dot art ornaments

{The Dot Art Ornament}

I found some glass ornaments at the dollar store, first of I have to tell you how much I love the dollar store, it's the perfect place for crafters to get their creativity on. Anyways I decided to pick up a few ornaments and see what I could come up with. A few days before I found them I had actually posted about my Australian Dot Art obsession and figured I should give it a try with these ornaments. 

When I got home and started looking on Pinterest guess what I found??? ----------------------->

The woman who makes these is amazing! I would totally recommend checking out her Etsy shop.

Pearle's creations helped me gain inspiration and I couldn't wait to get started. Ok, now nice thoughts only. Keep in mind these are my first attempts so no comparing mine to Pearle's beautiful artwork ok? ;)

I first started with a base coat of a solid color

Then proceeded with the dots

After I was finished I spray-painted the tops silver

and coated the ornament with a glaze finish

Ta da! Here are the finished products:

SWIRL design

WRAPPED PRESENT design

FLOWER POWER design

It was such a fun project, I encourage everyone to give it a shot. But, in the meantime, if you feel so inclined, these and a few other designs are now available on our Etsy shop. Just click on the "Etsy" tab at the top of the page. :)

art journal

{The Art Journal}

I was scouring Pinterest and Etsy for Thanksgiving craft ideas when this one hit me. See, my family has this notebook that we pull out every Thanksgiving called the Thankful Journal, but its just a boring old black and white speckled notebook that looks similar to this:

Whoever was spending the holiday with us that year would take time to write a little about what they were thankful for. I thought it would be nice to share this tradition with other families, in a more artistic way. I found a few ideas on how to make my own little journals, instead of buying one. 

These pins helped inspire me:

 Left: As seen on Maggie Holmes Design       Right: As seen on Wit & Whistle

Luckily I had a few things just laying around out house that I could put together. I used regular white and colored paper for the inside, a card-stock style paper for the outside, pen, sharpie, colored pencils, needle, think white thread, hemp, glue gun, and buttons. There are so many other designs that can be created. I think thats what made it so much fun.

Supplies:

 Each book is about 5.5x4.5"  

and has 16 pages

 

We'll have a few available to buy in our Etsy store soon, so don't forget to check back.  

quote painting

Yay for our first Pinterest project!!!

{The Quote Painting}

Found on: A Beautiful Mess

My roomates made one of these a few weeks ago and it turned out so legit. Kenzie had been given the painting from the old lady she works for (she lives in a mansion and switches out the hall paintings every so often). It was a painting of a pond with tons of green foliage around it. They ended up using the quote: "Breathe it all in, Love it all out."

When Sarah and I visited the Give & Take the first time, I found a random painting on canvas and decided to try one of my own.

I used the quote: "I refuse to sink" which I thought was fitting due to it being a painting of the London Bridge.

I used the address letter-stickers my roomies had left over and then made the rest with cardboard. Then stuck them on the painting (for the makeshift letters use small pieces of tape rolled up or the double sided kind). Once they are all aligned the way I wanted them, I carefully painted over them with whatever color fitted my fancy at the time. We chose white, like in the pin. Once the paint was dry, I simply removed the letters and whaalaa. 

BEFORE

AFTER

What I would do different: Make sure to have stickers for all the letters and if not, use just plain paper. The paint seeped under the cardboard way too easy, making the finished product look quite sloppy. 

We thought about selling this on Etsy, but I personally think we need a little more practice first. Hopefully we'll have time to make more, and they will be available. But, if you absolutely love this one, let us know and we'd be more than thrilled to sell it to ya.