Crafty

Lately I've done a couple of crafty things (out of the ordinary for me), so I thought I'd show you!

The first project was rearranging the wall between the front door and the stairs (the wall is also sort of behind the front door, once the door is open...does that make sense?).  I have tried many different combinations of things hanging on this wall since we've moved here, and I think I finally got it right.

First, we spray painted the mirror (on the left) this sea foam green color:

 

It used to be this textured bronze color:

Jacksonville House, 2011

I bought this wooden "W" at Hobby Lobby and covered it with scrapbook paper:

We already had this print and this brown frame, but they weren't paired together until I started this little project.  I bought the print at a small art shop in Ocean Springs, and it was painted by a local artist:

And here is the full effect:

 

Isn't that a terrible picture, lighting-wise, etc.?  As you can obviously tell, I still haven't made the time to learn how to use my camera properly.  Even though this picture does it no justice, I really like the final arrangement!  I was also really happy with the way the spray painted mirror ended up matching the scrapbook paper...that was sort of lucky!

 

My other project was making a frame for our neighbor.  Last year I found some frames at one of our Hallmark stores that I just loved.  (This particular Hallmark store stocks a lot of locally-made things like frames, wreaths, kids' clothes, etc.)  Anyway, I really wanted to buy one of these frames, and I showed them to my mom when she was visiting back in November.  She liked them too, but she said, "You and Chet could make one of those!"  So we did!

 

Chet bought the wood from Lowe's, and cut it down to the size I wanted.  He drilled the hole in the back and inserted the dowel so it could stand (and he added the thingy in the back, just in case our neighbor wanted to hang it on the wall).  I "designed" the chevron pattern and taped it off so that Chet could spray paint it (I swear, Chet could be a professional spray painter).  The gray spray paint bled over into the yellow spray paint a little, so I had to add the white lines in between.  Chet cut the Plexiglas down to size and nailed it down.  I hot glued the bow on.  (The frame was for our neighbor, but specifically a first birthday present for her twin girls.  It matches their bedroom.)  It is definitely not perfect (I probably would have made the chevron pattern a little smaller if I could do it over), and I learned a lot in the process, but I was pretty happy with the final product!  (I didn't take pictures throughout the process, so I can't show you each of the steps I mentioned above...oops!)

Putting the finishing touches on the stripes.

 

Finishing the bow.