Makayla's Bow Holder

I mailed off a bow holder for my friend's (Melissa's) daughter, Makayla yesterday. I so hope they love it. Some parts were stenciled, others hand-painted b/c I didn't have a medium-sized flower stencil. Also, per my mom's suggestion, I'm now attaching 3 ribbons instead of the two I did on Presley's.

Bow Holder

I finished my first bow holder for Presley's room. I LOVED making it and really like how it turned out. I used maple wood, acrylic paints, stickers (for the reverse stencil technique), stencils, rhinestones, glitter, ribbon, & a staple gun (love that sucker!).

Mixed Media Personalized Canvas

My best friend's sister's baby shower is tomorrow. For the first time, I decided to make a gift rather buy from the registry. (I've been inspired by all these blogs and from my bff's shower where lots of people made gifts.) Paints and messy hands have been calling my name, so I chose make a personalized canvas using mixed media and lots of layers. I hope the look ended up being shabby chic and not messy. As the creator, it's actually hard to tell b/c all I see are the mistakes I made, but I did learn a lot. Feed back is appreciated.

Step 1: I mod-podged lots of textured scrapbook paper to the canvas for texture. Next time, I will use thinner paper (like and made or tissue) b/c some of this was hard to keep tacked to the canvas as it was drying. Also, I think I will paint the canvas first or make sure I don't leave any of it exposed.

Step 2: I painted the whole thing an ivory mixed w/ a metallic champagne. 

Step 3: Using a stencil and a rolling brush, I painted the harlequin design along w/ tiny words and butterflies.

Step 4: The green was too bright, so I gave it an antiqued look by mixing mod-podge with a bit of brown pigment, brushed it on the canvas, and wiped it off with a rag.

Step 5: I still wanted it more washed-out, so I mixed mod-podge with that champagne color and brushed it on. This finally gave it the pearly, distressed look I wanted.

Step 6: Time for the scary part. I'm not confident in my lettering skills, but I talked myself out of using a stencil. I probably will stencil from now on because I prefer a more polished, professional look. I was so shaky! I mixed a sequin black and a tiny bit of brown together for the color. After the letters, I used a pink to create a cross. (I should have drawn this out before-hand since painting a cross is much harder than drawing one.) Then I glued buttons on the top and added little dots for more accents. Oh, and I painted the edges black to create a framed look. I mixed mod-podge, a tiny bit of the pink, a tiny bit of brown, and a tiny bit of champagne for one last layer of varnish. When that dried, I brushed on a layer of one-step crackle.

Step 7: The shiny stuff!!! I added various rhinestones and pre-made pearly accent to the entire piece.

All it needs it the perfect ribbon to hang from...Coming soon. :)

So, if the lettering and cross were more professionally done using stencils vs. me trying to free-hand it, how much should I charge for this?

My First Garment

I did it! To celebrate Mr. St. Patrick, I finished a Sienna dress. (It was on my list of to-dos. I finished Sarah's baby shower gift, too, but I'll post that after her shower.) The dress actually turned out to be a t-shirt b/c I followed the 6-12 month pattern. (There wasn't a 12-18 month: It just skipped straight to 2T.) And my seams were too big.

I'm not sure where I went wrong on the arm, but one was longer than the other. Also, the collar was odd, but the pattern did say that was the trickiest part.

Cheers!

New Table

We splurged at The Dump for a unique, whimsical, hand-painted breakfast table. I love it! It fits the space so much better than the one we were borrowing from my sister and brings some artsy personality to the house.