Canvas Art

Whipped up a little present for my good friend Tim for his birthday and his lovely new flat ... so here it is for the blog world:

I saw a similar canvas behind Heston Blumenthal on one of his programmes and decided to steal the idea. I chose a nice font off Word, painted the canvas yellow, traced on the letters and then painted them on in black.

I sealed it with a protective covering so that it can hang in the kitchen and not be bothered by the moisture, but ... depending on where he wants a quote like this ... he could also hang it in the bedroom ;-)

Bun in the Oven T-Shirt!

Well, now that I have my own little bun in the oven, I thought I should get around to making some maternity t-shirts!

Bought a cheap plain white maternity t-shirt and used material, thread and fabric paint that I had on hand.

First of all I sketched the design of my oven on paper to check I liked it, then I drew it on the t-shirt.

I then used black fabric paint to paint it on and then washed and sealed it according to the instructions on the label.

For the bun I went for a cupcake design, as ... well, I don't know ... I thought it would just look better, OK?

I cut out my cupcake case with som blue material I had leftover and the pink icing topping was also from scraps. I then sewed them directly onto the t-shirt and there you have it ... my very own bun in the oven! Just need to get a bit more of a bump!

Framed Chalkboard

I was commissioned with the task of making something out of wood for my friend's birthday. This was quite tricky as it couldn't be anything too heavy or fragile as I had to send it in the post to good old England!

I decided to go for a framed chalkboard to hang in the kitchen to put a shopping list on or something.

I had some nice border wood that I mitred into a frame and just glued it together and clamped the edges until they dried.

I then cut out a piece of plywood to size and painted it with chalkboard paint.

I painted the frame blue to match her kitchen colour and sealed it with a top coat as it will be in the kitchen that might get splashed with water.

I hammered the plywood into the frame and then added a pretty ribbon onto the back for hanging it from a hook.

Hope she likes it!

Feature Wall

I have injured my foot running so am resting it at the moment, which on the plus side means that I have quite a lot of spare free time! Have put some of that free time to use and painted one wall in our bedroom.
Everywhere else in the house has white walls (apart from the office and downstairs bathroom), so it was nice to get a bit of colour flowing!

Here's the walls before I started painting

I chose a colour called blackberry and painted the wall in a matt colour.

I then bought a stencil of cherry blossom and stencilled in a repeat pattern along the whole of the wall in a slightly lighter blackberry colour in semi gloss. The trick was to use as little paint as possible on the roller.

I then just used masking tape and started in the top lef-hand corner and worked along and down lining the stencil up as I went.

I love it! It gives off a really nice shimmery shine and is really nice and subtle but beuatiful. It also ties in really nicely to the blinds from Ikea which also have a sort of cherry blossom design on them.

We just need new bedcovers and I might even make some cushions with the cherry blossom stencil on too!

Letters Shelf

In a bid to have somewhere to put letters and all the little bits and pieces that are in limbo and don't really have a home (i.e. the stuff that comes out of G's pockets at the end of the day, like his wallet), I decided to make a little shelf to go next to the front door.

I made it using all scrap pieces of wood, paint, hooks and a jam jar that I already had, so this is a free project - love it!

I used one piece of wood as backing and cut out the corners with my jigsaw to give it a bit more of a fancy look.



I then screwed the shelf into it from the back. I added a bit of trim I had left over from another project so that the shelf has a lip to stop thing falling off it.

The hooks are ones I already had at home and I painted them a gloss black.

The jam jar was also hanging around in the cellar, so I painted it with some glass paint and slotted it into the round holder I made out of scrap wood with my jigsaw. It can be easily taken out to add water, depending on what little flowers are there. At the moment I've just got some dried lavender from the garden.

I painted the whole thing the same white as the shoe rack that is also in the hallway, so it all ties in nicely.

Here it is hanging up in all its glory:

Fingerprint Babygro

My friend Claire has just had a little baby boy called Luca, which means I have been busy making a little something to send her.

This babygro is painted straight on in black fabric paint and is meant to look like a thumb print with "one of a kind" written underneath.

Materials used:

babygro
black fabric paint
thumb print stolen from Google images printed out to required size
paintbrush

I slipped the printed image into the babygro and basically just painted over it ... simple as that!

I then sealed the paint by covering the babygro in a tea towel and ironing over it and then washed it.

Money Origami

I was invited to a wedding last week and the bride and groom asked for money rather than  gifts. So, instead of just putting some boring old money in an envelope, I decided to get my creative juices flowing!

I googled "money origami" and decided on trying to fold some Euros into a bride, groom and heart.

€10 wedding dress
€10 heart
€20 trousers
€20 shirt and tie

I followed the instructions I found here and this is what I came up with:

€10 wedding dress

€10 heart