First attempt

So. Paint chip art. I am sure you've all seen it. It's everywhere.
Lately I have been finding and coming up with a bunch of "make it my self for pennies" ideas, from things I've seen online and things I've seen other do. So, paint chip art. Pretty simple. I wanted to make a really big one, so I gathered my stuff. After trimming my paint chips to size I had a container of narrow pieces, and not one to let things go to waste, I decided to do a trial run. Boy I am glad I did!

You will need:
*A canvas, any size will do, I used a 12x12
*Paint chips, I got mine at Home Depot, you may want to make several trips to get yours. I don't have that luxury  living where I do, so I am the crazy lady at the Martha Stewart Paint display with 122 paint chips stuffed in my purse. I got the Martha Stewart chips cuz they are 5 inches by 2.5 inches. Big means less cutting!
*Mod Podge, I got the glossy kind, cuz I like shiny stuff
*Time - do not start this 12 minutes before a wild baby comes over. It will result in a lovely art project glued to the carpet.

To do this:
Paint your canvas. ALL of it. Trust me, you do not want white canvas showing between your paint chips. I only painted the sides, and a bit of the surface, I wish I would have painted it all.

Cut your paint chips to whatever size you want. It helps if you live with a mathematician, so he can do all the fractional crazy math. My paint chips very from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch wide. Glue the chips down in any order

Cover with at least 2 layers of Mod Podge

Hang! Which I haven't done yet, I am waiting for the Engineer to get home so he can make sure it goes up straight!

More Art

More ideas. 

More things I've seen. 

More desire to create and explore mediums. 

This pile of beauties will be something very awesome in a few days. 

Stay tuned! 

The Other Canvas

So in an earlier post I used a canvas to make some cool art (here) and I had an extra canvas leftover. SO! What does one do with a 16x20 canvas? Well, we find another idea we can copy and make it for super cheap! So, here is another project that whips up in minutes and is just the right size to fill that empty spot above my bed.

You will need a canvas, I used the extra one from my crayon project.
You will need some chipboard letters, or I bought thin wooden ones at Wal-Mart for $3.
Craft glue, which I had & Spray paint. I used glossy white, also bought at Wal-Mart for $5.

Super easy directions. Glue letters in desired phrase, in desired location on canvas.

Sprat paint it chosen colour, I used 2 coats.

I wanted mine to have a splash of colour, so I bought a flower stem from Michaels when it was 40% off, and took apart the flowers, I had these rhinestone brads kicking around, and used them to secure the layers of the flowers together.

I then trimmed the stem, and shaped it the way I wanted it to look, and glued it to the canvas, then glued the flowers in place and TA-DA!

Pumpkin Patch

I have never been into decorating for Halloween, never been into Halloween either. This year, I really wanted to decorate for fall, but not have an overly Halloween themed house. Now, this craft is not one of those super cheap ones, but it is one that I can use over and over. I wanted to celebrate fall, and the harvest, and Thanksgiving. Since Canadian Thanksgiving is squeezed into the beginning of October before Halloween, I think it largely get ignored. I mean, it's not as though we delicate an entire month to decorating and celebrating it. This year, I decided that I was going to make something that incorporates both days. So was born my pumpkin patch.

I don't like pumpkin as a general rule. Not in pie, or muffins, or the like. I don't carve pumpkins with Little Bear because I cannot stand the smell. So, I saved my pennies and waited for those fake pumpkins to go on sale at Michael's (Canada's version of Hobby Lobby).

I then picked out a sweet font, and made the type huge, I think it ended up being 460 or something like that.

Then I traced the letters onto my pumpkins.

Used some craft paint to fill them in.

And set them up outside, where, in this crazy wind they promptly fell over. So I drilled a small hole in each and put a few rocks inside to help them stand up. Not the cheapest craft ever, but one that I can re-use.

DIY Arm-warmers!

Arm warmers, have you seen them around? They are becoming more and more popular. I saw some on 2 different websites, and I really wanted them for running. Downside? They are $30! and shipping to Canada is CRAZY! Even if I wanted to buy then from someone who makes them, I am still looking at $30-$45! So, pretty much no way!

Then I got to thinking, hmmmmm, I think I am pretty crafty and I figured I could make my own! And I DID! And so, I am sharing with you my super easy, make them yourself, 5 minute, arm warmes!

Ready? Ok, you will need knee socks, and a sewing machine. Here it goes!

 Cut the foot off your sock, try to get as close to the heel as you can.

Take the foot of your sock, and trim off the end of the toes, and the curvy part of the heel.

Take the foot part and fold it is half, like so, to make the cuff

Line up all the raw edges, and sew!

TA! DA! Arm warmers for $3.99 and 5 minutes!

If you make any, and you blog about them, I want to see your crazy socks! So, please leave a link in the comments below! Which, by the way, if anyone knows some crazy cool places to get some funky knee sock can you let me know? Even better, if you will send me some I will make you some arm warmers!!

Gallery Wall

In Little Bear's room, I have started a gallery wall. We currently have 2 things up there, but there are many, many plans to add more. I enjoyed my first round of crayon art so much, I wanted to try it again. This time I used a much smaller canvas, 8x10 and some leftover crayons. Since Her room is grey and blue, those are the shades of crayons I used, with 2 white ones, and 2 black one thrown into the mix because I needed a few more.

This time I cut the crayons in half, I thought smaller canvas, smaller crayons. When melting the crayons this time I kept the canvas very upright, so there is very few places where the wax dried thick. After letting it sit for the night, I put up the first 2 pieces on the gallery wall.

I think I will just call this the Louvre wall.

