Silhouette Ornaments - Handmade Holidays, Part 1

So here it is, my first project in the "Handmade Holidays" - Silhouette Ornaments.

These ornaments were inspired by 2 things, most obviously the Silhouette Ornaments created by Anjeanette at Roots and Wings.

And the reason these struck such a cord with me:

I LOVE silhouettes!!! I've wanted silhouettes of the kids for what feels like forever. I thought about faking them in photoshop, and then a friend volunteered to paint them for me, but then - at a local fair, we found someone doing authentic-hand-cut silhouettes. The stars had aligned, the kids sat long enough and I finally got silhouettes.

So I used them as the basis for our ornaments by scanning them into the computer. Then I created a whole page of each of the kids, with their name and 2009.

Also pictured above, 3" circles, purchased at AC Moore for $.25 each, scrapbook paper, I think I ended up needed 4 sheets and the ever useful modge podge.

Up next - cutting lots and lots of circles. Circles for the background, the matte effect and of course of the silhouettes themselves. (Excuse my antiquated craft tools - their like 10 years old, but they work and I don't like replacing what works...)

With 72 circles cut... (I was making 12 ornaments with 3 circles per side) I began layering the pieces.

 

 

 

One side of the ornament features our daughter, the other side our son. I had to be careful make sure while working on the flip side, that I kept them head to head so that when I drilled the hold for the string, I didn't have one facing up and the other facing down.

Speaking of drilling the hole - it's time to fire up the power tools.

 

And here we have the finished ornaments...

I can't wait 'till we put up our tree so I can photograph these in there "natural habitat."

My mind is racing with more ideas along this general them, they were so easy to make... I can see doing copies of school pictures, family portraits, general holiday themes, and even turning them into gift tags to go along with holiday gifts and goodies. Looks like I need to get back over to AC Moore to get additional 3" circles. Keep your eyes out for projects like this, and bug me if you don't see them.

Handmade Holidays

I've been inspired to start a series, Handmade Holidays...

Not sure how it will turn out, how many parts will come to be, but hopefully, announcing a series (to both of my readers... LOL) will motivate me to keep up with it.

I've got a lot of things planned, some are gifts, some are decorations and some are both. My apologies in advance if you are a grandparent, aunt, uncle, godparent or friend of our family, you're likely to be getting a preview of your Christmas gifts. Proceed at your own risk.

Kitty Litter Screen

Prior to being parents to the 2 best kids in the world, we became parents to the 2 best cats in the world. I'm not just bragging here, ok, well maybe a little... but anyone who meets these cats can't believe what amazing animals they are.

Meet Otto and Wojo (Otto is the long haired red tabby, and Wojo is the russian blue.)

Please forgive their mild annoyed appearance, I'd woken them from a nap while taking the picture. Something that you can only do with these guys if you're going to snuggle or feed them. Taking a picture is NOT an acceptable reason to wake them from a nap.

About 3 months ago Otto was diagnosed with diabetes and he has arthritis in his hips. These two factors have made it difficult for him to get in and out of our old litter box, the kind with the privacy hood.

So we had to get something very easy for him to get in, turn around and do his business - the problem, now we have to see him do his business and no one wants to see that.

Just imagine watching that game while watching a cat do it's business... no thank you.

So - thanks to the 4 shutters I scored at the Habitat for Humanity Restore today... I was able to construct privacy screens to place around their litter box.

Not only will it give them privacy but we're hoping it will cut down on the litter scatter as well. Since I got the shutters from the ReStore, it was really cost effective too. $5 per pair, 4 pairs... $20. Plus I've got 1 panel left over that I'm plotting a use for.

At some point I might paint or do something to dress them up but for now, the immediate problem has been addressed.

(Told ya the ReStore finds were already on their way to being used!!!)

Lets take another look at those sweet kitty cats...  

Seriously. Sweetest. Cats. Ever.

ReStore Visit.

I'm giddy... last month they opened a Habitat for Humanity ReStore 5 miles from our house and I visited it today. We've been to a Restore before, there is one in the next town over, but it is on the opposite side of town and the only reason to head out that way - is for the ReStore.

For those of you who haven't been to a Restore or know what it is - well first, let me say, you're missing out. It is basically a thrift store with a home improvement angle. People/contractors donate items either reclaimed from renovations or left over from building/improvements. You can get everything from appliances and cabinets to tiles and flooring... plus light fixtures, bathroom fixtures, molding, and all other kinds of odds and ends. Some slightly used, some more than used and quite a lot of it, brand new.

And all proceeds from the ReStore, go to Habitat for Humanity. You can learn more - check it out here.

Here are a few photos from my visit today:

 

And here is what I picked up:

4 sets of interior shutters, a box of glazed porcelian stone tiles and a set 3 silver bowls. All for under $40. Everything is already on its way to being wonderful projects.

Some Dreams...

Ok - so I'll be the first to admit, this project is a bit on the mushy side. But it is for our master bedroom and if there is any room in the house where you shouldn't be afraid to go mushy, it is the bedroom.

I wanted a sign to go over our bed. Something romantic, but not overly so. Lets face it - we aren't really the romantic type. We went to Disney on our honeymoon...

Being ever budget "aware" and desperate to reduce some of the "junk" we've accumulated over the years, I decided to just grab some of the scrap wood we have in the garage. The only issue, it was already stained, nothing some sandpaper couldn't handle.

Ta-daaaah

Next up: Paint.  I picked 3 colors, a brown for the base, cream for the 2nd coat and a soft green as the top coat.

And here is where I stopped taking pictures. I'm still getting the hang of this...

