A New Simple Canvas...

 

Okay, so the idea has been floating around the internet world for awhile, but I finally sat down and made one this year!

 

Just simple folded hearts... and then the two dictionary page hearts are layered for added dimension. 

 

 

So simple and quick, and I love it so much, it might stay up even AFTER V-day is over!

Quick Fun Neighbor Gift

 

 

What family DOESN'T need batteries??? 

 

A simple quick tag, and TaDAAAA!

 

I didn't even have to bake any cookies!!!



Weekend Creative

I've started to hang the collection I've made so far for my "Quote Wall" in the basement.

 It's still a work in progress... pictures to come later. 

As I was hanging what I've put together so far, I found there was small 5x7ish hole that I needed to be fill in the current arrangement.

Saturday, I made this little chipboard sign to hang in it. 

It was so quick and easy, and by far my favorite thing on the wall so far!

I used spray adhesive to adhere the "uncommon" page from a dictionary to a piece of chipboard.  The red letter stickers are My Minds Eye, and the blue "uncommon" is just card stock cut on my cameo.  I used Old Paper and Pumice stone distress stains to age the paper a little... and left the definition of uncommon lighter.

Oh, and because I wanted it to hang by a ribbon, I hot glued a button to the nail's head to it would be decorative and cute!

DONE!  And did I mention it was CHEAP??  Gotta love home decorations that cost you less than pennies!

Public Service Announcement:

Wait to type on your computer until you:

a. Wash your hands after using ModPodge

OR

b. Wait for the ModPodge to DRY.

Either option will work.

Don't ask how/why I know this.





PS:  This is what I ModPodged.  I think it was worth it.

A Pinterest Project

 Oh, Pinterest... I love thee.  lol

What?  You don't know what pinterest is??  It's many things... crack for crafters as far as I'm concerned. 

Need a good recipe??  Best place to search. 

Want to remember that thing you saw so that after you finish your other 50 million started projects, you can have a visual reminder??  DONE.

And that is where this lovely came from.

It's actually one of the first things I pinned!

It was originally done on metal... with beautiful rusted aging.

Mark would have hated it.  lol.

It's been coming together in my head for ages now.

I bought the canvas last fall.

It's 18x24. 

And it's actually a rich brown tinted grey.

And since I couldn't get away with hanging a rusted piece of metal on our bedroom wall, I had to distress the canvas. 

First I painted the canvas a streaky creamy white with raw umber highlights.  Just enough to give it a little worn/aged look.

Then I planned everything out on my Cameo, cut the letters out of vinyl, and placed them. 

I mixed up some paint until I got the color grey I wanted, and painted over the whole thing... adding some streaks of the raw umber again.

Once dry, I peeled off the vinyl, revealing the white underneath.  And then I went to town with some sandpaper, and of course, some Tim Holtz distress ink. 

You can't quiet see in the picture, because I was too lazy to pull out my REAL camera, lol, and used my phone, but it's totally worn looking... like an old pair of jeans. 

And it's possibly one of my favorite projects. 

Backyard Swing Gets Updated!

My parents gave me a porch swing for my birthday soon after Evan was born.

That first summer, I spent many many hours rocking him on that swing.

Each summer, it looked a little rougher, until three years ago, when it was so threadbare, my husband told me he was taking it to the dump.

I begged him not to, I thought I would be able to find a new cushion for it. 

Uhhh, No.

It was not a standard size or shape. 

But I couldn't bare to just toss it.  So I took a razor to it, and took the threadbare seat cushion off.  I left the back, it was in pretty good shape. 

That left me with a great mesh base on the seat, but it was uglier than all get out (and a little uncomfortable on the backside!).

So I planned and measured, and debated and figured.

And I came up with the simplest idea on the planet. 

That was two summers ago... My original slip cover was looking a little faded and worn... and a few moths or other creatures had decided it was a great winter snack, so this morning when Ryan and I were wandering the aisle of Joanns, and we spotted a great orange canvas remnant... I was ALL over it!


It was just about a foot to short, but I still had some cream canvas from another project at home...

And I must say, I love it. 

It's pretty simple, really... just a flat slip cover.   It just takes a few straight hem stitches around the edges, then some twill tape attached to each corners, plus where the back meets the seat, and two pieces along the top and the bottom (a few years ago, I attached some D rings to the frame that the middle pieces tie to).  

