Home Sweet Home

My sister flew in to visit me this week.  I haven't seen here in almost six months!  So it was a well desired visit for me and my kids who adore their auntie.  She has a friend who just moved into a new place so I agreed to make her a housewarming gift.  Years ago I began etching lanterns as a home decor item and it still fits the bill.  I built up quite a stash so I actually had this lantern on hand.  For those interested, I bought it at IKEA a few years ago.  I know they still sell these lanterns, although perhaps not this specific style anymore. However, the ones they have are very reasonably priced as well ~ under $10 for this smaller size.

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There is this BOY

For some reason I have been in the mood to make some more home decorish type items.   This has never really been my thing but in the last six months or so we've made some changes and upgrades to our home and the ideas have started flowing.

I came up with an idea to do a picture retrospective of each of my boys with one picture representing each year of their life.  It took a long time to find pictures that worked well together, I am not going to lie.  But it was also kind of fun going through folders of so many pictures that I had forgotten about.  They really brought back a bunch of good memories.  

I found some large frames on Clearance at Michaels.  Not being a fan of white or black frames perse I pulled out some primer and spray paint and got to work.  These pictures are hanging in our foyer, and I kind of like the sunlight you see streaming across.  It does make the pictures harder to see so I have posted those alone as well.  The saying was something I instantly adored and naturally I found it on Pinterest. 

And the prints - well normally something like this would run $30 each at a printing place but I opted for an Engineering print instead.  It's printed on really thin paper and only prints in black in white.  I had already converted all of the pictures to black and white anyway so that they would flow more easily together.  It's not the highest quality print, but it still looks great in the frames, and hey, you can't beat $5 each. This project cost me no more than $60 total!  Which makes me incredibly happy. 

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What the Caterpillar Calls the End of the World . . .

You know the saying right?  My core group of crafty gals do a gift exchange every year.  The first year we did it at Christmastime and realized quickly how badly that sucked, because HELLO! no one is more in demand right before Christmas than paper crafters!  

But, it's fun, and frankly no one appreciates the work paper crafters do like other paper crafters so we pushed on.  In order to take the pressure off we decided to move the gift exchange to the spring.  Call it Christmas in March.  We exchange wish list items and include one home made item for our elf.  Strange we call them elves, considering we are doing the shopping and creating . . . I digress.  Anyway, the long and short of it is that my *elf* loves butterflies, and since I had recently made a canvas I was in the mood to do that again.  Plus, butterflies are pretty, fun to layer, and well, who doesn't love butterflies?

I cannot tell a lie, I did not execute the magnificent painting on this canvas.  I farmed that out to my mother in law, artiste extraordinaire that she is.  Everything else is mine though!  I hope my elf likes it because I freakin' love it! 

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Sandora Family Mission Statement

Because I just had to do another one.  I love the way they look, what they stand for.  Everyone should have one. I put lots of hours for this version which is even bigger and better than mine.  It measures two and a half feet by seven feet!  My friend had a lot to say . . .

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I Love You To The Moon And Back

Hello everyone!  It's taken me some time to nurse my Superbowl wounds.  Let us not even speak of it any further!  Now, I've been crafting here and there, and have an interesting project to share with you today.  A good friend of mine recently approached me and asked me to help her design a canvas for her sister's two little girls.  I've spent some time scrapbooking them in the past, and since I've never done anything like this I was up for the challenge.  We started with a 18 x 24 canvas.  I am no painter, but my mother in law is and that came in handy.  She painted the ombre background for us, going from a night sky into a bright day.  We added some stencils and painted on the moon and some stars with gold and silver glitter paint.  We then added the phrase that I cut out of vinyl.  We found the fairies on the net and traced them into Silhouette and cut them out several times using the new Silhouette chipboard.  Some grass, a few butterflies, clouds and flowers later we were done.  I really, do love the way this turned out.  Her nieces will get to see this new creation for their bedroom this Sunday.  I hope they like it!

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Friduss Four Life

I recently made some pillows!  Okay, not exactly.  I recently cut out some heat transfer vinyl and applied it to pillows!  That's more accurate.  And I love, love, love them.  I actually have three more that I will share on another day.

"Live Each Moment" and the "Family" saying on the last pillow are files that I purchased from the Silhouette store.  I designed the Friduss Four Life myself.  Super duper easy and I love when it's easy AND the final product turns out great.

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