Week 3 Projects -- Spring Clean -- VOTE FOR YOUR FAVE!!

Time to vote for you favorite week 3 project!  The theme this week is Spring Clean.  Contestants were asked to create something out of what they had on hand -- buy nothing! 
 Scroll down through the projects and vote using the poll at the bottom! :)  All projects are anonymous.  Poll will be open through Wednesday at 11:59 pm Central time.  Come back Friday to see the winners revealed!  And follow along with OMTWI so you don't miss the rest of the competition this month! :)  

All I can say is good luck voting this week -- these girls brought their A game!!  My mouth is hanging wide open and I have to judge these projects!!

Project #1 -- The Princess Peach Dress

I loved this week's challenge!  Let's be honest; I totally need a challenge like this every week.  Maybe then I'd actually get through my slightly ridiculous stash of fabric.  Maybe.  Please tell me that some of you buy fabric just because it's pretty too?  Quite a bit of what I buy fabric wise is because it's pretty and not necessarily because I have a plan for it... YET.  The "yet" part is important; I always come up with something eventually!!

For this week's "Spring Cleaning" challenge I give you:

Can you tell a six year old named the dress?  Haha!  Super Mario is well loved by the kid's in my life.  Isn't my niece so cute?!  At one point I told her to say "I'm Princess Peach."  Instead she said, "I'm Princess Mario!"  Then cracked up.  She's so funny. :) 

I've had both of these fabrics for a while.  The pink one I got for like two bucks at Savers!!  Thrift stores can be awesome for getting really nice/pretty fabrics for cheap!!  The bridal lace/chiffon I got with a 50% off coupon from Joann's... mostly because I had a 50% off coupon. ;)  And the bunny button's were just some cute buttons I had picked up a while ago.  Together I think they make a pretty cute Easter dress!  (How perfect are the bunny buttons for an Easter dress?!)

All in all, I LOVE the end result of this little dress (that I designed)!  (I think my niece likes it too.) ;)

 

Project #2 -- Quatrefoil Mirror

I kept coming up with different ideas for this week's theme, but they all had the same problem. For everything I thought of, I would have had to buy at least one thing to make it work.

As I was searching around for something I could do, I came across this mirror from Ballard Designs, and was able to make my own version with only things I had on hand.

I started with an old mirror we had in storage, and a piece of wood that had been part of the crate used to ship our new bathroom vanity in.  My husband helped me cut it to the right size to fit into the mirror, and I braved the jigsaw for the first time to cut out the quatrefoil design.  Since the mirror I was using was rectangular, I used three quatrefoil shapes instead of just one. My husband helped me with the first one, but I did the other two completely on my own. It's addicting.  I'll definitely be using the jigsaw again.

I painted it and used a black glaze to emphasize the detail of the mirror frame.  Then I glued the board to the mirror and I was done! I actually like this one better than the original, especially the price.  Theirs retailed for $269. Mine? Made completely with what I already had on hand, for a grand total of $0.

 

Project #3 -- Tuxedo Dress

This weeks challenge was especially exciting for me because I have been dying to do something with my huge pile of "maybe I can make something out of this" clothing. Every time I go through my closet for spring cleaning, I create 3 piles. One is the donate pile, another is the trash pile, and the third is the craft pile.

Now this craft pile has been growing and growing and it was time to really evaluate the "maybe I can make something out of this" craft pile and whether or not I was actually going to do something with those clothes. But, thanks to 1 Month 2 Win It, I had the perfect opportunity to sift through those clothes and find something spectacular to make. Hence the tuxedo dress was born. I found an old tuxedo shirt my husband wore in high school when he waited tables. It was very dated but in really good condition. That is when I decided to use it as a dress for a little girl. I love the pleating on the old tuxedo shirts and it is very hard to replicate so I used that as my main inspiration. Then to make the dress more feminine I decided to add some ruffles to the bottom, and nothing says feminine as much as pink. So I looked through my scrap fabric supply and found a bunch of strips of fabric that I had used on a few baby quilts I made. They coordinated perfectly and they weren't even from the same line or manufacturer. I had to piece together several strips but with ruffles you can't even tell. Finally I went through my stash of trims and buttons. I found some yellow rick rack that I added to define the waistline and some random pink, brown, and yellow buttons to add down the front. This dress is fun and flirty, perfect for spring.

Project #4 -- Family Tree Wall Art

When I first heard the theme this week would be Spring Cleaning, I really wanted to take something in our house that I wouldn't normally use, and incorporate it into a project. So I headed to our garage rather than my craft room. (this is not normal for me) I found a scrap piece of plywood and decided to do some wall art with it!

 

It is based on some similar art pieces I've seen in home catalogs-and I love how it turned out. I first made a template with some paper for the branch shapes-working with some frames I grabbed from around the house. Then I cut them from the wood, sanded and painted (frames as well), and hung them up with some holes drilled in the back.

  I printed out some OLD family photos (on simple card stock) to fill in the picture frames for now-and cut the FAMILY out of some vinyl I had. I just love how it turned out! It's the perfect large scale piece for my living room wall!

Project #5 -- Self Standing Mirror

The hard part of this week's challenge wasn't so much what to do as it was what to finish! (I think I have enough stuff in my stash to supply a years worth of this theme.)It did give great motivation to finish up a project I've had on the books since September...

I seriously LOVE mirrors, and even more, the beautiful standing floor mirrors!!!

 Can't say however, that I can afford one.

The one I drool over from Pottery Barn  is over $600.

So after a good searching of my house, I found everything I needed to give making my own a try...

Some 1x6 boards, a few strips of trim molding, hinges, 1x2's and a sad little on-the-door mirror.

I (cautiously) popped off the blue trim from the mirror, cut down the wood, sanded, puttied, re-sanded, stained, and assembled.

And in the end came out with a piece I'm absolutely tickled pink over!

(Pottery Barn eat your heart out)

Thanks for another fun week and for helping to lighten my to-do load!

Project #6 -- Chevron Wall Art

I have been planning on doing a project with a chevron pattern for quite awhile. It seems that chevron is the new pink these days, Hubs actually calls it a lightning bolt pattern. true story.

I've been wanting to buy wrapped canvases to do my  project, buy after realizing I would need to sell my left kidney to pay for them I decided to use shoe box lids instead.

To make my chevron pattern I first primed and spray painted my shoe box lids. To get the pattern onto the box lids I used a quilting marker to trace the pattern. The pattern was traced with nice dotted lines which made it very easy to see where I needed to stick my painters tape.

Once the lids were dry I then pulled the tape off each box. I used acrylic white paint to do a few touch ups and then I hung them in our bedroom. Quick trick: to reduce the amount of holes in the wall I used two sided tape to stick the lids to the wall. When they were positioned exactly where I wanted them I hammered a nail directly above each lid. Then I removed the tape and hung the lids back on the nails. kapeesh?

So during my "Spring Cleaning," I made something old into something new, saved alot of moola, covered up an ugly wall, and reassured Hubs that some junk can actually serve a useful purpose. I would say it was a victorious day for all.

Time for vote for your ONE favorite project!








Come back Friday to see the winner!