Erica Deuel, Author at Spoonful of Imagination

Introducing: Spoonful Labs

September 5, 2013 By Erica Deuel 13 Comments

I know a lot of us grieved the end of summer. I know I did. As the summer was coming to a close, Matt and I dreamed up an idea: Spoonful Labs. I will share more details of what it looks like below, but first…

One reason I didn’t want the summer to end is because of this girl right here…

My sister, Joni, is one of my best friends. I got to see her a ton this summer, and we grew even closer. Joni goes to the University of Georgia, so we don’t get to see each other as much during the school year. My kids are obsessed with her maybe more than me. Reagan has prayed every night, since Joni left to go back to school, that God would find her (because Reagan has not seen her in a while, Joni must be lost).

The heart behind Spoonful Labs is to use my creative skills with a personal touch by bringing them in person to teach, mingle, love on, and create with others. Joni shared that her five roommates love to create and had been reading and enjoying my blog. I was honored and humbled. It’s always exciting and encouraging that this little hobby of mine-could actually be inspiring and encouraging others.

As we discussed Spoonful Labs we realized I had a great opportunity to try it out with my sister and her friends (and as a huge bonus it gave me an excuse to visit and stay more connected to my sis).

I was so excited to take a bunch of craft supplies (and my little Reagan) to Athens last weekend and create with these awesome girls! In the few hours we were together, we got to hang out, laugh, create, talk, and get to know each other….I have honestly missed them all this week. I have new friends.

I taught them how to embroider hoops. They are such creative girls and their house is something out of a magazine. It’s gorgeous as you can see in these pictures. Although they are super crafty, they had not made embroidery hoops before. I showed them how I start one, gave tips and things I have learned, laid out supplies, and set them loose. They pulled out phones and laptops and browsed pinterest and google images to find inspiring hoops and inspirational quotes to create their own.

We sat around and sewed, ate cookies, talked, and watched Reagan entertain us by being her cute self and doing her own craft (gluing popsicle sticks). It was so fun to see how each girl’s personality came out in their hoop. The colors they chose. The fabrics they liked. It was so great. I was inspired by them too! I loved the layering of fabrics and I started a new hoop based on a quote from one of them!

I am already dreaming of when I can go back and craft with them again.

After a few hours, my little girl was worn out. We had to pack up and head home. I love the idea of Spoonful Labs being able to love on girls and getting to know some readers on a more personal level. What I wasn’t expecting was the joy it would bring me by just being me and creating with others. So much of blogging about my crafts can loose some of “me” as I try to keep posts focused and simple. I got to say a lot more about crafts and share so many more tips in person, and it was so fun to do something I love while helping others learn a skill that they now love too. Thank you girls for a wonderful day and for being my models in this post. 🙂 You are all beautiful, and I cant wait to hang out again soon!

I’m piloting this idea with my Athens girls for now. But who knows, maybe there will be a Spoonful Lab coming to a place near you sometime in the not too distant future!?

I hope you are able to be investing in something that inspires you, and were able to create something this week! Thank you so much for stopping by!

DIY Sunburst Mirror

September 1, 2013 By Erica Deuel 20 Comments

I have been in the process of filling up the walls in our new house. I love to create art, but have been trying to stretch myself away from my normals. I don’t want everything on the walls to be pictures of us or inspirational painted signs. I have been trying to take what I learned about staging shelves, and apply that to these walls. I came up with this DIY Sunburst mirror. They are a fun mix of art with texture.

If you remember my DIY Mirrors, I made colorful mirrors for about $3. I still love them, but they were a little small to hang on the wall by themselves. I decided to turn them into these DIY sunburst mirrors. I love the contrast between the color and rustic nature of the sticks. You wont believe how I made these! It all started with a plate.

I took one of our plastic plates that the kids eat most of their meals on and I spray-painted it a grayish color. I wanted the background to be a more natural color that would blend in better with the sticks. Once the plate was dry, I hot glued one of my DIY Mirrors to the center.

Next, I gathered a bunch of sticks (or you can also buy a small bag of wood chips or mulch and pick out the larger pieces), and I started hot gluing them around the plate’s edge.

I simply put a small dab of hot glue onto the plate’s edge and stuck a stick on top. I think the only special trick to this mirror is making sure you layer the sticks on top of each other to fill in the cracks. My goal was to create a pretty solid sunburst look to cover up the plate and make a more textured look. I glued new sticks on top of other sticks to cover up cracks of open space.

I just kept gluing around the plate until it was covered up and I was back to where I started. I loved how it came out, so I made two more!

I didn’t have to buy any new supplies to turn the DIY Mirrors into the DIY Sunburst Mirrors. Don’t you love when you have everything to make a project? I’m trying to get more thrifty with my supply expenses. This was fun to see we didn’t need anything. I just might have to clean dishes more since we are now three lunch plates shorter now :).

I probably should have first drilled a hole in the back of the plate to create a way to hang this up on the wall. I didn’t think of it then. So, I simply hot glued some string in a loop on the back. Once the glue was dried, I covered it up with even more hot glue. I then used a super glue above where the string went into the hot glue for extra reinforcement. It worked!

My foyer is coming together! I love the way these mirrors look with our bench and welcome area. I have a few more ideas, but it is encouraging to see this new house start to feel like us. It’s been four months since we moved. I never would have thought we would still be setting up house. Can we say I was naive and an inexperienced mover!?

If you like colorful foyers like me, then you must check out my friend Kelly’s. She is in the process of transforming her more serious foyer into a colorful space. I may want to steal her new Turkish Kilim rug. You wont believe it. Check it out here!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you are having a wonderful holiday weekend!

