Tag Archives: crafts

Eek, An Exciting Announcement!

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I have exciting news to share! I’ve signed up for my very first craft show! :)

This is something I’ve had a desire to do and knew I would do at some point in the future, but not something I thought would happen this year, but I’m so very, very excited (and, of course a bit nervous too)!

I was contacted about a month ago by the organizer of a new event called the Artisan’s Market at the First Baptist Church in Stilwell, KS. There’s no charge to be a vendor, they just request that 10% of your sales are donated to the church for their 2014 missions trip to Haiti. I felt like this was THE perfect opportunity to get some experience with a show & build a booth, but even better is the opportunity to help out a very worthy cause… spreading the gospel!

In an effort to get prepared I’ve been browsing Pinterest for some ideas for booth set ups and thought I’d share a few of my favorites.

{You can click on the photos to be taken to the original owner’s posts}

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I just love the banners in this booth, both the business name banners as well as the cool yellow, pink & green fabric banner.

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Of course, what’s not to love about Katie Daisy, but I really like her wonky tablecloths and color choices… so gorgeous and it makes her art really pop.

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Love the vintage wood crates this artist used to display and store her cards/prints.

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And I just love all the color here, as well as the vintage suitcase used to store items and the black and white awning just adds so much fun to this booth.

There are so many great ideas all over the web, that my brain is almost overly inspired (which isn’t hard to do). :) Anyway, I’m super excited to start pulling my booth elements together and share them with you as I go!

If you’re local to the Kansas City area, save the date… May 11th. I hope you’ll stop by and say hello! :)

Tis the Season…

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IMG_3615 ’Tis the season to be jolly fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la… 

Yes, feeling jolly, but also busy… as I’m sure you are as well!

We’ve trimmed the tree and decked the halls…

christmas cards Sent Christmas cards…

ft collins winter marketGone Christmas shopping…

coffee  Indulged in delicious warm beverages…

christmas presence celebrated the real reason for the season (and my daughter’s role as star sheep in her on-stage dance debut)! ;)

IMG_3688 paper snowflakes made paper snowflakes…

handmade gift tags and handmade gift tags!

Despite the busyness and (honestly) a bit of home-sickness it really has been a jolly season so far… hope it is for you too… and if you don’t see much of me in the next few weeks… you’ll know why! ;)

Also… just a side note… last day to order from my shop for delivery by Christmas is December 16th and the shop will be closed from December 21st – January 1st.

My Weekend Project

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 Over the weekend I worked on a little project! I purchased this cute little step ladder at the Vintage Market last week for my daughter. I had considered getting a little ladder for her since the clothes bar in her closet is a bit high and we decided it wasn’t worth the time, effort, or expense to install another one at this point. Then, after catching her on top of an un-sturdy shelf that holds her shoes in her closet while trying to reach her clothes on said bar I decided it wasn’t just a good idea, but a necessity!

When I suggested the idea to her she said, “Ooh yeah! One with flowers?!”

“Ok, I’ll see what I can do!”

I did find one with flowers but it was pretty rickety so I went with a plain turquoise colored one and thought I could just paint or mod podge some stickers on it!

{Here it is in its “original” condition}

So, I spent a couple hours Friday night after she went to bed and painted some flowers and other decorations on it!

 I was pretty happy with the way it turned out and when I was finished I snuck upstairs to her room and put it right back where it was (I felt like a little painter fairy) and first thing she said when she woke up Saturday morning? “Thank you Mommy… but, I wish there were more flowers!” LOL! :)

What did you do this weekend? Anything creative? Relaxing? Strenuous?

Linking to:

Skip to my Lou

Boo to You!

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Hey there! Happy Halloween!!!

Just thought I’d do a fun little Halloween post today! I made these two pieces of art over the weekend and wanted to share with you how easy these are for you to make too! Maybe you’re looking for a little last minute fun Halloween project for today!

Last month I ordered these cute vinyl sayings from Pick Your Plum. Even though these are no longer available you could easily make them yourself if you have a silhouette or you print out some images to adhere to your canvas.

So, I started with two blank 6×6 canvases and painted one yellow and one orange. On the “Boo!” one I used my Crafters Workshop Harlequin stencil with orange paint, then went around the outside and highlighted with a bit of black & metallic gold paint. My favorite way to do that is simply with a paper towel dipped in the paint. After that, I adhered the vinyl and covered with gel medium and VOILA! :)

For the witch hat, I started with the orange paint and then smeared a bit of dark purple around the edges, then I took a bit of bubble wrap and dipped it into my yellow paint and dabbed it on in a couple of spots and then adhered the witches hat!

And that’s it! No tricks here, just two super cute Halloween decor items to add some festive fun to your home or to give as a gift to that fabulous Halloween party hostess!

