Free Chalkboard Valentines Day Printable

While binge watching "Making of a Murder" I decided to make one more Valentine's Day printable.... that's the perfect time to create a Valentine's Day printable right??

I decided my gold printable would look cute with a chalkboard background.

Free Valentine's Day chalkboard printable

Free Gold Valentines Day Printable

I finally took down my Christmas tree over the weekend and wow does the house look bare!! So it is the perfect time to start decorating for Valentines Day!!

A few years back I made a printable for Valentines Day and I still love this one but am currently obsessed with gold, so I updated my old printable and made it gold! Again, these are "I love you" in many languages.

This is my favorite frame! It's a 25 in by 25 in Pottery Barn frame! I love big square frames! I wanted something subtle and so I love how this turned out! Did I mention I am obsessed with gold at the moment!

Download your free 8 x 10 gold Valentines Day printable! 

Happy Valentines Day!!

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! 

Train Artwork

I have slowly showed bits and pieces of Little Man's new Big Boy room. Well today I have some simple artwork I made for his book shelves. I downloaded the shape from the Silhouette website. 

Little Man loves to say "All a board" so it was an easy addition to add to the sign!

This was so easy to make!! Check out the other stencils I have made with my Silhouette Cameo for tutorials on how I made this! 

Christmas Subway Art

I love the Subway Art I made for my living room.  As I was recently admiring it, I thought I should figure out where I bought that board so I could make another one in that size since I like the size!! It's a 12 x 24 inch board. Well...... a light bulb went off..... why not just use the back side of the board, then I don't have to store either when its not in use!!!!

SO here is my new Christmas Subway art. It works for this year, but I created my file in Silhouette Studio on my laptop using the same font I used on my black one and sent it to myself to cut out on my desktop.... and SOMEHOW the font changed!!!!! I didn't realize until I had the entire thing cut out and placed on the board... so I had extra space.... so its not as perfect as I would like it to be.... it meant I had to done some piecing together and some of the lines are not straight :) Has anyone else every had this problem???

Maybe if I am bored in the next couple weeks or next year I will re-do it!!! But just think of all of that vinyl I would waste and it works for now!!!

Stained Wall Art

I have had an almost empty frame in my dining room since we moved in. I have changed it out for Holidays... and all summer it held artwork I made for my son's 2nd birthday (in April) that was all about cars!!! And its been on my to-so list to make something more permanent for the space!

AND I wanted something different!

I had some left over wood veneer from another project and thought this would be the perfect place to start! I stained the veneer the same color as my dinning room table (since it was going to be in the same room....)

Once my stained dried, I cut out a design with my Silhouette Cameo.

I was a little nervous with painting over the stain, because if there was bleeding I would not really be able to fix it.... BUT it turned out perfect!! I did use a wet paper towel to clear a little smudge

I am really happy with how it turned out!!! (And I can cross another item off my to-do list!!!! YEAH!!!)

More Subway Art

I finally made myself some Subway art, after making it for everyone else!!

I used a 12x24in piece of plywood for mine and pretty much followed my previous post Subway Art Sans the Silhouette except this time I did use the Silhouette!

I learned a few lessons on this. I designed my 12x24 inch file in the Silhouette studio software which was fine but its kind of hard dealing with that large of a piece of vinyl! I used transfer tape (not the transfer paper) for the first time. Did you  know there was transfer paper and transfer tape? I kind of like the transfer tape better, its basically a large roll of masking tape. So again dealing with a 12x24inch piece of transfer tape was a lot of tape to deal with. I placed the entire 12x24inch piece at one time and then ripped the transfer tape row by row only removing one row at a time. The whole thing took a lot more time that I thought BUT it worked out perfect!

The vinyl was perfectly straight!!!

  AND I used the trick of painting a layer of your base coat over the vinyl before using your top coat (in my case white) I really do think it helps! AND I have one letter that up close was not 100% perfect!

