Tiny decor blocks

Everybody seems to be making those decorative wooden blocks lately. I'm constantly seeing a new tutorial pop up about decor blocks. So I thought I'd try some myself. 

Seriously, I should have taken a photo of what the little blocks looked like before I sanded and painted them. They were totally "trash." I'm not kidding. There's a pile of trash wood in the front yard and that's where I found these pieces. I think they were actually one block and they broke in half. So I sanded them up a bunch and painted them, then roughed up the edges and every side actually as well. 

Nope, that's not exactly painted on free hand. I found online a neat way to get my print/design onto the block. Maybe most of you are going to say, "Well duh, we all know about this!" .. Be nice! I just learned this! 

I made my own transfer paper! 

Print your font or image in the desired size and then cut it down.

{for mine every letter is a different font}

Then turn your print over and start coloring with just the side of the pencil lead. Try not to leave any little cracks and lines in the pencil marking... or your image will be missing some spots.

 

Place your image on top of block where you want it.

  This was my second block and I had to cut my word up on this one because the letters spread out a little too far. So I just made sure where I wanted them to fit. 

Holding your paper down tightly, trace your image with a very sharp pencil. When I did my first block I had a fingernail mark on the front from holding the paper down! But don't worry, your fingerprint marks will brush off.. just don't worry about it till you've painted your word.

And there, now you have your word transferred to your block! That wasn't so hard.. it's the painting the skinny letters where you find the challenge!

I think they turned out pretty cute! 

Ever hear the song from Harry Connick, JR. "We go together, like a wink and a smile." ?? 

The words just seem to fit together. I think it's cute.

like a

and a

{ha ha}

The end

hApPy CrEaTivItiEs!!

"Just Because" cookies

Saturday marked mine and hubby's 9 months of being married. Wow, I can't believe that much time has gone by already! Well, we decided to make chocolate chip cookies that night, so the two of us were mixin' and bakin' away in the kitchen. M-M-M those cookies were YUUUUMM-EEEEE! Since we've been married I've made several batches of cookies but none of them have ever really turned out so good. They always look like they're flatter than pancakes when they're done and their super hard and crunchy. But these ones turned out amazing! {must have been cause hubby helped!} And they were delicious too! I decided to wrap some up all cute and take them to church with us for everyone Sunday.

Yep, I just wrapped them in good ole' plastic wrap, twisted a piece of pipe cleaner around with a label I made from my computer. I love "Just Because" treats or gifts! I'm the type of person that just gets so much joy from giving away little things like this. It feels good to do something cute and simple like this for someone. That's a way that I've always been, and I hope I stay that way. 

You never know who's day you can brighten just by giving them a sweet little something.

So go ahead, think of somebody you can spare a little love and thought for. You'll be amazed at the reward you'll even find for yourself-- JOY 

.. Ooh! I just had a bright idea! I'll make this cookie giving away thing my special little thing and call it "My JOY cookies." {giggle}

So I shared these cookies with my church friends, and now I share with YOU {except you just won't get the calories!!!} 

"As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men..."

Galatians 6:10

Handmade fish tank stand

So my brother has some awesome skills in wood working. He's put together some neat tool shelves in his garage, he's made some super cute planter boxes for his porch, and I can just bet there are some things he's done that I don't even know about. 

He just finished making a stand for a 30 gallon fish tank that he got for his girlfriend's birthday. He sent me a couple pictures of the stand and I just HAD to share this with everyone! *The photos were taken from his cell phone camera, but I think you can still see the great work* He did such an amazing job!!!

It's beeeeeautiful!

Here it is painted black and all finished for a nice display!

I told him if I still lived in California I'd be begging him to make me one of these for my fish tank! {mine is only a 5 gallon tank though} I would L-O-O-O-V-E to have this in my place!

I'm so proud of my brother. He does such a great job with the things that he makes. This post is my attempt at getting the word out about his skills {you know, cause I'm a proud older sister and I just have to brag when the opportunity arises!}.

