The One Where I Pretend To Be A Painter

My sister is an artist.  She teaches high school art classes (including basics, history, ceramics, photography, stop motion, etc.) and has a part-time photography business.  So, pretty much she's amazing. (not just because of these talents, but we'll leave it at that for this post...)

This year, she had a milestone type of birthday (but for her sake I'm not going to mention the age... you're welcome Alisa!)  But I knew I had to do something big.  Something spectacular.  Something very secret and hush hush.  So I worked with my brother in law to throw her a surprise party with all her friends and family.  I decided to go with an art theme (for obvious reasons, see) and I have to say, I think it turned out pretty awesome.  I mean, not to toot my own horn or anything...

Anyway, for her gift (which also doubled as decor for the entry to the party) I decided to put this perfect quote on a canvas for her.  I know you've seen it around, because like I said, it's perfect, so a lot of people obviously love it.  But I'm going to explain my painting technique (which was freehand) and how I got a sort of 3-D effect for the flower.

I was planning on using my cricut explore to cut out the vinyl letters (because that's what it's for, yo!) but sadly my computer is having major problems lately - we blame old age, it's really got one foot in the grave (sorry, old friend, but it's true) - and it won't run the circuit design space software properly.  Or at all.  Gr.

So here's where I started out.  I sketched my idea on normal paper, figured out the spacing, etc, and the fonts I wanted to use.

Then I used a ruler and pencil and lightly drew straight lines across the side of the canvas so I would stick my words down straight.

The next step was to measure out the vinyl to the height I wanted the words to be.  I drew the words on with pencil just eyeballing everything.  And then.  The best part.  I cut every letter out by hand with a scissors.  No I am not kidding you.  Yes I am serious.  And yes, it did take a while.  They ended up nice and straight and I was pretty happy with it.  So I placed it on the canvas.

 I rubbed pretty hard on the letters because I didn't want them to come up and I was a little concerned about bleeding underneath.

 Then, on to the flower.  I wanted to make it have texture and depth, but I am NOT an artist and I'm pretty unsure of myself when it comes to oils.  So I knew I'd be painting with acrylics.  I drew the flower on the canvas lightly with pencil, then went over it with a hot glue gun.  

 I did multiple long lines for the stem, a single layer line for the leaves, layers of curves for the petals and dots for the middle.

To paint it, I did the background first.  I started in the top left corner with black, then without rinsing my brush added violet.  I blended the two together, slowly adding more violet and then, without rinsing the brush again, added indigo.  I blended the violet and indigo, then rinsed the brush and added in the aqua, blending the indigo and aqua, and moving down with just the aqua.  Then I added some citron green and blended that into the aqua really well, moving down to just citron in the corner.  Basically, you rinse your brush only between the dark to light colors, other wise you leave it and just add more color to it.  I went right over the letters, but avoided the hot glue flower.
I used dark green, kelly green and citron on the stem and leaf, just blending and highlighting.  Then I used a cherry red in the middle of the flowers, blended it into a dark pink and blended that into the white at the tips.  In the dotted center I used yellow, mustard and white to highlight.  I just dabbed it on with a round brush.

 And that was that.  When I took the letters off (which I did while the paint was a little bit wet) I did discover a bit of bleeding.  I took care of it with a white oil based paint pen.  I just went over the worst parts to even them out.  

She loved it.  I think it was a pretty fitting tribute to her _ _  years of life!  

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

(Understated) Glam Pinecone Wreath

I made a wreath!  I've shocked you all, I know.  They're almost my favorite thing to make.  Besides chocolate cake.  Nothing beats chocolate cake.  
But door decor is pretty much the homey-est thing you slap up on your house.  Want your house to say "welcome!  We like it here!  We hope you do too!"  Make a wreath.  Put it on your door.  Done.
If you'd rather your house say "Go away, I'm taking a nap." well, I can totally understand that.  But a wreath won't help.

