Canvas printing!

**UPDATE** I just realized that the coupon codes below are NOT for a stretched canvas like the ones I show below. They are just printed on a canvas but would have to be framed!


Last Christmas, I used this picture from our Christmas card and had it printed as an 18"x24" canvas when I got a 40% off coupon from Winflash.

And I fell in love. I LOVE the idea of printing a favorite photo on a large canvas, and making it a piece of art. So when Aunt Amy took this amazing picture at the beach last September, I wanted to do something with it.

I wanted to do something with scripture about walking, so I found this one below and loved it. I used my digital scrapbooking software, and made this.



It now hangs in my living room. Actually, it's just resting on a shelf temporarily while our house in the market. One day, it will be properly hung. But I love to walk in everyday and read this scripture as a daily reminder for our family.


So I was very excited when I got some emails this week from one of my favorite online photo printing sites, Artscow. I thought I'd pass on these coupon codes in case you'd like to have some canvases printed yourself!

• $16.99 for TWO 16"x20" printed canvases, plus FREE SHIPPING!! I paid $50 for the ones above, so this is a HUGE deal! Coupon code: 1699CANVASB1F1


• $7.99 for TWO 8"x10" printed canvases, plus FREE SHIPPING!! Coupon code: 8X10CANVAS799

These both expire on July 31st. I'm thinking about getting these 2 photos (thanks again Aunt Amy!) done.

Do you have some favorite photos you'd like to have made in to works of art?

Been craftin'

Eliza's been busy crafting this week---below is a "Valentine Bouquet" she made. We got the idea from Kids Craft Weekly, a great site from a girl in Australia and you can sign up to get her emails with craft ideas.

First she painted and glittered a piece of construction paper. Then I covered the paper with some contact paper, traced hearts with a cookie cutter, and she cut them out.

Lastly, I got a branch out of the yard and hot-glued the hearts to them. We decided to take the bouquet to my grandmother, who was in the hospital last week. At first we weren't sure if we would be able to fit all the hearts onto the branch, so we decided to pick the "prettiest" ones to put on first. Eliza was insistent on putting the one with the cross on there, because as she said:

"We have to put the cross on there, because the cross is for Jesus, and GG is sick, and Jesus is a good healer."

Melts my heart.

Then we took her Valentine money to Hobby Lobby and got this little craft. Oh my, this brought back some memories. I remember doing these when I was little. That smell of melted plastic coming out of the oven totally took me back.


Finally, she made this picture for me for my birthday. It's our house, with she and I pretending to be princesses. See our itty bitty crowns?

I've been busy craftin' too, just by way of stationery. Here are a few cards and invitations I've made recently. I was so pleased with how they all turned out!

Our Valentine card. And yes, being the genius that I am, I put 2008 on it. I rarely write the date on anything so I'm still stuck in last year.

A rehearsal dinner invitation:

Birthday invite for a girl-version of a Curious George party:


A bridal shower invite. Love this!

Now I must get busy on Eliza's Easter dress. I have this delicious stack of fabric just waiting to made into something adorable...

Christmas "Baking"

I'm somewhat "challenged" in the kitchen. I love to watch the Food Network, and I REALLY love to eat, but cooking is just one of those skills God decided was best not to bestow on me. I'm always amazed that I can take a seemingly simple recipe, and completely mess it up somehow. I have a few tried and true meals and desserts that I stick with, and thankfully I have a husband who will eat pretty much anything and is just grateful he didn't have to make it. I have dreams of someday making these elaborate meals when I don't have a child attached to my leg and have endless free time, but for now, I'm content just getting edible meals on the table. So, when it comes to baking at Christmas, I take the easy way out and look for cute EASY things that even a child can make. And like the turkey cookies we made, it's really more like crafting than cooking. Right up my alley.

I found these little Rudolph cookies in my old standby, Family Fun magazine. They were super-easy to make; here are the ingredients.

