"Please Knock" In Style!

I decided it was time to replace the post it note taped to the doorbell that said, "Please Knock." When you have a baby who never sleeps, the last thing you want is the door bell to ring when she finally is sleeping!!! It's just so that when your baby is taking her first nap in days the Fed Ex guy comes and rings the bell! So, I've had to attach an ugly little piece of paper with my chicken scratch to remind people that I have a sleeping baby (or hopefully she's asleep!!!)

I came up with this to replace it and I love it! At least I think it looks better than a post it!! Plus it hangs over the doorbell so little curious fingers won't ring the bell over and over! Thanks again to the Cricut Expression and Vinly for the lettering. I think this would make a great gift for a new mom who could use some rest when the baby is sleeping! Now I just need a "No Soliciting" sign to keep all of the random people away that have been coming by lately! (Wow, that makes me sound like a Scrooge...but come on, who wants to talk to random people that are just begging for your money?!?! I'm always going to say no, so I'll just save them some time!)

Vinyl, Oh How I Love Thee!

Once again I just love my Cricut Expression! I was able to transform a really boring wall in our front room to this! The Cricut machines cut vinyl so I was able to play around with a few different cartridges and came up with this. Unfortunately I can't find the "before" pictures. I had done a triptych painting that didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to. My friend however liked it, so we traded. She's a new photographer and did our family pictures in exchange for the paintings. She took the 2 pictures on the right! I owe her for helping make this wall not such an eye sore. My good friend Heather also painted this wall for me while babysitting my kids! Does it get better than that?

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

Warning: This project is really addicting! It has the "once you pop, you just can't stop" thing going on for me! (P.S. I don't know what I did to make all of these different lines turn into "links" with the blue and underlining...just ingore it. I'll hopefully figure out how to undo it...if you know how, please share!!)
I got a Cricut Expression for Christmas and have absolutely LOVED it! I've seen some freezer paper stenciling things out there, but I could never come up with a fun print that I wanted to try. With the Cricut I can make very detailed designs which I love. For this project you don't need a Cricut, but if you have one, get it out!
Here are a few of the shirts I have made.I found these t-shirts at Walmart last week for $1.47 each. I bought several and have had a lot of fun!
Things you will need:

• A plain shirt or other fabric item you want to stencil
• Freezer Paper
• Cricut, other cutting machine, or just a pencil and some scissors
• Iron/ ironing board
  
• Fabric Paint
• Paint brush (I use a round sponge brush as pictured below.
• Piece of cardboard or old cutting board.
  
• • Here is the freezer paper I used. I just bought it at a local grocery store.
    
  Here is the fabric paint and brushes that I used. I bought them at JoAnns. Notice that this is regular fabric paint, not puff paint.

The first thing you'll need to do is rip off some of the freezer paper bigger than the size you want your stencil. Pictured below I have the freezer paper on my cricut mat. Then you will either draw your design on the non shiny side, (You will use the shiny side to adhere it to your fabric later) or cut out the design on your cricut or other machine. If you use the cricut just put it shiny side down on the mat. I put my cricut machine on the following settings; blade 2, pressure 2, speed 2. Pick your size and shape and "cut."


When your design is finished just seperate the pieces. With these more delicate designs you'll need to be careful not to rip them. Use a pair of small scissors for any pieces that don't come off easily. Cut some of the excess paper off of your stencil, but leave plenty of space for random paint so it doesn't get on your shirt. An inch or so should do.Take the outline and face it shiny side down on the fabric. Iron in place. The heat will adhere it for the painting process but will still make the paper easy to remove when done. If you do this shiny side up, it will stick to your iron!!! Put a piece of cardboard or an old cutting board in between the shirt layers. You don't want paint seeping through and you need a nice hard surface. I used an old cutting board that worked perfectly.
Now put some paint on your brush. I mixed a few colors to get the color I wanted. You can buy individual tubes for a little under a dollar, or packs. Don't get too much on your brush.

Now use a stippling action (slight bouncing) to put the paint on. Don't go too thick or you'll have difficulty removing the paper without removing paint. Once you've finished covering your surface, being careful not to go beyond the stencil. Let it dry for 15 or so minutes. Then come back and do a second layer...trust me, you'll have spots that aren't as covered that you'll see through in different light if you don't do a second layer after some drying time.
Let dry til damp. I usually only give it another 15 minutes. Then peel. If you wait until it is all the way dry you may have some paint stick to the stencil and not the shirt. Most fabric paints say it takes 4 hours to dry completely. You should wait 72 hours to wash the shirt and when you do wash it, turn it inside out. Other than that it's good to go! You can go back and add more colors, words, etc. too.
I made this other shirt last night with a light color on a dark shirt. It takes A LOT more paint. I forgot to remove the stencil and left it over night so some of the paint came off with the stencil. It is not as crisp as I had hoped, but it's still wearable! Have fun making things for yourself or share the love and give as gifts to friends!
If you choose to do this tutorial I would love to see any finished projects! Let me know if you have any questions!

Home Decor Lesson

Take the 2 cutest things you've made and display on a shelf!

I have some fun projects I've done with my new Cricut Expression that I've done recently, so stay tuned! I've had fun with vinyl lettering and freezer paper stenciling, I just need to take some pics.

We also bought our oldest daughter a new twin bed so I made a comforter that I will share too!

Fabric Covered Canvas Wall Hanging Tutorial...that's a mouthful

I did this paintning several years ago and I have just gotten so bored with it! I have been wanting to replace it forever but a new canvas is expensive and this one has already been painted over a few times so there are lots of random textures to it! I have had the idea of covering it with fabric for awhile, but I just couldn't find the right fabric....until I went to Target one day and saw some cute pillow covers for $5 a piece! I was thrilled and bought a few to actually cover pillows and then went back for more to do this project! So, my old, boring painting went from this: To this! And I love it! It brightens up the room, especially since I have white walls. I hate white walls! That's one bad thing about renting! Anywho, I wrote a tutorial in case you want to follow along!

