Creativity: Crafty Cards

I love making cards. It is a true fact about me. I also love receiving them. I have two scrapbooks full of cards that I have received from people. I love giving cards to people, especially homemade ones. I thought that I would share with you some cards that I have made recently. I don't make super embellished cards like you see in Scrap booking magazines or on Pinterest. I like to make simple ones.

I think giving someone a handmade card is one of the best things you can do. It is meaningful and special. It is also an opportunity to express how you feel about this person. I have friends who are a couple and they pray for me every day. I give them a lot of cards to express how I feel grateful for their prayers and their friendship.

All my friends have received a card from me from time to time. Its something I do to tell people that they mean a lot to me. I encourage you to grab some card stock, paper and some glue and scissors. Make a card and send it to someone who needs some encouragement.

Favorite Friday Ideas

I had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and I used up some of the previous Favorite Friday Ideas for the table decorations. What I am inspired by right now.... Kid's crafts! I have some adopted nieces and nephews, well they adopted me which I love. I have been collecting ideas to do with them. Here are a few of them.

Source

Source 

Source

Source 

Source

Couldn't find source

I have also been itching to try some pillow makeovers. I have some material that I want to use to cover some old pillows. Here are some pillow ideas.

Source

Source

Source

Well that's it for this weeks addition of Favorite Friday Ideas. Happy crafting!

Family: Thanksgiving

We had a great time yesterday with my family for Thanksgiving. We went to Toronto to my brother Stephen and sister in law Stacy's new house.

 Michael and William

Fall walk

Emanuel and I

William trying out his walking skills

Table decorations

William covered in Cranberry sauce. Gotta love it. 

It was a lovely day. We really enjoyed our surroundings and the great company. The twins were there too but sadly I didn't take any pictures of them. 

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. 

Source

Source

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!