The post with the butterfly shadowbox.

Guess what happened to me today?

Clue #1: My employer called me at 5:33am.
Clue #2: I did a happy dance at 5:34am.
Clue #3: I'm still in my pajamas at 3:58pm. (Don't judge. They happen to be very warm and comfy.)

This surprise COLD day meant that I had plenty of time to clean the apartment, catch up on grading, and read for my grad classes. And I did do some of that...but I also made this paper butterfly shadowbox:

This is yet another Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot project. The software for SCAL makes it so easy to cut out any. shape. you. want. without buying an expensive Cricut cartridge. I could even cut out the shapes in this picture:

But I don't know why I would want to do that. So I won't.

For the shadowbox, I found a free vector image of a butterfly, traced it with SCAL, then cut out nine winged beauties in different coordinating papers.

These colors are the real colors--this was the only picture taken in actual daylight.

I inked the edges of the butterflies with leftover ink from this gratitude project to give the edges a slightly more textured and dimensional look. It helps the wings pop a little more on the white background.

Then all I had to do was arrange them in a way that looked right, attach them to the white background (I used this rare adhesive product called Scotch tape), and fold up the wings to make them 3D.

I like that no butterflies were harmed in the making of this project. :)

The post with the pharmacist pillow.

If I wanted to decorate my house in a way that would constantly remind me and announce to all who entered that I was a teacher, I would need only go to the nearest craft fair and visit maybe two booths. Wooden apples, yardsticks that say "Teachers rule" (har har), crayon/glue/chalk fabric out of which trendy clothing apparel can be fashioned...we've got all of our decor and fashion needs covered.

How often do you see home decor, though, that proudly announces, "There's a pharmacist in this house!"? I have seen nary a wooden pill anywhere. And fabric with medicine on it? Pffhht. Of course, this seeming void may have something to do with the fact that a wooden pill would not look very attractive sitting on your bookshelf. And I'm pretty sure that there is not a market for vests with Lipitor and Cymbalta printed on them. That would sort of be like a walking HIPPA violation.

Anyway, that's why I am so excited to have made this pillow for Rick:

It started out as this:

Then morphed with the help of an old beige curtain so that the rusty fabric wouldn't show through the burlap:

Then morphed again when covered with a hot glued burlap pillow form:

Then was finished off when I used a black permanent marker to doodle on the design, inspired by these trays that I spotted while touring West Elm's new arrivals.

I hoped that the appearance of this pillow would help Rick hurdle the complex he's developed due to his career of choice being so pitifully under-represented at Joann's, and good news--he loves it! He was actually so inspired that he asked that my next project be a Hydrocodone pantsuit, but I gently reminded him that A) that might be interpreted the wrong way by the less-legal drug dealers of the world and B) I really can't sew anything except straight lines.Oh, well.

The post about 2010.

My little blog has not yet celebrated its 1st birthday, nor even its half birthday, but I thought I'd participate in Southern Hospitality's 2010 round-up just for fun anyway. So without further ado: The Top 5 Things Erin Learned about Decorating in 2010. I was going to take on a Top 10, but David Letterman must have more list-making stamina than I.

*       *       *

5. Reupholstering is not a one-day gig. A mildly "duh" epiphany, I know, but we have always been overly ambitious/impractical, whichever way you want to look at it. The makeover of this hideously gold velour chair was mostly accomplished in one day, but slid to a grinding halt when a mildly serious battle with the sewing machine impeded our progress. Not to mention that it was past midnight when we finally looked up from our tack strips and fabric.

4. Flat paint is a bad idea on furniture, unless you never plan to clean and/or dust said furniture. I never wrote about this desk that Rick repainted as a display for our wedding photos and mementos (I think it occurred BB--Before Blog) but the nasty gray streaks ground into the formerly white finish (which I couldn't, sadly, adequately capture on camera) will haunt me forever. Or at least until we repaint it. Whichever comes first.

3. It's perfectly acceptable to hang garbage on the wall.  Not that you should take your packed Hefty bags, however, and mount them above your fireplace. I do, in all seriousness, love this perfectly weathered ladder that I Rick dragged off the curb. I'm pretty sure it is going to join us at our soon-to-be new house (!) as long as I can smuggle it into the moving truck without Rick noticing.

