Teenagedom

Cole has officially joined the ranks of eye rollers and knowing everything.  I wish I could have back my toddler who would snuggle at the drop of a hat and give an endless stream of bear hugs and smooches.  As Cole moves into a new chapter of his life, we wish him success and happiness.  Junior high is rough and high school will be rougher.  He's a good kid with a kind heart.  I know our future scientist will do great things.  

xoxo

Mom

diy typography/subway art

My niece Ashley got married last year and the two lovebirds just bought the sweetest little house. They are both crazy about typography/subway art so I decided to make her a custom sign commemorating their big day. It turned out so well I thought you might like to see how I did it.

The first thing I did was to design the layout. I used a 9" x 12" gallery wrapped canvas so I designed the layout on a regular letter size paper. I used a serif (footed) font and adjusted the font size and kerning (spacing between letters) so that each word spanned from the left to the right edge of the paper. If you want to get fancy, you can add vertical words. I wanted to keep it pretty simple.

I used a black canvas but you could always prep a plain white canvas by painting it black first. Black gesso would work great...and would simulate chalkboard nicely. You could also make this on a painted wood panel.

Saral Transfer Paper in white is excellent for transferring the letters. You simply sandwich the transfer paper between the printout and the canvas. Make sure the transfer side is against the canvas or the transfer will be made on the reverse side of the printout...oops! Be sure to center the printout. Tape into place to secure it while you trace the letters.

White will be transferred to the background but I think that adds to the chalkboard effect. It's okay if you miss parts of the transfer. See how I missed part of the "Y"? There is enough there for me to fill in with the next step.

Using a white oil pencil (or you could use a white colored pencil or white chalk pencil), fill in the letters. 

Use a fixative spray to protect the piece. This is especially important if you used colored pencil or chalk.

This same process can be used to create art with special quotes and personalized messages.

Elfish Delights

You know when you receive an email with "Elfish Delights" in the subject field, it's going to be a good one!  I love how creative Robert was in displaying these ornaments.  Those lucky ornaments will be hanging next to beautiful amaryllis blooms before too long.  

Thanks for sharing Robert :)

St. Nick

Friday is St. Nicholas' feast day. When children leave their shoes out the night before, St. Nick will stop by and fill them with treats. He leaves children treats at Alfredo's school too. The children usually leave their shoes lined up in the hallway but last year St. Nick's helpers were caught red-handed. This year, I helped St. Nick by making paper shoes. Look how sweet they turned out:

 

I adapted this pattern by adding a shoe tongue and real ribbon laces. Then I printed the template onto patterned scrapbook paper. Here's the template for my adaptation if you want to make some too.

St. Nick traditionally leaves gold coins, a candy cane and a clementine. We have allergy concerns in the classroom so I used plastic coins instead of chocolate or candy ones. I added a few little gifts like a Christmas pencil and eraser, a ball, and a little pad of paper. I also tucked in a St. Nicholas prayer card. I put all the gifts (except the prayer card and clementine) in a little muslin bag with an ironed-on graphic. I used one of the sticker graphics from here.

 

Whew! 30 paper shoes, all set to deliver on Friday.  We'll set them out at their desks while they are at mass in the morning.

Happy St. Nicholas Day...December 6!

Dilly of a Pickle

Rebecca's daughter Madeline loves dill pickles and wanted a wood and clay pickle ornament.  She drew what she had in mind and I created this fella.  I've never had a request for a dill pickle, so there really is a first for everything :)

Greetings Ya'll

This is my mom's front porch all decked out for Christmas.  They live in Texas, so they can decorate without too much worry of a foot of snow being right up by the door.  The two gourd elves were a special request from last month.  I can just imagine how pretty it must be at night with the tiny rice lights in the wreaths and garland.  I believe that is a flameless candle in the lantern.

Tree Trimming

Rebecca was kind to take this photo of her Christmas tree with my wood and clay ornaments.  I love seeing how people decorate with my work.  Thanks for sharing Rebecca!

Thanksgiving

Ready to eat!

  Every Thanksgiving, we go around the table and say what we are thankful for and this year, I was thankful to have all of the boys under one roof.  We really miss Cameron being away at college.

I would say our sassy monkey Luna was thankful for a tummy rub.

