Stencil Wall

Two weeks before I went into pre-term labor (@ 30 weeks! Thankfully we stopped the baby from coming!)  I decided to stencil my living room wall.  It took me a week start to finish to do the stencil and then another week to find the frames and order the prints.  As you can see, I still have 2 prints left, but one is waiting for my baby girl's newborn picture, and the other is a wedding picture that's stored on an external hard drive, and it just isn't happening at this moment.  Someday soon.

Anyway, here's pictures, start to finish of the project.  I am so happy with how it turned out! 

  It took a week because I had to paint once, and then wait to do the next stencil till the paint dried. The stencil was just one of the big designs, and one of the smaller ones. So it took a while. Oh, and I have a 15 month old boy running around. I painted the small wall to the right with a darker tone and will paint the entry way a light gray as soon as doctors permit. (I die every time I look at the entryway I just want it painted so bad!) 

I used a color from Restoration Hardware called "Silver Sage" for the base color, and the stencil is a half shade lighter and high gloss paint of the same silver sage.  

Here's the finished project! The frames all came from Hobby Lobby, white and vintage, just like I wanted. I also got the stencil from Hobby Lobby, but you can find some really fun ones on Etsy too. I'm excited to continue to exchange out the fun pictures we take at Barrus Photography throughout the years. I finished hanging the frames friday night, and ended up at the hospital 5 hours later, so I guess you could say this was a "labor intensive" project! :)

Helicopter mobil

Remember the baby shower that I threw with a helicopter theme? Well I used the extra helicopters from the nut cups and I made this helicopter Mobile for the same baby boys room to match his green and gray Argyle quilt! It was so easy and turned out cute. Just an embroidery hoop, some twine and a matching green ribbon to tie it all together.

Argyle Quilt, Monster Towel, Helicopter Shower and MORE!

I've been nesting with my HUGE burst of 2nd trimester energy! Don't you love that? Nesting for everything in my house EXCEPT MY BABY GIRL! What the?! So, here are a few fun things I've done lately...

1st, I don't have a picture of the finished product, but I'll post more later, let's just say, I have a new living room! (In the 1st picture there's a sneak peek of the new couch, and Scooter's rightful place on his throne and in the picture of Max holding his blankie you can see my new chairs!) 

2nd, my best friend Erin is expecting her 2nd baby, first boy, so I threw her a shower.  She picked her nursery colors as gray, green and white, so a few days before the shower I woke up feeling bad that I hadn't made this cute little boy anything yet, so I whipped up this cute little argyle baby quilt.  It went quick and turned out really cute! 

 A close up on the ric rac and the edging.

 The back turned out really cute.  I machine quilted and binded this one. 

 Next are a few of the shower preperations, I made this really cute invitation with wording to tie in with her husbands profession, which is a helicopter pilot.  So I wanted peanuts or trail mix to go with our shower, just like you get on a plane, so I made these cute boxes on my mom's cricut to put the trail mix in.  

 I also made the most amazing (can I brag about my own food?!) fruit tarts! They were so easy! I used store bought sugar cookie dough and this recipe for the frosting (3 ingredients!) and threw some fruit on top. They were a HIT!

 Now, I've mentioned before that my little love, Maxwell is OBSESSED with his crocheted blanket that my mom made.  She so happened to have an extra skein of yarn, so I made him a little "by-my-side" that's a lot smaller and easier to transport around.  This was my frist attempt at crocheting a blanket and it turned out pretty cute I think.  Max loves it, and that's all that matters right!?

 We've talked about Max being our little monster, he's grown out of his infant towels and LOVES bath time and being wrapped up after, it's so cute, when we put him on the towel he tries to hurry and grap the sides and wrap himself up to get warm.  Usually Jeffrey walks around the house with a little snuggle bath boy after. So, what better to walk (soon Max will be walking!) around the house with than his very own MONSTER TOWEL!? 

 I just bought a towel, and hand towel of the blue and a wash cloth of the green and white and whipped this up last night while we watched our usual shows. Too bad Max is sleeping currently, or I'd have him model it for you! 

St. Patrick's Day Cards

I found this cute "Lucky Charm" stamp in the dollar bin at Michaels just before St. Patrick's Day and thought I would make a couple of cards.

This one I found this great vintage image online at www.craftysecrets.com and thought this would be a sweet card to match the sweet little girl I gave it to. The clover is made from the Fashionable Hearts embosslit from Stampin Up. I folded the heart to make the clover look 3-D. I also used MS lace punch for the boarder and PTI large scallop for the left side. I used Spellbinders scallop rectangle to frame the picture and stamp.

This card was more for boys so no cute little girl on the front. I used the Sizzix Framelits die to make the green frame around the clover.

Easter Ties

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Easter! It's my most favorite holiday for so many reasons! I love spring and a newness of life. I love all the trees turning green and the tulips, oh the tulips at Temple Square! We got married in the spring, (next month will be 3 years!) I love everything about this time of year. So, I decided to do a little craft project for my nieces and nephews because I love them more than I love Easter. There are 9 boys and 2 girls in the family, so I went with ties and a cute skirt to match for the 2 girls. I think they turned out pretty cute! (I especially love my darling little model!)

