Puzzles

I am having puzzles made for my older niece and nephews for Christmas this year.  Below are the images being printed on the puzzles.  Luke's will be 99 pieces while Ethan's and Lilly's will be 30 pieces.

Halloween Bookmarks

 This month I made some Halloween bookmarks from a digital scrapbooking kit by Irene Alexeeva.

Owl Canvases

For my project this month I made a couple of digital owl prints (to be put on 16x20 canvases) for my sister Kate's baby girl's nursery.  I used Adobe Photoshop Elements as usual and a combination of elements from different designers.

Baby Book

This month I created a baby book for two new nieces that are on the way soon!  I used Photoshop Elements to make the pages with a purchased digital elements kit by NewlifeDreamsDesigns.  There were 20 pages total, here are just a few.

Digital Art - Wedding Vows

Back to digital for me this month.  My friend Emily asked me to make a piece with her wedding vows that will be printed on canvas and given to her husband as an anniversary gift. The high resolution version of this file has extended borders and will be printed on a 16x24 in. canvas.  The picture above just shows what will be on the front of the canvas.  I used Adobe Photoshop Elements to create the piece.

Navajo Necklace and Earrings

This week I was on a mission trip with my church to the Navajo Nation in New Mexico.  While there, one of the teachers at the Rehoboth Christian School (where we were staying) offered a little jewelry class with classic Navajo beads.  I made the above necklace and earrings.

Digital Card

My brother-in-law and his family are closing on a house next month, so I created a card to include in a housewarming gift.  I used Adobe Photoshop Elements and the "No Place Like Home" digital kit by Irene Alexeeva to create the cover (which I will print onto a 5x7 card).

Toddler Busy Bag - Geo Boards

My craft for this month is my toddler busy bag submission - Geo Boards.  To do this project, I used an old board we had stored in our barn and cut it into 7x7 squares using a chop saw.  I then sanded all the blocks, nailed in a 5x5 grid of nails, and finally spray painted them.  I also provided 6 strips of shapes from an online template to make on the boards using cloth loops.

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

So this month I decided to tackle our kitchen cabinets.  We have 70's style cabinets in our house and while someday we'd love to replace them with custom wood cabinets, we just didn't want to spend the money at this point.  So I went to Lowe's and purchased over 200 feet of molding, primer, paint, nail gun nails, and new hardware.  Scott gave me a quick lesson on using the chop saw and you can see the "final" results below.  Unfortunately, it took me about 4 coats of paint before I found a color scheme I liked (don't worry, I had to redo the entire thing only once, while the middle 2 attempts were only on 1 door).  And I still have lots of work to do on them, so not sure if I can officially count this one for March :).  Still have to apply a Polycrylic coat over everything, rehang the doors that were/are on there crooked, plus paint the interiors, and attach a few more knobs in some problem areas.

And then someday there'll be Part 2 - the countertop....

Original cupboards - left

New look - left

Original cupboards - right

New look - right

Valentines Day Kids Crafts

So this month I enlisted the help of my son, Holden.  For Valentines day presents, I helped him make paper heart wreaths for the grandmas and a bird seed ornament for Daddy.  The bird seed ornament was made by cutting a heart out of cardboard, spreading shortening onto the heart, and then pressing bird seed onto the shortening.

Step Stool Painted Design

My godson is turning 1 next month, so for a birthday gift, my husband and I decided to turn to one of our old favorites.  We had a number of friends who had babies years ago, and as a shower gift, my husband would build a step stool and I would paint on it.  For my nephew's stool, I decided to change up the original design (a poem and Dr. Suess character) and instead went with this vintage look for the top of the stool.