Christmas in July

Before you start thinking I'm absolutely nuts to be making Christmas ornaments in July, let me explain myself.  I LOVE Christmas time of the year.  AND every year my head is swimming with Christmas crafts to make.  BUT I never do hardly any of them because the closer I get to Christmas, the more complicated my life gets.  That's the season when my business picks up, and between juggling orders, school parties, cookie baking, shopping...you can see where I'm going with this. 


So, with independence day behind us and almost four months till Halloween, I'm dedicating my creative juices to all things Christmas.  Each week of July I hope to share more Christmas craftiness, wanna join me?


To start things off, I personalised some run-of-the-mill ornaments.

I went from this - snagged at Target's after Christmas clearance this year...

To this...

In case you don't have a vinyl cutter but want to create some ornaments of your own, I'm adding these decals to my collection  at my Etsy shop.

The color choices are practically endless.  And I currently have a choice of two fonts.  I call this one Western Polka.

And here's a little Whimsy Polka.

And finally I tried to create something that can be used to document baby's first Christmas, or be used as a favor for a wedding or other special event.

Soooo...I recommend turning the AC way down, getting out your favorite Christmas candle and get busy with your favorite time of the year!

I'm linked to these parties...

Family Tree Wall Board

First of all, I must say that this wasn't originally my idea.  I've seen several things similar on other blogs.   But, a fantastic idea it was! 

Have you ever tried to price a board over 12" wide?  They're outrageous!  Of course, the kind of trees that are cut into boards don't generally grow more than 12" wide.  That means that those wider boards require a special fusion of two boards to make one.  Irregardless. sometimes you just want a larger piece of wood rather than a canvas or a flimsy piece of plywood.  Besides, I absolutely LOVE the texture that results from boards being combined to form one piece.  Here's how it's done...

I had some wooden slats left over from a little bunk bed repair - apparently there can be too many MONKIES jumping on the bed!!!  My slats were a little more curved on the edges than if you just bought a 1x3" board at the hardware store.  So, the shadowed gaps you see are unique to this piece.  I'm not sure if I like it or not.  Anyhow, just cut several boards to the desired width and then place them upside down lined up next to each other. 

Then, find a scrap piece of plywood or thin masonite that is slightly smaller than your completed project will be and place it on the back.  Use small furniture nails to hold it all together.

Paint any color you want.  I used my trusty walmart craft brown paint and a VERY loved/used foam brush.

Sand a little to rough it up and highlight the texture.

And finally, decorate the front.  I went with my Family Tree decal.  But, I saw some super duper cute Americana flags done earlier this month.  It can be hung with a sawtooth hanger or just prop it up on your fireplace/entry table/etc...

Alma Mater

Those who know me personally, know of my devotion to my Alma Mater, BYU. 

I've recently proudly branded my mom car with a custom Alma Mater decal.

This decal can be customized to display your own School's moniker.  See my ETSY shop for details.

Happy Fourth of July ya'll!

Hope you have been enjoying your holiday weekend. We've spent ours watching a parade, dancing in the living room, and eating WAY too much. Unfortunately, I didn't get these crafts posted in time to inspire much of anyone. But, since I know I like to see cuteness even when it's untimely, I decided to go ahead and post anyway.

materials: scrap block of wood, paint, modge podge, scrapbook paper, and vinyl lettering

materials: metal planter, scrapbook paper, cookie cutter to trace stars, bamboo skewers, hot glue, foam block in bottom of planter, and a fat quarter of fabric smooshed in to hide the foam.

materials: 1x3" wood board cut in three varying lengths, scrapbook paper, modge podge, paint, ribbon, brown wreath wire twisted, hot glue, and a drill to make little holes in the top.

Yes, that's a bazillion french knots. Someone just might be a glutton for punishment!

Hope ya'll get some fantastic fireworks tonight!!!

Alex inspired Artwork

Hurricane Alex has brought us some very tropical weather the past couple of days.  We've been staying snuggled up indoors watching it through the windows.  There's nothing more inspiring to me than a good rainy day and a pile of craft supplies.  Here's my recent Alex inspired Artwork.

I already had the frames, recycled from some artwork that no longer worked in my new house.  Then,  while filling an order, I incorrectly printed a family tree decal, not once, but twice.  Sometimes my multi-tasking gets a little out of control.  I couldn't bear the sight of so much wasted vinyl and those lovely trees just couldn't be trashed.  That's when this project came to me. 

It was so simple to accomplish.  I simply modge podged scrapbook paper onto a couple of canvas panels and then rubbed on the trees.  Canvas panels are canvases that are completely flat, opposed to the ones wrapped on wood frames.  They're still sturdy and can be used with a variety of media, but are WAY easier to frame. 

I tore the paper at the horizon line to get an organic look.  I've had the paper for a while but I know some of it is from Basic Grey's Mellow line.  I'm in LOVE with Basic Grey paper!

If you don't have access to a vinyl cutter or want to save some mula, the trees could also be painted on.

Next up, tackle the mountain of laundry I had to move to take these pictures.  Folding laundry is my LEAST favorite job.  I wish rainy days gave me a little laundry inspiration too.