kismet art

Favorite February Photos

A random assortment of my favorite February photos: The back of our old television with the sun streaming in (only taken because I thought it looked kind of cool and because I thought we could show it to our kids when they are older to see what an old TV looked like... not because I wanted to highlight our dustbunnies)A display of the many colors of cauliflower at Market of Choice Emma having an ultra pink moment the day she made a crown at preschool One of the beautiful outdoor lanterns at a local brew pubBen's Lego pirate tavern, photo taken through the window of his creationRustic potato frittata and vanilla scone from a crafting retreat at the Oregon Coast with friendsEmma, asleep standing up, after a long day at preschool

Not always the best lit, in focus photos, but these were some of my favorite memories of February.

Faux Sew Love

Better late than never here are a few more Valentine's Day 2012 projects that I finished this February (before the 14th if you can believe it!)  The first is a little wall hanging for Emma's room, I have a reversible one that is on her bedroom door from Halloween- Christmas, when it came down this year she requested a new one.  I used one of the 5x7 flat backed canvases from my previous post, covered it with a sewing pattern and mod podge, punched with an awl around the edge, faux stitched with a marker, then embellished with ribbon, chipboard letters and buttons, and topped with a felt hand stitched heart.The second project is a love banner I created by covering 4 scalloped chipboard pieces found at the $1 spot at Michaels with a sewing pattern, sealed with Matte Mod Podge, faux stiched with a sharpie around the edges then embellished with buttons, ribbons, paper tape, and hearts.  The O and E are on top of 4x6 overlays from My Mind's Eye.  At this point I think I have a banner for almost every major holiday- I think the next one better be a birthday banner (luckily that won't take too long, I have the pennants covered with paper, I just need to add the letters.)  And after misplacing my Halloween banner for over 2 years I have started a banner box so I have a central place to pack and store them away after each holiday.

Valentine Canvas Collage

I thought I'd try another "clean out my button-flower-brad, etc. stash" project much like my Easter egg from last year:  http://kismetart.typepad.com/kismet_art/2011/04/easter-egg-project.html

Because of the time it took last year I started with a slightly smaller canvas this time around (5x7 instead of 8x10) and chose to use more elements that I could glue on, much easier than punching through the tough chipboard backed canvas.

This is still a favorite project, especially because it is one you can easily work on while watching a movie, hoping to make some different holiday shapes this year because I still don't see much of a dent in the old button stash!

Pinterest-Inspired Paper Decor

After first noticing her work on Pinterest I continue to be inspired by Stephanie at http://www.providencehandmade.blogspot.com/- saw her hand sewn Christmas tree on her Flickr photo stream  here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/providencehandmade/sets/72157600259779488/.

And while I did not have either the material or skills to sew a set of trees and mount them on canvas like Stephanie did I knew I could use my handy paper cutter to makes strips out of a variety of patterned papers to make the tree you see above.

I have 2 large painted canvases that hang over my mantle, they have a layer of chalkboard paint on them, and with each season I try to either draw on them with chalk or cover them with seasonaly appropriate paper art.

Here is my Valentine's day version: I'm storing each project in 8 1/2 by 11 plastic photo sleeves to resuse every year.  I can't wait to start on an Egg version for Easter!  And I am a little bit proud to say that I have actually made something that I pinned on Pinterest :)

For You, A.

Message In A Cookie

So very happy that Emma loves to have fun in the kitchen, and her current favorite thing to bake is cookies, chocolate-chip, gingerbread, oatmeal butterscotch, and now sugar cookies using this cool Message In A Cookie   set that she bought using some of her Christmas money.The set comes with several words and 3 full sets of alphabet letters so that you can write anything you want on your cookie (up to 2 lines per cookie.)  I can see these coming in handy all year round!  Now if I can just keep enough flour, sugar, and butter in stock...