The one where I get engaged!

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

OMG its Christmas Eve!!! Are you ready?
Im not! Still some wrapping to do :)

But the real reason I have been quiet is...

I GOT ENGAGED!!!!!

My days have been taken up with contacting friends and family and not as much blogging.

I have a Christmas pillow post for you tomorrow and expect some wedding planning posts in the future. You know I will be doing lots of DIY!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

The one with a Christmas Tradition

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

With less than 2 weeks to Christmas I am starting to look forward to the events coming up.
If I survive this finals week.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is exchanging ornaments.

My parents started getting {at least} one ornament for me every year since I was born and they kept a list of which ornament was received each year. 

I have carried the tradition on with The Boyfriend and continue to do it with my Mom.

My family also does an ornament exchange instead of exchanging presents. Everyone brings one ornament already wrapped up. We put them in a big pile in the middle of the room and we start picking one by one {youngest first}. The fun part is that you can "steal" someone else's ornament if you really like it, instead of picking a new one from the pile. We have been doing this for years and its really fun. So everyone leaves with a new ornament for their tree :)
And I am hosting the ornament exchange at our new house for the first time. 
I am so excited. Lots of pictures to come!!

So when this Teresa Collins December daily album showed up on a deal-a-day site for half off, I immediately knew I wanted to do an album about all of my ornaments.

I have a page for each years ornaments, and anything I remembered about them from way back. I sat down with my mom for my early years to see what she remembered. 

Its getting pretty thick!

The first page has a picture of the tree I decorate every year {that was my Grandma's}, and all my ornaments put out on my coffee table when I was getting ready to take all the pictures. There are multiple layers there. They don't all fit on my small tree. 

I have through 1999 done. I still have to add the years and add some embellishments to the rest of the pages. I hope to have this done before my family comes for Christmas so they can see how important our traditions are to me. 

It will definitely be one that I continue to do and will pass along to my children someday.

What is your favorite tradition?

The one with 2 get well cards

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

2 more cards coming your way this week! 

I have had a bunch of requests for get well cards lately so I thought I would create some for my stash. 

I made 2 similar cards with the same stamp set, Perfect Pennants, from Stampin Up! I also used one of their small paper packs.

On the white card I used the Arrows embossing folder to give it some texture.

On the brown version I thought it looked fine without the texture so I just added a little more glitter.

I inked everything with Stampin Up! Bermuda Bay  and used The Twinery twine in Caribbean.

That's it! Quick and simple today :)

Thanks for stopping by.

The one with a pretty card

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

Quick Quotes, one of my favorite scrapbook companies, is having a design team call!

I submitted a couple of projects I've done recently, but wanted to create something new using their products. I am always in need of cards at work, so I grabbed a 6x6 paper pad of their Stowaway line and got to work.

I made the background using a stencil, 2 colors of Quick Quotes's powder puff chalking ink (Caribbean Blue and Creamy Cocoa) and gold shimmer mist. I inked the areas I wanted blue, and the areas I wanted darker brown, then without lifting the stencil I sprayed it all with the shimmer mist. Where there was no color, it is a light gold, but it made it all shimmery.

I cut some pieces out with some dies and my cuttlebug, found a chipboard square from a different Quick Quote kit and cut out a saying from the same paper bad. I also used a piece of torn paper and a circle for the middle of my flower. I sprayed all of that with the same gold shimmer spray from the background and inked the edges with the same two colors. I stamped a script on the chipboard piece and the background and glued everything down. After a flower and a little bit of glitter glue, it was done!

I love the way it turned out. I hope I inspire you to create your own backgrounds!

Thanks for stopping by

The one with a craft room update

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Time to share a {very messy} craft room update!

As I mentioned in a previous post I am giving all the furniture in my craft studio a face lift (like everything else in my house!) 

I decided to make everything white! It is an easy color that will go with anything 

{should I decide down the road that I hate purple, but I don't see that happening}

The drawers looked like this to start:

Typical multicolored Joann Fabric's storage drawers

I laid everything out in the garage

(and you can see the last set of yellow shelves that need painted white here)

and sprayed!!

I used the same spray paint I used here to spray paint a glass bowl.

I did the inside, the sides and the front. I left the bottom colored since you don't see it and I was trying to get away without having to buy more spray paint 

I did a double coat on everything to really cover the color so I went though almost 4 cans

Please excuse the mess you are about to see! I have been trying to work on projects while still finishing up the rest of the storage for this room. So not everything has a home yet.

Here are the drawers in the room. I am loving how well everything looks white!

The taller drawers are in their final home. 

The short drawers go in another corner that is currently filled with mess. 

This corner is where the shower drawers will go. Above them will go white floating shelves.

You can also see hints of {at least} 3 projects you will see on the blog sometime soon in this picture. :)

I am also still deciding on what size table I want to put in the room so I am currently working on a folding table - which I feel is just adding to the general feeling of mess. But it is at least something for me to use until I figure it out. Any suggestions to help me in that process?

Thanks for stopping by!

The one with 3 simple fall centerpieces

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

I wanted to share some quick and simple fall centerpieces I put together.

Just in time for Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Also, less than a month to Christmas. Ahhhh!!!!

First for my dining area

It started with a nicely shaped bowl I found at a thrift shop for like $3. 

I wasn't a fan of a clear bowl at the time so I spray painted it white.

I got some pine cones at the store 

(the ones that smell so good, like cinnamon at the store and you get them home and they smell like nothing after about 24 hours) and I {of course} spray painted them too! 