Hope you have a fun and safe Halloween!

Five Things Friday – Fall Around Here

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Around here, it’s starting to look a lot like Fall; and even though October is almost half way over, it’s not quite feeling like Fall as the highs are still in the 80′s, which isn’t really normal for Kansas City, but hey I’ll take it over the frigid Winter that will eventually come. We are soaking up our days outside and at the park because it won’t be long before we are house bound and bundled up under blankets donning our slippers! :)

Anyway, I thought that for today’s Five Things Friday I would share a little bit of Fall decorating that I’ve managed to pull together around our house!

1. Remember back on this post I shared this Fall shelf that I liked, well I did manage to recreate it with my own little spin… thank you to Jess of The Real Housewives of Bucks County for your inspiration! :)

And… here’s my finished shelf!

I followed Jess’ advice and just printed the “F” and “A” onto different colors of cardstock, the “L” is a yarn wrapped chipboard “L” I picked up at Hobby Lobby and the second “L” is a white chipboard letter on brown cardstock! Fun, festive and easy peasy! :)

2. Ok, so here is my Fall wreath… the reason this photo is not of the wreath hanging on my front door is because our house faces South and therefore our front door can tend to get really hot this time of year and through the Winter and so my hot glue melted a bit and a few of the flowers fell off! :( So, I will be spending a little time this weekend gluing them back on and hopefully get them to stick for good! It’s really so pretty if I do say so myself! ;)

3. I just had to share this little display I made on our end table of a ceramic pumpkin, a frame with some Fall themed patterned paper & a sweet photo of my little guy when he was only months old sitting on a pumpkin! Love, love, love that photo!

4. This was a fun little find from Hobby Lobby that my daughter picked out; it was so fun and affordable and I was happy to add a bit more “Halloween” stuff to our Fall decorations. And here’s another one I picked up at Hobby Lobby too…

5. I have plans to hopefully rework my mantle this weekend and will be using a bit of this fabric in the mix. I picked it up from my friend Tammy at Marmalade Fabrics. Go stop by her shop if you are into fabric… she has a great selection of modern fabrics!

So, what do you think? I’ll come back next week and share my completed (*crossing fingers*) mantle and hopefully some more art! I’m closing in on my goal date for opening my Etsy shop and I can’t wait!!!

So what’s your favorite Fall decorations? Have you picked up anything new this year to add to your collection?

Five Things Friday

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{Art by me, coming to Etsy shop soon!}

That’s right, today is the first official day of Fall! Yippee! My daughter has been excited about today like it’s Halloween or something! Seriously, why can’t we all have excitement for the little things like 5 year olds can!? :)

For this edition of five things friday I thought we’d go back to Pinterest for some of my favorite Fall inspiration finds!

1. This free downloadable banner is awesome! It comes with all kinds of different options, adding pictures, or things like “Boo!” or Happy Halloween! I’ve got one of my own printed out and excited to cut out the pieces and put up!

2. I think this Halloween mantle is so cute! Lots of fun different Fall and Halloween mantles out there on the world wide web to use for ideas and inspiration for decorating your own!

3. Go here for link to a template & directions to make these spooky Halloween houses! Perfect to add to your mantle or table decoration!

4. Does this not look SO yummy!?! Go here for a great list of all kinds of Halloween themed treats!

5. More cute Fall decorations! I am so doing this for a little shelf I have in my entry! So darling! Love it!

Hope you found a bit of inspiration here today and hope you enjoy the first day of Fall!!! Have a Fall-icious weekend! :)

Five Things Friday

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Wow, did this week fly by or what!? I’ve been a busy beaver over here working on several projects so I thought I’d share them with you today for 5 Things Friday! :)

1. We are working on redecorating all three bedrooms in our house… it started with our master bedroom which I had been dreaming of redoing for a while. When our white down comforter got stained from a middle-of-the-night-bloody-nosed-kid it became crucial that new bedding was in order {yay for me!} :) Hubby gave me the green light {and some green backs} and I ran for the red bulls-eye {aka Target}! :) Actually I spent about a dozen hours on Pinterest and other websites first, looking for just the right bedding, and decorating ideas to create the look I wanted to go for. After much, much debate; hemming and hawing and agonizing over what to do & what bedding would be best I went with this one from Target. I’m really happy with it but of course second guessed my choice for a while. Ugh… it doesn’t have to be perfect right? It’s just a bed? I only sleep there!? It’s probably only gonna have to stay this way for 8-10 years!? Only! Goodness, when it comes to home decor I can have such a phobia to commitment! Check me in to the looney bin, I need help! :D

Anywho, there’s a few more things to do to get the room just right but for now here’s a little sneaky peek.

