Best Teacher Gift!

 Here's my Rock Star craft of the school year:

I made 8x10 "tabletop" frames into desktop write on/wipe off message boards for James's teachers.  Now if they're grading papers or otherwise need a moment, they can write "Stop" on the frame and prevent interruptions.  Or use it for a million other things.  I gave his two teachers their gifts in an end-of-year conference, and all of the other teachers were excited about them.  (I didn't know there were going to be other teachers there!  Serious faux pas....)

There are very easy to make, I simply framed fabric and made matching flowers for little accents.  The easiest gifts can be the most successful!  James picked out his favorite fabrics for his two awesome teachers, and we're going to sorely miss them both next year. 

We have been re-zoned, and while it's to another very good school, we've been at the same school for Pre-K and Kindergarten.  Bittersweet!

Thank you Mrs. Garrett and Miss Taylor!  James <3s you both!!

3s and Wishing Part 2

I left the house to run errands, and came home to find my 2nd wish in my email Inbox.  I'd rather not go into detail, as this is a very personal one--but it has to do with this flower, which greeted me at the mailbox less than 10 minutes before I read my email.  The two were connected, and only the one or the other would not have reminded me of what I'd lost.

Coke Bottle Cherry Blossoms: A Pinterest Success Story

I love cherry blossoms.  I went to college in Macon, GA, where there's a Cherry Blossom Festival every year.  Walking to class was amazing--the blossoms were like magical snow blowing in the warm southern spring air.  I keep promising myself I'll go back, but somehow year after year passes by and Life sends me on a detour....

Source: alphamom.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

I've had this pin on my Pinterest board for a while.  I admit I was skeptical, but this actually is quite simple.  I don't have any experience with stamps, so make sure your inner perfectionist is taking a nap while you paint.

The instructions on  Alphamom are excellent.  I did mine a little differently, but I love how it ended up anyway.  I'll add a couple more tips:

1. See the bottom of the bottle in this photo?  You want paint over the entire bottom, not just the obvious five "petals."  It gives you the perfect teardrap shape as well as a centered dot.  So be generous with the paint on your plate!

2. I used a 20oz Coke bottle rather than a 2 liter.  It was fine for my 11x14 canvas panel.

3. I painted the canvas sky blue before stamping.  Well, technically my 6-year-old did :)

4. I stamped blossoms first and then made the branches.  I do NOT recommend this--follow the instructions on Alphamom and paint the darn sticks first.

I also made a smaller version on an 8.5x11 blue cardstock and had equal success, so don't think you have to buy a canvas.  You can also use any color for your flowers--this is by no means limited to cherry tress.

I'm not feeling the "Spring Fever" as so many others are, but doing this painting is a reminder of why Spring is awesome.

Materials: 11x14 canvas panel, craft paint, brushes, and a 20oz Coke bottle

More of This Past Week's Crafts

I'm feeling better now, thank God.  Viruses are horrible---colds are bad, but viruses...I'll take a 2-week cold over a 48-hour virus any day!  This was the sickest I've been since before our son was born, and we only remember last time because I had to go to the emergency room.  

Anyway, a few notes to add about this post and the previous one: none of the wall art is actually hung up on the wall, which makes for weird perspectives in pictures.  I also did not edit any pictures in the previous post, so pay no attention to dirty carpet, random cat sightings or other "odd-ness" in the backgrounds, lol.

"Consider the Lilies"

This was inspired by a piece from Red Letter Words (a company I have immense respect for, so check it out and have a look around.)  The phrase "Consider the lilies" is from Scripture from a section in Luke 12:22-44 entitled "Do Not Worry."  

