Cheap Wall "Art"

I recently redecorated Lily's room.  I have a little of my mom in me and get bored easily when it comes to decorating and love to change things up.  Unfortunately, I can't do it as often as I would like to now that I'm a stay-at-home mom on a very limited budget.

I was ready to get rid of Lily's nursery and give her a "big girl" room...well, at least a bigger girl room.  I chose to decorate her room in Tiffany blue, black, and white.  Paint is cheap.  However, all new wall decor wasn't really in the budget.

I repurposed Lily's name plaques that were in her nursery.  I bought 4 sheets of scrapbook paper and decoupaged the paper to the letters.  Easy peasy...they turned out cute, but I just wasn't satisfied with how they looked hanging over Lily's bed.  I think maybe they are just too small.

I was on a mission to find something larger, yet relatively inexpensive to hang there.  I found this garland on Pinterest and decided I could adapt this to make a canvas.  I went into Hobby Lobby with expectations of buying a large canvas.  Holy cow are they ever expensive!!!!!  I almost gave up on my idea until I spied a two-pack of smaller canvases for $7.99.  Hmmmmmm...hang two canvases side by side!

I gathered my supplies including:  canvases, spray paint (even though they are white, I still chose to paint the canvases for a brighter white), sprapbook paper, flower punch, string, large needle, glue gun, and a pencil.

After painting the canvases, I marked off every two inches on the back, top and bottom.  The marks were where I would be hot gluing the strings down. I then glued down the first string (actually...two strings...just my choice for some reason).

I threaded 3 paper flowers on each string and then pulled the string taut and hot glued it to the back.  BTW...the back isn't very pretty...lol.

The flowers can be positioned however you want.  I chose to scatter them all over the canvas.

The finished project.

Right after I hung them, I decided to take them back down and bend
the petals up abit to give it a more dimensional look.
 I'm not sure if it was the rightchoice or not, but it's done.

The total cost of this project was about $9.  All I had to buy was the paper (I used four 8 1/2 by 11 sheets) and the canvases.  I had the rest of the supplies already on hand.

II think this would be really cute with the canvases painted some bright color too.  However, the only other color in Lily's room is black.  I didn't want to use black.

I don't know if these will hang here forever (heck...I know they won't).  For now, they are an inexpensive option...and I like them.

A couple more Lily's room projects in the next couple days...

What's in a Name??

I think I've made it clear that I love Pinterest.  I was even motivated to make a couple of Christmas presents this year from an idea I found on Pinterest.  I truly believe that the 3 families I gave these "homemade" gifts to, actually liked them.  :)

Here's a link to the site where I got the idea for my "name signs".  

On the website I referenced, the blogger mentioned using a 1 x 10 if you want to hang this on the wall.  I couldn't find such a thing.  I used 2 x 10s.  Although I haven't put ours up yet, my Dad put up the one I made for my brother and his family.  He just drilled completely through the boards with long screws, directly into studs.

The only trouble I ran into (and it was silly on my part because I should have seen this) was that I didn't crop and resize the photos I found on the Flickr site.  The first batch of photos I ordered where flops.  I quickly figured out my mistake and hit up Wal-Greens photo service again.

I really LOVE how this project turned out.  I can't wait to hang this above the pocket doors leading into our family room.  The only reason it's not already up is because I haven't made the time to repaint the kitchen yet.  Yep...another project!

I know this is a bathroom, but here's the color inspiration for my soon-to-be-redecorated kitchen...

And yes...this inspiration came
from Pinterest too!

Gallery Wall, Part 2

When thinking about my gallery wall, I knew that I wanted to include some things that weren't photographs.  Lily's room was our guest room prior to being a nursery.  The decor was white on white/shabby chic.  I still have fond memories of that room and hope to recreate it someday.  Most of the stuff is tucked away in our attic.  Once Ethan goes away to college in a few years, his room might be taken over by his decorating stepmom...don't tell him.  Anyway...a lot of the stuff that used to hang on the walls in that room have been painted black and are now used on the new gallery wall.

Here's the wall again...in case you forgot.  That spot on the ceiling still
isn't fixed.  I chose to nap instead of patch.

This is one of the things I purchased.  I found it on Etsy.  I'll include
a link to the seller at the end of this post.  This is my first attempt
at applying vinyl.  It was easy peasy to do!

I made this little 5x7 canvas with a bunch of stuff
I had around the house.  The canvas used to hang
in the master bath.  I first painted it white and then
Mod Podged a piece of black and white
scrapbook paper to the front of it.  I decided that
the white part of the paper was just too white, so
I used a little more Mod Podge tinted with instant
coffee to "antique" it.  I wrapped black velvet
ribbon around the canvas and made a little
loopy bow for the top.  The singed edged flower
is another little fun thing I make.  I'll provide a link
on how to make these at the end of this post.
I was happy with how it turned out...and it
was basically FREE!

