Inspire Me- Serving Trays

I found 4 matching trays for a steal and I needed some inspiration for ways to up the anty on them! Here is what I found to get those creative juices flowin....

Prudent Baby

A to Z Celebrations

Paisley Passions

Eat.Live.Shop

Jenn Ski

Addicted 2 Decorating

A Place For Us

Back 2 Vintage

Katie Brown Home Workshop

japanese zakka

Home Decorators Collection

Crate & Barrel

Decor Hacks

Everyday in Stilettos-This is her before, but I love it!

Daily Danny

Piece Fleet

Shared From Way Over Here

Design, Decor

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work I go!

Decoupage Fabric Desk

Hands down, my fave-fave-fave project to date.

Let me paint a picture....

I was wandering aimlessly through the ARC at 9:46 last Monday morning, when suddenly a  vibrant light shone out from across the store, I was catapulted through the aisle and grabbed this baby with wide open arms.

Her pricetag read $25.99 and I was hooked but then a lovely employee whispered in my ear, "white tags are half off today." I pushed that monster up to the register immediately. A nice man tried to help me by loading ii onto a cart to wheel through the store and up to the register, but I threw an elbow lest he try to steal my new-found treasure. I mean, seriously, check out these amazing pulls!

I would have paid $25.99 just for the nine drawer pulls. But I got the whole shebang for $13.00!

I have been wanting to try decoupaging fabric onto a piece of furniture for some time and this was it. I hit the jackpot at Hancock's last week in their bargain bin. Remnants for $5.00 a yard. I found a bunch of beautiful patterns and I decided to dive right in.

I poured through 6 different tutorials for the process and decided to start by painting the entire piece of fabric with one coat of decoupage. This makes it easier to handle and prevents any fraying while cutting to fit.

While that was drying I stripped and sanded this beauty. I painted the base of the desk yellow, the edges black, the bottom inside of the drawers blue,  and the top I left natural wood with 2 coats of polyurethane.

Next, I turned the fabric upside down and laid each drawer front on top of it.
I traced each and then cut out, then trimmed, and trimmed again.

Then I DecouPaged (the DecoArt version of Mod Podge and it works GREAT!) each piece onto each drawer front (2 coats) and trimmed the fabric edges again.

I had to use my tiny drill bit and drill holes to get the hardware screws through that thick fabric. I got all the handles back on and when I put the drawers in each opening I realized I had to trim and sand again. Apparently all those coats of paint, DecouPage, and polyurethane added about a half inch and just enough to prevent the drawers from opening and closing smoothly.

However, all the hard work was totally worth it, because this piece is SO frreakin cool!

Check out that fun blue poppin out when the drawer is opened

And I just adore the pulls!

This turned out so nicely, I might give the fabric finish another try.

You likey?

Free Holiday Card Templates

My amazing photographer friend, Nichole and I were working on my christmas cards last weekend and slaving away to find  a photo where I wasn't blinking, my daughter wasn't making a weird face, my son wasn't looking up at the birds...and you get the picture.

Anyway, I found tons of cute and {FREE} templates. Halfway through our adventure I stopped and said to myself,

"I may know a person or two who would like to know where to find all of these!"

So here you go, links to some great cards!

Becky Higgins Freebies- 11 Templates!

Amy Peterman - 2 Templates

Milk and Honey Designs- 2 Templates

The Crafting Chicks - 5 Templates

Summertime Designs- 4 Templates

Simple as That- 3 Designs

2 Moms Talk - 1 Template

Thoughts After Dirty Diapers- Look around she has a few on her site

Jeni Ehlert - 1 Template

Miss Bae Photography- 1 Template

Manda Girl- 1 Template

Simple as That (AGAIN)- 3 Templates

Digital lady Syd- This is front and back and VERY cute

Kellie Ridgell- 1 Template

Whew, that about wore me out! Look at what Nichole came up with for us!

I  love it, and it totally captures the craziness of our lives in 2011 with a 2 and 4 year old!
Go check out Nichole's blog and website...especially if you live in the Denver area. She is amazing and sweet and has great packages and prices.

Thankful

Click on each photo to get to original sources