Fall DIY Table Runner

  

The other day I showed you the fall runner I made in art class.  It was so much fun to make that I wanted to show you how we did it. Our runners were a group project and now I have a memento of all the pretty leaves made by my friends.

I went to art class a little early this week so I could take some pictures of the materials we used to make the runners.  The process was very simple and didn't involve too many specialized tools.

You need the following:
1. A high-density rubber block in the size you want to make your design
2. Carving tools
3. A glass picture frame (the type without a frame) that we used to roll our paint on
4. Roller (although technically you could apply the paint to the glass with a paintbrush

We looked up leaf shapes in some tree and shrub books (well I did anyway because I'm a bit of a botany nut and wanted to make a real leaf shape).  First we sketched the leaf on some waxed paper and then transferred that to the rubber block.  Then we carved the leaf.  The only tricky part is that you have to consider that the ink will only be on the raised portions and you cut away the part that won't have any ink showing.  

Once our leaves were carved we rolled acrylic paint onto the glass - sometimes using more than one colour - and pressed our rubber leaf stamp into the paint.  It was so exciting to see the stamp with ink on it for the first time.  Then we stamped everyone's leaves on each other's runners so we had a complete forest of leaves.  You have to make sure to apply enough ink, but not too much, so that all the details show up.  You also need to press evenly across the stamp when you apply it to the fabric.  We didn't mind if they weren't perfect though, as real fall leaves aren't perfect.

(I made the maple leaf at the top and the oak leaf at the bottom) 

Before stamping on the runner fabric I practiced on a piece of paper which I proudly hung on our fridge (like I'm in kindergarten all over again).

We're going to make another runner soon in a Christmas design because we all enjoyed making them so much. They really aren't difficult and would make great gifts for friends and family.

An Easy Craft and Summer Updates

I've finally caught up on posting reviews of my summer reading and need to finish some more books before I can do any more.  I'm pretty proud of myself to have read four books so far.  Yay me!

I wanted to share a couple of things with you.

My daughter and her cousin had a craft session, but were only able to find crayons and paper to use so they got creative and made these treasures.  

This one started with crayons arranged randomly across the top of the page

and ended like this.

The other one started with the crayons taped along one side

and ended like this.

It was a lot of fun, but definitely not a craft for younger children as the wax was messy and the blow dryer hot.  The finished products are now proudly framed at the cottage.

We spent a few days at our family Georgian Bay cottage and we had a little bit of every kind of weather in those three days - a rain storm, clouds, sun, and a beautiful sunset. I hope to pull together a post next week to show you the flower display we had. In the meantime here's a few of the amazing skies.

I hope you are enjoying summer. I haven't had much time to blog this year as there isn't any internet at the cottage and I've been busy, but I'll be back visiting everyone soon and I have several posts I need to write up. 

I love summer and it makes me sad that there are only a few weeks left (sniff, sniff).

Button Easter Egg

Has spring/Easter fever hit you yet?  I finally caught the bug this past weekend. The mantel and sideboard still had remnants of faux snow balls and pinecones and Valentine's day items hanging around so it was time to change things up. 
I decided I needed to whip up something new for Easter this year - I guess you could say that crafting fever hit at the same time as spring fever.  I checked out Pinterest for inspiration and after considering many different projects I finally settled on making this button Easter egg (made by Kyla from Funky Polkadot Giraffe and posted on Craftaholics Anonymous in a guest post).

The funny thing was that upon closer inspection of the inspiration button egg, I realized that it was a printable Easter egg and no real buttons were involved in making it.  I must confess that real buttons were harmed in the making of my Easter egg - yes sir, I glued their little plastic backsides to the wall (well cardboard anyway).   
I bet you have a little collection of buttons like I do - you know those extra ones that come attached to shirts and jackets in case you need a replacement.  Well over the years my little box has become well stocked.  I rarely use the spare buttons so I thought they might like to come out and play.  You can tell I've had some of the buttons for years because if you look closely one of the buttons I used is an Oshkosh button.  I don't know what kids wear these days, but I remember the cutest overalls made by Oshkosh when our kiddos were young. (wistful sigh)

To make the egg I drew a template and then arranged the buttons on it so I could play with the layout before committing. When I was happy with the arrangement I drew a faint outline of the egg onto the blue cardboard and then spread tacky glue onto the area and transferred the buttons over.  Tacky glue dries quickly, but leaves enough time for a bit of sliding around to make everything fit. I put a few books on top while it dried to help prevent the cardboard from warping.

I chose the rich blue cardboard because I wanted to highlight the gorgeous royal blue door in a photograph that my friend Kat gave to me.  The photo was taken in Strasbourg France and is one of those ancient doors that you only seem to find in Europe.  I fell in love with the rich royal blue colour and decided to decorate the entire mantel around it.  
By the way I must tell you about Kat - if you don't already know her that is. She's an incredibly talented photographer and has recently opened a shop to sell her pictures.  She takes beautiful nature shots, including many bird photos and landscape photos, as well as pictures from her travels like her recent trips to France and Germany.  You can see more of her works (and order your own gorgeous blue French door photograph) at her website Low Tide High Style.  I would encourage you to pop on over and have a look - you won't be disappointed.