I LOVE how this turned out.  I really like the texture of burlap.
I found this frame in the basement.  I might have "inherited" it
with the marriage...not sure where it came from.  It was white.
Gotta love spray paint.  I bought the big T at Michael's.
I used spray adhesive to glue the burlap to a piece of cardboard
I cut to use as a backing.  The T is hot glued to the burlap.

I found this cute little frame with matte at
Wal-Mart for $3!!!!  Perfect for Lily's
teeny tiny baby foot and handprints.

I love this!  I bought a frame that holds three 4X6 photos.  I think I got
it at Target.  I found the numbers on a photographer's Flickr site.
He also has great letters!  I'll post pictures of what I made with
those in a few days.  Oh...and by the way, the 6-5-4 stands for
our anniversary, June 5, 2004.

This is a family picture we had taken was Lily was 6 months old.
(I think it's time for a new one!!!)  The original is in color.  I just plopped
it on my printer and made a black and white copy of it.  I use matte finish
photo paper but I think cardstock would work too.

This photo is of my precious daughter, taken just after her open heart
surgery.  I asked Mark if it was weird to put it on the wall.  We know that she
is a MIRACLE...so on the wall it went!

Click here to visit the Etsy shop where I found the vinyl saying.  FYI...this company was GREAT to work with, but while looking to find it for this post, I found the same vinyl for $2 less.

For how to make singed flowers, click here.  I have a hard time using a candle, so I use a lighter.  I also hand sew all my flowers rather than glue.

Not that you really need a tutorial for this, but here's where I got the idea for the T in the oval frame.

And finally...that Flickr page I got the photos from...click here for the photographer's collection.

Stamp Camp Projects

Last Saturday I went to a stamp camp at my neighbor's house. It's always a lot of fun and I come home with 4 cards that we made. I bought the black card with the hearts...didn't make that one. I thought it was really cute though so I included the picture.

Sorry that this one is sideways...it isn't in my file, but it uploads that way...hmmmmm. This was a super-easy cute card that could be adapted for many different occasions.

If I only liked coffee...lol


This was the most complicated card we made. It has lots of stamping and we also used flocking. Unfortunately, I stuck the card in my plastic bag before it was completely dry and there are some white smudges at the bottom right. I always use these cards for samples anyway.


Super-easy and super-cute...the word "happy" is filled in with colored pencils and then gone over with a watercolor marker. I love the colors!

I thought this card was cute so I bought it. I think that I can cut all the hearts with my Cricut!


Anyone have any St. Patrick's Day or Easter papercrafts they would like to share??? E-mail your pictures to me and I'll post them. Thanks!!!

Valentine's Day Cards

The pictures aren't very great. I promise to figure out a way to take better pictures for next time. I just never got around to it and it's getting close to Valentine's Day.


I can't take any credit for these cards. Yes, I made them, but the designs were chosen by my stampin' friends, Erica and Denise.


The last picture is actually a thank-you card, but I thought it would also make a cute Valentine's card, minus the "thanks".

Valentine's Day

Beverly's Projects

http://adventuresofhomeschoolingnoah.blogspot.com/
http://lefevretimes.blogspot.com/

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I think we need a theme for posting. Let's start with Valentine's Day. Send me your ideas for V Day projects you've done. Send them to scrapbookercathy@yahoo.com. Come on...you know you want to...do it right now! :O)

I don't have any scrapbook pages, but I have a couple of cards that I've made. I'll add them later today.

By the way...anyone have any suggestions on how to get a good picture of our crafts??? I tried to take pictures of my cards last night and they look washed out. I'm going to see what happens if I turn the flash off. I'm also wondering if scanning them might work. Suggestions appreciated!

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Beverly, you rock!!!! Thanks for your cute projects you just sent (pictures above). I'm going to try to get a picture of Lily and make her into a little cupid. Woooooo hooooooo! This is going to be fun!!!!

Maybe I'll wait until tomorrow to post my pictures of my cards.

First Post

I posted about my Cricut on my other blog, http://www.awalkinlilysgarden.blogspot.com/, a while back. I got some messages from other scrapbooking mamas. I thought it might be fun to start a blog to share our paper craft ideas.

So.....I'm going to need help with this. I am hoping that this can be a community effort. Please send me pictures of your paper craft items along with your name. I will post them on the blog to share with others.

I do most of my crafting by myself. So I'm hoping to get some great ideas from all of you!!! Please send your tips, photos of your projects, great finds, websites, etc. to me at my special e-mail account: scrapbookercathy@yahoo.com