Wood Obsession

NASCAR Subway Sign

I, like everyone else, have seen these all over blogland in some form or the other. I decided to choose something that meant something to us. My husband loves NASCAR and so I wanted to do this for him for Father's Day to say thank you for being such a great dad to our son. I started with a 24 X 36 canvas I got with a 50% off coupon from Michael's. I then used my SCAL software to cut all the different names of the tracks out of some vinyl colors that I don't use. I tried this with contact paper on another project, but it bled through on some of the numbers so I used vinyl for this. Here is a picture of them after I cut them and laid them out like I wanted.

I then spraypainted my canvas with some Krylon Khaki spraypaint as my base coat. Next was probably the most difficult part at first. The vinyl was not cooperating with me and sticking to the canvas so the first three or four aren't exactly straight. I had to pretty much peel them off of the transfer tape letter by letter. I was ready to give up. Then I remembered I had bought some Elmer's spray adhesive, so I sprayed the adhesive down and then placed the name down and that seemed to do the trick. It went much faster after that. The only thing was the spacing. I spaced a little too much at the top and when I got down towards the bottom they ended up close together. Oh, well, it gives it character, right? Here is a another picture with all the names on the canvas. You see where it starts to go wrong after Talladega and Texas? By then it was too late to go back.

Now comes the fun part. I spraypainted the whole canvas with black spraypaint. I used what I had, which was the cheap WalMart black glossy paint. I would have preferred a flat paint. Anyway, after that dried I peeled all the letters off. This was my favorite part. I was scared I couldn't get the ones off with the spray adhesive, but they came off so smoothly. I took a picture of the next couple of steps too. I actually remembered to take pictures as I went this time. This picture shows the black spraypaint and where I started peeling off the letters.

For the final steps, I used some sandpaper and roughed it up a bit and then added some RL

smoke glaze to make it look a little more aged. It was a fun project and I can't wait to put some more words on a canvas.

Monogrammed Church Bag

I found this cute bag at Target and knew that it was perfect for me to carry all of my son's keep-me-busy stuff to church in. He moved up a couple of weeks ago and now has to come to the worship service with me. It has two outside pockets on the other side perfect for markers, snacks, and whatever else I might need. Now I just had to make it more me.

I had been wanting to try some of the iron-on vinyl, so I finally bought a couple of different colors to try out on some things and this bag was one of them. I couldn't decide on the font, but settled on Curlz. I'm not totally satisfied with that, but it will do and looks good enough for my first project with it. I found the great directions for iron-on vinyl here. She tells you step by step how to use it in the sidebar of her blog. I bought the vinly at H&H Supply where she recommends and got the Siser Easy Weed. It really was easy to weed. Much better than regular vinyl, especially with all the curls.

I do have to say that my bag looks much better in person than in these pictures. It doesn't show up as well in the picture. I can't wait to take it to church Sunday, but in the meantime it is going to the gym with me.

Here is the bag after the vinyl transformation:

Chalkboard/Magnetic Board

From silver tray to chalkboard. I found this great silver tray at the Dollar Tree of all places. I spray painted the whole thing with chalkboard paint and then went back and used a cream acrylic paint to paint around the edges and then antiqued it with Ralph Lauren "Smoke". Love this stuff! I also love this website too and have gotten so many ideas and have so much more to do.

The fleur de lis is from Hobby Lobby and I painted it with the same cream and used the RL smoke to antique. I did put a magnet on the back of it instead of attaching it directly to the tray so I could use it as a magnetic board too.

Sorry I don't have step by step. I always forget to take pictures as I go. I have to get better at that. I am linking to "The CSI Project." It's the Dollar Store Challenge.

End of the Year Teacher Gift

I just loved my son's teacher this year and wanted to do something special for her for the end of the year. I found all these things at Walmart. I loved the brown with the green. I just did dots on the pitcher and decided not to put them on the cups this time or the platter. Frankly, I'm sick of the dots for a while.

I also tried the A with the name on top of it and I like the way it turned out. I've seen other people do it, but have never tried it. I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot program to cut the letters and dots. The font is Boingo. I just love this font. It's so fun! Thanks for a a great year, Mrs. Allen!!