I pulled out all the metallic spray paint I have been hording and used all the colors!

(and I thought I was going to do something with the acorns as well - only I think something got into the garage and stole them because I only have about a dozen now of all the colors...  I hope I didn't accidentally poison some poor squirrel with metallic acorns!)

I put pine cones in the bowl and there you have it! Quick and Easy! 

I love the mix of all the metals here.

Also, earlier this month, I was asked to help with some centerpieces and other decor for a retirement party. It was for a male so they didn't want girly flowers, but wanted it to be fall themed. 

We used the mason jars for centerpieces and the terra cotta pots at the food and cake tables. Again, super simple and cheap!

I think these turned out great!

Thanks for stopping by!

The one with some scrapbook layouts

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

Its a scrapbook day!

I took a week off for my 30th birthday a couple of weeks ago and spent 4 of those days crafting!!

2 days in Michigan at a wonderful Quick Quotes event

1 day with my mom creating some of the items we sold last week

and 1 day with another crafty friend at her house doing whatever I wanted

It was really a great week off

I also spent a day thrift-storing. You will see some of those items get a facelift in the coming weeks :)

So, when I went to my friend's house to spend the day scrapbooking I took a Bo Bunny line called Baby Bump. 

No, I am not pregnant. lol But seriously, check out the line, isn't it adorable?

But as soon as they released the line I just feel in love with the colors and patterns on the paper! I knew I could use it for something other than baby pictures. So instead, I used them for kitty pictures!!

I miss baby Harley!

I figured this one page layout could be the first page in a book all about my Harley.

When the paper is this cute the pages just came together so easily!

I did use a sketch for the first page that if I could find again I would share...

These are all pictures from the first week we had her.

On this layout you also see some Elle's Studio wood veneers that my friend graciously gave me as a present for coming over to scrap for the day! How sweet :)

The background paper for the 2page spread has a pregnant lady in the bottom left corners. Can you see her? Nope! I just really love how versatile this line is! I can't wait to do more pages with it soon

:)

Thanks for stopping by!

The one about re-doing my Mom's Bedroom

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

Earlier this year when I asked my mom what she wanted for her birthday she asked me to help her re-do her bedroom!

How fun!!! I got super excited and we started brainstorming. 

On her wish-list:

~She wanted a new headboard.
Her dressers were still in great condition (and they are older than me!) but her bedframe was cracked and scratched from the dog and needed to go.

~She wanted to paint
No idea what color at this point but the walls hadn't been painted since she moved in 17 years ago!!!!

~She wanted new curtains and a new bedspread
easy enough

We had a $500 budget 
(and ended up going slightly over not counting the new mattress set)

We chose an aqua and coral color pallet (after many other options were discussed) 
and went to work

Say hi to Salem (in the back) and Frank (the fluffy one in the front) 2 of moms 4 furbabies. 

During the process, mom also decided to downgrade from her queen bed to a double. This gave us more space and made the room feel bigger.

Note the 3 nails - There are 3 custom canvas pieces we are creating to go in that space. Along with some other art pieces for the wall. Those will come in another post 

(when we finish them)

The headboard I can thank the wonderful Boyfriend for. I came up with the idea of a bookcase headboard since we were taking out the nightstand to open up the room. Mom still needed somewhere for her book, glasses, lamp and clock. I think cost all of $30 for wood - we already had the beadboard on hand. I painted the back pieces coral before attaching them to really make them pop.

The lamps were already moms, she just got new lampshades for them. The books were purchased at a library book sale and just match perfectly. The vase was found at Target's clearance and the plate was a gift from a friend. Mom made crochet flowers to go in the vase. She really did a lot in this room! I just helped her put it all together.

The bedspread is also from Target as well as the curtains. I really love their home decor stuff! 

Mom has been making her own jewelry for a while so when I saw tie backs similar to these on pinterest, I wanted her to make her own! She took on the task and ordered beads in the right colors and I just love the way these turned out!!

This is a side table that used to be a typical dark brown. I decided to give it an update as well. Painted it white and edged it in the same coral as the headboard. This is on the other side of the room so it really balances it.

so here is a quick before of the same corner. The headboard was just too heavy for the room. The walls were pink when she moved in and like I said, never painted. The wall with the window was wallpapered when we moved in, and the wall paper was removed many years ago but we never got further than that. 

I will share some more updates of moms room as we finish other little projects like the art.

So mom got all her wishes and a lovely new room :)

Success!

Thanks for stopping by!

The one about gift card holders

Welcome back fellow DIY-ers!!

Every year the law firm I work for holds an entrepreneur show. It is for anyone who sells items on the side to showcase them during a 2 hour lunch time. 

My mom and I have sold many items over the years, but our best selling item and therefore what we create every year are gift card holders. Gift cards can be on the impersonal side, but putting them in a handmade holder can really show someone you care!

Here are the designs we have made this year using all kinds of items we both have on hand in our craft stash. We try to get a nice variety every year. 

Who wouldn't love to get a starbucks gift card in a sparkly cup!

That tree is made with straws!

I love the vintage feel of that stocking

Beautiful poinsettia! 

Something's feeling a little frozen with that top left design... ;)

The Noel is cut and multi-layered for a beautiful effect. 

The angel shimmers! 

All designs shown are available for purchase. If you would like to order any, please email Liz at lizkennedydesigns@gmail.com

Gift Card holders are only $1.50 each, 3 for $4.00

Here are some that we designed last year but could also be ordered. 

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