Spray Painted Canvas

Materials: *Painters Canvas *1 roll of painters tape (splurge on a name brand tape that will stick well *1 can of spray paint *Scissors *An exacto knife or razorblade are helpful when trimming the painters tape from the cardstock but NOT essential *I used a piece of lace fabric on this canvas design but if you're doing your own design you won't need it I made this canvas for our baby daughter's room. I got the idea to spray paint a canvas from pinterest and then thought of what I wanted on the canvas. I bought a canvas at Michael's with a 40% off coupon and used cardstock paper (or you could use a manila file folder) to draw the different pieces that I needed for the design. It's helpful to draw your design ideas on a piece of scratch paper first and color in the areas that you are planning on being painted to make sure your idea will work out. I drew the designs I needed on pieces of cardstock and then CAREFULLY cut out the pieces and covered them in painters tape. Make sure to overlap the tape so it will peel off in one whole piece. Then, cut the extra painters tape off around each of your design pieces. I used the extra wide painters tape to make sure that the tape would peel off of the cardstock paper fairly easily. For the stars on my design I simply covered a small piece of cardstock in painters tape and then used a hole punch to cut out the pieces I needed. Then I carefully peeled the painters tape off of the holes that I punched out. For this canvas, I arranged some of the stars to resemble the Libra constellation because that is when our daughter is expected to arrive. Initially, the bottom of the canvas that is the ocean was plain white but it looked too plain to me so I put a piece of lace fabric over the bottom portion and made sure that it was pulled tight to the canvas. I did this by pulling it tightly around to the back of the canvas and used the painters tape to secure the fabric. Don't be shy with the tape!!! After your design pieces are peeled off of the cardstock then secure them in their desired position onto your canvas. Use your fingernail or something to gently scrape over the tape to make sure that it sticks to your canvas. Don't press too hard because you can stretch or rip the canvas. When you have every piece of your design secured on your canvas then you're ready to paint! I painted over the canvas but make sure you evenly coat it will spray paint. I did one coat, let it dry and then did another coat. Wait until the paint has totally dried before you peel the painters tape off. I used tweezers to peel the tape off.

Guest Book Quilt

This is a mini-version of the guest book quilt that I am going to make for our wedding. Guests will sign a square and then I will sew it together after the wedding. I wanted people to be able to see what I am going to do with the signed squares so I used the same fabric and double sided foam mounting tape to construct a mini-version of the quilt. For this smaller version I cut 1"X 1" fabric squares and attached them to one side of the foam mounting tape. I took a large piece of paper and drew a grid to make sure that the square stayed lined up accurately. Then I started attaching the squares starting at one corner and worked diagonally.

The full size quilt will be made up of squares that are 6" X 6" and I am ironing on parchment paper to the back of the squares to make the squares easier to write on. I think that I am going to cut the parchment paper so it'll wrap around to the front of the square to cover up a 1/2" around all four sides of each square so that nobody writes in the area that will be a seam. I did not create this quilt pattern myself but found it online.

Bride and Groom Signs

Bride and Groom Signs

Made with 2 grilling planks from the $ store and a soldering iron.

Paper Flower Crown - Flower Girl

Easy to make paper flower crown for a flower girl!

Materials Needed: 12 gauge floral wire ($3.99 at JoAnn's or Michael's), paper flowers ($6.50/dozen at Michael's with a 50% off coupon- I needed 18 flowers for this crown), 1 roll of floral tape (CHEAP!), and ribbon if you choose.

Instructions: I measured my flower girl's head and added approx. 3-4 inches to that measurement. Cut a piece of wire using that measurement. I would recommend using at least two pieces of wire to make it easier to secure the paper flowers later. Line up the ends of the wires you cut so that they are parallel to each other. Grab each end of the group of wires and start lightly twisting from one end. Keep twisting until all of the wire is twisted but allow for gaps in between the wires to help secure the flowers easier. Twist the two ends of the set of wires together to form a crown. You can set the crown on the flower girls head and kind of help bend it to better form to her head. The paper flowers have wire stems. Take the flowers and lay them out around the crown to plan your spacing. I also laid the flowers out and chose the best looking flowers for the front of the crown. I started at the front of the crown and I took the wire stem of the paper flower and wrapped it around the wire crown. I tried to wrap the wire stem in between the crown wires as well as around the set of the crown wires to make sure they were pretty secure. Once all of the flowers are attached, I put the crown on the flower girls head and wiggled and of the flowers around that looked out of place. Once it looked even I used green floral tape and tightly wrapped it around the group of crown wires to better secure the flowers. Then, I added ribbon to the back of the crown.