Monday Made It : Part 2

Welcome back, Monday! Time to link up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It. I am very excited for this week because ... [drum roll please] we are closing on our house on Thursday! I can't wait! Tomorrow is closing on our house in Philadelphia and Thursday is closing on our new house here in Houston. It will be an awesome week. Let me just add that staying in a hotel for 2 and a half months is not all it's cracked up to be...

HBO really should pick a better line up. I've seen Pacific Rim over a dozen times and We Are the Millers even more than that (although the latter is super hilarious, so it's okay!). Oh, #firstworldproblems.

Expect the next couple of #mondaymadeit posts to include house DIY... I can't wait to get my hands on a paint brush and a few cans of paint :) *PS. if you follow me on Instagram, I have been and will be posting more house pictures! @mrsdscorner

Anyway, let's get down to the meat and potatoes of today's post. This project was another one of those "I need to go to Michael's for one thing" and you end up walking out with more than you intended. But as soon as I saw this adorable frame on the wall, I had a light bulb moment and it was all downhill uphill from there.

The paint I chose was just regular paint, thanks to good 'ole Martha Stewart. *Martha and I have a love-hate relationship... I hate her for how adorable her stuff is and how much money she makes me spend. She loves me for buying her stuff, obviously. Funding her retirement one project at a time.* I picked 4 colors that match my classroom colors and some $0.25 sponge sticks. The washi tape is something I had laying around this hotel suite room.

 I used the washi tape to "rope off" an area to paint the square frame. I wanted this to be one color to make it stand out. A regular old paper plate worked as my paint holder. Oh yeah, do you like the white bathroom towels I'm using as my barrier between the paint and the beautiful desk? Candlewood Suites came through for me on that... haha*

I let that dry and then slowly peeled the washi tape off. I love washi tape because it doesn't leave a sticky residue like regular tape does, which worked great for this project!

Washi tape strikes again because it doesn't peel paint off of walls or freshly dried paint on a wooden frame. Win, win! I used it to tape over the first step of paint.

After painting all the swirls and flowers (they look like flowers, right?), I let it dry before peeling off the washi tape. The paint dried pretty quick. I did a few coats of yellow and mint paint so you couldn't see the wood color under it. Martha's paint gets an A+ from me.

I had aspirations to add some more to it, but it hasn't happened. I like it the way it is, so I might just use it as the frame to take pictures on the first day, then add text on the computer and print them out for my kiddos.

Marking this one as a MMI success!

Total investment: ~$15 for the project. $8 frame before 40% off coupon, $1.99 per paint bottle before 25% off coupon, $0.25 paint sponges (all at Michaels) and $3 washi tape (Staples).

At the end of last week, I must have been in an aqua mood because I whipped up these two substitute binders for my TPT store. Having finished my own binders and classroom decor in a tribal theme a few days before, I decided to make a few binders in themes that weren't so "elementary" and cute-sy.
I really like how these two turned out.

I think the watercolor one is my favorite. It's so beach-y, without being beach-y. The look of the water color papers is just gorgeous. I have some shades of pink and coral in watercolor, so I think I am going to make a pinkish version of the watercolor binder too.

Until next week's MMI, I'm off to pin some house ideas on Pinterest :)