Working on New Arrivals

I hope you can endure these terrible pictures.  I just wanted to give you a sneak peek at the baby/New Arrival door decor I have been working on.  I have an It's a Girl and an It's A Boy baby bottle and baby rattles.  

I am hoping to add vinyl to these soon and get one off in the mail for a special blog follower-turned-friend of mine.  I do have about 1,200 things planned for tomorrow and I have typically been getting 2 things done in a day, so......we will see how far I get, if I get vinyl on these babies before my photo shoot this weekend.  

Otherwise we will be back next week, with a little luck.

Happy Wednesday!

So Hoppy To Be Crafting With Friends!

I am so sneaky!  I invited all these ladies over to my house to craft and didn't tell them until the very last moment that they had to get their picture taken!  HA!

I am totally joking, but seriously, I had the best time the past 2 days crafting with so many Minnesota friends!!!  

Since this past Christmas selling season, I just have not been able to get myself to craft.  I guess it is a side effect of making what you love as your job.  Eventually, you get tired of it!

Well, after a few online requests for my big bunny Sir-Hops-Alot, I thought I would just throw him out there on our local RS FB page and see if any of the sisters would like to make one.  Wohoo!  I was so excited to have 14 lovely ladies jump on the opportunity.

*staring blankly at a stack of uncut wood*....What have I DONE!

I volunteered myself for 3 days in the garage, between kid drop-offs and errands, that is.  It was totally worth it though.

This pile of pieces, when put into the hands of these talented painters, turned into hoppy, bright spring masterpieces!

Focus on the cute faces of my friends ;0}

Do not notice the messy disaster of a house behind them....

Morning and night Tuesday and Wednesday 13 of the 14 ladies smashed into my tiny space to make their bunnies.  

Tonight Emmalee and her BFF also painted bunnies while I got to chat with BFF's awesome mom.  My emotional bucket is officially filled!  Tonight we squeezed Me, Madison, Emmalee and BFF and BFF's mom, and 4 fabulous Eagan ward ladies in my little crafting space and had a blast.  Everyone got creative and painted their bunnies a little different.  It was so fun to see the difference and chat the entire night.

Emmalee went Mint, Coral, and Gold with her bunny.  I love the bow around the head instead of neck!

Girl bunnies ROCK!

BFF added yellow to her egg to match her hair bow...I guess it is her hare bow ...hehe.

Priya knows how to paint.  She brought a personal assistant ;0}  I love these ladies.  They both have such happy, friendly personalities it makes me smile just being around them.

I let my last two guests off the hook.  We took pics of their bunnies alone.  Apparently I get nicer as the night goes on.  Love the Coral/Gold/Purple egg on Sara's bunny!

And Loren's orange egg with green zigzag is very carrot-esque!  I love them all!

It makes me want to cut out 12 eggs and decorate them all differently....and then I remember I am exhausted.

Sadly, I only got pictures of the first few and last few of my friends, but it has been a SERIOUSLY long time since I had this much fun.  I can't wait to do it all again.  We have requests for hair bows and neck ties before Easter, promises of a Mother's Day and Father's Day and Patriotic door signs.  Then the phones started coming out and a flood of Pinterest Pins were presented, each of which I responded..."Oh, I can make that.  We can totally do that!"

I think we are going to need to buy some more paint.

Be back soon.  Mads and I have a photo shoot this weekend with live chicks and we are booked Friday and Saturday SOLID!  Sister Kallie and brand new baby will have to be there to help and next week I will be back with some cute, cute photos to show you!

p.s.  There was also sadness the past couple days as I thought back on my craft parties back in AZ.  My original crafting buddies.  I miss them so much ;0(  I hope you are craft-partying without me!  It is good for the soul

What A Turkey!

I hung this guy on my door this morning.  What a Turkey!  I am in love.  

I cut this guy out of 1/4" mdf handi-panels, sanded the edges to my favorite beveled edge, then painted him up.  I mod podged pattern papers to his feathers for some color, then distressed them a bit around the edges with the same paint used on the feathers and a dry foam brush.

