DIY Hashtag Shirt

 

If you love DIY ( and i know you do, otherwise you wouldn't be here) you will love this #diy shirt DIY :)
To make this fun shirt, you will need:

- white cotton shirt or top
- acrylic paint
- paint sponge
- vinyl
- Silhouette Cameo ( use storebought alphabet stencils if you don't have a cutting machine)

Monogram Mini Yarn Wall Hanging

Painted Tray Makeover

This tray is basically my dinner table. I've had it for at least one decade, and use it every time when i'm snuggled up in my bed and eat while watching TV. Plain white is boring though; time for a makeover!

Rotten Socks Halloween Poison Bottle

Before I could start this project, I had to reward myself with a bottle of ( more or less) good wine.

DIY Mini Paper Houses Part 3 - The Halloween Village

Part 1- Making Houses
Part 2 - The Christmas Village


I did not decorate the haunted houses - they are cute enough already. But i added the haunted tree and fence.


Unfortunately , i ran out of black cardstock, but that's nothing good old acrylic paint can't fix. Actually, the brush strokes make it look even more realistic.

DIY Mini Paper Houses Part 2 - The Christmas Village

Welcome to Part 2 of putz house making. Whew, what an adventure!

Yesterday, i played contractor and built the houses ( click here for Part 1), and today i want to show you how to make some cute details to decorate the houses. My inital plan was to decorate both villages, Christmas and Halloween, and for each house i have a story in mind of who lives there and whatnot.
But man! Making the christmas details took forever, and I'm extremely exhausted. So for now, i'll just leave the Halloween houses the way they are.

However, decorating is fun! Making mini doors, and window frames and shutters and wreaths and bows is fun! Adding snow and glitter is fun, of course!

DIY Mini Paper Houses Part 1

This is a project i've been wanting to make for a while now, for like two or three years, but somehow i never did and moved on to ( tons of) other ideas ideas instead.
But with Halloween and Christmas right around the corner, this is the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: create something that can be used for both hoildays, and get rid of paper scraps.



To be honest, there was a good reason i skipped this project for such a long time. Was it some mighty power from above? Destiny? Instinctive knowledge that i am in no way able to think dimensionally?
Ain't it funny how i am able to make flowers and all kinds of paper crafts literally within minutes, but then i struggle hard with those little houses? This is supposed to be a kids craft, isn't it? I don't think so...

Nonetheless, let me show you how i spent two ( 2!) full days making my paper putz houses.
Part 1 is dedicated to my battle with the buildings, and Part 2 is dedicated to the actual fun: decorating.

DIY: Hexagon Tea Light Holder

This is my first Halloween project. A tea light holder cut from black cardstock with my Silhouette Cameo, using this shape by one of my favorite designers: Patricia Zapata of "A little Hut".

Photo Canvas

One of MisterT's co-workers was lucky enough to celebrate his retirement last week. He threw a big party, and what could be a better gift than a distressed photo canvas?

DIY: Scarecrow Wreath

Hey Blogland, i've got news for you: it is NOT halloween yet!

How come last week everyone posted photos of their pedicured feet in front of a blue pool and a drink in their hands, and this week we see their pictures of perfectly decorated Halloween mantles. Blogland, you’re crazy, or what??

Why don't we all run to the next grocery store right now and buy christmas chocolate already. But let's not forget to bring a cooling bag to prevent the chocolate from melting on our way home...

*sigh*

Sure, the really hot days are over, but, and this is a big BUT ( and i cannot lie): it is still summer after all, and we're right in the middle of a season so beautiful, that it deserves to be a season of its own. I'm talking about what i call the "Golden Season": the transition from the last late summer days into early fall, with a color palette more striking than any other all through the year. 

The heat has gone, but it is still warm. The sun is not as bright and glaring as it used to be, and when it sets down in the late afternoon hours, it says "goodnight" to us with stunning orange and golden reflections everywhere. The leaves are slowly turning yellow and light brown, and again in the late afternoon hours, the trees seem to be surrounded by a heavenly golden glow. 

DIY: Washi Tape Paper Flower Wreath

The first project i shared here on my blog was a wreath. Back then, i did not care for wreaths at all and thought they were stupid, but within the past two years my taste has changed and i LOVE wreaths!

Wreaths are beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, fun, seasonal, ...

I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to wreaths, and at every link party, photos of wreaths are the first ones that catch my attention. Not only are the wreaths freaking fabulous, but so are the creativity and skills of the people who create those wreaths!

Pink Paislee Color Crush Challenge

...or why i am very close to throwing my stupid Cameo out of the window!

So, this page was supposed to be a quick and relaxing project after work- i calculated an hour max.

Day 1: No more daylight when i finally came home.
Day 2: I searched my stash for the PP paper i had purchased with my last shopping spree two or three weeks ago. Then, no more daylight. You can't choose paper when you can't see the actual colors, right?
Day 3: Aha, the sun was still shining. Chose the Pink Paislee Nantucket Clam Bake coordinating back as the background paper, grabbed a few rolls of washi tape, and the pack of Silhouette's adhesive cardstock.
Opened my Cameo software to create a loop border. Two hours and much yelling later i was finally ready to insert the cardstock into the machine and cut the pattern. Cut #1 big fail. Cut #2 big fail. Cut #3 big fail.
Why on earth are the default settings completely wrong?? Why the hell does that cardstock tear even on the lowest cutting speed. Why is this the most distrastrous supply ever sold??
Cut #4 came out ok. Then, no more daylight. You can't work on a color challenge properly under artificial light, can you?
Day 4: Hey, why not include some sketches with the new sketch pens? Purchased this pattern from the Silhouette Online Store , and let my machine draw. Draw#1 fail. Looks like the white pen is already dried out. Draw #2 in yellow was ok. I quickly wanted to add the words " beautiful Amaryllis", when the software crashed and the design i had worked on the last hour or so was gone. Damn it, Silhouette! Then, guess what, no more daylight-but this time all i had left to do was sticking and glueing everything to the page.
After 4 days, my one-hour project was finally finished... or so it seemed...


Once everything was done, the paper kept sticking to the cutting mat. My precious expensive paper. Not only did the mat ruin the pretty pattern, but now the page is super curly as well. Aaaargh!

I truly love my Cameo, but there are just too many flaws. The software has glitches, many of the settings are wrong, that adhesive cardstock is a catastrophe and the cutting mat is simply ridiculous. Either waaaayyyyy too sticky, so that it ruins the paper, or not sticky at all and the paper just keeps sliding around during the cutting process, which of course ruins the paper, too. Silhouette, please come up with a better solution real soon!

Anyway, i like how the page turned out. Wonderful colors!

Framed Silhouettes

Obsession "stripes" meets obsession "frames" in the aisle at TKMaxx. Within the thousandth of a second i find myself holding this:

Sketch Challenge: Spring

This is my contribution to the March challenge of Scrap 365 Magazine. The layout is based on this sketch by Kim Woods:

I used a variety of patterned paper on a plain white background, as well as washi tape ( solid yellow, mint stripes and yellow chevron), dotted fabric, paper flowers, flatback pearls and cut-outs from one of my favorite designers, Heidi Grace.
The yellow morrocan-style background is a basic shape that is included in the Silhouette Cameo software.