O Holy Night Christmas Tree

Season's Greetings, Everyone!

I apologize for the lack of posts since September, I just wasn't doing much crafting.  I have been taking a Graphic Design course and I am half way through that learning some cool tricks and tips in Photoshop and the rules of Graphic Design.  I promise to share more of the things I make, both paper and digital, to help inspire our wonderfully crafty nation!

Today's craft project is a pretty Christmas themed framed art.  I made it in Silhouette Studio, using Design ID#105241 O Holy Night Christmas Tree.  I had a beautiful digital watercolor graphic that looked like a night sky and thought it would be the perfect background for the phrase.  I printed it on the Silhouette brand printable canvas and sparkled it up with some heat set rhinestones to mimic the starry night.  Turned out gorgeous and will look beautiful amongst the many Christmas decorations in my house.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Mantle

Hello, Everyone!

Well it is finally September!  I have been waiting what seems like forever for the heat to finally go away and the tomatoes to ripen up.  I have about 8 different tomato plants in the garden and they are producing some gorgeous fruit.  It has cooled of nicely in the Willamette Valley and the rains have come and freshened everything up.  I even got to light a nice smelling candle and am looking forward to a hot tub on a nice cool night!

While it isn't technically fall yet (I have to wait until the 23rd until Hubby will let me get out all the decorations and totally pumpkinize the house!), I went ahead and made some fall decorations for the mantle anyway.

The first is a cute banner that I made from a DCWV kit I purchased at Joann's on sale a couple weeks back (you can find it here along with some other cute stuff of theirs).  It is made from paperbacked canvas and printed cardstock.  It is kind of summery with its colors and the cute pin wheels, but it has owls too, so that makes it kinda fall like.  Plus the Oregon State Fair is going on right now and the banner has a fair-like quality to it.  I made the fall letters out of some printable canvas and tried to match the colors as close as possible to the colors in the pennants.  It was easy to cut out with scissors and took a couple hours to cut it all out and hot glue it all together.  Turned out super cute.

The other decorations were made from some digital cut files at SVGCuts.com from the Enchanted Autumn set (found here).  The Owl is a gift box (the head comes off), as well as the Pumpkin Carriage.  I put some vellum in the door of the carriage and will put a battery light inside to make it glow at night.  Darn cute!  The Cornstalks will have some battery tealights inside and they would look adorable as a decoration for a harvest dinner table.  Everything was easy to put together thanks to the wonderful video tutorials they have for the projects.

Thanks for stopping by and I will be sharing some more decorations soon!

#SVGCuts
#DCWV
#supercute

Snowflake Hangers

Hello!

 

It has been smoking hot here!  I am so ready for fall and some cooler weather.  So, I have been staying cool in the craft room, working on holiday projects.

 

A while back, I bought a bunch of wooden slat hangers at the craft store.  I used my Cameo to cut out some cute chicken silhouettes out of vinyl and masked off the hanger with them and painted a beautiful red over top.  I used a dark wax over top to antique them and they turned out pretty cute.  I had some extra hangers, so I finished them off with snowflakes in anticipation of the upcoming holidays.   I used the same technique as the chickens, but used a white wax and I finished them off with some glitter spray to add a little sparkle. 

 

Yep, I'm in holiday mode.  Next up...Halloween!

Chicken Lazy Susan

A while back, I went out to a few garage sales and came across a beautiful wooden, tabletop lazy susan for $3.  Score!  It was in great shape and I couldn't figure out why no one snatched it up.  Their loss is my gain!

 

While I have never lived on a farm or even out in the country, I love all things country/farmhouse looking.  Especially, kitchen décor.  I'm not super keen on the rustic look though, more the look of when it was new. It is a homey, comforting look and I think it suits our little house perfectly.

 

For this project, I found a nice silhouette of a chicken and made a background that resembles chicken wire.  I offset the chicken by about 1/2" and deleted the interior of the chicken wire, so that the chicken could nest in the middle.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the design out of vinyl, weeded away the excess and applied the mask to the top of the lazy susan.  The lazy susan was painted a dark blue/gray color.  After the mask was applied, I painted over the top with a light clay color.  After all was dry, I peeled off the mask and revealed the adorable chicken and wire.  Turned out really nice!  A coat of wax to seal it up and it is ready to be displayed, and used, in the kitchen. 