2. Moving on to bedroom 2! This was spurred on by my hubby’s rearranging of the basement to make more room for Wii game playing and some future P90X action. In the process most of the play area/toy space was nixed and so part of it was moved up to PJ’s room…

 Yikes… can you say toy overload!?! So, I casually suggested the idea that we turn one room into a play room and let the kids share the other room. They were within earshot and got really excited about the idea and so after a bit of discussion, we decided to give it a go! Of course bunk beds were desired but after some talking between hubby & I, we opted for “side by side beds”. 

The bedding and furniture are set, and yes I did have as much of a commitment problem with this room as well, it ended up turning out almost completely opposite of what I originally pictured, but I like it and think it’s going to all work out just fine! The walls obviously still need to be decorated, but as you saw in the “before” pic that never happened in the last room, although I’m determined to make it happen this time! :) Sometimes you know, you just don’t have the funds, or sometimes maybe it’s the time you lack and then other times, it’s just the energy you can’t seem to muster to pull things together… ugh, sometimes all of the above are true, but I for one am done with excuses! ;)

3. And as for the playroom…

Here’s a little sneaky of it! Still work to be done in here too {again mostly wall art}. I’m hoping to do an alphabet wall, similar to this; and a kids art display like this or this. We wanted to do a chalkboard somewhere, but I’m afraid there isn’t going to be room… but, as I write this I’m thinking maybe behind the door we could squeeze something like that in?We’ll see… I’ll keep you up-to-date on the progress of these rooms… I’ve got lots of ideas, but gotta take it one little step at a time and I have to remind myself that as my Dad used to tell me…
“You can do anything you want, but you can’t do everything you want”! :)

Moving on…

4. Here’s another little project I’m working on…

A little Fall yarn wreath action! I covered this last night while watching some football with my sweetie, but ran out of yarn! I’ll get some more to finish it off and then add some fun felt flowers! Using this tutorial here to put this together, I’m excited to see how it turns out! The other one I’m planning to do in ivory.

5. And last but not least… you know I couldn’t show you things I’m working on without giving you a sneak of some art now would I!?!

 Fun stuff! Well, now I’m off to do some housework and grocery shopping! Having some of our favorite friends over for dinner tonight! Enjoy your Friday and have a fabulous weekend too! :)

A Gift Idea for the Hard-To-Buy-For!

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 Is it really Thursday already!? Where did the week go? We have been busy getting my Kindergartner into the swing of things. With last week’s drama it’s been a bit difficult getting her very excited about school, unfortunately! Monday & Tuesday were really rough but yesterday was major progress… hoping today goes just as smoothly! Cheers to the start of school!

Moving on… today I have a little crafty DIY gifty project to share with you! It’s super duper easy yet super cool! It’s a great gift for that hard to buy for person, a great hostess gift, a sweet neighbor or teacher gift at Christmas time, or even a fun little something you could make for yourself! :)

Your going to start with some tile pieces picked up at your local home improvement store. Mine are almost 4×4 and are the travertine variety. Although I love the look of these, the flat and less expensive tile would work marvelously too because they don’t have the texture that the travertine does that made it just a bit tricky. You’re going to want to put either felt pads or a sheet of cork onto the back of the tile so that it doesn’t scratch the surface of the table that it gets used on. This too can be found at the home improvement store.

Originally I thought of using a map for these but, didn’t have one laying around and I had limited time, so I had to improvise with what I did have… newspaper! I wasn’t sure if the mod podge would make the ink smear so I tested it out first and was ecstatic when it didn’t! I trimmed these down to the size of my tile using my Fiskars paper trimmer.

Next, you are going to take your mod podge and a brush and cover over the tile, then lay your newspaper clipping on top and then brush mod podge over it again! {Do you see those canvases back there in the top left of my photo? That’s a little sneaky peek of what will be coming to an Etsy shop near you… opening this Fall!}

Here’s how the coaster will look once it’s dry.

Next, you are going to find a stamp with whatever image you want to put on your coaster. I used an alphabet foam stamp set that I have for my recipient’s last initial. If you don’t have foam stamps and you want to use a rubber mount or acrylic stamp you can, but you need to use staz on ink instead of paint.

Then you’ll get your stamp ready by covering it in paint or ink and carefully stamp the image to the center of your tile. My paint didn’t lay down perfectly so I used a small paintbrush and went over the letter carefully filling in the missing spots.

Here’s a look at it once I filled in the letter… much better! I decided to draw in a little border so I used a Zig Writer pen and drew a dashed line around the outside edges of each coaster. Once all of that is dry cover over it one more time with mod podge to seal everything and…

Wrap with a ribbon and voila, a quick, easy, inexpensive & darling gift for the hard to buy for person on your gift giving list!

