DIY project Archives - Darling Darleen | A Lifestyle Design Blog

DIY Modern Blanket Ladder

DIY Modern Blanket Ladder

One of the ways to jump into the new year, is to tackle some DIY projects that have been lingering on that “do-be-completed” list. What better way to start off with the first DIY project of the year than with this DIY modern blanket ladder. With the cold weather and winter blankets out of the closet, this DIY modern blanket ladder is going to get quite a bit of use before the season ends. And it is a cute accent to my other home decor. This DIY modern blanket ladder project is so easy to complete. Once you get all the supplies, it really only takes about 30 minutes. And in 30 minutes, you’ll have a new furniture piece to add to your home for under $50.

First thing you want to do is head to Home Depot and pick up the following supplies. To save time, you could even saw the dowels down to size right at Home Depot before you check out.

5 wooden dowels (3/4″ x 48″)

8 Copper pressure tee (3/4″ for all openings)

tape measure

pencil

hand saw or circular saw

white spray paint

rubber circular pads

The modern blanket ladder is about 5 feet tall and 22″ across.

Step 1: Using your tape measure and pencil, cut with hand saw or circular saw the wooden dowels down to the following measurements:

4×20″, 2×18″, 6×12″ and 2×8″. You will have a few extra wooden pieces left over.

Step 2: Spray paint your dowels and let it dry completely. I choose white, but use whatever color you want. Or stain the dowels to get a weathered wood color. Or you can even just skip this step and keep it a natural color.

Step 3: Okay so the 20″ dowels are used for the steps of the ladder. The 18″ dowels are the bottom legs of the ladder. The 12″ dowels are used between each step. And the 8″ dowels are used at the top of the ladder.

Step 4: Take the copper pressure tees and then build your ladder, putting each dowel into each opening. Make sure you push to dowels down so they are secure.

Step: 5: Place your rubber pads on the bottom of the ladder. Then ENJOY!

Easiest DIY Modern blanket Ladder to make! Don’t you agree?

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Easy 5-minute Watercolor Paint Project

Easy 5-minute Watercolor Paint Project

Need some artwork to fill a wall in a room? And don’t want to pay a fortune for that artwork? Want instead an easy 5-minute watercolor paint project that is quick but makes a statement? That has been me this past week. My guest room has been majorly neglected, and now that I have family coming into town for the upcoming holiday. It’s encouraging me to address the issue. Since I’ve waited until the last minute, I don’t have much time to buy prints and artwork online. So, my next idea is to just DIY it. I’ve been so inspired by all the minimal artwork I see online and on Pinterest, like this Etsy shop was my inspiration and is so reasonably priced for real artwork. If you don’t want to DIY, just buy it! I had all the watercolor paint supplies on hand from this watercolor project and with my limited timeframe, I decided to make this easy 5-minute watercolor paint project.

Easy 5-minute Watercolor Paint Project

Supplies:

Watercolor

Brush

Watercolor Paper

Water

Palette or Paper Plate

Instructions:

Make sure you use watercolor paper! Watercolor paper absorbs the color and moisture. Also, as your watercolor dries, the paper won’t warp if it’s watercolor paper.
Decide your paper size and whether you want the paper horizontal or portrait. Having a frame on hand, and a location of where you want to hang it already picked out helps make the process easier. I wanted to hang my artwork in my guest bedroom with the frames hanging portrait.
To keep it minimal, I stuck with black watercolor, but once I got the hang of it, I mixed in purple, pink and the blues in the black to create some really beautiful grayish tones. That is one of the great things about working with watercolor is how easy to mix colors. Having a palette is a necessary tool when working with watercolor. It makes it so you can easily mix your colors.
The more water you use to dilute your colors the lighter the watercolors will be. As you can see, I used a lot of water to make the black more of a gray tone and more faint.
It is the nature of watercolor paint to bleed if wet paint is applied too close to another color. This is a great opportunity to create beautiful visual effects.
Begin with simple shapes, swirls and loops. Overlap triangles with triangles. Square over squares. Hearts over hearts. Octagon over octagons. Sometimes simplicity makes a huge statement.
Let it dry and then frame!