Things you'll need:

• A canvas of whatever size you choose. Or several canvases if you want to just put several next to each other. Mine was a 24x36.
• Fabric of your choice. I have 3 pillow case covers made of heavier home decor fabric. The amount of fabric you'll need will obviously depend on your canvas, the amount of patterns you use, etc.
• Sewing machine
• Thread
• Staple gun and staples
• Iron and ironing board

Alright, are you ready? Let me know if anything doesn't come across very clearly!

I started out with 3 pillow case covers that I then cut up into 6 seperate pieces. I just removed the zipper from each as I cut along the seams. If you have regular fabric from a bolt, etc. you'll want to measure the size you need and add a 1/2 inch to the sides on the inside and 3 1/2 inches to the top or bottom or sides for the seams and canvas wrapping allowance. Does that make sense? You need 1/2 inch for all of the inside seams and at least 3 1/2 inches for all of the outside edges so you can wrap it around the canvas.You will want to lay out your pieces and find the pattern you want before proceeding. Then take the top left piece and bottom left piece and put the right sides together. Sew with a 1/4 inch seam as shown below. Do this for the middle and outside 2 pieces as well. You should have 3 pieces now with each attached at the middle seam. Now you'll want to open up the seams and iron them flat so they lay nicely on the canvas. Then attach the 3 pieces together (also with right sides together) and do the same with those seams. (I forgot to take a picture of this process, but it should be easy. If not, let me know.)
You will then have one big piece like a quilt with all 6 pieces sewn together.

Now you will need your staple gun. I bought mine at Target today for $10.00 and you'll need staples too, they come seperately. I just bought a light duty one and it's fine for these projects.

I marked the center of the frame (on the back) and lined my seam up with it. Then you take the staple gun and push it right up against the fabric and wood and push hard. This can be rather addicting...I put lots of staples into mine just because it's fun! Follow with the opposite side marking the middle and pulling taught so your fabric looks nice on the front. (You might want to look at the front just to make sure it's all centered right! I then worked my way up both of the sides with the staple gun.Here's a close up. My edges are raw because they won't be showing and remember that I just got some pillow cases apart, so the edges are looking rather rough!!Now do the top and bottom pieces and work your way out. When you get to the end you'll tuck the corners in so the top can come down and it will lay flat. Just play with it until you get it right. A mitered corner works great. I put 2 staples in just for good measure. I had quite a bit of extra fabric at the top and bottom because I had more than 3 1/2 inches for the allowance. I went ahead and just trimmed the excess so my canvas would be able to hang right.Now hang it up and enjoy it! If you ever get sick of your art work you can always recover it!! Let me know if you had a hard time following my tutorial, I'm new at this tutorial thing.

Go ahead and leave a comment too, I kind of feel like I'm talking to no one!!! :)

Parker Family Photos

First of all, I'm sorry for the really long delay in posts! With being out of town for the holidays and coming home with 2 really sick children and the baby still not doing well I haven't been on top of things! I have fun stuff to post though, so hopefully I can make up for it! In the next day or 2 I'll have a tutorial up for a fabric/canvas art piece that I did this week! But for now, check out this fun family!

We got together in Old Town on a cold and wet Saturday morning, but this family was so much fun despite the weather! Isn't this guy the cutest? He kept getting his Spiderman webs out and shooting me with them! I wish I had only known this at the beginning of the session because it finally got him smiling! Isn't this the sweetest mother/daughter picture! You can tell that these 2 have a close relationship! They are always the life of the party!
This couple was so much fun! They were willing to do anything I asked of them and were even creative themselves! Thanks for the fun times!!!

Picture Puzzle Blocks

I found this idea on the Roberts Craft Store website. Brianna loves puzzles like this, so I made this for her for Christmas. I followed the directions they had but wish I had cut the pictures just a little bigger so the pictures weren't so off in the middle. Things would've lined up a little better that way. Directions are below. For this craft you need:

• Six 2 inch wooden blocks from a craft store. (Or you can adjust and you any size blocks you want.) When choosing the blocks try to make sure they really are square. The store I went to only had 6 left and one had a split in the block which doesn't allow it to fit properly.
• 6 photos printed on real photo paper
• Sand paper
• Acrylic paint in desired color
• Paper cutter
• Modge Podge
• Photo box (optional)

I didn't take pictures of each step, but it's pretty straight forward! Email me or comment if you have any questions.
First you will need to sand your blocks down just enough to get rid of sharp edges and roughen up the sides for paint to stick. Remove any dust from the blocks. Then paint a few sides of the blocks with your acrylic paint. You'll have to paint in sections so the paint can dry before you move to the other sides. While the paint is drying you need to cut your pictures into 6 squares using your paper cutter. I followed the size dimensions on the Roberts site but would suggest cutting your pictures just under 2 inch squares so they fit on the blocks but don't have too much space. Notice how the top middle block isn't squared up? That one has the split in it.

When your blocks are dry you can paint some modge podge onto a few blocks and paste your pictures. After all 6 squares of one picture are on, then paint more modge podge on top of the pictures. When one picture is done, rotate the blocks all in the same direction and repeat with your next picture. Working again a section at a time between drying times!

When it's dry you're all done! I have a small picture box thing that is 4x6 inches and fits the blocks perfectly. It's optional, but a nice way to hold the blocks. I imagine you can get one at a craft store!

Brianna loves her new puzzle blocks! Miranda has even gotten ahold of them and sucked on them and they've shown no wear yet, but we're not even a week into playing with them!!