My Ikea 'Rast' Remake

Description: Remake your plain pine, unfinished, three drawer Ikea 'Rast' dresser into a chic nightstand or end table in just 2 hours and just by adding some paint, wood stain, and new hardware!  

Materials: Ikea 'Rast' Three Drawer Dresser, Fast-Drying Polyurethane, white paint, paint brush, sand paper, wood stain, and new knobs.

Steps:

Step 1 // Materials Ready
Get out your materials. I used materials that my father-in-law already had. Which were semi-gloss white paint, a dark water based wood stain, and fast-drying polyurethane. I also had 2 different sized paint brushes, sand paper, and 2 wood blocks to place your dresser on while painting the bottom. 

Step 2 // Assemble
Put the dresser together. Follow the fairly confusing Ikea instructions. I resulted to my husband doing this part. Put everything together except for the drawer knobs!

Step 3 // Sanding
I sanded for a good 5 minutes on each dresser. Just so there weren't any pieces of wood sticking up. I really wanted to get them smooth.

 Step 4 // Stain and Paint
Stain the outside of the dresser. Apply two coats. I only did two coats so I could still see the wood. While those dry, paint the fronts of the drawers white. Apply two-three coats.

Step 5 // Sand and Polyurethane 
Sand the outside of the dresser again after the stain. This keeps the wood smooth still. Blow off the sand and paint on the polyurethane. Apple three coats of the poly. Allow the poly to dry over night.

Step 6 // New Knobs
Once everything is dry, add on the new knobs. I found mine at Hobby Lobby...originally I bought 10 different ones and had to take a week to narrow down on which ones. I ended up liking the simplest bronze floral ones the best.

Not the best "After" pictures, but they work.

And the total cost...

Ikea 'Rast' Dresser - $35 each 

(I got 2 so $70)

Hobby Lobby Antique Bronze Floral Metal Round Knob - $2.99 each 

(I got 12 at 50% off so $18)

Paint, wood stain, and polyurethane - $0 

(I already had it)

So I paid about $88 for two totally new nightstands, which can usually get quite expensive. So I am happy! Have any questions? I'd love to answer below!

Sweatshirt Remake

A couple weeks ago my sister and I decided to have a sister craft night. For this craft night we remade your everyday sweatshirt into something a little more special.

Sweatshirt #1 - This was my sister's sweatshirt. She added a leopard fabric collar and hearts on the elbows. HOW TO: 1. Cut out the shapes you want to add to your sweatshirt. 2. Pin the shapes onto the sweatshirt where you want them placed. 3. Then sew around the edges of them onto the sweatshirt.

Sweatshirt #2 - This was the sweatshirt I made for Matson. I changed the drawstring and changed the pocket from normal fabric to an old sweater. HOW TO: 1. Place your old sweater or other fabric on top of the sweatshirt's pocket. 2. Trace the sweatshirt's pocket onto the new fabric (or old sweater you're using for the pocket). Make sure to add about a 1/2 inch (at the least) for seam allowance. 3. Pin the new fabric (or old sweater) on top of the sweatshirt's pocket. 4. Sew the sweater just on top of the pocket. Which is a lot easier than taking off the old pocket, plus it makes the pocket stronger. 5. If your fabric is thick (like my old recycled sweater was), you may need a set of extra hands to feed in the sweater as you sew. 6. Remove the sweatshirt's normal drawstring and rethread a rope through the sweatshirt hood.

Sweatshirt #3 - This was my pocket sweatshirt and the simplest to make by far. HOW TO: 1. Find a pocket on a shirt that you like. 2. Trace that pocket shape onto a piece of paper or directly onto your fabric. Make sure to add about 1/4 to 1/2 inch for seam allowance. 3. Cut out your pocket. 4. Pin your pocket onto your sweatshirt wherever you want it placed. 5. Sew the pocket on. Obviously do not sew the top of the pocket so it is a functioning pocket.

Placemat to Pillow HOW TO

Thanksgiving is just a few days away crazy and so I thought I would share with you a little Thanksgiving craft I did this year. I was walking around my local Bed, Bath, and Beyond and found these cute Turkey placemats for $4.99. You can purchase the placemat here (Unfortunately they are now out of stock). You can purchase any placemat that has two layers of fabric that could be unpicked and stuffed. This only took me about 20 minutes and cost me $4.99 for each pillow (I already had the stuffing).

Materials: 

• Placemat(s)
• Poly Stuffing
• Seam Ripper (or small scissors)
• Sewing Machine (or needle and thread)

1. Choose your placemat that has two layers of fabric sewn together.

2. Unpick the seam about the length of your hand anywhere on the placemat with a seam ripper (or small scissors). I unpicked at the bottom of the placemat so it would be less noticeable where I resewed.

3. Stuff the placemat with any polyester stuffing. I used Joann's Fabric Stuffing.

4. Next, pin the ripped seam (or two sides of fabric) together.

5. Carefully sew the seam shut again. Press the stuffed pillow down so that you can get the fabric underneath the sewing machine. This was the hardest part.