Hope you enjoyed this!

Until next time... 

hApPy cReAtIviTiEs !!

Jesus loves me T-shirt

Remember when my friend and I had too much fun using bleach on T-shirts? Well, she finally was able to buy a new cutting mat for the Cricut she's borrowing. So I made some letter cut outs at her house and took them home to try out the bleach fun again. This is what I made. 

This is a child's size T-shirt {from the same pack my friend bought from Walmart a few weeks ago}

I put a little bit of glue stick on the back of each letter and dot. Then got a round pizza pan and shoved it inside the shirt to keep the bleach from soaking to the back.  

.. I decided to tuck the rest of the shirt under itself so I wouldn't spray more areas than I wanted.

Then I sprayed away. I kind of sprayed a little too much, but I think it turned out pretty cute anyways. 

"Jesus" turned out the best! {wink} 

The rest of the paper cut outs kind of got a little too wet and soaked through.. especially the dots. 

I'd kind of like to cut off the sleeves and scrunch up the shoulders and tie them with some leftover pieces from the sleeve material.  {obviously for a little girl}

I was a little disappointed in how some of the letters ended up, but now I don't think it looks too bad. 

Mark 10:13-16

"And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God like a child, he shall not enter therein. And He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them."

Jesus loves me this I know!

Recent finds

Last week I went with a friend to Regina {a city in Saskatchewan) to do some shopping. She was going for grocery shopping but I was more excited about hitting the big thrift store after the groceries! I found some really cute shirts and so.. I bought them! The prices weren't super cheap, but still a ton better than if I had bought them brand new. Anyway, here they are. 

I was sooo happy when I found the white shirt because I don't have a nice white shirt other than a t-shirt. It's really comfy too.

The long sleeved grey shirt is so pretty! I just have to find something right to wear with it. It doesn't have buttons, it's just one of those open hangy shirts. The shoulder seems confuse me a bit, but I think those seems are supposed to be showing in the front. Weird. 

The black sweater (with a hood) was actually $2 brand new at a clothing department store! Wa-hooooo! I love clearance racks!!

So far I've worn everything but the grey long sleeved shirt.

These are the only ones I took pictures of me in. I think the blue striped one is my favorite.

I also found a spice rack that I've been wanting for a long time!

It was $1.99!!!!!! I just HAD to get it. The dollar store sells the empty glass spice bottles. I'd like to paint it and get the spice jars, but I think I'll wait till I'm back home in New Brunswick to finish it. .. I've done too much shopping and collecting of things out here in Saskatchewan that we're going to have to send a box of stuff back home!

And here's a cool picture frame I found. There were 6 of them total, but they were $3.99 each! So I thought, " Uuum.. I think I can make do with just one." There isn't even a backing. Oh well. I can't wait to go home and find an idea to do with this.

.. here's so you can kind of tell the size. .. and also notice that I'm a nerd.

Yeah for thrift stores!

A sweet surprise

This afternoon I went to my top dresser drawer to get some earrings to put on, and this is what I found sitting on top of my earring box

It's a sweet note from my husband. It has made my day and I thought I would share.

I heart him very much!

Another framed monogram

For my little sister's wedding gift I made this framed monogram.

I just finished it yesterday and I can't wait to send it all the way to California to her and her new husband!

Isn't it gorgeous! I almost like it better than my "M" one. 

My sister loves black and red together. When she was still living at home her bedroom was decked out in anything black and red. Mom even made her a super nice black and red quilt!

I ran to the thrift store last week {yep, it's just a few streets away from where we're staying!} and I found this frame for $1. I should have taken a photo of it before I painted it, but it was a reddish looking wood. It's the kind of frame that has another piece of glass as the backing,so you could put a smaller picture in the frame and see through the rest of the area. It being that kind, it doesn't have a stand to stand on it's own. Oh well, they'll just have to mount it on the wall or lean it up against something. I sanded the frame with 220 grit sandpaper and then painted it with black acrylic paint, then finished it with a clear varathane finisher. {I used those sponge brushes to paint everything because they make paints go on so much nicer}. For the background paper I didn't have any scrapbook paper on hand so I actually found some images of scrapbook paper patterns online and saved them in word document, stretching them to fit the whole page and then printed this one out. You cant even really tell it's not scrapbook paper. For the B I printed a huge b in the font I liked, cut it out and painted it with acrylic paint! Go ahead, you can laugh at me. But it works!! 

