it's all in the details

Ikea, Spray Paint and Teacher Gifts...

I admit, two things I love that always seem to make it into my holiday decorating every year: Ikea and spray paint. I try to keep most of my core decorations the same to save money but I do like to mix in a few inexpensive items to change things up a bit every year and that is usually where Ikea comes in.

These frames from Ikea are only .99 cents and come in four different colors: white, red, blue and green. But, obviously with a coat of spray paint, they can be whatever color you need them to be. This Rustoleum glitter spray paint is seriously now my new favorite. As you can see from the close up below it is super sparkly and you can add several layers if you really want it to shine! (I believe it comes in three sparkly colors: gold, silver and red and I purchased mine at Home Depot)

 

I added some of the Christmas Cheer No. 25 art prints and they were ready to give as teacher gifts. This is a double sided frame so on the other side I gave my son a 4x6 piece of cardstock and he wrote a note to the teacher. I then tucked a cute envelope with a gift card into the frame and now each teacher has a festive double sided frame with a sweet student note on one side and a festive art print on the other for their desk!

For a little extra whimsy I even added a little "jewelry" to Goldie.

I think the dry time on the frames was the longest part of the project! (Approximately 30 minutes)

What projects are you making this year for teacher gifts?

Supplies used on this project: Ikea Frame, Rustoleum Glitter Spray Paint, Christmas No. 25 Art Prints, Black Chevron Paper, Bazzill Jewel, Bazzill Gold Glitter Tape, Seam Binding Ribbon, Red Twine, Bell 
 

Excited to share Christmas Cheer No. 25...

I was ahead of the game, I actually started these in September and then completed these about two weeks ago. Usually I am dragging myself into this time of year, not ready for Christmas but I was determined to be on board and look how long it has taken me to post these! 

I am excited to share them though....I already have Goldie hanging in my office, she makes me happy!

 

 

Here are a few close ups of Rudolph and Goldie.

 

 

 

These are just super fun prints to use in any way you can imagine. They can be used in home decor or to spruce up your office space at work. Or size them down and use them in your scrapbook layouts, as card fronts or in your December Daily albums! The Joy to the World print is sized down from what I sold last year, I had several people request a smaller size so I have included it bundled with this years prints. Last years 12x12 version of the Joy to the World can be found here. If you want to enjoy these in your own home they can be purchased below.

 

 

  

I hope to be back later this week to share some finished projects with these. Just need to photograph them and get them posted to the blog.

 

Have a great week!

Cupid's Arrow No. 14 Printable Kit

Good Morning! I am embarrassed to say that I was so late taking down Christmas this year that when I went to photograph this kit and get it ready to put up I had to move christmas ornaments out of the way. In my defense we have had at least one person (usually mulitple people) sick in this house since January 3rd....ugh. The boys both have strep throat right now so we are still just a germ infested house. BUT, needless to say, even with all the sickies at home with me I finally got everything put away and we are now decorated for the day of love thanks to this kit!

                                                          

                               $12.99

                                            

                                                      

The kit comes with three 8x10 art prints ready to be framed and enjoyed:

A card in a 4x6 and a 5x7 size:

                                                                 

To make these card packs I used kraft 5" x 7" envelopes. I bought a pack of 50 from Hobby Lobby when they were half off the other day and then added doillies, twine and a bazzill vintage button and I have cute card packs ready to give out when I see friends, teachers, neighbors, etc.

And then of course the mini's. They are nine different 2.5" x 3" cards that are so cute. Think children's valentine exchange parties, on the treat bags, as tags, as place cards...the list goes on and on. For my youngest daughters party I am going to use kraft treat bags and just staple these as the tags and write each childs name directly on the tag. They would also be cute with these bags as well.

As you can see I have used my polka background on the back of my mini's. 

And one last idea for you...print your mini cards out several times, trim and use them to make a banner. Just sew them together at the top and you have a mini banner ready to hang which is what I did on my mantle which I will share with you soon.

Enjoy!

ps- See my wood wall with all of my frames and salvage hung on it? That was one of my christmas presents from my hubby. He took several days off from work and completed it for me and I LOVE IT! 

December is always a blur...

it seems that December is always the one month I can guarantee will be jam packed and I will want to pull my hair out...and it's definitely living up so far. We have holiday parties for every child and each of their activities, choir performances, elf on the shelf, we are hosting our own party and the list goes on and on but I am thankful for each experience and am looking forward to them all...especially Christmas Eve church services.

