Christmas Lyric Canvas

Carrying on with Christmas decorations from my Christmas Craft list. Today we venture to the two canvases with Christmas hymn lyrics.  Now, I made these in two different ways and got pretty much the same results.

The Simple Supplies:

Lyrics printed out -- I got these prints from Landee See, Landee Do

Knife & Cutting Board

Pencil

Canvas (or two)

Paint colors of choice -- I used a shimmer white as a base coat with Christmas Green and Red for the 'filler' space

The Simplified Steps:

Step One - Paint the shimmer base coat on both canvases

Step Two- Cut your printed lyrics down to the size of the canvas, so it fits in the back of your canvas

Step Three - Hold your canvas (with the paper tucked in the back of it) up to a window or light so you can see through and have the pattern in front of you. Trace the pattern onto the front side of your canvas

Step Four - Paint in the background with your color of choice, covering the pencil markings as you go.

Step Five - After your canvas has dried, hang it up!

Sounds, simple right? How could I have screwed this up and made this take an ENTIRE day, for the first canvas I painted? 

Well, you see, instead of having the genius idea to simply hold the canvas up to light and trace the pattern onto the canvas....I used a knife and cut out all of the letters. This along took a good amount of time. Then with the background pieces, I taped them together on canvas like puzzle.  Next, I finally outlined where every letter would be. These steps again, taking a very long time. Finally I was able to paint in the background.

Boy, am I thankful I was able to come up with the tracing idea for the second canvas, otherwise these two projects probably wouldn't have been worth the time and effort.

Holly Letter

One of the holiday projects on my list to tackle this year is an 'S' made out of holly. It was a fairly simple project and I completed it in one night while catching up on some TV shows we enjoy.

  The Supplies:

Flat letter -- I got my S from Hobby Lobby

Bundles of fake holly -- I used 7 bundles from Hobby Lobby

Red paint to match holly and paint brush

Glue gun and sticks

Scissors 

Step One - Paint your letter

Step Two - As your letter is drying, trim up all of your holly.  I tried to keep them in the bunches that they were already connected in and also wanted to keep a few individual or pairs of holly together to use as filler at the end.

Step Three - Hot glue your bundles of holly onto the letter, covering the entire piece as best as possible. At the end I still had some holly leftover, so I went back over it and filled in any gaps with the individual pieces. 

Step Four - Touch up the holly with red paint as needed. Some of the red coloring had come off of the holly I was working with, so I hit it up with some paint!

Step Five - Enjoy your work! Hang on a door by itself or with a wreath. Hang it on a wall or lean it up against any other holiday decor you already have!  We are enjoying it, hanging with a wreath on the inside of our front door, so we get to see it often.

 

More Organized Home?

So, yeah. I may have dropped off the 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home series by Money Saving Mom. Blame it on some late work nights, being sick this week, and some general old laziness. I hope to hop back on where I left off this week.

In the meantime, how about a little Christmas cheer and some Christmas crafts that will be coming your way soon?

More Organized Home - Day 13

Day 13 Assignment from Money Saving Mom

:: Get dressed in something that makes you feel great
       I even showered first thing this morning! (Something that I usually do at night) I got dressed in my favorite pair of jeans, a white and blue striped t-shirt and mustard yellow cardigan. And some fun red shoes when I went out to lunch with co-workers today!

:: Make a list of 5-7 specific tasks to work on today that will help you reach your week's goals
       - Wash any dishes in the sink - COMPLETE
       - Day 13 assignment - COMPLETE
       - Work on blog post other than this series - In Progress
       - Work on a Christmas gift - In Progress
       - Work on crocheting a scarf if/while I'm sitting around, not working on the above

:: Set timer for 15 minutes and do a quick clean of your bathroom
       Done! My morning getting ready supplies (aka makeup bag and hair brush) consistently get left on the counter! Here are the before and after photos.

:: Clean the top of your kitchen cupboards (if there is space between them and the ceiling) and refrigerator. If there is any clutter up there, go through it and see what you can get rid of or find a new home for. Wipe down the outside of cupboard doors.

       Done! All I really had up there was a bit of dust lounging about. Swiped that up, wiped down the cupboard doors, and then for good measure wiped off the counters as well.

More Organized Home - Days 11 & 12

Day 11 Assignment from Money Saving Mom

:: Get dressed in something that makes you feel great.
       I went into the office today so it was kind of required to get dressed for the day. A simple white sweater and jeans worked!

