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Category: crafty creations

  • You are my sunshine

    We decided the bathroom would be gray and yellow with oil-rubbed bronze hardware.  I had my mind set that I wanted some flowers and sun something in the bathroom.  When the girls were little, I used to sing them “You are my sunshine” a lot.  It was also on a CD we wore out, so the saying means something to the girls.  I decided to make signs for the bathroom.

    I used some scrap wood we had in the back of the house and made 2 signs.

    I taped off a sun, and then painted.

    Then came the words.

    Sealed and the final product:

     

  • Record Bowls

    For Mother’s Day this year, I had the girls in my Girl Scout troop make record bowls. These were some VERY old Reader’s Digest records that were going in the trash, so I snagged them. The girls each had to design the front and back of the record.

    Then I put it in the oven at 200F for about 3 minutes on a small bowl. The sides will slowly melt down and just before they touch the bottom, I grab them out of the oven. The records are pretty warm, but not hot enough to need oven mitts, I just use my hands. If you wait to take it out, they will get VERY HOT and you will need mitts.

    I center the record up on a larger bowl and push it down to make the form. You can actually use any shape and even shape it with your hands.

    The final product. The moms loved them…not to mention kind of a unique gift.

  • Mother’s Day 2012

    This year for mother’s day I wanted to give my mom something she could not buy anywhere else.  I found this awesome sign on Pinterest from House of Hempworths and I just had to make it!  I wish I could say that I bought the template she offers and cut the vinyl out with my Silhouette Cameo…but I have yet to get a Cameo for my birthday, or Mother’s Day, or Christmas.  Someday.  {{{sigh}}}

    I had to improvise with what I have.  I used the projector that is in the art room to throw up the image onto a large piece of butcher paper and I traced it.  Then it took me an HOUR to cut it all out.  My template was ready so then I started on the sign.

    I bought some cheap fencing slats from HD and cut them to the desired length. I screwed on some support boards on the back. If I had more time I would have let this sit in the sun for several weeks to flatten out and weather a bit, but I was doing this at the last minute (no surprise there) so I did not have time to get the warping out.

    Since I did not have vinyl to paint over, I decided to paint the lettering onto the wood. First, I gave it a rough coat of some light grey that we had in the garage. I did not make it perfect and left several areas with the wood showing through.

    Next came the tracing around the letters. (I am telling you I was complaining the whole time that I could not just print this out!)

    And then came the black paint.

    Once the black paint was dry, I used a #0 steel pad to sand away some of the paint.

    The finished product.

  • Not quite a Pinterest project but deserves to be one

    One of the first things I did on my new job since I would be traveling was invest in a better carry-on bag.  I did not opt for Samsonite, TravelPro, Hartmann or some other several-hundred-dollar bag, but got a Swiss bag at Target.

    I have learned that I am not the only one with that bag.

    And the Swiss emblem fell off.

    So I got out the puff paints this morning and this is what I came up with.

  • Pinterest Project FAIL

    This was my very first “sorta” Pinterest project. My mom sent me a picture of a canvas she wanted me to make. Ok…cool. I can do that! It was a square canvas with a saying about peace on it. After doing some searching online for transferring, I found a “recipe” to make your own transfer paper.

    I started by painting the canvas purple.

    The directions I found said to spray a clear transparency sheet with spray gel and let it dry. Then using an inkjet printer, mirror the image and print on the dried gel. So far, so good.

    Next, lay the transfer paper down and using a spoon (I used my bone folder), scrape the image onto the surface.

    FAIL!!!

    Nothing came off of the transparency. I did it like 3 times, washing the gel off, adding more, trying a thin layer of hairspray to coat it (which by the way just makes the ink run!). Finally realizing that it was the texture in the canvas, I gave up.

    I repainted the canvas a light blue. Using a clean transparency, I ran it through my printer (just plain with nothing on it), and pressed the wet ink directly on the canvas. This worked the best and I was able to get enough off to go over it with marker.

    Sharpies…right??? WRONG! The sharpies just bled into the cracks of the canvas. I found a fine black paintpen and went over the smudged sharpie which really cleaned it up. In a last ditch effort to make it look nice, I covered it with modpodge. ANOTHER FAIL!!!! It made the sharpies under the paintpen run with each stroke of the paint brush.

    UGH!

     

    That was how I gave it to my mom. I did not even take a picture of it I was so mad. I gave up.

  • Pinterest Project #1- Crayon Art

    Here is my first Pinterest project.

    There are several floating around Pinterest, so I decided to kinda do my own thing. I had a canvas that I no longer wanted, so I painted over it with white acrylic paint (only because I did not have any Gesso).

    I used a box of 64 crayons and took all the browns and skin colors out. (I did not take out the army green and I wish I had.) I took the wrappers off by slicing each one with an exacto and slipped right off. Then I cut off the point and cut them in 1/2 so they were about 1.5″ long. *I would make them 0.5-0.75″ long if I were doing this again. They were too long! There was too much wax to melt.