Two years ago, I went all out and made a "pillow" for the seat using some clearance batting, this year however, I just used some old pillows that were pretty close to being thrown out. 

This way, they can be brought in and washed, I can take them off in the winter and store them, etc.

After I put the bright orange on it, I decided one day this summer, I'm going to spray paint the frame... maybe a deep brown??  Dunno... but something... maybe... if the wind ever stops blowing!

A Crafting Break

So, this weekend, after scrapping for almost 72 hours with just two short 4 hour breaks for sleep, we needed to venture out of the craft room for a little bit.

So, uhhh, we took over the garage.

Because what to scrapbookers do when they need a break?

They put pretty paper on wood.

Duh. 

Earlier that day we had stopped by the grand opening of the new Wood Connection in American Fork, and they had some adorable spring crafts. So even though we had planned on ONLY scrapping... in fact Andrea was trying to finish a HUGE scrap project (over 200 pictures)... we all agreed that it would be a good distraction! 

So, here are the cute little birds I made... the lighter one actually has sheet music on it.    They make me happy. 

Scrappy Crap

I spent the better part of the weekend locked in a room with two very talented friends.

Andrea, blew the socks of my page count, completing close to 500000000... errrr.. maybe it was 30?  I dunno.  It was a lot. 

So, anyway... Sorry the pictures aren't the best, I just wanted to get them uploaded before I had to return to the real world tomorrow... but let's not talk about that.

A Blank Canvas

Okay, well, it's not blank anymore.

When we purchased (I'm still in shock over this) a dresser set for our master, I needed a place to put my beautiful red linen chest (Ikea beauty), so I moved it into our living room.

Against the Giant Wall.  (Need a reminder?)

The problem was that it left this weird gap.

And I wasn't about to take everything down and re-position.

I have family pictures IN the cabinet, on the window frame (yeah, yeah, still haven't printed a picture of me for the top right corner), and just out of sight of this picture is a family picture on the hearth. 

So no pictures.

I wanted something... solid.  Grounding.  Something in the "Umber" category. 

So I pulled out a bunch of my wooden African pieces, picked out the phrase, and went to town. 

So I ended up with this:

We like it.

Happy V-Day!!

Well, as "made up" as the holiday is, I still think it's a great day in dreary February to show a little extra love to my boys!

This last weekend, Evan and I made his VERY FIRST Valentine Box.  Okay, well, he's made a few in school before, but this is the first year he was allowed to bring one of his VERY OWN CREATION.

His Dad had ordered something online that came in the PERFECT box a few weeks ago, so we set it aside, and started planning.

**Warning: Cousin Eva:  Yes, my son is a Star Wars fan.  I tried, he loved Star Trek until he discovered Star Wars Legos, and then he turned to the Dark Side.**  

Step one: BLACK paint.  Evan was excited to be using MOM's good craft paint and brushes (shhhhh, no one tell him that the acyclic paint costs like 50 cents, and the brush about 10).

Step two:  While the paint dried, we searched the Internet for a picture of the Death Star, then worked some Cameo magic and printed and cut it.    It looks AMAZING!!  And literally took about 30 seconds once we found the picture.

Step three:  Mom had to break out the old school scissors to cut out the image on the front of the package from the cards he picked out.  Best Up-Cycle EVER according to Evan.

Step four: More Cameo magic to cut some custom letter... Font is Star Jedi (free download from DaFont).

Step five: GLUE.

Step six: White paint dots for stars.

Then the hardest part was waiting for it to dry so he could touch it.

I finished it!!

I pinned something similar to this ages ago... but couldn't find the motivation, until Mark and I purchased the most beautiful piece of furniture we've bought our entire married life. 

Now I've decided it's time to focus some decorating energy in our bedroom!  (Seriously, the only thing on our walls are some abstracts I asked Evan to paint for me when he was 4.) 

I found the & at Hobby Lobby several months ago and used a coupon... so it was a HUGE purchase at $3.50.  Almost broke the bank.

When I bought it, I thought I was going to paint it.  Never been a tarnished gold type.

But then, I put it next to the dark wood of the bed, and realized it popped more than pewter or silver. 

Then the search for the smaller letters began.  Nothing was really what I wanted... and I thought about special ordering them or having someone cut them for me, but that was either too expensive or too labor intensive (oh the sanding!). 

