Guestroom, Complete!

Aside from finishing my dresser, I painted the guestroom. I wanted to decorate in a way that my guests would feel at home without feeling overwhelmed with family pictures, clunky wall decor, etc. I went on a mission one Saturday, I hit up Target first. They had this wooden floor vase on sale for $10. Michaels had some flowers for it on sale for $2. I had some old, handled, ceramic crocks that I threw in there. I then found some doilies at my favorite antique shop for $0.75 each. I painted them green and displayed them in front of a piece of scrapbook paper and hung them on the wall. The frames are from Hobby Lobby, probably the most expensive thing in the room. Finally, my little vintage mirror was picked up at a (usually) overpriced antique store, for $5.

Pallet Art

Pallets have recently become all the rage. Needless to say, I needed something big to fill a big wall in my house. I remember seeing a blog about pallets and one picture stuck out in my mind. They simply put a pallet up on the wall. A friend of mine helped me put it up. We sunk anchors in the wall, then drilled the screws through the pallet, lined it up and just put it up there. It now holds an amazing picture of Eric's grandfather re-enlisting into the Air Force, Eric's basic training photo and a couple of awards that Eric's won in the Air Force.

Frugal, Homemade Wooden Signs

So I've been eyeballing a particular project from Pintrest for some time. A friend of mine brought over some firewood to burn in my fire pit. We loaded it in the wheelbarrow and once I finally saw it, I knew I had to keep some!  So this is what I wanted to make. Sarah has so many great ideas as well as her followers that comment. So I tried EVERYTHING to make this work. Either the ink wouldn't transfer, or it wasn't dark enough. I used two different printers, heat, water, pressure...everything. My husband could see my frustration and gave me some suggestions...one of them was to just give up. I almost did, until I researched and found this. This was my saving grace. Had I not found Angela's blog, I would never had followed through with my project. Here's my pictures and success stories about my amazing signs.

The cost:
I picked up a couple of mis-tint samples at Lowe's for $0.75. I also splurged a bit and got a sample of a light blue color for $1.50.
The wood was free.
The ink was what I already had in the printer.
The wax paper came out of my cupboard.

I painted the sanded surface. I knocked most of the paint off the brush before I went to town. I was very careful not to completely paint all of the edges and some of the middle to give it that laid-out-behind-the-barn-forever look.

 I cut out wax paper the size of the printer paper and taped the side that went down into the printer. Be sure to change your printer's settings to print the mirror. For me, I had to print it as an iron-on transfer for it to flip.

 After printing, you have some time to get the newly printed wax paper to the board. I lined it up the best I could since I printed on 2 sheets. I then carefully placed it down being sure not to move the paper once I got it on the board. I then used a card to add pressure and flatten it out. I then carefully removed the paper in one solid motion.

 Here is my finished product. It sits proudly on my buffet in my kitchen/dining room.

I didn't stop there, I also made a couple to go on each side of my window about my buffet table.

I nailed some regular nails into the top of the board and tied twine around them to make the hangers. Please let me know what you think! Feel free to send me your own antique boards.