    I wanted to make sure I had enough crayons (notice I used both pieces of the colors to double the amount I had) and laid them on the sketched heart.

    Next, I glued them down with hot glue. The thing to keep in mind is that as the crayons melt, the hot glue shape will be left so I did my best to make sure it looked even.

    Then came the fun part! (Make sure you do this on a drop cloth because the crayons drop off the canvas and make a mess!) I used a combination of my embossing gun and hair dryer. I started with the embossing gun heating the crayons enough so that I could tilt the canvas and the colors dripped. I made sure that I let the running colors dry before tilting the canvas another direction for the next color.

    Next came the hair dryer. It has to be on high fan, high heat in order to work. Because of the high fan, the drips are not as controlled. You can see how I manipulated the canvas to try and get the look I wanted.

    It got to the point that it became a big puddle of wax…not what I was looking for. So I spent some more time, remelting the puddles and letting them drip off the canvas. I really wanted the crayons pretty much gone.

    NOT loving this at all. 🙁 I just keep working on blowing more wax off.

    And it started working!  The key is to get the wax flowing in streams and not to mess those streams up.  Then let it cool, and move on to the next stream.  When a large portion gets hot (which happens very easily), it muddies them all together.

    Final product.  (And a shout out to Stacey for taking some GREAT pictures!  My 6yo is going to put me out of my photography business!)

  • Potions and Concoctions

    Wade was gone and the girls were complaining about being board so I made up a tray of various ingredients from the pantry.

    I had oil, water, vinegar, sugar, salt, cornstarch, flour and baking soda and food coloring.  I gave the girls a dump cup and several small clean cups for mixing.

    Away they went making different potions and concoctions.

  • Playhouse- Final

    If you have been following my blog for more than 6 months, then you have seen the drama over our outdoor adventures.  For example the first phase of our playhouse here, and then the second part here, and the mistakes here, and then finishing up here.  I never did post the final pictures of it.  So here they are.  I will borrow a wide lens to take pictures of the inside later.

    The girls were excited that they have a door like Punky Brewster.  Yes…cause my girls have every episode of Punky memorized.

    There is electricity (an extension cord) running from the garage out to the top of the playhouse.  This plugs in the AC unit–YES it is HOT in Houston and I don’t want the girls dying of heat stroke–and it also gives them light in the playhouse.

    And in case you were wondering…I will NEVER be a roofer!  At least not in Houston!

    Part I
    Part II
    Part III
    Part IV
    Final

  • Playhouse- Part IV

    After working all weekend, *most* of the playhouse is finished.  Now it is just fine details that need to be added.

    This weekend, we had to finish the other 1/2 of the roof.  This time, we decided to put the shingles on the roof like roofers do.  Wade was able to get the plywood up on the rafters while I screwed it in.  We added the tar paper and then I shingled…in the dark since it was so darn hot outside.  This made for some interesting lines… 🙂  We realized as we got down to the very end, we were 2 shingles short.  UGH!!!  The next morning I headed back to HD to get 2 more.  Of course, I failed to get the right color so 2 shingles are tan instead of red.  I was NOT about to go back to HD for $2.  I put these last 2 shingles on at 7am…and I decided I WILL NOT BE A ROOFER in my next career!

    Now we are doing the details.  Wade helped me put most of the trim on.  The door is finished, but we need bigger hinges.  The inside is painted.  The only major thing we have left to do is the railing around the front.  This weekend…I am confident we will finish!  At least we better!

    Part I
    Part II
    Part III
    Part IV
    Final

  • Playhouse- Part III

    To continue the saga of the playhouse, I dove back into working on it (yes, this project started in May and it is now August).  Mind you, it is now the hottest part of the summer here in Houston, TX.  The heat index is over 100 everyday.  But I wanted to have this finished before school started so I needed to work on it as much as possible.

    To back up just a bit, when we left for vacation mid-June, Wade had the goal to get the siding on the frame that was already on the playhouse.  Without any help, and the monsoons that came through, the frame mildewed before the siding was put on.  The weekend prior, I unscrewed the frame from the deck and put it in a burn pile and we got new wood.

    Having done it once already, we decided to put the siding on the frame, then put it on the house.  This would serve to square up the playhouse.  Before, we put the frame on the deck and then planned on adding the siding. This is what it looked like the first time:

    Here we are working on putting the siding on the frame:

    Once that was complete, I shingled one of the roofing sheets.  Boy did that make it heavy!!!

    Wade and Calvin were able to slide it up to the top where I screwed it in but we decided that was not the smartest idea, so the other side we decided to roof it like a traditional roof…while it was on top of the structure. I put in the windows just in time.  Monday afternoon…a VERY strong storm came through.  Wade and I were able to get the other 1/2 of the roof covered with tar paper and a tarp.

    Part I
    Part II
    Part III
    Part IV
    Final