I worry constantly, about everything, and the only words I ever noticed in this passage were the subtitle of "Do Not Worry."  Since that was all I saw, I skipped over the passage until I was shown its Truth by Red Letter Word's version (and I only noticed it then because of my flower obsession, and their version has these cute Pottery Barn-looking flowers on it.)  Specifically, verses 27-28 in the NIV:  

27“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 

I was so moved by this, that I had to make my own version of the passage to remind myself of it.  I mean, the idea that God thought to put beauty in what is essentially the ashes of yesterday's fire, yet He loves us so much He made us in the image of Him--we're so much more than we give ourselves credit for!  So, I had no real plan of how to incorporate "Consider the Lilies" into an art piece but I'm so pleased with the result!!

These things are red rose petals, a bag of 300 from the Dollar Tree's bridal section.  I didn't like them for several reasons, but I thought I could create something beautiful with them, and for a dollar, I thought it was worth the risk....  

So, using craft paint, I painted each petal, usually both sides since I was using a cake pan and the paint soaked through the thin petals a little (aren't I such a glam crafter? Using a cake pan to paint and hold supplies, and a Crayola brush to paint with!  True story: hubby saw me using this pan and said "So that's where my cornbread pan went."  I said "what?  I didn't think anyone used this" since I don't eat cornbread and I don't cook really either. "Yes, and I've been looking for it for several weeks now!" Oops!!)  

Anyway, I let the petals dry, did a 2nd coat, and then made a flower.  It was not a pretty flower--so bad in fact that I tore it apart pretty quickly hoping to salvage some of the petals.  I made a 2nd one I was happier about, but when I made the 3rd one is when I hit the perfect arrangement and so made a 4th to match exactly.  

Kind of hard to tell, but it's a really pretty flower, I promise

I knew I needed 2 full and pretty matching flowers for this project, because I had a matched set of frames, 2 squares and one rectangle.

I'm not an ornate gold frame kind of person, so here's two of the frames in the middle of the project, one painted black and the other in the original form.

But, this set is still not on my walls, because I've been very, very inspired lately.  Look for more posts, because Blogger and I are not getting along very well at the moment....

It Helps If You Can See It

I've been trying to organize my craft supplies lately, and I've learned one very, very important lesson: if you can't see something, such as a great piece of fabric you bought 2 years ago, then it will continue gathering dust while you spend hours a day looking on Pinterest for a Muse.  But I also came to this important lesson through my mom.

It's beginning to be actual Fall here in Northwest GA now, and the leaves are beginning to fall.  My mom was raking leaves in the yard of their new farm, and burning them once the pile was large enough.  She was using a rake, thank God, because when she went back to stir the pile and make sure it was a controlled burn, a black snake jumped out at her!!  It wasn't poisonous, but still, it scared her so badly she said she went from the yard to the porch in 2 steps!  She didn't know she'd raked a snake until it was too late.

So this story, along with this very awesome idea of Ashley Connelly on The Creative Place, I made my own version of a frame and twine inspiration board.  I plan to use it to display fabric swatches, craft ideas and inspirational "crafty" sayings. 

I happened to have a large picture frame where the glass had broken.  I measured the sides and made the decision to create my twine lines every 2 inches all the way around.  Ashley used nails and tied her twine, but this frame is most likely plastic, so I went with the good old hot glue gun and burned fingers route. 

Here's the finished frame, it'll help my explanation make sense.  I've not written "tutorials" before.

I marked where the lines should lay and started gluing all the way up one side (let's call it north, for my sake.)  I then moved onto the adjacent side (east) and glued twine lengths there as well.  To connect the east twine to the opposite side, I pulled the twine as taunt as I could and made sure the glue had a good hold (hence the burned fingers.)  For the last (south) side, I braided the twine in and out of the east/west lines and again made the twine as taunt as I could.

Now, I love my glue gun, I really do.  But there are times when it fails me, and I did not want this to be one of those times.  So as a precaution, to keep the twine from popping off, I glued a long piece of twine all the way around the frame (on the lip where the glass would normally sit) covering the ends of the twine, giving it one more layer of stay-put-it-ness.

The back, nice and smothered in glue

Another view of the back, for perspective

Leaning against some cardboard, waiting for me to decide where to hang it

Wow, I didn't realize those little metal tag thingies were so noticeable, I'm going to break them off, and get to swatch clipping!

