Chevron Stenciled Picture Frame Tutorial

Here is an easy way to decorate a cheap $1 craft picture frame.

I found this one at Michaels a while ago.

Fun to decorate your home, or to give as an unique handmade gift...

You will need the following materials:

* Picture Frame

* Contact Paper/ Shelf Liner ($store)

* Scissors or cutting machine to cut template

* Craft Paint in 2 colors

*Mod Podge

* Foam Paint Brushes

* Optional: Button/ribbons/fabric to decorate, and glue gun

Start by painting it in the lightest color and let it dry.

(I painted it plain white, just paint the whole thing.)

Then, cut your template out of contact paper.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut a chevron template, 

but you can also easily cut one by hand:

1 & 2: Fold paper accordion style  3: Cut under an angle  4: Unfold to reveal chevron template

Apply the contact paper chevron template to your frame as pictured below:

Next, 'paint' over the whole thing with Mod Podge.

This will keep the next color of paint from bleeding under the template.

After the Mod Podge layer has dried, 

paint your second color. (In this case, aqua.)

Let dry again, and peel away the contact paper to reveal your chevron pattern:

Now, you can leave it like it is,

or decorate it with buttons, ribbon, etc, whatever you like.

I used some buttons and ribbon to create some flowers,

and glued them in place with a hot glue gun.

Shared at Thirty Handmade Days, Tatertots and Jello, Brassy Apple, Sugar Bee Crafts, Craft-o-maniac  and Somewhat Simple.

DIY Owl Nursery

I'm excited to show you the newly decorated nursery of our youngest!

Her room is pretty small, so it was a challenge to use all my ideas,

without making it too crowded.

I bought some owl wall decals quite a while ago, 

intending to use them for her room.

But somehow I never got around to actually putting them to use.

Then, my husbands mom reminded me that she was going to make our daughter a baby quilt.

She has this amazing tradition to make every grandchild a special quilt.

And you should know that she already has 9 grandkids!

Anyway, she always lets us moms give input:

we can pick a pattern, or colors, or theme, whatever...

So I told her I really liked owls, and showed her these owl decals.

She found a neat pattern that I really liked. 

I thought it would be hard to find fabric that would match the owls, 

since there were so many colors.

But we found the neatest fabric line,

matching the colors of the owls,

 and she made the most amazing quilt:

Needless to say I was in awe when we saw it!!!

Our youngest likes the cheerful colors too and likes to play with it :)

I got the leftover pieces so that I could decorate some more,

and I bought extra fabric for some bigger pieces.

And that was the little push in the back I needed to start working on this room...

I really like to use embroidery hoops to display some pieces of pretty fabric.

I also like the way it creates different sized 'dots'.

I used some small scraps to decorate a plain wipe box:

Remember these owls?

They finally got a home in this shelf, 

that I found at the thrift store.

I gave it a fresh layer of paint while I was painting the wall...

Some more close-ups...

I wanted to incorporate a little chevron, 

without it being too overwhelming:

You can find the tutorial to create this chevron picture frame HERE.

And some simple embroidery on one of the embroidery hoops:

I framed the print you can find here.

And I made a pennant banner, to showcase all these pretty fabrics.

I really like banners for kids' rooms,

they are so cheerful!

A matching pillow for the rocker.

A personalized canvas, with an owl, pictures of the fabric, 

and her name (which I took out for privacy purposes).

And, a canvas made with scrapbook paper.

I am happy with the results, it is both cheerful and relaxing at the same time.

I would almost like to trade rooms with her...

I am planning on putting up tutorials on some of the items I made once I have time to do that.

Shared at Sugar Bee Crafts and Sarahndipities.

Sneak peek...

I've been busy decorating the room of our youngest daughter.

This week, I finally painted the wall, and am finishing some projects that I started a long time ago.

I hope to show the final result some time soon!!

Stay tuned...

Happy Halloween from the Cutest Witch in Town!

from the

who turns out to be a real girly girl:

But don't try to put the matching hat on!

She loves to put on a hat fight!

