Happy Halloween

Success! I have finally finished the project I have been saying I would finish. 

I painted the 12x12 wood piece in a chalkboard black by Valspar. It turned out really nice. The blue thing is a Pepsi drink thing turned over - wonderful for my projects! 

Transferring the lettering to the transfer tape. I love transfer tape because you don't have to press very hard to lift the letters. Also, you can reuse it - or at least I have depending on if the stickiness remains. I added an extra E later. =)

Here is the finished product! The color here does not do it justice. The letters are bright orange and it looks really good! Yay me!! This did not take long at all once I actually started. 

Happy Happy! 

Borrowing is not stealing...well I'm not taking it back

I'm supposed to have a really awesome finished project to show y'all right about now...yeah I don't have it ready. BUT, I will....just not now...well lets be reasonable, it's not happening tonight. I have 2 Halloween projects that I'm in the middle of plus I'm still waiting on my hubs to go down the street and borrow some wood scraps from the new house being built.

This isn't a very good picture. It's a little further away than I thought it was, but that pile there that you see is wood...and I want it. Before you call the police, we aren't stealing it. They will throw this away, but if it will make you feel better I will call the construction manager in the morning to let him know that it will be gone and down at my home should they wish to retrieve it. 

Just to keep y'all interested though...here's another pic of the fabulous project that I will do the tutorial on -TOMORROW. I will also be working on a Witch Doctor sign that should be equally fabulous. 

Also...take a look at this amazing cup cake holder by Rivka Wilkins.

Those are absolutely adorable and I will be doing a tutorial -SOON ...not right now so don't get all huffy when there isn't an automatic post following this about cupcake boxes. And don't you dare look tomorrow either and wonder where it is because it won't be here...definitely not the cupcake because I will have eaten that. Anyways, for you lovely Silhouette owners you can find this design on the Silhouette online store. 

Happy Waiting...again

Delivering Christmas

I posted yesterday that I would finish the Christmas subway art today and I have!

What you see here is the finished vinyl with the negative removed. Like I said before, I do not suggest doing that way. It was a pain in the rear end both taking them out and then again after I had painted over the stencil. 

Next I applied all by myself with my wonderful husband, the transfer tape and transferred the design onto the wood. I think the "Away in a Manger" is supposed to look like snow...it doesn't. You will see that I left this off in the next post. 

I took the wonderful paint that I got from Home Depot (the Behr paint) and covered the stencil using a sponge. You don't have to lay it on too thick because if you do (and then you let it dry too long) you may accidentally pull up your paint when you remove your stencil. Notice that I did not paint the bottom - I used judgement here and figured that this was not going to turn out well if I did paint it. Let this dry about 10 minutes or so before peeling off. If you notice it is drying very quickly, then use your own judgement about removal. Peel back slowly. 

I let it dry for about an hour before sanding over the entire thing. I sanded the painted letters to give it a better look to it. 

The final project! I really like how it turned out. I may use a little stain in some areas and a good wipe down in others where you may be able to see the white paint from sanding. Otherwise...looks old and rustic and I like it! 

Happy Subway art...ing! 

* I forgot to mention that this was supposed to be a 12x24 inch project. My silhouette machine ate the rest of the lettering. I'm really not sure what happened. The vinyl started twisting and turning and then it just all went to crud after that. I may have my husband cut this down or fill in the negative space with some cute vinyl decals! 

Who knew plates and bowls were more than just eating?

Here is another DIY share from one of our readers! Her little boy loves Mickey Mouse and so she decided to take canvases and use plates and bowls to make the shape she wanted. She then painted the shapes black and here you go! This is great work and too cute for words. Notice the blue stripes on either side of Mickey. She used plywood and wrapped it in the fabric she wanted - securing with a staple gun.

Don't forget to share your DIY ideas and pictures with me!

OH NO! I don't have a pumpkin stencil!

We all love to carve pumpkins, don't we? Okay...well maybe not. Carving pumpkins is only fun AFTER someone else takes all the guts from the pumpkin. Like when you make your kids do it....

And then you get to have all the fun carving and blame it on the fact that they are too young to handle weaponry.

This was a really fun day for all of us. We let the boys pick out what they wanted to have carved on their pumpkins, and Daddy cut them out for us. We didn't go to the store and pay too much for pumpkin stencils...that's dumb. Sorry. It's just not smart. Print them off your computer. You can actually print anything off...and it goes on to paper. It's really weird. Ink. Weird.

Anyways...so we looked on the computer for what designs we wanted and I copied them by hand, haha...I don't have a printer. Or ink. ;) Then we used tape, any kind of tape will do...as long as it sticks to the pumpkin. You may have to measure down the paper a little bit to fit the curves. Then use an ice pick, or anything with a pointed end, and jab it into the paper following the pattern. This will serve as directions on where you will be cutting out. Space the pointed pricks out a little bit, there isn't any need to make a thousand of these puppies. Once you are done poking holes you can use a knife to cut out the pattern. Good deal!

If you want to go with a unique look, use your husband's drill to make holes in your pumpkin. Pick your size drill bit, and get to work.

Happy Carving!