I started by gathering a bazillion pinecones.  I actually used them for a different project first, and kept the nicest ones for the wreath.  I don't actually have any pinecones like this in my yard, and because it seemed absolutely ridiculous to pay for them at Joann's, though I knew I could, I drove out to my church building and ran around all the pine trees with a huge bucket.  
I did this during the day, and my church building is on a fairly busy highway, so I'm a little surprised no one called the police with my suspicious activity.  Surprised, but grateful.

 After collecting the pinecones, I sprayed them a bright metallic silver.  Nice and shiny!

For the wreath form base, I used a flat chipboard circle I got at Hobby Lobby.  It wasn't very pricey, and though I usually use foam forms I get at the thrift store for like 25 cents, I "splurged" this time because the flat, sturdy, light and NEW chipboard form was beckoning me.

First, I wrapped the whole thing in gray yarn for a nice cozy coverage.  You can sort of kind of see it in this picture if you tilt your head to the right and squint really hard.

I started with the outside ring of cones.  I used the largest ones on the outside layer, and tried to space the extra largest ones evenly around the circumference.  I used hot glue and just held each cone in place for a couple of seconds until it was grippy.  Then I worked on the inner ring of cones, which I had saved the smaller sizes for.  I used hot glue, and placed each cone in between two of the larger cones, kind of smooshing it in there.  It worked really well, the uh, what are those?  The petal things slid in between each other really nicely and added even more gripping power.  

Those pinecones aren't going anywhere.

So there you have it.  My Understated Glam Pinecone Wreath.  It's all silvery and wintery.  Which was nice and elegant-ish in like December.  Even January.  Now??

Now it's just depressing.

Come on, excruciating cold!  Give it up already!

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

a one of a kind wedding gift.

Long ago, while trolling around pinterest, I came across a mini little canvas art thingie and loved the quote.  It looked something like this: You + Me = Oui!

And I decided right then and there that I'd incorporate that into my home somewhere, somehow.  It's just so darn sweet.

So even though this project isn't exactly for me, and even though I don't speak French, I was excited to create some wall art using aforementioned adorable quote.  

This was created as a wedding gift, but could easily be used for an anniversary present or even for Valentine's Day (how fitting, considering the roundup we just had??  And the awesome part about it was that it cost me exactly $0 to make, since I used things I already had.  Don't tell the happy couple, ok?  It did cost me considerable time, effort and muttered fake curse words.  So, I've got a tutorial for you!

And though I was actually muttering and sputtering under my breath through parts of this, it's actually quite easy to make.  I just make things a lot more difficult than they need to be nearly 100% of the time.  Fortunately I've cut those portions out of the step by step.

Here's what you'll need.

TOOLS:

Palm Sander

Drill (with both a drill bit and a screwdriver bit)

Circular Saw (or other wood cutting type tool of your choice)

Also, you will likely need a hammer.  It's not pictured, but I'm pretty sure I can trust you to envision that.

MATERIALS:

reclaimed wood of some sort

a bit of plywood or other thin, sturdy, mediumish-largish rectangular reclaimed wood

screws

1 firring strip

two small nails

sandpaper

white paint

paint brush

pencil

white Christmas lights

Do not be intimidated by the length of this list.  Trust me.  The good thing about this project is that you can pretty much do whatever the heck you want as long as you use the same general basic steps.

A note about reclaimed wood:
I used the top of a fence panel.  We put up a fence about 3 or 4 years ago and kept the two extra panels we didn't use.  I had my husband cut one of the panels down for this reclaimed wood family tree I carved.  So I had the top portion laying around.  I used it to create the backdrop for the golden birthday party I threw for my BFF a few years ago.  Once all the paper was stripped off, I had this ugly half fence panel with bits of paper and lots of hot glue stuck all over it.  Which means any normal person would throw it away.
But thank goodness I didn't.
A note about Christmas lights:
I used the ones on a white cord because I wanted the cord to blend into a light, neutral wall color.  Lots of walls are white, right?  Anyway, you can go with the normal string of lights if you want to.  I used one I had on hand already.

So.  Let's get started, eh?

