Big S little s What begins with S?

A Dr. Seuss Stepstool, if you really had to guess!

One of my kids' favorite books, Dr. Seuss's ABCs is one that I pretty much have memorized after 13 years of reading it... I found a copy at Goodwill and knew that it was going to get a new life... This was a little hard to explain to the 4 year old, "You're cutting up mine ABC book?!" He was OK after he had one of our two copies in his hot little hands, AND I promised him he'd be able to step on the Red Rhinoceros someday soon... :) I Mod Podged the top with some wrapping paper that my sis sent me on a gift (it spoke to me clearly enough that I knew it couldn't just get crumpled up and tossed) and then picked and chose the perfect pictures and on they went... In their place of honor on top, the Ten Tired Turtles (whom I can often relate to) and Uncle Ubb, who always gets a giggle...

If you haven't read Dr. Seuss's ABCs a million times, it's time to pick it up!

There are more pages, awaiting the Mod Podge that I'm sure will get their own post at a later date... :)

it's about time...

...time for me to get any blogging done... hopefully I can slip in some posts on this one and my fam bloggy quietly and then be able to tell my peeps, "of COURSE I've been posting! why in the world haven't you been following?!" haha! to everything, there is a season, right? I've been feeling like I really need to figure out what I wanna do when I grow up ~ I guess at 37, I still have lots of time to figure it out, right?! :O

Anyway, my beloved Silhouette machine has been smOkin' lately and I've been having a blast! Getting a project from conception, THROUGH production and then finalized is always hard for me, so that is also something I want to get better at. Maybe that's what I'll be when I grow up, a project finisher. I would have to tease my mother and say that I will be a First Generation Project Finisher, but I have her to thank for a lot of my creativity and ingenuity, so I can't knock her too hard!

So I fell in love with this Hero Arts alpha in the Silhouette store and made this cute alphabet art on an old cupboard door...

I also completely love these retro flowers in the Silhouette store. I painted an old 1x6 that had been floating around, then added some holes and fencing wire and my own little Happy Spring. Living symmetrically can be SO overrated... sometimes...

We are having an auction on the 15th at church to raise money for the teenage girls to go to camp, so I think these will both make it into the auction... and then I have the excuse to make some more!

Christmas Gifts...

So when it came time to give Christmas gifts for my kids' teachers, the Silhouette Machine was the main go-to ~ but I did have some fun with other craftings too ~ Here is one of the signs strung with fencing wire that I made... So easy! And then I had a blast hosting an ornament party with some friends and made extra for teacher gifts also ~ SOOO worth all the steps! I wanted to make something musically oriented for my son's amazing Music Teacher, so I printed this French Christmas Carol I found on Graphics Fairy on Tea Stained Cotton and mounted it black felt, and made a wire hanger... Gotta love snapping the picture in the car just before taking it into the school! hee hee

Winter is here

and with it comes piles of boots, gloves, hats, coats, etcetera etcetera etcetera ~ so I made this coat hook to put by the front door to "in theory" help with the paraphernalia of winter... and the good news?? I can switch it out in the Spring! I painted it blue, and then put snowflake stencils out of contact paper cut with my Silhouette and then painted it khaki with a brown finish... I love that he brown bled into the snowflakes! Also, I can't be too matchy matchy with my hardware ~ so there ya go! These mittens were a project I did last week ~ fleece lined wool mittens... I may survive through April after all!

I love this black and white paper, so I used my Silhouette to make a reminder for our family to hang above the kitchen table...

K, I'm linking up! I could use a good party!

yard sale finds

I actually made this for my daughter for her tweenage accoutrements... I can only say tweenage for about 2 more weeks as The Realms of Teenagedom has snuck up on me. We're breathing in.... .... ... and out..... It was a utensil drawer organizer, plain white back and natural pine wood, and 50 cents. I'm really bad at taking "before" pictures, but this caddy thing was very "pretty" baby blue with sponged white clouds all over it. Yum! it was also pre-Silhouette so I printed off the words, penciled up the back in lieu of un-locatable graphite paper, and traced it on to the spray painted box. I painted it on and then distressed it off ~ another 50 cents well spent!

I really can't remember where I got this carved wooden frame, but it's been floating around for a long time... I only recently filled it in with a muslin wrapped piece of foam core and added the scrabble pieces. The clip is only mounted with a pin - just enough! I "purposely" didn't dust it before the picture so it would look so fitting next to my cobwebbed frames to keep in the spirit of Halloween... uh, yeah.

And a cupboard door from the local ReStore place... Decoupaged around the border and painted with chalkboard paint. love this! So does my Almost Teen.

Having some fun

so after moving into a new house, I've realized the joys of having my craft room right off my laundry room... lots of time to "wait for that load to finish before I go to bed" which translates nicely into finishing [a few] and [mostly] starting new projects... I've always been a yard sale hopper, and made some fun money on eBay buying and reselling, but have been looking more lately at repurposing items found. I've also bought a Silhouette Machine, so I'm having a BLAST cutting vinyl and paper! How's that for a first post? Good enough I suppose... :)
Decoupaged ad on a routered piece of wood I found at a yard sale and painted black...
Decoupaged letters onto a repurposed cabinet door... Playing with vinyl and more wood signs...