So it was time for some distraction:

in the form of a coupon binder...

So finally, a picture of the witch wearing her hat...

or what is left of her hat.

Happy Halloween!

And this marks the last day of the "31-for-21" challenge!

I did it :) I blogged every day this month to raise awareness for Down syndrome!

A big thank you to my faithful readers!

Two random conversations

A couple weeks ago I had two conversations, one day apart.

Both of them different, but both very encouraging for me regarding the future of our little girl.

The first one was in the grocery store. I was in the checkout line behind a lady who had a little boy in the seat of her shopping cart. 

It took me about 2 seconds to realize he had Down syndrome. So I had decided to pick that line. 

Our cashier was slow, so I started a conversation. It turned out she was the grandma, and it was fun to talk to her. 

I noticed how she spoke Spanish to the little boy, so I wondered if he was bilingual. And sure enough, her daughter is from Costa Rica and she speaks both English and Spanish with him, and he understands both! 

Our oldest two daughters are bilingual (English and Dutch), so it has been our plan to teach our youngest two languages, too. 

Three even if you count sign language. I have learned that there are different opinions on that subject, 

but I have found examples of people with Down syndrome who speak 2 or even more languages. 

One thing we know for sure, if we don't try it, she for sure won't be bilingual.

So it was good for me to hear from someone else who is doing the same thing!

The day after that I was in the library with my 3 girls.

I noticed a girl, about 12 years old, sitting at a table with a girl in her early twenties. 

They were playing an educational card game. The younger girl had Down syndrome. 

I was kind of curious, but didn't want to interrupt them. So we picked our books, and the girls wanted to play at the computers, so I let them. Then I saw a third girl running over to the table. She was about the same age as the younger girl, and she hugged her. She did some small talk, and then I heard her say something like: "What you said today to X wasn't so nice, I think you hurt her feelings. I think it's better when you don't do that again." I was pleasantly surprised by the way she handled this situation, and how she kindly tried to teach her what was right and what wasn't. 

By that time I was really curious how all these girls knew each other, so I just couldn't help myself and casually walked past and let my little girl wave at them. That always seems to break the ice, and we started talking. It turned out that the older girl was hired to work with the girl with Down syndrome after school to teach her whatever she needed extra help with. I had kind of figured that out just watching them. The younger girl was a in the same school as the girl with Down syndrome, and she knew her. 

To me it was really heartwarming to realize this was a schoolmate, who was really nice and caring. 

Sometimes I can't help but wonder what the future holds for our little one, and witnessing this was just what I needed.

"31-for-21" Challenge - Day 30

Laundry Schedule - Funny quote on canvas

When I saw this quote somewhere online,

I knew it belonged in my laundry room.

It sounded SO familiar.

With 5 laundry producing people in our household,

doing laundry is one of these never-ending tasks.

It would maybe be better if I could just finish the job in one day,

but somehow, that never happens.

I really live up to this quote.

(I also line dry a lot of stuff, which then hangs in the laundry room,

and that sort of turns it into an extra closet where I go to get clean clothes, 

often till the next time when I need space to hang stuff to dry...

But how do you put that in the quote? :)  )

Initially, I created the following canvas:

I just painted the canvas,

cut the text out of Vinyl, using my Sihouette Cameo,

and put the letters on there.

I used non-permanent vinyl,

and that was no good idea.

In the damp environment of our utility room,

the letters started to come off after a while.

Since I wasn't too thrilled with the sign the way it was, anyway,

I decided to give it another try.

I peeled the letters off, and cut the text out of contact paper this time.

I put the letters on there, and then painted all over it with grey paint.

After the grey paint had dried,

I stamped some swirls on it with red and aqua paint.

And then I pealed off the contact paper letters,

to reveal the text again.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the process.

This was one of these spur of the moment crafts,

 that I decided to do late at night when the kids were in bed.

 

I am still blogging daily this month to raise awareness for Down syndrome.

Want to know why? Click the tab "Down syndrome resources" on the top of this page.

"31-for-21" challenge - Day 29

Shared at Sugar Bee Crafts.