Pinspiration Sunday: Transfer Laser Copy Picture to Canvas

Thanks to the wonderful world on Pinterest, my best friend, Angela, and I stumbled across A Beautiful Mess and we're pretty much desperate to hang out with Elsie and Emma. They encompass all that we love. There are a number of great projects that I am looking forward to creating….and this is one of them. This is transferring a picture to canvas. I’ll take you through how I made my first one, however, I don’t really like how it turned out. The reason being is that I think there is too much dark tones so I tried it with a lighter image and I love how it turned out.

 

 

So here’s what I used:

Laser copy of picture (I made it 8 X 10 because that’s the size canvas I had)

Liquitex gel medium (bought from Amazon)

Spray bottle with water

Paint brush

Canvas (I got a 10 pack from A.C. Moore. It was regularly $19.99 but I used a 40% coupon!)

My pictures are from the very talented Karey Dean of Karey Dean Photography.  She captures the most beautiful images. And to be honest, since these pictures are a black and white copy they DO NOT  do her work justice. She is so incredibly talented! You can check out her amazing portraits and other photos on her website,  her blog or on Facebook.

I covered the entire front of an  8 X 10 canvas with the Liquitex.

 Placed my photocopied image face down on top of the canvas, smoothed it out and allowed it to dry overnight.

 

The next morning I misted the paper with water from my spray bottle and gently rubbed until the image showed through. This is a long process….don’t try to hurry it too much or you will rub the image right off the canvas (although I like the look of that scattered throughout).

 

Once finished, seal in the image with the gel medium and allow to dry….then hang and enjoy!

The darker the image the more the paper fibers showed....so, I tried it with a picture a little brighter.

 

 

I just want to thank you, Karey, for allowing me to use your stunning pictures for this! And thank you to everyone who stopped by to check out this project!

**Special Note: A Beautiful Mess had lots of questions from their original post. I encourage you to check them out if you are having any difficulties. They go through and show different techniques and products used which did not have as good of an outcome as I have just demonstrated. I followed exactly how they described being the best way to complete this project....have fun!

DIY Picnic Table

I had to share this AMAZING project my husband did. This picnic table with a cooler in the middle is absolutely wonderful. It took my husband one week, working only a few hours each day to build this all by himself and it turned out great! He found the FREE plans on The Design Confidential. Below are pictures of his progress.

 

FINISHED!

 

Thirsty?

 

 

 

Ellie's Birthday Cake Martini

So I found a couple recipes on Pinterest for Cake Batter Martinis or Shots and I really wanted to try the martini. Well....that was A LOT of alcohol. So looking at the two recipes, I came up with my own. So if you like tasty drinks with a hint of liquor, this will work for you.

 

My recipe:

2 oz Cake Vodka

1/2 oz White/Clear Creme de Cacao

1 oz Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur

3 oz Half & Half (I used Fat Free)

2 (heaping) Tbsp White Cake Powder (I used Funfetti)

Ice

Sprinkles (for glass rim)

 

Pour sprinkles onto a plate. Wet rim of glass with water or half and half (I used water). Dip rim of glass into sprinkles. Add all other ingredients to a shaker and shake for 30 seconds. Strain into martini glass. Enjoy!

 

Recipe makes one serving.



Pinspiration Sunday: DIY Canvas Quotes

I absolutely love these simple art pieces with a catchy phrase on them. When I came across this Pin from Southern Belle Soul, Mountain Bride Heart, I quickly wanted to try it.

Here’s what you will need:

Canvas

Newspaper, book pages, magazines

Adhesive/Sealant (i.e. Mod Podge)

Paint brush

Paint

Letter stickers

Here’s what I used:

8X10 canvas

Newspaper

Mod Podge in Matte

Paint brush

Orange and Bronze acrylic paint

Sticker letters (I made mine using a Cricut Machine, Cricut Craft Room Software, Cricut Vinyl, Plantin Schoolbook cartridge…all I had, so no purchase necessary!)

 

First I covered the canvas with Mod Podge and firmly pressed the newspaper on to the canvas and allowed it to dry overnight.Unfortunately my newspaper was attached a little crooked :^/ But what are ya gonna do? It's homemade!





