Sweet Rak from some Sweet Ladies!

Thanks again to Nik, and April & Scarlet from Studio Calico!

Easy Kitchen Canvas

Just wanted to share an easy project that I finished today. It will be hanging in my freshly painted kitchen right above my sink. Maybe it will make the task of washing dishes a little more bearable!!!

I really love to make canvases. They are quick, fun, and best of all you get to showcase them in your home, rather than getting stuck inside a scrapbook that you may only occasionally look through.
I took a couple "in-progress" photos of my project to help you along.

Step 1:
paint the edges of 8x24 inch canvas with brown acrylic paint. I did a very uneven coat of paint to give it a varigated look. After the paint dried, I rubbed on the Adirondack paint dabber on the edges of the canvas and made uneven horizontal marks across the width of the canvas giving it a "wood-look" finish.



Step 2:
Cut your paper to cover the canvas. For the striped pattern, I cut 2- 6x12 inch pieces of paper. For the accent stripe along the bottom, I used 2- 2x12 inch strips.
I had to cut about 1 to 1-1/2 inches off the 2nd strip to fit onto canvas, leaving a 1/2 inch border on all edges. The papers I used were from the Felicity Line from Scribble Scrabble: Forget-Me-Not&Aqua, and Ferns,Flowers & Gumdrops.

Step 3:
Attach your paper strips to canvas. I used Golden Gel Medium brushed directly onto the canvas. I have also used US ArtQuest Perfect Paper Adhesive with good results as well, although this is a bit runnier than the Gel Medium and can wrinkle thin papers. Now your canvas should look a little bit like this:

Step 4:

Cut flowers or other motif out of patterned paper. I used the Crimson Daisy&Chocolate paper from Scribble Scrabble.

Step 5:
Now comes the fun part--adding the decorations.
First I used Glue Dots to add the decorative trim to separate the striped pattern and the brown flower pattern. The trim is from my February add-on kit from studio calico. I want to say it might be from Paper Valise, but am not sure on that! I also added 2 blossoms from Petaloo, in opposite corners of the canvas. I added 2 paper flowers cut from the patterned paper on either side of the large blossom in the upper left. In the center of the paper flowers I added vintage turquoise buttons.

I used the Prima Times Chipboard Alphabet to spell out my saying "make every day count"


And if you're looking for other ideas...here's another canvas that I did a while back. Give Thanks Canvas

If you have questions, I'd love to help you out. Just post a comment, making sure your e-mail or blog is accessible!

HAPPY CRAFTING!!!

5.08.08

Give yourself a perfect day.
Do what makes you happiest.
Look upon what gives you joy.
Speak to those who warm your heart.
Listen to that which lifts your spirit.
Surround yourself with sights and sounds
and people who give you pleasure.
For all the happiness you give to others
all year long, give yourself a perfect day.

This is what I'll be doing today.
Until next time...

Win a 6-month subscription to Studio Calico

Just a little promotion I'm passing along to my fellow scrapbooking friends and family. If you want to win over $200 worth of free scrapbooking goodies, just do the following. No further obligations!
You have an opportunity to win a 6 month subscription to Studio Calico scrapbooking club!!!!
Here’s how it works.
1. go to http://www.studiocalico.com and create a log-in account
2. then go to this thread on the message board.
3. post should contain your name and the name/username of the person who referred them to this thread...that would be me: erinm
4. Post before May 3rd to be eligible

Thanks and have fun!!!!!
Erin

a little bit of our weekend...

Love Spring.
Love getting out of the house.
Love watching everything bud & bloom.
Love playing with the kids.
Love walking around the block.
Love being silly.



Even though the quality of this picture isn't the best, I just love how huge the trees look behind the kids. Just starting to bud. So full of color.

Finally doing a little more scrapbooking after a bit of dry spell. A bit of a creative break.
Combined a bunch of different products from my stash for this one. These 2 love each other so much! Hope that continues.

wannabe nerd

Despite what you may think, if you knew me in high school...

I'm not very nerdy!!
I guess I was more of the orchestra geek, rather than science/math nerd!

I sincerely apologize...

Long time...no blog.
Ooopps!

But now I officially have a reason to post.
This girl totally made my day today! I completed this layout for a challenge on the Studio Calico blog:



So lucky me, I won a RAK for completing & posting the challenge!

The picture is of Aidan and his fish Thomas soon after his arrival in our family. The numbers detail little bits & pieces of what's going on in Aidan's life right now.

In other news...
I was going to start posting a photo-a-day for the month leading up to my birthday....but doesn't look like that's going to happen. So now I may just try to do a week in review. So look for another post this week highlighting the events of this past week.