And those bottles were dragged off the curb, as well, before being coated with some fun aqua and pear spray paint.

2. My Cricut can be used for more than just cards and scrapbooking. I made this die-cut frame...

...these silhouettes...

...and the accents for this basket collage that I hung on the wall...

 ...all with my Cricut. Who knew?

And the number one thing I learned about decorating in 2010:

1. I couldn't do any of it without my wonderfully patient partner in crime. I think he's even learned a few things himself, like what I mean when I say "good lines" and "trust me." He may have also learned that you shouldn't attempt to reconstruct a couch unless you know what you're doing.

Fortunately, this particular couch was a freebie hand-me-down that A) we didn't want and B) had already been loved a lot, so we didn't feel too bad about putting its sad dismantled skeleton out for garbage day after completing taking it apart and realizing we were about as clueless as the student who asked me, with utmost seriousness, how to spell TV. No, that is not a joke. Yes, I teach ninth grade, aka 14 year-olds who have seen TV spelled for approximately, well, 14 years. Yes, I did have to refrain from laughing and/or fleeing from the room in despair.

Anyway, back to a less disturbing topic: Rick sporting his super stylish safety goggles and gloating about how he had just used his brawn and sweat to remove the rusty springs from the couch. When I consider how triumphant he looks in this picture, I figure that all was not lost.

See what I mean? Couldn't function without him. They didn't teach me how to remove springs from couches in Girl Scouts.

 *       *       *

So, that wraps up a sampling of our experience in 2010. Happy New Year, and here's to another year of learning and laughing!

The post with the felt poinsettias.

I saw this picture in my Paper Crafts magazine last week and was drawn to the felt poinsettia embellishment on one of the cards. (I could not get it to scan well...hence the weird coloring.)

I knew it would be pretty easy to make my own, so, on our fateful Black Friday trip to Joann Fabrics, I showed up at our cart holding sheets of olive and oatmeal felt. Rick looked at me like I was mildly insane (he does that now and then) before reminding me that I wanted to make poinsettias. As in flowers that are typically red, pink, or ivory. As in flowers that are only brown if they are dead. He really shouldn't have been so confused, because, after all, we do like to keep our plants good and crispy around this place, sort of like this poor plant that my cats like to munch on.

Anyway, I managed to smuggle the alarmingly non-traditional poinsettia colors into our cart without too much trouble. When we got home, I started cutting out petals (freehand, so as to be perfectly imperfect like a real oatmeal poinsettia--ha) with the deliciously sharp new fabric scissors that I had also purchased on our trip. They are definitely not your mama's safety scissors.

I spent a few minutes playing around with the  petals until I got them layered in the imperfect way I wanted. Then, all I had to do was hot glue them together, add the leaves and the pearl center (they're just individual beads glued on), and ta-da! My oatmeal and olive felt poinsettia was complete.

I think one of these flowers would look gorgeous on an all-white stocking, which I am planning on making as soon as Rick stops guarding our generic store-purchased ones with the machete we borrowed from a house on our house hunting tour. (Just kidding....he's only wielding a butter knife. No need for alarm.)

On a serious note, though, he did say that my poinsettias were unexpectedly charming.

Those might not have been his exact words.

But, he's learning to trust my instincts. :)

I'm linking this up to Centsational Girl's party today...check it out for tons more DIY Christmas craft ideas!

The post about the practically free Christmas decorations.

Last weekend, we put up our tree. Surprisingly, there has been nary an ornament knocked off by our kitties (although several have been swinging back and forth at alarming rates), but we're fairly certain that if we had a real tree, Gingerbread would have climbed it at least, well, two or eighty times by now. So, we're counting our blessings that so far, we have not yet had to experience the holiday joy of removing sap from kitty fur.

This weekend, in our continuing quest to decorate our apartment for Christmas, I took a few minutes and put together the following practically free groupings. And when I say practically free in the title of this post, I mean that, since both were created exclusively with simple things that we already had around the apartment (and none of the things cost very much in the first place). The first one features the candle jar I "made" a couple weeks ago, some decorative balls, and free books from a yard sale covered in festive scrapbook paper.

