Chalkboard Bakery Sign on Canvas

Faux Chalkboard Bakery Sign on Canvas

 

I originally saw this cool bakery sign wall decor on a blog header over at Junkin Junky about a year ago, and she has since changed the image on her blog header so I can't really show you.  A couple months later I was looking for it (this was before pinterest) and found the bakery sign over at the Curious Sofa, although it's not there anymore either, but luckily I saved it because I FINALLY did it!  

Here is the original from curious sofa 

                                                            

I started with a 12x24 inch gallery wrapped canvas that I got on sale really cheap years ago...before I even became a mom, which was at least 5 years ago as JJ's bday comes up next week!  I didn't have any black acrylic paint, so I used J's Black Tempura/Poster Paint but due to my painting classes from college, I still have a difficult time using any paint straight from the tube...even black, so I mixed the black with some of my burnt umber...don't know if it made any difference, but oh well...I painted the entire canvas black.

Then I put a piece of chalk in a bag and smashed it with a hammer.  I used a wide dry paint brush and brushed the chalk powder onto the black canvas to make it look like a chalkboard.  Who needs chalkboard paint when  you can use black poster paint and basic crayola chalk to make a faux chalkboard finish?

 

I inverted the original image from curious sofa and enlarged it to the size I wanted in word and had it print onto several pages.  Then did the ol scribble chalk on the back and trace the letters onto the canvas.  I did try practicing my freehand at first which wasn't terrible, but I just wanted it to be uniform and even and so I traced the lettering on. 

 When I started, I planned to paint the letters with white paint, but right before starting thought...um since I'm making it look like a chalkboard...why don't I just use chalk? duh...

 To keep the chalk for smudging and wiping off, I took it out to the garage and sprayed it with fixative. You can find that in the drawing section a store that carries art supplies.

 I made this chalkboard bakery sign to go next to the door to the deck because there are two empty areas of wall, on the opposite wall, I just threw up this pizza paddle we already had.

 There...better than having nothing up there on those walls....slowly getting the house less bare.

 I just had to take a pic from this angle because I love the light fixture and brick fireplace in the kitchen...

Best part of the new kitchen decor?  It was free!  I just used things that I've had on hand.

To see how to enlarge images to print on multiple pages click HERE

To see how to transfer images as I did with the type on this project, click HERE

 

FYI- an update from last nights post...NO POOPY DOOPY DISASTERS this morning!!! THANKS FB friends for your help!!!

Baby Boy Room Decor - Canvas Sign

When I Grow Up...

Baby Boy Art and Nursery Decor
Canvas Sign

I saw this adorable little sign on Uptown Country and knew I had to make one for my baby boys room...

I wanted mine to be the same, but I had this 6 x 12 inch canvas so changed the quote a bit to make if fit my sign better.   I will be posting a tutorial for this canvas sign so you can make your own diy nursery decor just like mine in a couple days. this week is a busy week and so I only have time to share this preview...so come back soon, the tutorial for this baby boy art should be up in the next couple of days!  Also check back tomorrow to see who won the E Custom Cards Giveaway and enter today if you haven't yet! (see top of sidebar)

If you would like to purchase this 6x12 inch gallery wrapped baby boy art, it is available in my etsy shop and is custom made to order in any color to match your nursery or little boys room.  This baby boy art would make a great gift for a father to be, new father, hand made baby shower gift, or a gift to welcome a new baby boy to the family, or just because it would look so cute in your boys' room.

Featured on Knock Off Decor!

Yay!  I hope you are all having a great weekend and enjoying linking up your creations to Scrappy Saturdays  and entering for you chance to win the current giveaway for a custom greeting card! (see top of sidebar).

I just wanted to brag a little :)  I'm really excited because today my Unicorn Canvas Art that I knocked off from Rosenberry Rooms was featured on Knock Off Decor...you can check it out at knockoffdecor.com

Thanks so much for the feature!

