Where Have I Been?

Here is the reason I haven't been blogging lately. 

 I have been working at church to help pull 

together a Father/Daughter Dinner. 

 We had 200 in attendance.  

We transformed the gym

 into a special space for a memorable evening. 

Our theme for the evening was Psalm 139:14 

"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul know very well."

We wanted the girls to know that the Lord made each and everyone of them unique and special!

Since the dinner was just a few days after spring, we thought the colors should be bright and cheery.  We made almost all the decorations by hand.  We had a great group of volunteers that helped!

The birdcages were from Hobby Lobby.  We attached a glass candlestick from the dollar store.  Then we distressed the cage with a variety of paints.  The table number was an embossed and inked circle.  Making it look like a piece of wood.  I added some raffia, flowers and you have a pretty focal piece.

We place the cage on a piece of wood and painted a little bird for each centerpiece.  A votive added just the right amount of light to illuminate the cage.

These poms were fun to make and hang as our dance floor chandelier.

 Each place setting had a hand dyed doily and tissue paper corsage.  Our party favor for the girls were little insta-grow pots filled with flower seeds.  We had nest shaped candy dishes with egg candies that matched our colors perfectly. 

For dessert we served cupcakes from this fabulous cupcake bar.  The ladies baked and decorated 300+ cupcakes.  They dived right in and loved it!

We had a fun photobooth area for them to get a picture taken.  It was a good way for them to remember the evening.

Here is a picture of the main coordinators of the dinner.  Left, food coordinator, middle, administrative/ craft helper, and I created the decor for the all the areas of the event.

It was a great experience working with these ladies and all the other volunteers that made this evening possible.  I am blessed that I can use my crafty gifts and talents to help create a special evening for my church family.

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

DIY Chalkboard Wall

My friend Kim made this cool chalkboard wall a few weeks ago.  I thought that was a real fun idea, so I decided to create one in my kitchen.  

I went to Lowes and bought some chalkboard paint, primer, and rollers.  I was thinking to make mine magnetic, but the paint did not get good reviews, so I stuck with plain chalkboard paint.  The paint was 9 bucks.  So if you have the other things in your garage, this would be an inexpensive project.  I like using disposable rollers, so I don't have to clean anything.  

 


Next I primed the surface with two coats of primer.  Then I put on three coats of chalkboard paint.  I waited four hours between coats to make sure it was really dry.  Then you have to wait 24 hours before you can write on the wall.

 The next step is IMPORTANT!  You have to prime the surface of the wall.  Rub chalk all over your wall.  I used the side of chalk and this went pretty quickly.    I was a bit dusty, but it wiped up real fast.  If you don't do this step you will get shadows left behind of everything you write on the board and will have to repaint the wall more often.  

Priming the wall gave it a real nice look.  It didn't look so stark black.  Can you tell the difference in the picture below?

   When you wipe it off, use a cotton piece of material.  I used an old t shirt.  This worked great.  Plus you can just rinse it out and throw it in the wash. 

Now comes the fun part.  You all know I am a doodler, so this was fun.  I can change out the art/doodles, notes, lists (I love lists!) all the time!

This project was a bit time consuming project.  It was sooooo hard to let it dry for 24 hours and NOT draw on it.  I love how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a blessed day!  

Thankful Centerpiece

We are getting closer to Thanksgiving, so I made this centerpiece to help us count our blessings.  This was totally free to make with things from around the house and printables from A Holy Experience.



I gathered some branches from out back, washi tape, a vase and some glass beads.

I wrapped the vase with some washi tape and added yellow and brown beads. 
My branches stood up well in the vase. Make sure you cut branches with a lot of points to hang the tags on.

 Then I printed off the leaves onto cardstock.  I cut them out, punched holes, and use raffia for the hook.  I placed them in a small bowl on the table next to the vase so my family can write down there thankful thoughts and place them on the tree.  

By the time Thanksgiving gets here our tree will be full of leaves and full thanksgiving to God for all the blessings He has given us this year.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a blessed day.

