For the sister-in-law (and maybe myself too)

Let's continue with homemade projects inspired by other blogs:

Source of inspiration: Pugly Pixel Glitter Magnets

I basically followed the same steps, but I finished with a clear nail polish coating to keep the glitter from getting everywhere.  Well, everywhere but the table I was working on...

I actually found most of the supplies (magnets, larger clip magnets, glitter) on a convenient stop at Wal-Mart on our way back into town the weekend before Christmas.  I already had good ol' Aleene's Original Tacky Glue and cupcake liners on hand.

2013 Kickoff, homemade gifts & Pinterest rant

Happy New Year!  I took some time this afternoon to upload some photos from over the last month or so.  I now have a gold mine of posts for the rest of January.  And you thought I had given up on this blog...

I have such an extensive RSS feed now- so I don't get the chance to keep up on all of them.  One that I consistently check on is Knock Off Decor.  When I found this inspiration, I immediately Pinned it.  I like that Pinterest now has "secret boards," because I can easily save gift ideas for later.  In fact, these boards are the only way I utilize the site. 

Side Rant: I get easily annoyed when people rave about Pinterest for the wrong reasons.  I think the site is a great place to search for ideas, but  I don't like it when people give the site credit for recipes, crafts, outfits, etc.  Pinterest did not create these ideas- bakers, cooks, artists, designers, etc. are the people who should receive credit!  End rant.  Whew.

Knock Off Decor featured Sheet Music Candles that Gail from "Can't Stop Making Things" created.  The tutorial can be found here.

 I found the shorter candle at Garden Ridge in Omaha and the multi-colored one at TJ Maxx.

I read through the tutorial and it seemed easy enough.  Can I just tell you that I had a heck of a time feeding the tissue paper through my printer?  But after struggling through that part- I used a heat embossing tool to melt the tissue paper in no time and I was absolutely thrilled with the results!

Since I do enjoy shopping and it's so easy to purchase unique gifts anymore via Etsy and other places, it was a bit of a personal triumph to make something homemade and purposeful.  I am going to make it a point in 2013 to make more handmade gifts.

Correspondence Basket

I put together a "Correspondence Basket" for our church basket auction in September.  I wanted to include some watercolor pieces, but I have sold out of those cards- so I printed off some copies at home and added a little stitching detail.

Current obsession: striped bakers twine.  Rather than spend the money at a scrapbook store, I found a package of twelve colors at TJ Maxx.

Time to play

I love the combined textures of thread and paper.

The tan colored base for the first card and the mint paper were finds at porridge papers, right here in Lincoln.

I am a huge fan of gray right now, and I love the cool combination of these two colors.  Here are some close-ups to give you an idea of how textured the paper is.  (Also shows the back of the card.)

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.

If you give a mouse a cookie...

I sat at the computer the other night to print out a couple signs for church.  Five minutes, max, to type, print, cut and frame.  

As I saw the files I had left open, I realized I could print a sticker for a birthday present instead of making a tag.  So I wrapped, taped, typed, printed, adhered.

The table was a bit messy, so I started putting everything out in its place and realized I should just make the labels for my drawers I've been meaning to put up for awhile.  That also meant I had to rummage through the drawers and make sure each was properly labeled.

So I found in the "Scrapbook Paper" drawer something that didn't belong: a wrapped gift.  For the life of me I could not remember what it was, or who it was for.  

After I carefully used an X-acto blade to open the wrapping- then I sat down to the computer and finally made the signs.

Five minutes.

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.

So this is what happens when you don't blog for almost three weeks- everything has changed on the blog!  Post settings, editing, everything.  I hope I can make it!

It's amazing to me that it is the last day of April.  During this last month I have celebrated National Card and Letter Writing Month.  I celebrated in two ways; first, I attempted to write one postcard, card or letter every day.  Second, I gave away stationery every Monday to Facebook friends via the LKP Design page.

Four of the five weeks, I gave away stationery I already had on hand- three photography sets and one watercolor.  Last week, though, I had some fun with supplies I had on hand and a tree drawing from library book invitations for a May wedding.  I'll post the invitation pictures after the wedding.

Because I am a girly girl

I might have a bad day, I might have a good day- but having manicured nails always makes me feel better. I might rush out the door some mornings without any jewelry, but as least my polished nails can be an accessory. As a banker, my hands are noticed every day as I type, point and write.

As far as "manicured" goes, I don't necessarily mean going to the salon and paying somebody else (though that would be terrific!). I enjoy taking a little bit of time to trim, file and paint my own nails. Having classic red or modern gray nails makes me feel more feminine and put-together. Oh and of course I love a good hot pink to match my golfing ensemble!

I normally stay with reds and pinks- but following these posts at HelloGiggles.com as has inspired me to have more fun. This is about as creative as I've gotten recently, but maybe summertime will bring some more polish playtime...


Amanda told me my painted nails remind her of how all females from Mad Men always have finished nails. Since I can't successfully pull off the bright red lipstick or chain-smoking, I suppose nail polish will do.

The Roll Fold

4 panel roll fold invitation and envelope

Front of folded invitation

Back of folded invitation

View after the first "unwrap" or unfolding

View after second unfold

Completely unfolded invitation; left panel is perforated in order to be separated and mailed as the response card

One side of response card and printed envelope

Both sides of response card

Welcome to the Wedding Weekend

I have to admit this is one project that almost got the best of me. After a smooth start, I encountered a couple of tension issues (ones that I could now solve much quicker, after much more experience with this little craft sewing machine!), plus a few logistical problems that slowed me down. Yes, there was some cursing. I had my doubts I could complete it without throwing the machine and/or the project against a wall.



