Creative Space: Building A Craft Room

It all started when I couldn't find a paint brush. My little "craft area" is located in my basement, it is a drafting desk in a 5x5 foot space cluttered with supplies. It is a wreck. I'm talking train wreck. I wont even take a photo of it because it's THAT bad. When I want to paint, I gather all of my supplies and use either my kitchen table, kitchen counter or go outside. To the left of my "craft area" there is this unfinished basement storage area. It's been a storage area for 10 years and you know what? I haven't used a thing that is being stored in that area for about 10 years!

{"Light bulb" Gru voice} Why am I storing junk when I could be using this space?

So one weekend I went a little crazy and cleaned out the storage area. I could not believe the junk I had. Baby toys from my 21 year old for example, sitting in a large storage container. I channeled my inner Peter Walsh (organizing guru) and did the Keep, Toss, Donate thing. It went quick and I am thrilled to have a blank slate to work with.

Here it is with it's prison walls... but I can't do prison walls. That's not creative! {Light bulb} Let's frame and sheet rock it. Come on kids, Joe, we can do it!

Sophie and Kaleb helped remove odd chunks of concrete from the walls to make them smooth. (We added chalk graffiti too.) They also helped with the framing, since Kaleb is in shop class this year Joe put him to work with the chop saw and drill. It went fast.

2 hours of work and the 12 foot wall was framed.

By the next day it was done. It took them about 4 hours total. And cost under $100. All of the studs were the same height so it was just a matter of cutting lots and lots of the same size. I think Kaleb (he's 15) really enjoyed it.

Yesterday we bought insulation. The kids and I will be installing it while Joe is at work this evening. I have all ready scoped out my cabinets and work table, salvaged from other spaces in my house. I am hoping to have the dry wall go up this weekend.

Happy Spring!

Christmas Around The House featuring Chalkboards

My winter decor started with these signs. They are from the ski resort that I worked at. They date back to the 60s era when the ski resort was called Jackass Ski Bowl (Nice name, huh?). It's now called Silver Mountain. I have several of these signs hanging in my garage. I literally had to dig these out of the trash back in the 90s.

I hung them above my mantel. These tiny brass deer came from my Grandma's house and the trees were painted by Samantha at age 3. She is now 21. (I hang on to things.)

Here is the full wall. My chalkboard fire and little basket of birch from the tree that fell in our front yard create the illusion of an actual fireplace. My grandson Cylas added the gingerbread man and is the reason my candles are a little off center. (Keeping it real.)

The antlers were found in the woods by my son and mounted by a friend of the family. My husband was in shock when I put them here. He said he'd never thought he'd see me decorate with anything so manly. I must admit they have taken some getting use to and an Instagram pole to convince me to keep them there. 

 

This chalkboard has been used as our count-down to Christmas for many years. Sophie loves to change the number of days.

This is my favorite corner of the living room. Yes, another chalkboard. This one is my absolute favorite. I found it at a vintage market for $5.

I made these little Christmas tree jars with bottle brush trees and Epsom salt snow for center pieces at a luncheon I decorated for at Sophie's school. Now they grace this little corner of the room. 

Happy Holidays!

Snow Globe in a Jar & Coping with Frozen Water Pipes

I love the Christmas season. It's the winter I can do without. As we have been struggling to stay warm and safe in -0 temps, we discovered Friday morning that our water pipes were frozen. We are not new to this, it's happened twice before but it never gets easier. The daily hauling of water from our families homes and my family of 4 showering when it is least inconvenient for them is a struggle. One good thing is I have quit doing dishes. If you can't eat it off of paper or plastic, you can't eat it here. So that's a plus, I guess. Cooking has also come to a halt. Yea, me! :) 

This is how I would prefer to contain winter. Here in this jar, with it's evergreens and snow. While I sit on a beach somewhere warm drinking tropical drinks. Whose with me? 

How To Capture Winter In A Jar

I made this little token of winter for my Grandmother-In-Law, Virginia, who is living in a nursing home and isn't able to get out to enjoy (I use that term loosely here) the winter. It started out as a jelly (or salsa?) jar.

I hot glued 2 tiny bottle brush trees to the bottom of the jar then filled the bottom with a layer of Epsom salt. It is the perfect faux snow, sparkly, inexpensive and on-hand.

I hot glued a piece of drop cloth fabric that I cut with pinking sheers about an inch larger than the lid and then glued on a piece of ribbon on top of it. I left the ends of the ribbon open then tied it in a little knot.

She looked cute and sweet here but I thought I should add a little something sparkly so I got out my metal punches and stamped the word JOY onto a round silver blank.

I strung the JOY pendant on to a ball tipped wire and added a little pink glass bead, threaded the wire through the knot in the ribbon and used my needle nose pliers to twist the wire closed.

