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.  

Favorite Friday Ideas

         It's Friday again, the day I show you where I am getting inspiration from. I have been working on projects but I ran out of battery on my camera so I will have to show you them next week. I have been feeling really inspired to create again, but with that has been pressure to create. I have so many ideas at once, that it is kind of stressing me out. I took some time to reflect down at the Silver Bean cafe yesterday and realized that this shouldn't be a stressful area of my life, so I took the night off and spent some time with friends.
          I am going to take some time this next week to map out the projects I want to do over the fall and winter. I think if I have a plan then I won't get overwhelmed and it will make me look forward to winter more. See my previous post on Seasonal creativity.

          I am still working on my refinishing project with the coffee table so here are some ideas that are inspiring me. I am still nervous about stenciling the top of it, but these dressers look really neat with designs on them.

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           I am also thinking about a project for Christmas presents for my friends and family. I collect quotes and I have always wanted to make a book out of them. I priced it out this week and found out that it wouldn't be too expensive. Here are some of the quotes that I found inspiring this week.

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             I have been adopted by a family to be their kids aunt which just warms my heart. So of course we have been doing lots of crafts. I love kids crafts, they are messy, imperfect and loads of fun. Here are some ideas that I like.

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Well that is it for this Fridays inspirational ideas. I hope these ideas will be your jumping off point to creative projects. If I can suggest anything, get a note book and map out some creative projects you want to work on over the fall and winter. I will show you guys my note book sometime soon. 

Favorite "Pins" Friday

I am starting a new weekly feature on some of my favorite "pins" or ideas that I have found inspiring. I love going through blogs and online shops looking for ideas. I am on a furniture repainting and stenciling kick so most of my pins this week are of cool furniture ideas. Click on the word "source" below the picture to see where it comes from. Enjoy!

 

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 This is a dresser that my sister in law did recently. She is the reason I am getting into some furniture repainting. Check out her blog at www.repurposedgems.blogspot.com

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I also got a card order this week from a friend of mine. I didn't make any of these but they were a good jumping off point for the ones I did make. 

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I really want to try sewing on card stock but I am a bit nervous about wrecking my sewing machine. I think I need to do some research first. 

 

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I thought this would be cute for a baby card.

  

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I love this card. I saw this and remembered a picture of graffiti that I took. It is graffiti of a couple in warm winter coats leaned up against eachother. I went through my photo archives and found it. I then made a bunch of cards with it that I will show you later.

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 I haven't tried this card yet but I am excited about trying it in the future.

 

La Vida Dolce: From the shop

I just put up some more of my Japanese Chiyogami paper pendants on my Etsy shop. Click above on shop if you are interested. But here are some examples below. 

                                                            Blue pendants. 

Turquoise pendants

Pink and Purple pendants

Red and Orange pendants 

Green pendants 

Brown pendants

Shipping is free in Canada and the US and they come with lovely free gift boxes as seen below. 

Inspiration: Journaling

I love to journal. I also love expensive journals particularly by a company called Paper Blanks. I am currently writing in a journal that has a reproduction of a Tiffany Glass window on it. My mom thinks it is very impractical that I buy expensive journals. But everytime I buy a cheap journal I regret it later. I have kept a journal since I was 17, so I have a lot of journals.

The great thing for me about journaling is that once or twice a year I sit down and read through all of my journals. This bi- annual practice has proven to be both insightful and productive. For example, it can solidify my thinking in an area, it can show me how I am not thinking clearly about something, etc.

How does journaling affect my creativity? Well it isn't directly connected but I find having a well sorted out heart and mind allows me to be more creative. Journaling helps me by taking the things which are bothering out of my head and putting them down on paper. I am then able to confidently walk away from it. Things seem to work themselves out over time and a journal is a helpful recorder of that truth. 

 Paper Blanks journals

 A journal I made for my internship in Texas, at Teen Mania Ministries.

 My journal while I was in South Africa.

A journal that my dear friend Ana gave me. 

Journaling is not an every day thing. It is more when I need to get something out of my head onto paper. I also write out my prayers to God, which is something I started years ago. It is amazing to have a record of my prayers and then realize months or years later how they worked out. 

I think the greatest thing about writing in journals is perspective. I always struggle with perspective. Problems always seem bigger that what they are, they feel like they are never going to change. Journaling shows that they do change and that God is faithful to help me through it. It's not always the circumstances that change it is more my attitude towards the problem that changes. 

Well I hope this inspires you to go get a nice journal and write down your thoughts and feelings.