#DIYQUEEN

Time to catch up on some blogging folks. As some of you might know, I am now referred to as "mrs. manzanares" since I was married to my best friend in June. Awww mrs. manzarares.. how sweet that sounds :) ANYWHO... Chance & I are the typical "poor married students" and we've been living in this adorable apartment in cedar city as of late. I've always had a dream to become an interior designer so I've been waiting for the day to decorate my own home for as long as I can remember. Since our wallets are thin I've had to come up with my own ways of decorating our house. It's been so much fun! My family gives me a lot of crap because I recently did a lot of diy for our wedding. It was a LOT of work but it did save us some money! I don't really mind getting made fun of as long as my house looks cute :) I've done a lot more crafts then the ones I've posted, but I'm too lazy haha. I will post my quilt before and after when it's finally finished! oh and I am kicking myself in the butt for not taking before and after pictures of all of my projects.... shucks.

DIY project #1

Mr. & Mrs. sharpie paint mugs

*as promised miss sam askerlund ;)
estimated cost: around 10$ depending on mug cost (mine were 50 cents each!)

Now mine don't look near as pretty as my "pinspiration" mugs, but I think they're pretty darn cute! Oh and I also made one for my dad because it was fathers day!
1. I went to the D.I. and found some plain white mugs.
2. I dropped by the craft store and picked up some red and black oil-pased paint sharpies! Did you know there is such thing?! I was so excited about it! I also bought some clear coat water-resistant spray. (most sharpie mug tutorials don't say much about it so I think it's optional)
3. When I got home I drew up my best immitation of the mugs. One side had words and the other side just had lips and a mustache so it looks like you are wearing them while you drink haha
4. I placed the mugs in the oven and let the mugs heat up WITH the oven so they didn't crack. I baked them for 30 minutes at 350 degrees
5. let the oven cool down while the mugs are still inside.
6. water-resistant spray coat and let dry
VIOLA! All finished! We use them all the time for milk and cookies :)

Pinspiration

My Creation

DIY project #2
Burlap Bow & door Wreath
estimated cost: around 12$ depending on DIY grape vine wreath or store bought

1. Craft store trip! I bought an oval sized grapevine wreath and some polka-dot burlap ribbon! it was so cute I couldn't resist!
2. If you don't already have a glue gun and glue sticks you'll need to get some of those also
3. I made a medium sized circle of burlap ribbon and glued it shut (this was to make the "bow" part)
4. I cut a little strip of burlap and wrapped/glued it around my loop in the middle to create the "pinch"
5. for the tails of the bow I folded the ribbon in half (you could cut it but it does fray a lot) and I glued them to the backside of the bow.
6. I cut little snippits from the bottom of the tails ( to create a V shape at the bottom)

Pinspiration

My creation

DIY project #3

D.I. painted vase (I made mine aqua and red to match our bedspread)

Estimated cost: $3 dollars (seriously my vase was 1$, the ugly bouquet was 1$, and the paint was a whopping 80 cents)

I liked this one a lot because rather than spray-painting over the vase and making it loose it's "glassy look" you just pour the paint inside! It makes it look really cute and fancy!

1. pick up any cute glass vase from D.I. 

2. 80 cent acrylic paint from craft store

3. pour in paint and spin the vase around a little bit. after a while you can just flip the vase upside down and let the paint drip down the sides. it will seem like you need more paint, but trust me... it just goes REALLY slow haha I used way too much and ended up with a pool of paint dried in the bottom when I flipped it back up for a day. 

4. I also found an ugly red-rose bouquet at D.I. which I'm thinking some bride made on her own for her wedding? haha it was ugly... lots of little sparkly thinks poking out and stuff. I just snipped them off

Pinspiration

My creation

DIY project #4
Painting and Distressing D.I. furniture finds
estimated cost: $75 for D.I. furniture $30 for paint, primer, paintbrush

This was a lot of fun for me! my friend Tati helped me out a lot on it. I found some bedside tables and a dresser with "potential" at D.I. for our house and decided I would make them look great! haha so after months of sitting in the garage I started this project.

1. SANDING. It took a long time to sand them but it wasn't too hard. The dresser was real wood so that was lovely to work with! Since the bedside tables were the fake crap we just lightly roughed them up a bit so the paint would stick nicely
2. PRIMER. make sure you always use primer! I think it makes the paint stay on better and if you are distressing it afterwards it gives a nice little white color underneath the paint.
3. paint and distress (the fun part!) After two coats of paint we were ready to rough them up a bit. as if they weren't "rough" before haha We just took a piece of sandpaper and scuffed up the edges here and there. You can do it as little or as much as you want! it's just a matter of opinion.
4. I added new hardware so the drawers could pull in and out easily but most furniture will still be in good condition

My 2 pinspirations (bottom is pottery barn for around 300$)

My creations

I'm still searching for some cute handles for the bottom two drawers

I really wish I would have taken before and after pictures of these!
The dresser was white & had grandma floral on it! haha
and the bedside tables were ugly oak brown color

DIY project #5
Eclectic deer head
estimated cost: $8 (I already had black paint, I just paid for the wood round)

1. I went to the craft store and bought a sanded wood oval for $8
2. I printed out a silhouette of a deer head or any other kind of silhouette you'd like
3. cut out the deer from the paper keeping the paper in tact. you'll be using the paper to paint with, not the cut out.

Pinspiration: being sold on Etsy for 40$

4. tape paper to wood and paint over the empty space making sure that the paper doesn't lift up on the edges or corners
5. gently lift off paper and admire your cute creation :)

my creation