Mirror, Oh Funky Mirror, On The Wall January 10, 2012

As you know, I’m OBSESSED with funky shaped frames and that also includes mirrors.  Here’s a couple I found on the cheap, I mean really cheap, like both for less than $10.00!  Throw a little spray paint on them and their transformed!

I dug deep, to the bottom of the pile of mirrors and mirrors to find this gold gem!

There was something about her that was reminiscent of Beauty & The Beast, which just happens to be my favorite Disney movie!

But that textured oval thing is so strange isn’t it? I wonder what the person who designed this mirror meant for it to be?

Nothing a little sparkly brooch and some silver spray paint couldn’t fix though.

I added a bright pink ribbon, this one just happens to be from the LOFT bags. . . I always save those ribbons from LOFT shopping bags because they are the most gorgeous colors, I have a big old jar full!

Didn’t she turn out so beautiful? I think it’s a mirror you would totally see in Beauty and The Beast, or Snow White or one of those Disney princess movies!

I also found this beast!

It’s a little too gothic looking for my taste but I knew some bright spray paint could fix that!

I went bright cobalt blue!

And flipped it upside down. I think that softened it up a bit.

GORGEOUS!  Well, maybe not gorgeous, but fun, right?

Don’t be afraid to buy something a little ugly and throw a fun color of spray paint on it.  You’ll probably create a masterpiece and love it!

Smiles!

Megan

Who Needs Bakerella. . . January 3, 2012

When you have Aunt Jody?  (and my wonderfully creative sister, Kate)

Okay. . . maybe we needed Bakerella for the idea. . .snowman cookies.

But you have to admit, we’ve got some mad decorating skills! Remember this adventure? Or our adorable cake  pops?

This year Aunt Jody went to Bakerella for inspiration again. . .

We had regular sprinkles, snowflake sprinkles, christmas tree sprinkles, circle sprinkles, candy cane sprinkles, chocolate covered sunflower seed sprinkles and we even had Tic Tacs!

How adorable are these?  Snowmen with stocking hats and ear muffs and big smiles. They were too cute to eat.

Aunt Jody had trays and trays and trays for us to decorate!

I got  a little creative, can you see Rudolf and Santa’s elves?

Thank you for another great holiday cookie decorating night Aunt Jody!

Smiles!

Megan

What a HOOT! December 29, 2011

Oh geez, what a headline!!  It’s just proof. . .I’ve become obsessed. . . with OWLS!

It started with this ring I saw on Etsy.

Then this fabulous necklace I purchased from a boutique while on a girls trip to Denver.

And now I can’t stop, owls are everywhere and I can’t stop photographing them or “pinning” them! I’m in love! These cuties were at my favorite thrift/junk/antique store, Back In The Day, in Omaha.

And so were these awful things but I think they are so cute!

There’s “Owls on a Branch”.

And an owl on a branch made to be a jewelry holder from Urban Outfitters.

They also had an owl photo frame (not found on their website). . .

. . . and another owl jewelry holder, I mean just search “OWLS” on their website and soak in the goodness. So cute!

There were glass blown owls at the Hot Shops Holiday Open House. . .

and original vinyl and wood art owls too.

I even found very scary owls at Goodwill.

And flying owls on lamps at The Afternoon.

And all you hunters know where to find these owls. . . that’s right, your local Cabela’s!

An owl and Christmas themed luggage tag, oh my stars!

How adorable are these handmade felt owl ornaments?

I even found owl ornaments made out of toilet paper rolls! Feliz Navidad!

This is just precious, found on one of the DIY blogs I follow and now I can’t find the actual post!

I saw these at Anthropologie. . .

. . . and absolutely fell in love with this guy.  The colors are gorgeous and he’s winking, how clever!  If I had a million dollars I’d own all of these but I just own one, and taking photos of all others suffices. . . for now!  Happy Whoolidays!

Smiles,

Megan

Handmade Holiday Banners December 18, 2011

I’ve always been intrigued by how Miss Lynn from Create Breathe designs with so many layers and textures and colors.

Like this banner for her home.

Or this happy birthday banner full of lace, paper, jewels, buttons, yarn and probably 10 other things I’m not seeing!

Or these gorgeous planers.  I always like how free she is with her stitching and the texture that adds to her designs.

My holiday banners were inspired by Miss Lynn’s work. . . I think I could have added a few more layers of texture but am really really loving how they turned out!  And they go so well with the yarn wreath I posted about recently.  The big frame used to be an old screen door I got for free at the Habitat For Humanity Re-Store. I cut out all the old screen and painted/stained it.  It now hangs above my couch, fun to decorate with wreaths and banners.

I cut out triangles from thick watercolor paper I had in my stash, I actually had all the supplies in my stash!

