Vintage Revivals • Page 60 of 120 • Fearless DIY

Metallic Geo Ball + iPad Giveaway!!

By Mandi | 04/09/2015 | 6 Comments

You guys!!! This #cricuteverywhere week just keeps getting better and better!! Today’s giveaway is for an iPad Mini 2!! But first, check out this super simple and fun project:

This little paper ball is perfect for storing cute things! (Hello, don’t we all need cuter storage in our lives?!)

What you’ll need:

Cricut Explore Air
Geo Ball Design
Card stock (I found mine at Michaels!)
Hot Glue Gun.

The Geo Ball project is a Make It Now, which means all you have to do is load your mat and press go! Seriously, I made a GIF of the entire process so you can see just how simple it is!

To enter to win an iPad Mini 2 all you have to do is download the Design Space software (either on your desktop or iPad, don’t worry its free!!) play around with it to your hearts content and then follow this link and leave a comment about what your favorite feature is! You have 24 hours to enter this giveaway! Get to it!!

Make sure to come back tomorrow, the giveaway is going to blow you away!!

DIY Leather Luggage Tags + Cricut Explore Air Giveaway!

By Mandi | 04/08/2015 | 13 Comments

Oh man! We’re halfway through the #cricuteverywhere week of inspiration (and PRIZES!) I cant believe it!

A few weeks ago took a little trip up to Salt Lake to film some fun video with Cricut for this campaign. You guys. I wish you could have been there. It was SUCH a blast hanging out with everyone and learning how these types of videos come together. Especially getting the product shots. That was (surprisingly) way harder than the interview part. They asked me about everything under the sun (and yes, I may have cried.) but we’ll get to that in a second.

2 things, 1. if you don’t love leather I don’t know if we can still be friends, and 2. You deserve a cute luggage tag.

These are SIMPLE. Because it is a Make It Now project, everything is perfectly sized and ready to roll. All you have to do is plug in your info (unless your name is Margo Phillips and your phone # is (123)456-7890 then today is your lucky day!) Ps. When I was working on this project, I asked Janae for a cute name. Margo was her suggestion, so there you go!

You’ll Need:

Cricut Explore Air
Leather that measures at least 6”x6”
Leather string
Midnight Pen
Hot glue gun or fabric glue

Once you have your name and other info on the design, select Weld and load your mat. It’s show time.

The luggage tag is double sided, so once everything is sketched and cut out, you’ll need to glue them together.

Use the leather string to attach it to your luggage and you are ready for some major adventuring. I feel like Margo has something exciting planned.

Are you guys ready for today’s giveaway?! They only get better from this point forward FYI.

YESSSSS!! A Cricut Explore Air of your very own!!!

All you have to do is watch this video, and then follow this link to answer a question about it!

I thought it would be fun to share some of the other videos that we shot, to answer your burning questions, like What is in my fridge? and hear me talk about Court’s addiction.

You only have 24 hours to enter this giveaway, so hop to it!

DIY Row House Wall Art (so fun for kids!!)

By Mandi | 04/07/2015 | 14 Comments

Remember yesterday when we talked about inspiration not being a destination? How it can happen anywhere, at anytime?

A few weeks ago after a particularly hard mom day (you know those days where you know that no one in your family walked away unscathed?) I was trying to get Dylan in bed. She’s 6 and stubborn and had been fighting me on everything, all.day.long. After trying unsuccessfully for an hour to get her to go to sleep, I finally stepped away for a minute and took myself out of the chaos of the situation. I know on days when I am in a fighting mood I usually just need someone to love me, and that is what she needed too. So I grabbed a book off the shelf and snuggled in for a little story. She fell asleep almost immediately and it gave me a few minutes to breathe. Flipping through the pages and reflecting on life gave me a second to soak up a little inspiration.

I called Jamie (because she is the brilliant mind that illustrates my madness) and told her that I wanted to do a few Madeline inspired row houses. Something that the girls can help me do.

To make this project, you will need:

Cricut Explore Air
Vintage Revivals Row House designs
Black vinyl
Paint

Start by downloading the row houses in Design Space. They are a Make It Now project which means that they are perfectly sized, all you have to do is load the vinyl and click go.