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DIY Fabric Pumpkin

DIY Fabric Pumpkin with Real Stem

Eeekk! Pumpkin decor for Halloween is always a festive away to get into the spooky season. Pumpkins are also an easy way to then transition right into Thanksgiving. I keep my pumpkins up all throughout October and November. So, it’s nice to have pumpkin decor that will last, well, forever! And fabric can easily do that trick! This DIY fabric pumpkin tutorial is so, so easy! If you don’t know how to sew, there is no excuse because this is a great beginner project! Also, if you have children who want to learn how to sew, this is also a great project for them to take on. Easy like learning how to tie a shoe. This DIY fabric pumpkins are also so cute! You can really get creative on the fabric choices. I had the black and white fabric laying around so I decided to stick with those fabrics and go with a more modern approach to making the pumpkins. The pumpkins are then finished off with a real pumpkin stems so it gives it a cute creative twist and brings them more to life.

DIY Fabric Pumpkin How To

Supplies for DIY Fabric Pumpkin

fabric–cotton, velvet works great too. Not too heavy of fabric

pumpkin stems

rice or beans

fiber filler

scissors

needles

thread

hot glue

Instructions for DIY Fabric Pumpkin

Cut a 9″ or greater circle out of your choice of fabric. I used a plate for my guide. Use anything circular to trace, but I suggest not to go smaller than 9″ (unless you want a really small pumpkin). The smaller pumpkins pictured are made from a 9″ circle. The larger ones are made from a 12″ circle.
Cut a long piece of thread, then thread your needle bringing the ends together. Double knot the two ends together. This will make the stitching a stronger hold.

3. Taking your circle fabric, you will baste stitch all around the edge of the circle, making long stitches. To baste stitch, you pull the needle and thread through the fabric, so there is a knot on one side and all the thread is on the opposite side of the fabric. Then insert your needle in the fabric to the underside and then bring the needle back up to the front side, like pictured. Then pull and the thread will follow through the stitch. Repeat until you have baste stitch all around the edge of the circle.

4. Now you may see that the stitch is trying to pull. Cinch the fabric together so you get a good gathering of fabric. Keep the thread and needle attached!

5. Leave the end open and fill about 2/3 with rice or beans. With the rest of the space, fill with fiberfill until you get a good plump pumpkin.

6. Once filled, pull the thread and needle tightly together, closing up the end. Stitch the edges together, stitching back and forth until the end is tightly close. Then tight a knot in the thread, but don’t cut the thread and needle off quite yet. If you want a round, plumper pumpkin, you are pretty much done and could cut the thread and needle off. But if you want more of an oval shaped pumpkin, follow the next two steps.

7. Take the remaining attached thread and needle and push the needle from the top of the pumpkin and thread to the bottom of the center part pumpkin. Pull through tightly so there is a depression in the center.

8. Go up and down a few times until you get the desired results. Then knot the thread and cut off the last of the thread and needle.

9. Then take your hot glue and glue on the pumpkin stem in the middle, holding in place until it sticks.

You are done! See how simple and easy that is creating these cute DIY fabric pumpkin? You can make a whole little pumpkin family in just a few minutes.

Here are some other fabric and velvet pumpkins:

DIY Mud Cloth Pillow Using Freezer Paper

DIY Mud Cloth Pillow Tutorial Using Freezer Paper

I’ve been wanting to do a DIY mud cloth pillow tutorial for awhile and have seen some really great basic tutorials online. But I wanted to do a DIY with freezer paper creating the look of a mud cloth pillow that had more complicated patterns. I played around with some different techniques last week, and I came up with three different freezer paper techniques that you can easily and quickly do to achieve the look of an African mud cloth pillow. I also included 4 different patterns that you can download and apply to your pillows. Or you can always get mud cloth pattern ideas with a simply search on the internet.