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude. 1 Timothy 4:4

Fall Pennant Banners

It is fall festival time at my church and I volunteered to help make decorations.  

Any time I can use my crafty talents I am ALL in!  So I thought I would create a little tutorial for you, so you can do some fall decorating too.

 

I went to JoAnns and bought 6 yards of burlap.   I had these stamps in my stash.  I used the triangle pattern left over from when I made a billion banners for a very special wedding, a few years ago.  You can see those banners HERE. 

All you need to do is trace the triangles 

and cut them out with fabric scissors.  

BEWARE, burlap is very rough and itchy!  

I was left with some great scraps that will be used to decorate mason jars.  

Next I used acrylic paints and stamped some of the pennants.

I made some that will welcome guests to the festival.  I used my Cricut to cut out 3 inch letter stencils from paper scraps.

Use a foam brush to "stamp" the letters onto the burlap.  

I used twine an hot glue to make the banner.  It is nice if you have a helper to assist in the process!  

Looking Good!

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." 1 Peter 4:10

Long Time No See

Wow, it has been a long time since I have blogged.  I haven't been up to much around here that is blog worthy.  But I have been busy the last week making things to decorate my house for fall.  
The first items are a couple canvases.  

I just adore fall colors and had great fun painting, layering papers and doodling on these two canvases

 

Next I printed out a fall subway art and placed it in a frame and that made for some instant art! Besides the ink for printing this is a free project. You can find a great selection of Subway ART  HERE

Next up is a Pinterest find.  As I looked at fall decorations, I kept seeing pumpkins made out of wood.  We certainly have a lot of that down in my hubby's workshop. 

 So I grabbed some 2x4 and had my son cut them into three different sizes.  Then we did a bit of sanding, chiseling, and drilling. I went outside to find the perfect stems from our kindling pile. I took them up to the craft room to give the wood a few coats of paint and added raffia and fabric.  This project cost absolutely nothing to make! 

My last project has to be my favorite.  I found the idea on Pinterest.  My daughter-in-law and I created pillows for our homes.  It was easy to make.  If you have fabric scraps you could make this pretty quickly.

I had some scraps in my craft room and we went and bought a few more at Jo Ann's.  Sarah also spotted a wood grain fabric that we HAD to buy for the trunk.

We used Wonder Under (fusible web) on the back of our fabric.  We traced the leaves and trunk onto the back of the web.  Then we cut them all out.  You will need about 40 leaves for the tree.  The size will depend on your pillow size.  My leaves were 2.5 inches. 

Notice the tree pattern fabric!

Cut the top of your pillow one inch bigger than the pillow size.  Lay out your pieces and arrange them how you want them to look.  Then peal off the back of the webbing.  I did this on the floor and then realized I couldn't move it to my ironing board.  So I slid it over and ironed them on the floor.

After you get them ironed on, bring it up to the ironing board and give it a good pressing to make sure they are attached.

Next I took some DMC floss and stitched around all the leaves and trunk.  I did this while watching TV and had it done in a few hours.

I made an envelope pillow case and slipped in a pillow from the couch.  I think it turned out super cute.  I posted a Youtube video I found on how to make the pillow on the post before this one. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I gave you some fun and quick fall decorating ideas.  Now go get crafting!

Wall Art

I have been busy this week making these canvas.  I saw the idea on a craft website.  You can watch a video and read her direction on the site.  Here is how I made mine,

I used two 11x14 canvases

 I bought an old book from a used book store.  I found an old text book on the study of birds.  You could use an old dictionary (sorry I gave mine a way) or encyclopedia pages.  Tear out interesting pages and Mod Poge them onto the canvases. 

You can't see, but i drew my branches on the canvases with a pencil.

I googled bird silhouette's and printed them onto card stock.  Cut them out so you can use them for patterns.

Next I took a Sharpie and traced my branches and birds onto the canvases.

Then all you have to do is color in the branches, add leaves, and enjoy.  I would recommend using a new black sharpie.  Let the first coat dry and go over it again.  I colored mine three times to get it to look really black.