Nikki's Niche- Bathroom Sign Repurpose

Here's a pre-silhouette-esque tutorial for you.... Something for EVERYONE to do with the simplest of tools....paper, printer and a STEAK knife! Yeah, you read right.

I started with a bathroom fixture...not sure how I got it or where it came from. It was a little too flowery for my husband's taste...

I started by spray painting this part turquoise.

While that dried I washed a section of a military parts sorter that we've used for a variety of projects in our house.

It used to be a divider between some shelves.

I printed off a a design {which, yes, is from a silhouette} in segments so that it was big enough to cover the area I wanted to paint.

I taped it down to the metal so that it wouldn't move.

And then, using the stake knife you see in the upper corner of the picture, I preceded to cut the letters from the paper. To be honest, it worked fabulously!

I painted the letters with acrylic paint- probably not my best choice (I'd love advice on other options for next time).

I wanted a little more color ...so I reapplied the paper pieces and took it back outside to spray paint.

It certainly looked more "rustic".

I took a sander to it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a little red under the green paint.

We trimmed the edges a bit so that it would fit better into the center of the holder.

And here it is...the first of my downstairs bathroom...stencil-cut with a steak knife and painted with dollar-store brushes.

Merry Makers....Pinterest Project's Chalk Paint Crib RePurpose Project

Courtney and I have come across a number of amazing women since we started MMM. Miranda and Jamie are two incredible, talented and very generous women we have had the pleasure of working with and {hopefully} one day actually meet in-person! Their pictures ring familiar to me...perhaps its what happens when you craft/work/find inspiration with someone you adore. We are happy to introduce them to you...or rather have them introduce themselves. ;)

Hi! We are Miranda & Jamie and we blog over at The Pinterest Project.

We are two friends who found ourselves experiencing stay at home motherhood for the first time within a few months of each other and knew we had to find a way to keep ourselves sane through all the sleepless nights, dirty diapers, cheerios and heart meltingly sloppy kisses. Our blog was born out of an addiction to Pinterest. We spent so much time pinning and emailing pins to each other that we decided to use the pins we loved as motivation to cook for our families, decorate our homes, make fun accessories or clothing and just about anything else that caught our eye.

We tackle a new pin four times a week and then blog about its success (or sometimes, even an epic fail makes its way into the blog posts! Hey, we're real and we're not perfect and sometimes our projects are big, fat failures...) It's been an incredibly fun way to utilize Pinterest AND to get to know other amazing bloggers while we do it. Also, every Monday, we have a series that we call Hit or Miss Mondays, where we highlight what we think were the big hits or misses that week on Pinterest. It's a way to get to know us and our sense of humor. (We like to laugh...and poke fun at ridiculous things)

In addition to our Pinterest addiction, we MIGHT have a small addiction to all things Mindy Mae.  Mindy Mae's Market has such a great selection of fun craft items, it's hard not to buy everything they post!

One of the things that caught our eye recently was their chalkboard paint kit - we'd seen the make your own chalkboard pins on Pinterest, and were eager to give it a try.  For $3.50, Mindy Mae's sent us their kit:

Now, what to do with a make your own chalkboard paint kit?  Miranda had scored a free drop side crib from someone online, and we had seen a pin on Pinterest about how to turn a crib into an art table.  When the babies were napping, we did just that.  We set the crib up, omitting the front part (the drop side).  

We chose a bright blue paint for the chalk board, followed the directions that were provided in the chalkboard kit and painted it onto some mdf that we got from Home Depot.  They cut it for us, the same size as the crib mattress.  Once the board was painted, we sanded it down and placed it on top of the mattress springs.  Added the Beckett banner from his recent birthday party, a few $1 buckets from the Target dollar bins mounted on Command strip hooks, a few toddler safe crayons, some paper and a dry erase board.

No, we don't make the kids draw outside - we need to move this art table upstairs to the nursery!

This was such a fun project to do - the creative possibilities are endless, it was simple and easy to finish, and we love that we could choose a fun color for the chalkboard table top.  Thank you Mindy Mae's Market for helping us with such an awesome project!

~miranda & jamie