But I can talk about what came next. I wanted the sign to have age, character... so I roughed it up a bit prior to adding the words. Then, I printed out my quote to use as a reference for my lettering. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Here is a close up of the detail:

You may wonder why there are 2 pieces of wood, having not done this before, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Figured it was easier to make 2 as I went along than to start over if I messed up along the way. As luck would have it, I got it right the first time. So now I've got a roughed up green/cream/brown piece of wood and nothing to do with it.

Colorful Clips

This is one of those projects that I'm not sure anyone will ever have a use for. We close our opened bags of chips and such with clothes pins. I've gotten sick of looking at boring clothes pins. Like I said, who has issues with boring clothes pins???

Me apparently.

So I just cut strips of craft/scrapbook paper and decopaged them to the clothes pins to create these:

 

But after showing these to my mom and a few friends, they mentioned they would like a few. So I'm going to be making them between now and Christmas and using them to secure holiday treats for friends, coworkers and the kids teachers. 

BOO!

Given the fact that it is November, I bet that really scared you.

Ok, so this is late. About a month late.

I ran out of time to blog about this, but I didn't think that made it un-blog-worthy.

These are just simple wooden letters from Michaels, I painted them black and then decopaged a bunch of different Halloween papers onto them. Some of the scenes I die cut, others I just threw on there. As a final touch, I sanded around the edges.

And even though it is November, I've still got them up on the mantel. Halloween may be over, but I just love this "BOO"

Bunk Bed Book Shelves

Edited to add: a part of DIY DAY at A Soft Place to Land


In theory, the kids are in bunk beds now. I say in theory, because apparently, my son hasn't gotten the memo and has decided to stay in his crib. (How they ended up in the same room is a story I'm not sure I've told, but if I haven't, I should - it involves another creative solution.)

Well, for years, I've wanted, no... Coveted shelves like these:

(Available at Landofnod.com)

The problem with all the ones I've seen have included the wrong proportions, the wrong color and lets fact it, the wrong price. (They seem to fall right around $50 per shelf.)

I've wanted to make them myself but, just had quite enough motivation. Well, I saw them on another blog this week and had to get off my butt to make them! Here is what inspired me... Traci over at Beneath My Heart made these for her little boy's room. Our end results were different and the way we got there was as well - but she did a MUCH better job of documenting her process so you might want to check her's out instead of mine.

So here is what I started with:

Pictured is (See, I'm starting to think like a blogger and take photos of my process!)

• 2 - "French Corners" - I wouldn't know what they were if my A.C. Moore receipt didn't tell me. They are the plaque looking things in the background.
• A whole bunch of balsa wood, 4 pieces that are 4 inches wide, 4 pieces that are 1 inch wide, 4 that are half an inch and 4 that are about a quarter of an inch.
• Gorilla Glue Epoxy
• Keyhole picture hangers
• Red paint

All the materials for 2 sets of the shelves ended up costing $37.41... THIRTY SEVEN dollars and FORTY ONE cents people. Less than $20 per shelf. Oh I'm so happy I made these myself and didn't spend $100 to compromise on something that wasn't perfect.

Next, I glued the 1 inch, half inch and quarter inch pieces together to give the front edges more of molding look. Yes, I could have BOUGHT molding. But they didn't have 24" molding at A.C. Moore and I don't have the time to run to 50, or 2, places to get what I need. Sometimes, you've just got to do what you've got to do.

Then I glued the bottom of the shelf and the back of the self to the sides of the shelf (that I cut earlier, without taking a picture... hey, I'm not a perfect blogger.) The ends are the "french corner things" cut in half. And put the "homemade molding" along the front of the bottom and a few inches up.

All that was followed by sanding, a coat of red paint, sanding, a coat of red paint, sanding and a coat of red paint. I'm a big believer in sanding between coats, it really makes all the difference.

And then, 2 coats of spray varnish. Finally, we installed the keyholes on the back.

Here is a finished shelf:

A view of the kids beds before:

And after, with the bunk bed book shelves installed (plus some reading lamps courtesy of Ikea)

Now, in theory, both kids have books within reach while snug in their beds. Does it get any better... Well, I guess it would be better if my son was actually sleeping in his big boy bed and not still in his crib. 

2 months

This is one of those projects that I thought was going to take 2 weeks. I was so wrong, it ended up taking 2 months. I've wanted a new kitchen table for years but it just wasn't in the budget.

I've thought about ways to update this table and chairs, thought it would look adorable painted cream with a brown glaze. But that wasn't the look I was going for - hopefully someone is - the table and chairs are on craigslist.

What I wanted was a round pedestal table, painted black. But the ones that I've seen were priced anywhere from $500 up to $1000. Like I said, so not in the budget.

Thankfully, my mother in law had an old oak pedestal table, it was smaller than I wanted but it came with a leaf that would give us the space we needed. Best part - it was free. We decided benches would be a much better way to go for the sides - a table can only fit so many chairs around it, but with benches - think of the number of butts you can have on those suckers!!!

The table was free, the benches I found on craigslist after searching for weeks for just what I wanted for just $75. (A bit more than I wanted to spend but they were totally worth it.)

I wanted to keep the top of the benches natural, they would have matched the cart we have in the kitchen, but after stripping the finish off, I realized it the quality of the wood wasn't that good and no matter how I sanded, they didn't look good.

But - it doesn't matter - because I'm THRILLED with how everything turned out.

Now, my quest for the perfect chairs for the heads of the table continues. I'm thinking something ladder back.

Nest or Nasty?

So Bug's Halloween costume is not really turning out all that well... I'm not sure people are going to know she is a bird.

So I was thinking if I made something resembling a nest for her to carry in place of one of those stupid plastic jack-o-lanterns. But I'm not sure if this is looking like a nest or something nasty???

What have I gotten myself into? 2 days 'till Halloween and I'm so far away from having things ready for trick or treating.