enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

26 projects / wrap up.

I am thrilled with how this birthday craft adventure turned out. Some of these were super simple. Some were much more involved. Some I already painted over (the color scheme in the finger painting no longer worked for me and I wanted the canvas). Some I'll be hanging on to for years. Some will be kept forever (I'd lose my mind if that blanket was destroyed). Twenty-six will always be remembered as the year Paul deployed for the first time and the year I made a lot of stuff.

Here are the links for each project and I starred my favorites.

1. marbled table lamp
2. finger painted canvas
3. quilted stripe pillow
4. hairpin leg coffee table*
5. decorative ampersand art*
6. painted & recovered chairs
7. hand stamped stationery*
8. fabric camera strap
9. simple striped dress
10. tye-dye t-shirts
11. recycled wood frames
12. pinwheel painting*
13. painted text wall art*
14. metallic paint brush vase
15. rectangle bed quilt*
16. holiday stars
17. painted plant pot*
18. giant script art canvas*
19. recovered built in couches*
20. foldover vinyl clutch
21. graphic heart pillow*
22. simple maxi dress
23. yarn wrapped bottle vases*
24. knit checkerboard blanket*
25. driftwood wreath*
26. diamond painted trunk

It's been really fun sharing here on the blog over the past year. I got a comment a few weeks ago if I'd no longer be blogging DIYs after I turned 27. Of course I will! They were here before and will continue now. Stay tuned for more information about my next birthday project. I'm really excited and can't believe I have to wait a week to make something. ;)

project 26 of 26 : a painted trunk.

This was not supposed to be the 26th project. I had it all planned out, remember? But then I found an inexpensive wood trunk and realized that what I had intended to do for #26 would be WAY better if I waited for Paul to get home to complete it. So I'll still be making it and sharing - just not before my birthday.

And really, this trunk is the perfect project to end on. It's so classically me for three reasons :

1. decided with little to no thought so there was no opportunity for second guessing.
2. uses just two colors & simple shapes.
3. perfectly imperfect.

I can usually tell when a project isn't right for me because it sits on my list and I hem and haw over how to complete it. The projects that I am meant to do are rushed and rarely thought through. That is exactly how this trunk came to be.

I bought this trunk on Saturday to use as a coffee table in our upstairs loft area. It was rad to begin with. I think it could have just been cleaned up a bit and worked as just a stained trunk. But I already have a stained brown coffee table. I wanted a bigger impact and I figured an $18 whim purchase was a good way to do it. If I grow out of this pattern or the color scheme no longer works in a year or so, I'll just repaint on top of it - OR - it will make a rad toy chest for our future littles.

(excuse the blurry & dark iPhone photos)

To get the look, I took off the hardware (except the hinges) and sanded the whole thing. I then painted two coats of ultra white satin finish wall paint. I let it dry then freehand taped off diamond shapes. I wanted the corners of them to be touching so with my thick tape I had to do them in stages. I added pink wall paint (I bought a small tester of Valspars Pink Burst at Lowe's) and then peeled up the tape and let it try again completely.

Then I added more tape to connect the corners of the already painted diamonds. When it started to look like that photo above I began to panic a bit. It looked like the diamonds were going to be totally wonky.

And of course, they are. But when you look at all of them together, they somehow work (at least in my head).

Once the top was done, I started going around the sides to fill it up. It wasn't too hard, but the corners got a little messed up because it was tricky to know what diamond points needed to match up.

I imagine it might seem a little odd? Crazy? Circus themed? But I am so pleased with it. Makes me smile and is totally different yet is going to fit with the rest of the place. (I think when there is more furniture in that room it won't be quite so loud.)

I have been having a hard time figuring out how to make the most of the space up in the loft. Now that I have a coffee table, my mind is whirling with ideas for the rest of it. I will share as progress gets made, but right now, I am waiting for our new couch to be delivered so our old couch can come upstairs.

And with that, I completed the 26 projects! I will be preparing a wrap up post to talk a bit more about all of them soon. Anticipating a question here... YES! I am absolutely doing a birthday project for 27. It's along similar lines but even better than the 26 projects. I'll be sharing the rules for it soon.

This is the final project!!

