Wedding Anniversary Sign {DIY Art}

Two of my closest friends from my life in Las Vegas got married this weekend. That's two weddings, two happy brides, and of course their happy husbands.

For one of the lucky-in-love ladies, I made an anniversary sign. I posted this sneakpeak on Facebook when I finished it and she swooned. Swooned!

I have to admit, I love how it turned out. Kinda awesome when that happens! 

I started by sanding my section of 1X6. It's about 10" long. No, the pen, chapstick and nail clippers are not the tools I used--ha! I was using those to put the font in perspective. It happened to be one of the only pictures I took of the sign, and with my cell phone late at night... It was such a busy week I completely neglected to take real pictures!

Anyway, after the sanding, I planned to paste down some pretty patterned paper. I had asked the bride what her wedding colors were and she said black, white and champagne. Fancy! I ended up not liking the plain paper, pattern and all, so I ripped it in strips and mod-podged it on. Then I sanded the edges of the paper to make everything nice and smooth.

Next, I cut out 5" letters of the couple's last name with my Cricut in white vinyl. This font is super skinny and really hard to get the letters to lay straight, but I think they ended up being pretty straight. I then cut the wedding anniversary date in 1 1/2" letters from black vinyl using a straighter font which was much easier to work with!  

 I'm so pleased with how this turned out that I listed it as an example of customized signs in my Etsy shop. You can order one if you don't have the inclination to make one yourself!

We might be 7 days into November, but it's Day 26 of my 31-Day Series for October. We'll get there!

A Day at the Orchard!

This post is for the grandmas and grandpas out there. Specifically the ones related to the cute little buggers in the following pictures, but you borrowed ones and anyone else who's curious is welcome to join along on our little adventure to the apple orchard!

Edited: I completely meant to include these three pictures from my cell phone in this post! Cute little cuties!!! They each posed themselves at this cute display up by the barn.

 
A couple weeks ago we were invited to join a group of homeschooling moms and their kids to go apple picking at Martin's Hillside Orchard near Lincoln, NE. It was a cold day, but so very pretty too!

Who's the king of the mountain?! The boys had so much fun climbing up this hay bale mountain!

There was some apple picking, of course. These are Jonathan apples, being picked by my Jonathan. :) I remember before he was born and after we'd picked his name, we decided not to tell anyone what the name was until Jonathan was born. We were saying goodbye to Gary's parent's after a weekend at their house and they were probing for hints on the baby's name. We called him Nebuchadnezzar, by the way. Anyway, short story long... we were standing quite near a box of Jonathan apples, trying really hard not to look that direction, or have the parents look over there and ask if that was the name!!!

There was lots of apple eating too. I'm not sure how many each of the boys ate, but it seemed every time I looked, they had one in their hands!

There is nothing better than a crisp, cold apple picked straight from the tree and enjoyed outside!

We wandered over to the Yellow Delicious and those had to be tested as well.

The orchard also had a corn maze, hay bale towers, a rope swing, picnic tables, and this sandbox with dry corn instead of sand.

Yes, Jonathan is pretending to eat it. No, I can't imagine why. He also managed to bring home a handful in his pocket. The part that didn't go through the wash is now in a Lego "storehouse" where the story of Joseph is regularly reenacted.

The boys enjoyed lunch on top of a hay bale. I enjoyed lunch at the picnic table with the moms while one of their awesome daughters helped the boys open bags and manage juice boxes. Love her!

We bought a few pounds of apples, made a couple crisps as well as some pancake topping, and the rest are being used as a fall display on the kitchen table. Sadly, our display is dwindling as apples make awesome snacks! 

The time at the orchard passed so quickly we never did make it over to the pumpkin patch!

Fall Display {DIY Art}

I'm kind of hate that we don't have a crib in the house any more. I'm not quite ready to admit that we're out of the baby stage, though I do love sleeping through the night!

We do, however, still have crib springs. It's another kind of architectural art, or unusual things to hang on the wall, or junk or salvage or whatever you wanna call it! I like how it takes up quite a bit of room on the wall but it's not dark or heavy or over-powering.

It's also super easy to change the display! For fall, I made a little burlap banner with, well, burlap... and twine and hot glue. Super simple, super quick! I stuck a few leaves in my grapevine wreath and used mini clothespins to hang pictures of my boys looking cute this fall. We've had a really pretty fall and the boys love romping in the leaves and posing themselves with pumpkins (true story!).

For the last couple of months, I've used the crib springs and wreath as a birthday display. Gary's birthday is in September, mine is in October, so I hung a birthday banner, stuck some little pinwheels in the wreath and displayed our birthday cards with mini clothes pins.

We went to an orchard a couple weeks ago and had such a nice day with some new friends! Lincoln has been very good to us in the friend department! We bought a few pounds of apples and since our little dining nook is crowded is petite, our table is pushed up against the wall. I used that side of the table that no one can reach to display our Sabbath candles (from our wedding) and our Jonathans and Yellow Delicious apples from the orchard. And some leaves from the backyard.