One of the first things you need is a blank pillow cover. I picked up a few canvas pillows at Hobby Lobby, but Ikea has white cotton pillow covers in a variety of sizes and also Amazon. Or if you have the time and want to keep your costs down, you can pick up a painter’s drop cloth and sew pillow covers in whatever size you’d like.

I am going to show you three DIY mud cloth pillow techniques using freezer paper. Below the tutorials I include 4 different patterns you can download

DIY MUD CLOTH PILLOW–FREEZER PAPER AND PAINT

Supplies

Freezer Paper

Fabric paint

Sponge

Cricut Machine OR exacto knife

This technique is your typical freezer paper stencil similar to making a t-shirt. Using fabric paint, this will give you the best results with mud cloth patterns. All I did was upload one of the patterns in my Cricut explore program (which I love and try to use it whenever possible) and then cut the image on the freezer paper (shiny side down). Once cut, iron the freezer paper on your pillow. Using a sponge, paint over and then gently pull off the freezer paper.

If you don’t have a Cricut, then print out one of the patterns below (or find one online). Using the graphite paper technique (tutorial here), transfer the image onto the freezer paper. Then use an exacto knife to cut the image. Make sure you cut the freezer paper the size of the pillow case. Then transfer and cut image. Iron freezer paper, then paint

2. DIY MUD CLOTH PILLOW– Freezer Paper and Sharpie Pen

Supplies

Freezer Paper

Letter-size Paper

Glue

Sharpie

Printer

The second DIY mud cloth technique is fast, and if you love the sharpie look, this is your technique! First thing, take a letter-size printer paper and glue the matted-side of the freezer paper down onto the printer paper. The shiny side of the freezer paper will be face up. Make sure to cut down the freezer paper so it is the size of the letter-size paper. You have now create a reusable transfer paper. Now put the freezer paper in your printer making sure the image will print on the shiny side. After it is printed, position the image on the pillow cover and firmly press the image (shiny side of freezer paper) onto the pillow cover. The ink from the printer will lightly transfer onto the pillow cover. You can wipe the image off the transfer paper and re print. Repeat until the pattern covers your desired area of the pillow. You will see the pattern lightly on the pillow. Take a sharpie and trace the pattern to make it darker.

3. DIY MUD CLOTH PILLOW–FREEZER PAPER AND PRINTER INK

Supplies

Freezer Paper

Letter-size Paper

Glue

Printer with Black Ink

Spray bottle with water

Fabric Paint Sealer Spray

The third and final technique is the fastest and creates an Ikat African pattern style. The ink isn’t perfect but I love how organic and natural it looks. Similar to the previous technique, you will create a transfer paper using the freezer paper and print the image onto the shiny side of the freezer paper. Then lightly spray with water your pillow cover. Don’t soak it, just damp it. Wipe up any puddles. Then flip over the transfer paper with the printed image onto the blank pillow cover. Firmly press. The ink from the printer will show up more than having a dry pillow cover. You can wipe the image off the transfer paper and reprint. Repeat until the pattern covers your desired area of the pillow. Then let it dark 24 hours. After it is fully dry, take a fabric paint sealer spray and spray to seal the ink onto the pillow cover.

Hope you have fun creating your DIY mud cloth pillow! If you’d like to download some patterns to use on your pillow, links are below.

Rejuvenating Eyes and Lips with Patchology

Quick Breakfast Ideas On the Go

5 Tips for Baking With Kids

Mother’s Day Mini Flower Bouquet

Mother Daughter Matching Dresses

DIY Modern Blanket Ladder

Easy 5-minute Watercolor Paint Project

DIY Fabric Pumpkin

DIY Mud Cloth Pillow Using Freezer Paper

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