I am so happy with how it turned out! I love its "odd" size! I decided not to distress it. I might still go back and do that. I was just so happy with how it turned out I didn't want to go back and play with it any more!!

Nail State Art

My spin on the pin! I have seen this project on Pinterest several times and really wanted to try it out!

I started by spray painting my board with chalk board paint because I had it out from another project and I am sort of obsessed with chalk boards at th moment!

I cut out the state of Wisconsin using my Silhouette, but you could just print it out and cut it out by hand. I taped the paper image down to my board and started nailing!!!

Nailing the nails was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. In some spots it was just hard to hold the nail because of the angle and some I did not get in tight enough (this is important!! especially on the heart because it holds a lot of string!)

I love how it already looks!!!

I then started wrapping my string over all of the nails. The key here was to go slow and to pull it tight but not too tightly or you might pull the nails out. I did have to go back and nail in a few nails as I did this part. Since I used chalk paint I love that I can write whatever I want on the bottom! I ended up giving this to my sister and her husband for part of their wedding gift. I plan to make myself one sometime soon!

 

Not including painting and drying the background, I completed this project over a 6 hour time span. And I did put my little man to bed, make dinner and a few other things, so it took me less than 6 hours. Which is not too bad, I thought it would take a lot longer! 

Linked up at Dog Days of Winter Link Party

Baby Girl Name Plaque

Over the weekend we went to a Baptism for an adorable 9 week old. I didn't know what to get her and since I didn't get her anything when she was born I decided to make her a wall hanging for her bedroom with her name on it.

A while back I purchased these awesome wall plaques from Restoration Hardware Baby and Child. They are thick 17x17 inches of wood. I had to prime the board to cover up what was there, which meant I only needed two thing coats of pink paint!

I made the stencil with my Cameo Silhouette. I forgot to grab my transfer paper so I improvised and used wide painters tape. It worked in a pinch!

I am loving this plaque and so happy with how it turned out!! 

The boards come with the ribbon attached and I actually removed it before gifting it because the ribbon is brown and the paint is gray (pretend you don't notice that in my picture :) )

My Gallery Wall

So I finally finished my Master Bedroom Gallery Wall. It has been done for a while - well mostly - and I finally got around to posting it. 

I am happy with what it looks like so far. I am sure at some point I will add to it, but for now it's a great start. And most importantly it's adding something fun to our pretty boring master bedroom.

Below is a run down on some of the pieces included in the gallery wall,

1. Is a plaque we got as a wedding present almost 7 years ago! It fit perfect with my wall.
2. I spray painted this Red Envelope larger frame that was originally meant for a shadow box. I created a mat for the frame by using foam board and a shower curtain to create an 8x10 opening.
3. A burlap background with a big H!
4. This is my favorite. I spray painted the frame and used leather from a leather skirt I wore the day my husband proposed to me as the background. I loved the skirt at the time but it is no were near close to something that will fit me so this is the perfect way to see it and remember that special day!
5. I created a heart out of buttons onto cardboard. The buttons are shinny and add nice dimension to the gallery wall.
6. I made myself some state artwork that I previously made based on the Red Envelope state art

I really like my button heart. I also really like that I could include the skirt I wore when I got engaged! I love the meaning it adds to our room.

The entire gallery wall was put together using Command Adhesive. I LOVE this stuff! It works great for a gallery wall like this because it can easily be changed in the future without having lots of holes to repair.

Burlap Wedding Shower

 Last weekend we hosted my sister's wedding shower. Since my sister wanted a joint shower with both sides of her future family we decided to have it at a restaurant! After the insane April we have had, it was a great decision! My youngest sister put together this cute towel wedding cake display for our sister. We used burlap circles to decorate the "cake" and a rhinestone hair pin on the top for a little extra bling.

 Since we used burlap on the invites (and I am sort of obsessed with it at the moment) I made a burlap banner. ( I wish I would have hung this a bit higher, but oh well it still looks cute!!)