1. Start with your partial fence panel.  Clean it up a bit by getting rid of the hot glue clumps and stuck on paper.
2. Pull each fence slat off of the panel.
3. Hammer all the nails out.
4. Give it a very quick sanding with the palm sander.  (you want it to look rustic, but you also don't want anyone to loose a hand due to giant slivers.)  Then, and this may seem silly since you just sanded it, but you might want to add some small holes with nails or a drill and hammer and gauge some spots, or sand more heavily in certain areas.  You know, rough it up.
5. Take the back support board and remove any nails.
6. Cut the support board in half with the circular saw.
7. Decide how you want to lay your panels laid out.  I decided to lay all of mine so the curved edge was like a scallop down the side, but I alternated whether the back or front of the board was showing.
8. Lay your boards face down in the right position, touching edge to edge.  Place your two pieces of support board on the right and left edges.

9. Lay your plywood piece on top of this and mark the edges so you know how big to cut it.  It doesn't need to cover the entire back, but it should come up at least half way and overhang the two support boards just a smidge.
10. Cut the board to the right size using the circular saw.
11. Lay the plywood on top of the support boards.
12. Screw the plywood and the support boards down into the separate slats using long screws, but not so long they poke out the front.  Make sure you screw into each board (I actually used two screws per board - top and bottom).
13. Cut the piece of firring so it fits between the two support boards.
14. See how there's that space there between the slats and the back piece?
15. Push that firring strip into the space - you're making a "bottom".
16. Use the nails to nail the firring strip into the support boards.

17. Use a pencil to lightly write out your quote and figure out the spacing and such.

18. Paint over the pencil lines with white craft paint.

19.  You may need a second or even third coat.

20. Add details to the lettering so they're different "fonts".

Also, it may be important for you to know that if you use craft paint, as long as it is still wet it's fairly easy to rub off with a wet paper towel or clorox wipe.  You know, in case you accidentally misspell the most common word in your native tongue.

Sonofa... yeah.  That happened.

 But I fixed it!

Now, the fun part.  

21. Take your drill and make holes all along your word "oui".  I didn't measure and mark for exact spacing, I just went at it.
22. Drill a large hole in the bottom center.
23. You can see that the drilling left some jagged, slivery holes.  Yikes.
24. Use a piece of sandpaper to hand sand down the holes you drilled.  Smoooooth...
(You probably also want to sand down the whole thing again, just to make sure you don't cause serious pain with your "rustic" reclaimed wood)  Then, do some paint touch ups where needed.
25. Stuff the Christmas lights down in between the plywood and the front slats.  You may need either a. a super skinny arm or b. a long, thin stick.
26. Pull the plug out through the hole in the bottom.

DONE!!  Yeah!!

Plug 'er in!

 Ooooh, ahhhh!  Cute, right?  When on display, pair it with a cute photo of the happy couple.

(back when they were young, wrinkle free and thin.)  If we could do it all over, we'd say oui again!

And there you have it!  A piece of rustic, sweet and lovely, reclaimed wood wall art for some special someones.  Something they can use to dress up their new home and life together.

And I used power tools.  And overcame my fear of the circular saw.  Huzzah!

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

Frames. And what they hold.

This is not a post about frames.  

I repeat, this is not a post about frames - despite the title and the first photos.

I was "commissioned" by a friend to help with photos at her son's wedding reception/open house.  I went to church with her until she and her family moved away last year, but since they still have family and tons of friends in this area, they planned an open house here for just after the wedding and reception.  She needed help with decorations, setting up, the cake, and photos.  She also wanted a photo booth set up, and that's where my "expertise" came in.  As you know, I'm no good with cakes, so we left that to my sister in law.  My sister is an artist/photographer, so most of the photography was in her hands.  I helped making centerpieces and setting up, but I also did a bunch of stuff for the photo booth.  I'll share more about that a little later, but first up, these frames:

because although this isn't a post about frames, they are crucial to the story.  
I spray painted frames.  Spray paint and I have a long history together.  I hated it.  I loved it.  I made mistakes that turned out pretty cool.  So I decided to return the old standby for this project.
I scored some FREE art (yes free!) at a rummage sale with these giant frames.  There are actually 8 frames total, and to match the wedding colors, I painted some lavender ish and one lime green ish.  That one had me worried.  I painted it once and it wasn't quite right, so painted over it which was worse, then painted it lightly again with the first color and suddenly it was perfect.  So it was a totally custom spray paint color, a la me.  I also did a silver one, a black one, left one wooden and one white one which I don't recommend doing if your backdrop is also white - ahem.

