Pinstrosity

Sometimes it doesn't work out. I should not have tried to continue this project when I struggled to get my vinyl stencil to stick to my freshly painted canvas. I thought mod podge would seal it. It did, sort of. If one coat sort of worked, surely 2 coats would totally work?!

Fail. 

I love the color combination. I see now that I didn't get the stencil very straight and the paint leaked and the vinyl actually pulled up some of the white paint on the canvas!

There's always next time. And since this quote describes Charlotte perfectly, there WILL be a next time!

Upcycled canvas print

ILuke is growing up, and still has many of the same things he has had in his room since we moved him down the hall around 15 months. I remember searching high and low for canvas prints I liked, and finally coming across a set of 3 at target. They are cartoony trucks, and he has outgrown them at this point.

So, I decided it was time to update some of the baby and toddler things. I couldn't just throw out 3 perfectly good canvases, so I decided to start with the smallest one and paint it. Luke likes super heroes, and has always liked Spider-Man, so I painted it red. 

After 7 coats of paint, the car was still slightly visible, but I was out of paint! It was going to have to do. I decided to use my silhouette to cut a spiderweb stencil.

I searched online for a Spider-Man logo I liked. I wound up finding a web and a spider separately, tracing them, and cutting them. I was worried my spiderweb would be too thin to cut and use as a stencil, so I did a small offset. It worked nicely!

 I ran out of stencil vinyl, so I used some regular black vinyl instead, but with a trick I recently read online. After positioning the stencil where I wanted it, I covered the whole thing with a thin layer of matte mod podge. This prevents seepage of the paint under the stencil. If anything seeps, it will be with mod podge, which dries clear! 

I didn't take a picture after the mod podge, but this is what it looked like after the stencil was applied. I peeled the web off, leaving behind the web as my negative space. 

Originally I had tried to design a web with the spider already on it, and paint the entire thing black. When I welded them together in studio, the spider was hard to see. So, I decided to paint the web white, which I think made a nice contrast against the red canvas. 

I was a little impatient and started weeding the pieces of vinyl before the paint was dry.  I was anxious to see it and wanted to make sure the mod podge didn't totally seal the vinyl to the canvas. That started making a mess, so I waited until the next morning. Using my hook tool I slid the vinyl off and removed it and was thrilled with the results! Perfect lines!!

My final touch was adding the spider. I decided to go with the black vinyl over the web. 

I love the way this turned out, and I can't wait to hang it up and let Luke see it!!

Pinspiration

Growing up, I always denied being crafty. I can barely draw a stick figure. My nana taught me to knit as a young girl, and my granny taught me some sewing, but I never did much with either of those skills, and can only knit a long straight line (anyone want a scarf?!). I always thought my sister was the crafty and creative one, and I was okay with that. In 2005 I became a NICU nurse, a career for which craftiness is not required, but precise calculations and the ability to pick up on the slightest change in a patient are very important skills. This career led me to my husband, and eventually our two children. In 2009, we became parents to Luke. I created his nursery and wanted to DIY what I could. I painted letters for his walls and made a picture frame or two for the walls, but that was about all I could figure out. When I was planning for Luke's first birthday, I knew I wanted to make and decorate his cake myself. I refused to shell out lots of money to a bakery when I was perfectly capable of making it myself! My sweet boy was obsessed with trucks at the time, so naturally we planned a truck birthday party. I spent many hours searching the internet for ideas and eventually found a tutorial on a parenting website to make a dump truck cake. My oldest friend, Sarah, had flown in from Pennsylvania for Luke's birthday, and together we worked on his birthday cake. This is the cake we created:

I like to tell people that the hardest part of this cake was getting the frosting the right color!  After that, I was hooked on cake decorating.  I have made birthday cakes every year for both kids' birthdays, for my family members' birthdays and special occasions, and have even started selling them to friends!  My cakes have gotten more elaborate, and I now even enjoy making and coloring my own fondant.  I enjoy mentally decorating the cake for weeks ahead of the actual birthday.

Not long after Luke's first birthday, we were ecstatic to be pregnant again, this time with a girl.  Near the end of my pregnancy with her, pinterest was created.  I joined, and after finding so many creative ideas, wanted to redo the nursery!  I was able to add several of my own creative touches to Charlotte's nursery, such as painting her name letters and matching picture frames.  I remember spending middle of the night feedings searching on pinterest in an effort to stay awake, and wishing I was creative enough to actually make some of the ideas I found.

I started attempting these crafts, and I found that many things were easier than they looked.  I don't even remember where I started, as I have done so many crafts over the last several years.  Many of them involve my kids' hands and feet in some way, such as this canvas painting we made last May:

But the kids are no longer babies, so their hands and feet are getting much bigger and harder to fit on my projects!

At some point, I discovered wreaths.  My dog ate my wreath after Christmas one year, so I was determined to make my own the next year.  Last year I came up with a Houston Texans wreath, and sold several to friends and coworkers.  This is probably one of my favorite wreaths I have made, and I was also thrilled to sell a few like this!

Inspired by pinterest, and starting to come up with a few creative ideas on my own, I continued to craft.  Along the way, I picked up photography (don't judge that statement by the pictures in this post; they were all taken with my trusty iPhone!), and earlier this year found myself determined to create the majority of my home decor.  Most of the photo canvas prints on the walls are my work (my favorite subjects are my kids and nature.  I enjoy macro work!), and the rest of the decor is slowly being replaced by my own creations.

I love that I can see an idea for a project, and then create it myself.  I am a busy working mother, trying to devote time to my family and myself.  I certainly don't have it all figured out, and my own sleep is often sacrificed so that I can stay up late crafting, or get up early to work out (or sometimes both!).  I am still trying to figure out how to do it all, and unless with win the lottery, I won't be quitting my full-time nursing job any time soon.  With Luke having started kindergarten this year, I am struggling with not always being around before and after school.  Luckily, Stephen's work schedule allows him time during the week to be home, and my mom is able to be with the kids when we are both at work.

This summer I purchased a sewing machine, and a few weeks later for my birthday, Stephen got me a silhouette cameo.  I love both machines, and consequently, hobby lobby has received a lot of my money as I buy supplies for the hundreds of projects simultaneously brewing in my head.  At any given time, I am mentally planning at least a dozen projects!

I started this blog as a place to keep track of some of my projects, and I'm hoping to pay it forward and create tutorials for someone else who might not believe she is crafty.  May you find your inner crafter!