Golden Birthday, Part II

Of course, if you know R, she likes fun gifts but also more elegant ones.  Thanks to a few favorite blogs, I found just the right inspiration.

Design Sponge is one of the first blogs I discovered, and my go-to place for variety in posts.  I was enamored by these Anthropologie cards the site featured, and was inspired to create my own gilded stationery for R.  I love the combination of gold detail and juicy summer color blocks.

Maybe a month or so ago I started following The Small Things Blog, then found out her sister has a blog called From My Grey Desk- where I saw this post featuring her five favorite things from the past week.  The "Q & A a Day" book seemed perfect for R.  When I found the book at Barnes & Noble and saw the gold-edged pages, it became even more fitting.

I enjoy receiving and giving themed gifts like this.  Having a theme can help bring everything together and shows the thought behind some of the choices.

What a coincidence that Andrew shared photos of his dresser refurb the same week I was attempting my first furniture painting project.  Darn!  After I am always reminding others to take progressive pictures, I didn't.  I do, however, at least have Before and After:

Ben's aunt Judy supplied me with this table from one of her storage units.  Two years ago, when we moved in, my MIL helped me clean it up by scraping off the bubbling top and using our pal Old English.  It has been in my dining room ever since, housing multiple collections.

I needed a change, and initially was going to go with an Heirloom White- distressed, of course, courtesy of this inspiration by Shanty 2 Chic.  This blog gave suggestions for distressing.  Originally I was thinking the table would be against a painted wall again, but then decided it would be next to white, so I nixed the Heirloom White and went with a red to accent other parts of the new room.

This project ended up costing a little more than I initially planned (though not a ton, by any means).  

Items I ended up buying:

• sandpaper
• 1 can of red spray paint
• 1 can of primer spray paint (Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon!)

Items I already had:

• 1/2 can of red spray paint
• bottle of harvest gold acrylic paint
• polyurethane satin finish spray

I didn't have Vaseline, as the tutorial suggested, so after reading other "distressing" tutorials, I ended up using a candlestick.  The wax serves the same purpose, and I didn't have an extra cost.

What I'll do differently next time: paint the underlying color (in my case, the gold) everywhere.  After spraying the red on, I didn't remember the oh-so-clever places I had painted the gold, and it was a little uneven.   I'll also try to remember to take progressive pictures.

Behind the Display: "LOVE"

photograph by Jason Harms of Harms Studio

The “Love” display stemmed from a few ideas: 


1. Incorporating other family wedding photographs (parents, grandparents, etc)

2. Tying in the color red and bridesmaid fabric

3. One inspiration photo

I shared the inspiration photo with a co-worker who was planning her own wedding. She decided her fiancee would be able to cut the letters out of wood. While they were gracious and generous enough to make letters for another display (I'll spotlight the Entrance display later) I thought larger letters for "Love" would be more dramatic.


I bought thin wood at Michael's and used wood glue to assemble three of the letters. The glue dried for awhile as I worked on other sewing projects.

We had initially looked at grapevine decorative balls at Hobby Lobby, so the grapevine wreath was perfect for the "O." To dress it up a bit, and bring in the red, I made little rosettes from scraps. The cloth included bridesmaid fabric, a variation/inverse of the bridesmaid fabric, and a few other patterns we used throughout the ceremony site. Everything tied together.

Homemade Gift: 2

This is for a college friend. I'll call her "Amanda 2" because we had five Amandas between two floors in our college dorm our Freshman year. Amanda 2 recently moved to Lincoln, so I see her occasionally. She also purchased her first home, and every homeowner needs decoration for her front door. Amanda 2 has a little bit of an obsession with giraffes, so it was pretty easy to brainstorm ideas for her homemade gift.



Thank you Hobby Lobby! I purchased the wreath, yellow paint (already had white on hand) and wood letter in a quick trip. I forgot how fast acrylics dry, making the painting process even quicker than I anticipated. I did have fun blending the yellow and white and creating a gradient, much like real-life giraffes.

Practicing for kids' school projects

Click on photo to see more detail and list of supplies

Project: 10 commandments tablets for church props.
Time: these last few weeks have been pretty busy with freelance work, so of course I left everything for Saturday afternoon and had to take them on Sunday.