The tie pattern came over from Ashley at Make it and Love it, if you want one you can get one here. Thanks!

Few More Cards

Here are a few cards I made and gave away as gifts this Christmas. I used some SU paper and SU stamps.

This one is all PTI - Friends til the End.

Gone Fish'n

This card is for my son's birthday in February. He loves the outdoors. I cut the fish from Potpourri Basket cartridge. I decided to make it look rustic and cut the fish from some thin metal. I likes how I could bend the fish to look very realistic. My husband was very generous to donate one of his flies to add to the card. I love the black feathers!

Lucky Sam

Our friends recently had a baby boy. Here is a card I made. The cut is from A Child's Year Cartridge. Sam has a very cute older sister, so I said on the inside, Lucky Sam, because he is very lucky to be born into such a wonderful family.

Puttin Out the Fire

All our grandson wanted for his 3rd birthday was a fire truck. He got some for Christmas, in fact he got one that is battery powered. His birthday party was fireman themed so I made this cute card for him. The fire truck is from Independence Day Cartridge and the clouds and fence are PTI.

Birthday Lollipop Card

This is a birthday card for a sweet little girl who turned 3. Here is my take on the cute lollipop card. All PTI stamps used.

Also is the cute bag I stamped to match the card which the gift was in.

Get Well Cards

Here are a couple of get well cards I made for some friends who were under the weather.

Valentines Card

I got this fun die that is the popular window frame. It is made from Poppy Stamps. It seems to be pretty popular as I have started to see a lot of cards using it. The background stamp is from PTI Table Service.

Son's Birthday Card

My son's birthday is in January. He loves the snow so I made him a snowflake card. He is so funny. He always thinks I don't put much time into his cards so I proceeded to explain how I printed the paper myself, cut the snowflakes from the PTI die and then added glitter to the snowflakes rubbing in the glitter so it would sparkle. I embossed the SU stamp from Perfectly Penned. I added a black button and some twine. Then there was the inside... After I got all done explaining all that I did to make the card, I think he finally recognized the work I put into it! He is a great son, he just wants equality in his birthday card. We just laugh!

Husbands Birthday Card - A Navy Man!

My husband celebrated his birthday in February. This was the card I made for him. The card uses the PTI banner set and stamp set for the background. The anchors are from Going Places Cricut cart. Inside the card says, "to the one who keeps me anchored." He loved it!

Holiday Thank you's

For my thank you cards after Christmas I found this card online and thought is was so cute, but I made a slight change and exchange the greeting to thank you. I used the PTI Holiday words die cut and cut the bell from my Cricut using the Christmas Cartridge. The paper is all PTI.

Thank you Card - Rosie Posie

Here is a card I made using the Rosie Posie PTI stamp set. I embossed the big flowers so they stand out. I hand cut the bottom to match with the background.

Friends til the End Thank you Card

Here is a thank you card I made with the Friends til the End stamp from PapertreyInk. The ribbon is from Stampin Up. I love the bright colors. My husband needed a card to give to a store who donated a some money to the local community, he being a co chair on the community council. The woman on opening and receiving the card said she had never received a thank you card for all the money they have donated. Pretty sad. She loved the card.

Grandaughter's Birthday Card

This is a fun card I made for my dancer granddaughter. I used the SU die as the background for the dancer and the PTI Mat Stack 3 for the inside. The background was stamped with Stitches and Swirls. The dancer is from Everyday Paper dolls.

Baby Blue Blanket

I have been busy crocheting. Lots of babies! This one is for our friends who live in our basement apartment. They had a cute baby boy on Jan 27th named Max.

Valentines Day

I made this "Be Mine" banner for Valentines decoration with my mom. It's fun to have something up that's pink and lovey-dovey. It hangs over our stairs so it's in a central place in our house. I haven't quite figured out what to do with that space yet, so something short term will keep me tied over till I can figure it out. My mom spiced it up with the sparkle letters, it was fun doing something crafty for v-day! (thanks pinterest for the idea!)

Happy Valentines Day!

(if you have a cricut I used the stretch your imagination cartridge)

Thinking Chair Cake

My nephew is really into Blues Clues right now, so for his 4th birthday he was going to have a blues clues birthday party! I volunteered to do the cake and came up with this idea that was SUPER EASY! I baked a cake in a round cake pan and a bread pan. I then let it cool and cut a few inches off the round cake pan, and cut out a little piece of the bread pan for the seat of the chair and WHA-LA! there you have a big red thinking chair from blues clues. I would have liked to do fondant instead but I was out of time, so this was as fancy as it got.I also went to the store and bought notebooks and we played a little game of blues clues at the party. I made three little paw prints like you see on the cake and put them all over the house to create clues. Because it was in december the clues lead to what was going to happen on the 25th, but you could put clues up on anything! We drew a picture of a snowman, a nativity, and a tree, and little Noah solved the puzzle, it was Christmas!