Scrabble Tile Pendant

I've thought those cute scrabble tile pendants I've seen lately are pretty cute. Just google "Scrabble Tile Pendant" and you'll see all sorts of cute pendants.

I've figured out how to make them myself... I'm not quite good at it yet, but I'm happy that I've figured it out. I'll be thrilled to share some perfect tile pendants with you in the future, but for now, I'm going to go ahead and show you how I'm making mine. If you google "Scrabble Tile Pendant Tutorial" you'll find lots of other great tutorials.

Materials:

• Mod podge
• Scrap book paper
• Scrabble tiles (you can either recycle some, or they do sell them at craft stores
• 2" head pins
• Glossy accents dimensional embellishment, or "Diamond Glaze" if you can find it.
• Foam brush
• Jewelry making tools, round nose pliers, wire cutters
• Vice and either a drill or other way of making a hole. 

Step 1 - Drilling the scrabble tile from top to bottom. Secure tiles one after another in a vice and either use a drill or a dremel with a 1/16th drill bit to create a hole.

Step 2 - Select your scrapbook paper and cut it to the same size as the face surface of your scrabble tile. Then apply a coat of mod podge to the tile and put the paper on the tile.

Step 3 - When the mod podge is completely dry, apply the dimensional embellishment. Start by outlining the tile and then working your way into the center. Take care not to shake this material. It creates bubbles which are my enemy at the moment - you'll notice from here out several bubbles in the examples I'm showing you.

Step 4 - Take a pin and try and pop any bubbles by touching them. But don't stop there - come back 10-15 minutes later and make sure you got them. It turns out that a tiny bubble in the begging, becomes bigger as the embellishment dries. Then allow the tile to dry for 24-72 hours. The tile may feel dry sooner, but this embellishment materials needs time to dry and to cure.

Step 5 - Thread the 2" headpin through the tile.

Step 6 - Create the bail at the top of the pendant by first bending the point of the headpin across the top of the tile at a 90° angle.

With the tip pointing towards you, grasp the pin with the round nose pliers as close to the bend as you can.

Wrap the pin around the top of the pliers with your fingers so that the pin rests on the back of the tile. Then change the position of the pliers so that the coil is around the bottom prong of the pliers. Then wrap the pin around to the front of the tile by going between the tile and the pliers.

Next wind the tail of the pin around the base of the loop and trim the excess tail.

From there you can either add a jump ring to secure the pendents to a chain, or you can just pivot the bail and it will turn to hang on a chain.

Like I said - these aren't perfect, but they are a lot of fun to make. Hopefully - I'll update this post soon with some really perfect ones that will be gift-worthy.

Hanging Our Cafe Shelves

I'm awful at getting the placement of things on walls right. Things are forever too high, or covering the 10-12 attempts it took me to get the placement right.

I'm trying to get better at that.... a few months ago, when planning the wall above my bookcase, I played with paper to get the right arrangement and it worked.

So when it came time to hang the Ballard Inspired Café Shelves, I was nervous. They are 7 feet long with 3 brackets and I pictured it going all kinds of awful. Here is how we ensured the perfect placement:

• 1st we put a piece of tape across the back of the shelves over the brackets and marked exactly where the mounting pieces where.
• Then we moved the tape, up to the wall and made sure it was perfectly level.

• We put the anchors in, right through the tape and then remove the tape.
• All that was left to do, was hang the shelves.

And - I can't say how proud of I am of these shelves. They would have cost well over $250 retail and we wouldn't have gotten exactly what we wanted. Instead, I made them, with mostly reclaimed materials for around $50!!!

Now, to accessorize them! Oh what fun!

If you missed the full tutorial on how to make these shelves, you can check it out here.

Edited to add:

Shelves in Progress

I don't usually like to show projects in process but these are 80% done and won't be complete for at least another month and I just can't wait to share.

I've loved the Ballard Café Shelves since I first saw them. And as soon as I started rethinking our kitchen I knew I had to have them. But I was immediately faced with a of problems:

1. The Cost - we wanted long shelves, Ballard's longest 6' are $120 each, plus shipping PLUS an extra $10 surcharge per shelf. So we're talking $260-$280 minimum.
2. The Length - their max size is 6' long and I wanted as long as would work, which for us, turns out to be 7'. 
3. The Edge - these are going on a wall with a door that gets our primary in/out traffic and I'm really worried about thing jumping off the shelves as the door is slammed. The Ballard shelves have a completely flat surface and I want a little lip on the edge to help keep things ON the shelf.

After careful consideration and much review of Traci's plans for the same shelves, I knew I could do it...  If you want shelves EXACTLY like the Ballard ones, then check out Traci's plans, she did a great job. But if you're ok with making a few changes, then here we go!!!

