Crazy Crafting

Ryan has said that my blog is just a bragging spot for me to talk about all my projects. He's only half right. I do like to "share" what I have been working on, but the other purpose of my blog is to share encouraging parenting stories. Like the other day when the boys were playing football out front and they called me outside because Ryan got hurt. As I walked out, I noticed Ryan laying on the ground and our neighbors back windshield completely smashed. Apparently catching a football was so important that he needed to crash through the window. See Ryan, my blog is not only about bragging!!!

So, back to my crafts - it's been a busy couple of weeks - I tend to get a little obsessed when I craft. Once I start with one good idea, they just keep coming!

This table base I've had for years and it was natural wood. I painted it cream color and plopped a window frame on top.

I tacked an old quilt onto the back of the window.

I saw this picture in my Dr. office and snapped a few pictures. (I am a great copy-cat) It is all felt that I hand sewed on - I like that it looks a little lopsided and old. The frame started white, then black and ended up gray.

These are architecture stars that they used on buildings. I bought a bunch of these years ago at a flea market in Florida. I hot glued them onto the back of a fabric covered board and put it in a black frame.

This is my favorite - it was an unfinished wooden bowl I had laying around. I painted it and then started writing Bible verses interspersed with hearts in a circular pattern. Each verse has to do with love. When it was dry I put a coat of stain on it. I LOVE how it turned out - I am on the search now for wooden bowls to make more of these as wedding gifts - why didn't I think of this last summer when we had 7 weddings to go to!

Dylan has a recording/band/ catch-all spot in the basement. Under this table he stores an old turn table, albums and speakers. It always bugged me when I would look over and see the "mess". He told me just not to look - but instead I took a bunch of old rulers and lightly painted them. I then hot glued them to an old wooden box. He now has storage underneath and I have a nice hiding spot I look forward to looking at.

JORIE ALERT - stop reading now because this is one of your Christmas gifts!!

We love Scrabble and Banannagrams in our family so I made this pillow to look like scrabble letters. I ended up stuffing it with pieces of leftover fleece and Cam says it is the perfect weight for sleeping on!

I've had this star hanging in my bedroom for a while but it looked a little blah! So I took an old window (I find them in the trash every once in a while) painted it blue and tacked material onto the back. Then I hung it up and popped a nail in to hang the star. I added the berries to complete the look.

According to Cam you can buy potholders at the store, but why bother when you can easily cover your old, burned ones with material and stitch on some felt stars using a blanket stitch. See Cam, they don't sell these at any store I've gone to :)

I have one more project I just completed with the left over rulers, but unfortunately I don't have a camera, so you will just have to wait on that. Hope you don't think this is bragging, Ryan - it makes much more cents and sensibility than flying through a windshield!!

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today is my birthday - as Cam so "nicely" announced to our entire church - both services - "thanks honey!"

So I decided I wanted to start a new tradition between Cam and I. Every year we buy each other cards and write sweet, encouraging words to each other. (The past two years my kids have each written me letters on my birthday telling me how much I mean to them - when I say those are the best gifts I have EVER received, I am not exagerating!) So when Cam and I write birthday cards to each other I keep the card out for a while, then tuck it into my desk vowing to hold onto it since his words are so special to me. But eventually it gets tossed to make room for more invaluable keepsakes. I had been brainstorming a better way to hold onto these cards - plastic sheets in binders was one idea, cardboard keepsake boxes was another, but I knew I could do better.

Here in comes the new tradition. I took an old hard cover book and tore out the pages, then I covered it in material and sewed together some blank pieces of paper. Then I hot glued that to the spine of the book. Thereby creating "the birthday book". I warned Cam that I wanted him to write in this book for my birthday instead of buying me a card. (I copied what I had written to him for his October birthday since I hadn't thought of this idea sooner.) This way our sweet, encouraging words to each other are in one place to be reread whenever we want. I think this tradition will make a lot of cents and sensibility in our house!

 



Trash Fairies Strikes Again!

I was reading one of my favorite blogs - besides Aislin's, Shay's, Janet's and Kate's. It's called "The Real Housewives of Bucks County" and unlike the name portrays - they are two super crafty friends who talk about all the projects they do. They were showing a dresser they had just refinished and like I mentioned the other day - we had just trash picked a "new" dresser for Dylan that left me with 2 slightly wobbly totally usable dressers.

I had just gotten my winter clothes out of boxes in my closet and was trying to figure out how I was going to fit all those bulky sweaters into my dresser. I have visions of being a minimalist that owns just 7 outfits that I rotate week after week, but in reality I am a thrift shop addict that has a hard time passing by the Ann Taylor sweater set for $1. So another dresser in our bedroom would be perfect.

On Saturday we got to work - I was simultaneously working on the canvas and the dressers and loving every minute of it. When the kids were little I had a small crafting business that I miss every day I drive to work. I would wake up, put on the same pair of overalls I had worn the day before, slap on a baseball hat and merrily get to crafting - it was heaven - but benefits and year round salary won out over crafts.

Back to my project - I took the knobs off, cut out a hole in each drawer with a hand saw, sanded and got to painting - my favorite part! After painting the color I wanted, I went back with a dry brush and did accents with black paint.

After it dried, I stenciled on the numbers (using the same stencils from the canvas project) It turned out perfectly! Now I have "new" dresser in the bedroom and one for our basement bedroom all for the price of a stencil!