Be-YOU-tiful

I'm not going to lie, I stole this from Pinterest, and specifically, Etsy.

Since I'm snowed in, my boyfriend has a man night, and my wine froze on my porch (I still got a couple glasses out of it)...I decided it was a canvas night. I found this pin a long, long time ago, and have always wanted to re-create it - I just never knew what theme to go with. Welp, I got on a role tonight and just went with it which matched the pillows I made 3 months ago! Totally happy with my results. :)

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

As school was approaching, I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled 

through Pinterest. I needed something to make my classroom pop.

Finally, a picture hit me! It was an awesome board of

 Dr. Seuss that would be perfect for my Career Orientation class! 

Original bulletin board found here.  

My super artistic friend, Anna Kate, and I made a plan and went to town. 

It consisted of white butcher paper, a projector, paint, water balloons, 

paper mache, and a hot glue gun. Each step we took we eeked 

with excitement as we got farther and it got cuter! 

Most time consuming project ever - yet so incredibly worth it. :)

The finished product!! I smile every time I walk into my classroom!

Thank you for the pinspriation

"H"appy Home

Happy doors make me happy. So I guess it'll help when I get home every day. 

I bought the wood letter from Hobby Lobby which was $12.99 (I think) but used the 40% off coupon and got it for $8 something. Not too shabby. Now, with this letter, I sat and sat and thought and thought. At first, I wanted to paint a herringbone print, but that would have taken me hours. Then I wanted to something crazy like paint a bunch of different colored flowers, but I'm not really an artist. Then I wanted to do this and this and what-not. Finally, I wanted to do something simple, shocking as that never happens.

The pink is Pearle Holly Berry by Martha Stewart. I loveee her pearle paint line! It's not so shiney and cheap-looking I guess, they're just pretty shades with a slight pearly shine. As for the side of the H I used Daffodil Yellow acrylic paint. I did a couple coats, let it dry, hot glued some fake daisies, and hung it with twine. :)

Total time: 20 minutes

A couple months ago my friend, Allie, wanted to do something crafty with a bunch of sea shells. She's from Charleston and loves anything nautical. So she bought the letter A (same from above) and I helped her cover it with all of her sea shells! Turned out cute and even cuter in her room!

Patterns

This past weekend was wonderful. My mom came in to spend some time with me and do a little Christmas shopping. We spent the most time in Hobby Lobby (of course) wandering around getting idea after idea. I get my creativity from her. Although she loves fabric and sewing and I love paper and painting, we meet in the somewhere in the middle. Together we will think of some spiffy stuff.  :)

Anyway, I got to work on a project I have been putting off. I had bought some cardboard letters that spell "HOGS" a while back at HobLob but I never did anything to them. They were meant for a wreath, but they were too heavy to glue to decomesh. So they sat in my Papasun chair for a while. I finally thought of another idea and finally found the time to work on it.

First, I painted the letters white. Then I picked a print for each one. The H is chevron, O is houndstooth, G is argyle-ish, and the S is just vertical stripes. As I do on canvases, I drew everything out with a pencil. Once I stenciled every pattern on I went to town with a thin black paint pen. Now, the patterns were super easy - except for houndstooth. I looked up the pattern online, and imagined the process in my head. I'm not going to lie, it took me about 3 hours and a lot of double-checking. But once I figured it out and got the hang of it it was pretty easy. I will put a tutorial up later. After the patterns, I colored the sides of the letters black. Once they were done, I painted my canvas in a Razorback red and painted the edges black as well. Then I stuck the letters to the canvas!

 

This one was super fun to make!

Brrrrlap

Today was a craft day. I went to Hobby Lobby and got absorbed in the mood of a DIY project. I'm teaching a Sports and Entertainment Marketing class, so these will be displayed somewhere in my classroom. Might hang them from the ceiling. :)

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, 
I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. 
I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

Supplies were easy and I got everything in one trip without a list

 - just went through the process in my head.

Supplies:

1/2 yard of each color of burlap (Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's)

Acrylic paint

Something round to trace if needed (basket, lamp shade, bowl, small table)

Scissors

Mod Podge

Hot Glue gun

Fiberfill or plastic bags

Directions:

1. Iron burlap to get the creases out.

2. Fold burlap in half

3. Trace shape onto burlap with pen on one side

4. Paint the border (if wanted)

5. Paint the inside details (laces, name, etc.)

6. Glue (with hot glue gun) a small portion in between the two layers 

under the border and by the crease, let dry

7. Continue to glue top portion of shape, let dry

8. Continue to glue bottom portion leaving enough space for the filler! (about 4 inches)

9. Stuff the shape with fiberfill or plastic bags until satisfied

10.  Glue the final opening

11. Optional: Since burlap frays like crazy,  I used mod podge between the two 

layers just outside of the glue to help the burlap last longer

12. Cut out shape and fluff like a pillow

Excuse the mess but I was allllll over the place. This was just before I glued, stuffed, and cut.

Next project is a burlap apple! :)

 Check!

HE will direct your paths

Here is a craft I did about a month ago. It's a beaded path from mine and my boyfriend's home town to where we met, in Fayetteville, at the University of Arkansas. (He's a keeper.) The whole thing cost me about $2 because I had most of the supplies already.

How to: First I cut my piece of plywood to be 10 x 10 inches and painted it blue with acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby. While it was drying I cut the state of Arkansas out of an old atlas leaving a small border. I placed it on a piece of red scrapbook paper and cut a bigger Arkansas to use as a border and cut hearts for the towns. Next, I strung beads to be "paths" and followed the route to Fayetteville. (Since our hometowns are pretty close, we had part of the same path. But I did two paths: one blue and one green). Once I figured out my layout, I used mod podge to glue everything down and put a layer on top. I printed the the Proverbs verse on resume paper because it was off-white. I burned the edges with a lighter (which was fun to watch) to add some character and glued it to a piece of foam to give it some depth.

Now it's in my living room and I love it!

So. Much. Tape.

Today was a craft day. I've had two canvases for a couple months because I couldn't decide (I'm a horrible decision maker) what to do with them. But I finally decided and went with it. I love the chevron print, so that was my first one.