It took me about a week to settle on what to put on this sign.  These things are very serious matters not to be taken lightly.  I like Give Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving and all that.  However, I wanted this sign to be a statement of how I feel, not a command to everyone else.  Finally I settled on "We Are So Blessed" cause that is how I feel.  I LOvE Thanksgiving.  It is actually one of my favorite seasons.  There is so much energy in the air, no presents are needed, and it is just about family and reflecting on all our blessings.  Thus, my statement.

Now I need to make my letters for the shutter next to the front door.  I made a pattern today and have it all drawn out on my wood.  It sits there, leaning up against the garage door, waiting for the morning when the boy becomes a Man...or the wood becomes a work of heart.  

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving Season!

Halloween Signage {Free Files!}

Check out my new Halloween signage born in the dead of night.  I had a photo session lined up out of town a little while back, and must have been worked up about it or something because I could not sleep a wink.  About 3:30 I finally jumped out of bed and hit the garage to find a scrap of wood I could make into a cute sign. I popped open Silhouette Design Studio to make a Trick or Treat sign, when I realized I totally needed to make a pumpkin stand.  I had spent days in a stupor trying to think what set-up to make for the shoot.

Here is a little peek at my process...  Make a little mark, shoot a couple nails...

Base paint black...

Topcoat amazingness...Beautiful!

I was feeling pretty proud of my self right about here...then there was more...

 I had made 4 signs, starting with a thought and finishing with total love by 7:30am.  I dragged my kids out of bed and we hit the road.

This was my setup at the park.  You have to love Minnesota and their ever abundance of lakes!  This is a sight for sore eyes when you are used to Arizona's deserts.  We have been in Minnesota almost 3 years and I still can't even wrap my head around the beauty here.  There are trees everywhere just dripping with life, not to mention grass that grows like thick shag carpet.  Love.

All I needed was a cute kid, and this little guy worked perfectly for that.

My Pumpkin's sign was made from one plank of cedar fencing.  I wanted a rough and rustic feel to the sign and cedar is perfect for that.

I did bring some witchy things too in case anyone wanted a setting with a little more Halloween and a little less harvest.

I made this sign out of a scrap piece of 1x12 pine too short to make into an iPad stand.  

It goes perfectly with the witch hat and broom I made last year.

On the backside of the Trick or Treat sign I made this "Here Comes Trouble" sign.  Yep.  It's reversible.  That makes for one less thing I have to haul into the site.

After all that was ready, we just inserted family after family.  

I took these pictures in my yard before I left town.  I loaded the car and went in the house to grab "just one more thing."  I came out to Eli...

In the tree.  My son has decided to go out for swim team and after beefing up a bit, has found a new passion in climbing anything that will hold his weight.  He is going to kill me.  If he doesn't kill himself first.  He climbs everything.  Why!?!  The boy either can't get off the computer or is at the top of a tree.  I don't get teenage boys.

I love him, but I don't "get" him.  My prayer is that we will make it all the way to snowy frozen trees this year without a broken bone.  This sign...

Was inspired.  Thank you Eli.

OH!  I almost forgot!  I have some silhouette cut files for you!!!  If you like these signs and want to make one of your own, you can download the files HERE from my dropbox account.  Don't have a vinyl cutter???  I do!  I will gladly cut you a piece or two, just comment below, email me at vanessa.cam5@gmail.com or message me on Etsy.  I will hook you up ;0}

Happy Halloween!

More From My Ratty Front Porch

At the rate I am going, I might get three whole projects done by the end of the year.  I, just this weekend, finished my LEARN for my Front Porch Shutter...on my Ratty Front Porch.  It only took a little cutting time Saturday before Conference began to get the little school shapes cut and sanded, then I got to play the rest of the uplifting afternoon.  

All shapes were cut from 1/4" mdf, sanded, then painted and sealed with Rustoleum 2x Clear Matte Spray.  I am a freak about that clear spray.  Just use that brand!

After my first few letter sets I wired together, I switched to the ribbon as the way to hang this all up.  I just lay out the ribbon, lay the letters on top where I want them, then go back through and hot glue each letter in place.  Rinse, repeat...Lay out the shapes, go back and hot glue those on, then hang.

Don't you love the paint set!?!  It is my favorite!

I even put my school bus back up so I could get the whole picture ;0}  

Then I took it all down and put up my SPoOKy from last year.  I am hoping to get my spider door sign finished before my pictures this weekend.  Wish me luck!