Oh the Things You Can Make!

Like I said in my original post, I want this blog to be basically about everything that I do. Not only am I trying to become healthier, I usually try and find things to do to fill my day. Two of my favorite things are painting and crotchet. Now I am definitely not claiming to be an expert at either, but they are things that I really enjoy doing. Another thing I love is being able to make gifts. Each Christmas I try to make personal gifts for family and friends.

So here are a few different things that I have made. First, as a baby shower gift, I painted letters of my niece's name to go into her bedroom. All I did was take a picture of the bedding my sister planned on using. Then I bought matching paint colors and copied some of the pattern of the quilt. I absolutely loved giving this to my sister, and still feel a little pride when I walk into Addison's bedroom and see her name displayed!

My grandma gave me a miniature chair to paint for Addison next. I used the same colors as I used for her letters. I also painted the same type of flowers on the chair as on her letters.

Since I've become obsessed with Pinterest, I've found some really cute ideas for other types of crafts. One thing I really love has been all of the different types of wreaths. Recently I've made two wreaths of my own. The first I made was for winter. I made it with supplies that my mom, aunt, and grandma sent me from the states. How sweet is that? So I used blue, silver, and white as my colors for this wreath. Doing that meant that I could leave the wreath up after Christmas because I didn't use the typical Christmas colors. I also used snowflake ornaments on the wreath. It is so easy to make a wreath. You just arrange different things on a wreath base and then when you like it, just glue everything where you want it.

With a new season, comes a new wreath. For my newest wreath a used a straw base and wrapped it in multicolored yarn. This part took a long time, but the overall look in the end made it worth it. I then made some felt roses and leaves to add to the wreath. I matched the color of the felt to the yarn. It is now my favorite wreath and every time I walk into my house I have to gaze at my crafting skills!

It is so easy to make things for your own home or for your friends and family. I don't think there is anything better than filling your free time with crafting!

A Child's Picnic Table

I thought it was time for me to begin sharing some of my creative moments from the past. I would like to thank my mom, grandma, and aunts for sharing their creative ideas and genes. I know that my ability to enjoy crafting comes from them!

So here is a Christmas present I gave my niece last year. It started as a child-sized picnic table. I found someone locally who made the table for only $20! Can you believe that? So after cramming the table into my Diamante (look-alike Galant) I made it home and began to think of ways to decorate it. It sat in my garage for a few weeks before I even had any ideas. This is because I am partially a perfectionist and also lazy. Those two things usually force me to have to work last minute... but that is beside the point.

Now I wanted to decorate this table having my older sister in mind. Because really, she is the one I really wanted to impress. My niece was only one, and I knew that the detail work wouldn't really matter to her. So I remembered that
my sister always has liked designs and things my Mary Engelbreit. So that is what I based my decor on.

I first sanded the table so that it would not snag or cause any splinters. You don't want to go and hurt the recipient of the gift! I then started with a base coat. I actually spray painted the table white. This helped cover any darker spots on the table. I then painted the top of the table and seat bright yellow. I left the legs white because I didn't want to overload on the yellow. I penciled in their last name first before ever beginning to paint. This prevented any mistakes or problems with centering. I painted the letters in black, and then once dried I outlined with a black paint pen. Those things are amazing! They have such clean lines and really made the piece look nice. I then added little white dots on the letters, just to liven it up.

I added flowers to the upper right and lower left sections on the top of the table. This added some other colors and made the piece of like something Mary Engelbreit would do. I finished by added a black and white checker pattern onto the sides of the table. This was the longest part, but having a paint pen helped greatly. So there you have it!