How to catch up on 4 months?

I’ve been gone from the blog world but not from crafting. I don’t really feel too bad about not posting; I’ve devoted my time to my family and my job. I do want to share a few of the projects I’ve completed since February. I’m posting from my phone and I used apps to edit all the pictures. I’ll mention those at the end. I’m hoping that if I can post when I have a moment, probably not sitting at home with our crazy schedule, then I can post more frequently.

I’ll start with St. Pat’s Day. You’ll see some pinterest inspiration in these pics.

I’ve also made tons of baby sets. One was a custom order to fit a changing table. A huge 12×16 inch basket!

We made some Avenger stuff, cause sometimes you just need to. 🙂

I ombré dyed some curtains for my bedroom. I hate to admit that I still only have one hung. The other is on the floor in front of the window.

I entered a swap but didn’t get the picture posted. This is what I sent.

And I made a summer sign for my entry post.

I made some teacher appreciation and graduation gifts.

I’ve used two free apps to edit my pics. The quality isn’t as good as I hoped but I like the convenience. PicCollage and Labelbox, check them out in the AppStore.

I ordered some Lucy’s Crab Shack fabric by Sweetwater and will have some things to post soon!

bedroom project and some extras

So I didn’t get this posted last weekend but I did complete it last weekend.  The Mr. T helped a lot and we finished it on Saturday.  I love it and have some art work for above the board and batten it’s just not up yet.

So the wall is the weird green color, and yes, before you beat me to it, it’s very close to my quilt color.  The difference is my quilt is more blue and the wall looks like someone threw up mint!  I have been looking for paint colors and I can’t find exactly what I want.  I have also wanted a headboard for our king sized platform bed that the Mr. T and I made 5 years ago (and still haven’t painted or stained!)  I have a love for any board and batten project I find in blogland and have wanted to do this in our bedroom since we moved in.  We haven’t done ANYTHING with decorating our bedroom, not even pictures on the walls (and maybe some unpacked boxes… and yes that’s Christmas paper leaning against the wall.  Don’t judge!)

We used primed MDF boards from Lowes and it was a super cheap project

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The wall looks small without the bed

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The bedroom is far from done.  I need bedside tables that fit the smaller space, curtains and some wall art, but this is a good start.

I do have one piece on the wall in the bedroom, and old window inspired by Cheryl at I am Momma.  I have followed her blog for quite some time and she is a fabulous crafter. I made a cork board in the bottom middle using wine corks.  The two panels at the side are covered sheet metal so they are magnetic.  I plan to change the gray out with fabric when I find some I like.

Another birthday party for T3 so another snappy top bag.  This one requested Mickey so I busted out the iron on vinyl.

My last little project is a pencil pouch.  I’ve had this pinned on Pinterest for quite some time and decided to make one.  It’s very cute and handy.  The original post is from A Spoonful of Sugar with a good tutorial. After making two, I might increase the length by 1/2 an inch.  Will definitely add this to my gift giving list.

St. Pat’s decor is going up and Valentine’s Day is coming down.  I have a few ideas for green to post soon.  Happy crafting!

Sharing at:: Thirty Handmade Days :: Simply Designing :: The Trendy Treehouse ::Fingerprints on the Fridge :: The Shabby Nest :: Whipperberry :: Creation Corner ::

vinyl and spray paint and clearance, OH MY!

This past weekend it was over 50 degrees.  Now to most people that just means and unseasonably warm January day, but for me in means SPRAY PAINT!  I have had a few projects that needed some attention and I was able to get them done. My a to z bookends didn’t show up against the dark wood bookshelf.  Green paint to the rescue.

And since it’s such an awesome color of green, I decided to paint a small table that color too.

I also painted a old brass floor lamp a rubbed bronze.  Hopefully I can show you that soon; it needs a new shade!!!