:: Make a list of 5-10 goals for this week
       - Keep up with this more organized home series
       - Stay on top of the dishes --make sure the sink has no dirty dishes in it before going to bed
       - Write at least one post other than this series
       - Start crocheting a scarf
       - Visit with a friend

:: Set the timer for 15 minutes and quickly pick up your house
       This was something that I did on over the weekend after having visitors for Thanksgiving.

:: Clean out your silverware drawer
       This was pretty simple! I had just taken everything out to use for the holiday so there wasn't much left to clean out. I got off pretty luck for this day!


Day 12 Assignment from Money Saving Mom

:: Get dressed in something that makes you feel great.
       I know, excuses-excuses...but I was feeling extra tired this morning so I changed into sweatpants to stay comfy while working. I know the thought probably is if you get dressed and ready for the day you will feel refreshed and ready for the day. Guess I sent in the opposite direction.

:: Make a list of 5-7 specific tasks to work towards today to help accomplish your goals for the week.
       - clean up the dishes and empty the dishwasher - COMPLETE
       - follow the more organized home series - COMPLETE
       - work on the scarf while relaxing with Jesse and watching The Voice - will be complete later tonight!
       I kind of skimped out today, but don't worry I'm fully planning on sitting in front of the TV all night, which means I'll make a lot of progress on the scarf! :)

:: Set the timer for 15 minutes and vacuum the main living areas of your home.
       Skipped this today since I vacuumed multiple times over the weekend before and after bringing in the Christmas tree!

:: Clean your microwave, stove top, and/or oven.
       Again, I got away pretty easy here. I just opted for the microwave and stove top. I got off pretty easy since I scrubbed the microwave in preparation for Thanksgiving (but it was good to wipe it out again after all the turkey day leftovers we've been warming up!) and my lovely sister-in-law scrubbed up our stove top while she was here on Thanksgiving.

Here's to hope the rest of the week feels just as easy!!

More Organized Home - Day 9

Day 9 Assignment from Money Saving Mom

:: Get dressed in something that makes you feel great today
        As a special request has come in that I document these clothes that make me feel great each day, I may try to start posting a picture daily. So without further ado, my clothes: Yellow and cream striped shirt with light blue tank top and bright blue skinny jeans. (Don't pay attention to the messy bedroom - obviously it didn't stay clean very long after the day it was assigned last week!)

:: Make a list of 5-7 specific tasks to accomplish today based on your week goal list
       - Go watch a friend's band play (will be heading out soon!)
       - Day 9 Assignment (in the works)
       - Buy any supplies needed for my Christmas craft list I'll be working on next week. (COMPLETE!)
       - Okay, that's all I'm asking of myself to do today....

:: Set timer for 15 minutes and do a quick clean of your bathroom.
       This is definitely something I should be doing weekly, considering all of my hair that falls onto the floor and makeup that gets left out! Maybe eventually I'll start 'deep cleaning' specific parts of the bathroom more often to...but that might just be a pipe dream, folks.
Before:

After:

:: Clean your light switch plates
       Look at me! I was all on top of this yesterday so already had this task complete! Wahooooo

More Organized Home - Day 8

Day 8 Assignment from Money Saving Mom

:: Get dressed in something that makes you feel great today.
       Well, going two days in a row felt good to me today. Maybe tomorrow I won't wake up with a headache and tension in my neck that makes me want to stay snuggled up while I work. Didn't change my ability to work! Still got a lot done during the workday and was surprised what got accomplished around the house after I closed up shop!

:: Make a list of 5-7 specific tasks to accomplish today based on your weekly goals
       - Work on my TV stand project (COMPLETE - spent an hour on it today. Getting close to being done!)
       - Shop for some hardware and shelving for the TV stand project (COMPLETE!)
       - Check out Hobby Lobby for some crafting supplies (COMPLETE!)
       - Buy a turkey for Thanksgiving (COMPLETE!)
       - Move furniture around in the basement with Jesse's help (COMPLETE!)

:: Set timer for 10 minutes and go through your messiest dresser drawer.
       Well, I didn't completely read this part until just now typing it out. The messiest dresser drawer part is what I missed. I just read messiest drawer. So, I went through the sort of catch all drawer in our kitchen.
Before:

After:

:: Wipe down all door handles in your home
       I tried to be a little bit of an overachiever in this category. Not only did I wipe down all the door handles, I also wiped down all the light switches....it was pretty easy considering light switches are generally next to doors.

Wahoo...what a great feeling of getting so much accomplished!