April 29, 2013

Crafts from the Past: Beauty Full Wood

Good morning friends. I hope you had a lovely weekend!

Today I've decided to share a bit of my home with you. Remember when I told you I wanted to hang bunting all over my house? I did it.


But that's not what this post is about... It's about that piece of wood hanging up there above the kitchen overhang. Let me tell you that I've had the worst time trying to figure out how to take a good photo of this piece of wood... In fact, I've been trying to share it with you for quite some time. This weekend, I was admiring its beauty, so I climbed up on our coffee table and snapped another pic. I suppose it will have to do... I hope you can see the richness and beauty of the wood.

Here's another attempt - sans decorations. I can't remember what I was standing on for this one. :) Can you see all the perfect imperfections?


It really is beauty full. And a complete accident.

It's actually supposed to be a shelf, probably collecting dust, in my dining room. A couple of years ago, I begged my hubby to hang a wood shelf in the dining room with some pretty iron brackets that I had found just for the project. You know, to look a little rustic, worn, and charming... Hubby agreed, because he is agreeable like that and off we went to hunt for the perfect piece of wood.

Luckily, my father-in-law is a carpenter and finding that perfect piece of wood just meant digging through the dusty garage converted into a workshop. During one of our fall visits the year before last, we went wood scavenging. I think the exact words I used to describe what I wanted was "an ugly piece of wood about this big (motioning with my hands)." I got a funny look, but the boys knew what I meant. Hehe. A few moments later, Hubby's father emerged with a beauty of a piece. It was knotty with some holey parts. I loved it! So we packed it in our car and drove our 8 hours home. Haha! I mean after the rest of our visit, of course...

The piece of wood sat against the wall for a while, because we are quite the procrastinators. Then one day, hubby gave me the sad news. The rustic, worn, and charming little shelf would not work out because the wall I picked did not have good studs for the shelf and the iron brackets and chunky wood were way too heavy and would likely end up falling on my dining room table and leaving a big dent. I don't know if I was more upset about the thought of gouging our dining room table or not having my little shelf.

But my hubby, who hates to see me sad chimed in, "Why don't you hang the wood anyway? I'm sure you can think of something to do with it" And then my brain whizzed through every lovely image I could think of involving wood hanging on a wall and I remembered this one:

This is totally and completely LoVeLy! :)

and so this project was born...

I used my Cricut to cut out the letters out of white vinyl and stuck them onto the wood. The letters for the word BEAUTY were cut out of some pretty scrapbook paper from my stash and glued onto the vinyl letters. 


Hubby got some frame hangers and pounded them into the back. Funny thing... Our walls are rather crooked, so the wood doesn't actually lay flush against the wall. But it works. And I love how it hangs on that wall up there above our kitchen counter. Pretty fabulous for a nearly free piece of one-of-a-kind art. 

April 28, 2013

Cupcake Inspirations Color Challenge


It sure has been a while since I played along with the Cupcake Inspirations Team. I've still been doing a lot of behind the scenes work, but I haven't had much time to craft with the Sweeties! Here I am today for a challenge I surely could not miss!


Here are the DEEtails for my card:
This week, we're playing a color challenge with Espresso, Chestnut, and Rose. Lovely! I interpreted the colors with Stampin' Up!'s Early Espresso, Soft Suede and Rose Red. Our generous sponsor this week is Stampotique and they sent me this lovely Garden and Wild Flowers Background Stamp. It looks like it could be a page out of a book, so I decided to really make it look like one! I started by tearing the edges, then crumpled the page up a bit. I smeared a little ink along the edges and a bit around the words, then sprayed a little Smooch Spritz. The sparkle is subtle and doesn't photograph well, but I love it. :) I added a layer of Early Espresso embossed with the wood grain folder underneath my "book page," then layered on my elements. First, part of a doily (actually recycled from my experimenting with the my bridal shower card), a die cut using the Labels Collection Framelit (my current go-to product) and some Soft Suede DSP (polka dots are my fave!). Then I added some Natural Trim Ribbon and frayed the ends for some texture. The Stippled Blossoms are the perfect touch, stamped in Early Espresso and VersaMark on Rose Red card stock, then heat embossed with some clear embossing powder. The sentiment is part of one from Oh, Hello, combined with a die cut "you" from Papertrey. What do you think?

Don't forget to hop over to Cupcake Inspirations to check out all the lovely cards that the rest of the Sweeties have created! Then make your own card using the color inspiration and link up! Can't wait to see what you create!

April 27, 2013

Naki and Nina's Double Dare Challenge 25


Hey there! Naki and I are back with another fun challenge. We hope you'll play along with us!

Naki's pick this week is to make a Mother's Day card
My pick was to use the This & That washi tape





Her's my card for the challenge:



Here are the DEEtails:

I love the gray diagonal stripes on the washi tape from SU!'s This & That series, and I decided to create a fun little background. I trimmed it down to size and rounded the corners. Then I layered it onto a doily from my stash. I pulled out this fun MOM stamp from the retired Messages for Mom set. I stamped it on some old Cameo Coral card stock. I decided to go with Cameo Coral because it's a little more pink that Calypso Coral. With my mom being a pink lover, it made sense to pick a more pinkish hue. The problem with picking this very old color is that I don't have much to go with it, so I dug around my stash and finally came up with this adorable doily print washi tape that I added to some Basic Gray card stock embossed with the honeycomb folder. A few hearts scattered on top and I was done.

Be sure to take a peek over at Naki's blog to see what she made for her mom! Then create your own Mother's Day card using some lovely This & That washi tape. Be sure to leave us a comment with a link to your card!