A little mock-up design.

Then I used the paper triangles as templates, cut out red canvas triangles and glued one on top of the paper.

Then I took to my sewing machine! I chose white thread so it would contrast against the green rick rack and red canvas and lace.

Next I sewed on the white pom trim which secured the red lace as well.

I mocked up the banner in InDesign so I could pick a fun font and get the size right.

I printed out all the necessary letters and cut them out.

Placing them exactly where I want them.

I ended up having to cut them out and trace around the letters with a soft pencil because transfer paper didn’t work well on the canvas.

And then I painted in the outline with white acrylic, and I forgot to take a photo!

Such a beautiful mess of paint and trim and lace and coffee and pencils and tape, I love my old drafting table! I lined the banner pieces up, ready to string them together.

I used a little hole punch typically used in book making and strung some yarn through.

As you can see, I glued a second canvas triangle to the back of the banner after I had everything stitched.  I also used one continuous piece of yarn so that as I use decorate with this in different places I can adjust the width of it.

Always have to add buttons!

I used hot glue to attach the buttons. I love the different button designs.

And there you have it!

Here’s a mock-up for the second one. Again, all items I had in my stash. This time I just used green Canson paper.  It has a little texture to it.

Cut them out and stitched them up. I thought the lighting was kind of cool coming through the mini-blinds.

I picked out a font and printed them out again from InDesign but because this was paper I was able to use transfer paper to trace the letter on the banner.

I used prisma colors to fill in the letters.

Hot-glued the buttons on and strung it with yarn.

And there you go!

Such a fun project that didn’t take a lot of time or pre-prep.

What hand-made decorations have you created this season?  Leave a link below, I’d love to see!

Smiles!

Megan

Local Artists at Hot Shops December 4, 2011

We wandered over to Hot Shops’ holiday open house today, I think this is the 3rd year in a row we’ve attended this, we have our favorite artists now like Crystal Forge, the glass blowing studio; or DarZart, the puzzle piece lady; the paper-marbeling corner (which they didn’t have this year, sad) and the Prisma Color smudger guy (he wasn’t there either!).  But we met some new artists this year and now have a couple of new favorites.

This is by Brian from Very Vector. His Etsy shop is closed right now and unfortunately he doesn’t have a website but you MUST keep looking for his shop to open.  His design is clean and simple and a bit retro. He screen prints on wood panels amongst other mixed media designs.

Aren’t these tea towels just gorgeous?  We watched Kitt Hamersky in The Fiber Studio work the huge looms.  I just can’t even imagine preparing a loom to even weave the simplest of designs.  Such preparation and patience. The red and white pinwheel design was my favorite.

Here’s a huge loom midway through a project which was an easy one, only 8 pedals and 2 different colors of thread. Would you have the patience to thread each of those strings, prepping the loom?  I loved the colorful spools of thread in the background. Would be cool to decorate with an entire wall of wooden shelves and huge spools of colorful thread.

This is the pattern she was using, watching her work the loom with her feet pushing the pedals and hands weaving the spools back and forth was like watching someone play the organ.  There was almost something very zen about it.

ROYGBIV

DarZart, aka (by us) as the puzzle piece lady, was working on a whole lot of baseballs. I think she had about 20 canvases in progress of painting, perfect for a little boys room, don’t you think?

Look really close where the seams of the baseball are, can you see the puzzle pieces she’s painted over? They add so much texture to her art. If you visit her studio at Hot Shops she has a giant turtle painted beautiful shades of green and textured with puzzle pieces, it’s SO COOL!

Happened upon a gorgeous photograph of a Princess Lasertron design on the runway during Omaha Fashion Week from G Thompson Higgins Photography.

I fell in love with these little guys from Crystal Forge, the glass blowing studio.  Glass artists have SO MUCH patience, I could never do it. They just keep heating and rolling the glass, swirling, heating, blow through the little tube, heat again and roll again, repeat repeat repeat. Wow, such an appreciation for the labor and vision involved in these creations.

If you’ve never been to Hot Shops you must go! They have an open house in the spring too. Check it out.

What local art shows do you like to attend?

Smiles!

Megan

More Funky Frames November 21, 2011

 

 

 

 

I’ve shared this beauty with you before.

But what I didn’t show you was HOW I turned it into this funky yellow frame.

This is my secret, ha! Hang it on the old clothesline and spray away!

I shared a bit about this little treasure from my Mom awhile back.

So I went to town with the blue spray paint.  Now, this method doesn’t work quite as well, the fibers in the towel always stick to the frame because I’m too impatient to wait until it’s 10000% dry.

And there ya go.  I love it mixed in with the funky red mirror.

I’m obviously obsessed with frames right now, are you? Where do you find them?

