LOVE Canvas

I knew I wanted to make a canvas that repeated the word Love over and over again. Originally I had thought of doing a quote with Love but just couldn't find one that moved me. So I dug through all of my old paintings that I wanted to paint over. Here's one. Yuck! 

So I used gesso to paint over it (kind of like primer for canvases). 

Then I used white acrylic paint to paint over it (in hindsight, I wish I'd used white spray paint).

Next I cut a variety of fonts and sizes of the word Love out of vinyl using my Cricut.

I started with white because I had a bunch. But ran out, so I had to switch to black and then red. 

Then I spray painted the whole thing red.

Then I removed the vinyl, revealing the white background. I wasn't very happy about the clean edges I got from removing the vinyl.

Another way to do this, would have been to spray paint the canvas red. Then, cut the white vinyl letters out and let it be done.

Linking Up With These Great Blogs:

Alderberry Hill,      Tutus and Tea Parties,      The Rustic Pig Designs,      Or So She Says,      My 1929 Charmer,      Super Handmade Sunday @ A Cat- Like Curiosity,      Lil' Luna          Craft Geek,      Simple As That,       House on the Way,      Sassy Sites,      Mindy May's Market,   Skip To My Lou,        Sugar Bee Crafts,      Cheap Crafty Mama,      Be Different, Act Normal,   Homemaker In Heels,     The Busy Bee's,      Fireflies and Jellybeans,    The Shabby Creek Cottage,     30 Handmade Days,     52 Mantels,     The Shabby Nest,     Lovely Crafty Home,  See Vanessa Craft,     Blissful Bucket List,     Bacon Time With The Hungry Hypo,     Lena B, Actually,     Pocket Full of Pink,     Family Ever After,      I Heart Naptime,     Six Sisters Stuff,  Nifty Thrifty Things,     Homemaker on a Dime,     Under The Table and Dreaming,     Flamingo Toes,    It's Overflowing,    Ivy And Elephants,    Clean and Scentsible,    Creations by Kara,     Tip Junkie,      Love and Laundry,      Create. Craft. Love.,     Sarah Dawn Designs,     One Artsy Mama,      Tatertots and Jello,     The Grant Life,     The Hubby Made Me,     Kitchen Fun With My Three Sons,       The Chiffon Diary,     Manic Mother,     The Thriftiness Miss,     Say Not Sweet Anne,     Becoming Martha,     Too Much Time On My Hands,     Destination Craft,     The Dedicated House,      Katherine's Corner,   C.R.A.F.T.,    Fluster Buster,     Nap Time Creations, The Mandatory Mooch, Lamberts Lately, Made From Pinterest

 

Heart Canvas

I knew I wanted to make some sort of heart accent piece for the mantel but my original idea was a bouquet of heart flowers but switched to this heart canvas.

The finished product doesn't really convey all the layering and textures. But believe me, in person, it looks pretty cool!

To make the heart centerpiece, I used the metal sheets that I was able to get from Lifestyle Crafts via Joann's. I just made a heart template out of card stock. Traced it onto the metal sheets and then cut it out.

Next, I ran it through my Sixix machine. All you do is lay the cut out metal heart inside of this embossing folder (it opens up, just like a file folder, just make sure you measure your embossing folder prior to running it through to make sure it will fit. I used a 4 inch heart).

You layer the black pieces on either side of the folder and run it through the embossing machine. 

And here you can see the embossed heart.

Lightly paint it with acrylic paint and let it dry.

After it was dry, I rubbed a distressing ink on top and immediately sprinkled it with an embossing powder.

Then, use a heat gun to seal it and this is what you get. You HAVE to do the drying as soon as possible after you ink it and sprinkle it with embossing powder. Otherwise, it won't work. I learned this technique at The Little Blue House. Love that place! If you're ever in the DFW area, look 'em up. 

Now for the canvas part. I used modge podge and pages from an old book as a base coat.

Then I used food coloring with modge podge to add a pink glaze on top.

Then I used my distressing pad to add some gray to it.

Then I just went crazy with my brushes and bubble wrap.

After looking at the painting for a while, I decided to re-do the center metal heart using a black ink instead of gray.

I added the metal heart in the center. 

That's it! 

Fun! My problem is knowing when to stop. :)

Linking Up With These Great Blogs:

Alderberry Hill,      Tutus and Tea Parties,      The Rustic Pig Designs,      Or So She Says,      My 1929 Charmer,      Super Handmade Sunday @ A Cat- Like Curiosity,      Lil' Luna          Craft Geek,      Simple As That,       House on the Way,      Sassy Sites,      Mindy May's Market,   Skip To My Lou,        Sugar Bee Crafts,      Cheap Crafty Mama,      Be Different, Act Normal,   Homemaker In Heels,     The Busy Bee's,      Fireflies and Jellybeans,    The Shabby Creek Cottage,     30 Handmade Days,     52 Mantels,     The Shabby Nest,     Lovely Crafty Home,  See Vanessa Craft,     Blissful Bucket List,     Bacon Time With The Hungry Hypo,     Lena B, Actually,     Pocket Full of Pink,     Family Ever After,      I Heart Naptime,     Six Sisters Stuff,  Nifty Thrifty Things,     Homemaker on a Dime,     Under The Table and Dreaming,     Flamingo Toes,    It's Overflowing,    Ivy And Elephants,    Clean and Scentsible,    Creations by Kara,     Tip Junkie,      Love and Laundry,      Create. Craft. Love.,     Sarah Dawn Designs,     One Artsy Mama,      Tatertots and Jello,     The Grant Life,     The Hubby Made Me,     Kitchen Fun With My Three Sons,       The Chiffon Diary,     Manic Mother,     The Thriftiness Miss,     Say Not Sweet Anne,     Becoming Martha,     Too Much Time On My Hands,     Destination Craft,     The Dedicated House,      Katherine's Corner,   C.R.A.F.T.,    Fluster Buster,     Nap Time Creations, The Mandatory Mooch, Lamberts Lately, Made From Pinterest