Gift for a Sweet Friend

I knew I wanted to make something special for my sweet friend Amanda who was moving to Alabama with her family. She had admired some of my initial things in my house and I wanted to do something like that for her. I found this blank tin at Hobby Lobby 50% off and knew it would be perfect for what I had in mind. Of course I cut the letters on my Cricut and placed them on the board, upside down the first time. I had all the letters placed on perfectly and then I looked on the back where the hangers were and they were at the bottom, so I had to pull all of them off and start over. A little frustrated, but well worth starting over to get it done. She loved it and I was so glad! I am really going to miss her and her sweet family!

Wicker Transformation

Before

After

I am now using black instead of brown in my family room, so everything that was brown is now becoming black. I just simply used some black gloss spray paint for this.

Slowly but surely everything is becoming black. I still have to conquer a big coffee table and a console table. Hopefully I will find some time to work on those this summer. I will post them when I get them done.

Framed Crown

I had this frame in a closet, never been used. It had gold on it and I don't even know why I bought it because I only use silver frames. I'm guessing it was on sale. I tried to do a crackle finish with brown and this pretty turquoise color. The crackle didn't work very well, but I ended up putting some Ralph Lauren smoke glaze on it. I then attached a piece of burlap to the back of the frame and cut out the crown with black cardstock with my Cricut. I attached it to the burlap with some glue dots. I have to say I love the way it turned out.

Lego Storage

We have so many legos around and they seem to be taking over, so I wanted to come up with something to store them in instead of just keeping them loose and getting them mixed up. I'm sure they still will get mixed up until my son gets older, but at least I will have a storage system in place by then. I used my Cricut to cut the legos and letters out of vinyl.

Fleur De Lis Chalkboard Clipboard

Still loving the fleur de lis so I put one on a clipboard and on something else that Iwill post about later. I've done so many projects lately but haven't gotten a chance to post them all.

Anyway, here I took a plain, old .99 clipboard from Walmart and sprayed it with chalkboard paint. I cut out a cute fleur de lis out of vinyl with my trusty Cricut and slapped in on there. I love the way it turned out. I added some bright, colorful ribbon. So easy!!!

Repurposed Canvas

I had orignally painted this canvas and didn't like the way it turned out, so I got an idea from another blog and decided to repaint it with a black acrylic and cut this design out of my cricut and some scrapbook paper. I used Mod Podge to seal it. The website I got the idea from is here. She has some great ideas!

Fleur De Lis Cross

Someone gave me this cross and it was ready to be painted. I used one of my favorite colors to paint it and then used Ralph Lauren Smoke to antique it. I painted the fleur de lis cream and also antiqued it and then hot glued it onto my cross. I love the way it turned out. Thanks, John, for the cross!

Birthday Tags

I have been making tags a lot lately, along with everything else. I love to incorporate them into my scrapbook pages and also add them to gift bags. I think they add the perfect touch. I have a couple of birthdays coming up this month and I wanted to get some made to have ready instead of waiting till the last minute like I usually do. I had gotten these cute little die cuts from Target clearance years ago and had never used them. The colors didn't really go with any birthday pages that I've done, so I thought they would be perfect for gift bags. I seemed to have the perfect color ribbon and buttons in my stash to add to them.

Teacher Gift-Mini Clipboard

My precious son starts kindergarten next week and I wanted to start it off right with a little happy for his teacher. We met her last week for a summer party and she is the sweetest! I had bookmarked one like this on Two Peas a while back and new I wanted to make one at some point. The girl used a digital kit that was no longer available, so I improvised with some paper I had gotten recently at Michael's. I used a Martha punch for the apple and used Photoshop Elements to create her name and printed them on 3 x 5 index cards. The little clipboard actually came from AC Moore and it has this little peg on the back where it can actually stand up. I made a matching tag for the bag. I also want to add some hand sanitizer that I vinyl with her intials before next Wednesday. Have to get the monogramming in somewhere, right?