Our elf Louie wrote the kids a note today with his special Jumbo santa pen telling them to slow down and focus on the real meaning behind the season, I am hoping they listened.

I tried to do that my self this week and even managed time to design this fun chalkboard (which I have been obsessed with but not to this extent until I got my husband on board and now I can't get him to quit painting things with the chalkboard paint!) art print which is already hanging in the house. 

In fact the wall behind this hutch is about to become chalkboard tonight...I can't wait!

 

I know that not everyone has a large format printer so I have included the print sized as a 12x12 and 8x8 when you download the file. The frame I used is from IKEA and the opening is an 11.5x11.5 and then I bought the smaller 8x8 frames to give as gifts with the print. Will be delivering those today.

Enjoy!

Googly Eyes and more randomness...

I took a little break. We had some things I needed to take care of, and then I really enjoyed not having to think about the blog and then I knew I needed to think about the blog and well time got away from me. Which brings me to googly eyes....am I the only one that did not realize how far they have come since I last used them for my arts and craft projects in the 4th grade? I was in Hobby Lobby the other day wandering the aisles looking for a specific pattern of duct tape that my daughter had requested and spotted a whole section of googly eyes! Who knew?? But the ones with eyelashes instantly jumped into my cart and I was happy and an idea started forming.

I should probably back up though...I was at a friends house the other day (one of my favorite people in the world) and she had a cool sign on her mantle that said "A Witch lives here with her little monsters" and I mentioned I loved it. Three days later she texted me and said I left something for you on your front porch. And you guessed it...my very own sign. I LOVE IT....and every person that has been in my house since has asked about it so I thought making an art print of it would be a good idea and would be just the project that I could use the above mentioned googly eyes on! Lame I know but it made me very happy.

So this is what I came up with:

Of course I had to use my favorite black Ikea frame which has a mat that will fit a 5x5 print.

And the googly eyes...

And then I decided that the frame would need a witches hat...and believe it or not I had a small felt hat that I was using on another project (sad I know that I have these things at my house) and all it needed was some feathers and glittered tulle to dress it up and it was ready to be glued on.

And I could have stopped there and it would have been perfectly cute and I could have called it a day but of course I couldn't, I got the chalkboard spray paint out and sprayed the white mat and some wooden feet. Then I let my daughter doodle on the mat...

And isn't the eyelash eye cute? 

So if you are interested in your own Witches print you can purchase them here. It comes packaged with a 5x5 and 8x8 print:

 

                                                

Enjoy!

ps - I have also gotten lots of emails (which I have not answered yet...sorry) about if the Halloween Haunting kit from last year is still available and it is here:

These are a few of the things I made with it:

2012 Grad Printable Kit...

Several people have emailed asking if I can revise the Grad kit from last year so I have done just that. 

 

Here are a few of the projects I made last year....again everything that says 2011 will say 2012 now in the new kit.

Enjoy!

Mother's Love Project Kit...

I am excited to share this new kit today. It has been a while since I have designed something and then been able to turn around and share it with you right away so this felt good...instant gratification!

This kit has 10 papers that are sized both 8.5x11 and 12x12. Plus three 8.5x11 pages of elements which can be used in cards, mini books, scrapbook pages and more.

 

                                                        

I will be sharing a few tutorials this week on how to get the most use out of these printable project kits so check back tomorrow! 

Truly Mine Tags and Projects...

I had a chance to get a few more projects done this weekend and today when little bit was at school so I wanted to share them with you really quickly. I created this tag set for those teacher gifts that are super fast and fun for the kids to give.

These tags would be great for teacher gifts, cards, treat bags or whatever you may be crafting right now for your sweetie!

With my first sheet (which I printed on Avery sticker paper) I decided I would use these jars from Ikea and let each child pick out a candy to fill them with for their teacher. I used my Marvy circle punch which fit the top of the jar perfectly and then put them on the top of the jars and they are ready to go! 

You could add a little ribbon or twine if you wanted but they really are cute with just the stickers attached! (I think I may swap out Jake's choice of sweet tarts for some dark chocolate when he's not looking!) Or maybe it's just me that is craving chocolate right now.

Then I wanted to make a card for each teacher to go along with the jars. I found these cool petal envelopes at Staples the other day in the clearance bin and thought they would be fun so I printed the trellis background paper that is in the Truly Mine Project set, adhered it to the back of the envelope and this is where each child will write their note to the teacher. 

