Tutorials Archives - Page 48 of 53

Build Your Own Cardboard Castle

September 14, 2009 By Michelle Barneck 9 Comments

The other day we went to visit daddy at work we came home with this computer box, courtesy of his co-worker Rex. My little guy had so much fun playing with it at the office that I knew it could be great fun.

I took one look at those gray pieces of packaging foam and immediately thought castle. They were perfect for little doors. I pulled out my dollar store duct tape and went to work!

At this point we had a pretty cool little fort, but every castle needs a tower so I grabbed one of our diaper boxes from Costco. I sliced off the top four inches or so and put it on top. Then, I grabbed a box cutter and sliced a hole to match. I secured it on with duct tape on the inside and outside.

The tower needed a little flair so I went around and made rectangle cut outs every few inches. I decided to tape the back flap to the side two, but leave the front one free so he could spy through the hole or push it down completely. I had some concerns about potential cardboard cuts (those suckers are nasty!) so I duct taped around all of the exposed edges.

Then, I decided the duct tape looked cool, so I taped the whole tower. This took longer than you would think. You could also spray paint it. I liked the look at this point, but was worried about the structural integrity of the foam doors, especially in the middle where my son grabbed them to shut them.

I cut a little piece of cardboard (about 1.5″ x 15 “) and taped it inside of the doors by where they close to reinforce where they would constantly be handled. By this time, I had emptied about a roll and a half of tape and just had to find a use for the emptied rolls. Enter door handles. These have since been ripped off, but they looked cool for couple days they lasted.

What a great little place for my little prince! We love our cardboard castle! Tonight we were using the handle holes as mail slots and he would stick cards (we got in a kids meal) through them then go inside to get his “mail.”

Total cost: $2 for duct tape
Boxes on hand
Box cutter on hand

Linking up with Trash to Treasure Tues on Reinvented and

on Naps on the Porch.

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Update A Brass Kitchen Light Fixture With Paint

September 8, 2009 By Michelle Barneck 24 Comments

Here she is in all her glory. I have hated this ugly brassy light fixture in my kitchen since I moved in 4 years ago. I finally got around to fixing her up with a new outfit. I chose a sleek black, mostly because I could not find oil rubbed bronze spray paint. Anyone know where to get that stuff? Home Depot and Lowe’s do not carry it.

I started off by nicely asking my hubs over a period of days to to take the fixture down. I had previously purchased the paint and primer (both Rust-oleum brand) shown below.

2. I Totally forgot to take pics of the cleaning and priming. I ran the glass parts through the dishwasher and wiped down the rest to make sure it was dust free. Then, everything got a coat of primer.

3. Once the primer was dry (follow the directions on the can) I added a coat of Satin Black. I laid the rings on some newspaper, but found that it stuck and left little pieces, so I moved to the garden ornament/paint can drying method.

4. I hung the actual fixture from a tree in my backyard and coated it with a coat of primer and two coats of black. Here is my disclaimer: follow the directions for drying times on your paint. I am lazy and did not care if I obliterated this ugly piece so I just waited until it looked and felt dry to add more coats and it did start to crackle a little in a few places (Mostly on the circle that attaches to the ceiling). Lucky for me, I they don’t really show and kind of add a bit of a worn look so yahoo for me.

5. Once it is all painted and dry, start reassembly. Put the rings back on the nice clean glass and once again start the requests to hang it. This time won’t take as many requests since your hubs has been eating with no light above the table. Even little son wanted in on the action. This is the one time he got to stand on the kitchen table without getting in trouble.

6. Hubs had a bit of a rough time with this at one point, so some of the paint on the chain rubbed off. Lucky for me, I chose to use black paint so these scratches and dings were easily touched up with a sharpie. I am so ghetto. 😉 My hubs suggested black finger nail polish which is a great idea had I been goth and kept black fingernail polish on hand at all times. I will be picking some up when it rolls out for Halloween just for times like these.

So here she is…from gold lemay (had to look up how to spell that) to little black dress!

Before After

Go see the other transformations on Reinvented’s Trash to Treasure Tues, Santuary Art’s “You should have seen it before” party and

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Nature Walk Bracelet

August 24, 2009 By Michelle Barneck 9 Comments

I totally stole this Nature Walk Bracelet idea from Martha. All you need is masking tape and I know you all have a roll stashed somewhere. I knew from the minute I saw this bracelet that my little guy would go crazy for it and I was right! Ours wasn’t so much a nature walk as a stroll through our cul de sac. That is as far as we made it before he had both of his bracelets full! We did not make ours to keep as Martha suggests, but I think that is a fun idea as I became rather attached to mine.

And yes, if you were wondering, I am totally freckled. And…no matter what they tell you…freckles won’t grow together to form a great looking tan. Let’s here it for freckles!

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YW Leadership Idea

August 17, 2009 By Michelle Barneck 2 Comments

Each month at our Young Women activity planning meeting we have a Leadership moment to teach the girls different aspects of a leader. I used this idea a few months ago when the meeting was at my house.

I had a coat rack with like 20 different hats (luckily between my son and I we had quite a few, then I borrowed more from family) for them to choose from. I had each of the girls pick a hat to wear, then read a description that corresponded with each hat of a quality they as a Young Women Presidency member would need to possess.

For instance: