DIY Valentine’s Day Canvas

February is here! My house got dressed up for Valentine’s Day yesterday and I finally found some time to work on some Love Day projects. First up is a Valentine’s Day canvas made with paint and stickers. I’ve seen this idea about a million times on Pinterest and thought it was time to try it myself!

 

The concept is really simple – put letter stickers or vinyl onto a canvas, paint over them and then peel the stickers off. I started by painting my canvas light pink and then applied my letters. Then I painted the whole thing with two coats of red. Sadly when I peeled the stickers off I discovered that some of the red paint had bled through a bit. I’m not really sure how this can be prevented but if you’ve got a suggestion I’d love to hear it. I cleaned up my letters the best I could with a small paintbrush and some of the pink paint but since it still didn’t look perfect I decided to give the whole thing a distressed look that might help it look imperfect on purpose ;)

I couldn’t find any sandpaper so I used a nail file and rubbed it firmly all over the canvas until the pink was showing through in places. I rubbed some of the red paint dust onto the pink letters to help camouflage where the bleeding had occurred. I love the shabby end result I’m sort of glad that it didn’t turn out perfectly!

At the moment I’m working on mastering coffee filter roses so watch for that project soon!

Crafty Christmas - $2 Tinsel Garland Done Two Ways

Is it just me or are Christmas decorations really shiny this year? Tinsel trees seem to be everywhere! I love the retro vibe that tinsel can have so when I found $2 strands of tinsel garland at Walmart I knew I could make them into something great. I bought two strands for a total of $4 and made two different projects. The first is my tinsel tree set.

 

These were really easy to make! I created tree forms with a pizza box (the kind that you cook in your oven, not a delivery box) because it was sturdy but not so thick that I couldn’t roll it. Once the hot glue had dried on the forms I used some more to glue on the tinsel. I started at the top and that way, if I ran out, I could just cut off the bottom of my tree form. The last step was to take some mini ornaments that I bought for $1 at the dollar store and hot glue those onto the trees. So easy and so cute with a real vintage feel. These cost me less than $3 to make (I had leftover ornaments) and I sold the set for $15 :)

Next I took my second garland and started wrapping it around a wire wreath form. My plan was to cover the whole wreath but I obviously hadn’t guesstimated the correct length of garland I’d need as it only made it about half way around.

Not to be discouraged I rummaged through my stash and found the pretty blue yarn that I used on last year’s Yarn Winter Wreath and wrapped it around the other side. I went back over with some random strands to try and give it a more natural look. I tied a bow with some silver ribbon and hot glued that onto the tinsel side and then added all the silver ornaments from my $1 pack onto the yarn side. I wasn’t sure about this wreath at first but I really like the way it turned out. I love the way the yarn is in such contrast to the tinsel. I was asking $20 for it and it got a lot of compliments but didn’t sell. I can’t be too upset about it though since it only cost me about $3 to make (not counting the materials that I already had).

So what do you think of tinsel? Vintage or tacky? Or maybe just trendy? While you ponder that I’ll be off working on some toddler Hanukkah crafts that I’ll be sharing next week!

Thanksgiving Table Decor

From what I can tell the majority of my readers are located in the US so this post may seem a bit early but, here in Canada, Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. In fact, it’s this coming Monday! So before we get to the big day I wanted to share a couple of simple suggestions for table decor or centerpieces. The nice thing is that both of these displays are already part of my fall decor so you get some bang for your buck by creating these centerpieces and then using them for a month or more in the dining room or living room.

 

For this one, start with a cake stand and then add leaves and pumpkins. That’s it! My pumpkins are fake (I bought them on clearance after Halloween last year) but you can use real pumpkins if you prefer. You can paint them to look shiny and metallic like mine or you can just leave them au naturel. My leaves are fabric but if you’ve got a tree in your yard then go ahead and gather up some real ones! Cover your cake stand with leaves, making sure there’s some overhang, and then place the pumpkins on top.

This one is even easier – it’s just a bushel basket that I filled with fall themed potpourri. It’s mostly leaves with some pinecones and pumpkins mixed in. Again, if you wanted to use the real thing you could gather most of these elements outside. For me, I’d rather have fake because I get nervous about insects. I bought this mix on sale at Michaels a few years ago and, because I seal it up every year when the season ends, it still smells so good!

These centerpieces are easy to scale up or down as well. Having a lot of people at a large table? Use a big basket and stuff the bottom with tea towels so you don’t need to use as much filling. Just your family of 4? Opt for an 8 inch cake stand instead of a 12 inch and choose gourds instead of larger pumpkins. Simple as that :)

Free Printable! I Love You To the Moon and Back

Just a quick post tonight to share a little digital art I’ve created. My mom likes to say “I love you to the moon and back” to Nathan and we talked about how the phrase would make for some cute framed art in her guest bedroom where he sleeps when we visit. I checked Google and Pinterest and there were options but nothing that I loved that could be printed for free. So I decided to make my own!

 

I love the way it turned out – it’s cute for Nathan but not so cute that it will look strange hanging in a bedroom that adults will sometimes sleep in as well. If you like it too then you can print one of your own! Just click on the image to get the full size version. It’ll print to 8x10 or smaller if you prefer.

And since I liked this blue version so much I decided to make one that is a little more girly. Again, just click the image for the full size, print and frame!

 

If you do use this printable I’d love to hear about it so please leave me a comment. I’ve decided not to include any kind of watermark since I think that makes for a nicer printable but please don’t share this art without a link back here. And because I believe in giving credit where credit is due I have to thank Miss Tiina Fonts for her awesome free Sweet Sky Dings – that’s where the adorable moon came from.

Sweet dreams everyone!

My Baby’s Room – Part II

A long, long time ago (ok it was only 4 months ago but it seems like forever since I was still pregnant at the time!) I promised a Part II to the My Baby’s Room post showcasing some of the decor that hadn’t been put up when I wrote the first post. Well better late than never! Here’s the second part of the nursery tour.

I was so excited when I found this set of 4 forest animal prints on Etsy – they are just so cute! I bought them along with the alphabet print from Mateo & Tobias. Cathy was super nice over email and I got the prints really quickly. Her prices were really reasonable and I put the prints in frames I got at Michaels with coupons.

We knew Nathan would need a toy box since he had tons of things to play with before he was even born. Instead of a traditional toy box we bought this wicker chest at Home Outfitters. It’s in his room now but, once he’s older and actively playing with a lot of toys, we can bring this to the living room and it will blend in with the rest of grown up decor.

To round out the art in Nathan’s room I bought a set of 5 bird decals from Six Under a Tree Studio on Etsy. I knew I wanted vinyl but I also knew I couldn’t spend the small fortune that a lot of companies were charging. Six Under a Tree has a pretty great selection for really reasonable prices. My set was only $10! I placed the Daddy, Mommy and Baby birds so they’d look like they are perched on the side of the crib. The other two birds found a home sitting on the door frame. This picture also shows a door hanger I received at my shower and a set of Beatrix Potter books that were mine as a kid. We got them from a gas station promotion which sounds crazy now. Do any other Canadians remember the awesome things you used to get from gas stations when we were kids?

There are other things hanging that you’ve already seen like my Name Wall Art, Paint Chip Garland, and Initial Canvas. I’m so happy with how the room turned out. It’s cozy and inviting and its little inhabitant seems to really like it in there!

 

Baby Name Wall Art

Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve been here to post a craft – I hope there are some people still reading! Today I’m sharing some simple name wall art that I made for my baby’s room. This project was very easy to put together and I made it over the course of two naptimes.

To make your own you’ll need chipboard letters, paint, scrapbook paper, a length of ribbon, chipboard stickers/embellishments, scissors and glue.

I started by painting my chipboard letters blue. Once they were dry I cut out circles of scrapbook paper (you could do all one pattern but each of my letters is different) and glued them to the backs of my chipboard. The circles don’t need to be perfect since no one will ever see them up against a wall. Next I added some chipboard stickers to the fronts of my letters. You could use regular stickers but I liked having my embellishments overhang a bit.

Then I took my length of ribbon, folded over the top and glued it down to make a loop. You’ll need this for hanging. I took a large chipboard sticker and attached it to the ribbon, overtop of the loop I made. I thought this “Something to crow about” sticker was really cute but anything goes! Then I just hot glued my letters down the length of the ribbon, spacing them evenly. And that’s it!

To hang your ribbon just tie a little piece of curling ribbon through the larger ribbon’s loop and hang it on a finishing nail. This is a cute project to hang on a skinny bit of wall that won’t accommodate much else –  I’ll be hanging this next to Nathan’s closet.

Nathan is really starting to take more regular naps these days so I’m hoping that means I’ll have more projects to share soon!

 

Spring Paper Flower Garland

This past weekend not only did I make kusudama flowers but I also made a quick and easy paper flower garland.

I was inspired by the Easter Egg Garland over at Happy Clippings but instead of making my garland Easter specific I left off the eggs and just used flowers. Basically you create heart shapes with strips of paper and then glue them together to form flowers. I added buttons to the centres of mine.

It only took me about an hour and a single double sided 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper to make eight flowers.

 

Then I strung them together using a piece of twine and hung the garland in our living room to add a touch of spring!

 

Easy Paint Chip Garland

I collected a ton of paint chips while we were selecting a colour for Nathan’s room so I was super excited when I saw a photo tutorial from grace & light for a simple paint chip garland. I grabbed my heart punch, a needle and some embroidery floss and turned my paint chips into something adorable for the baby’s room.

 

The concept is so simple – punch hearts out of paint chips and then string them together. We knew we were using blue in Nathan’s room so my garland is all shades of one colour but this garland idea is really cute in multi-coloured strands as well.

You don’t have to use hearts either. I’ve seen this same idea in egg shapes for Easter. I might have to make a trip to the hardware store!

 

P.S. I strung my garland on the side of the crib for these photos because we haven’t decided where in the room to hang it. It was removed before Nathan’s next nap so no need to worry!

St. Patrick’s Day Decor Inspiration

Last year I went all out decorating for St. Patrick’s Day and created quite a few crafty projects. This year the baby is obviously taking up a lot of my time so I haven’t gotten much past the searching for inspiration stage. If you’d like to check out last year’s projects just click here.

In the meantime, here are a few of the best ideas I’ve seen around the web for this year’s decor.
First, I love this quick and easy St. Patrick’s Day Banner from Rebecca over at Simple As That.  It’s made of things you probably already have around the house like old book pages and buttons. So cute.

These Shamrock Boutonnieres from Martha Stewart are also really simple to make using the provided template. Martha’s are made of fabric but you could use paper to make this project even easier!
 
Last but not least, I think this Glittered Top Hat created by Cristin at Serendipity is so creative and unique. She started with a hat from the dollar store and dressed it up for St. Patrick’s Day. You could create similar hats for all sorts of occasions and they’d make a great addition to a mantle or shelf.

I’m hoping to get some time in the next week to at least pull out last year’s creations but my little guy will decide whether or not that will happen! How about you? Do you decorate for St. Patrick’s Day?

My Baby's Room - Part I

In honour of my first day of maternity leave I thought I would share some pictures of the baby's room. I'm calling this post Part I since we still have to hang his art (from the wonderful Etsy seller Mateo & Tobias) and because there are some additional DIY projects that haven't made their way into the room yet so I will definitely have to follow up with a second post. I've already shared these pictures on my personal Facebook page so I apologize to all my friends who are also readers who aren't getting anything new out of me today!

This is the view from the doorway. It's not a large space so we kept furniture to a minimum. There is a dresser but it's just around the corner to the right - you can just see the end of it in this picture. The moses basket you see beside the crib has moved into our bedroom and we now have a wicker toy chest there - I'll be sure to include a picture of that in the next post.

I think one of my favourite things in the room is the jam cupboard in the picture above. It belonged to my Grandad who passed away last summer and I knew I wanted to make it a part of the baby's room. My mom had given me a set of woodland wall decals that I applied all over the cupboard which I think made it really cute and appropriate for a baby's room. The best part is that as my son grows we can just peel off the decals and he can continue to use the cupboard.

