September 2012 | Crafted Niche - a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorialsCrafted Niche – a lifestye blog that shares DIY crafts, recipes and tutorials

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{Time Capsule} Remembering a year ago – October 2011

September 30, 2012 in Featured Bloggers

I thought it’d be fun to kick off October with a look back at some popular posts from October 2011! This isn’t a full run-down of the month… just a couple favorites! Enjoy!

Do What You Love Plank Sign – easy and inexpensive. 2 of my favorite things.

Pottery Barn Numbered Sign Knock-Off – one of my first REALLY popular posts. Woop!

Alphabet Blocks for Baby Photo Props – great baby shower gift!

Cheese Cloche Makeover – a little mod podge and scrapbook paper

Ballard Designs Knock Off – Spool Table – this post took off like I never expected. Wow!

Baby Gate turned Dog Gate – make a wooden gate blend seamlessly with your decor!

How to Make a Dog Bed – to this day, this remains the #1 Viewed Post at Crafted Niche. Roxy – you’re a hit!

How to Make Silhouette Prints - this tutorial was created using picnik.com (moment of silence….), but could easily be adapted for PicMonkey!

It’s still crazy to think it’s been a year since I did those projects. They’re all still some of my TOP FAVORITES from Crafted Niche. Here’s hoping October 2012 will be as fun as October 2011!

I have all my posts organized by past months in the footer at the bottom of this page. If you’d like to browse a specific month, just click and enjoy!

If you’d like to PIN any of these projects, I encourage you to visit the original project post and PIN from there, pretty, pretty please!

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DIY Drink Stake and Score Keeper

September 27, 2012 in Building and Repurposing, Featured Bloggers, Outside

Earlier this month I guest blogged at Debbie Does Creations and revealed a little DIY creation! Today I thought I’d give you a little more info on how that came together!

As a special wedding gift for my middle-sister and her husband, I thought it’d be fun to make cornhole boards to drag along to their family-friendly Destination Wedding! …and boy was I right! We played beanbags every day while in Florida. Don’t tell the lady that gave her the fine-china crockpot, but she said my hand-made cornholes were the best gift she got (J/K)!

I did a full how-to on the project here. Don’t be intimidated by the power-tools. Trust me! I tackled my first wood project last year and I’ve been full steam ever since! You can totally do it.

I thought it might be fun to whip up a little cornholes accessory for those people like me that like to enjoy a beverage while they play. …and then I remembered those times where we lost track of the score as our beverage count went up. Hmmm, what’s a girl to do? How about make one of these!

My favorite things about this project:

1) I had to open a beer. Well c’mon.. what kind of drink-holder tail-gating photo would it be without my beloved Miller Lite?!

2) It cost me a whopping 25 cents in materials!

Okay, I’m sure you’re scratching your head on that second part, but here it goes –

The box/crate was made using leftover pallet wood from a plank wall in my bathroom.
The wood stake was in my shed when I bought the house (woop!).
The white hook was in my toolbox from Lord-knows-what years ago.
I bought the chalk and alphabet rubber stamps when I made my clay-tag calendar.
The paint/stain I already owned.
…which leaves the chalk board. Yes, my (new) friends, that chalkboard set me back 25 cents on clearance at Target. What a find right!

Did you see my monogrammed koozie? ha! I love that sucker. I’m wild about the color scheme and the giraffe reminds me of my horse, Sylvester… he’s tall and likes to run around with his head held high. Such a silly giraffe!

So you want the scoop on whipping one up? Sure! That’s the easy part!

I used my miter saw to cut my pallet wood, then glued and nail-gunned it together.
I then stained the box and stake with Minwax Express in Indigo. Minwax was super AWESOME and sent me some of these stains in some SUPER FUN colors to try! Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for a project or two with these stains… and a full review! PLUS – There will be a GIVEAWAY FOR YOU coming down the pipeline. Woop!
I added the No. 12 with some leftover paint and my rubber stamps.
After a quick dry (encouraged by my blow-dryer), I hit the edges with my palm sander to rough up the finish.
Once it was good to go, I pre-drilled a hole in the top of my stake and attached the box with a wood screw.

Voila! Instant beer holder!

The hook is just a handy place to hang the scoreboard… which is of course optional!

If you don’t have a nail gun or miter saw, this project could easily be done with a handsaw and good ol’ fashioned hammer and nails! Just be sure to pre-drill your hole into the stake so you don’t split the wood when running a screw into it.

Cheers to all of you cheering on your favorite teams! Here’s hoping we don’t see another Ref Debacle this weekend!

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{Dog-Gone #2} Fleece Puff Dog Toy

September 26, 2012 in Do it your Dog-Gone Self, Pups

Did you try making the fleece dog ropes I blogged about a couple weeks ago? My girls have been running around the house with theirs ever since! I had some scraps leftover and thought it’d be fun to make another fleece dog toy… but this one is better suited for LIGHT CHEWERS!

So stinking simple! These would be great to make for cats too. I could see them tied onto a string and bounced around the room with a cat in hot pursuit!

Emma loved it – but I’ll admit – I wouldn’t let her play with it unsupervised. She’s a TOUGH chewer… and this toy is much better suited for light chewers.