painting

Alright, here we go, take 20 I think, in attempting to blog. Let me tell you, it’s not that I don’t have a ton to share. Here’s how it goes: Kiddo goes to bed, “dinner” dishes (my poor June Clever self has almost left the building… dinner as of late has been sad…but no one is starving) are done, pull out the laptop, get relatively comfy on the sofa, log in to wordpress, then I’m woken up by Hubby walking in the front door, home from school already… how on earth can it be 945 at night, I didn’t type one word. I keep falling asleep! It’s so annoying but I have to accept it I guess, I am just to busy for my own good. Freelance projects (yay!), summertime fun with Kiddo, normal household chores (most of them), getting ready for Sneaky Baby and being 9+months preggers, it makes sense to be passing out tired around 730. Oye! It’s still annoying, but I guess it’s my world as of now

Okay to the fun stuff! We are basically ready for Sneaky baby to arrive! Her nursery is almost done, just need to hang 3 pictures and put the sheets on the crib. Our room got a little make over too, there is nothing like new bedding I tell you! The office/dining room just needs one shelf hung, although I really really want new dining chairs now (future project- YES!) and Kiddo’s room has been completed for a few weeks now. Drum roll please…Kiddo’s room: (you can see the before here)

Not a lot of change, but dark pink (the only color in the world) and not so “flowery”

Gosh she has way to much stuff! And we donated bags of toys too… note to self Kiddo doesn’t need anything else. The princess silhouettes we made a few weeks ago turned out pretty cute I think.

While we have been cleaning out our little home, I do find it crazy annoying for my nesting self, yet funny at how unbelievably messy cleaning out can be. Case in point…

Not to mention, the stacks and stacks of crap we had hidden in closets. Really, this beautiful pile was over two feet high

And of course, one of the best yet, “O” magazine about de-cluttering pulled out from under the bed. Although cleaning out is exhausting, truly it feels like we are moving, it is so nice to know that there isn’t one thing in this little home that we don’t need. Plus the amount of donations we have made is amazing…car loads (at least 5) off to our local SPCA. Good for the heart I tell ya.

Stay tuned… I will be sharing the other spaces, if I can keep my eyes open, maybe even tomorrow 😉

It’s Friday, which used to make me jump with joy, but now it’s just another day…sad huh? Anyway, today I made a sign/banner for my booth and I am going to share with you what I did.

For my banner, I decided to use brown craft paper or mailing paper, I like the color, it’s easy to use and it’s cheap. You can use this method on paper, wood, or canvas, probably other things too, but this is what I have done in the past to very good outcomes. Also, I am sure there are better ways, one is transfer paper, but I don’t like it. The last time I used it, when I started painting it turned into a huge smeared mess.

notice little hand wanting to help mommy

What you will need:

roll of brown craft paper
scissors
pencil
ruler
tape
paint
paint brushes
plate
words printed out on computer

(If you have a kiddo like mine, set them up with paints and crafting paper too. She likes to “work” with me and “help out.” This makes life much easier).

Step One: For what ever your message is, print out the words using your computer in a font and size that will fit your project.

Step Two: Measure how long you want your banner to be out of the crafting paper. I will be using this in my booth, so my banner is 8 feet long.

Step Three: Draw a horizontal line along the bottom of all the words. This will help you keep the words straight when lining them up on your banner. Make sure all the lines are the same distance from the word bottom (i.e. I left 1/4″ between word and line).

Step Four: Cut around the words, no need to be neat here just helps to have less paper

Step Five: Make the center of your banner and line up your words and mark this center also. For me, Vintage Princess by M.E. measured 34″ so the center mark is 17″, which lands in the middle-ish of “Princess.”

Step Six: Old school transfer time- with a pencil, scribble on the backside of your words. You should be able to see the words through the paper to know where to scribble.

Step Seven: Gently lay your “center” word aligned with the center of the banner into place, measure from top to the line you drew under the word, this is your reference for all other words. Make sure the word is straight, and gently tape it down at the top.

Step Eight: Trace the outlines of all the letters, making sure to push hard with the pencil. Peak to make sure it is working. Repeat using your reference measurement for all the words.

Step Nine: Now that all the words are in place, it’s time to paint. I seem to like to make things not as easy as they should be, so I mixed three colors of paint to get the right hue. When painting, slow and steady wins the race, so patience!

Step Ten: When the paint is dry, mark the backside of your plate, using tape and pencil, the centerlines, (if your plate was a clock, mark 3 and 9).

Step Eleven: Mark down from the bottom of your banner where you would like the scallop to start (the point where two scallops meet), set plate onto mark, measure other side to make sure it’s straight, trace around half of plate. Repeat by moving plate to left or right, measuring the one side that hasn’t been measured.