You can see in the picture below how the photos are framed. They come to you from Kat's shop already stretched around a frame so you can hang them up as they are or just stand them on a mantel or dresser leaning against the wall.  

As I was changing things up on the mantel I realized I needed some dyed eggs in rich blue colours to tie the whole springtastic display together.  So I did what any sensible person would do - I hard-boiled a few eggs and dyed them several different shades of blue (along with dying my fingers blue)

  

I brought in a few other blue items to help carry the colour across the mantel. 

And I added some rustic/natural elements like the wooden candlestick (seen above), my son's mead bottle, the little clay bowl that I was given in Bangladesh, and some forsythia twigs that I am forcing (in the photo below).

And there you have it - a true blue Easter mantel!

I'm joining up with the Pinterest Challenge that is happening at the following blogs:

• Young House Love
• Bower Power
• Decor and the Dog
• The Remodeled Life

I'm guessing there will be a whole lot of pinning, a whole lot of inspiration, and a whole lot of fun at these blogs starting on Wednesday, February 27th.  

Also linked to Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House,
Budget Decorating Party at Creative Cain Cabin,
Tutorials and Tips Link Party at Home Stories A to Z,
Totally Tuesday at Madcap Frenzy,
WOW Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style,
Spring Mantel: Countdown to Spring Party at Domestically Speaking

2012 Project Recap

One of the things I like about New Years is taking stock of the year that is past and seeing how it went and what improvements should be made and goals should be set for the new year.  Now that 2012 is drawing to a close I had a look back at my project list (which you can see here) to see how I had done and was pleasantly surprised.  I was more productive than I remembered.
Let's see how I did:
SMALL HOUSE PROJECTS (defined as anything I can accomplish myself in a day or two and that costs less than $100):
1. Tidy and paint the front hall closet. DONE (you can read about the closet makeover and organizing here)
2. Edit and tidy the china cabinet and add paper to the back of the cabinet so the dishes stand out more. DONE (I did get this done as you can see in the photo below, but I never posted about it because the wallpaper wrinkled and warped in a terrible way so I have to fix it and then I'll post about it.  I love how much brighter it is though)
3. Edit and sort the craft things in the basement and the trunk. DONE (you can read about the one thing that helped me once and for all get the craft materials under control here)
4. Organize the spices. DONE (you can read about the spice cupboard makeover here)

Yay me!!!  Fist pump for getting them all done.

BIG HOUSE PROJECTS (defined as anything that involves getting my husband to help out, costs more than $100, or takes more than a weekend to finish):

1. En suite bathroom - frame the mirror, install new faucet, add a new counter, and a new light. FAIL
2.  Master bedroom - finish painting the walls, lengthen the drapes, fix the eyebrow window cover-up, edit the furniture, purchase and install a new overhead light. DONE (see photo below)
3. Kid's bathroom - add a new light, new taps, and a new counter. FAIL
4. Half-down bathroom - add a new light, new taps, and a new counter. FAIL
5. Paint/stain dining room table. DONE (see photos below)
6. Make a picture collage on the family room wall. FAIL
7.  Add beadboard to ceiling in family room. FAIL

Master bedroom makeover

Dining room table makeover

Accomplishing two out of seven big projects is pretty good in my books.  Most of the other projects will be rolled over onto my 2013 list. I also completed one project that wasn't on my list - and it was a big one.  Go me!  It took the help of most of the family to complete it, but we finished putting in a new front walkway and garden beds in September.

Front walkway makeover

PERSONAL GOALS:
1. Finish the France photo book. DONE - it took until February, but I finished it (you can read about it here)
2. Finish our son's wedding photo book. FAIL - hanging my head in shame
3. Learn to use my new camera that I got for Christmas - finish listening to the DVD, and take the camera off the auto setting which is all I have used so far.  FAIL - nothing, nadda, not yet
4. Visit Ottawa/Hull to see some of the places that my husband's ancestors founded PARTIALLY DONE (I was in Ottawa for one day when I went with my son to visit the university there on the March Break.  You can see a photo of it here).


OTHER CRAFT AND GIFT PROJECTS COMPLETED IN 2012: I made good headway on some of the goals I had set for myself back in January, but I also completed a few other craft and gift projects during this past year that weren't on any lists.  In fact I finished more crafts and special gift projects than I had remembered - ten in total!  These included the following:
1.  Bed slat mantel art board (you can read about the Christmas mantel here)

2.  Beaded snowflakes (you can read about how to make them here)
3.  Carrot garden carrot cake (which you can read about here)
4.  Mason Jar Matchbox (you can read about how to make it here)

5.  Sweet dreams pillowcases (you can read about them here)

6. Easter-in-a-box (you can read about it here)

7.  Recipe Book (you can read about it here)

8.  Map Wall Art (you can read about it here)

9. Snowman Lab (you can read about it here)

10.  Date Basket Gift (you can read more details here)
I feel like I accomplished a lot this year - for me anyway.  I'm not the fastest at getting things done and I do work full-time so I'm happy when I get anything checked off the lists.  I'm working on my project list for 2013 which should be out soon.  
How did you do in 2012?  Was it a productive year or one of those years that got derailed?

Linked to Top DIY Projects at Southern Hospitality