And of course if you’re going to hand make a gift, why not hand make a card to go with it! :)

If you decide to make your own coasters I do hope you’ll share with me! Happy Thursday! See you back here tomorrow for this week’s Five Things Friday! :)

Five Things Friday

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So, what do you get when you have the last day of Summer vacation, first day of Kindergarten, a Kindergartener who pukes in her class on the 2nd day of school and the same kids who misses her school pictures all in the same week? A very long stressful week! But, come on, there are much worse things right? I’m just ready to get into this back to school routine and move on. Seriously though, I’m thankful for so many things… thankful that she’s back to good health, thankful none of the rest of us got it, thankful for the extra time with her, and the list goes on and on! :)

Something I’ve enjoyed doing on my personal blog is a “Five Things Friday” where I share 5 things that happened or that we did over the course of the week. So, I thought I would start a Five Things Friday here too only instead of personal things I thought I would share some favorite blog posts from other blogs, favorite pins from the week (since I’m a recent Pinterest addict), favorite products, or on a more serious note maybe 5 things I’m learning or 5 good books I’ve read, or anything I might feel like sharing! So, here goes this first edition of Five Things Friday on Altered Iris!! :D

This week I thought I’d share some of my favorite recent Pins from My Pinterest!

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#1. This super cool canvas that you can help your kids create and then hang in their room! So cool! This is definitely on my to do list to create with my daughter… she LOVES butterflies!

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#2. How cute is this little garland made of dixie cups and a string of lights!? This would be such a fun addition to a party or wedding or even added ambience to a bathroom or mantle!!!

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#3. How about this teacher’s gift for back-to-school!? This is a free printable from designmom.com and I’m even picturing this on a bottle of hand sanitizer too! That can definitely come into use for a classroom! Maybe if I had seen this soon enough I could’ve made one for my daughter’s teacher and she would’ve avoided getting sick! ;)

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#4. Isn’t this such a neat idea! All the birth dates of those in your family and then your wedding date! Awesome! Andrea has a full tutorial on how she made this lovely piece of art or a link to where you can buy them in case you’re not up for tackling it!

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#5. Ok, so I just love, love, love this!!! It’s SO cute! I’m trying to figure out what wall in my house this could go on! I already have a set of these shelves and could probably come across another set at a thrift store or garage sale somewhere, line the back with some pretty paper and fill with assorted knick knacks! I’m thinking this would look neat in a kids room or maybe a bathroom with some pretty perfume or apothecary bottles, pretty soaps, etc.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little bit of eye candy from Pinterest and this first installment of Five Things Friday here!! Hope you have a splendid weekend! See you back here next week! I have a fun and easy crafty tutorial to share!

Crafting with Kids: This is Me Journal

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We had a great time at the lake last weekend. It was in the upper 90′s here, so really, when it’s that hot, there’s no better place to stay entertained then near a body of water be it lake, pool, ocean, whatever! But, if you just want to stay inside out of the sun, then crafting in the a/c is the place to be and I’ve got a great, no mess craft that is sure to keep your kids busy for the rest of the Summer!

My daughter happened to see the journal that I started for my husband and I back when we were dating that we still write in from time to time and she made the comment that there weren’t any pictures in it and then we started talking about making one of her own. So, last night when the boys went out for their father/son date, we girls had a little date of our own! A crafty date! :)

First we started with about 10 sheets of card stock; she chose green and blue. We cut them into fourths with my handy dandy paper trimmer. If you don’t have any card stock on hand, you could use printer paper,  notebook paper, just about any kind of paper you can find and any size will work. We ended up with around 40 6×6 pages, since we used 12×12 card stock. She wanted to make a pattern (green, blue, green, blue, etc.) and so for the most part we had an every other color thing going on with the exception of some extra greens we added to the front and back.

Once we had that done, we punched some holes with my crop-a-dile, an ordinary hole punch works too and then put binder rings (found at any office supply store) through the holes and voila! Her very own journal! If you don’t have binder rings or don’t want to purchase any then you could also use ribbon, string, yarn, anything you have on hand really can work for this project… it’s totally customizable to what you have on hand!

Noelle, had fun writing down some of the things she’s going to do in Kindergarten and then she drew a cute little picture to go with it. I just love this and can’t wait to see what else she comes up with for the rest of her pages and it will become a great keepsake too! :)

{As you can see she’s working on getting those “S’s” just right!}

This is such a versatile project that could be used for all sorts of things for kids! They can draw and write in it, collect stickers, stamp and paint in it like an art journal, put photos in it to make a scrapbook, the list goes on and on! I hope you’ll take some time this Summer to make one of these quick & easy, no mess journals with the crafty kid(s) in your life! If you do, please share it with us!