White Walls are Not Bad

So a year ago we got a dark maple wood flooring. We LOVE IT. What I didn't think about when we were picking it out was that it will darken our whole house! We lived in darkness for a year. I am sooo done with that. It is time to liven the place up! 

What do you think about white walls. I know most people would pick any color over white, but I think white walls are super fun, that allows you to do anything you want with everything else. It is like a blank canvas.  I have been wanting to do white walls for a while now and I see my chance. Here are some inspirations on what I have found. Still trying to find a good style to go with. Stay tuned to see the end results. 

Country Living

Ice-cad.com

Country Living

Freshhome.com

Country Living

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Repurposed Kitchen Cabinets - Laundry Sign

First thing first, excuse the picture quality for the "Finished" photo. I got it from the client and this is just what she gave me.

She first wanted me to make her a sign with that quote on an MDF board. I replied with "I can do better than that". 

SIDE NOTE: A while back I got these doors from a friend of mine since she had billions of them! She got hers from some guy that was getting new cabinets and these were the old ones. 

So I had the doors and I had made them into a board with hooks. It was cute but I did not love it so I used it to turn it into this beaut! With a little help from my silhouette and craft paint I ended up with a very happy client! Can I get a whoop whoop!!

Happy Crafting!

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Easy Canvas Wall Art

I am and have been a very forgetful lady. I haven't always been this way, I blame the babies. I love my girls, but I do not love the gift of forgetfulness that they have graciously given me. Every time I forget something I always ask myself "why didn't I just do it while I still remembered?" 

Here it is...inspired by my lack of memory.

If you didn't already know, I own a silhouette and I LOVE it. I use it to do most of my projects. Here is a screen shot of my design before I cut it out and used the vinyl as stencil to paint on my 12x12 stretched canvas.

I then cut it out on vinyl to use as stencil.

It was easy breezy and my little canvas art only took a whole whopping hour from start to finish (with kids). Here is a look at how I see it every time I leave my office :) 

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DIY-Teal Dresser

Here is a quick and easy project for today! Picked up this dresser from a garage sale for a GREAT price and it was perfect for my little girls room. Painting old furniture is a great way to reuse, repurpose instead of just tossing it in the junk yard. 

Painted this with homemade chalk paint. If you need my recipe you can find it here. 

I wish I had a good before picture, but I had already started to paint by the time I thought of that :) Started with some cleaning and light sanding and I started to paint. Easy peasy, did it in about 3 hours. I also spray painted the handles creamy white to make them go POP!

I just have to throw in my little Tess, she can't help but jump in front of the camera. She's got it down! MOM+CAMERA=PICTURES OF ME!

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New Camera Bag

Do you have a DSLR Camera? What kind of bag do you have? I had a little cheapo camera bag that I bought from ebay and of course it was shipped from China. That darn thing never stopped smelling like the chemical factory that it was made in, it was horrible!! Not only that, the clasp broke after carrying it around on only the 3rd time. It was a wast of money, not to mention it looked like a cheap camera bag (my fault). 

Now on to the good stuff. I had heard about Jo Totes for quite some time and have been drooling over their premium camera bags. They have the cutest styles AND they come in so many color choices. What you see above is a photo that I snatched off their site; she shows off the cute bag better than I can! 

I bought one....

....and this is it!!!!

I LOVE it! 

I was especially pleased to have gotten so many velcro inserts to separate the bag into sections for my camera. Since I have only one lens, I had plenty of space for my planner, wallet, and cords/chargers. The camera bags start around $87 and go up to around $120. So do I think it is worth the price? DEFINITELY!

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What Is Vinyl? and Giveaway!!!

What sorts of things do you do with vinyl? I get that question every so often. I am here to answer your questions.  Dictionary: Synthetic resin or plastic consisting of polyvinyl chloride or a related polymer, used esp. for wallpapers and other covering materials... The vinyl that I am talking about is the kind of vinyl used for crafting. I mean, hello, why else are we here right? I am going to tell you a few ways that I use my vinyl. Now before I start I highly suggest that you have some sort of a vinyl cutter. I personally have a Silhouette (I freaking love it).  Ways I use vinyl:

Wall decals- A good way to utilize all the beautiful colors that the vinyl provides is on the walls. I just love how versatile it is and I can just rip it off the walls when I get sick of it or for most cases, when you move. 

Crafts- I can seriously give you TONs of pictures of crafts with vinyl on them, but for the sake of keeping this post reasonable here are a couple. It really does make crafting sooo easy. 

Labeling- Feel the need to keep things organized? Well you can choose a font and cut it out yourself! Don't need to head over to the store to buy a labeling machine that prints out ugly labels. You can have a beautifully designed label in minutes! Last but not least (one of my favorite ways of using vinyl right now)

Stencil- You can cut out your shapes/fonts the same as you would but just weed out the parts that you would have kept to use as stencil. Now why would I go this route instead of just putting vinyl on the project...well it gives you a whole different look. Remember my compass table? That was done with a stencil as well! Now I would not want a piece of vinyl sticking out from my table that gets daily abuse. My two year old would most certainly peel it off during meals! What are some creative ways you use your vinyl? I would love to hear, so PLEASE comment below.  AND....just because I am posting about vinyl, I will do an AWESOME GIVEAWAY for you!  One lucky winner will get their very own bundle of Oracal 631 vinyl for your craft cutter! 

Winner gets: 10 sheets of regular vinyl for any project (various colors) 2 sheets of reflective vinyl (Gold and Pink) 1 sheet of Chalkboard vinyl 1 scraper 1 weeder (the pin point tweezers) and a $10 silhouette online store card. It's incredibly easy and quick to enter (and of course, no purchase necessary). Just follow the Rafflecopter below! a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Last Min. Craft - Easter

How many of you have started this week with the "oh crap Easter is this Sunday" thought? I sure did.  I am embarrassed to say that I had only one easter decor up and I really didn't have anything else.  

So here is my Last Minut Craft for you guys if you are in the same boat as I. This craft cost NOTHING. I used what I already had so not even a trip to the store was needed. 

Scrap Pile

Any of you have a scrap box like mine? I don't have the heart to throw my scraps away so I always have a box of them laying around. I picked a few that was about the same width and size. I had to trim the small strips that I nailed in the back with my miter saw.

behind the boards layout

I stapled the pieces together in the back with a staple gun. PLEASE make sure that you pick a staple that won't go all the way through the project to expose on the front side. 

I love these clamps! I had to DIY veneer a piece of wood together with a left over MDF board. 

A coat of spray paint and it is ready for stenciling

I am a bad blogger in a sense that I don't always remember to take pictures the WHOLE way. I used my handy dandy Silhouette to cut out my easter shapes and designed a few shapes myself.  Cut it out and used it as a stencil to paint my bunny, eggs, lettering, and my arrow on. I love it! 

Last Minute Crafts are always my favorites :) 

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