I put the icing on, and Eliza broke the pretzels and added the eyes and red nose.

Of course Davis had to join in on anything that involves food.

My other favorite goodie to make is Candy Popcorn; many thanks to my friend Suzanne for introducing me to this addictive snack. It's very easy too---just a bag of microwave popcorn, white chocolate chips, and sprinkles, just for fun. For the popcorn, I like a good butter flavor--I mean, what's better than salty, buttery, and sweet all in the same bite?? YUM. Make the popcorn, and melt 1/2 bag or 1 cup of the chocolate chips in the microwave. Then put the popcorn in a big mixing bowl, pour the melted chocolate over it, and stir it around until all the popcorn is coated. Then spread it out on the counter on aluminum foil or something like that. As you can see, I had to improvise. Yes, that is a trash bag; but it is a clean, new trash bag. I coudn't find my roll of Press N Seal, and all I had in the drawer was an empty box of foil (didn't I mention I'm challenged in the kitchen?) But the trash bag worked just as well. Spread out the popcorn, and sprinkle with the sprinkles, and just let it dry. Then snack uncontrollably until it is all gone.

Davis became an addict, too. He even pulled up his own chair so he could get his little grabby hands on more of the goods.

Scrapbooking

I finally got around to getting some more scrapbook pages printed and here are a few I really liked. Yes, they are all pretty much from last year, but it was fun to look back back and see how much my babies have grown. I got them printed here, and they have a $.99 sale a couple of times a year. I'm going to fill up the two albums I have now, and then I think I'm going to just start having them made into photobooks, and just do one for each year. Winkflash and Artscow now do 12x12 photobooks, and I like the idea of having a year's worth of pictures all in one book. And their prices are good too, only about $25 for a 20 page hardbound book. I'm actually caught up in scrapbooking up through this past Easter, which is really good for me! This past spring, Stephen took the kids to his parents for the weekend to give me a little "mini-vacation", and I got about 30 pages done in those couple of days, which was fantastic. It's amazing what you can get done with no interruptions. My goal is to one day stay caught up and scrap the pages as soon as the I take the pictures, but I don't really ever see that happening in the near future :).

I promise I really am crafty

I realized the other day that despite the name of my blog, I haven't been very "crafty" lately. I've got a stack of fabric sitting in my closet (yes it's still clean!!) of fall outfits for Eliza that I've already cut out (hurray! I HATE cutting out patterns with every fiber of my soul). And I've actually appliqued one (another hurray!). But it's still sitting there in pieces, like a long-forgotten toy that is longing to be played with. But, alas, next week is my saving grace: MDO is back in business! ("mother's day out" if you are not familiar with this lovely creation). Now that Eliza doesn't nap anymore, and I'm just so darn tired at night, I have very little free time to work on projects. Or at least I tend to spend most of that free time reading other people's blogs and looking at their lovely projects instead of working on my own. But next week, both of my beloved children will be at school at our church 2 days a week, and although I will spend one of those days working at church, I will still have one day to play. I'm determined to get back on track--I have a million ideas buzzing around in my head, if I can only get them going. And I better hurry; we are looking at putting our house on the market in the near future, and my beloved sewing machine and serger will most likely be packed away will all the legions of toys cluttering our house in an attempt to make it "show-ready". But....I digress. That's a post for another time.

One reason I haven't been sewing is that I've had a TON of stationery business lately, which has been fantastic. In addition to doing something I LOVE, creating stationery for people, I got to send the Adamus family a little extra last month as a result of those orders, which was great. I know they are preparing for back-to-school in Poland like everyone here, which means additional costs for their three kids. So a big thank-you to everyone who ordered from me--it's much appreciated! Below are some of my recent creations (I've changed some details for security purposes). Maybe I've been crafty after all...

