Favorite Friday Ideas

I've wanted to try Surface Pattern Design for a while so I've been experimenting with it. One of the blogs I follow is by Jessica Swift and she does surface pattern design. I couldn't find it's definition but it basically means coming up with a pattern that manufacturers can buy and apply to products. Jessica has her designs on calendars, phone cases, stationary, etc. I don't have as big of aspirations but I do want to design my own paper. Look for a future post of patterns that I have designed. Here are some examples of  Jessica's Surface Pattern Design, unfortunately I can't get them any bigger. But check out her website for more patterns (www.jessicaswift.com)

I follow another blog by a lady named Ana White. She lives in Alaska and builds her own furniture. I know nothing about how to build furniture but I am very inspired to try. She is a stay at home mom and she builds her own plans for furniture. Check out her website at www.ana-white.com.  Here are some examples of her work.

This would be great for a small kitchen office.

 I would love to build one of these for my front porch. 

This is one that I am itching to try. I love the color. 

I am making tote bags for my adopted nieces and nephews for Halloween (only the ones who are old enough). We went to Fabricland today to pick out material yesterday. Watch for them in a future post. Here are some tote bag ideas that are simple but fun. 

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Well that is all for this weeks edition of Favorite Friday Ideas. I hope you have a crafty and beautiful Thanksgiving weekend!

Creativity: Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint

I just got a sample size of Miss Mustard Seeds Milk paint in the mail. The color is called Kitchen scale. I just got a sample size because I wanted to paint a shelf that I found at Value Village.

I have painted with milk paint before when I stayed at my brother and sister-in-laws in Hamilton. I talk about Jen, my sister-in-law a lot, because she is a big inspiration to me. She is a mom of identical twin girls but still finds time to refinish a dresser and a camping trailer. You can find these projects at Repurposed Gems.

 I got this shelf for $5.99 at Value Village. It needed a good sanding down, but it is very well made.  

Here is the shelf before it was distressed. 

 The shelf after it was sanded and distressed.

Here is a closer look. 

Perfect for my purses

You may be familiar with the Milk paint look. Or you may be wondering why you sand it down after painting it. It's because it is supposed to have a distressed and vintage look. I decided not to include a tutorial but if you are interested in learning more about Milk paint I would suggest you go to www.missmustardseed.com. I can also try to answer any of your questions. Please drop me a line at lauraannv1980@gmail.com. 

Creativity: Felt pumpkins

Last week on Favorite Friday ideas I included a picture of a pumpkin made of felt. I promised that I would show you mine when they were done. I have a couple more to go but these are what I have so far.

I am making them for Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I am going to put them on each plate on top of a yellow sunflower doily. I will definitely show you pics of the table and any cute family pics that I take. Here are some more pictures of the pumpkins.

If you feel so inspired to make some it isn't very hard. You need a Styrofoam ball, some orange felt, straight pins, a stick for the stem and a bit of green felt.

Put a short piece of a stick in the styrofoam ball for the stem. Cut the orange felt into circles. Fold the circle once, fold again and put a pin through the corner through all four layers. Then pin it to the styrofoam ball. Try to hide the pin head with felt. Keep doing that until the whole ball is covered. Then cut out a green leaf and pin it beside the stem.

Happy Pumpkin making!

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.