First Project of 2011!

This past holiday season I found THIS fabulous project over on THIS fabulous blog and I knew...KNEW! I had to make one.

But...I didn't want to stop there. I decided to make one to change out for the rest of the year.

You ready?

Tada!

Now when guests come to my door, they will see a happy little doormat greeting them with a little *hello*.

Silly, yes. Love it? I definitely do. My sister has even requested one....Hmm....I do believe I know what she is getting this year for her birthday!

How about you? Do you have your first project of 2011 started?

Filling Wall Space With A Little Love

I had another lonely wall that just needed something. So, I dressed it with a little LOVE. Literally!

I had some basic white ceramic plates I bought at my local "dollar store" a few months back. I hadn't quite decided what I wanted to put on them, so there they sat just waiting. First I thought about decoupaging something onto them, but then I spotted these simple vinyl decals while at JoAnn's a few weeks back. Perfect!


So, I took my plates and applied the decals as to how they recommended.

Then I needed some plate hangers, and I remembered the fabulous Fluffy Flowers had a great little How-To on her blog for some simple and crafty plate hangers!

And Voila! A little bit of LOVE for my wall!

Great Wall Space Filler...With Silhouettes!

I seem to have this thing about rearranging a bazillion times. It's just something that's been with me since I was a little girl. Can't help it.

In the case of my most recent *rearranging* of the family room, once I finished moving some things around, I was left with this terribly blank wall. It just starred back at me begging for something.

I needed something QUICK and not terribly expensive or time consuming.

SO, I had seen it somewhere about family silhouettes and thought it would be just the thing to add to that wall for the time being! I had actually planned to put these in our hallway, but they will go there at a later date, with the added one of our second child when they come home from Russia. Can't wait!!!

This plan totally worked out to a serious advantage for the simple fact that I had all I needed on hand. How awesome is that?! I guess that is a benefit of having crafty stuff hanging around like painted shelves (from another project), plain old IKEA picture frames that just need a little paint (that is also on hand from another project). And the pictures? Well, as long as you can get a good shot of everyone, then the rest is easy! Right?!

Even if one did not have all on hand, it would not cost much to get the needed supplies to do this.

Here is my version of things:

First, I took some simple 8x10 picture frames I had gotten at IKEA.


Then I painted them black.

I then took each family members photo, including our siberian husky, making sure to get as good a profile shot I could. It's hard when dogs and kiddos just don't want to stay still....

I then printed them out on just plain old printer paper. Now, here is where I changed it up from my original intent to do black silhouettes on a white background in black frames.

Instead, once I printed and cut the first silhouette out that I then had planned to cut out again in the black craft paper, I left it as is. The white paper on black just seemed to work for me, so that is what I did. You can do it however you want and use purple paper if you like! Whatever strikes your fancy, really. Go for it.

Then I framed them. Tada!



Then, after the hubby hung the shelves up for me, I simply placed the framed silhouettes on the shelves and VOILA! No more blank wall space.





Ahhhh. I feel better now.