Weekly Discovery- Silhouettes

On Mondays we are going to start a new feature called "Weekly Discovery." We will highlight a product or idea the we find on the web, in a book, magazine, etc. Our first feature is on Silhouettes.

The summer after I graduated from high school I had the opportunity to go on a vacation with some friends to France. When we were in Paris, I had a street artist draw a silhouette of me. (by the way, my nose isn't really that big)

I stuck it in my scrapbook and had kind of forgotten about it. A couple of months ago, I was reading a magazine called "100 decorating ideas under $100." It had a feature on silhouettes. I thought they looked pretty cool and was thinking of making some of my family and putting them in my living room. The article featured a website called cutarts.com. He has some great silhouettes on there and you can purchase custom made art from him. Then, a few weeks later, I came across this website called Restyled Home. I loved her profile silhouettes and she gives a great tutorial to tell you how to do them. A few weeks after that, I saw these pillows in a magazine called Creative Home by BH&G. It was the winter 2007 issue. And to top it all off, my son loves the show Tom & Jerry. I was watching it with him one night and I noticed that Jerry had silhouettes hanging on his wall in his little mouse hole. I took all of those things as a sign that I was supposed to make these for my family.

So, I plan on making a profile of each of my 5 family members. I am going to follow the tutorial from Restyled Home and make my profiles black with a white background. I will put them in black picture frames and hang them on the wall in my black and white living room. Check back soon to see my finished product.

-Anisa

Gratitude Box

One of our favorite parts about crafts is diversity. We each have our own styles. One of the features we want to provide to you on our site is "One Craft- Three Ways." Once a month we will choose a craft that we all like and want to do. Then we will go our separate ways and create. We will publish the final results here for you to see how a blank canvas can turn out three different ways.
This month we chose Gratitude Boxes. This a great way for our families to share what we are grateful for. We can add our thoughts to these boxes year after year.

We started with a blank box. In this case, a papier mache from Provo Craft, purchased from the local craft store. (box measures 5 1/2" X 5 1/2" not including scallops)

Here is Anisa's final result. I decided that I would like to put a chipboard album inside mine to record my families thoughts on what they are thankful for. Here is a glimpse of what the inside of the album looks like. Each person has a page with a tab on the side with their name on it. Each page has a little paper bag pocket with a card inside. On each card, we will write the year and what we are grateful for.

I wanted a box that my family could contribute to on a monthly basis, so I tried to stay with everyday colors (versus fall colors). The plan is once a month we'll gather as a family and write down things we are thankful for. Come next thanksgiving we will have a great record of our last year's blessings and something fun to read over dinner. As my kids are all small, it will also be fun to see how their handwriting changes and improves.
Angie also wanted to use hers throughout the year and so chose colors that fit her home decor rather than traditional fall colors.

Cami went with a simple approach, using semi-traditional Thanksgiving colors.
She used 7 Gypsies Graditude sticker sheet to embellish the box as well as the cardstock squares inside.



Although Thankgiving is past, you can use this concept for anything. Last year, Anisa used an embellished craft lunch pail to make a box to hold the gifts that her family would give to the Savior for Christmas, such as service to others, etc. May be she'll share it before the month is out.

Update a Craft

Do you have any old crafts that are just a little outdated? I know I do. My mom got my started on tole painting when I was a pre-teen. I loved it and I really got into it. I made most of my stuff for my mom's house, but a few things I kept for myself. They are all really outdated, so I don't even use them. I think it's about time that I paint them and update them a little.

Angie, Cami and I had a yard sale a couple of days ago. Angie's mom gave her this turkey to sell.

I kept looking at it and wondering if there was anything I could do to fix it. Then I remembered a card I had seen in a scrapbook store. They had cut a circle for the turkeys head and body and the tail was made out of ribbon. I LOVE RIBBON. So, it finally dawned on me that I could do the same thing with this turkey. I pulled all of the rafia off. I sanded and distressed the turkey a little. Then I tied ribbon on the tail in place of the rafia. I used several different colors, patterns and styles. Some of them were just from my stash at home and I bought a few new ones because I don't have a lot of wide ribbons. Here it is... let me know what you think!!! I bet Angie wishes she hadn't gotten rid of this at her yard sale.

