More Pretty Craft Storage - Altered Jar Mini-Tutorial

You all know how much I love flowers, and I use them in almost all my crafty projects. Well, I've got quite the collection of flowers and I used to store them in their individual packages or little baggies and whatnot. While organizing my craft room, I decided to use this large jar to store my whole collection of flowers so it can sit on the shelf as a pretty and inspiring piece in the room. The lid was stained wood, and I painted it using a rag with purple, pink and turquoise acrylic paint. I cut the pink scalloped rectangle and the turquoise label from my the Storybook Cricut Cartridge (Thank you, Consumer Crafts). I punched holes at each end of the label and tied the pretty ribbon through to hold the label onto the jar. I stamped the word "Flowers" using the Classic alphabet stamps from Stampin' Up. Finally, I embellished it with a multi-layered flower, of course! Aren't flowers just the perfect embellishment?

The jar coordinates perfectly with the rest of my craft room and the cardboard caddy I made, too.

Cardboard Caddy Tutorial

I love the shape of caddies like this but they're sometimes hard to find and when I have found them they're either too small or too much money, or just not right. So, I decided to make my own. This project was cheap and green and FUN! Let me show you how to make one!

Supplies:

- corrugated cardboard

- paper towel roll or cardboard tube or wooden dowel

- masking tape

- gesso

- acrylic paint

- mod podge

- patterned paper and solid cardstock

- stamps and ink pads

- embossing ink pad (I used Versa Mark)

- embossing powder

- heat gun

- ribbon, trims and embellishments, puches or dies of your choosing

Start by cutting your cardboard into pieces that will form your caddy. You need 2 sides, a bottom and 2 end pieces that are shaped like a house as shown in the picture below:

Next, tape your pieces together using masking tape as shown in the picture below:

Once you've got your pieces attached to the bottom of your caddy, bring all the sides up to form the caddy and tape all around the side and inside of your caddy as shown in the next picture. Next, using scissors, poke holes into the ends of your caddy where you want the tube to go through.

For my handle, I used a thick cardboard tube. I have no idea what was on this tube, it was just in my stash. You can see from the next pic, that it's a lot thicker than a standard paper towel roll.

If you use a paper towel roll, you can use several layers of paper and modpodge wrapped around the roll to make it sturdy enough to use as a handle. Then cover the whole caddy in gesso before you start decorating it. Once it was covered in gesso, I painted layers of purple, pink and turquoise on the outside of the caddy. I then treated each side as a canvas and created different collages on each side and end.

This pic above is the front of the caddy. I used mod podge to apply the papers to the caddy. These papers are from My Mind's Eye "Totally Girl" paper pad. The scalloped flower was created using the Spellbinders Scalloped Circles Nestabilities die. The quote is a Donna Downey Unity Stamp, the butterfly is cut out from the patterned paper pad that I adhered to the caddy with mod podge.

The above picture is one of the ends. I used Making Memories lace and papers from the same paper pad, canvas butterflies from Donna Downey that I painted and embellished with rsuty wire and ribbon. The pink hearts were white cardstock hearts that came in a Donna Downey grab bag I got a while ago. I simply painted them pink and them stamped the faded "Dream" text.

I created the collage on this end using a Unity dress form stamp embossed with pink embossing powder. I also used a Hero Arts faded text stamp. I finsihed it off with the adorable pink daisy chain trim.

This side was decked out with K&Company dies from a little packet of goodies with all these adorable handcrafted themed paper die cuts.That's where the word create is from and the hand. I created the tulle flower, and added a little felt flower for the center.

And now I have an adorable little caddy to hold my paintbrushes. It coordinates perfectly with all the pink, purple and turquoise in my studio and I had SO much fun creating it. I'd love to know what you think or if you use this tute, send me a link. I'd love to see how you personalize it!

Project 365 {Week 4 & 5}

I'm doing my best at taking pics every day. Turns out a lot of pics I take are crafty pics of projects in progress. I don't really want to include those in my 365 because they get blogged anyway. So, I'm going to make a point of taking pics of other things every day. For now, here is Project 365 week 4 & 5 with a few days missing. Those crafty pics will make it onto my blog along with tutorials, later this week. So stay tuned. (All of this week's shots were taken with my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens, except the laundry room pic that was taken with my kit lens. Photos were minimally edited in Picnik).

Remember my one word for 2011 is Organization? Well laundry is my nemesis and much of the disorganization in our home revolves around too many clothes, clothes piled in baskets and an overflowing an inefficient laundry room. So, while Taylor takes a bath, I'm folding laundry and I spent last Sunday reorganizing and cleaning our laundry room.

My favorite dinner...pasta. I should really be Italian.

The next American Idol. Taylor started watching American Idol with us and felt the urge to set up an audition room in her bedroom. She's holding her number on her belly.

These are her judges. I must note this was totally unprompted and created all on her own. Ah, the imagination of a little girl. So precious.

And, in case you haven't already seen what a little drama girl she is, this pose and dress up was also totally unprompted. Even though we live in sunny Southern California, we had no intention of actually swimming when she decided to set up her own little beach in the living room.

And this was my shot when I realized a day had gone by without me reaching for my camera. Taylor was already in bed which left me with my beautiful calico as my subject.