The other one on our coffee table features an old frame spray painted white, red and green scrapbook paper, some decorative balls, and glass bottles yanked from my unsuspecting neighbors' recycling bins.

My recycling hunt is, sadly, on hiatus until I can wear fewer than six layers when venturing outside. No time for digging through recycling bins when I have to spend my spare minutes digging my car, driveway, and occasionally my husband from underneath a mountain of snow. :)

Anyone else done anything simple and cheap as they decorate for the holidays this year? Do share. :)

The post in which I score decor points with Scrabble tiles.

It recently dawned on me that Scrabble tiles could be used for far more than an afternoon spent sitting across from your husband, who is desperately trying to figure out how to make a profound word out of the letters X, G, M, U, T, R, and O and wondering why he ever married a word-game-loving English teacher. More specifically, I realized that they could be used as decoration around the house. So when I was in Goodwill one day and saw an old Scrabble game for just $3.99, I knew that I could do something with those old-fashioned wooden tiles.

 And something I did--actually, five somethings.

The first thing I did with the tiles was make a game board of sorts using the fruits of the spirit for my words, making a nice visual reminder of the attitudes and temperaments that we should be embracing every day. This took some patience (and required that I make some of my own letters using blanks and the backs of those pesky "Z" tiles), but I finally got all of the words to be arranged and interwoven in a natural way.

 

If you ever try a project like this and aren't blessed with a photographic memory, I would recommend taking a picture of your final desired arrangement so as to safeguard against sleeves scattering your work/cats thinking they can use the tiles as a bed. Yes, I learned this the hard way.

I then spray painted an old frame, made a new back for the frame out of chipboard, layered on some burlap, and then hot glued the letters to the burlap.

I purposely made the letters a bit wobbly in order to A) make it look a bit more natural and B) ensure that I would not spend all morning trying to line up the tiles perfectly.

I really wanted to spell "Where's the nearest thrift store" with the leftover tiles, but I was, unfortunately, limited in my letter selection. So, instead, I decided to be romantic and spell the word "adore" on our living room bookshelf.

And for a little more mush...."I do" on white wooden blocks on our office bookshelf.

All together now: "Awww...."

I hot glued an "M" for our last name to a boring old tack, and we use it on our mini memo boards that I covered with zebra fabric (which was leftover from this reupholstery project).

The remaining letters mainly allow us to spell words like "rat" and "duh," which aren't nearly mushy enough for my taste, so they are currently sitting in a glass bottle on one of our end tables.

I call this work "Message in a Bottle." Rick calls my work's name "corny." Oh, well.

Has anyone else ever used Scrabble letters around the house? Do share your ideas. :)

  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

Galatians 5:22-25

The post with the dear little deer art.

Sorry, but the corny English teacher couldn't resist using homophones in the title. :)

The said "dear little deer art" below was inspired by a similar piece that I saw on the Better Homes & Gardens website,  but I can't, for the life of me, find the page anymore. If anyone spies it out there on the world wide web, please let me know so I can link to it!

I simply used my Cricut to cut out 8 baby deer and one plant in different color paper (that all mesh with my craft room color scheme), then adhered them to a larger white piece of paper to go in the frame. I put my own spin on the BHG idea by matting three of the deer on old book pages instead of just on the white paper. The extra varied texture created by the pages is a nice touch.

I could hang it on the wall, but for now, I think it looks sweet just leaning on my craft table.

You could use any shape you wanted for this particular project, but the reason I selected the baby deer is because A) they made me say "awww..." and B) Rick and his family have gone camping in Allegany State Park--where there are typically tons of deer around--just about every summer since he was crawling around in diapers and eating bugs off of the ground. So I thought it would be a sweet representation of his traditional childhood--and now adulthood!--vacations. And in case you were wondering, he no longer crawls around in diapers, but he still does occasionally eat bugs off of the ground. Oh wait, that's our cat. Sorry, sweetie. :)

So that's my simple die-cut frame project that cost me $0 since the frame had been a gift and the paper was already on hand. How about you? Any free, or close to free, projects happening lately? Any decor that reminisces on your childhood or vacations? Feel free to share! :)

The post in which I make easy magnets.