The Room

Once we moved in and were somewhat settled, the one thing I wanted to do the most was Little Bear's room. In fact, when we moved in, we didn't set up her bed, and she wasn't even in the room that was to be hers. I wanted to leave it empty so I could make the most of the blank canvas. It was blank, white walls and tan carpet, about as bland as it gets. I had a vision of what I wanted the room to look like, and it was nothing like Little Bear wanted it to look like. We had very different ideas about this room, most often when I decorate or re-do something I get both Papa Bear, and Little Bear to give me feedback, and ideas too. This was not one of those times. This time, I just said "This is what we are doing". Little Bear's ideas involved a lot more colour and busyness than I thought would be good for a bedroom. I wanted to give her a quiet, peaceful place to relax, and read. We kept other areas of the house bright and fun, the places where we play and watch TV.

The room, is fabulous. It came out almost exactly the way I had it in my mind. So, here in pictures in Little Bears Room.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

For the most part the room is very neutral, I wanted something that could grow with her so I don't have to re-do when she is out of a phase, so that meant no characters of any kind.We did a board and batten look, because I just loved the dimension it gives a room. I wanted it tall, to give the room the illusion of being taller than it is, and it works. The blue is my favorite, it is called cloudless day, and it gives the room height, as well as a nice pop of colour. The bed, we built! and painted a slightly off white colour. The quilt is one I made for Little Bear when she was 2 or 3, there is a new quilt in the works to match the colours of this room.

View my inspiration board for the room on pintrest ---> here

Crayons

So there is this trend that is floating around blog-land. It involves 3 things: Stretched canvas, Crayons & Heat. It will cost you $100 or MORE if you buy it in Etsy, & looks something like this:

Well folks, I am here to blow the lid off  this craft that will cost you less than $10.
You need a canvas, any size, I used 16x20. I got mine at Wal-Mart, 2 for $9.
You need 1 box of crayons, I chose to get a 96 count box for $6, I used half of them.
You need craft glue and a blow dryer. Both of which I already had.

Glue on the Crayons in any order. Let the glue dry for an hour or 2.

Melt with blow dryer.

When you melt the crayons, have something covering your table, and have the canvas tipped up quite a bit so the wax will run down it. I didn't have mine up the whole time, because I was going for the thicker look. If you kept the canvas tipped nearly vertical the whole time, the canvas would be more covered than mine, and you would get more of a washed look to your art. Hang it anyway you want, I think it would look cool to hang this one horizontally. Have fun! I'd love to see what you do with your crayons! Leave a comment below with a link.

Another idea ---> HERE

TU-TU CUTE!

Yesterday while I was being all energetic and super crafty in-between loads of laundry I came up with another MUST DO project! I have mentioned Little Bears doll - Meagan before. I recently made a copy cat of 2 dance recital dresses for the doll, out of scraps. (see here) I was doing some tidying up in my craft corner and came across more dance costume scraps. I knew just what to make!

A copy cat rainbow tu-tu! It is the cutest thing ever! Total length is about 5 1/2 inches. I love it! It is exactly like the 12 I made for Little Bears ballet class, they are dancing to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". I had it made in about half an hour, and so I dressed Meagan in it and set her to wait on Little Bears bed (really I just wanted an excuse to play with her dolls!) She was thrilled! I love the loud WHAAA!!!??? That came from her when she spotted Meagan in all her tu-tu cute glory!

Pretty Pillows

I bought throw pillows, 3 of them, about a year ago to put on my bed. I like pillows, Papa Bear does not, but since I make the bed he has no real reason to complain. Well, today I had all kinds of extra energy and ideas rolling around in my head and one of them had to do with my pillows. They are your standard 12 inch square pillow, found for $6 at a store that is supposed to be a grocery store, but I buy way more not-grocery stuff there than groceries. Anyway, I digress from my point. I wanted to dress up my pillows and since my car is on week 4 of not working (grrr.....) I used things that I had around already. I chose orange decorations on purpose! You'll have to wait to see why!

Step 1 - measure and mark the center of the pillow, I am no good at "eye balling" anything. Mark on the front AND the back so you can keep them both centered.

Step 2 Thread a long needle with whatever you are sewing with, DON'T knot it. I used an heavy thread, push the needle through the pillow, leave a long piece, thread on the button, then push the needle back through the pillow. Then repeat. You should have the long thread and the needle on the same side of the pillow at this point. I kept the tension very loose at this step.

Step 3 Carefully, and without yanking too much, pull the thread tight until the indent is how deep you want. Then simple tie the 2 threads in the back several times to hold it. TA-DA!! I then hot glued a rhinestone in the middle of the button to hide the thread.

The other 2 pillows I did I put a flower on. I followed the same method as I did when I put on the button. And again I hot glued a large rhinestone in the center to hide the thread.

Here they are on the bed. LOVE! Super easy, and super cheap if you get creative and use what you already have! I'd love to see yours if you make some!

Old

I remember this old, old sewing machine. It is attached to this old cabinet. I suspect the sewing machine part is antique or nearly so. I remember my Mom using this once or twice, but it has most recently sat, unused in my basement for years. I don't remember how I came to be in possession of this old beauty, but I'm sure glad I did. 

As I said, this has sat untouched in various places in various houses I've lived in for years. Most recently it held our cereal dispenser in the kitchen. Now? The time has come! To display this in all it's glory! I now have a place to put it where I can see it everyday. I just need to figure out if it actually works where I want to put it. Tell me, what do you think? My plan is to sand off the rough edges, and give the cabinet a few coats of a yummy paint colour, though I'm not telling yet what colour yet. I intend to polish the sewing machine as well. Keep in mind the red bookshelf is being replaced with a dark black/brown one.

This is how I currently have decorated

This is where I would like to put this sewing machine.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.