I thought about not posting this project until she got this, but I'm too excited about it so I just had to post! .. I hope she doesn't see this! I don't think she pays much attention to my blog, but watch, this will be the one time she comes to check it out and there goes my secret! 

I had some fun doing a photo shoot with this! What a model, huh??? 

happy creativties!

Fun with bleach

You know how we're always freaking out about bleach getting on our clothes?? I found the coolest idea that will make us want to cover our clothes in bleach! Check out here for the idea I saw. So my friend and I wanted to try it out for ourselves. She bought a pack of kid size t-shirts from Walmart and I got a bottle of bleach and we destroyed created a very cute shirt! Here's the making of our first one. 

We used construction paper and flower punches to make our designs. For the "sunshine" we had to print out a word document. Sad story, my friend's mom let her barrow all her Cricut machine stuff and I came over so we could make some crafts and use it to make our shapes for our the shirts, but the cutting mat wasn't with everything! So after we cried for like 15 minutes we decided that we were desperate enough to sit and cut out tiny letters by hand! We placed a cookie sheet inside the shirt to avoid bleaching the design through to the back. The flowers and "sunshine" were put in place using a little bit of glue stick. Then I stood up and softly sprayed the bleach. Bleach sets in and changes the color slowly, so you want to be patient and don't keep spraying thinking nothing's happening! We actually let the papers stay on the shirt too long, because the bleach on the paper started to soak through to the shirt. So note to self: you should probably remove them as soon as you know you're done spraying. 

Here's the finished shirt

Some of the letters didn't show up very well because we used regular paper to print it on--oops! but it's cute! I think it would be cuter if the sleeves were cut off to make a little tank top. 

I also did some of my own shirts. I have a couple of shirts I don't wear much at all and I wanted to experiment on them. Here they are. 

First an undershirt that I found at a garage sale.{sorry, I forgot to take before pictures!!}

I just cut out everything for it by hand! 

And the other one.. 

The first picture will have to do for a "before" photo, because I forgot to take a photo before I put on all the paper dots! The color of that shirt is a burnt orange color and it just doesn't look good on me. With it being this kind of sleeveless shirt and it being a shorter shirt it makes me look like a little fatty!  But the new look makes in a little better {wink}

It's kind of funky!

Now I want something else to bleach! 

My friend might buy the cutting mat for the cricut if she can find one.. so if she does I'm sure we'll be getting together to do this again! In the meantime I think I'll look for some shirts at the thrift store that need some TLC.

Strawberry Smoothies

We made strawberry smoothies the other night and they were so Y.U.M.M.Y!! 

I put a bunch of frozen strawberries in the blender with some vanilla and strawberry ice cream and some milk {we added a little bit of sugar and some vanilla extract too!} Then we poured it in some tall clear glasses {I love to see the prettiness of tasty things like this!}, with some whipped topping in the middle and on the top! It was very refreshing. I think that glass full was way too much for me! But I enjoyed every delicious gulp of it!

A Wedding!

Congratulations to my little 

sister who got married yesterday!

She's gone off and met the man of her dreams and is now happily looking forward to the rest of her life with him. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there on her happy day because of immigration reasons for myself. Can't leave Canada yet or I'll have to start the whole process over again!

 It was a small and simple wedding, with close family and friends.

Aren't they cute together? It makes me happy to see that smile on my her face. Oh how I miss that girl so very much. I can't wait to go home again and visit.

Love beareth all things, believeth all things, 

hopeth all things, endureth all things... 

Love never faileth.

1 Corinthians 13:7,8