Craft Room Artwork (for Cheap!)

I've been wanting to put up a few more decorations in my craft computer room, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money.  Here is what I came up with!  It's really simple to make, too.  All you need is:

• *Elmer's Glue (with a paintbrush for spreading)
• *A decorative paper punch (I used a big circle)
• *A picture frame with a mat
• *A TON of paint sample chips (FREE at any home improvement store)

To start, get the paint chips.  I grabbed the Disney colors because they were the brightest.  I grabbed 3 of each color card.  Next, use to punch and punch as many of your shapes as you can from the sample.   I was able to get 3 circles f

or each sample.   Then, separate your circles by color family (all the pinks & reds together, all the yellows & oranges, etc.).  Finally, glue them down (overlapping) to the frame back, making sure to only place them where they will show through the mat.  Here is a close up of one of my colors: 

Here is another neat way to use paint chips. I may just like it because I'm a teacher, but whatever!  I found it on a blog called Serving Pink Lemonade.  They've got a bunch of really cute stuff there!

Yard Sale Finds

Just a quick photo of some recent yard sale finds.  Can't lie... I kind of love them!!

I out the scale in the kitchen with my basket of fruit on top.  The owl thing is a trivet.  It's nice because I have a thing for trivets, and I have a thing for owls.  Put it together & what have you got?  A find just perfect for me!

Long-term project

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was practicing a pinwheel quilt square with a pot-holder.  It all stemmed from a beautiful quilt that I saw on the blog V&Co (one of my absolute favorites!).  I got some really great charm-pack fabrics called Hello Betty by Moda to create one of my own.  The patterns remind me of 30's era flour sack fabrics.  Here is my start:

What I didn't realize was exactly how much work this is going to be.  I really want this quilt to be in my guest room, but there is no telling how long that is going to take.  What I really need is someone to cut all the white pieces for me while I do the stitching.  Any volunteers? :)    Click here for V's how-to tutorial.

The inspiration:

Super-Belated Mother's Day

I gave my mom a wonderful gift this past Mother's Day.  The gift of knowing that I am just like her.  The was I did this, however, was by not mailing her actual gift in time for it to get there.  It gets worse, though.  I didn't even have the gift finished!   Worse- it's July & the stuff is still sitting in a corner of my craft room!   I decided I would just bring it with me when I got to see her in August.  Nevertheless, here a a couple of pictures of parts of the present.

This is a home-made potholder made with love (see the little hand-stitched heart!).  I was actually practice making the pinwheel quilt square.  More on THAT subject later.... 

Part 2 of the present is a bunch of herb seeds, a trowel, garden gloves, and these cute little seed markers that I made out of goodwill silverware.   I got the idea from a magazine (either Better Homes & Gardens or Southern Living).  

I just hammered the silverware flat (on the basement floor), and t

he used my metal stamps to imprint the names of the herbs.  Finally, I filled in the stamped letters with sharpie marker, wiping away the excess with a baby wipe.  The stamping part is probably the hardest, because the silverware jumps all over the place as you try to hammer the letters into the metal.  I have to have the boy help me because each time I'd try to hammer one letter, it would bounce.  It kind of looked like the word was stuttering (rrrrosemmmmary) !  But most, of them turned out okay.

Showing off a little

The boy's grandparents gave me an old grey metal bench that used to sit on their back deck.  I decided to spruce it up with some sanding and spray paint.  Wah-lah!

Please ignore any evidence of my extremely poor gardening skills.  They dead-looking leaves that stick up on the side of the bench used to be the beautiful blue hydrangeas the boy got me for our anniversary.  It was a wonderfully sweet gesture, seeing as how they were the exact color as the ones I carried down the aisle in my bouquet.  However, it wasn't long after that when the boy went south for a friend's wedding and I forgot to water everything.  Hence- long-shot at putting them in the ground, even though they were essentially dead.  Perhaps they'll come back next year!   Either way, the bench looks great, right?

Camera Case....

My mother-in-law got me an awesome birthday present-- A new Nikon Coolpix point & shoot camera.  I got it to take on the Paris trip that the boy & I leave for in less that 2 weeks (EEEK!).  I didn't want to lug around my giant camera while I'm being all touristy, so naturally, this rockin' point & shoot was the answer.  I wanted to make a case for the camera & here is what I came up with.

I used a remnant of some Heather Bailey fabric for the pouch and used some batt

ing to make it bump-proof.  I even added a cool magnetic clasp to keep it closed.  See: 

The problem, however, lies in this:  I can't figure out in my head how to do a stinking lining!  I was going to use minkee fabric remnants for the lining to make it even more bump-proof, but I just don't know what I'm doing!  See below for further evidence! Any advice on how to line would be fabulous!

Quick Project

Here's a little dollar store project that I made for my guest room.  All you need is a cute frame, a corkboard, spray paint, and glue.

All you need to do it take the glass out of the frame to spray paint it the color of your choice.  Next, trace the glass onto the corkboard.  Then, cut on the lines you've traced. This was actually really easy with the Dollar Tree ($1) Corkboard, because it was only backed with cardboard.  I was able to cut it cleanly with just scissors!  Next, glue the cork into the frame.  I can't remember if I used hot glue, Elmer's, super glue, or Gorilla Glue.  Either way, I'm sure any other them would work.  Basically, that's it!  Enjoy your mini-corkboard!