I was struck by the irony of this beautiful blooming tree. Not sure what kind of tree this is, but when the city of Chicago was shut down this week due to severe snowstorms, I was walking from my office to my car and was taken aback by the beauty of these blossoms. The pure whiteness and shape reminded me of snowballs.
And this is a shot of a gorgeous desert sunset. When I'm sweltering in August in temps of 120 degrees, I'll look back at these shots and remember that it's the late winter/early spring weather that makes the area that I live in paradise.
And we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and did a little photo shoot with Taylor yesterday. This is one of my favorite shots from the day.

Remember, if you're doing a Project 365 of your own, add a comment with a link to your shots. Thanks for looking!

What to to With a Stretched Canvas?

If you've ever stared at a blank canvas in an arts and crafts store or on your work table and wondered what to do with it, then head on over to Crafts Unleashed and read my post about the versatility of stretched canvases. I share several of my favorite project ideas for using stretched canvases!

Project 365 {Week Three} *Still Catching Up*

I appear to be missing days. Hmmm...oh, well, I guess there's only 5 shots from week 3 and 2 of them were actually taken the same day! I certainly took more than 5 shots that week.

This was my first moon shot with my SLR and this shot made me fall even deeper in love with my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens that hubby gave me for Christmas. In my opinion, this lens (or the step up 50mm 1.4) is a must-have lens for anyone who owns an SLR. I couldn't have gotten this shot with either of my other 2 lenses. In fact, I think all of this week's shots were taken with this lens.

Another low-light scene in which my nifty-fifty came through for me. Taylor's learning how to play tic-tac-toe in this pic.

A birthday party for one of my BFFs. This was her desert and we all shared. It was sooo yummy.

Another moon shot taken outside the restaurant at the party.

Friday afterschool/work trip to Dairy Queen. There was a time when I wondered if Taylor would ever get to eat a Sundae from Dairy Queen due to her dairy allergy. Fortunately she outgrew her dairy allergy and had her first Dairy Queen Sundae 3 weeks ago.

Project 365 {Week Two} *Catch Up*

Yeah, time really got away from me this month! Ah well. It happens. It's life. But I am documenting it and I've been taking my Project 365 pics everyday, I just haven't been diligent in downloading, editing and posting. But here is Week Two...

This is Taylor's first Barbie. I have "issues" with Barbie. I think Barbie perpetuates to unrealistic expectations for girls and women to have unhealthy bodies and subsequently, unhealthy body image. Although, I played with Barbies as child, I swore I wouldn't let my daughter have Barbies in our house. I've adhered to that until Taylor was given a Barbie by a classmate at school as a Christmas gift. After several weeks of contemplation, I decided to allow her to play with Barbie. This pic was taken just before we opened it. I'm still a little torn about the decision, but ultimately, I cannot protect her from all negative influences in the world and it's my job as a parent and more importantly as a mother, to model healthy self esteem and body image so she doesn't feel the need to strive to become some sexualized, flawless looking female. (I warned you I had issues with Barbie ;) ).

A before pic of a corner of my craftroom before I started reorganizing.

Woo HOO! My first shipment of crafty goodness from Consumer Crafts for my first Crafts Unleashed Design Team project!

Taylor's babies (well, 3 of them at least). I discovered them when I went into her room to wake her for preschool. This is a common scene in our house.

Taking a moment to stop and smell the flowers.

These flowers don't smell. :) I used these on my Mixed Media Love Canvas. Tutorial for the flowers is here.

Getting Taylor involved in cleaning her room. She loves to vacuum and it's good for her sensory seeking and fullfils her need for heavy work and auditory stimulation. And, it fulfills my need to get her room vacuumed!

Well, that's all for Week Two. I hope you've enjoyed these snapshots of our life. Remember to add a link to your pics if you're participating in Project 365. Thanks for stopping by!

Thrifted Shutter Photo Display Tutorial {Thrifty Thursday}

I love the look of shutter photo displays and one of my goals is to print and display more photos in our home. I scooped up these shutters from a thrift store a couple of months ago for just a few dollars. I finally finished this project and I'll show you how I did it! If you don't have thrifted shutters, then you can always purchase some from a home improvement store.

For this project you'll need:

- shutters

- paint (I used house paint, but you could also use acrylic paint)

- paint brush (I used a 2 1/2 inch bristle brush)

- wire

- wire cutters

- photos to display

- mini clothes pins, paper clips or bind clips for hanging photos

This is what my shutter looked like when I bought it.

I got these paint samples from Home Depot. They were pre-mixed and were less than $3/bottle. One is black, the other is a pale blue.

I started by painting a coat of black paint over the shutter. I was going for a rustic look, so I intentionally left areas unpainted and was not "perfect" in my painting. Once dry, I flipped the shutter over and painted the other side. Be sure to open and close the shutter so that the slats don't dry closed and get stuck.

Next, I used a dry brush technique and painted a light, coat of the pale blue over the black paint. To do this, dip your brush in the blue paint and then paint on a scrap piece of newsprint, or a rag so that most of your paint is off your brush before you paint your shutter. Again, I left areas of the natural wood, unpainted, and I left lots of the black showing through to give it that rustic, layered look.
Once that coat was dry on both sides, I attached my wire that my photos would hang from.

I wrapped the wire around the edge of the shutter, and then thread it through the hooks that hold the dowels used to turn the shutter slats. I used three pieces of wire for each tri-fold shutter, so I could hang three rows of photos.

I'm using my finished display as a screen to hide some mismatched baskets that sit on top of my sewing station. You could also do this with shutters that are doors and use it as room divider or a screen to hide a cluttered corner.