More info about the photo booth itself later on.  

Now, to the real point of this post.

Bad art.  Due to the frames I needed and received (for free!) I became the proud owner of some pretty awesome bad art.  The kind of bad art you can't even turn into something cool.

I was taking the frames apart for painting purposes when Zoe wandered into the garage.

"What are you going to do with those?" She asked, pointing at the, ahem, ART.
"Throw them in the garbage." I said without even thinking.
GASP!! "You can't do that!!!" She exclaimed, "THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!"

And then she rescued them.
Later, in her bedroom, I saw them on display:

With some of her more "beautiful" stuffed animals.

Which left me with some questions.  

1. Who decides what is beautiful and what is not?  Who decides what will be tossed away in the garbage and what is worth saving?  To my "experienced" eyes, these weren't worth keeping even for painting practice, but from a 4 year old perspective they were full of emotion.  They had stories.  They needed to be seen.
2. What else do I carelessly discard without a second thought?  Cards and letters that my daughter has "hoarded" for years have gone into the trash pile, only to be saved again and again with tear-filled eyes.  Who am I to say they aren't worth it?  Are there other things?  People I haven't given a full chance?  Someone who needs help that I've walked past without glancing?  My own kids when they vie for my attention but I'm "too busy right this second"?  What am I discarding without thinking of the actual value?
3. How do I get rid of something horrible and ugly that my child has latched onto with her heart and soul?  No, really, this is an honest to goodness question.  How can I sneak these out?  Will there be irreparable harm done if I do?  What have you done in similar situations?  Give me some advice.  Really.  

Because while I love that she sees beauty in nearly everything, I still don't want nearly everything in my house.  Know what I mean?

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

Yarn. It's not just for sweaters anymore.

Today's project is a kid's craft!  As such, it's easy and requires little to no planning - the best kind!

I really like this craft because it's one that actually didn't result in me getting all OCD on my kids preceding tears - from them and me.  You know it's a keeper if my anxiety doesn't take over...

Are you ready to make some fun yarn prints?

You probably don't really need a tutorial, but here is how you make a yarn print:

1. Squirt some paint in your desired colors on your cardboard.

2. Take a strand of scrap yarn and dip it in the paint, saturating it.

3. Lay your paint soaked yarn in a design.  Press gently along each yarn piece, being careful not to move it around.  I suggest holding an end with one finger while gently patting it all along.  Also, it's most fun if your yarn pieces overlap, then there will be cool negative space.

4. Lift your yarn pieces off the paper, one at a time, top ones first.

5. Discard your yarn pieces on a separate paper.

6. Continue lifting off yarn pieces until they're all gone.  Admire your artwork!

mini had a field day.  As you've probably guessed, this is a pretty messy craft and resulted in crazy painty hands.  She loved it - every squishy, colorful, sticky second.

We decided to make a "z" for her name and laid out our pattern first so she could remember and then duplicate where it overlapped.

Then she wanted to make a flower, which I assisted with fairly heavily.

bug made himself an "E" and then wanted to make an "A" for his baby brother.  Such a considerate guy!  We also laid down some yarn on the sides and bottom for a little design detail.

I think this is a great way to "print" with kids.  Why?

1. It requires no special materials.

2. It's messy - kids love messy!

3. They can be super creative - you can make all kinds of shapes with yarn!  No holds barred!

4. Think of the lessons you can teach... colors, shapes, letters, numbers just to name a few.   And tons of art concepts too - negative space, composition, layering techniques, how to layer the colors to get the look you want, etc.

