Last week was lots of fun, and I filled some orders from my craft show and etsy for a few pretty things.
I made a few State love shadowboxes:
Indiana and Maryland
Pennsylvania and Texas
Pennsylvania and Maryland
I also made some canvas tote bags with initial appliques:
This week I’m working on getting our house clean and organized for Thanksgiving, baking and decorating airplane cookies for a birthday party, and hosting a Thanksgiving dessert buffet on Thursday night.
I have never been a big fan of Halloween. The decorations and costumes are just too scary for me. This year I wanted to make something that was in the Halloween spirit, but not at all scary, and all I could think of was candy corn (my niece calls them acorns).
I bought a bag of candy corn and started stringing them with a needle and thread. It was a little frustrating, because a lot of them broke. But I ended up with a long enough strand for a necklace!
I tried it on, and it looks cute. Not scary at all!
I have been working on some dollhouse furniture for the I am a Giant challenge. My old dollhouse needs a ton of work, and I am trying to use up paint and fabric that I already have before buying anything new.
My first project was these cute slipper chairs, using some Liberty of London fabric that I had left over from our bedroom. I’m planning on painting the living room the same light blue as our bedroom, so these will be perfect.
I also made the little coffee table, tiny pillows and round rug. Today I am working on some bookshelves and a big comfy couch. At some point my dollhouse needs a major front porch reconstruction, plus some new floors and paint in every room. This is going to be so much fun!
I have a craft room! It is coming together slowly, and the best thing about it so far is the pegboard.
I ordered the pegboard and all of the hooks and accessories from a website called DiamondLife. The board itself and all of the stuff was not more than $50. When I was placing my order, I started out with a 2″ x 4″ board, and made a diagram of all of the pieces as I was placing them in my cart.
The layout was great, because otherwise I would definitely have ordered too many or too few accessories. It also helped me think about the stuff that I needed to store and where it was going to go.
The board I ordered started out brown, and I used some paint I already had to paint it turquoise. The painting process was the hardest part, because the tiny holes kept filling in with paint. I also used a foam brush, which started deteriorating because of the uneven surface. If you plan on painting a pegboard, spray paint might be easier.
It looks so great over my desk, and I can already tell that I am going to be spending a ton of time in the craft room.
Emily Henderson, the super-talented winner of last-season’s HGTV Next Design Star, is having a Dollhouse Decorating Challenge! It is named (adorably) “I’m a Giant!”.
I have an awesome dollhouse that I built when I was in highschool, and it needs a major makeover after years of neglect. I am totally doing this.
We made it through the storm this weekend, mostly cuddled up on the couch watching TV and eating way too much junk food. Somehow the electricity went out, but the cable (and internet) stayed on! Thankfully my mom’s house has a generator, which is fantastic because it means we still have power. Since we are out in the middle of nowhere, it may be a few days before they get the fallen power lines back up again.
I added a new item to my Etsy shop today, a hand painted chevron tray that I made last week. Chevron (the zig-zag stripes) has been super popular online for a while now, but I still LOVE it, and I might make another one of these for our house.
I also took advantage of the quiet weekend at home by finishing up the new curtains for our living room. I am going to work on hanging them today – my goal is to have the kitchen cabinets and bathroom painted, plus curtains hung in every room by the time the movers come next Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed for me – I might just be able to get it all done!
My sister is having a party for my nephew on Saturday, and she was looking for cute, cheap centerpieces. Since I have lots of free time on my hands these days, I decided to make some. I bought some small paint cans from Home Depot and some polka-dot wrapping paper.
I had a serious Mod Podge addiction when I was in college, and I decorated everything in my dorm room with pictures from magazines. It is seriously the best stuff ever.
I started by cutting out a piece of wrapping paper in to fit the can.
Then I painted the can with the Mod Podge, and carefully placed the paper over it. (Be careful while you are doing this, because the paper will get wet and wrinkle if you move it around too much).
Once the paper is in place, I painted over it with more Mod Podge.
Once the cans dried, they looked nice and shiny. 
One of the things I like about Mod Podge is the brushed look of the finished product.
You can reduce the texture by adding more coats, or by using a foam brush, but I like the way it looks.
We’re going to put small potted plants in these over the weekend, so I’ll take more pictures then.
I was very busy this weekend making 2 different sets of invitations. The first one is for a shower that my mom is having for one of her co-workers. I got to try out the print and cut feature on my Silhouette and I was so happy with the result.
It was a ton of work, but I figured it out and can’t wait to find more projects to print and cut.
Here are some of the things that I learned:
1. The weld feature is super helpful in creating complex shapes. I created small individual boxes, then added the long skinny box connecting them. I selected them all and selected Object > Modify > Weld, then they became one shape.
2. PNG files work best for printing. Once you have your cut lines set, create the print section in Illustrator (or whatever you like to use) and export as a PNG. I tried PDFs, but the printing was blurry for some reason.
3. Registration marks are your friend. When I was imagining this project in my head, I could not figure out how I was going to line up the printing with the cutting. Luckily, the Silhouette is a genius and has an eye that sees the registration marks and knows exactly where to cut. Open the Registration Marks window before printing from Silhouette Studio, and click on the Show Registration Marks box before printing.
Your printed pages will have the registration marks, then before you send them to the Silhouette to cut, choose Detect Registration Marks.
4. Make sure you cut hard enough. The first few pages that I sent to cut were trouble. I didn’t set the right cut pressure, so I ended up having to punch out a lot of the little pieces. Once I got the pressure right, It was super easy. I just ended up with a pile of confetti when I was done.
Once I had all of the pieces cut, I left them under a big stack of books overnight, since they curled up a bit when I peeled them off of the carrier sheet. The next day I glued them to a solid piece of cardstock cut to fit, and they were all set!
If you are interested in in making them on your own, here is the file I created – Box Invitation Pattern. Let me know if you end up trying it! It is set up for 6.5″ square envelopes, but it can be scaled to any size.
Is it sad that I dream about having a craft room? Anthony and I were talking about what we would do if we won the lottery, and I kept thinking about the killer craft room I would set up.
This one is INSANE – from Better Homes and Gardens.
Another great idea from Better Homes and Gardens – colorful peg board.
Pretty colors from Country Living via Home Stories A2Z.
We already have this bookcase! Halfway there from Anna Sigga.
Why does Better Homes and Gardens have all the best ideas. This one is totally do-able, but I might have too many craft supplies.
I have been spending a TON of time on Pinterest lately. It is an awesome way to keep track of all of the great projects I find online. Here are a few that I am definitely going to try ASAP.
Chocolate Bowls from Sprinkle Bakes.
Button Monogram Picture from Little Adventures.
Inside Out Apple Pies from Tiny Urban Kitchen.
Painted Rug from House of Smiths.
Internet people are so smart!