Then I found these (almost) perfect letters at Hobby Lobby... they were a little bigger than my plan originally called for, but I liked the simple font, and THEY WERE ON SALE!   ($1.25 for each letter)

I painted them a base of raw umber, then a light wash of jet black, that I used a paper towel to splotch off (splotch is a real painting term, I'm sure of it).  They ended up pretty much the same color as the bed!

But I wanted them to pop just a little more, so I stamped each one with a little bit of blingly metallic ink.

Not too shabby for a $10 piece of art!! 

Oh, I love DIY!



Weekend Creative

I have a new toy.

Some of you know about it....

I've been saving my pennies... and I finally bought myself an electronic cutter!!

This weekend, I cut out Ryan's Valentines... and I've started to assemble them. 

(This one still needs a few final touches, but you get the idea!)

Now to add the finishing touches and fill the goody bags they will be tied too!

Sounds like the perfect activity for movie night!

Creative People: Listen.

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Three Day Weekend Turns Violent and What I Accomplished Between Loads of Laundry.

Violently Ill that is.

Yeah. 

I spent last night cleaning up partially digested food and washing bedding.

BUT...

LOOK WHAT I FINISHED between loads of laundry!!

First... For Robyn:

It's funny, we tried and tried to come up with a plan for a set of frames she has in her dining room, and she wanted something that coordinated with her Fiesta ware, but that was versatile enough to flow into the adjoining rooms.

Nothing was clicking, and then I looked up on her shelf and saw a bin labeled "My Minds Eye"... and for those of you who have ever talked sbing companies with me know that I LOVE MME.  Esp the lines So Sophie and Stella Rose. 

And it dawned on me that Stella Rose was ALL of her dish colors... ALL of them.  I pulled out a paper and suddenly it started to come together.  And not just this one... but all 5 that we need to do for this frame!

And next, something I've actually been working on for awhile... but finally finished this weekend:

I have no idea what I'll do with it, but I really enjoyed the process!

A Scrappy Gift

Yesterday, I decided to create a little something to send to a friend.

She has no idea it's for her.

I guess, after she gets it in the mail, she'll figure it out... hehehe.

It's just a small thank you... A 5x7 scrappy/doodle inspired by something I saw on Pinterest.

My NEW Most Favorite Thing I Have Ever Crafted.

So, yesterday, my friend Robyn asked me to come over and help her overcome some creative block on a project she had been working on for awhile.

(FYI: While cute, this isn't it... keep reading.)

This is what we came up with... while we were waiting for the paint to dry on the cloths pins that will go along the bottom (to hold snapshots!!! how CUTE!!!)... we were talking about OTHER boards she wanted to make.

She said something about not being able to decide on the phrase and rattled off a few things... and then my brain went into OVERDRIVE. 

One of the phrases she mentioned was "Believe" ... and I said, "Well, we could do Believe and replace the dot on i with a star..." and THEN THEN...

I just want you to be really aware of how excited I was about this idea.

If I had been in the room with anyone OTHER than Robyn at the moment the idea was conceived... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have understood the words that flew out my mouth in rapid fire... incomplete sentences... mostly because as she started nodding that she was following my train of thought, I'd stop mid-sentance and move onto the NEXT step of the idea. 

While we were designing the layout... and she would pull up an image or a font, and it would BE what I saw in my head... I would literally bounce in my seat and giggle. 

THIS is why I love crafting with Robyn.  We speak the same language... and we get excited about the SAME things.

Anyway... if we're FB friends, you saw the "almost done" pictures... here it is in all it's glory...

It was actually a very simple process... first I painted the board, I used a streaky mix of a bright red, black and brown... it gave it a little bit of a weathered appearance. 

Then, once the paint was dry, we laid down the simple nativity scene in vinyl... rubbed the edges really really well to seal it, and painted over with a solid red... in a fairly light coat so that some of the browns and blacks would show through and provide a little bit of variation.  

While the top coat was still a little tacky, I pulled up the vinyl figures (very gently so that we could reuse them!), revealing the slightly darker paint from my first layer... which makes it appear as a subtle shadow. 

After the paint from the top layer was completely dried, we laid down the wording and the star. 

I then took a black stamp pad and rubbed it along the edges and in a few choice spots to give it an weathered, dimensional look.

Last, a light coat of MinWax Finishing Paste to give it the perfect aged patina!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  

And I can't wait until we make the second board we invisioned...

Love Love Love Pinterest

I know it's simple... a clear ornament, a little holly, and my wedding invitation.

