Cartwheels and Pearls

I made this Door Stop to keep my door propped open! Of course I made this before I found out the configurations of my room (I'm actually in a 2 room quad so my bedroom door isn't actually the door to the hallway)... so worse comes to worst, it'll make a lovely addition to my home rock garden ;)

This canvas here was painstaking and time consuming to make but it was SO worth it because I totally love it! I am all about the inspirational messages y'all!

This sweet fluffy guy and her twin sister will be adorning my bed and I couldn't be more excited... For just $5 in fabric from Jo Ann's (I still have more left over :)) and less than 30 minutes on my sewing machine I made some pretty awesome pillow covers if I do say so myself.

And last but not least (and actually not really even last), I made a little wristlet. It didn't photograph very well but you get the idea... This was actually super easy to make and it only took a few inches of scrap fabric from my pillows to make! I plan to use this to hang my room keys from instead of using a long lanyard around my neck.

Also, not pictured: some cute bunting that is still in the works... (I can't decide how long I want it to be so I haven't finished it yet!) and hopefully a headboard! Check back in 2 weeks to see how everything comes together!

 A little tracing...

I filled everything in with white paint that ended up a bit grey and put a red heart on where Detroit is (ishhh.....)

This picture now sits on our new bookcase that we got from a family friend who's moving!

Salvation Army sells some gorgeous (and some ugly) works of art. Many of them are on canvases and we all know how expensive canvases can be. Especially large ones. A few years back, I gave my mom a painting that I'd picked up for around $4.

It's sat behind a curtain in my craft room since then. I guess this is where I publically call out my mother for not appreciating my gifts. (Sorry, Mom!)
But anyways, I pulled out (and dusted off) this old canvas and decided it was perfect for a bit of regifting. For some reason I loved the original picture and was a bit sad to paint over it.
I apologize for the grainy, dark pictures. I took these at night and the lighting in the room is terrrrible. Maybe I should have given her new lights instead?

Anyways, I was inspired by these canvases that are similar.

As you can tell, my lettering is obviously crooked and very messy but it's not THAT obvious from a distance so I just let it slide.

My one annoyance regarding this work is the fact that the letters in the bottom corner are really dark! UGH
 As you can still tell, I obviously didn't put very much paint on it but I liked how the flowers shone through and the background design.
and perhaps I was running out of red paint shhh.

Speaking of my downfalls: canvases. I have an addiction to them. It's a good thing they're so expensive or else I'd have probably hundreds of them. I seriously love making art on canvases but I have nothing to do with all of it so I have to stop myself!

So if you're looking for a gift to give me, I strongly suggest either canvases,  more paint, or chocolate. You can't go wrong with any of those ;)

Here's the picture I found. It's perfect for Valentine's Day coming up!

I set my sister to work on the book pages while I cut out a silhouette of the birds.


We modgepogded the birds directly ontop of everything. Beware, cheap printer ink DOES smear when mixed with modgepodge! It wasn't too bad though

Here's the finished project!

I considered hanging it on the wall in my craftroom but it doesn't match the decor on the other walls. You can find more pictures of my craft room here.


You can tell I have no patience to let things dry. Although I did let it sit in front of a fan for 10 minutes.


For now it's sitting on the top of our piano until we find a better spot.

I'm totally in love with this little guy though!

You can purchase it online at my etsy shop

I cut out the horse head and ended up with this as my mane. I figured I could just wing it later since this was a total mess.
 I painted my canvas using some pink paint. There wasn't very much and I somehow ended up with this cool looking tie-dye pattern.
 And then I painted my silhouette on there and attempted to fix the lines. I also painted a mane. Note to self: manes are harder to paint then they appear. So I decided the horse would be more of a show pony without a mane and I tried to paint over it but ended up with that mess of gray paint above the head. It looked WAY worse in person.
 After many coats of pink which turned gray, I finally decided that some white paint over top of it would be better. I ended up making a HUGE mess all over the canvas and my hands with the gray paint. How did that even happen?
 I painted over the white once it dried and I ended up with a much better pinkness.
 And after all this work, I decided that I didn't want the letters. It looked too good without them and I was way too lazy to cut them out, paint them, and then have to go through all the touch up mess again.

 I wrote her a really long message on the back so she'd always know that it was from me.
 I wrapped it in some beautiful birthday paper and re-wrote that same really long message.
Just kidding. One short sweet message and some christmas wrapping paper later, I had successfully finished a great birthday present. Good thing she liked it and is hanging it up in her room. And even better it matches the color scheme of her room. I hate guessing on stuff like this!

Oh and stay tuned everyone! I have a BUNCH of projects coming up! Let's just say we spent over $70 dollars at Jo Ann's the other day. That includes coupons and sales. I don't want to know what it would have been without that. *gasp*

I have three skirts, several bags, and a whole basement redo in the works.

       Over at Tatertots and Jello, I found a genius Guest Post from the lovely Char from Crap I've Made.
I'd been searching. and searching. and guess what? SEARCHING. For a project to do to get rid of my boredom. When I came across it, I knew it was PERFECT.
This is her creation:

I found some outlines of the eiffel tower and a couple and printed them out:


 I cut them out using scissors and an exacto knife and played around with the positioning




 For modge podge, I just take a half empty (or half full!) bottle of glue and fill it about 3/4 to the top with water. Easy, free modge podge. Score.
And modgemodged them to the canvas... and discovered my brush had blue paint in it. After many failed attempts to wash it out, I just decided to use my fingers.


I painted around using my lovely cinnamon brown paint. It's darker in person.


I tried sanding it, hence the big colorful spots. FAIL. I tried staining it, hence the the poop brown spot. FAIL.

The hideous gel stain thankfully wiped off and I tried using another one.
I'm just not a fan of the fact that I had one little brownish piece at the top of the Eiffel tower and it sort of blends in with the background. Annoying. I also accidently murdered the heel of one of the girl's shoes. Whoops.