The moral of the story is that if you have something big and interesting, hang it on a wall! I mean, use what you have to create a unique fall display.

Who needs a mantle when you can use a wall in your kitchen and the kitchen table?

And boy, did those Jonathans ever make good apple crisp!

This is a somewhat belated Day 25 of my 31-Day series! October may be over, but I'm determined to make good on my 31-Day promise!

Life {DIY Art}

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this thing called LIFE.

As in, I've been so busy I haven't been able to keep up with my series. Such is life, and since it's a personal goal, I've decided to lower my expectations of myself (set impossibly high!) and give myself a little grace. I will finish my 31-Day Series on DIY Art for Your Home, but it will have to extend into November.

Thanks for being my faithful reader!

Architechtural Art {DIY Art}

I'm a big fan of architectural art. I especially love found objects, and if they have some sort of meaning behind them, even better!

What I'm referring to specifically here is this old window. It's from our barn on our property in Iowa. (Here's a post from a couple years ago where I showed off this faux mantel!) When we lived there, I proudly displayed it on top of a bookcase in the kitchen where I stored extra dishes and cookbooks.

During our brief stay in Ohio, the mantel became home to our old barn window.

Here in Nebraska, the window is on a wall in the entry that you can see from the living room. Each time it is grouped with other similar found objects, such as the watering can (also from our barn), or things that look old and rustic (like the G monogram sign painted on barnboard, or the star made from sticks).

If you love how something looks or have something that is meaningful to you because of the place you found/bought it, why not display it? It adds so much character to your space. Take a look in your basement or garage, your shed in the backyard, or in a catch-all closet in the house. You might be surprised what you find and how cool it looks on display!

Today is day 24! If you've missed any, browse through my October post titles on the sidebar. You might just be inspired!

Framed Drawing {DIY Art}

Today I want to share with you a different art medium: the colored pencil.

You first saw this room in July when I took you on a little tour of our younger boys' room in Ohio. The art dates back a few more years and I'm sure it's in other pictures of our boy's rooms as they've evolved. But at one point I didn't have this piece of art. In fact I had nothing where I needed something so I created it.

And you can too!

I knew I wanted a picture of an airplane and I knew I wanted to use certain colors to go with the rest of the room. I had shiny red paint, so I painted an old frame shiny red. Next, I googled images of biplanes. I found something similar to the above drawing and used it as an example for mine. It's wonky, the lines aren't straight, I did virtually know shadowing, but it looks like a biplane!

I still needed a mat for my frame, so I used diluted craft paint on the back of wrapping paper--use what you've got! I like how it didn't dry even; it kindof looks like clouds in the sky.

In a matter of one evening, I had exactly the look, colors and size of art that I needed for the original room, and this piece has been a star player in every room since then! Now I'm not exactly sold on the idea of doing more drawings and framing them around the house, but I like this one! If you don't want to frame your own sketches, you can always frame a masterpiece that one of your kids drew or colored or painted.

The sky is the limit! Biplane not included.

It's day 23! Hope you're inspired!

A Sign for Grandpa {DIY Art}

I had intended during this month of DIY Art for your home, to actually finish the remaining rooms in our house. I seem to have bad timing with cleanliness and sunlight corresponding in the kitchen, and while the younger boys' room was the first one set up back in August, I still haven't put any art on the walls. Nor have I hung stuff in our master bedroom, and there's a box of frames waiting to be hung in the hall! 

Excuses, excuses. 

 

 

Today we're taking a little trip back in time to see one of my first signs. It's also one of my favorites and one that I know is well-liked by a certain Grandpa as it hangs on his shop door. So enjoy this re-post from August 2010. We only had two kids!

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My awesome in-laws were here this weekend. I am one of those lucky (blessed!) people who love their in-laws! They are wonderfully helpful and supportive. They and the boys have a mutual adoration thing going on, and it's so fun to live relatively close (a day's drive) to them so they can see their grandbabies grow up.

We were given some crabapples and my MIL and I spent an afternoon making freezer jam. Did we take pictures? Nope.

On Sunday we went to a neighbor's house and picked up as many apples as we could. They weren't great apples and wouldn't keep long, so we made applesauce. Not including picking time (which was hot and sweaty) it took the 4 of us 8 hours to process all of the apples. We made 33 quarts. 

Did we take pictures? Nope.

*sigh*

I did take pictures of the Father's Day gift we finally gave my FIL. Yes, I know it's August.

Back in June (see, I had good intentions!!!) I took a piece of plywood and sanded down the face just a little bit.

I slapped on a coat in my favorite brown house paint.

When the paint was dry, I used more house paint to stencil 'Grandpa' on the board.

When THAT was done, I put on handprints of the boys using, you guessed it, more house paint.

I wrote their names and ages with a sharpie.

My husband drilled holes and threaded them with twine so Grandpa could hang the sign. Here it is completed:

I think he liked it.

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Today is Day 22 of 31 Days of DIY Art for your home! I've gotta get the rest of my art on the walls to share with you!