I decided to tackle 26 personal craft projects before I turn 27 on 02.22.12. You can follow my progress here on the blog or on pinterest.

See project 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,  20, 21, 22, 23, 24 & 25.

project 25 of 26 : a driftwood wreath.

I got my wreath completed.

Making a driftwood wreath to hang above the fireplace has been my goal since that first week in the new place when I found a handful of driftwood. Originally, I intended to make it more "wreath like" but lots of pinterest searching and an un-official poll on instagram helped me see that a sunburst was the way to go.

I didn't have a plan to hold it all together. I entertained the idea of a wreath form, nails & a staple gun. But finally just settled on hot glue. I used a plate as a circle template and hot-glued one piece to the next. Some of them held really well and others took a few more coats of glue.

It's fragile to move, but has been hanging on the wall for two days now and it's fine when it's not being touched. I am sure it will break on the drive back down to my house - I built it at my parents' place - but then I'll just glue it back together again.

Temporarily, it's hanging on a piece of twine, but when I stick it above our mirrored fireplace, I'll use fishing line to attach it to the ceiling. Then it will look as though it's floating. Hopefully I can get it to hang okay and will be sure to share photos when I do.

I am going to continue to collect driftwood and may still make a more traditional wreath for our front door. We'll see. I love driftwood. I never thought of myself as a "beach girl" and turns out, I totally am.

This is project 25 of 26.

I am attempting to tackle 26 personal craft projects before I turn 27 on 02.22.12. You can follow my progress here on the blog or on pinterest.

See project 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,  20, 21, 22, 23 & 24.

project 24 of 26 : a checkerboard knit blanket.

I finished.

And it's safe to say, this is one of my top five favorite projects ever. (Also in the top five : the headboard & the giant song lyric canvas - surprisingly, both are also black and white.)

But really, I love it. I love that the idea came from something similar but different. I love that is huge enough to wrap up in completely. I love that it's so soft. I love that it's perfectly imperfect, but doesn't have holes in it or any serious errors. I love that it got me though January, the second toughest month of this deployment (September was bad news).

I can't wait to show it to Paul in real life. And now on to the next - I am hoping to make my driftwood wreath this weekend.

If you'd like, you can see the start of this project here and an update here.

This is project 24 of 26.

I am attempting to tackle 26 personal craft projects before I turn 27 on 02.22.12. You can follow my progress here on the blog or on pinterest.

See project 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,  20, 21, 22 & 23.

project 23 of 26 / yarn wrapped bottle vases.

I may or may not have done a happy dance yesterday while taking pictures of this project. This is PROJECT TWENTY THREE. And I have absolute set in stone plans for the last three projects. Which means...

I AM GOING TO FINISH.

It was a huge deal for me to get these 26 projects completed. I have set birthday goals for the past four years and I have never actually succeed in finishing half of my goals. So hooray. Serious hooray.

It seems like 2012 is the year of the black and white. I wonder when and if I am going to get tired of this color combination?

I saw yarn bottles pinned (here's the original source and tutorial) at 4:50pm on Wednesday and by 4:51 I was drinking a beer so I could start on this project. At first I made two wrapped beer bottles. But they were too similar and didn't look quite right. So some digging in the recycle bin on Thursday morning provided a wine bottle. The height difference helps, I think.

The concept is simple enough, but each took about a half hour - 45 minutes to actually wrap. It was tricky stuff getting started and then going around the "shoulders" of the bottle. Lots of patience needed for this one. For the alternating black and white, I just wrapped two strands of yarn around at the same time. That one was actually much easier because there were no ends to deal with.

Without the green plants sticking out of them, they are quite awkward, so I picked some stuff from my front yard. I should do that more often.

And here's the full mantle. It will be "complete" when there is a driftwood wreath hanging in front of that mirror. That's next.

other DIY projects shown : copper leaf canvas, string art ampersand. That framed photostrip was just made by adhering the strip to a piece of thick white cardstock. That wooden love is from here. Remember, this cute blog has the full tutorial.

This is project 23 of 26.

I am attempting to tackle 26 personal craft projects before I turn 27 on 02.22.12. You can follow my progress here on the blog or on pinterest.

See project 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,  20, 21 & 22.