Grandma Virginia loved it! I bought a big package of these little trees at Michael's when they were 40% off. I am sending some winter in a jar to my parents in Arizona and am seriously considering hand delivering them.

I hope the winter has been kinder to you!

Vintage Marquee Letter gets updated with lights and masking tape

How I gave this vintage plastic marquee letter a serious update with masking tape:

I purchased this 2 foot tall letter S at the Funky Junk Antique's Barn Sale last summer. It has rusty spots and an odd assortment of holes. I had planned on painting it but could not figure out what to do with the extra holes, until I found the isle of bright colored Scotch Tape at Staples.

Sophie's favorite color is orange but she's 8 and I think it might change over time. Masking tape is a semi permanent solution. We can remove it if all of the sudden she wants a new color. Over lapping the tape in small sections working our way around the S provided the striped look that we liked and made it easy for me and my 8 year old to do together.

We really liked how it turned out but I thought it needed a bit more sparkle. So I purchased a small strand of 20 white Christmas lights and fed 6 of them through the already existing smaller holes.

The rest of the lights that didn't have a hole were taped down to the back side. I wanted to make sure the lights didn't rest on her wall so I cut a large glue stick down to 4 one inch sections and glued it to the back of the S to act as a bumper.

Since it had no hanger, I added a bit of ribbon to be able to hang it on the wall. I love how the 6 lights turned out but we both especially love how the back lights show right through the plastic and masking tape.

Here is how it looks in the dark. I will definitely be purchasing more of these letters at the antiques fair next year. I think need a big letter D for my office!

National Paint Week: Tutorial Painting British Flag on Fence Boards

I made this British Flag inspired art for my nephew, Kirby. He is 18 and collects flags from around the world, so I thought this would go with his theme.

I started with 1 x6 Cedar fence board. I had Joe cut them down to 4 24 inch pieces and then we strapped them together using scrap trim molding we had left over from our bathroom remodel. I stained them with a solution of white vinegar and steel wool. I got all of these ideas from Girl In Air's blog for exact instructions on how to make it the vinegar stain see her website HERE.

We printed out a sample flag and Joe set to figuring out how exactly to draw it. Mr. Measuring Tape had all of these lines drawn all over the boards and I came in with my white acrylic craft paint and just followed them.

For the red lines, I used tape to make first the cross then the X. Have you ever really examined the British flag? The X is odd. The lines from left to right jump from bottom to top and the lines from right to left jump from top to bottom. I have never really noticed that before. I always thought it was just an X.

To make these lines, I didn't measure, I just created the shape with painters tape and filled it in with my red acrylic craft paint.

After it dried over night, I took my palm sander and 80 grit sand paper to it to rough up the paint and smooth out the fence boards.

This was a lot of fun to make, I have orders for a huge peace sign and a musical note from my daughters now, so I guess it's a hit.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these British Flag inspired paintings, just email me and I will share the details with you.

You might also like my Peace Sign Painted on Reclaimed Wood:

Happy Painting!

Shared At:

Etched Glass Peace Signs Tutorial

For my daughter's Hippy Chic apartment, she decided to decorate with peace signs and neon whenever possible. So when it came down to kitchen necessities, we had to customize.

I purchased inexpensive salt and pepper shakers and a glass butter dish at Walmart. Then went to Michael's craft store and purchased Armor Etch (just a 3 oz bottle) and reusable adhesive stencils by Plaid.

I started with a salt shaker and a peace sign stencil. Added a drop of Armor Etch using a craft stick.

I set a timer for 60 seconds then rinsed it off by holding it under the tap and rubbing it gently with a gloved finger. I dried it thoroughly and removed the stencil. This 3 oz bottle is going to go a long way, because I only used a few drops on these little stencils.

I wish I could have gotten this to show up better on camera. But there is a cute little peace sign permanently etched in the glass. You can see them better on the butter dish below.

I stuck the stencil to the butter dish, then Armor Etch, waited and rinsed 3 times.

Now she has a matching set of etched glass salt and pepper shakers and butter dish. This was an incredibly easy project that took a total of 15 minutes to complete. The stencils are available in a variety of designs and the possibilities are endless. I am doing wine glasses for myself next.

Mantel Size Thankful Banner Burlap & Blue Printable

Yesterday I posted this Thankful Banner in Burlap with Blue Great Vibes Font. It is very large about 5 1/2 feet long. See it HERE. So today I thought I'd share a smaller version. This download has entire banner on one PDF file so it will be easier and faster to print.

Here is the smaller version on the mantel of my faux fireplace.

Small Burlap Thankful Banner


Just click download button above and it will give you a download or print option. I printed these on white card stock and cut them out with pinking sheers to make it look more like fabric. I hole punched the corners and strung it with ribbon. Then hung it on my mantel. Quick, easy and free! Hope you enjoy!

Let me know if you have any problems with the download and I will just email you the file if that works better.