Oh, and the other thing I've made today (so far) is a headband with rolled flowers.  I used the tutorial from Craft Snob except I didn't sew any of mine.  Did you know my sewing machine hates me?  It does.  I can hand sew a few stitches, that's about it.  That may be why I'm co-dependent on my glue gun....  Anyway, normal headbands from the store always slip up or off my head, so I took one that almost fit, added a couple more inches and voila!  It really was the easiest thing ever!

It's blurry, sorry, totally not used to taking pictures of my own head

The other night I made a monogram in all my favorite colors.  It's now hanging together with my lace frame here:

Chocolate brown, turquoise, lime green, pastel pink and cream--all against the unfortunate and hideous mustard wall.  Eventually I'll give in and paint this darn room, but in the meantime, I'm killing it with as much stuff I can hang on the walls as possible. :)

So, that's about it for today.  Thanks for hanging out for a bit!

Flowers for Aunt Mae

I've never been good at being a regular blogger.  I have times where I'm really into it, and others where I go weeks or even MONTHS between posts.  Anyway, in addition to getting used to James going to school, then him beginning to ride the bus, we've also had car woes and my Aunt died.  She called me "Kimby," she was the only one to ever do that.  I liked her calling me a special name........

She died at home, free of pain thanks to medications, and with her family surrounding her.  Towards the end she kept saying "It's so beautiful" and kept talking to loved ones who had previously passed away as if they were in the room.  And this is kinda...unexplainable: she said "Well hi, I didn't know you were up here" to a man in her church that she didn't know had died.  Seriously, no one had told her because while it's a small town, our family had its own death drama to survive.  So, it's wonderful to think of Aunt Mae at the "pearly gates" with my grandparents and cousins and so forth. 

So, with relatives on my mind, I made this today:

Inspired by a post on another blog, I used the lace from my mother's wedding dress, a pink t-shirt that no longer fits, and a black frame I had lying around.  The flowers look sort of pink in white glue in this picture, but they're actually more t-shirt and lace mixes.  Now don't think I'm being sentimental, my mother's wedding dress was from 1961, badly damaged and worn for a wedding that was laid to rest back in 1984.  But--it was lace, and I've really been wanting to make crafts for me lately, as opposed to things the whole family would like.  I love the femininity of this, it's something I could see having in my closet or over my tub for the next 50 years (in my "boudoir," in particular, lol.)

Also, well, it's the flowers that started the whole project.  I've been collecting examples of "fake flowers" for quite some time.  I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated just to flowers.  I have at least 20 tutorials, but I've only made a couple (and yes, pom-poms were one of them, I'll be trying that project again because they're "so fluffy I wanna die!")  So I've been collecting "burning" fabric for a while now, and I happened to find enough the other day for a simple pin:

(bad picture, sorry, glam is hard to photograph without effort)

Only 8 petals and a glam button from my stash, but it was my gateway drug :)  I don't recommend starting, because it IS addicting!  Flowers just look so happy, sitting there waiting to liven up a boring craft. 

Oh, and I was also enabled by The Headband Challenge and Link Party at Little Miss Mama by way of Amie at Kitty Cats and Airplanes.  I especially loved Amie's headbands all week long, and after much thought I just had to try one.  I was so thrilled by it that I took about 50 pictures (seriously, it was sad) and kept on crafting.  So here's a couple of pictures of my first headband (my other pictures weren't good at all, but I made a headband with a cream ribbon and stacked bow and then a plain denim one.)  And at the end is a picture of the collected flowers from today. 

see the awesomeness of my flower?

posed on my lace and flowers frame

and this doesn't include the ones on my headbands or from my craft the other day.  Oh, I never posted that!  Look:

I was on my way to bed when an empty box of soda cans somehow inspired me to stay up until 4am making tissue flowers and a felt sun and happy clouds.  It makes me smile just looking at it :)

It's been a good day.  Aunt Mae would have enjoyed my flowers.