This was actually part of a larger project we are working on which I'll share with you at a later date.  We used it for our "Y" week and this art project was called "Y is for Yarn."

And what was baby brother up to while we did this?  Napping sweetly in his crib as all good babies do?

Nooooo!  Of course not.  Pip doesn't sleep until his body takes over and passes out from sheer exhaustion.

He played with Zoe's "Bun-nun" and smiled and growled - because that's what he does.  He doesn't coo.  He growls.

I would have had him making his own initial, you know, never to young and all... but my OCD had all it could handle with the older two.

Have you linked your projects to the party yet??

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Back when it was warm...

I did this spray paint project.

Because we all know you can't spray paint when it's under like 50 degrees.  And in Wisconsin, that's like 96% of the time.  Which only leaves 4% of the year available to spray paint every single project you want to get done.  It's impossible.  That's one of my biggest beefs with this state, actually.
Anyway.  I received a filing cabinet for free from my mom.  Not one to turn my nose up at storage options, I nabbed it up.  It was the typical beige of an office filing cabinet and unremarkable in every way.
It was, however, in really good shape, aside from being reeeeheeeeally dusty and kind of scuffed up.  So I decided that I would indeed use this filing cabinet on the main floor of my house and not in the basement as I had originally thought.  
See, though my "craft room" is in the dungeon, I often craft with my kids.  Or when my kids are drawing or doing homework.  Which means that I use the dining room table more often than my craft room.  So I needed some storage for those craft items I use all the time, kid craft items, decor items I use in photographs, and drawing stuff for the kids - all stuff that was kind of just floating around the house randomly with no home before.
Enter: filing cabinet storage.  I decided to use it as a set of drawers, a dresser, if you will, instead of for, well, filing.
Behold:

1. First things first, I took all the drawers out.

2. As I mentioned, it was a little dirty.  So step 2 was giving it a goof dusting and scrub down with clorox wipes.  Look!  I made some money doing this project!

3. No picture here, but I disassembled the front of the drawers.  I first had to take the plastic part on the back of the front piece off.  It was slightly tricky, but not bad.  Then I unscrewed the handles off and used a paint can opener to pop off the label frame thingies.  I managed to do it all without breaking anything, which was pretty stellar.

4. I spray painted the front of the drawers with Krylon's Ocean Breeze.

5. I spray painted the body of the cabinet with Krylon's Bright White.

I should mention that even though I didn't break apart the drawers, I did manage to mangle the lock.  Because I'm a little prone to doofus-ism, I accidentally locked the top drawer closed.  The filing cabinet did NOT come with a key, and I couldn't figure out a way to open the drawer without smashing the lock in.  Crap.  That's the one part of this project I'm not happy about.

After I painted it blue and white I thought I was done.  But as I looked at it, I realized it was boring.  And that didn't sit well.

I decided it needed stripes.  

I got some of the super low stick painters tape for delicate surfaces, since I was applying it to spray painted metal.

I taped two drawers with horizontal stripes and two drawers with vertical stripes.  Then I sprayed them white.
Upon peeling the tape up off of the drawers, it was super apparent that the low stick tape was still much too sticky - i.e. I pulled off bits of blue paint everywhere.

And then I got mad and let the project sit for a while.  When mr saw it he said, "Huh.  I usually don't like distressed furniture, but that looks pretty cool."
Um.  Yes.  Distressed.  I totally did that on purpose.  Mm-hm.
If mr. was on board, so was I.  So I gave the whole thing a quick once over with clear spray.  Then I sanded a bit here and there to really seal the deal that it WAS in fact DISTRESSED and not just a total fail.

I used a pencil to outline lightly where the label frames went, then painted rectangles of chalkboard paint on each drawer.  Then I put them all back together.

 Ta-da!

 We had just moved that big black shelf from the living room to the dining room - the distressed filing cabinet fit right in the corner.  Before you ask, the answer is no - I haven't actually staged the shelf yet.  Or even gotten enough crates and baskets for everything.  One thing at a time, people.

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!