DIY: Back to School Book Covers!

Confession: I am not actually going back to school. But I do miss shopping for school supplies - the smell of new binders, a fresh ream of college ruled paper, testing all the different pens to find the ones with the smoothest action... ah the memories. And perhaps this was a harbinger of my later love of paper crafts, but I always enjoyed making paper book covers out of brown paper shopping bags. 

It occurred to me the other day that just because I don't have any textbooks lying around, doesn't mean I can't dress up all my old paper backs with a little splash of color! So I hightailed it over to Michaels, carefully selected seven coordinated sheets of scrapbooking paper (59 cents each), and set out on the easiest project ever.

In case you don't remember how to do this, it's pretty simple. Here are the materials you need:

1. decorative paper
2. pen (I am using a metallic gold artist's pen, but you can use whatever you like)
3. scissors
4. a book

And here is what you do:

1. Trim the paper to remove any barcodes or other elements you don't want on there
2. Center the book in the middle of the paper (paper should be pretty-side down)
3. Make creases in the paper that align with the bottom of the book and the top of the book, so you're basically folding the paper lengthwise into three sections
4. Wrap the paper around the book, folding under the excess paper on the ends 
5. Tuck the covers into those newly created flaps
6. Write the name and author of the book on the spine, so you know which one it is

And this is what it should look like when you're done!

Now my little book collection is super adorable! Much better than the dog-chewed paper backs that I was too embarrassed to display before!

Now I can't wait to make over all my old books! 

PS Aren't my bookends adorable? I got them at Home Goods!

A Very Chair-y Seating Situation

It wasn't very long ago that I was on a desperate search for dining room chairs. The two that I pulled out of the dumpster didn't quite cut it in my new, larger, dining room. And buying them new is expensive! So I did what I do, and went to the flea market.

There, I found a set of four chairs in reasonably decent shape, just needing new seats - piece of cake! That same weekend, my mom showed up with two more chairs, of a similar style but with higher backs, also needing new seats. Presto, I have a set of six dining chairs!

A few weeks later, I wound up the lucky recipient of four more dining chairs that had previously been owned by my grandmother, and were not only in perfect condition, but were also delightfully Mid-Century Modern. Now I have ten dining room chairs in two very different styles. I think this is what they mean when they say "an embarrassment of riches."

But while I had a plethora of indoor seating, I was sorely lacking in outdoor seating. That is, until I had the idea to combine three of the chairs into a bench for my back porch! Here's what I did...

First, of course, I removed the existing seats, gave the chairs a rough sanding, and cut down the legs on the middle chair a bit, to make the heights all even.

I'm going for a shiny metallic finish, and I read somewhere that a coat of black paint underneath the metallic will help it shine. They don't really make black spray paint primer though, so I just used regular black spray paint. We'll see if it works! 

Then I had Garrett help me cut a piece of plywood to the right shape to stretch across all three chairs, including the little notched out piece in the back of the middle chair. 

Looking like a bench already! There are some reinforcements under the seats that you can't see - the plywood wasn't a sturdy enough base to keep the chairs from wobbling around when you lifted the whole thing up. We cut wood blocks and used them to attach the bottoms of the chairs together with long wood screws.

Once the seat was cut, it was time for the fun part - upholstery! I bought the fabric on etsy, and ironed on this vinyl coating, to make it waterproof. I didn't want to simply use outdoor fabric as I knew it would get dirty really quickly, living outside. And I didn't want the foam to get wet and deteriorate. With this iron on stuff, you can just hose off the seat when it gets dirty! The only bummer is that the vinyl only comes in 18" widths, so you have to cut two pieces and overlap them a bit. It's not hard, just a little time consuming. 

I used three inch high density foam (also from amazon, which was way cheaper than Joanns), spray adhesive, and my trusty staple gun to attach it all to the plywood backing.

I attached the seat to the newly assembled bench through the original seat screw holes, and voila! A totally cute outdoor bench that seats three!

Now all I need is a cute outdoor space to put these in. 

Gigantic Photo Strip!

I've been looking for an easy, innovative way to fill a skinny patch of wallspace, and today I hit on it: an oversized version of my favorite strip of photos from last year's County Fair.

First, I bought some 5/8" square poplar dowels from my local hardware store, with which to make a frame to stretch my canvas. They only came in 36" lengths, so I had to add 8" to the ends to get my desired 44" length.



My mother helped me glue and staple together a 44x10 frame, with crossbars to stablize it. We also puttied the joints, just to make sure the staples didn't create any bumps.



Then I printed my four black and white 8x10 photos on iron-on transfer paper, and cut a 14" wide piece of canvas cloth...



Ironed them on per the instructions on the packaging...



Let them cool...



Stapled the fabric on the frame, and done! Personalized art, perfect for my bedroom! If I had it to do over again, I would probably look for a prefab frame, so I didn't have to go through all the pain of sawing, gluing, stapling, puttying... ugh. My arms ache just thinking about it. But the result is pretty satisfactory, so it was worth the effort.