Christmas Projects: Noel Sign

Raise your hand if you love pinterest?  Dumb question, right?  I've been so inspired by projects I've seen on there and this is my latest creation.  The original idea is from Pottery Barn and their version is made from forged metal, so this is not the same at all.  But that's the beauty of it all, one idea spawns another and we create something beautiful to us with our own stamp on it.

I followed the directions found here, but found that hot glue didn't hold and Cale ended up screwing the letters together.  Much sturdier!  MDF letters from Michael's painted in umber and crimson and they really look like stained wood.  My house does not have good lighting at all so these pictures stink, but you get the idea!  I wanted to show what it looks like on the wall but since its gray and dreary my already dark living room is really dark!  I love how it turned out and it cost me about $12 and an hour of time.  A great, easy project with big payout- these look great in my living room.  That's my kind of crafting!

Summer wreath

I've become a bit of a wreath person it seems in the last year.  I've found some great inspiration online and made a few myself.  I love jones design company and was enamored by her simple summer wreaths she posted a few weeks ago.  Hello?  She had me at jute twine!  Here's my take on her idea:

I used cute scrapbook paper from my stash although it made the pinwheels a little harder to work with because scrapbook paper is so thick.  I had to hot glue them together and then on to the wreath rather then just using the thumbtack.

It cost me less then $5 to make and only took about an hour and half to create.  Wrapping the twine always takes some time, but was much faster then wrapping yarn as I've done before.  I'm so happy with my finished project and it definitely reminds me summer!

Mati's New Wall

Mati moved to a big boy bed last November and since then I've wanted to re-do the wall over his bed.  That wall previously held his dresser and the rocking chair so we had a mirror and a print on the wall.  Back in March we bought a few little pieces to re-do the wall and they've sat in his room since then.  Until Saturday when I had had enough.  I really wanted to get it done, but I also know you can't force yourself to be creative.  I had an empty canvas I wanted to use but wasn't too sure what to do with it...but then inspiration hit and I'm happy with it.  It's nothing really original, but it works great in his room.

 A blank canvas, quickly painted and then his name cut out with the Silhouette with some paper in my stash.  A little twine, a few triangles and you've got yourself some pennants!  Cute!

And the whole wall view- I promise things don't look this crooked in person!  I even straightened everything before I took the picture.  If I were a perfectionist I would go take another picture. I'd also go fix the bumps in his bed so it looked nicer.  I'm not a perfectionist.  Good enough is more my style when it comes to stuff like this.  I'm so glad to have this little project done.  On to the next thing on my to-do list!

Art that makes me happy

Several weeks ago, Amber showed me a print that she bought as part of her bedroom re-do.  I absolutely loved what it said and it got my creative wheels turning.  Cale and I have always loved to travel, especially together and we've been lucky enough to travel all over the US as well as a handful of international countries.  We started planning last year for our 10 year anniversary because we hope to go somewhere special.  We just love to see new places and add to that, my husband has a deep and abiding love of maps.  He has a freakishly good memory when it comes to navigation and can generally look once at a map and know exactly where to go, even if it was years ago.  So we love to travel and he loves maps...enter our new artwork...

Our bedroom has really high ceilings, and when we first re-did our bedroom almost six years ago, we needed a cheap solution to fill in some major wall space.  Thanks to Ikea we had cheap frames and okay prints of flowers that served their purpose but never meant much.  The frames we had filled the space well so we decided to just re-use them to create something new.

We purchased some old maps on etsy and used a mishmash of them for these pieces.  I decoupaged them to the old flower prints and we used the Silhouette to cut out the letters from card stock.  Now that big empty space on our wall is filled with art that means something to us, that represents us.  And isn't that what art should be?

Real life: messy dresser, but we got them hung up. And it really does make me happy!

Craft Night: Fabric Flowers

Last night, five lovely ladies joined me at home and we spent a few hours whipping up some fabric flowers.  I had fun and I hope everyone else did, too.  Here's our handiwork!

 For many of these we cut out six inch circles and then folded "petals" and stitched them together.  And once people had made one, they started branching out and we ended up with all sorts of variations.

 Not bad for a few hours of hanging out, snacking and getting our craft on. Can't wait to see what we make next time!

Here's one that I made, attached to my cute new bag for spring.  (From Target, of course!)  The flower adds a touch of personality and I'm sure will make me happy every time I see it.  In fact, I made two to switch out on this bag and another one to go with my favorite red purse that I got a few years ago.  Several of us also made some cute hair bows and I can't wait for Haven to try out the one I made her that matches a dress her Nana made.

All-in-all, a productive night and I can't wait til next time!  Thanks, girls!

Happy hearts

We've been doing a little Valentine crafting here the last few days.  Some projects have worked out better then others, but this one was a complete hit!  The original idea I saw was to paint circles overlapping one another, but I thought it would be fun to try it with hearts for Valentine's Day.  And it worked out perfectly!

I used a cookie cutter and watered down black watercolors to trace the heart shapes.  I'd recommend tracing the inside of your cookie cutter, not the outside.  Wish I would have thought of that before I got to the end.

Then Haven got to work painting in all the different sections.  She tried hard to get nice bright colors by using less water.  She worked diligently for almost 40 minutes and here was the result! (Gotta love the crazy hair and squinty eyes!)

The pictures don't do the color justice- it really is bright and happy! I loved this project probably more then Haven did.  We will definitely do it again with the circles and I will make one for myself to paint, too!

Haven's Valentine

I can't take credit for this idea, I'll give that all to them.  But I will say that I love how these turned out with the addition of our actual cut-out bear. A bear hug from Haven with teddy grahams and gummy bears wrapped up and ready to share with her friends.  A sweet treat from a sweet girl.  Family Fun always have some different and fun ideas and this one was a hit for us.

Now I know my ABC's

Our latest project was truly a collaboration between Cale and I. I wanted to create an alphabet print digitally, but he had a different idea and once I thought it through, I ran with it and this was what we came up with.

A certain someone that I know (and love!) is expecting a little one in the next month and this past weekend we celebrated his pending arrival at a baby shower.  I knew the general color scheme and direction the nursery was going and wanted to create some artwork that would work well with it.  I'm pretty sure we nailed it with this!  

But man it is hard to photograph it and not get the glare!  But you get the idea, right?  The picture doesn't do it justice as you can't appreciate the layer and textures, but you can imagine it.  I love how it turned out an can't wait to see what we come up with next.

L-o-v-e Banner

Meet my new friends:

Look what they can make!

My l-o-v-e banner!

My first Silhouette project was a success!  And here's a glance at number two, just because it turned out so cute.

A cute, simple tag for a birthday boy.

The list of projects I want to tackle with the help of my new Silhouette is growing everyday. I love this little machine and can't wait to see what we can come up with!  And I've got 3200 YARDS of red and white twine, people!  (Is it strange that I asked Cale to buy me a large quantity of twine for my birthday?!) The possibilities are endless!