Monogram canvas

Well this was one of those projects that worked on my patience. Something I learned is that vinyl does not stick to canvas very well. I made these for my sweet niece Nykesha to go in her bedroom. Her mom had just painted the walls purple with a pink overlay using a rag technique. I had seen as similar project on  Pinterest and thought it would look so cute in her room.

To start I took two 8 x 10 canvases and one 14 x 20.

I used a tutorial I found here for the harlequin background.  Since it was such a small project I just drew out the lines and painted instead of using painters tape.  If doing a larger project, like a whole wall,  I would recommend the painters tape method.

I wanted to add some dimension and depth to the background of the center canvas but keeping it subtle so it didn't overwhelm the monogram.  This is where the fun began, I cut some swirly patterns out of vinyl and tried to place them on the canvas.  It didn't stick, like at all.  All those nice thin swirly pieces kept trying to peel up as I went over them with the lighter wash color. 

This is where my patience and stubborness came in to good use.  I just had to start in the middle of each applique and work my way out when going over with the wash. Since these wouldn't be staying I wasn't too concerned about it. 

Then I placed the negative outline of the dahlia flowers and painted the inside pink.

Voila this is the finished product before adding the initials.  Ok now what was I going to do get those initials to stick, I surely didn't want to try and paint white over the top of that dark purple.  So I googled every which way I could think to try to see what other people did to get their vinyl to stick to canvas.  I guess all those signs and silhouettes that I see are done on some kind of flat surface like wood or metal.  WOW that would have been good to know before I started.  I did however find one tip on a forum that I thought was worth a shot.  I carefully placed the initials on the canvas, tediously peeling back the sticky placement paper.  Once I had them in place I painted over them with Modge Podge.  Some spots like the thinner pieces of the letter were still peeling up so I just peeled that section back and painted on some more Modge Podge and carefully stuck it back down.  I was going to need a sealer anyway so that was great solution for a glue as well as sealer.

Have you had any projects that just didn't work out and it wasn't until you were too far into to change it up too much? 

DIY baby shower - Yellow and Gray

 

I have been blessed to have married into a very large family.  He is one of six siblings,one sister and four brothers. Which means I have a bunch of sister in laws.  Most people that know me get so confused when I talk about our family so I am going to do my best

Sister in law #4 was about to have her first baby and we needed to shower that baby with love.  So all us sisters (sister in laws and the sister) got together to put on a Sweet Blessing baby shower.

Planning a baby shower can by tricky when the sex of the baby is unknown and the guest list is large   So sister in law #4 and I googled every baby shower idea possible and came up with a dessert only shower held in the early afternoon and used a yellow and grey theme.  Ok so we leaned toward a feminine side, this was the 11th grandchild to be born with only two girls so maybe we were hoping to persuade the outcome.  Wishful thinking, I'll tell you more about that later.   

Grab your favorite beverage as I show you some of my homemade additions to the shower. 

 

  

 This is what guests saw when they entered the room.  We were able to use a game room of a relative of Mommy to be.  Which was a great space but we did need to work around a few things, like a pool table and sports pictures.  The pool table worked great for the dessert buffet and we used lots of balloons (always and adventure transporting) and tissue paper pom poms to disguise the surroundings and soften the backdrop. 

 I made a banner using printed card stock.  Since it was hard to find the perfect color scrapbook paper I purchased digital paper from Great Graphics and printed the patterns on card stock.  I made pleated medallions and topped them with doily shaped letters using the print and cut feature on my Silhouette. 

Sister in law #2 and I put together this gorgeous diaper cake.  We assembled the diapers as usual,l you can find all sorts of great ideas on the internet for diaper cakes but we went with the rolled version.  Added some gray ribbon, yellow polka dot and some butterflies cut again from my Silhouette.  Yes! my Silhouette worked over time for this shower.

Mommy to be didn't want a lot of cutesy baby shower games and we were not very good at coming up with them either so we just had two activities that guests could come up to and mingle around the room.  One was the baby price is right, guests guess the price of the baby items, closest to the right price without going over won.  The other was a place where guests could come up and write a message or well wishes to mommy to be in a journal.  Then Mommy has a journal to remember her special day by as well as great advice and blessings.  I rolled washcloths, onesies and burpcloths to make cupcakes, wrapped them with card stock cut out on my Sillouette.  They were topped with the instructions printed on cardstock and added a pleated medallion and butterfly to continue the theme. 

 Now onto the good stuff the desserts. This was the table scape before we added everything.  I printed and cut labels for all desserts. Something the sister taught me a long time ago is to make any table scape have height and depth you add boxes, pots and pans, bowls, crates whatever you have around and then drape with tablecloths or in this case it was a tablecloth from Target in the center and pieces of yellow and gray floral fabric.   We used clear and white cake plates and serving plates as well as glass jars to display all the deliciousness and keep the theme cohesive.  Some of the desserts were a chocolate cheesecake, carrot cake, chocolate dipped pretzels, brownie bites, chocolate covered strawberries, few.

 Above is how displayed chocolate chip cookies and sweedish tea cookies.  Bottom left are lemon cupcakes from Real Mom Kitchen topped with butterfly cupcake toppers again made with my Silhouette.  Top left are cake push pops that I made.  Three different flavors peanut butter cup, banana pudding and coconut cream.

 For the utensils we wrapped plastic forks and spoons in a napkin, tied with a ribbon bow.  Then placed in cone shapes, and in a wire utensil carrier.  I found the wire utensil carrier at Walmart, it was black so I just spray painted it white.

 Well so much for trying to persuade the outcome.  Our sweet little blessing was another boy!!!

Do you have any stories to tell about baby showers you have hosted?  What do you think of a dessert only shower?