 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are making something!

 

 

 

 

Flour Sack Curtains

I hope everyone is having a great day so far.  It's been pretty toasty here in the Willamette Valley, so I have been trying to keep my activities inside (other than going to work, of course!)  Today's project was quick and easy, and didn't require any sewing at all.

 

My house, like most houses built in the 80's, did not come with a lot of storage.  My kitchen is very small and cupboards are minimal.  So, I opted to add extra storage in the form of small chrome shelving units.  They work perfectly for storing crockpots and bakeware, and all the kitchen tools that only get used on rare occasions.  The problem with this kind of storage is that it is not very attractive.  And it makes the area look cluttered. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I went to Walmart and found some adorable flour sack kitchen towels in the summer seasonal section and used them as curtains to surround and cover up the units.  Much better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But how did I attach them you ask?  I couldn't secure a curtain rod anywhere and did not want to stich them or make a million grommet holes.  Can you guess how I did it?

 

I used badge clips!  Yep, the ones that hold a name tag to your shirt.  They wrapped around the wire frame perfectly and after I draped a few extra towels over the top, you can't even notice them.  It's the little things, right?

 

Beach 48 Miles

Good Morning!

 

The mini-heatwave we had has gone and the weather has settled down into the 80's.  Much more palatable for me!

 

Over at Lincoln City on the beautiful Oregon Coast, the weather sits at a lovely 65 degrees F, sunny with a bit of fog moving in later.  My kinda weather!  I would love to have a little cottage at the beach to escape the heat in the valley during summer.   One day perhaps...

 

Considering we only live 48 miles from the beach, I decided to make a sign for the patio to remind us of that. 

 

I used a pretty wood board measuring 9.25" x 48" and put a coat of chalk paint on in the tropical blue color called "Escape".  I made the lettering mask in the Silhouette Studio and used my Cameo to cut it out of vinyl.  I applied it to the blue board and put a coat of crackle medium over the top.  After it dried, I put a coat of white chalk paint "Everlasting" and let that dry too.  I used my pick to peel up the vinyl letters and put a coat of matte varnish to help protect it from the elements.  The result was awesome!  It adds that little something extra to the patio to make it feel like a vacation retreat.

 

Now, who's ready for a glass of wine on the patio!

 

 

 

 

Strawberry Social Gift

Good Morning!

 

It was a scorcher yesterday and it looks like it'll be another scorcher today.  I hosed off the patio and the furniture yesterday and despite my efforts in putting on sunscreen, I got sunburned.  I am a burn first, tan later kinda girl.  Ouch.  I am so very thankful for the aloe vera in the fridge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With summer here and my strawberry plants still going strong, I thought I'd have a look in the Silhouette Online Store to see what was there for cute strawberry themed items.  I came across this adorable mason jar gift box (#81153) and a cute stand up card with envelope (#57246) that would be perfect as a guest gift for an afternoon of strawberry shortcakes and wine.  I paired them up with a place card (#13721 ) and a cute wine glass ornament that sits on the rim.  I used a strawberry card (#10125) I found in the library and shrunk it down quite a bit.  I put a slit in it to perch it on the rim of the wine glass.  I also used the sketch pens to write the name on the card before cutting it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and there are more summer themed items coming your way!

 

Chair Planter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello, Sunshine!

 

A few months ago, I found this sad little chair at Goodwill for $5.  It was dirty, and I think even moldy, so I took pity upon it and brought it home.  I scoured through Pinterest for projects and came across these adorable chair planters for the front porch.  What a fantastic idea!  I enlisted my wonderful hubby, Jeff, to do the sawing and cut out a hole in the middle of the seat to accommodate the flower basket.  Out came the American Décor Chalky Finish Paints.  Hmmm...which color to choose...how about three colors!  It took forever to find the right combination, but ending up choosing, Relic (a charcoal grey color) for the back, Vintage (a light grey/blue/green) for the seat, and I had to have some purple, so I chose Remembrance (almost a light lilac color) for the legs.  I did a couple coats of each color and then when it was dry, I sprayed it with a clear coat to help repel water.

 

The result turned out absolutely charming.  I encourage everyone to try a project like this!