it was just OK.

Something else I realized was it just wasn't as efficient as it could be. I had items out all the time that I rarely used and things shoved n drawers and cabinets that I forgot I had and bought more of! 

It was time for a change! I was going to add some color, clean, purge & re-organize! And then I did just that! 

Here is what I new for sure; 

I wanted red and aqua accents. 

I wanted clear containers

I wanted more shelves for the walls to hold the clear containers

I needed more fabric storage (a lot was in a cubby)

I wanted more of what I love in this room

So I spent one Saturday afternoon shopping like it was my job. 

Target, Hobby Lobby & TjMAXX received a lot of my money that day! 

After cleaning, painting and a lot of re thinking my placement here is where I landed:

The walls are all the same gray color, but I used a wall stencil & some aqua paint to add the design! 

I am in this room, well a LOT. So I needed it to be functional but pretty & uplifting! 

As you can see, I have a lot of fabric. Now all of it is out right where I can see it. 

Later this week I will post a how to on the mini foam core bolts I made. 

Loving the 6ft long Ironing board!!! 

This room is really 2 room turned into one. The other half is more for paper crafting and has another great work counter that my kids love to use!

Everything now has a place and it works the way I need it to! 

If you have any questions on what I did, where I got specific items or organization in general, post them in the comments. I would be happy to help you out! 

Thanks for looking!

Faux metal letters

I found these amazing letters on clearance for $4 each. Originally $35! 

There was just one problem, I couldn't find and E. Could be why they were on clearance! Ha! I figured I could find one online somewhere, so I bought my L,O,V letters. Well I found several "E" letters online. Even the one that matched this set. It was $40. After getting the other 3 so cheap I didn't want to spend that much on one. I decided to try and make one!

I used a priority mail box, a ruler, xacto knife and a marker.

I used the L as my template. 

Pretty so I had an E! I wanted the metal underneath so I could distress it like the metal letters. 

I started with my rustoleum metallic silver paint. 2 coats because I was painting on cardboard and I wanted to distress without showing cardboard. 

Next I sprayed on 2 coats of red. I waited very impatient as they dried. 

I did add a coat of the red to the front of the metal letters. The color was close but not quite the same. 

Once the letter was try I lightly sanded the edges and then added some clear coat. 

The sanding worked! It totally looks like metal!! 

I am so excited about my letters! 

I wasn't sure if it would work, but looking at them all together you really can not see a difference! Good enough for me!