Smiles!

Megan

Pretty Packaging Makes the Gift November 17, 2011

I’ve posted on packaging before where I showed packaging of purchases from some of my favorite handmade artists and bloggers including Funky Vintage Lovely and Allora Handmade. So I thought I’d share a little packaging I created recently for some cute little gifts.

I love these little sautered pendents with clever sayings that you see everywhere. And I love smiley faces, do you remember this post about the smiley face cookie jar?

These look great as necklaces or could be fun as key chains or maybe even incorporated into some piece of creative work so I wanted to let my friend decide what to do with it!

I had all the supplies already in my stash, it was just a matter of picking out fun ribbon and matching different textured papers with it. I glued the papers together, poked 2 holes to run the ribbon through, tied it up cute and cut the ends, that’s a trick my Mom taught me. It’s a good way to “finish” ribbon or bows.

I loved the ribbon and paper colors so much I didn’t want to hide them in the wrapping so  I just used some brown bag paper, wrote a little note on the inside, folded it over and hot glued colorful buttons on. Fun, cheery and made from scraps of things I already had on hand!

How do you use your scraps from all your creative projects?

Smiles!

Megan

Yarn Is In & So Are Yarn Wreaths! November 13, 2011

Yarn. . .from knitted scarves and hats to wreaths to window decorations, yarn is everywhere lately! While out shopping this weekend, I even saw it used at the GAP!

Big display wall at the gap. Love the colors. These photos don’t do it justice!

Orange yarn wrapped around screws.And REALLY close up! Now I know you’re all spending countless hours on Pinterest lately and cursing yourself after 2 hours fly by and you’ve filled your “Creative Ideas” board with even more to-do creative projects. Maybe some of those projects were even yarn wreaths like this:

Or all these beauties on Etsy!  I love all the colors so I attempted one on my own.

I was in such a hurry to get supplies so I could wrap this baby during a football game that I only had time to go to Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, their foam bases were all squared so I found this hay based one for $3.99 and decided to use it and keep the plastic on otherwise it would have been a HUGE mess!

So i wrapped and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped. . . it took about half a football game! I found the vintage hot plate at a junk vendor’s table, it was the inspiration for my creation!  I grabbed some holiday ribbon I had left from last year and loosely wrapped the hot plate to hang in the middle of the wreath.

Added a few vintage looking accent pieces I found 50% off at Hobby Lobby. . .

And voila! There it is. I think it turned out pretty cute. Will probably hang on my front door over the holidays!

I think a foam base would have been easier to wrap because the yarn probably would have stayed in place better. So my advice, try the foam, not the plastic covered hay!

Have you created a yarn wreath yet? What are your tips or tricks?

Smiles!

Megan

Hydrangea Love! October 23, 2011

These three little hydrangea bushes started out tiny and green this year.

And they blossomed into these blue beauties, just gorgeous all summer long!  But now fall has come and it was time to clip the blooms and get them ready for winter.

I hated to throw the gorgeous blooms out so I found a few containers around the house like this one above and tried a couple different things.  This is the before with old cracked pears. . .

And here’s the after, a white boat perfect for floating hydrangeas! Isn’t the color of violet they turned just gorgeous?

I like it with the green and yellow in my kitchen.

I had a couple square, glass vases and made a little centerpiece.  I’m in love with the color!  Hopefully they will last awhile, it will make me smile!

Smiles!

Megan

 

 

 

 

 

Beach Wedding Memory Box October 16, 2011

Before I start building a memory box, I gather all the items I think I will decorate it with and make sure they look good together.  Just like this snapshot below.

Doesn’t it just make you want to sail away to a secluded island with bright blue water and pink, sandy beaches, a cold beer and your best friends? Oh geez, I guess I’m needing a vacation! We are cruising to the Southern Caribbean in January and I just can not wait!

My dear friend Chrissy is basking in the warm sunlight on a swanky beach somewhere in Mexico right now with her new husband Scott and their families. Well, Chrissy is probably sitting by the pool  They got married yesterday and I designed this box around their beach wedding.  I was able to give it to her a few weeks ago at her shower and she loved it, yay!

I knew I wanted to use bright blue textured paper to represent ocean water and a creamy colored papery and accents to represent sand but had no idea what else to do. So, I wandered around hobby lobby for awhile and it just came to me!

My favorite thing about this box is the “rope”. It’s actually trim from the section in Hobby Lobby where you get all the stuff to make window dressings.

I kept the inside of the box really simple.

I really like how the glass beads bring that glassy water feeling to the piece and seriously, how cute is the fishing net with the big star fish stuck in it?

So happy for you Chrissy & Scott! Now I can’t wait to see all the photos from the wedding!

Smiles!

Megan