Typically when you cut out a design in vinyl, you “weed” all the unnecessary parts out and toss them.

DON’T DO THAT!!! hahaha

Weed the inside of the design (the house and the windows/doors) so that it looks like this. Do not weed outside the design!

This is what you are going for:

The next step is to take the outside of the house (the part that you would normally throw away) and put it on the wall. It doesn’t have to be perfectly straight, wonky is embraced at all times on Vintage Revivals.

Then you are going to paint inside the shape. I only did one coat because I sort of the love the splotchy variation for this project.

Peel off the vinyl, and now (finally!!) you can throw it away.

Paint all of your houses, and after they have had at least 12 hours to dry you can start to put on the vinyl.

If you want to use transfer tape you can, but we placed everything by hand. I showed Dyl a picture of the houses on the computer and she did her best to match it.

Can you picture an entire wall filled with these guys? Oh my gosh, someone needs to do that.

Today’s #cricuteverywhere giveaway is such a good one, 1 year subscription to all of the images on Design Space, or Cricut Craft Room!!

Just to clear up any lingering questions… Design Space is a free downloadable software, you are not winning that (because everyone already wins! It’s free!!) you are winning yearlong access to over 50,000 single images, image sets, and fonts, including all of the Make It Now projects (like this one!!)

To enter this giveaway: All you have to do is a post a photo on Instagram of your favorite spot in your house! Hashtag it with #cricuteverywhere and be sure to follow @vintagerevivals and @officialcricut. Please tag me in your picture, I want to see!!

For more info on today’s giveaway click here.

Pssst. If you are ordering a Cricut Explore Air, use the coupon code STARTER to get 50% off any starter set (this one is my favorite!)

Inspiration Is _____ + $500 Giveaway!

By Mandi | 04/06/2015 | 13 Comments

Oh man are you guys in for a treat!! All this week I’ve partnered up with Cricut to talk all things inspiration, share some ridiculously fun new projects that Jamie and I have designed, AND give away a whole slew of prizes (like $500 in Cricut products, 2 year long subscriptions to Design Space, 2 Explore Air Machines, and 2 iPad Mini 2!)

Today is all about inspiration. Where to find it, and how to be ready for it.

(Video by Janae Godfrey)

For me, inspiration is not a destination. There are a million places to go online and in our real lives to see beautiful things. There are more projects on Pinterest than one could do in 15 lifetimes. Its not about hunting down and actually finding it, it’s about the way that it effects you and changes you. Its about going into things (like the thrift store!) with an open mind and heart and a willingness to see past the way things are.

And just because I love you, we (Jamie) created a fun downloadable print to remind you that inspiration is everywhere. Download this print free (this week only!) here.

For over a year I have shared with you my love of the Cricut Explore (a love I never thought would happen ever.) I am a pusher…not a drug pusher, a project pusher. The biggest thing that I want people to understand is that the Cricut Explore Air is just a tool. Like a saw, or a drill. The only thing that can limit you is your own creativity.

Cricut just launched a brand new machine, the Explore Air. (If you have recently purchased an Explore don’t freak out inside like I did.) The Explore Air is just like the original Explore, the only difference is that instead of using a Bluetooth adaptor, the Explore Air has wireless capabilities already built in.

And that works perfectly with the new….Design Space App!!

That moment that inspiration hits can be magical and fleeing all at the same time. With the DS App for your ipad, you can literally create a project anywhere. Even sitting on a couch at the thrift store…(been there, done that)

Today I am giving away $500 worth of Cricut products!!

So to enter today’s #cricuteverywhere giveaway, all you have to do is follow this link (or click the picture above) and finish the sentence Inspiration is _________.

Make sure to check back tomorrow for an awesome idea for a Madeline inspired little kids room, and another giveaway!!

Cactus Sketch Art (On SALE!!)

By Mandi | 04/03/2015 | 11 Comments

You guys!! The cactus sketch art is in the shop! I am massively excited (if you couldn’t tell by the fact that I have used 5 exclamation points already.)

I wanted all of the art in the living room to be big and bright, so simple sketches were just what the DIY Dr. ordered. Luckily for all of us, Jamie is a brilliant artist and totally gets the vibe I was looking for.

