Spay Painted Pinecones

Last week I got a start on my Christmas decorations.  I spray painted pine cones I had picked up around my apartment complex.  First I sprayed a solid color, then a coat of sparkly spray.  I think the pine cones would look even better if they were more sparkly, but I ran out of sparkly spray.

I plan to use these as tree ornaments or a garland to hang on the walls!  Now I just gotta get a tree!

Photo of the week

The sky is so clear and blue today.  Its beautiful!

Pies, Pies, Pies

 

I have to use this post to brag about my husband who is turning out to be an amazing cook!  These are the pies he made for our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday:  Mexican Chocolate Pie and Coconut Cream- yum!  I think he could give Marie Calendar's a run for her money!

Photo of the week

 

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas- and we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet!

Bird Painting

Experimenting with oils is always fun!  I'm such a realist, so its good for me to branch out once in a while, but I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it.  Your honest opinion would be very much appreciated.

Photo of the week

 

Ok, so I haven't been posting my pictures as much.  I just haven't been out taking them as much.  The cold weather keeps me from getting out.  So this one is from last year-can you guess where this is?   I love the colors.  I'm going to miss them!

Wedding Cards 2

Today is the big day!  My brother-in-law is getting married!  We are soooo excited for this one cause he's marrying such a nice girl!  Here's the card I made for them and below is one I made for my old room-mate, who's getting married later this month. I'm still lovin the patterned packing tape!

Photo of the week

Is anything more beautiful than fall colors?

Hard and Fuzzy Friends

My son got into my craft stuff last week and we ended up making some cute little friends for him.  Googly eyes can make just about anything cute!

Fall Decorations

This week I've been decorating for fall!  Better late than never, huh?!  Not having money to spend on new decorations meant I had to get a little creative and use some things I already had.

Acorns and Pine cones are great to decorate with.  I went around my apartment complex and collected tons of them for free!

I  also used some old fake leaves to make some hanging garlands for my window.

I'm all set for fall, now on to Halloween decorations!

More Flower Experiments

I saw some headbands with these cute little flowers on them at a store and then I found out how to make them at blissbloomblog and then... I had to try it!  Way easy to make! 

I used the flowers to make a headband of my own, plus a few other things.  Here's what I came up with:

Now if only I had a little girl to wear some of these!  Oh well, someday....

Printable Happy Birthday Sign

For my husband's birthday last weekend, I made a birthday sign!  I plan to re-use it for my son's birthday next month, since its laminated and should last a long time.  If you would like to make one too,  click the link below to get a free PDF file of the letters I used to make it.  Just print out your letters, cut them out with some pretty card stock, and glue and laminate- if desired.  Happy Birthday planning!

Birthday Sign PDF

Photo of the week

This photo was taken by my sister Lindsey. I've always loved this one.  So beautiful and it reminds me of home.

Watercolor flower #2

Another watercolor experiment.  I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.  This was really fun to do. I've been having a hard week, so it helps to paint. It relaxes and calms me.

Eric Doodle

This is sketch I made of my husband, Eric on his I-Pod Touch.  I just happened to come across it today.  I had completely forgotten that we had saved it to the computer! We have so many files on our computer that things end up lost and forgotten in some weird folder that I never look in.  Anyway... enjoy a look at what Eric would look like as a cartoon! :)

Figure drawing beauty

Out of all the art forms I've tried (and I've tried a few) figure drawing and figure painting still remain my absolute favorites.  I haven't done much of it since having a baby, but I have my drawings from college to look back on and remember how much fun that all was!  The human figure is beautiful, especially the face.  There's nothing more challenging and nothing more rewarding than drawing a face.  This face is of my little sister Michelle, who has down syndrome.  She may look a little different to some, but to me she is beautiful! I'd like to think that this sketch captures a little of her amazing spirit.

My favorite artist

Vincent Van Gogh

Ok, I need to take a break from all the craftiness.  I miss fine art.  I've been working on photographing my artwork this summer and I came across some Van Gogh studies I did a few years ago when I was student teaching.  Van Gogh is definitely my favorite artist.  His paintings have so much feeling and movement.  They are captivating.

 Study in tempera paint- who would have thought you could get a Van Gogh effect with tempera paint?!

Studies in oil pastels

And a study of my favorite Van Gogh painting "Irises".  I did this with acrylic paints on a canvas board.  This was really fun to do.  I have to try a Van Gogh study in oils someday.

Pollyanna Party

I attended my first ever Pollyanna Party on Monday night!  

 

If you haven't seen the old Disney movie, Pollyanna, you have got to go rent it.  This movie is amazing!  The main message is about love and they just don't make movies that wholesome anymore.  In the movie, there is a big party ( or bazaar as they call it) and there is lots of food and games going on.  The coolest part is the Japanese lanterns hung all around.

So... we re-created the scene of the movie, by hanging up our own Japanese lanterns around my inlaws' deck.  The lanterns were gorgeous.  I plan to either make some of these or buy them in the future to create a tradition of Pollyanna parties with my own family.

 

Watercolor Therapy

I have turned into a craft-aholic lately.  Its tons of fun and easy to do while taking care of a 19 month old.  You can start a project, go change a diaper and come back to the project easily.  But I miss making actual fine art.  Fine art requires a big chunk of time with no interruptions.  That's harder to do.  So the other night after the baby was in bed, I pulled out my trusty old watercolors.  It was therapeutic really.  Making art can be sooooo relaxing.

Even if nothing you paint is realistic, just slop some watercolors on the paper and watch them mix.  This never fails to make me happy!

Pinwheel Appliques

I saw these cute little things on a quilt once and thought they would be good for livening up some of my shirts!  I really don't know what these things are called, so I'm calling them pinwheels because that's what they remind me of.  Since I didn't know how to make these either, I did a little experimenting and figured it out on my own.  They are sooooo easy to make.  All you need is some fabric scraps, thread, and a needle!

If you want to make some of these for yourself, I'm posting a tutorial below.  These look good on clothes and could be used to decorate lots of other things too: bags, blankets, etc.

Step 1:  Trace and cut out circles from fabric.  I just used a cup and a pen to trace them.  And the best thing about these are that it doesn't matter if your circles are perfect- they still turn out great!

 Step 2:  Sew around the edge of the circle with a simple up-and-down stitch ( I really don't know the technical name for that stitch).

Step 3:  Carefully pull thread to gather the fabric into a small bunch and tie off thread.

Step 4:  Flatten out into a circle shape and sew it onto whatever you want!  Easy!

Photo of the week

I'm starting a new weekly post for my favorite photo I take or find as a motivation for me to get out and take more pictures. This one I took this morning at the playground by my apartment.  I love spring flowers!

Birthday Cards

It's birthday season again, at least for my family.  There are 5 birthdays in the month of June alone! Time for some serious card making.  Here are some B-day cards I made last year.  I'll post more ideas when I get more cards for this year made.

This is my most favorite card design ever!  I made lots of these last year.

 It's amazing what a pen and some watercolors can do for a card.  I just need to work on the hand writing.