Pottery Barn Knock Off

This weeks theme on The CSI Project is Pottery Barn. I have been wanting to make this since I first saw it in the catalog but couldn't get my butt in gear.

That's what I love most about the CSI blog...it makes me get moving.

Here is my version. Pottery Barn calls them their Style Tiles. Each tile costs $35...crazy to me. So For my own board I went out and got a few things that I didn't have laying around and made the same thing just much less expensive.

Foam Board...I picked this up at my local Dollar Tree. I used $5.00 worth.

Cork...pack of 4 for $5.00

2 Dry Erase boards...$7.00 each

I used this Spray Adhesive to stick the fabric on the boards.

I already had this laying around.

My dry erase boards were thicker than the cork so I cut down the foam board to size and stuck them together.

I left 2 of the corks as is and then covered the other 2 with fabric.

Just cut it a few inches bigger than your cork tile and wrap it around back..the spray adhesive worked great for this.

I decided on 2 cork tiles, 2 dry erase tiles, 2 chalkboard tiles and 3 fabric tiles. For the chalkboard ones I used chalk cloth I picked up at Joann's a while ago...worked perfectly!

Lay out your tiles until you find an arrangement that you like.

If you want to waste a lot of time add stickies to the backs of all tiles and stick them up one at a time on the wall...then hate it and tear them down. :)

The smart thing to do is go get a piece of thin sheet board and hot glue your tiles onto that. The one I got was on sale for $10.00. It was a 4x8 I think so was able to get 2 full boards and some extra pieces. My cousin will be using the other board to make herself one. So less than $5.00 for backing.

I forgot to take a picture of me cutting the frame and making it but all I did was get some door framing, cut it to size and used some flat corner supports to put it all together.

I then hot glued the frame onto the edge of the tiles and it's done!

What do you think?

I really love it.

I still need to add some wall hanger things on the back and get it put up in the dining room.

We will be using ours for school things. I figure we can hang tests, pictures, schedules all over it and have an organized school year finally.

So for around $30.00 and stuff I had on hand I made something that if had gotten it made just how you like it at Pottery Barn would have cost you an arm and a leg. Seriously! (I watched a ton of Grey's Anatomy while my family was away)

Yard Sale Makeover

I have shown this before but I'm linking it up to the CSI site for the new yard sale challenge so decided to write a new post for it.

I got this yellow old Samsonite suitcase at a yard sale at the beginning of the yard sale season for $1.00. So cheap! I also got one of the blue ones for 50¢ which is what I painted for this pink suitcase but forgot to get a before picture so I am posting the yellow suitcase for comparison...same thing just different starting color!

The inside isn't lining isn't the best but that's something I can fix later. :)

I taped it up so I wouldn't paint the metal and then spray painted it all with some primer then used some of my favorite pink spray paint for the overall color. I then used a screen printing sheet for the chandelier image. I used some ribbon around the the edge of the suitcase to pull it all together.

We love it!

A nice girly suitcase.

Linking up to the links on my sidebar and

The Cousin Flag

My entry for this weeks Red, White and Blue challenge at The CSI Project is...a flag dress. Or I guess flag dresses? I made my daughter and 2 of her cousins a dress each and had a mini photo shoot tonight. I love how they turned out.

I used this pattern from LilBlueBoo. It's the best!

The girls loved their dresses. Together they are awesome, separate I'm thinking the second two will look more like Waldo than a flag. haha.

I had to stop the car on the drive home to get a picture of this sunset! Beautiful!

Heather Ross Wall Decor

Renting=Plain White Walls

I found this wall hanging at a store a few weeks ago and it's just been sitting around since waiting for me to figure out what I want to do with it. It's ok as is but not my style.

I got it for 50% off because one of the 'frames' was broken off. I fixed that with my trusty tie dye duck tape. Duck tape can fix ANYTHING.

I started by painting over all the wine decals in white.

While that was drying I cut out some of my favorite Heather Ross fabric from a template I made from one of the frames.

I attached the fabric with my trusty mod podge and then put some more Heather Ross fabric in some embroidery hoops.

I pretty much love it.

I think when I get tired of this I will put pictures of the family in there. How cute would that be?!

Dollar Store Ruffled Umbrella

Here is my dollar store challenge for this week on CSI Project. I am really loving it now..not so much the night I made it. That's probably because I stayed up ALL night working on it. The final product...a ruffled umbrella!

I had no idea what I was going to do so figured I would just walk around the dollar store and see what I could find. I didn't know the Dollar Tree carried umbrellas but there they were...navy was the only color they had. I really wish they had white or a lighter color but being the dollar store I didn't get a choice.

I chose the umbrella and a light pink tablecover. Both a buck..both from the Dollar Tree. Pretty boring if you ask me.

Start with an umbrella and a tablecover.
Cut up the tablecover, ruffle ruffle ruffle.
Some double stick tape.

Tape, tape, and tape lots more and you get a pretty ruffly umbrella.

It's so much fun to play in the rain. It even held up after getting all wet!

Here is my secret...we had to fake the rain. Like I said...so much fun!

Linking up to

and to the link parties on my sidebar.

Anyone interested in a tutorial? I have it all ready to publish but it is kinda picture heavy. Let me know and I can get it on for ya. Also the skirt tutorial is almost ready...having a little trouble making sure my measurements will be right when it is resized.