These adorable prints come black and white, but if you want to liven them up a bit (like I did) all you need is a little bit of watercolor.

We had the art printed at Alphagraphics blue print style (I love the St. George store!!). Which means that its on normal printer paper and SUPER inexpensive, like around $1. The only reason that we did this is because we had an extremely fast turnaround. Getting it printed on heavy weight cardstock is always a good idea, just a heads up that they will need at least 24 hours to get it done.

The watercolor is the easiest/most stressful part of this entire situation, because you don’t want to royally screw it up. My advice is to practice a few times before you commit. We mounted our prints before we watercolored and it left some bubbling on one (I must have used more water) so I would say to watercolor first and let it dry completely before you mount it.

The next step is to take everything out of the Ikea frame, and cut a piece of foam core posterboard to fit. Then mount the prints by spraying spray adhesive on the back of them and positioning it on the foam core (this is a 2 person job!)

Can you even imagine all of the cute ways that these little guys can be used? I am dying to see what you come up with!!

So, for this weekend only they are on sale in the Vintage Revivals Shop for $4.00. Four dollars people! The price is going up on Monday so you might want to head over before then (unless you are good with paying more, which wont hurt my feelings). You can grab 1, 2, or the entire collection of 8! The files are huge, so you can print them as large (or small) as you want, basically the world is your cactus oyster right now.

Hope you have an amazing Easter weekend with those you love! See you next week!

A New Chapter for Vintage Revivals

By Mandi | 04/01/2015 | 120 Comments

Hey hey!!

I have been going back and forth for months about turning Vintage Revivals into more of a lifestyle blog, you know with recipes, fashion, Crossfit Inspo, and a little bit of DIY sprinkled in!

Basically I am going for total blogosphere domination. #letsdothis

I thought today would be a great day to kick things off with my first fashion post!!

Of course, I don’t actually own anything that isn’t covered in paint, but that’s not a problem. We are making this thing happen. So, after a full day of projects (and on my 4th trip to Home Depot in a 9 hour period) I thought “Eh, what the heck, lets just shoot it here.” It is after all, where I am most comfortable.

What I’m wearing:

Pants: The sweats that I quit for my New Years resolution. You can find them just about anywhere! Just make sure that you get a Men’s XXL for the desired effect.
Shirt: Court’s T shirt that had a little accident with a black paint can (sold out, similar style here)
Sunnies: Dollar store
Shoes: these lace slip-ons from Target
Paint Brush: Purdy XL Glide
Paint on my hands: Tricorn Black in satin by Sherwin-Williams
Arm Candy: Goodie Hair Ties

I mean, there are still so many ins and outs of a lifestyle blog to learn, so I hope that you guys don’t mind being guinea pigs for a few months. Tomorrow’s post: How to hard boil and dye an egg in the oven (at the same time!!) and 14 of my favorite Easter green smoothie recipes!

Cold Dead Fingers //10

By Mandi | 03/27/2015 | 11 Comments

I have been on the hunt for a treasure or 2 and have come up empty handed every time. It is starting to warm up again so hopefully that means that everyone will be defrosting their old furniture and selling it (hopefully to me!).

There are some AMAZING pieces on #colddeadfingers that bring hope back into the world, here are a few of my favorites!

Whitney’s caption was too good to not share.

“Whelp I’m not sure what I’m gonna do with these but they were just too cute to pass up. Maybe home school the neighbor kids. Ha!”

instagram.com/carpendaughter

These geode specimen holders need to be in my life. Seriously. They told me!

instagram.com/lightglassandtrend

Vintage Kilim for $25!!

instagram.com/kjcopenhagen
https://www.facebook.com/midcenturymadnesschicago

I love the Viking vibe of this entire set up. The vintage rattan is everything!!

instagram.com/hamletinteriors

Vintage Plycraft chair? Always a good idea. Vintage Plycraft chair for $30? You should check your pulse, because you might not be alive.

instagram.com/anatomyofdesign

Make sure to hashtag #colddeadfingers on all of your thrift score finds! For those that are newish and wondering why #colddeadfingers…Cold Dead Fingers because it is soooo good it can only be pried from (you guessed it) your cold dead fingers! It’s the REALLY good finds!