 

6. You're done and NO ONE will ever notice that they were placemats! Yes, I succeeded.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Snack // Dried Pears

One of my favorite things about fall is dried pears. I have always loved them and I do not like store bought ones, which is why I must dry my own pears every fall. It is so simple and the yummiest snack. Dried pears are much sweeter than apples (which is probably why I like them so ddaaang much).

Using a small paring knife (or whatever knife you prefer) you first cut the skin off your pears. Then slice the pears in thin 1cm thick slices. Place the slices on your dehydrator racks. Dry 6-8 hours or whatever your dehydrator's directions say for pears/fruit.

My Tips:

• Use as much of the pear as you can. I literally have the thinnest core of the pear left. Even the smallest pieces still dry to be yummy dried pears! 
• I cut and put my pears on the dehydrator right before bed, then I wake up and they are done. I then cut more in the morning and leave them there all day. Repeat.
• I bought my Nesco American Harvest Snackmaster Encore Dehydrator and Jerky Maker from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. 

DIY American Pants

I saw this DIY project pinned on Pinterest (follow me on Pinterest here. My username is just ericatanner) and I just knew I had to make them. So a couple days ago I made em.

I obviously didn't make shorts like she did, instead I went for the pant route.

The woman's tutorial that I pinned, was super good and had some helpful hints. So I guess I am more of a testimonial saying that the tutorial I pinned is good! BUT I thought I would throw in some of my own helpful tips on what worked for me and what didn't.

I followed all of her same tips except:
1. I did not use a star stencil bought from the store, instead I used a Cricut to cut out our star shape.
2. I didn't use "Old Shorts", I went to Savers and bought some $3 old Eddie Bauer "Mom Jeans" but they kind of look like high waisted boyfriend jeans.
3. We used the same brand Simply Spray fabric paint, except our craft store was out of blue Simply Spray brand fabric paint so instead we used the Tulip brand blue spray paint. It didn't spray on as evenly but I actually ended up liking it a lot. Just spray far away because it sprays on in bigger drops.
4. I did not use a normal paint brush to do the stars. I used a foam craft brush which worked good. Less paint is better (this stays true for the whole project)!
5. For the stars I used normal house (wall) white paint that we had laying around. But I am sure even acrylic or any kind of white paint would work. I just would not spray the paint on.

I made these mistakes: 
1. Really really really really make sure that you cut out some cardboard or something to go in between the pants/shorts so that it does not go through. Cardboard that fits completely across the whole width of your pant legs.

Cardboard between legs when spray painting so it does not leak.
Then also for the stars so you have something hard to press against.

See this is my mistake. Cardboard didn't go all the way across.

2. I bought the Simply Spray brand for white but it said "Textured White", which may be the only white that the Simply Spray brand has. It seriously came out textured and dried kind of bumpy. I would not use this again. I instead would buy the Tulip brand white paint or maybe your craft store has just a plain white (not textured) Simply Spray.

Me wearing them this morning.
Yes, I cut my head off on purpose.
You don't wanna see my morning hairdo.

One thing I really learned was that not every stripe or star is going to be perfect. Just go with it and it will end up cute! Mine is definitely not perfect. The mess ups are ok! I can't wait to wear these all day today.

Happy 4th of July!

My Twist on a Pinterest Pin - Balloon Tutorial

I am sure, you have all seen this pin or similar ones on Pinterest.

This woman tied different pictures to the end of ballons for an anniversary.
via

I thought it was such a cute idea so I did my own twist on it for Matson's birthday last weekend (that you probably already read about in his birthday post from February 12th, here). As I have said many a times, I love decorations and I love birthdays and I love make the birthday person feel super special. So if you are like me then I thought you would love to see! And for those of you that like things laid out for you step by step (like me)...then here you go!

1. Buy your balloons. If your birthday person is 12, then buy 12 or 24 then buy 24. I bought all sorts of colors to make it fun and if you are buy lots take a big car, my little bug was not so fun to squeeze 24 balloons into, made for quite the adventure ride home. haha.

2. Choose out your printable labels. I have a few pinned here. And write/type out 24 (or whatever number your birthday person is turning) reasons you love them, like them, or funny things about them on the labels.  You can totally laugh at my funny/cute reasons I love Matson or you can steal some ideas for your own! I chose to type mine because a) I type faster than I write and b) all the cute fonts on my computer beat my sometimes messy handwriting.

3. Cut out your labels.

4. Hole punch your labels. If you printed on regular copy paper, it is better to punch them on the shorter side in the center, rather than the corner so that they do not rip when you tie them to the ballons.

My little sister loved #14's reason why I love Matson. He really does.

5. Tie the labels onto the end of the ballons. I tied my labels at the center of the ribbon so they were higher and could be seen better.

6. Place them around in one room so the whole room looks filled up! The little girl I nanny loved helping me do this, she loved choosing where each color went in the room. 

7. And your little birthday gift and decoration in one is finished!


I pulled this little surprise off and Matson loved it...he's sentimental he seriously is. He told me that he walked in the door looking down at his phone or something then ran into a string and looked up so happy to see so many balloons!

Such a great surprise and only cost me about $16 (and would obviously be cheaper for less balloons). I bought my balloons at Zurchers, where the plain colored ballons with helium are 67 cents each.

P.S. You can totally follow me on Pinterest here.