Unicorn Canvas Art Knock Off from Rosenberry Rooms

Rosenberry Rooms Oopsey Daisy Knock Off

Unicorn Art for Girls Room

My new friend and neighbor redid her daughter's room this weekend while she was with her grandma to surprise her.  Her daughter really likes unicorns and so she found this unicorn art that she really liked on Rosenberry Rooms 

I already had a 16 x 16 canvas on hand so I just had her pick out the tissue paper, cardstock and buttons she wanted me to use.  She also brought the funnies from the newspaper to use as the unicorn's mane, (her daughter loves to read the funnies) and the original unicorn artwork appears to be a page out of a phone book or something like that.  Here is my customized knock off version of the Rosenberry Room's Oopsey Daisy Fine Art for Kids Line.  I used yellow acrylic paint, modge podge, blue ink, glitter and hot glue for the buttons....

 

I added a bit of glitter here and there to bling it up a bit

I love the buttons she picked out for the Unicorn's Eyes

Check out the funnies....I love that feature

And when my 4 yo daughter saw me finishing this up, she begged to do one too.  We had these smaller canvases that she had previously painted on in her room that were just muddled paint colors so we added to that and together we made this one for her room and have another canvas she can't wait to make another one on...she had so much fun cutting pieces of paper and ribbons and painting on the modgepodge, dumping on the glitter...I helped very little...I got in trouble if I did any helping without her instruction! lol I actually really loved how she cut out diamonds with the blue paper and said they were stars and then made them sparkle with the glitter.....we haven't really done artwork together like this before and it was so fun to watch her mind work as it evolved.

Come back tomorrow to check out an awesome new giveaway!

Hanging Butterfly Mobile Tutorial

Boutique Style Paper Hanging Butterflies

for Baby Girls' Nursery

Knock Off Alert! My lovely sister (whom you can learn more about here) is having her first baby in a couple weeks and it's a GIRL!  I am over the moon excited about her becoming a mom and I can not wait to meet the little bundle!  So when I was visiting, I wanted to be able to spoil her as much as I could, but I'm not rich either! So I was looking through her registry and saw this adorable hanging butterfly mobile

I thought it was precious and also thought it looked pretty easy to make!  It is $57 on Amazon - you can find it Here and I was able to make one for about $5!  I wanted to spoil her as much as possible and was excited I could mark that off her registry and still be able to get her other things...

Here is what you will need:

Large embroidery hoop
white paint and foam brush
thin jewelry wire
very thin/fine fishing line
cardstock and vellum in various shades of pink/cream/white (or to match your nursery colors)
Pin Needle
Scissors

disclaimer: Sorry, I made this at night and I hate it when I don't have good lighting for the pics!


Remove the inner hoop and give it one or two coats of paint.

While your paint is drying, find a butterfly and flower shape you like, I searched for silhouettes and clip art till I found the right shape, however I still ended up altering the butterfly a little bit.  Print and cut out your templates. Mine were about 2 to 2.5 inches in size roughly...Use your templates and trace the images onto your sheets of vellum and cardstock

Begin cutting.  This would go even faster if you have a nifty flower and butterfly punch or cricut, but I'm a cheapo, I do it all the old fashioned way :)  for now at least...
I was able to save some time by folding my cardstock accordian style and cutting out multiple butterflies and flowers at once...although this doesn't always work out so good...you have to be really careful and cut very carefully so the lines are crisp and nice.

Once you have cut out a bunch or butterflies and flowers for this adorable nursery decor....

Take a pin needle and poke a small hole right through the center of each butterfly and flower.

Get your jewelry wire and wrap the wire tightly and securely around the edge of hoop, then pull it straight across the inside of hoop and make sure there isn't any slack in the wire, then secure on opposite side of hoop.  Make at least four strands of wire crisscrossing throught the hoop creating a pie...like below.  This is what you will secure your butterflies and flowers to.

Now take your fishing line and determine how long you want your longest strand in the center to be.  How long do you want it to hang down?  Cut a couple of strands of fishing line that length and then cut the rest just slightly shorter and cut a whole bunch..until you run out of fishing line.  

Take you line and tie a double knot on the end and then thread on a butterfly or flower.  A few inches above that, tie another double knot and thread on another butterfly or flower.  I placed 3-4 butterflies and flowers on each strand for the most part.  Tie the end of the strand to the center of the mobile where all the wires intersect.  Work your way out from the middle. 

