Wood Veneer Sketch Artwork using Silhouette Cameo

My mom has some simple leaf art she purchased from Pottery Barn a few years back and I have always liked it and thought I could make something very similar and probably WAY WAY cheaper! The artwork is so simple - it's sketches of leaves on green paper and since I just discovered the sketch feature on my Silhouette I figured this was a great project to copy. 

I thought I would take this project a step farther and use some wood veneer I had left over from a dresser project and sketch my leafs directly onto the wood veneer! I used Band It Veneer Facing, 24" x 48" Birch and I just used a piece that fit onto my cutting mat and used the sketch feature like you normally would with paper and it turned out awesome! 

I love how they turned out. I have to admit I was a little nervous if it would actually print on the wood veneer but it worked out great! I love how easy these sketch projects are and I love the extra detail of the wood grain in these prints! 

 I made three of these so far and have a feeling I will be using the last bit of veneer to create some more!! 

Ok, random, but look at the below picture.... there is an EYE in the wood grain and now that I saw it I feel like I am being watched at all times!!! CREEPY!!! Halloween and everyday art all in one! 

Chalk Art With Silhouette Sketch

I have had my Silhouette for almost 3 years and I finally played around with the sketch function! I think it is safe to say I am slightly obsessed! 

Not only was it SOO easy to create some cute artwork but it was so fast and did I say EASY! 

Black paper, white Silhouette pen and a map of the US shape and I had some super fast and super cute artwork for our playroom! And I love how the white pen on black does look like a chalk board! 

30 Rocks!

On Saturday my younger sister turned the big 30! I am not sure how that is possible since I am only 25! But I digress! For part of her gift, we made her a wine cake! Because who wouldn't want 30 mini bottles of wine!!! 

Let me tell you 30 mini bottles of wine is rather heavy. The top layer of  wine bottles are hot glued onto a paper plate. The bottom layer are just tied together loosely and sitting on top of a piece of wood I used for the bottom.  I planned on using Pop Rocks, but could not find them, so instead used "Rocks" from ring pops!

Happy Birthday little sister!

Selling Our House

We are hoping to put our house on the market in late winter / early spring to try and be in a new home before our son starts Kindergarten next fall. Which made me realize that we needed to get any outdoor projects done now, or else it might be covered in snow when it does come time to sell!!! 

Outside home selling prep work is sort of boring!!! I spent a good ten hours outside this past weekend and you really can't tell I did anything at all. 

Here is my before - well my mid project picture. I did remove our old and broke storm door!!!! 

 Here is the after! Besides the kid chair, pillow and flowers you can't really tell what took me so long!! And that's because I painted the columns and the trim around the door. I also painted the trim around the garage door. Don't get me wrong, this was necessary for selling our house and it looks 10000% times better in person, but its not really that noticeable!

Next weekend I have to stain the deck and I would really like to paint the front door. After that we should be ok on our outdoor projects! About that door - I am having the hardest time picking out a color to paint it!!! I am not painting our red shutters so that sort of limits the colors. While at Home Depot I grabbed every swatch I could find in red.... but I am thinking navy, black, white, or yellow.... who knows, I can't decide!!!

This is the second home we have sold. Our first home we sold by ourselves in 2008 in 5 days. So of course I am hoping this will sell as quickly!! It won't be as easy as when it was just my husband and I and we always had a clean house.... some how these two fabulous kids have WAY WAY too many toys and always have a mess going!!!

Seriously, what color should I paint my door?