here's what my week looks like ...

Do you have a difficult time trying to remember what everyone in your family is doing during the week? I use to before I created this easy diy project for my kitchen. 

I turned an over sized painting that I purchased for $10 at the second hand store into a chalkboard. I hung it in my kitchen in a spot that it would be easily seen and my family uses it to keep track of appointments, school events, games/practices, etc. 

For whatever reason, my husband really didn't want me to put this in the kitchen at first. But everyone that visits our home comments on it and asks us where they can get one ... so now my husband thinks it is a great idea.

I painted the frame using a couple of coats of white chalk paint. I painted over the original painting using a couple of coats of Martha Stewart's chalkboard paint. Luckily the painting did not have a texture so I did not have to do any sanding before I painted the surface.

Tip: Allow the final coat of chalkboard paint to dry for about 24 hours before using it. You'll also want to condition the chalkboard surface by rubbing the side of a piece of chalk over the entire chalkboard. Clean off using a dry cloth.

I knew that I didn't want to have to rewrite the days of the week on the chalkboard every week so I used a chalk marker to write each day of the week and the "good to know" line. I write the weekly notes in chalk. That way, when I erase the board with a dry cloth at the end of each week, everything comes off except for the words in chalk marker.

Even if you don't have great handwriting, it is possible to achieve perfect type on a chalkboard using chalk markers if you follow my handy instructions ...

1. Gather your supplies: white transfer paper, a pencil, chalk markers, print out of your design/type (sized to fit your chalkboard), painter's tape and ,of course, a chalkboard.

I type out whatever words/design I want to put on my chalkboard on my computer first. That way I can play around with different fonts and the spacing.

Note: I print everything in the final size I need for my chalkboard, even if I have to cut up my words/design to print on a number of pages. You just tape them all together.

2. Cut your paper design out to fit your chalkboard so you can see where to place it. Use painter's tape to hold the paper in place and insert the white transfer paper in between the paper and the chalkboard. Make sure that the white transfer side is facing down towards the chalkboard. Now trace the letters (design) using a sharp pencil.

3. When you are finished tracing with the pencil it will look like this. 

4. Now you are ready to write using the chalk marker by going over the fine lines from your tracing. 

And that's it! If you can trace - you can do this.

have courage and be kind

I saw a trailer for Disney's new live action Cinderella movie last year at a movie theatre. As soon as I heard the words "have courage and be kind" I had to dig through my purse to find a piece of paper and a pen because I knew that this was the inspirational quote that I needed for a project I was working on for my youngest daughter's bedroom.

These are the words she sees every night before she goes to bed.

To create this I simply painted over an old framed canvas painting from the second hand store. The white paint on the frame is Martha Stewart's vintage decor chalk paint left over from painting my daughter's night stand. A couple of coats of Martha Steward chalkboard paint completely covered the original canvas painting. I worked out the type on my computer first and printed it out in sections so I could trace the final design onto the canvas. I used chalk markers so that the design would not rub off when we I dust. 

The Cinderella movie opens today in theatres and from what I have read and heard so far the movie looks like it is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see it, hopefully with one or both of my "princesses" or perhaps with my "Prince Charming".

I love the quote in today's (Toronto Star) from Lily James about the movie and her role as Cinderella. She was talking about the fact that she does not believe in the myth of Prince Charming and she said  "I don't think he comes and saves you. But I do believe in true love and I do believe in two people meeting and enriching each other and making each other feel like life is worth living." I believe that too and I think I may have to add that quote to the back of this piece!!

               

The End.

Paint colours for our new house

Our family moved to a new city last summer. I LOVED the new custom built, open concept home that we were living in but we wanted to move closer to a school for my youngest daughter. The homes in the area of the school are all really nice older homes on mature lots with lots of trees. We really like the new city because it has a wonderful downtown area, it feels like a small town more than a large city and we are half an hour closer to our cottage. 

Our new home is the complete opposite to our last home. The ceilings are not as tall so a few of my furniture pieces do not  fit in the rooms ... I had to get rid of my beautiful 9' Christmas tree in November and buy a 7 1/2' tree. I have lots of small rooms instead of large open spaces. I will need to purchase or find the time to make lots of art work to fill the walls. 

We have been living here for just over 4 months now and we have been making lots of small changes.  We are now thinking about what we want to do in regards to painting and I have been starting to collect paint colours.

Here's some of my inspiration! Tell me what you think. 

You can find the sources for these pictures on my Pinterest boards here.

I am totally in love with the birch tree wall paper. Have not shown it to my husband yet. I know that he will try to remind me about how much I hate having to take down wall paper ... but I don't think that I will get tired of this one for a long time and I am just think about it for an accent wall in the living room!