This was so simple to make. I simply cut out 4 - 5.5 x 5 inch burlap squares. I then made a stencil with my Silhouette (you could easily buy something, or free hand if you like) and used my trusty black acrylic paint to fill in my stencil. Once dried I used my sewing machine to sew the squares together onto a piece of jute. So simple and so cute!!!

 Then I made the Bride and Groom initial canvas artwork for them to use as they wish! I found these great linen canvases at a local craft store. I LOVE the color and love how they are not white but already have that great linen texture!! (I bought 4 more for myself for TBD projects!!! I love them THAT much!!!)

I again used my Silhouette to create a stencil for the letters. (Again you could use other options to achieve this looks!) Again used my acrylic black paint (that's what the label said!!) and created this cute simple artwork!

The last project I created for this shower was the favor. You can't have a shower without a favor!!! I ran to Home Depot and picked up a few packages of Gladiolas bulbs. We then cut and wrapped them in burlap. (See how to cut burlap)  I used a stamp set to stamp the phrase "Let love grow" onto a piece of card stock and included basic planting directions (we didn't want anyone to think it was something to eat.....) and there we have a simple but cute favor to match our burlap themed wedding shower!

The best part about using Gladiolas bulbs is this was my grandpa's favorite flowers. He used to grow these flowers and they really remind me of him!

The whole look!!!

Little People Frame

Don't you love it when you have so many things on your to do list, and decide to just tackle a random project!

Next week is my little man's second birthday and among the many million other things going on I have a HUGE HUGE HUGE to do list! Page and pages long of a to-do list.....

Over the weekend my mother in law handed me a huge bag of the old un-safe Little People. So today I hot glued them to a frame and ended up with this fabulously cute little frame!!! I LOVE IT!! Its so cute! AND SO EASY!!!

These are the Little People that my husband played with when he was a little boy, so I love the sentimental factor of the frame!

With my huge to-do list, I actually have finished a few projects, but it's just finding the time to blog them :) So for now I am sharing my frame, but hopefully this week I will have lots more fabulous things to share!!

Runners Award Display Board

I've already had one of my three sister's as a guest poster on my blog. Today I have my youngest sister's project to share!

She recently ran a half marathon and a full marathon and has run several shorter races. Being that it is an accomplishment to run a marathon she decided she wanted a way to display her race bibs and her awards.

She searched around Etsy and other places for something to display them and could not find anything. So she made her own!

I am not really going to go into the details on how she made it. She followed the directions of the Subway Art Sans the Silhouette post I posted in January (my other sister's creation!)

She started with a white base coat and added her saying.

She spray painted a couple coats of black. Removed the word Run and distressed the board.
She added 4 hardware metal hooks on the front for the bibs and medals. It is also important to note that you need to hang TWO hanging hooks on the back or it will not hang right!


Thanks again to my sister for sharing her project!!! I love that I have creative sisters!!

My entry into Show Me Extraordinary sponsored by Appliances Online and Bosch Washing Machines.

Easy Scrabble Artwork

I LOVE easy art work projects!! How many people scored these cute red frames from Target after Valentines Day like me for $2.49 a piece! I ended up getting 5... see my previous post about being a craft hoarder...

The mat is a bit girly / Valentines Day, so I simply flipped them over and used the white back side!

Then I cut pieces from my Target dish towels that I hoarded previously.
Taped them down... and put them back in the frames!
I then used pieces from my thrift-ed Scrabble game to create the words create, dream, live. I used glue dots to glue them to the outside glass.

Easy 5 minute art work!!! MY favorite kind!!

My last 2 red frames I just hung cute pictures of little man in! I added my scrabble artwork I made for Valentines Day with the word love! I also covered the lamp shade with that same Target dish towel!! I LOVE the patterns of these two target dish towels!! So inspiring for other projects around the house!!