Initially I was going to see what we had for Halloween tombstone props and try to manipulate them. But the items we had were terribly small, so I needed to start from scratch. Ben found this video as inspiration. I watched over parts of the instructions and made a quick trip to Lowe's.

The guy at Lowe's cut the 4'x8' (smallest size) insulation for me so it would fit in the car. While he worked on that, we looked at spray paint and found this awesome textured paint.

Click on photo to see more detail

The insulation was very easy to cut with a utility knife. I told the guy at Lowe's not to go to too much trouble measuring. I eye-balled one of the pieces to cut it in half and then created the imperfect curves quickly. More time-consuming was removing the layer of paper to reveal the insulation texture.

Click on photo to see more detail and read tip

There was just enough paint to cover the two tablets. Next: the writing. I found images of the props from the movie "The Ten Commandments." I am slowly learning how to take shortcuts and not sweat over every detail. These tablets will not be viewed close-up, so while I took some time on the lettering, I did not let myself go crazy over every stroke. After the white paint, I added some black edges to create a little depth and readability.

After a few weeks and three projects that were graphic design-heavy, it was fun to get away from the computer and enjoy some arts and crafts time. These tablets will be up the next few weeks, as every week a new symbol/covenant is added.

Click on photo to see more detail

So long ago

So back in January, Amanda became engaged and I was psyched to start designing her invitations and other paper projects. These were a few of the first elements I was playing with: watercolor and ink. We were attempting to develop a theme that later...well, you'll see..eventually!

Familiarity

About a week ago, we were back on the Midland campus for my sister-in-law's graduation weekend. Ben and I took a little stroll between Baccalaureate and Graduation to re-visit the Cross at the Center, Musbach (the art gallery and ceramics studio) and I had to stop by the little room I used to oil paint in.


The second easel from the right is where I sat for a few semesters. That station is where I discovered not only how oils worked, but how I loved working with oils. This medium clicked for me more than any other media before. I also worked at that station when I painted mini-canvases as centerpieces for my wedding reception.



This station is where I finished my pieces for my senior art show. Just to the right of easel was a radio, and I always changed the settings to the oldies station. I can't count how many nights I sang along, out loud, lost in the music and paint- until I heard a little noise and realized that other people could hear me too.

Along with my drawing/crafts desk, I purchased an easel for a great price. While I might long for the solid, wooden easels splattered in paint at first, I am excited for new memories and new discoveries.

Promises, promises

I've been talking for awhile lately about painting some accent walls. Every time I see a painting project on TV or see friend's new digs, I lament over our sad, white walls. And I was sick of the same old, same old photos (yes, even though they are mine).

Me: Okay I really, really want to paint.
Ben: Fine! We know you're going to get your way. But I'm not helping. I do have a say about the color, though.
Me: What? Why do you care?
Ben: Well I don't want you paint it pink or purple.

A few weeks later, deciding on the color...

Me: Hmmm I think a nice sage green.
Ben: Jungle.
Me: A gold then...warm, matches the dining room chairs.
Ben: Nah.
Me: We could live in a jungle, then.
Ben: Fine. Do it whatever color you want. But I'm not helping.

How the Peters spend a Saturday evening, Part II

What do I do while keeping Ben company at the dental lab (besides being his assistant)? Visit with friends...

Project time!

Initial elements

Step one: break out the beloved brushes; squeeze out those beautiful and vibrant paints; and fill the whole room with the smell of turpentine. That first moment where the brush meets the texture of the canvas is so exhilarating!
Step two: you decide you are too excited about the project to let it dry (plus you didn't add cobalt drier!) so take a picture of the canvas. Then manipulate the file in Photoshop, spending nearly as much time and having nearly as much fun, playing on the computer as you did with the actual paint.


Step three: use part of the rich color and texture to add detail and intrigue to a white slate.

This was a first draft using minimal information for an invitation, based on this painting:

The Piano Lesson by Renoir; image found at artilim.com

The theme changed, the colors changed (but how I love the rich, warm colors--so some of them still kept a strong role), just about everything changed over the course of this project. Wait til you see what emerged! But these were the initial elements.

Hello my old friend