Card Mania

I really enjoy making cards and very rarely do I photograph them. I decided to share them, because I usually end up browsing the web for some inspiration to get started. Hopefully someone will use this one day as inspiration in the future! Happy Card Making!

Another Wedding

I recently put another wedding collage together. Another one of my family members, this time a cousin, was getting married. We received several really cute invites and notices in the mail from these events. I saved them and then used them to create this unique gift. Up in the left hand corner is a photo of the happy couple from the save the date. Of course the D represents their new last name, and in the bottom right hand corner is the "Est. 11/29/2013" and yes that is their wedding date.

How it was done....Basically it is a canvas, the different items from their invites and notices and other scrap paper were used to create the base. Yes I did rip up the various items to cover the canvas, and no I am not sorry for doing that. I added a little extra color with some acrylic paint, used Crayola Oil Pastels to create the D. The frame is just a lot of burlap pieces from some sort of sack that I had in my "Rubbish" box, that I cut into little squares and hot glued around the edge of the canvas. I sealed all of it with Mod-Podge, and there you have it. This took a while, but my guess is that it is one of a kind and as a newly married couple, I am guessing they may need a little artwork as they start off in their new life together!

Name Art

Girl's names are just so easy to get creative with. Wooden letters, some patterned paper, glitter, ribbons and there you are! Boy's names, not so easy...Here is a wooden name plate, covered in a variety of materials including brown paper bag, hot glue, cardboard, tissue paper, layers of paint to add a distressed look, and of course my new friend - Mod Podge.

Some art celebrating success in our last school year.

Wedding Memories

My brother recently got married! Yeah! His wife worked so hard to make it such a special day and keep it within their budget. No small feat. She worked very hard with all of the invitations, save the dates, etc. In the meantime, I was trying out a new art technique, I guess that is what you would call it...Mixed-media art. This time, instead of using random rubbish, I used things that were meaningful to the couple. So, there is a story behind the artwork, and of course there is a picture too! So the background is peacock feathers, because the photo they went to take of themselves was at a park with a live peacock! The peacock is included in the photo, their invitation and pieces of the invitation parts, save the date parts, and even down to the flowers that are at the bottom of the screen, which were intended to be roses and hydrangeas (the flowers used at their wedding). I'll be honest, I was scared to get started with this project, but thanks to Jann Gray in one of her You Tube posts, who said "believe that you cant plan the way it will look, and you cant make a mistake", I overcame my fear and made something that I am excited about!

Better with Bacon Kitchen Art

So my brother is one of the best cooks I know. I often will call him for cooking inspiration and advice, and very often his ingredient of choice is bacon.Who knows, he has probably wrapped bacon with bacon to make some gourmet meal!I do know that at a minimum, his love for bacon can be explained in the following statements:

• thinks it is limitless and even uses bacon in cheesecake, 
• like a good ole cajun boy has a jar of bacon grease in his fridge, because you never waste and you never know when you will need a spoonful of that magic goodness, 
• he watches some show where they wrap everything in bacon, and 
• has bacon t-shirts (courtesy of me) and actually wears them!

So where I am headed with this is that someone can only have so many bacon t-shirts, so for his birthday I had to come up with something a little different....so here it is below. Better with Bacon!

Happy Mother's Day

So my mom is one of those ladies who has everything she needs, and buys everything she wants. For mother's day, I am left with trying to give her something that is special, but functional. That practical side of me is something I cant help. I began to mentally look around my parent's house and find things that could be updated or refreshed. Oh and we live 2+ hours away, hence the mental review. My eyes quickly came to a little clock that my mom probably bought for her kitchen back when it was blue and white and had the country duck patterned wallpaper. Now you know what I am talking about....this decor was all the rage in the 90s. The clock was located in their kitchen on the back side of their island's hood. Before I thought about how much she would miss that little country clock, I proceeded to develop an idea for a personalized painting that helped to describe the importance of the kitchen space. Check it out!

One of a kind...

So have you ever been at the store looking for just that perfect piece to put into your home only to find that you can't find something the right size, the right colors, unique enough? In an effort to get in touch with my creative side, I decided to try to make my own art. I ended up coming up with a few things that I found to fit our "man/family/game room" motif perfectly. I just wonder what the market is for something like this?