Hope you liked the peek into my little one's room. He's due to arrive in just two weeks so we'll be putting the finishing touches on the room soon and I'll be back to post Part II!

2011 Valentine's Round-Up

Are you looking for a little Valentine's Day crafting inspiration? I thought I'd pull together a bunch of my projects from last year into one post to get you started!  I forgot how pink my house became last February ;)

1 Crayon Hearts 2 Heart Envelope 3 Paper Wreath 4 Love Day Cards 5 Felt Garland
6 Tissue Pom-Poms 7 DIY Heart Art 8 Cardboard X & O

There are other posts from last Valentine's Day so be sure to check them out by clicking here. I hope to have some new projects to share with you soon!

Christmas Paper Cone Wreath

I've been seeing all kinds of variations on the paper cone wreath around blogland and decided it was time to try one myself. So I gathered up some paper and started rolling cones.

I made 16 large cones and 16 smaller ones. The large ones are made from 6x6 squares of scrapbook paper and the smaller ones are 4x4 pages I pulled out of an old dictionary. I found rolling the cones to be a bit tricky at first but I eventually got a rhythm down. The key is to make all your cones as close to the same size as possible.

Once I had all of my cones I cut a circle out of a cereal box and started arranging. I glued a jar lid in the centre of my circle and used that as a guide for the placement of my larger cones. Make sure to lay everything out before gluing anything down - it took me a few tries to get my various patterns into good order. Once I was happy with the placement of everything I hot glued the larger cones down and then hot glued the little cones in between them.

The last step was to cover my jar lid. I cut a circle of scrapbook paper and the Merry Christmas message, inked them and glued them to the centre.

I think it turned out really nicely. I gave this one as a gift but I think I might have to make another to hang in my house. I've also been hunting for a new tree topper and think a smaller version might be just right!

Yarn Winter Wreath

Last year I made a winter wreath that I never really liked all that much. When I didn't even want to hang it up this year I decided it was time to try my hand at another. I started with a ball of yarn I had picked up on clearance months ago (never know when discount wool might come in handy!) and a straw wreath form and got to wrapping. I'm very pleased to say that I love this year's wreath!

My pictures don't really do it justice - it was dark last night when I finished (when isn't it dark this time of year?) but I'm too excited to wait for a sunny day to share. I will try to replace some of the pictures once I can take some better ones.

As you can see, I kept it pretty simple. Once the wreath was wrapped I made some paper pinwheels and put glittery snowflake stickers in their centres. I paired the pinwheels with a pretty paper flower.

I bought two clearance picks at Michaels, layered them and then tied them to the wreath with some sparkly ribbon.

The last step was to hang a pretty snowflake ornament in the centre to catch the sun.

And there you have it, simple, pretty and with this colour scheme I can keep it on the front door well past Christmas!

DIY Glitter Ornaments

I'd like to shake the hand of the first person who came up with these DIY glitter ornaments. They are beautiful, easy to do and the secret ingredient is floor polish. Seriously, floor polish! All you need to make these are clear glass ornaments, fine glitter and Pledge with Future Shine (or Mop and Glo or similar floor polish sold where you live). And the best part is that because the glitter goes inside the ornament you don't end up with it all over your house!

I didn't take any progress photos because there really isn't much to see! Just take the top off your ornament and pour in some floor polish. Swirl it around making sure you are covering the entire inside of your ball and then tip it over and drain the excess back into the bottle. Once all the drips are out pour in some fine glitter (I used Martha's glitter to make mine) and swirl it around. Put your finger over the opening of the ornament and shake it to make sure your glitter gets everywhere. Dump your excess glitter back into the container (you'll be surprised by how little this project actually uses) and put the top back on the ornament. That's it!

Since I was experimenting I made myself a rainbow of ornaments but I think it would be really nice to do a set in red and green or red and silver and give it as a gift. I tied simple ribbon on mine but you can dress them up with stickers, paint or vinyl since the outside of the ornament is still smooth and glitter-free. 

I think this is the greatest idea and I can't wait to make some more!

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