Here's the colours that I am thinking about ... although they look a lot cooler in the pictures than they do in the swatches. I want warm greys to go with my existing furniture.  I am thinking about using one of the two lightest greys on most of the walls. The dining room could be a little darker so maybe stone harbor in the dining room. I will have to do all of the trim over so I am thinking  a warm white (cloud white) for the trim. I am going to remove most of the doors on the main floor to make the rooms seem more open. There will only be a few doors left and I am thinking about painting the doors (only the doors not the door trim) a dark grey (gray). I love the black doors in some of the photos that I have pinned but I have a feeling the dark warm grey will be better .The spindals on the stairs have already been painted white and I may paint the rest of the wood in dark grey.

I have not shown any of this to my husband yet. I know that he is thinking we will just paint everything taupe again so keep your fingers crossed for me!! I have already convinced him to let me paint all of the wood wainscotting a warm white ... it was either that or buy a new sofa and chairs and he most likely thought that painting would cost him less! 

Let's get organized {part 3} - scraps of paper

I'm still organizing and cleaning ... with a little crafting tossed in to make it fun! Here's a couple of other projects that I came up with for my studio to organize all of the scraps of paper with notes and information that I have in my desk drawers and around my office.

I have been collecting American Art Pottery over the years and found that I had a couple of plain ones in a cupboard that were not very expensive and a good size to use on my desk. I turned the one pictured above into a piece of art that would function as a place to store computer and reference information.

I used vintage pottery that was not really valuable and plain ... you can find these at antique shops and shows and sometimes if you are lucky, at a second hand store (for a fraction of the price).

This project was a great way for me to get some vintage pieces that I love out of boxes so that I can see and enjoy them. I used a number of vintage elements: a photo, stamps from a postcard from Paris,  pieces of rhinestone jewellery, a metal light reflector and words from an old book. I also used some newer materials from my paper crafting supplies: paper flowers, fabric measuring tape and metal embellishments.

I used gel mediums (regular and heavy) to attach everything. I started with the fabric measuring tape and metal light reflector. I save my wooden stir sticks from Starbucks for projects like this ... it is so much easier to apply the gel medium ...

I removed the stamps from the back of the vintage postcard using steam from my kettle ... work slowly and carefully so that you don't burn yourself. I scanned both sides of the postcard to use digitally later on. I adhered the stamps to the pottery with soft gel medium and added a coat of gel to the front. The vintage photograph was purchased years ago at an antique show ... I'm always attracted to these for some reason ... and love the way that they are mounted on beautifully embossed cards. I don't know who this woman is but I'm calling her "Aunt Amy" after one of my favourite Great Aunts that I remember from my childhood. 

Next I layered a few paper flowers for colour ...

... added a piece of text out of a book ... this one came from the Cat In the Hat book.  It felt right on this piece as I'm trying to be a little more "fearless" this year!

And then my favourite part - the bling! I removed the pin back from the rhinestone brooch before I adhered it with heavy gel medium. The size and shape were perfect for this piece. Small rhinestones with added to the flower centres. I added a Tim Holtz metal crown to the photo to make "Aunt Amy" look like a princess. 

Another bling element was added to the space betwen the stamps and the fabric ... some distressing ink to age and then I set it aside to dry for a few hours.

When it was dry and I sat it up I realized that the back with just the ribbon and the original paper pottery label looked a little plain so I decided to add three vintage buttons.  

The pottery fits library cards and blank index cards (sideways). I made a couple of space dividers with mailing labels decorated with vintage buttons, bits of lace and trim and of course, a bit more text from The Cat in the Hat. 

I used another pottery piece to hold more index cards ... these cards have many of my website addresses, user id's and passwords - stuff that isn't "confidential" (like banking and credit cards). I didn't decorate this pottery because I knew that the two items would be together on my desk ... think simple black dress and killer shoes and jewellery.

I dressed up the index card dividers with distressing inks, alpha stickers and glaze drops. If you don't have glaze drops you can used Inkssentials Glossy Accents to get a similar effect on the letters. The index cards were about 1/8th of an inch too big so I cut them all with my paper cutter to fit the pottery ... so if you try to make one of these for yourself don't get too hung up trying to find a container that works.

And now my computer desk in my studio has a new look. My desk drawers are neat and I have all of my reference information at my finger tips!

I hope that this inspires you to get organized and be creative doing so! Have a great weekend!

       

let's get organized {part 2}

I'm still in my purge and organize mood and here's another project that I have been working on in my home studio. This photo is what one corner of my office looks like this morning after a few hours of organizing on the weekend.