Sidewalk Paint

I saw this idea in a recent issue of Family Fun magazine, which I love love love. And their website is great, too. I like the idea of sidewalk chalk, but for some reason chalk of any kind has always given me the heebie jeebies. Something about the dust it leaves on my hands. Ooh, I'm getting the chills just thinking about it. Thank goodness I always had dry erase boards in my classroom when I was teaching. Anyway, you just mix equal parts cornstarch and water (I used 1/2 cup of each for these batches); mix with a fork as it gets a little clumpy at first. Then add some food coloring and you're done. It can make for a good little lesson in what colors mix to make what, which Eliza still has trouble with. Here are some pictures of our outing today. I think I enjoy it more than she does!

My rendering of Eliza. Sadly, that's the extent of my artistic ability.

Summer cleaning and crafting

I must confess: I am a very messy crafter. When I start working on something, I'm usually interrupted by children, phone, life in general, etc., so I just leave everything I was working on right there. When I had a craft/guest room, I could just shut the door and pretend it wasn't there. But since Davis took over that room, I now use a little corner of my bedroom for my sewing machines and part of my closet for all my supplies. Until this weekend, my closet was in a constant state of disaster, as I would end up digging through all kinds of junk until I found something I was looking for, and then quickly shut the closet door and try to forget it was there. Although I would never call myself a great housekeeper, I do like to keep the rest of my house somewhat straight and picked up, as I feel much more relaxed when everything is in it's place. For some reason, this feeling has never crossed over to my craft and sewing stuff. But on Monday, I journeyed to Target to get some shelves and get myself organized. I can't believe I'm posting these pictures, as they are completely embarrassing. But I love before and after pictures, and you really can't appreciate the after without seeing the before, so here goes

My closet BEFORE (ooh, it just makes me cringe with shame):

My fabric stash BEFORE (and a pair of PJ pants I've been looking for--hurray!)

Whew, now I'm exposed. But I'm very proud to present, after many hours of work, the AFTER pictures of my new, organized craft area corner of my closet. And my shoes are organized! I'd forgotten to take a picture of those; they used to be all in a heap on a top shelf. I would throw them up there and run out real fast before one fell on my head. And then go on a frenzied search for a missing shoe when we were inevitably late for church (thanks Stephen for your help those days, you have an amazing knack to find missing shoes.) Now they are nicely paired together. Peace in my closet at last!!

My fabric stash now, all neatly folded and stacked. Yeah!

And I'm also proud to say it still looks like this a whole 3 days later. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep it up!

Now that I had everything organized and found things I thought I had lost, I completed a couple of projects I'd been wanting to do.

A new big-boy diaper bag for Davis.

No more schlepping around bottles and formula for my little man. I got the bag at Hobby Lobbe for $3.99 and added his name and made him a new bag tag to match; I'm loving him in plaid this summer. Ooh, I got a laminator last week---LOTS of fun!!! (I just blurred out our last name for the post---it doesn't really look like that.) This one is just big enough for some diapers, wipes, a cup and a little snack. I love it!

4th of July pants for Eliza

I found this fabric at Joann and at first couldn't decide if it was too cheesy, but finally decided I liked it. I'm pleased with the finished product. I think I paid $3.50 for the yard of fabric, and I already had the ric-rac. They took about 30 minutes to make (thanks to my friend Rebecca for the pattern; she designs the children's line Flit and Flitter ).

Now that my sewing stuff is un-cluttered, I feel like my mind is a little more un-cluttered, too. I'm beginning to think about making some clothes for Eliza for fall.....I'd better get started now!

Ooh, another website to obsess over

My cousin Bethany, who is quite the photographer, just told me about this website http://www.picnik.com/, where you can edit you photos for free (hurray!). As I said in an earlier post, I am quite Photoshop-challenged, but this site is very user-friendly, and of course free (hurray!). Bethany sent me this one of my dad and Davis at Christmas, and I love how it looks kind of vintage-y.

I did these below with the photo-tinting tool.



I used the softening tool for this one. I love the fuzziness.

I'll be spending more time on this site for sure!!!