 At first I had it on the table working like this....

 But then it was easier to place and arrange the hanging butterflies and flowers on the mobile while it was hanging up, I just rested it over the backs of two chairs.

 As you work your way out, to create a tapered effect, move the fishing ling up and down till you determine the right height and then tie to the wire above...you will have more extra fishing line at the top of those since you didn't let them hang as long.  When  you are done, just trim all the excess line off the top.  I placed 5 strands from each section of wire.  You can do more if you want a fuller hanging and you can add more butterflies and flowers per strand as well to make it more full.

 Use the jewelry wire or extra fishing line to hang butterflies from ceiling.  Just screw in a ceiling hook to hang from.

I will update with a better final picture when my sister gets it set up in her nursery! 

Some of the other things I was able to get for her since I saved on this gift was

Cloud B Sleep Sheep

Natural Baby and Childcare

Burt Bees Baby Kit

And I'm really excited about the travel system we went in on with the rest of the family for her...I forget which one it is now but it is the best stroller/carseat combo I've ever seen.  The stroller is soo cool, every single annoying feature on every stroller I've had has been address and it is one stylish, trouble free, smooth ride!  It was so fun to "shower" her!  I was going to put on a baby shower for her, but we had an emergency situation, basically she is type 1 diabetic (since she was 9)...that night we went to get pedicures before my brothers wedding the next day...the salon had massage chairs which she turned it off as soon as she got in and realized it was on.... later her blood sugar got really high and wouldn't go down and she was going into preterm labor, at like 30 weeks I think she was.  I went to the hospital with her and they treated her for preterm labor, gave her an injection of something to stop contractions and did a test that said "no you won't have the baby within two weeks" and so they sent her home although blood sugar was still off the charts, puking violently, massive contractions and chugging water but it was going right through her.  We came home and her contractions were just getting worse...I was timing them...she was like in true labor with contractions, every 7 minutes more or less...still puking, and still incredibly high blood sugar.  She had tried changing her pump site and doing everything she could adjusting her pump and checking it.  After being home for 45 minutes or so, we just knew we never should have left the hospital and we went back.  They wouldn't let her into the ER but sent her back to L&D and they didn't really know what to do with her there since she wasn't actually going to have the baby.  She normally sees a team of specialist where she lives, but we were in a different town with a smaller hospital, anyways...finally, they found out there was a resident in the hospital that was training under her Dr in the city so when she came in, it was a godsend!  She immediately knew what was wrong and took over...My sister had gone into Diabetic Ketoacidosis which is extremely dangerous and life threatening.  So she ended up spending the next 2 days in the ICU, couldn't go to my brother's wedding and was ordered to go straight back home and see her regular team of specialist so we had to cancel the baby shower.  After all that, she finally came to the conclusion that the massage chair at the salon had put pressure on her injection site of her pump and make a kink under the skin so she wasn't getting insulin (even though she turned the chair off...It put pressure on her as soon as she sat down because and caused the damage to her site unknowingly).  Once her blood sugar got too high, even though she tried changing the injection site, it was too late and she needed medical intervention.  It was one intense experience I will tell you that but I'm so glad I was able to be there for her!  So we had the travel system  with some of her gifts set up in the living room when she got home from the hospital.  Thankfully she and baby recovered wonderfully from this.  I'm so proud of her, she has taken such good care of herself and her baby during her pregnancy, and I just know she is going to be an amazing mom and I just am so excited and want to do so much for her...more than I can actually get done! lol!  More than anything, I just wished we lived closer so I could be there for her all the time to help with the little day to day things...like run errands for her when she isn't feeling good, or driving her to the doctor, making her a batch of my granola bars so she could have something easy and handy to eat, help set up the nursery and wash and put away all the cute little baby outfits, cook meals for them when the baby comes and anything and everything else

Oh and btw- thank goodness for the Ipad2!  My hubby got one from work and my dad got one for father's day and we were able to watch my brother's wedding from the ICU over skype with the ipads. And at the reception, people took turns walking around with the ipad and we got to see all the action...technology at it's best!