Category Archives: art work

Tree Mural

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Why is it projects always take 14 times longer than you plan?

I knew I wanted to have a tree mural in Caroline’s room so I began searching for inspiration pictures in December.

I looked on Janey Mac vinyl but didn’t find exactly what I wanted so I combined the designs below:

Classic Tree Swirl w/Birds, Crazy Swirl Branch w/Owls, Swirl Tree w/Birds, Owls, Flowers

I took pictures all along the way: blank wall, the tracer, the tree, etc but they got lost in the world of technology so all I have are pictures of the finished product.

I printed out the vinyl pictures, enlarged them, and traced them onto the wall using a tracer.


I started with the tree first. I used the basic shape of the inspiration tree but then added several more branches.

The birds and the owls came next.

The initial green I used was too light so I darkened it up about 50%.

Everything on the wall needed about 3 coats. Ugh.

Probably would have gone faster if I had painted in increments longer than 15 minutes.

After many painting sessions I was done at the in the middle of February.

I told my husband I will seriously consider shelling out the money for vinyl next time.

Only 6 weeks to paint a tree. In terms of project completion, that’s got to be some sort of record around here.

The Girl Creativecrafttopsy turvy tuesdaysToday's Creative Blog

Master Calendar/Schedule

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Since we have 5 people in our family we naturally have 673 things going on at any one time. While I have my personal calendar and Derek has his own, somehow we would still each miss recording events. This miscommunication often lead to frustration by both of us so I decided the solution was a master schedule.

We determined the master schedule needed to be in the kitchen so everyone could glance at it or add to it when needed. We placed it above the chalkboard and next to a magnet board we brought from our old house. The magnet board is a great place for the dry erase markers since they have magnets on the back of them.

We used a 38 x 26 frame we had sitting around. Besides the cost of the dry erase markers this was going to be a completely free project. That is…until we broke the glass. Off to the home improvement store Derek went to buy new glass and we were back in business.

I printed off some days of the week labels while Derek stuck two large pieces of paper together. After I glued the days of the week at the top of the blank pages. Derek divided it into appropriate sections. Each day is roughly 5 inches x 4 3/4 inches big.

Here’s an example of a light day: 6:00 soccer for Andrew & 6:00 lacrosse for Alex.It also reminded me of what I needed to bring to Caroline’s school for a teacher luncheon.

A busy, yet typical Saturday

My favorite part is that it’s easy to wipe on and wipe off with a cloth.

Anyone else have a Karate Kid moment there? Wipe on, wipe off, Daniel-san!

Do you have any fun organizing tips? I’d love to hear them.

I’m sharing my schedule here:

Tip Junkie handmade projects

The Gift of Words

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I’m sure you have all seen the subway art that has been floating around. I have wanted to attempt this for the past year but never did. I decided that my dream present for Christmas would be a Silhouette machine which would help me make the subway art. My wonderful husband took my ever so subtle hint of leaving the website up and mentioning there was a sale going on and surprised me with one for Christmas. I was thrilled but a little nervous at the same time. I have the habit of really wanting something but once I get it I wait and wait to open it. I thought about it, studied it, pondered it some more, and eventually was ready to try the machine last week.

I decided my first project would be a birthday present for my sister Kelly, who’s birthday is today. Not sure if subway art correlates with Kelly’s taste or not but I’m pretty sure I’ll never know since she lives 800 miles away.

I asked Kelly to email me her top places, foods, holidays she thinks about when she thinks of New Orleans. It’s our hometown so I knew she would have some special places she associates with it.

Here’s her list: Commander’s Palace, street car, beignets, Jazz Fest, City Park, Mardi Gras, & 5 Happiness. I took Kelly’s ideas and added to them.

I first started by painting an 11 x 14 canvas gray.

Next I chose some of the words I wanted to use. I typed them into the Silhouette program for sizing and then printed them out on vinyl. After a few more steps I carefully peeled away the paper and attached the vinyl words to the canvas. Here’s the I don’t think I’ll ever finish shot halfway point.

partially completed subway artThe work in the beginning was tedious but I eventually got the hang of it and moved at a quicker pace. Once I finished putting on all the words I modged podged it so it would have a protective covering.

Here’s the final product:

final subway art product

Kelly, this is going into the mail today for you. Hope you enjoy it. Happy Birthday!

I think this would be so much fun to do with other cities, places you’ve visited, holiday themes, etc. I would like to do one which lists every street my husband and I have ever lived on since we were kids.

If you could have a piece of subway art, what would be on yours?

I Heart this Room

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My favorite room in the house also happens to be the smallest room in our house. I think the 2 reasons it’s my favorite room is because I made everything in the room and it’s finished. Can we hear an “Oh Yeah – it’s finished!”

The first thing I found for the room was the shower curtain fabric. I bought it all the way back in June but finally got around to making the curtain in September.

right side of roomThe animal fabric and matching dot fabric are from City Craft. It is one of my favorite places to find unique fabrics. I think I’ve bought more fabric from there than actually made projects.close up curtainThis is as close up of a picture you are going to get since my sewing skills are horrible. I hate to read through tutorials or read directions. I prefer instead to look at the pictures and figure out how to make something. Perhaps that accounts for never having enough fabric in the end.

I decided the curtain wasn’t long enough so I needed to make loops at the top to extend its length. I was shopping in IKEA one day when I found a black pillow case in the clearance section for $0.99. Bingo. I found my material for black loops.

black loopsFor artwork in the room I bought a few pieces of scrapbook paper in the same colors and made some art. I used the tracer (the best art tool ever) to make the animal shape from the fabric larger so I could trace it onto some paper. I already had all the frames from some previous kitchen art.giraffeI also painted the walls white since I thought it would look better than the builder’s tan we have everywhere else.elephantI had seen the quote below on other blogs and just made in a font and some colors that coordinated.wash brush,etc

Just one more peek since I love it so.

right side of roomWhat room of your house are you most proud of?

Todays Creative Blog Tuesday To Do Party

Kid Art Display

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When our kids were in preschool we had a tremendous amount of artwork coming home. Andrew actually still has a ton of artwork coming home. I wanted to display their work since they were so proud but wasn’t sure what to do.
 
In our old house we hung two of these IKEA magnetic boards. This system worked okay but we quickly had 3 layers of artwork on the board. I would surreptitiously remove artwork every couple of weeks.
 
Sometimes the pieces went into scrapbooks while other times we would place them in the recycle bucket. Somehow the day the artwork would go into the recycling bucket was the day the boys insisted on ransacking the pantry where the bucket was kept.
 
Of course, they would come marching out, “Why was this in the recycling bucket?” I always pleaded innocent and said, “Your dad must have put it in there. He has no appreciation for fine art.”
 
So once we moved I had the same predicament. What to do with the artwork? Well we went back to the great Swedish wonderland and found these. They are actually curtain hangers. We bought 3 of them and placed them up on our playroom wall. I love it and I think it gives the artwork it’s proper respect.

Kids Wall Art DisplaySo far Andrew has allowed one piece of artwork to replace another each time a new one comes home. If he ever resists I know what I’m going to do.

I’m going to walk straight to the recycling bucket in the garage all the way to the garage and place the art in there myself. It is 4 ft high and out of his line of sight.