But I just kept going, "30 Rock" on in the background and coffee by my side. The banner is not perfect, but I was so proud to see it finished, considering my little experience with machine sewing. I love the imperfections and the texture of the thread binding the different fabric letters with the canvas. I love the ribbon ties that I added and reinforced the very last minute before heading out the door for the wedding weekend. Oh, and, yes, I love the reaction I got from the Bride, who had no idea what it would look like.

Invitation- bringing everything together

I was ecstatic to develop the remaining elements for the invitation. Next up- how to assemble the invitations.

I had taped a piece of ribbon in between the "pages" to emulate a bookmark; I also taped decorative scrapbook paper to the outside of the "cover" for the binding. I thought about all of the tape we would have to purchase; how many pieces of tape we would need to cut and place; and I was also thinking about how time-consuming and disastrous the process could turn out to be.

Considering I was designing the piece, I wanted the execution to go smoothly and, quite honestly, I wanted the invitations to be as perfect as possible.

Before my ah-ha! moment, I had been doing research online to find inspiration for a unique invitation design. I loved the idea of fabric and stitching...and the idea stayed in my mind when I realized the library book was a go. As much as fabric would have been fun, I knew the scrapbook paper would be much simpler and faster, and would provide enough detail- especially if we stitched the paper together.

Hours of research and pondering later (I found a blog post about sewing with a craft machine that generated over 200 comments!) I decided on the Janome Sew Mini. I was able to pick up my new investment at Hancock Fabrics just five minutes from my house.

Invitation- We have a winner!

I don't know why I was so nervous about showing the book prototype. I created the cover and inside pages with text, including the font and layout I wanted, just copying and pasting info from the bride's wedding website.

Spending the time on the piece was well worth it, because it gave her a good idea of what I was going for. And really, not many changes had to be made on the inside after that. I knew I wanted the binding, but I needed to do more research to decide how to approach it. We found the library pockets that same day on Etsy, and everything was falling into place. What a relief to know we had made a decision, and what excitement to know the final details were in the works!

Invitation- aha! moment aka "duh"

Amanda is an avid reader and the Winnie-the-Pooh book elements were just so fitting to her and what she wanted for the wedding- comfortable, familiar, simplistic, idyllic. I decided to create an invitation that looked like a page out of a book, and started working on a layout in Photoshop.

But there were so many aspects of a book that I wanted to include. How could I fit all the aspects of a book onto the front and back of a single piece of paper? It finally hit me- I had to create an actual book with multiple pages, so we could include all the necessary components (aka the layouts, design, wording, etc that make a "book" a book!). Plus, having multiple pages would allow all of the actual wedding information to be organized for the "reader" aka wedding guests.

This thought hit me and I couldn't stop working, I was too excited. I needed to create a prototype right then to satisfy my creative jitters!

Invitation- great minds think alike

After Amanda showed me the Cherry Blossom design, I started sketching. Blue ballpoint ink on computer paper. Black pigment ink on watercolor paper. I loved the idea of quick drawings- I could still incorporate my initial ideas of simplicity (versus computer/graphic design) and intimacy.

As I doodled and scratched, my mind went immediately to Winnie-the-Pooh. I played a couple of days without showing anything to the Bride...and then she e-mailed me. She mentioned that her copy of Winnie-the-Pooh was inspiring her a bit. WHAT? I couldn't believe my eyes. I wrote back right away and told her that the drawings were in the back of mind too. She lent me her book so I could look at the pictures.

We had been discussing the theme of Fall before, and now the Cherry Blossom invitation inspired trees, as did the Pooh Bear book. I pictured a tree with a banner...pendants, probably (they are very popular right now for DIY showers and weddings). Light watercolor accents on sepia background.

Rylan

Oscar Pilch Photoshop Action I

After

Finally, a little update! I know it's not much of an improvement, but I like to see the differences in the front porch area. At the beginning of June, I posted some photos after a few chores outside. Later, we did get to see the flowers in the very front bloom. I'm ashamed that my poor plants have not received a lot of attention (ie regular watering), so they're a little burnt out.

I waited too long to purchase a decent shepherd's hook at Hobby Lobby, but I did find one later at Ace Hardware by our house.

The flowers were another little challenge. According to somebody helping us at Earl May's, most places are in limbo and are starting to order plants for the fall, so hanging baskets with colorful flowers are hard to find.

We ended up going to Wal-Mart and buying a basket, as well as a few extra mini-fences that matched what came with the house...oh a lots of red mulch. Those pictures are a complete post in themselves.



In other plant news: I'm taking good care of my peace lilies! The house plant was a gift from my co-workers from Fremont as a memorial for my Grandma Skelton, who passed away in May.


Now Grandma had the green thumb and loved spending hours outside on her vegetable and flower gardens. Me? Not so much...but I am learning, and have been working hard at taking care of the lilies. I gathered some simple information online, and so far this fairly heavy-duty plant has been doing well.

Looking the part

Well I have used my golf clubs a couple times this summer, and have still failed to get a picture as proof. So instead, I can at least show you my appropriately-picked wardrobe for these outings.

Plaid Bermuda shorts- Aeropostale

White V-Neck Slubbed Tee- Kohl's

And although you should keep accessories minimal (simple jewelry, bobby pins), of course you can't forget a few items:

Ladie's Golf Glove- Target
Flashy Fuschia Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nailcolor- Target
Pink golf clubs- wherever my husband found them online

Meet the newest member of the family

This is my new little buddy. It's a good little investment, because:

• it was inexpensive
• it's super lightweight and easy to tote around
• it's simple to operate but still has a few options for settings
• it's a sewing machine specifically for crafts, paper (and small cloth projects)

I did a bit of research after being inspired online by wedding invitations that involved stitching. My project (Amanda's wedding invitations) is completely different from the projects I saw, but the blogs I found were very helpful in suggestions for machines.

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!