No one can actually READ the curled paper inside, but as I hung it on the tree, I knew what it was celebrating... and after all, it's all about me, lol!

The Snowflake Craft

So, my son says to me last night after he was on his third bowl of the soup I made for dinner, "Mom, this dinner is so good! You should put it on pinterest."

Which I think might be a sign that pinterest has become a VERY big part of our lives.  But why not??  Esp when it encourages me to upcycle something like THIS:

It look VERY complicated and intricate. 

And don't tell the people who are getting them as gifts, but they ARE ANYTHING BUT!

In fact, Evan whipped out two in about 30 mins.  

The hardest part is folding the strips of paper... first figuring out the weight (how many folds) and then getting them as perfectly straight as you can.

 We used an old dictionary... newspaper, or any other paper type will work.  For the glue, I used two different types: to seal the folded strips I used a plain old glue stick; to glue the strips together, I used a craft glue called "Glossy Accent".  It dries super fast, and is super strong.  (Think superglue, but easier to clean up!)

We found the tutorial here:  House Revivals: Make a Woven Star 

As always, once I understood the concept, I didn't really follow her directions for all my stars. 

The star pictured here though is her "Star #1" 

Oh, and there is not fluffy tinsel on mine.  But, I will probably distress them this weekend! Because shiny silver isn't my cup of tea, but aged shabby sure is! 

Don't be intimidated! 

Try it, you'll see how simple it really is!

(Plus, since you are using something that you would normally trash, it's practically free!  How can you go wrong!)  

Give Thanks

Last weekend, because I was trying desperately to catch the craft bug so I could finish some Christmas Gifts, I decided that I needed MORE Thanksgiving decor.

And by "MORE", I mean I have none and needed SOMETHING.

So, I went down to the craft room, pushed the pile-o-crap that I have yet to put away after a weekend scrapping at my friend's house in mid-October, and closed my eyes.

Where to start? 

Hmmmm. 

I started with where I wanted to display it.

There was a bare spot above the fireplace where I had hung my bunting.

What?  I never posted a picture of the bunting I hung where one day I will put a mantel??  

It was another "Get in the mood" project.  I made it out of leftovers from a quilt I made ages ago instead of sewing Ryan's Halloween costume (which I EVENTUALLY finished).

Here:

Okay, so see that spot of wall in the middle??  Yeah.  It's BORING.

So I pulled out my coluzzle, because I'm not as cool as some people who have electronic cutters.  I'm OLD SCHOOL!

Sorry... off topic.

Anyway, I thought I'd use up some scrap paper, so I cut a few hearts with my old school tools.  I distressed them with some TIM products... and then added my lettering.  MM stamps for "thanks" and BG letter stickers for "give" (with a little glossy accent for dimension).  Used some Tim Stain (oh, wait, it's called DISTRESS STAIN!) to age a couple of clothes pins, and TA-DA!!!!!

Shhhhh... don't tell anyone, but I haven't finished the gifts yet.

A Pinterest Inspired Sign

So, awhile ago I saw THIS:

Source: Nanny Goat

And, just like the blogger I hijacked the idea from, I NEEDED it for my oldest's room.

Evan is such an awesome big brother, I couldn't think of anything more fitting!


So, I found a board, used MS Publisher to layout the type, and then asked my darling friend Robyn to cut the letters on her Pazzle for me.


It was my first vinyl project, but I had to go all out... after all... just like the sb page I posted a few days ago, the emotion behind the quote translated into the fact it had to be PERFECT!

So, rather than putting vinyl on a painted board, I wanted to mask it, to give a distressed look... really go all out. 


So, after prepping the board with a combination of dry brushing and white washing, Robyn came over and helped me lay the vinyl letters (way more fun than I thought it would be!). 

When we walked upstairs and showed the unfinished board to the husbands, I'm pretty sure they thought we were nuts to be THAT excited.  I wish I would have taken a picture of it.  Robyn used scrap vinyl for the letters, so it was black and brown on a streaky grey/black board, and was NOT impressive (unless you could imagine it as it was in my head)!

We went into the garage and slapped a REALLY quick, thin coat of glossy latex cherry red paint over the top, and pealed off the letters.  I got more and more excited as every letter came off.

I had to make myself walk away so it could continue to dry. 

Now, a week later, I finally finished the distressing, and hung it in Evan's room....