I hope you had a beautiful and memorable Thanksgiving.

Mums

I found these large, beautiful mums at the market yesterday.  I thought they would look pretty on our Thanksgiving table.  The colors are so fall!

Christmas 2013 Inspired Ideas!

It's here! It's finally here!

Enjoy!

click here to get the online issue of Inspired Ideas for only $3.99

Joy to the World

A figural gourd snowgirl is available on my website.  I will have one more figural snowman and some Christmas wood and clay ornaments available on small business Saturday.

Holiday Open House at the Village Gift Shoppe

Gnadenhutten's little gem of a shop had beautiful holiday displays and it was perfect to get me in a Christmas kind of mood!  The chilly temps helped, but Lori & her shop partner did a great job with their holiday open house.  Julie and I had fun looking at all of the goodies.  After our shopping trip, we grabbed a late lunch at the Dennison Depot cafe (thanks for the suggestion Lori).  Anyone who loves trains, would go nuts at this railroad museum.  

The Village Gift Shoppe is located at

106 N. Walnut Street

Gnadenhutten, OH 44629

740-254-9530

villagegiftshoppe.blogspot.com

The Dennison Depot

400 Center Street

Dennison, OH 44621

740-922-6776

www.dennisondepot.org

craft fair

I'm getting ready for the craft fair at Alfredo's school this weekend. At the urging of some friends, I signed up for table . My father made rosaries to sell...and I asked sweet Kristen Robinson to make necklaces like the beautiful one she made me. I'm always, always getting compliments on it and people always want to know where I got it. I knew it would be a good thing to offer. She made 10 beautiful necklaces for me to sell. 

So inspired by these two very religious items to sell, I decided to run with it and offer other items with a religious theme.

I set up a table in my family room so I could plan out the displays. Want to see?
 

  

I used kraft wrapping paper with gold stars stamped on it (Dollar Store!) to skirt the table. I'll just use packing tape to tape it along the table top's edge. I had these table runners from my shop years ago. I just cut them in half and hung them along the table front, again using packing tape to secure. I topped the table with some kraft paper printed with scrolls. The nice thing about it is that everything is really sturdy. Sometimes using a cloth, especially a thick one, can make things wobbly.

 

I put my father's rosaries in this flat drawer cabinet. I sorted them by color to make them easy to find. Can you believe these are only $15? And he gives all the money, not just the profit, to his church. Isn't he a sweetie? He's going to be there with me on Saturday, with all of his supplies to make rosaries on the spot.

And how about that sign?

When I saw these chalkboard sandwich signs at Michael's, I knew they'd make great signs! I used white Saral transfer paper to transfer a printout of the sign to the chalkboard. Then I used a white chalk pencil to fill it in. Didn't it turn out great? And it was quick...I did all of these signs in less than an hour!

 

For the necklace display, I spray painted an old dress mirror frame antique gold. I added a flat board to the bottom for stability. I covered some foam core with osnaburg fabric using spray mount and I just used pins to hold the necklaces.

I put the extra necklaces on a velvet lined tray above. As the necklaces sell, I can consolidate the display to go in the mirror frame.

 

Aren't these necklaces breathtaking? Kristen did such a lovely job...I don't know which is my favorite!

These prayer journals were a fun project. I used those cheap plastic photo albums ($1 from Walmart and the dollar store) and filled them with prayers and scripture readings that I machine-stitched to scrapbook paper cut to 4" x 6".

I have a few more things to make but I think I'm ready! We're going to pick up my parents this afternoon (my sister is meeting us halfway with them).

If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop by St. Timothy Catholic School in Chantilly, Virginia on Saturday. I'll see you there!

bizzeee bizzeee!

I'm working on the Christmas issue! It's a good one! Hoping to publish on Monday, just in time for some good ol' Thanksgiving afternoon crafting!

I'm hoping today to give you a sneak peek at another fun thing I'm busy working on...the craft fair at Alfredo's school. This weekend! See, I told you I was busy!

12 Songs of Christmas 2013

Just compiled this year's Christmas playlist for some painting inspiration.  Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's Mr. Heatmiser is a great version of the Rankin Bass classic.  Yule Shoot Your Eye Out is one for my Fall Out Boy fan Cameron.