Painted Keys

My new apartment has two locks. And that means two different keys. But the keys look exactly alike!...how inconvenient. I was spending 15 minutes trying to figure out which key goes where, which way it goes, why it wasn’t working, etc. I couldn’t go anywhere in an efficient way- or come back from anywhere for that matter- for two days!

And then-it hit me. Paint the keys with nail polish. Duh. Everyone was doing it on Pinterest. Now, they were getting a little too fancy for me at the moment. Painting leopard print and designs...the works. I just needed something quick that told me which was top and which was bottom. 

The result?

Blue for bottom. Teal for top. Maybe one day I’ll decide to get a little fancier and paint designs on them. But for now, they do the job. 

1. Gather the keys you want to paint. 
2. Pick out your favorite nail polish you want to paint with. I chose to do kind of an association. Teal=Top. Blue=Bottom. Red wasn’t going to remind me of the top as much as Teal was. So that’s the route I went. 
3. Lay down a paper towel. 
4. Paint. about 3 to 4 layers.
5. Let stand for a couple of hours.
6. Boom. Done

Side note: Don’t let them stay in sunlight for to long. They might melt together. Oops.

So! Decorate your keys! Even better than this. Do some fancy designs. If you do leopard print...show me. I love it. 

Keep making nifty things, 

Shelby

Oh how Pinteresting; 4th of July shorts

Fourth of July shorts!

My inspiration:

So excited to share with you guys my first DIY on here! Fourth of July is right around the corner! If you’ve been on Pinterest, you’ve seen the Fourth of July shorts that have been circulating for two months and thought, “I think I’d like to make those!”. But if you’re like me, you don’t trust your painting skills and are in no way skilled with a needle and thread. So how do we get around these dilemmas?

Bandanas and fabric glue.

No lie. It worked like a charm. Follow this step-by-step tutorial and you can make your own Fourth of July shorts for super cheap!!

1. Grab some shorts you don’t care about anymore. I bought mine at Denton Thrift for three dollars! No need to break the bank for shorts you’re just going to craft with. 
2. Grab your favorite stars patterned bandana (or actual fabric) and your favorite stripes pattern. I had some trouble finding stripes I liked so finally settled on the wavy. I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby for .99 cents each. And you only need two bandanas to get the job done. 
3. Buy some fabric glue. $3.99 for 4 oz. You’ll use it again, Promise. 
4. Trace on the bandanas where you want the fabric to line on your shorts. Follow said trace and cut them out. It’s okay if it’s a little off. You can tuck and trim. But in all honesty, who’s really going to be looking that closely? 
5. Put fabric glue on your shorts. Don’t be shy about the amount, but don’t drench it either. It’s like using a glue stick. If you don’t use enough, fabric falls off. If you use to much, it’s to wet and falls off. 
6. Hold in place! 
7. Wanna make it a little fancier? Put some lace on those beauts! I was going to add some gems on the side where there wasn’t enough fabric but it looked tacky. So instead I said “who cares. YOLO”. Okay, I didn’t really say that, but...if anyone judges me, forget ‘em. 
8. Let them sit for 24 hours. Don’t rush a good thing. 
9. Wear them proud Wednesday night!!

I seriously spent 10 dollars on this whole project. 

Any questions? Anything not explained clearly? This girls tutorial (though she’s kind of annoying) really helped me. And whoops, I ended up using the same fabric as her. 

Happy Independence Day!

Shelby