- Anisa

Throw Pillow Slip Covers

I never buy throw pillows (okay, hardly ever). I feel like I can make them quickly and inexpensively. I'm not a major sewer, but if you can sew straight lines, you can sew this!
The first thing that you want to do is measure your pillow.

My pillow was 19" square. Then, I cut the fabric for the front of my pillow. You will want to cut your fabric 1" bigger to allow for 1/2" seam allowances.

The back of your pillow is going to have 2 pieces of fabric that overlap. This way, you can take the fabric off and wash it easily. To cut the back pieces, you will want them to be half the size of the pillow plus 2-3". So, I cut my pieces 13". Then, you will need to turn over one edge of each of the pieces. These are the edges that are going to show when you have your finished pillow.

The next step is to pin your pieces of your pillow together. You will want to lay the front of the pillow on a table, front side up. Then you will want to lay your two back pieces on top of that front sides down. You will want to have your turned over edges on the inside of the pillow, overlapping.

Pin all around the outside, then take it to your sewing machine and sew all around the outside edge. Flip your pillow right side out and stuff your old pillow inside!!!

This project takes less than 1 hr. (it probably took me longer to post this on the blog.) It also is quite in expensive if you already have a pillow that you are just recovering. All it costs is the fabric. For this one, I used just a little over 1/2 a yard.

Good luck and email me if you have any questions.

-Anisa

Playroom Project

For the past two weeks I have been busily working on my kids' playroom. I wanted it to be fun and whimsical, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. One of my main goals was to have a place to display my kids' artwork. I had thought of several different ideas, but none of them really seemed right. Until a couple of weeks ago when I was at my sister-in-law's house. She had a strip of wood painted red with white clips on it. It clicked!!!- That was what I wanted to put in the playroom. So I went to Lowe's and bought some pine that was 1"x4"x48". Then I painted it black. Then the hunt began for the clips. I tried Lowe's, Robert's Crafts, Walmart, etc. I could not find them. Finally someone told me that they would be an office supply product (duh!). So, I headed to Office Max. For your information, they are called Bulldog Clips. Office Max had these really cute colorful ones. They came in packages of Red/Blue or Green/Yellow. Well, I was making 4 boards, so I needed 16 clips. The Office Max that I went to had only one package of Red/Blue and tons of green/yellow. So, I headed off to another Office Max. Luckily they had tons of Red/Blue. After a whole lot of running around, I finally got my boards put together. My sweet husband screwed the clips on and hung the boards on the wall for me.
Part 2 of my project was to paint these circles on the wall. I love to browse Pottery Barn magazines for decorating ideas. Whether or not I can afford to buy anything from there, I still love their ideas. And a lot of times, I can do it myself. I loved the idea of painting circles on the wall. So, I made myself a compass. I took a piece of string and push pinned it into the wall. Then I tied a pencil on the other end. And voila!- a circle. It was rather difficult to paint 3 circles in such bright colors, but 4 coats later, I love the finished look. I also loved this clock from Pottery Barn. But, once again, it was too expensive. So, I found a clock at my local craft store- Robert's Crafts. With my 40% off coupon, it was under $20. I used my Cricut to cut out the vinyl numbers for the clock (the clock came with some, but I did not like them). And here is my finished product.
Part 3 of my project was to put alphabet letters on the wall above my clipboards. I used my Cricut to cut out vinyl letters in varrying sizes and fonts. It was really fun and I love the finished look. Posted by: Anisa

Any Excuse to Buy Scrapbook Paper

I love to scrapbook and I love scrapbook paper. I often find myself buying the paper just because I love it even though I don't see a layout using it in my future. Any time I can incorporate my love for scrapbook paper with my love of decorating my home, I'm on board. The added bonus is that when my project is complete, I often have left over paper scraps that I can use on a layout... I'm killing two birds with one stone (as my grandma would say).

My inspiration for this project was my son's bedding from Pottery Barn Kids. I copied the simple patterns and shapes of the truck, bus and car. I simply cut them out with scrapbook paper. I did a little bit of hand stitching with embroidery floss as well as some machine stitching. And of course the wheels needed to have buttons in the center. I love buttons. Here is the final project. I love how it turned out. A few sheets of scrapbook paper are a lot less expensive than buying art. Click on the image for a closer look.
Posted by: Anisa