I recently figured out that it would be incredibly easy to make our fridge look like this:

 ...instead of this:

For some reason, we feel the need to adorn our fridge with every free magnet that comes in the mail or is given to Rick at a pharmacy career fair.  No, that isn't a lot (hopefully Rick will be going to another career fair soon!) but they were, nevertheless, unattractive and cluttery. It was time for a change, which is why, yesterday, I sat closely examining the fridge. No, I don't do this often. It occurred to me, as I examined closely, that we did not, in fact, need any of the magnets. And the stuff that they were holding to the fridge did not need to be displayed on the fridge, either. So off it all came.

Now, one's fridge certainly does not need to be decorated, but I wanted to add a little fun to it, especially since we are really limited in how we can decorate the small kitchen (there is almost no available wall space). So, I decided to make some new, non-MVP health care magnets for our fridge.

I gathered my supplies: artificial orchids that I had purchased for $.60 a package at Michael's a few weeks ago, a hot glue gun, and the said MVP health care magnet of yore.

I cut the magnet into little squares,

cut off the orchids' wire stems,

and hot glued a magnet to the back of each orchid.

This whole process took approximately 5 minutes, and now we have sweet little flowers on our fridge. Since some real orchids are toxic to cats (tear--I think they are absolutely gorgeous), and our kitties chew on everything that boasts the power of photosynthesis, this seems like a nice compromise.

I still have several magnets left, so let me know if you have any easy ideas for making other fun fridge decor! :)

The post that turns magazines and old frames into "art."

One of my favorite things to do is fill empty spaces with cheap and easy DIY decor. The following tutorial introduces you to my latest "art": cheap and easy "window" frames!

What you'll need: a picture frame, spray paint if you want the frame to be a different color, a pile of old magazines, scissors, paper that matches your frame's color, and some type of adhesive (I used Scotch double-sided roller tape).

1. Prepare the picture frame (optional): Take the glass and back out of the picture frame and spray paint the frame to be the color of your liking. I have a collection of frames that I've picked up at yard sales usually for no more than $.25 each.

2. Find the right magazine images: While the paint is drying, hunt through magazines for images that are part of a tight color scheme. I was looking for pictures that were black and white and pictures that were yellow for the office, then pictures containing browns and greens for our living room. Make sure that you have a specific size in mind when looking for usable pictures:  I needed my images to be approximately 2.5"x3.5" since my frame opening was 8"x10".

 Another note about magazine images: make sure that they look like something. I think it's fun to look at mine and try to figure out what the bigger picture was, kind of like those magazine puzzles that show you the celebrity's eyes and you have to figure out whose face they belong on. Only I don't find pictures of cupcakes and lemons nearly as disturbing as a close-up of, say Michael Jackson's pupils.

And on the subject of things you don't want to see a close-up of: make sure that your pictures don't look like something you wouldn't display. For example, I found a cool picture of a yellow squash and was going to include it in my collection. But then, after looking at it more closely, it really looked more like a woman's hip. A woman's naked hip, to be exact. So, bye-bye, hip squash.

3. Cut all of the images to be the same size. I used my paper cutter for ease, but this could also be done by hand.

4.  Arrange and adhere the images on a piece of paper that will fit in the frame. I find it easy to use the piece that comes with the frame, since it will definitely fit in the frame. You know the piece I'm talking about: it usually says the size, possibly the price, and tends to include a nice picture of a tree or some small child playing on the beach.

5. Cut and adhere strips of the paper that matches your frame into strips large enough to cover the gaps between images. Even though I had cut my images with the paper cutter, there were still slight differences in size that definitely needed to be obscured. This will also mean that there is room for slight error, so your sizing, especially if cutting by hand, doesn't need to be as precise.

6. Place the entire piece back in its frame and--ta da! A new piece of "art" that looks a little like a window. The tight color scheme on each really help the whole thing look cohesive and like it was all destined to go together.

Here they are in their bookshelf context:

So how about you? What have you done with old magazines, besides toss them in the recycling bin? I have a pretty decent collection that is just dying to be cut apart--so let me know! :)