{ fun projects }

I realized I haven't posted in months, so I thought I'd show you what I've been up to.... starting with the oldest down to the newest.

My favorite projects were the quote canvas I did for my grandmother-in-law's birthday that said, "where words fail, music speaks", the "Lemons" frame I made for my sister-in-law's birthday and the "...growing up is optional" frame I made for my friend's birthday.

It's funny because all of those projects have been gifts.... 

maybe after Christmas I'll work on some of those for my house! :)

I know all three are enjoying their gifts though, which is why creating them was so much fun!

{ collage wall and more... }

My latest project was creating a collage wall. I got this great idea and tutorial here and went to work. I was a little nervous because I didn't want to have a bunch of holes in the wall, but after I got it all ready it was really easy. John hung up the first frame in the middle and then I did the rest on my own. I love how it turned out- no more bare walls! The before and after pictures:

 

More cards....

 

And last but certainly not least, this beautiful temple picture....

 

John and I both worked on this project and FINALLY finished it! It was actually a Christmas present for my parents and this is the 2nd try and thankfully it turned out great! I ordered the kit online here and we had to do all the assembly. It was quite the project, we had to buy a board for the back, attach the picture and put texture over the picture to give it a canvas look. Then John assembled the frame, which is where the problems started. The angles were not cut correctly and when we put it together it had HUGE gaps! So after we had put it all together and painted it and everything, it just didn't look good. So we gave it to my parents for Christmas with a promise that we would redo the frame. We contacted the company and they sent us a new frame, but the angles were STILL not cut correctly, so John used his amazing skills and after a few hours of hard work it turned out perfect! We then painted the frame and attached the picture. So what was supposed to be a simple project turned out to be anything but simple, but very worth it! And most importantly, my parents LOVE it! It's pretty big too, 26 x 32 inches! Quite the masterpiece and it only took us until June to finish it! :) We kept forgetting about it until a couple of weeks ago and then John went to work and finished it within 2 days- he's quite the handy man! (It's his passion actually and he's amazing!) Now if I can just convince him to do another one for us someday!

*Note: If you're thinking about ordering one for yourself, know that you'll probably have to make adjustments to the frame (hopefully not and they are fixing the problem so that it's not such a hassle) and you'll need to use a nail gun plus other tools to assemble the frame. Also, attaching the picture with a staple gun as suggested on the instructions did not work- you need to nail it down. We had to buy the wood backing board, paint, glue and a couple of other things to finish this project- but it was still much cheaper than buying a temple picture at Deseret Book, just more work!

Enjoy!

{ Finally... New Creations! }

I realized the other day that I hadn't updated this blog in a looooong time! But I've have been busy..... don't think that I haven't done anything creative! :) That's not possible!  Here are the latest creations and projects that I've been meaning to share! Here they are starting with the most recent... As a thank you to my good friend Carolyn, I made this quote saying thingy (I'm not quite sure what to call it) for her wall. She chose the colors and the quote and I got to work and I love how it turned out! I love quotes!

 

Angie's birthday announcements were fun to put together until I got about halfway through and started wondering why I decided to do 50 of these!?!? It's fun to be able to send ones to all your family and close friends though! :) The funnest part about these invites was sewing them together! (with my machine of course!) As always, Lauren did a wonderful job on the photo! She really is amazing! Don't you just love cupcakes?

 

Some thank you cards for my cousin's baby shower... my Cricut cut it all out! It was such an easy way to make cards! I'm still figuring out all the things I can do with my Cricut! I love that all the paper coordinates! (It was the extras from Angie's birthday invites last year, which I just realized I never posted! Ha ha! Oh well, I'll post that later!)

Angie and I had fun covering one of her shoe boxes to use as a gift box for Grandma's birthday. She thoroughly enjoyed putting jewels and stickers all over it and making it extra special for Grandma!

I've had this paper heart box forever in my craft stash and never knew what do to with it. Then my friend, Lisa had her second baby and her first girl and so I thought.... "This would make a perfect tiny hair bow holder!" These bows are the little ribbon ones that you stick to their heads with Karo Syrup. It's so fun and feminine and perfect for those little bows! I definitely want to make more of those for baby shower gifts!

A couple of cards... a baby shower and princess birthday!

 These two hair clip holders have saved my life! Okay, not really, but they have saved a lot of time! I used to have all of Angie's hair clips in this cute container, but ever since Jenny has joined the family we have twice as many hair clips- obviously! I was spending way too long digging in the container to find the right clip every morning. Sometimes I would even dump the whole container on the floor if I was in a big hurry. So I finally found a solution! Framed hair clip boards... and they look so cute in the girl's rooms! If anyone is interested in a list of supplies or instructions let me know!

Lastly, a few things from Angie's party.... I learned how to make these super cute "Box Top" flowers (because it looks like the top of a cardboard box when you fold the top flaps together) that made a fun centerpiece for the table. And then I cut out these animals with my Cricut for a bean bag toss game. The game didn't work so well, I guess more of an indoor game, but they looked cute anyway! :)

So there you have it! Lots of fun projects! Hope everyone is enjoying creating new things as much as I am! Especially here in Washington since there hasn't been a whole lot of sun yet this summer! Hopefully that will change soon!