Flowers With a Memory ♥

I made this canvas for my sister-in-law. The flowers are out of her late Grandmothers clothing. Allison (my sister-in-law) gathered a ton of her grandmas clothes after she passed, and I went over there one night to help her cut quilting squares out of it. As we were cutting I was taking the scrap pieces that were too small to use in the quilt and putting them into a jar, that I call my scrap jar. I also took all of the buttons from the clothes to craft up something great for her.

When I got home, I sorted through all of it, and picked out the biggest pieces I had. I matched each fabric I had pulled out with a button, I plugged in my hot glue gun, and I got to work.

I started off by painting and 8X11 canvas a light gray color, and then while that was drying, I made the 6 flowers. My own late Grandmother (Virginia) taught me how to make a few different types of fabric flowers. There are tutorials that are easy to Google or find on Pinterest.

After the flowers were completed, I glued them onto the painted canvas, and I used black paint to paint on stems and leaves. I didn't want the stems to all match and be perfect, because I was going for a wild flower look since non of the fabrics matched.

Here is how the final product turned out..

I love it if you ask me... and she does too!

Here is a close up of one of the flowers (my favorite) 

This was a fun craft for me to do, and it has great memories in it for Allison. I hope that whenever she looks at this canvas hanging in her house, that she will not think of me, but she will think of her Grandma and all of the love and memories that they shared. 

The Walking Dead Canvas - DIY

My brothers girlfriend is a HUGE Walking Dead fan! ( but hey.. who isn't?!) 

She has been to multiple Comic Con shows in the past year or two. 

Her Birthday was yesterday, and I wanted to make her something special. I was playing on Facebook the other day, looking at picture after picture of her with all of the Walking Dead stars and BAH-BAM! I got an idea! 

I was a little skeptical because I have never actually tried this technique, however... I always tell myself "you;'ll never know if you don't try" 

So I got to printing the pictures! 

I printed each picture out on plain ol' computer paper - then I cut each picture out. When all the pictures were cut and trimmed to their perfect sizes, I took a 8x12 canvas from Hobby Lobby, and I coated it with Mod Podge. 

Before the Mod Podge started to dry I quickly and neatly placed each picture FACE DOWN on the canvas. (Face down means Color printed side down) ((like the picture in the top left corner below) I used a scrap of cardboard to get out as many air bubbles as I possibly could. 

I then let that canvas dry for over 24 hours. 

After a day, when I knew it was 100% dry, I got a water bottle and an old wash rag... I got part of the wash rag wet and began to very gently rub away the paper of the pictures. BE VERY CAREFUL! If you rub too much or too hard in one spot, the ink WILL come off the canvas! If you are careful, gentle, and take your time... the paper will rub right off the canvas and leave the ink on the canvas. This making any sense?! 

This technique makes the canvas and pictures look old and vintage (which I really really like!) 

After I was finished removing all of the paper... I put a thick coat of Mod Podge over the entire Canvas and all of the pictures! After that coat of Mod Podge dried... I got out my black acrylic paint and very sloppily painted a boarder around each picture. 

I wanted it to look somewhat messy because of the whole 'Walking Dead + Zombie' thing. They aren't exactly the cleanest, well put together creatures.  

I let the black boarders dry and then took red acrylic paint and painted the words "DON'T OPEN DEAD INSIDE" which if you are a Walking Dead fan, you should remember that from Season 1! 

I let the words dry and I put another coat of Mod Podge on, let it dry and then it was time to sign the back with a lovely Happy Birthday message and wrap it up!

 

I gave this to her yesterday when I saw her and she seemed to love it! My brothers thought it was great also and I was pretty proud of it! It was fun to make and I enjoyed learned and experimenting with a new ink transfer technique!

 It really wasn't that bad... 

go ahead! Give it a try!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

My mom and dad are two of my biggest idols. They are a main part of my support team, my love and my happiness! They are the reason why I am who I am today. Anyways, I love them and so for their anniversary this year (32 years TODAY!) I painted them a red canvas to match their room décor,  and then I put an adorable love quote "Husband and Wife... Best Friends For Life" ahhhhhh I love it! I just used white scrapbooking stickers in two different fonts, and I also added a few rhinestones glued on random letters. I think it came out so adorable! And my parents really loved it! :) yay me! yay parents! yay love!

 

 

 

When I look at your relationship, I am in awe. I aim to make mine and James' relationship similar to yours because you guys are so in love and are such great role models for love, life, happiness, success and everything else!

 

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

I love you both so much!

 

xoxo Renae

Heart in the Clouds ♥

Hey look! Here is the blue canvas! :) 

I saw this online (don't remember where) (( I will try to find it again))

But when I saw it I thought of my friend Melissa! Just a few days ago at lunch she was telling me all about this quote and how much she loves it. So how could I not attempt to make this for her?!

I started off by doing 2 coats of the navy blue background on a white canvas and then after that dried (a few days later..) I used a white paint pen to write everything out and did 2 coats as well with the paint pen. 

QUICK REVIEW: the white paint pen is amazing! I bought it from Meijers just for this project and I am so excited to go out and purchase more colors because I absolutely fell in love with it! It came out so smooth, the color is strong, and it was so much easier to write with a paint pen vs a paint brush (which I am terrible at doing by the way!) 

I am fairly happy with how this turned out and I think she is going to love it! It is a little off-centered but that's part of homemade gifts... their never perfect to everyone's eye but they are perfect to the heart. <3 

Wow. Corny but true ;) 

After I gave it to her, she sent me a picture of it hanging in her room, which  made me even happier, because I was glad that she liked it!

Xoxo Renae

Grandmas Buttons - A little piece of Grandma

My Uncle has been going through my grandmothers things, and sending some of it my way. 

 He sent gave me all of her buttons!

When I get things of hers I try to think up fun and creative craft ideas to give to people who really knew and loved her. Like my brothers.

My oldest brother, Dan, drinks wine, loves wine, collects win, displays wine. So I thought 

OH! A WINE GLASS!

  

I laid it all out and began gluing!

I know its not perfect, and it honestly looks better in person (at least I think so) and I really think my brother really likes it!

My other older brother, Jeff,  is a hunter, an adventurous outdoors man, and a nature lover. 

I found a clip art of a buck and tried my best to recreate it and shape it. I personally think I did a pretty good job. But a part of crafting is making things from the heart and whether they look perfect or not, they still are. 

 

The best part of these pieces are that they have a very special meaning to all of us. Our grandma had bought these buttons, had these buttons and handled these buttons for who knows how many years. And now they are being displayed in our homes as a way to remind us of her, and now we have a piece of her always with us.   

♥Renae