Latest Projects

It's that time again. I've discovered that I go in cycles of needing to create. So my house currently looks something like this
while my "tools" are out like this. Sewing machine, iron, and my bag of yarn are all on full display at the moment while I fuel my creative juices.

Which reminded me that while I made my deadline of wrapping up my last round of projects before school ended for the summer, I never shared those projects. So here is most of what I created in May and June. There is one project still waiting for the last step as I can't decide if I want paint or vinyl letters. That one I will show when I finally make the decision.

First up, my "W" canvas. As few ideas I ever have are original, I found a similar item for sale on a website. It was a British site and while my conversion rates may not be accurate, at their price of 145 pounds, something like this could have cost me over $100-150. Instead I made it for about $10.

Materials:

12x12 canvas that I already had as it was a bonus in the pack I had purchased when making E & H's letter canvases

wood letter

wood glue

spray paint

I managed to turn this

into this. I love it. Only thing I would have done differently is gone easy on the wood glue. Jake thinks the letter should be painted a different color to pop out. I love it like it is. If I wanted the letter to pop out, I'd have done it similar to the kids' canvases. The purpose of the wood letter glued on is to create a monochromatic multi-dimensional piece. It's the solid color that makes it so interesting.

The next project I tackled was turning this wall in our hallway upstairs into a gallery wall. Jake was tired of it having only wedding photos and I wanted to have more photos of our family somewhere in the house.

A trip to the thrift store for some cheap frames that I sprayed black, a few I already had, and some new ones from Target,

tracing all the frames on newspaper and taping it to the wall to create my design,

and I ended up with this.

I couldn't love it more! Now I have all our family photos up from the last few years instead of just the current one downstairs. There are plenty of openings to add more frames if I like or I can change out some of the current frames. Probably one of my favorite projects so far and it was so easy to do. Since before we ever sell this house, we'll have to neutralize the hall/loft area, I'm not worried about all the nail holes.

Another project I did was create a photo book of myself from birth to about 10-12 years old. I'm sure this sounds extremely narcississtic but in my defense, all photos of my childhood are 2,000 miles away. If I want a photo of myself, I have to call my mom, attempt to describe the photo I'm thinking of, and wait for her to scan and email it to me. When I was there to visit in April, I went through every photo album she has and selected a stack to bring home and scan. I earned the photo book credit due to my Coke addiction and the rewards points I got from all the Coke products I've been buying. The book cost me less than $8 in shipping and handling.

Having gone through all the photo albums myself, I know that I have every photo I would like to ever see and have a neat little book with all the pictures. I do plan to make one for Jake as well but as I gave up Coke and all pop a few weeks ago, it's taking me longer to earn all the points I need to get another one free.

The final project that I completed in my May/June creation spree was the redo of this headboard for Ellie's room. The one thing she was missing in her room was a headboard. I found this one on Craigslist for $5. It was a nasty wood veneer but I knew a few coats of white paint would make it cute and tie it into her room.

Now on to what I've created this week during my latest creative spree. My mom and I are planning to open an Etsy store to sell our creations (her purses, my whatever I feel like making). One thing I plan to sell are some of the flowers, bows, and headbands I've been creating. Here's Hannah modeling a crocheted headband and crocheted bow that I made.

I also found a tutorial online for a double-sided fabric headband. I whipped up four this week for me and the girls. Took me about an hour to make all of them.

So that's the project pipeline. The sewing machine is still out so I may whip up the pillowcase dresses that I tried to make last summer but didn't turn out the way I'd have liked. JoAnn Fabrics' flyer this week had lots of coupons so the kids and I are off to visit today to see what other things we can create around here. I'll let you know when we finally get our Etsy store up and running so you can see what I've finally committed myself to making!