Another Monogrammed Project

I made this cute little water bottle for my son's summer camp teacher. Tomorrow is the last day of camp and I wanted to send her a little something to say thank you for taking care of him this summer. I thought it turned out pretty cute. I used some pink Cricut vinyl a couple of weeks ago that I hadn't tried out yet and the Curlz font for the "B". The zebra print is actually fabric and not paper. The "B" didn't stick as well to the fabric, but I got it on there somehow. I made a cute little card that said thank you to put in the bag, but didn't get a picture of that. I got the bottle at Hobby Lobby and it just unscrews so you can put something in there to decorate it. They were 30% off this week.

Lesson 2 - Using Brushes As Stamps

This was a really cool lesson. It was about using brushes in Photoshop and how you can use them as stamps on your photos. I love this technique. It makes the possibilities endless for changing up your pictures and adding details, dates, or whatever you want. I am learning so much and would recommend this class to anybody. Best of all, it's free! I don't use Photoshop that much, especially not to change my pictures like this, but I think that's about to change. I also changed the saturation in the photo to make it a little softer. That was actually Lesson 3. I just kind of combined both lessons and started playing with this photo. The grunge frame was a free download from Jessica's site that I added. I just love the way it turned out.

Free Photo Editing Class

I got my first lesson today from a free photo editing class I'm taking over at Jessica Sprague's website. Our first lesson was about creating frames and using word art in Photoshop. It was pretty easy to figure out and she had awesome videos that showed you step by step what to do. I love when things are that easy to figure out. It makes me want to continue to learn. This probably wasn't the best photo, but it was one of my recent shots of my favorite guy at Disney. I can't wait for Lesson 2. I will post it too!

My New Addiction.....Vinyl!

I absolutely love cutting vinyl on the Cricut. I have been obsessed with it the past few weeks, monogramming everything. I sold my little bug a while back in hopes of getting an Expression later on. Well, that hasn't happened yet, but my friend Kristi bought one and hadn't used it yet. I told her about the SCAL program that she could use with it instead of buying all the different cartridges. I borrowed her Expression and loaded her SCAL on my laptop and started playing so I could figure it out first and then show her how to use it. SCAL is the most amazing program. It can cut any font and cut dingbats and any SVG file. I haven't really played much with Inkscape to create my own files yet, but there are so many generous and talented people out there that are sharing the files they created. If you haven't purchased your SCAL program, you can click here: http://www.craftedge.com/ Of course, now there is SCAL2, which makes some things a little easier from what I'm reading. Not quite ready to deal with that yet.

Birthday Card for a Princess

Other than a baby shower to go to on Saturday, Grayson was invited to a neighbor's two-year-old birthday party. I made the little princess her own card. I got this stamp set from Lizzie Anne Designs a while back at my LSS and haven't really had an occasion to use it until now. Well, I guess I have had occasion, but forgot I had it. I don't really have all the cool colors or Copics or whatever you use to color these kind of images in. I'm still out of the loop on that one, but I'm making do with what I have right now. I actually used some paint mixed with some crystal Stickles. It turned out okay. I painted the chipboard scallop frame and the "2" with the same paint color. The brown behind the stripe paper is actually felt from Michael's, I think. I don't even know what this paper is called, but it came in a kit type thing and it is so cute for little girls' birthdays. The striped paper was run through my Sizzix with my Cuttlebug embossing folder. I still don't have a Cuttlebug, but they work pretty good in the Sizzix. I used a die cut that came with the kit and stamped "Happy Birthday, Princess" on the inside. I can't wait to put this in Madison's mailbox tomorrow since the 19th is actually her birthday. I will make her a little tag or something to put on her present for Saturday.

Baby Card

I finally got my baby card done that I need for a shower next weekend. My next door neighbor is having her second child, which is going to be a boy, so I wanted to do a cute card for her. I purchased the Bitty Blessings set from Papertrey Ink a while ago and I just love it. Their website has some really cute ideas for the stamps. I actually found the one I used at Taylored Expressions blog. Using from my stash, I went with the Making Memories Kids Collection called Sam since I had the paper and stickers, and I had this navy ribbon with the red trim that I think pulls it all together. I stamped "Welcome, Little One" on the inside. I also punched out 3/4 inch circles for the scalloped edges since I don't have any Spellbinder dies yet. I got this from the talented Kristina Werner from her MACM cards.