My words are lyrics from The Lumineers’ song Dead Sea. I cut them out and placed them on the newspaper covered canvas.



Next I combined the orange and bronze paint until I reach my desired color and painted over the entire canvas (2 coats allowed them to dry in between) including the sides.



Then, carefully removed the letters.



Seal with Mod Podge…and you’re done!



This will look great on our made over bedroom wall :)

Here's the inspiration from Southern Belle's:

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

As you can see my blog is set up a little different from before. I'm trying out some new styles, and honestly it's going to change again. Change is a good thing...I think. I hope you guys don't mind and keep checking back! Thanks!

Thrifty Finds & Spray Paint

So my husband and I decided to makeover our bedroom...our walls are white (our entire house was when we bought it) and the curtains are green (they came with the house). We haven't done anything to the room since we bought it....well actually that's a lie...our carpet smelled like dog urine so we pulled up the carpet and put down laminate wood flooring. So needless to say, the room needs some....pizazz. We decided on a color scheme of gray, orange and white. The walls will be gray, the trim white and lots of craft and DIY projects to decorate. I've already bought the fabric I'm going to use to make roman shades from vinyl mini blinds (which hen will be a future tutorial). And there are some wall hangings that I found at the thrift store or flea market. This is what I started with. I had a couple of frames I got from thrift store., I'm pretty sure the one was $1 and the other was 75 cents. The owls were found at either a thrift store or yard sale for 50 cents or less.

Next it was time to make them match our new bedroom. I bought Valspar satin spray paint in La Fonda Copper from Lowe's for about $4. I sprayed all my items and allowed them to dry. Here's what they look like.

I will be posting other bedroom makeover projects as I complete them. And once our bedroom is complete I will be sure to share pictures with you. Thanks for dropping by!

Pinspiration Sunday: DIY Jewelry Organizer

Here's my Inspiration:

When I came across the above pin from The Charity Wedding, I thought...that could be fun to make. I have lots of burlap that I need to start using more of so this project is perfect…and while I’m at it, I’ll make a second one as a gift!

Here’s what I used:
Piece of wood (I got a 24X24in piece for under $10 from Lowe’s and my hubby sawed it in half)
Burlap
Mod podge
Scissors
Various drawer pulls hardware
Hot glue
Drill and bits
Sand paper/block
Pencil
Ruler
Iron and Ironing board
Eye hooks
Ribbon/lace or anything else you want to decorate with

First I just placed my hardware on the board to get an idea of where I wanted it. I used my ruler to make sure the sides were symmetrical (Well actually I did that more so on the one that will be a gift…mine I just sort of eyeballed it). I then marked the placement of my holes for the hardware.

Then I drilled the holes and sanded over them to get rid of any fragments of wood.( Special Note: My husband shared with me that the holes should actually be larger than the screws IF the hardware is threaded. I didn't know this...and I had to fix it. He says the screws should just glide through the wood but screw into the hardware.) You may want to wait to drill the holes AFTER the Mod Podge step...The Mod Podge filled the holes (duh! on my part) which made it more difficult to put the screws through. [I re-drilled my bigger holes after I mod podge and drill through the burlap and it DID NOT mess anything up] I also drilled holes along the top for the eyehooks (to hang it).

I placed the wood pieces on the burlap and cut an extra 1-2inches so that I could fold it over to the back.

Next, I mod podged the front side of the wood and firmly pressed the burlap down and allowed it to dry completely.
Then it was time to adhere the burlap around the sides to the back. I started by cutting diagonally across my corners so that the corners didn’t get too bulky.

I used the hot glue gun to adhere the burlap to the back starting in one corner and working my way around.

After that cooled, I started to attach the hardware. Unfortunately my nails were too long so I had to head back to Lowe's and get shorter nails.

Next I hot glued some lace to the top for decoration.

I used twine to hang it. Here's the organizer in action again:

Bracelets and earrings:

Rings

Earrings

And this is what I made for my friend. HaPpY BiRtHdAy, AnGeLa!