I ordered some vinyl form Expressions Vinyl, my favorite vinyl place.  They ship SUPER fast and are very reasonable.  I needed some green and gold  to embellish some travel mugs for my sister and her husband.  They got these mugs on clearance after Christmas.  Stainless steel (inside and out) with a leather like removable cup holder.  She sent them home with me so I could put their favorite teams on them.  The rounded sides are tough to put vinyl on but they turned out pretty good.  It is permanent vinyl that is hand washable.  Since the sale was so irresistible (ridiculously cheap!) my brother-in-law got me a few (quite a few) more mugs thinking I could dress them up and put them in my shop.  I played around and made one for myself, replacing the leather like holder with a quilted one.  Obviously I will have to use non-licensed ideas for the ones I sell, but for personal use, I love mine. Dr. Seuss rocks!

Speaking of clearance, I scored a king sized quilt at Target for $24.  T2 needed heavy curtains to block the cold in her room and she really liked the orange in the quilt.  We also found some tie back bars on, you guessed it- clearance, at Lowe’s that we still need to mount, to hold the heavy fabric back.

One last picture – our dog Latte, who insisted upon having her picture taken while I was taking pictures of the table.  She’s something.

color me m

My Etsy store is finally open!  As of today I have 3 items listed but more are on the way.  Please visit my store, tell your friends about my store and make suggestions of things you would like to see in the store. I have the three items listed below as well as the link to color me m.

Listed today:

Come visit me at etsy, you can even buy something if you want. 🙂

 

Orphan Gifts and Thankfulness

Our church has an orphanage in Guatemala and our Sunday School class has adopted the orphans for Christmas. We got a precious little boy named Gabriel who is 6 years old and likes legos and small toy animals. We got him an outfit, some new socks, and some legos and then I made him a marker roll and a little notebook with his name/initial on it them. We are also going to use my Silhouette machine to put their names on all of the backpacks like we did Gabriel’s. I think they will like the personalized gifts. My family will also be putting personal notes to Gabriel even though he speaks Spanish and we don’t. T4 was super excited when I told him we were adopting Gabriel for Christmas. He wanted to know if Gabriel would be here by Christmas. He was a little bummed when he found out that we didn’t actually get to make him part of our family. He told me he would keep praying until we could really adopt Gabriel. Here is part of what we are sending, the marker roll and little notebook. I also have the backpack with Gabriel’s name on it. We will be adding names to the rest of the bags next week and sending our gifts with the mission trip in December.

His favorite colors are green and yellow.

I got the flocked iron on material from Silhouette and the white iron on material came from my favorite Expressions Vinyl.

I also used my Silhouette machine to make an addition to my mantle for Thanksgiving. I have, as always, every intention to sand the edges and glaze a little but it simply hasn’t happened and Christmas goes up next week. It has served its purpose as reminder to give thanks to God for everything!I will sign off by wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving (because the likelihood of another post by then is slim). See you on the flip side.

Halloween goodies

I have a few Halloween goodies to share today.  Things are busy and crafting is slim these days, so the pedestal bowl has been a work in progress, but Frank E. has been done for awhile, I just didn’t share him. The bowl has 3 layers of paint, white, green and then purple.  I put vinyl letters on after the white paint and then put the green and purple coats on. I removed the vinyl when the paint was dry and  a little sanding revealed the colors underneath.  I have a coat of wax on it for a sealer.

Frank E. is a shelf sitter.  I’ve included a link to the download file for your Silhouette machine if you would like to make one of your own.  I ended up cutting the black part of the eyes at a slant instead of the oval in the file, so you can do the same if you want.  I added the mouth with a paint pen and used a little pink paint to give him glowing cheeks.

Click on the button for the download to make your own Frank E.

Sharing creativity at :: The Shabby Creek Cottage :: 733 :: Fireflies & Jellybeans :: Yesterday on Tuesday :: House of Hepworths :: CSI ::

spooky apothecary

I started my apothecary jar collection for Halloween last year.  You can visit that post here and see the labels I created and the ones that I downloaded. I scoured garage sales this summer and picked up a few good jars to add to the collection.  I haven’t make labels for them yet, but I will share when I do.  For now, I wanted to share the Apothecary sign I made for the display.  I have some random MDF pieces laying around and I used one of the pieces for this sign.  I spray painted the board white, added the vinyl as a mask and then spray painted it all black.  One it was dry I removed the vinyl and had a pretty awesome sign.

