Copycat: Polka Dot Alphabet

I saw this idea by Carrie over at Buzzings of a Queen Bee a while ago and knew I wanted to try it out! I had a baby shower coming up and I thought this would be such a fun little gift.

I bought my letter from Michaels, but I’ve also seen cute ones at Hobby Lobby. You can even order them off-line and they come in all different kinds of fonts.

After a good sanding, I just did what she did and spray-painted the letter. But instead of one color I chose to do a layer of Rustoleum Espresso AND Rustoleum Colonial Red. Just for a little more visual interest. It’d be easy to use craft paint as well, but you know I’m a sucker for spray-paint :) Then I let that dry completely, and applied the white polka dots with this little guy.

Again, you can pick these round form brushes up just about anywhere, even Wal-Mart.

I found the trick to applying uniform circles was to not just dip it in the paint and stamp down, but twist the brush doing a full circle before lifting it off. Make sense??

After the dots were dry, I sanded it all down, applied a brown glaze, and then attached a ribbon using a staple gun.

It took some time, but I love that I was able to give a fun and unique gift to my friend.

Makes me think the girls’ doors each need their own polka dot letter ;)

Canvas Painted Names

Remember when I painted these canvases for my friend’s nursery?

Well, soon after, another friend thought some similar canvases would be PERFECT for her little boy’s room.

Using the same technique, I hand-painted names for each of her little boys. Only this time I went with a smaller canvas (8 1/2 x 11) in order for the names to fit nicely on each wall of the room.

I have to say I LOVE how these turned out. They're definitely NOT perfect, but I think they have the PERFECT rustic look for any little boy :)

Makes me *almost* want to have another baby in hopes that I get a boy and can paint him his only little set of canvas letters. . . .

Ha!

Balance

Wow, has it really been that long since my last post?? Where does the time go . . .

After running Ragnar (which was awesome by the way), I came home . . . looked at my house,  my life . . . and realized I needed to do some REBALANCING.

Do you ever do that as a mom? or a woman?

I have to pull myself out of my life and refocus. . . . See where I can be better.

And I decided I wasn’t in love with what I saw.

Nothing too dramatic. I just wanted to refocus my attention on the things that I see as most important and that SHOULD be most important

My husband

My children

My God

My home

Just trying to keep it in all in BALANCE.

Thankfully I feel like my life is a little more centered now, and I can start having some fun with crafting again. Yay! I’ve worked on some fun projects of late that I’ll have to post about soon.

For now, I just wanted to show this fun banner I made a while ago for a friend’s birthday. I used regular colored cardstock and scrapbook paper. Then I borrowed my friend’s Cricut to do the lettering. I never thought I needed a Cricut before, but now I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to live without one. Sorry honey! Add that to my wish list :)

(And, Erin, I promise I will give it back to you soon . . . maybe . . . )