 

Materials (pictured and not pictured):

• 1x10" pine planks, mine was left over from a previous project (like 8 YEARS ago) so we'll call those free
• Molding, mine came from the ReStore!!! I got 34' linear feet for $16. It would have cost a lot more from Lowes or Home Depot.
• Brackets or corbels. Found at Lowes, $8 for a pair of 2. $24 for 6 total brackets. (Since our shelves are so long I wanted that 3rd support)
• Wood glue
• Nails
• Measuring Tape
• Screws
• Sand paper
• Miter saw or Miter box & Saw
• Primer ($4.99 per can, I'll need 2 cans) $10
• Paint

So add that up - total cost for 2 HUGE shelves $50! FIFTY DOLLARS. That is CRAZY!!! 

Here is how I made the shelves:

Cut the 1x10" to the desired length, for our shelves we decided 81" would be great,  so I cut the 1x10" to 80" knowing that the molding would add another inch. (Yes, the wood is stained, like I said these are left over from a project we did about 8 years ago in our townhouse, thank God we don't throw anything away!!!)

Next I sanded and washed all of the pieces, they were in pretty rough shape.

Then I marked where I wanted the mounting brackets to be on the 1x10, predrilled and attached them. I put one in the center, and the other 4" in from the ends:

(You'll note I marked where the brackets were to go on both sides of the wood, I find that to be really helpful)

Next up cutting the molding to go around the sides and front of the shelves. I measured and measured and measured what I'd need to do, why? Because I'm known for screwing up measurements.

Another tip, when cutting mitered edges where one end is angled and the other not, I always cut the miter FIRST, then the straight. The straight is so much easier to measure and cut accurately, so save it for last.

The lengths of molding were really long and I didn't have help when cutting, so I used clamps to make sure everything stayed in place as I cut.

Molding is cut, time to attach to the front and sides of the shelves. I used wood glue and finishing nails.

And then I filled the nail holes and edges with wood filler/caulk.

And then I sanded and got them ready for priming:

And here is where the shelves are now, 1st coat of primer on:

Here is a view of that lip I created by off setting the molding from the top edge of the shelf:

And another view:

So here we are... it is going to be a couple of weeks before these get to be painted and hung in the kitchen but I just couldn't wait to share!

She Shoots — She Scores!!!

In honor of the kick off of March Madness I just had to go with the basketball reference for the title of this post. We're big NCAA basketball fans here - but you know what I love most about the tournament this year... besides of course that Syracuse being a #1 seed has Bear very happy...

Once the tournament is over:

We start remodeling our kitchen!!!

Yahoo!!!

Now, this isn't a five figure remodel... We're trying to do it for 3 figures. We're going to try and remodel the kitchen for under $1000. We have our work cut out for us. Here are our before pictures:

Problem #1 - Not enough storage. We tried solving that a few years ago with that cart you see in the last picture. It didn't go far enough.

Solution #1 - See this area here:

Look to the left of the sliders - we've got an almost 8-9 foot wall there with plenty of room for cabinets. So about a month ago I started combing craigslist and the 2 local ReStores for cabinets that would as close as possible match what we've currently got. Well first, I looked at Lowes where they still sell the cabinets we have... to get 3 base cabinets, almost $700.

I can't go blowing the budget on the first problem, so that is when I started combing craigslist and the local ReStores. I found one set of 3 cabinets that was close, $180 for the set. Not bad.

But then, one night while I couldn't sleep I was cruising craigslist and found a set of 3 base cabinets - the exact cabinets that we have for $100!!! It took all my will power not to call the guy right then and there, but I didn't think the seller would appreciate my call at 2:30am. So I waited, not so patiently I might add for a return email.

After much negotiating - I got them. Well, I almost got them. Turns out he didn't want to sell the 3rd cabinet... grrrr... thankfully, I talked him into selling me the 3rd on after he stripped it for the doors, hinges and drawers. (He has rental properties with these cabinets and wanted the parts.)

Take a look:

The plan is to paint them white, all of them, old and new-old.

Oh and that cabinet with no drawers or doors, I've got big plans for it.

Stay tuned.

Master Bathroom Vanity Redo

Our master bath is a bit dated, nothing too bad, the wall color, towels and accessories are in good shape, but the vanity and floor leave a lot to be desired.

So, I decided to freshen them up with what I already have on hand, some paint and beadboard wall paper. Here is the before:

Here are the materials I used:

• Paint (left over from the Bookcase)
• Beadboard wallpaper (also left over from the bookcase)
• Spray paint (left over from the clipart rail)

I started by removing the doors and applying sections of the beadboard wallpaper to them.

Next up - Painting the absolutely awful hardware... I'm pretty pleased with my solution for getting the screws painted... I simply screwed them into  a left over 1x2".

And here is the after for the hardware, this turned out to be the most amazing part of the transformation for me.

Next up - painting the doors and drawer fronts - here is where I messed up, I lightly sanded everything, but I should have done a MUCH more thorough job AND I should have primed. As I moved onto really painting... the paint didn't want to stick. But with persistent painting, sanding, painting, sanding... it finally took and worked out well.

The doors after wall paper and painting:

And here is everything put back together:

Total cost for the makeover: $0!!! Everything was left over from previous projects.

And the best part - as we're thinking about painting our kitchen cabinets, this was the perfect project to learn about what we were really facing.