Valentine's Day Countdown

I've been wanting to create a Valentine's Day Countdown for a while and recently I pulled ALL of my crafting stash out to see what I need to get rid of and realized, I have more than 25 bottles saved, just waiting to be used. They are a variety, Starbucks Mocha Frapaccino jars, salsa jars, spaghetti jars, mason jars etc.

So I decided to "dye" them pink. Here's a link for a tutorial. However, this tutorial is not waterproof, so it cannot be used for vases that would have water in them. I never perefected the technique. So mine turned out more streaky.

I have to say, I think my beginning jars turned out better. I used less food coloring and a thinner coating. My jars are by no means perfect. But they are pink!

Then I added washi tape and ribbon to embellish them.

I set them on a tray that I've had for a while. I had used it at Sophia's 3rd birthday party.

So there are 14 jars filled with candy (next time I'll just do 1 or 2 pieces per jar). And each day Sophia gets to pick a jar to "eat".

And we count down to Valentine's Day. She LOVES it so far!!!!! 

Who wouldn't love chocolate each day?????

Linkin up with:

The Dedicated House

Valentine Luminaries....Kinda...

Do you ever have a project idea in your head and once you begin, it just doesn't look like what you imagined? 

Well, that's my crafting story for this past weekend. 

This is what I ended up with but it's not what was in my head.

I started out using red marble glass globs and clear/white to spell out I you. 

But that was definitely not what I had in my head either. I think I should have used stained glass pieces instead. 

So since I had more red globs, I decided to keep it simple.

 I added a little ribbon at the top to hide the lip of the jar.

And it now sits in our entry way.

It's okay, but not what I was picturing. Time to move on. :)

50% Off at Lifestyle Crafts

I always love a good bargain and so I wanted to share the special deal Lifestyle Crafts is offering.....

Starting January 21 and going until January 27, Lifestyle Crafts is offering  50% off (instead of the regular 20% off) of their products!

 It will start at on Monday the 21st at midnight and end Sunday the 27th at midnight Mountain Standard Time. 

So now is the perfect time to try those Lifestyle products that you've been eyeing.

I've been eyeing these metal sheets for a while now. My birthday is coming up....maybe Russell can buy me an early birthday present?

Being Who I Am in the New Year

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind for me. We've had my in-laws in town from NY and of course it was Christmas vacation which is always super busy. 

During the midst of all this busyness, I tweaked my back and have been trying to get my back healthy. Unfortunately, I've had to take it easy, which meant putting off any organizational projects, crafting projects or Etsy store projects.

Because this injury happened around the beginning of the new year, it made me feel behind. 

Last year at this time I was starting all of these cool journaling projects like......

.....One Little Word....

Last year, in January, I picked a word to focus on along with a bunch of other bloggers (part of the One Little Word movement). Mine was present as in being present. I even signed up for the Ali Edwards class on-line. She sent us prompts each month with suggestions for ways to live/examine your word. I think I made it to March and then got bored/busy. But I made this fun book to chronicle my journey. The book was fun to make, but keeping up with it was a burden. Some journey, huh?

Here's where that journey began and soon ended.

....Project 52....

Last year I also made this fun scrapbook called 52 weeks and the idea was that I'd put a picture a week into it, to look back on the year. unfortunately, I at one point was 15 weeks behind. Right now, I'm at week 40....almost done even though the new year has begun. But I did have fun making the book.

Here's my Project 52.

......Gratitude Journal.....

And then there's my favorite project, my gratitude journal to keep track of a thing a day that I'm thankful for. Nice idea but I just got distracted and fell off the wagon about Feb.

Here's where I made my Gratitude Journal.

As I was sitting here on my couch with my ice pack, nursing my sore back, seing all of these other bloggers doing these really awesome, fun beginning of the new year projects, I began to realize, why do I need to beat myself up over this. Why don't I just embrace my personality, my style, and what I LIKE to do. I love making journals and mini-books. But I don't like a strict timeline. 

I think the bottom line for me this year is to not start any new long-term projects that I have to keep up with over an extended length of time. Maybe just a simple journal that I can create and add pics, journal entries, and odds and ends that doesn't have a specific time line. That could be mixed media. Otherwise, I fall off the wagon and end up feeling guilty.

I will go ahead and try to finish my 52 weeks book and Gratitude Journal, but the Gratitude Journal might be over many years instead of just one. The 52 Weeks is actually pretty easy to fix. I just need to go back through my photos and pick them out. The book is already made, it just needs to filled.

So for me, this year is just to be who I am. To do things because I want to, not because everyone else is. And really just to take better care of myself (like eating healthier and my back care). That way, I can be a better mom, wife, teacher and artist.