Kitchen Table Makeover

August 29, 2013 By Erica Deuel 1 Comment

I like a round table. We didn’t have one till recently, so I never knew what we were missing until now. The round table allows you to see everyone and hear everything so much better than our old rectangle table. We eat every meal at our new table, and we don’t have regular seats like we used to. We are constantly moving around and sitting down in different seats next to different members of our family. I love it.

I recently realized I have not shared this beauty with you. We did this kitchen table makeover right before we moved. We knew a circle table would be ideal in our new floor plan. This table was given to us from Matt’s parents. It used to be Matt’s great aunt’s, before his parents got it. There is history in it. I can’t imagine all the conversations, laughs, worries, and memories this table has seen. I do know at one point it was used to stage a Chow named Taz while he was given a hair cut. We saw the deep scratches in the wood top from his protest of his make shift salon appointment. I wish I had a better before picture, but the best I could find is of Matt starting the transformation by sanding this baby down.

He sanded and sanded until all that varnish/lacquer was removed. It looked brand new. He filled in all the wood knots with wood filler to make them flush with the wood grain. It was beautiful!

After Matt did all the hard muscle work, I started painting. I decided to give the table a fun punch of color, so I painted the bottom the same teal I did to my recycled dresser. Once the bottom was painted, we lightly sanded the base to give it a more vintage look. I then stained the base and top with a dark ebony color.

It was beautiful. I don’t know if there is a piece of furniture I am more proud of than this one. There were so many different steps that required us to be patient and give it time. This piece stretched out for almost two weeks, and that is unheard of for me. I like things to be done quickly and get checked off that to do list. This next step was the hardest for me.

I did four layers of sealing and buffing this table with Helmsman Spar Urethane. I was advised that it being a kitchen table with food, moisture, and different temps this was the finish to use. I couldn’t be more pleased! We have been eating on this table for over three months for every meal. We do crafts and school on it as well. It has held up and looks as good as the day we completed it. I’m not being paid to say that. It really is a good product that I love!

After each coat of Helmsman, I buffed with a really fine grit sandpaper.

I hated this step. I wanted to skip it. BUT, my professional wood worker brother convinced me to do. I knew I wanted this piece to last, so I resisted the urge to rush through and did what he said. I lightly sanded, wiped away the dust, and repainted the finish four times (making sure it completely dried between coats).

It was worth that extra dose of patience. I love how the table turned out! I thought we would end up eating in our dinning room at our old table, but we all choose this one.

Once the table was finished, I liked the idea of little metal chairs to go with it. I liked the mix of fun color, beautiful stain, with a timeless metal chair. I found these at Ikea in the outdoor furniture section. They are small, so we are able to get six around the table. I like having an extra seat for company, and hopefully foster kids soon. I promise I will have an update soon on our progress to becoming foster parents!

Have you ever painted an heirloom piece? What do you think of round tables? Are you a fan too? I hope you are having a good week! Thanks so much for stopping in!

Tips for Creating a Growth Ruler

August 26, 2013 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

I have been wanting to create a new growth ruler ever since we moved into this house. Our old growth ruler was on the back of the boys’ bedroom door at our old house. It was hard to leave that door. I contemplated in my mind switching it out and bringing it, but I decided that would be too much work. Before we moved, we took our last measurements, lot of pictures, and wrote down the measurements to transfer to a new growth ruler.

I finally set out to do this project, and of course I thought I could just figure it out. I looked at some pictures of other growth rulers out there. There are so many beautiful ones. They are all over Pinterest, and I should have clicked on at least one of them for the tutorial. Instead, I decided I would just try to figure it out. I did, but it was hard, and I could have saved some serious time and brain cramps. So, I encourage you to read a tutorial! I learned some things the hard way on this project, and I will share them with you. Hopefully, your growth ruler will be easier to create.

I’m not good at math. At one point I had I four different measuring tools in front of me (ruler, yard stick, tape measure, and a Speed Square), and I was trying to decide which one was best and how to do it.

1. The Speed Square was perfect. It has a little ridge that caught on the edge of my board, so I could make straight and accurate lines.

2. Sharpie is ok to use and stain over it. I was afraid to use a sharpie for fear my stain would smear it, but it worked great and was much easier than trying to paint all those straight lines. All my measurement lines were done in sharpie.

3. I started my ruler at 6″ inches. This meant that when we hung the ruler up on the wall, we needed to make sure it was hanging 6″ off the ground. You could apply the same principle and start your ruler at any height you want.

4. I first did all my markings, and I went back and added my big stenciled numbers.

5. I used a wider board than most. My board is actually 10″ wide. I liked the wider board to allow for bigger numbers and have plenty of room for names and dates.

6. The length of my measurement lines across are 4″ inches, 3″ inches, and 2.5″ inches long. The 4 inch line is for the foot measurement, 3 inch line for the half-foot measurement, and the 2.5 inch line marks all of the other inches. My foot and half-foot measurements are the width of two sharpie lines.

7. I should have used a pencil to stencil on my numbers. I used a sharpie, and I had to sand my board several times to cover up the poor placement of my number four.

The measuring was the hardest part for me. Once I had my numbers in place, I dabbed painted them in to create a more rustic look, after I liked their placement, just like I did on my inspirational pillow. I then stained my whole piece. I think if I had read a tutorial, I wouldn’t have been as stressed trying to figure it out. Lesson learned.

Now that it is done, we are excited to hang it up!

I hope this post can save you a little stress! If you find a tutorial you think is perfect-let me know! I’ll add it to this post for reference!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Just a reminder my Wake Up & Do Good sign is still available. I am also having an instagram sale tonight at 5:00pm EST, if you are interested in any of my embroidered hoops!

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