Then I punched a heart from the same paper, and added a vintage bit of paper, some seam binding ribbon and did you spy the button?...that is one of the buttons from the new Wayfarer line. Just happened to match this card perfectly! All of this is attached to just the envelope so they can open it with ease.

Then this next little project was all for me! ;) I wanted something fun to put on the entry way table for valentines day so I made this art piece using the background papers. I found the frame at Ikea and spray painted it brown.

Then I inserted one of the background papers from the collection (mustard dot). Then using my heart punch I punched out hearts from various patterned papers (7 total) layered and arranged them and then stitched them directly to the paper vertically through the centers of the hearts.  

I then typed "be mine" with my vintage typewriter and made a banner to span the center heart. Took me about 20 minutes and now I have a cute art piece to display and I plan on making a banner to hang behind it tonight!

What are you creating for Valentine's Day this year?

Truly Mine Project Kit...

I have been promising you I would get the Valentine's project kit posted and I am a bit behind (sorry) but here it is! I am excited about it as it is not at all what you would think of when you think traditional valentine's day colors or images....and I like that! When I first started my design process I tried really hard to come up with something a little more traditional but then I thought...why? Why does it have to be pink, red, black or white and then I kind of did my own thing as you can see! ;)

 

As you can see I went with turquoise, coral, mustard and a mottle brown and I had a lot of fun with it. There are twenty 8x10 backgrounds included in the kit as well as one 8.5 x 11 elements page. Yesterday I printed out 10 pages and then double printed a coordinating patterned paper on the other side and went to work creating a few projects....basically just playing, and here is what I came up with:

This is what I am going to use for all of our nieces and nephews. Each will get a $5.00 bill, a Hershey bar and lollipop in these cute pockets I created. All I did was take one of the pages I double printed with my pattern of choice. Trim out a 4x6 card, fold down the top right corner to the spine of the card, adhere down. Then sew it in place around three sides of the card to form the pocket. Then I used one of the banner shapes from the elements page to stamp the appropriate name for each pocket. The fun thing is they can all look so different since I have printed out so many different patterns! I think I might use these in the kids class parties as well (minus the money of course!)
 

This sweet little card might be my favorite. I love the mix of patterns and colors. Here I have used four different papers on this one small card. (The fourth is on the inside of the card) I used seam binding ribbon, a heart punch and my favorite tag punch to make this a super fast card.

On this card I used a few of my old book pages and punched out four hearts, then stacked them one on top of another for some depth. I also dipped the top hearts edges in gold glitter. Then I added two of my elements inside the heart and I had a complete card in minutes.

I made this tri-fold card for my hubby. I love the paper that has the "love memo" in the top left hand side of the paper so I knew I wanted to incorporate that in his card. I think I will use that in cards for the kids as well...just a fun little way to say I love you! It has a box to check for "urgent" "reply" and "I love you". All I did was trim down the 8.5 x 11 sheet and then insert it into the tri-folded card and I was good to go.

 

I guess the point I am trying to make is that I am all about simplicity....four kids = not enough hours in the day. So for me if I can make a card that is fun, pretty and most of all FAST....I am one happy mama. All in all I spent about an hour printing and playing around and had a nice little pile of goodies that are hand made and beautiful if I do say so myself!

Tomorrow I am going to tackle a few jewelry projects. My daughter has requested a few necklaces for her 3 BFF's for valentine's day so I need to come up with a plan for that....I will share those soon!

Enjoy! 

New clocks and New Year's Party Gifts...

Found these new clock faces the other day treasure hunting and of course I needed to add them to my collection. It seemed the appropriate time with the new year approaching, don't you think? We are still enjoying our holiday festivities and still have one more christmas celebration to attend if you can believe that! (we both have big families) but we also have a few New Year's parties to attend so I made these today to take as little gifts for the host and I thought the kids would enjoy handing them out to our neighbors as well.

I went to Ikea and purchased the bottles. I think they were $1.69 maybe? Then I filled them with different types of beverages. Some were rasberry lemonade, some were cider. Then I used the New Year's Printable Tag Kit below and I was done. (I used a circle punch and my Martha scoring tool to finish them off) I then loaded them back in the box and now they are ready to be passed out to the kids friends when they come by or when they go to their houses to play. I also printed more to put on wine and champagne bottles for the adult friends! ;)

If you are interested in making your own New Year's treats here is the kit:

The kit includes one 8.5 x 11 printable sheet in a .pdf format that has two vertical hang tags and one horizontal banner tag that can be used on smaller bottles or cards.

Happy New Year!