Favorite Friday Ideas

Thanksgiving is coming up and on top of being thankful I am dreaming up table settings. When it comes to dinner parties I usually think about the decorations first and the food second. I am not hosting Thanksgiving with my family but my sister-in-law Stacy said that I can decorate the table. Check out these great ideas and don't forget to click source if you want to learn more about them.

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I was at a training day for counselors of GEMS girls clubs. I received a beautiful gift at the end of the day. It was Philippians 4:8 done in scripture art. I asked the coordinator and she said she found it on the internet. Here are some scripture art that I found this week. I have been downloading some really cool fonts lately so I might have a try at my own scripture art. 

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I was going through my DIY (Do-it-yourself) and Crafts board on Pinterest and I noticed that I have a lot of button crafts. I have done a couple of things with buttons like the button letters I have made my nieces and nephews. But these ideas are super cute too. 

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Well that is it for Favorite Friday Ideas. I hope you have a wonderful week. Happy Crafting!

P.S. Here is a cute pumpkin that I am currently making. You should see a post about it soon.

Creativity: Paper strip tray

I saw this cool idea on pinterest about doing a paper strip tray. I found a truly gawdy tray at Value Village and then painted it with Miss Mustard Seeds milk paint in a Kitchen scale color, which is turquoise. Then modge podged pieces of paper on it. Here is the finished result.

Here is the tray I painted with milk paint. 

 I then started cutting out strips of matching paper. I used craft paper and Japanese Chiyogami paper. 

 I then used Modge Podge and glued the pieces onto the tray. 

Below is my china set on my brand new tray! 

Creativity: All things fall

In the summer I went to a concert by Robyn Cunnigham and she sang a song called London St. Bridge. London St. Bridge is a beautiful bridge in my city of Peterborough. She mentioned that there is a tree right near the bridge that is the first to turn when the fall comes. I visited that tree this week and picked some beautiful leaves off the ground.

I took the leaves and pressed them in the biggest book I could find which happened to be a book of quotes by C.S. Lewis, apparently he said a lot in his life. I piled three big books on top of that book and hoped for the best. The leaves turned out beautifully. I then took a paint brush and brushed glue on the back of each leaf and glued in onto card stock. I used light blue card stock, not what I wanted, but it was what I had in stock.

Then I hot glued them onto some ribbon. I picked up the ribbon when it wasn't fall so it was on sale. I then hung it in the doorway of my living room.

I also made a fall wreath last week. It's base is a wooden frame that I ripped the canvas off of. I painted the frame orange. I then put white card stock behind it that I stenciled on. 

I got both of these ideas from a blog called Centsational Girl. I hope you are enjoying fall and I hope that you are inspired to be creative. 

Favorite Friday Ideas

This week I have been thinking about fall. The days are getting shorter, the air cooler and my creativity is increasing. Here are some fall ideas.

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This idea is so simple but neat. You put a patterned nylon over the pumpkin. Brilliant!

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I love this pattern. Great idea for paper or even a quilt or wall hanging.

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Super cute, currently working on a leaf garland. Watch for it in a future post.  

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So cute and practical. 

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In the past I have taken sheaves of wheat and spray painted them gold. I might try that again. 

Lately I have been really interested in packaging. I read an article on Etsy that stated that sellers with good packaging have more repeat customers. I made some boxes as seen on my Etsy account. I actually sold some boxes which made me super excited. Here are some of my packaging inspirations.

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I like the idea of creating my own gift wrap. I bought a roll of craft paper from the Post office. I stamped it up with cute fern and dragonfly stamps. I am also planning on making Christmas gift wrap. I found an idea that said to spray paint over top of lace. I am sure I will feature it on the blog closer to Christmas. 

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I think this idea would work with strips of Japanese Chiyogami paper over craft boxes. 

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My brother Michael has piles of old maps. I went through them and found some great ones. I also saw a lady at a craft show print digital pictures over top of maps. 

Finally, color has been inspiring me, particularly turquoise. I just bought some turquoise milk paint from Homestead House Paints. It is called Kitchen scale and it was develop by Miss Mustard seed. Here is a picture of a dresser that has been painted with Kitchen Scale.

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This material is called Artisan in Emerald by Hawthorne Threads. I drool over their fabric, it is so lovely.

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Turquoise palette, reminds me of the ocean.

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I love the black and white with the turquoise.

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Turquoise and orange are a big hit for me. Daring but doable. 

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Well that is it for the Favorite Friday Ideas Feature. I hope you enjoyed the ideas and if you want to look into them more click "Source" under the picture. 

Creativity: Stenciled Coffee table

As promised below are pictures of my coffee table stenciling project. I have been teasing you with pictures of awesome stenciling projects the last two Fridays, on my Fun Friday Ideas feature. My good friend, Jennifer Knight has actually been dreaming up stenciling projects because of my blog posts. She helped me today stencil the table and I think it made her want to stencil even more.  

I have been really inspired by Miss Mustard Seed and the projects she has been doing on her blog (some of which have showed up on the Friday feature). I also have been inspired by my sister in law Jen who refinishes furniture. She told me what paint to buy, how many coats it needed, etc. Her blog is called Repurposed Gems. She just recently finished redoing a trailer with a good friend of hers. 

I think what I like about refinishing is that it takes what already exists and makes it into something beautiful. We live in tough economic times, people can't easily spend tons of money on furniture. The beautiful table above was actually beat up pretty bad. But with a bit of sanding and coats of paint it is now a beautiful piece that is all ready to be in someones home. 

What I also like about refinishing is that it is not so hard on the environment. Vintage pieces actually have good "bones" or structure, they just need to be updated to a more modern look. The look of the table is called Shabby Chic. It is really popular right now. A lot of people are painting dark furniture or cabinets white. 

I am going to post this coffee table on Kijiji but if you would like to see it and possibly buy it feel free to contact me. My contact info is on the tab above.