I have soooo many scrapbooking supplies in my office and in the basement (where most of my supplies are kept) ... and although I like to think that I know where everything is ... I really don't. I spend way too much time looking through storage boxes that I have so neatly arranged on ikea shelving units in the basement. I'll be honest, I do label the boxes and everything appears to be really neat and orderly ... but I still seem to spend hours looking for "something" just right. 

I've seen lots of ideas for organizing supplies in magazines and on the internet but I wanted to use some things I already had on hand and didn't have to go out and invest more money ...especially after I started working out the math on how much I've spent on scrapbooking materials!

So I converted a metal jewellery stand that I purchased at Pier One Imports a few years ago into fixture to hold some of my scrapbooking elements in my studio.

... here's a close up of the jewellery stand ...

... I used three different sizes of clear zip lock bags to do this ... you can buy these at lots of places ... I got many of mine at the dollar store. Some of my bags had a hole at the top but if they didn't I simply added a hole with my crop-i-dile (but a regular hole punch will work too).

... then I used small binder rings to put the bags into small groups of similar things or items that went together. After that it was easy to organize and hang the bags on the jewellery stand. Now I do have to confess that I did have to go out and purchase additional binder rings ... I had a couple of dozen of them to start but I had way too many supplies to organize!

Here's how my new fixture looks in my studio office. I set it on top of a table that my Dad made for me years ago. Now I do have to admit that this is not all of my scrapbooking materials on this one little fixture ... I have a couple (couple ... who am I kidding, a bunch) of boxes of more ziplock bags on binder rings waiting for a "home". I think that I am going to work on converting one of my ikea shelves so that it will hold more of my supplies this way ... but that will be another project to work on!

I also reorganized the wire tiered basket in my studio ... it sits beside my new fixture and was looking a little messy. It still holds some of my completed mini albums in the top but the bottom is now full of blank albums and a couple of antique glass jars filled with additional supplies.

I have to remember to keep my eyes out for more of these metal jewellery stands and wire tiered baskets .... this is a great time of year to find things like this on sale.

One more thing that I did in my studio office is to use my antique suitcases to better organize my "basic tools". I now keep my most used tools and supplies in the small and large suitcase. The large suitcase is perfect for storing my paper cutter, glass and self healing mats and other cutting tools. The smaller suitcase is great for gel mediums, adhesives, pens, brushes, distress inks, etc. Now when I go to Scrapbook Queens to work on a project or teach a class I don't have to take much time getting ready, I just have to grab these two suitcases. I use the medium size suitcase when I am packing for a class to organize my class "kits" and any additional tools or materials that I will need for that specific class.

Next project to tackle ... my computer fonts and contact information!

in the studio - sneak peek Friday

My friend, Jennifer, over at studio jru started this cool link party called "in the studio sneak peak friday". It's kinda like "where women create"! Jennifer asked us to show where we create and what we are working on ... so here we go ... here's my creative space .. my "studio" ... welcome!

 

My studio is on the main floor of our house ... the space was originally designed to be a dining room but when the house was being built we had the builder make some minor changes so that it could be used as a second main floor office space. I love my area and it is usually cleaned up every night before anyone gets home from work/school because everyone walks by my studio door.

 

Now I do have to admit that the vast majority of my supplies are in the basement on ikea shelves because I would not have enough space to "create" if ALL of my supplies where in here too!

Here's a bunch of shots around my studio space ...

... can you tell that we love antiques in our house? ... here's some more detail shots ...

can't imagine life without my computer ...

... some of my Somerset Studio magazines ...

... favourite scrapbooking albums are stored under an old sewing machine that I had converted into a table to hold one of my printers and my stereo ...

... I still have to hang pictures in my office ... so hard to pick which ones to hang - I'm thinking of a bunch of shelves so that I can "lean" art on the wall and change them up from time to time ... I love this print from Katherine Quinn (that still needs to be framed) ...

... I keep projects "organized" in piles or containers around my office ... some projects are waiting to be completed, some are waiting to be photographed for etsy and some waiting to be started!

 

 What have I been working on lately? ... I'm so happy that I just completed my quilt square (see above) for my "flying friends" quilt project last night. I just mailed it off to Sonya McCllough this morning and I'm hoping that she gets it in time so that she can start to put together a quilt for Kelly Rae Roberts' baby. I was originally going to add a bird to this design but I loved the way that the nest and three denim eggs turned out and so I left the mama bird out! I think that I may have to make another one of these for myself ... I had so much fun sewing the ribbons and yarns to make the "nest"!

I hope that you enjoyed the tour! You can visit other studios too by clicking on the in studio sneak peek friday button!