Fall Banner

Fall is my favorite season! After the craft day was over, I got started on my fall banner. I used the paper bags from the grocery store and started cutting out the banner. 

September Craft Day

After taking the summer off, monthly craft days are back on! I love crafting and I love fall, so crafting for fall decor is perfection for me.

We had some beautiful fall crafts being made yesterday. Check it out:

5x5 Mixed Media Art

Full Sail University is hosting a Summer Art Show called 5x5 @5pm. All we had to do was pickup a canvas, create an original work of art and submit it for the show next month. It will be available for sale where all proceeds will go to benefitting the FS students. 

So naturally, I reserved a 5x5 canvas and created a mixed media piece which I always enjoy doing. I started by choosing the scrapbook paper I wanted and cut out a design I liked. I began using Mod Podge and glued each piece down. I decided not to paint any part of it, so I used paper even around the edges. 

Then I sanded down the corners and edges of the canvas and distressed it with an ink pad. I followed up with a Q-tip and ink highlighting the lines. Finally, I finished off with a brown ink pad and just spread it across the entire canvas to give it a more distressed tone.   

May Craft Day

May's craft day was a mix of crafts. The official craft project was to create a magnetic chalk board out of a cookie sheet pan, but basically, anything craft that's being worked on is fair game.

The goal of a craft party is to have fun. One of my friends couldn't make it last month, but she purchased all the supplies for the Spring Bird. So that's what she worked on. My other friend and I worked on the chalkboard project, while others just came to socialize and enjoy company.

April Craft Day

Now that we're in May, I feel a little behind for not posting the pictures of the April Craft Day from a few weeks ago.

The focus was the Spring Bird I had made a few weeks ago; however, only two of us worked on the bird, while others brought their own craft to work on. I focused on making the second bird as a gift.

I enjoyed making the second bird so much that I my original one for sale on Etsy, as well as the option for a custom one.

Here are a few shots of what everyone else worked on.

Spring Bird

Create a cute spring bird that decorates your home. Super easy and fun to do. 

Here's what you'll need:

• Wooden bird (Michael's has it for $2.99)
• Scrapbook paper
• Mod Podge
• Gesso (optional)
• Varnish (optional)
• Sandpaper
• Black inkpad
• Q-tip
• Buttons
• Glue Dots

First, apply Gesso to the wood to allow for better adhesion of the scrapbook paper (this step is optional). Then, begin cutting out different shapes of scrapbook paper and applying them one by one on the bird where you want them with the Mod Podge. 

Once you have covered each part of the bird with the paper, wait a few minutes for it to dry and begin sanding down the edges to trim off any extra paper and give a white border to the bird. 

Then, get the inkpad and start rubbing it along the lining of the bird that you just sanded down to give a distressed look. After, I outlined the paper with a marker and went over it with a Q-tip and ink to smudge it and bring out each individual paper. 

Finally, I finished it off with a varnish to seal and protect the paper and then added the buttons for eyes with Glue Dots.

March Craft Day!

As always, my monthly craft day is intended to bring ladies together to enjoy each other's company and craft. Many times people bring their own craft to make and this month was no different. I was the only one that crafted the Pinterest craft and I loved the way it came out. 

Nikita designed and painted this cute picture frame.

This was Felicia's first time at crafting and she designed a frame.

My fellow crafter, Kelsey, worked on a furniture piece she's redoing. 

After what seemed like forever, I finally had finished wrapping and gluing the twine onto my white letter. 

I made the flower from two different felt colors and then glued the buttons in the middle. I love the way it turned out!

Distressing my table

I finally did it! I painted and distressed my dining room table and I didn't hate it =)

I've been talking to my hubby about painting the table white for quite some time. Then, I wanted to add a little character to it by distressing it. Surprisingly, he didn't object. That, however, was months ago BUT we finally got around to doing it last week.

The process took about 5 days, but it was worth it. Here's how it went.

This was the original color of our wood:

The first thing we did was sand the entire table with 100 grit sandpaper. 

Next, we wiped all the dust off really well with a moist towel (NOT WET).

The next step was to paint the table white. We chose Swiss Coffee as a result of a Youtube tutorial that used the same color. It worked well.

We did two coats of that 2 hours apart from each other to let it sit in. When it was dry, we started distressing it.

After we got it where we wanted it, we stained it.

Following the instructions on the bottle, we stained it with two coats 15 minutes apart. We then waited 72 hours before putting on the extremely toxic glaze that seals it. It was a necessary evil.

I used gloves and a face mask while using the toxic products. I hated not being able to go non-toxic or natural for this, but unfortunately, I found nothing.

Here are the products we used:

Painted pottery

Our first song

Yet another inspired Pinterest craft! Here I printed out the lyrics to At Last by Etta James, since that was our first dance when my hubby and I were married. I framed it in a black frame and have it in our bedroom. I absolutely love this craft! 

January Craft Day!

First craft day of the year was based on a Valentines PINspiration. We had a great time even though I stared at my wooden piece for 3 hours without doing anything. It took me FOREVER to finally come up with something and I actually really liked the end result.

Creativity takes some people a little longer =)

Katherine worked on a potato stamp for V-day

Hilda created a V-day picture frame

Kim created a V-day art piece

My V-day craft project =)