I wanted to do this last year, but didn’t have my Silhouette and didn’t want to tackle it by hand.

This is the vinyl on the white board prior to the black paint

Then I painted the entire thing black, let it dry and removed the vinyl

I will post more pics when I make the new labels and I’ll post a link so you can download the new labels. Happy Halloween decorating!

Sharing creativity at :: Tatortots & Jello :: Sew Darn Crafty :: Sisters of the Wild West :: Flamingo Toes :: Its So Very Cheri ::

Halloween countdown bottle

I love using wine bottles for crafts and I love chalkboard paint on them.  I decided to use some of the vinyl & ric rac I got from Pick Your Plum to make a little countdown calendar for Halloween.  I was originally going to paint the entire bottle with chalkboard paint and just add vinyl but I had some chalkboard vinyl left over that I purchased at Expressions Vinyl and I liked the green color of the wine bottle, so I ended with the product below.  I also wanted to use my Krylon glitter spray paint that I got last weekend with my 50% off coupon.  I wasn’t sure if the spray paint would stick to the vinyl, but happily it did.  I like how it turned out and now I’m working on another project with this fantastic glitter spray paint (check back hopefully soon.)

  I couldn’t use transfer paper with the vinyl because it wouldn’t stick to the glitter, so I had to stick the letters on one at a time.

I did remove the outside vinyl and weed inside the letters before spraying.  I might try removing the excess vinyl after spraying the next time.I did decide to add the orange around the chalkboard frame once I saw it on my mantle.

I think this fun for T3 & 4 to do each day.  If you want to make one of your own, I used a frame from the Silhouette site and the font is Baby Kruffy. Happy crafting!Sharing creativity at :: Lolly Jane :: Tator Tots & Jello :: Funky Junk Interiors :: Be Different Act Normal :: Design Dazzle Halloween ::

gallery wall

I’ve MIA lately in the blog world. Two volleyball games a week for T1, soccer for T3 & 4, youth and Awana (I do cubbie crafts) at church plus teaching, being a mom and wife & trying to walk 4 miles of an evening for exercise.  I meet myself coming and going most days. This gallery wall has been a few weeks in the making and I’m still missing T1’s picture.  She took the pics of T2-4 but wasn’t happy with the pics the Mr. T and I took of her so I plan to use her volleyball pic (I have to see if I can order an 8×10 from the photographer for not TONS of money.) I had all the frames, just gave the a fresh coat of paint for the wall.  I made the latitude/longitude art (see the inspiration on my pinterest.) I still feel like it needs something more, but it’s a good start.

Sharing craftiness at :: Sew Darn Cute :: Sisters of the Wild West :: Under the Table & Dreaming ::

Zelda and a photo shoot

As summer wraps up at the Tolen home, we have been getting in some last activities.  T2 has been reading ALOT! She knows homework will be coming soon as a Freshy. She has also been helping the Mr. T get their bathroom finished (pics when finished.)

T3 & T4 decided to use some lego guys and make a Link from Zelda.  This was done completely on their own and WOW! What talent from a 8 & 11 year old. The hair and hat are even removable, sculpted from clay and baked.  They used my craft paint for the outfits and then I sprayed them with a clear sealer.

T1 has been busy with another photo shoot.  The handsome young man will be a senior this year and T1 volunteered to take his pictures.  This was her first sr. pic photo shoot and it turned out great.  I’m only posting a few of the pics but there were SOOO many good ones to choose from.

I really want her to take some pics of the sibs before shool starts, but she made the varsity volleyball team yesterday and still has band camp of an evening so maybe on Saturday….

Sharing creativity at :: Sugar Bee Crafts :: Funky Polkadot Giraffe :: 733 ::