Monthly Baby Onesies

I wanted to give a unique gift to a friend who recently had a baby. So, I decided to make onesies that had 1-12 on them for her to take a picture as the baby progresses each month. 

I made sure I washed the onesies before I started and used simple iron-on transfers purchased at Michael's. 

Then I found a square box to put them into and wrapped it nicely for a little girl. I did make the onesies pretty gender-neutral. I also bought various sizes so the kid could grow into them!

How to Make Hand-Painted Signs

I used my Michael's coupons to get wooden signs very inexpensively! So, I had to decide what to do with them. So I'm making a variety of signs to sell at a local craft sale. 

Here's my technique and supplies:

Wooden signs

Sayings printed on paper

Ball-point pen

Charcoal sticks

Acrylic paints and brushes

Start by painting the signs with the desired color. 

While that dries, color the backside of the paper with printed sayings with charcoal. I only colored the printed areas. 

Flip the page over onto your sign. You can tape it down if needed. Then using a ball-point pen, outline the words of the printed sheet so the charcoal transfers to the sign. 

Using the acrylic paints, fill in the letters. This does take a steady hand, but looks great. 

After a couple of mini touch-ups, I can see the final product on a little girl's treehouse or bedroom door. 

I did another one for a laundry room sign as well. This sign came painted white already. 

When it's dry, I will outline this sign with a thin Sharpie marker to make it stand out more. 

Give Thanks Banner

For Thanksgiving, I wanted a banner for the mantle, so I found a pre-made burlap set at Hobby Lobby. I then used a variety of scrapbook paper to cut out the letters. I used Photoshop to type the letters and reverse them. I traced the letters from the computer screen with the printed side face down (so the pencil was on the backside). 

I then cut out each letter and glued them to the banner using Elmer's Craft Bond. This was an easy craft to help make the house warm and ready for Thanksgiving. 

Coffee Table Revitalization

Since the move, we have been working on using some of the furniture we had already and sprucing it up. This is one of those said projects. 

We started with an ordinary coffee table. 

Pretty unsuspecting and drab at best, it had some dings to it, but structurally sound. 

Next, we used a primer to paint the whole thing white before we used our furniture paint. I bought all of the painting supplies at Lowe's. 

After we let that dry (overnight), we used a Valspar furniture paint and had it tinted with their Moon Shade color. 

It took two coats of paint, allowing for dry-time in between the two coats. 

The finished product turned out awesome! 

Crap Wars

So if you ever watch those "war" reality TV shows where people compete against each other, you'll know that they can get a little ridiculous. One of those such shows is "Craft Wars." The project I recently created was inspired by "Craft Wars." Every time my sister and I watched the show, we thought they were saying "Crap Wars," so we would laugh hysterically. 

I wanted to make a sign to designate our crafting area in our new house. I found a blank sign at my local Michael's. 

I measured and divided the board into equal parts according to the number of letters in "Crap Wars." I researched different font styles I liked online--I wanted a retro-style and something I could easily draw by hand. I made sure I used my ruler to help me along the way. 

Then I used the lines as a guide to cut out to use the paper as a stencil. An Exacto-Knife would work fine to cut out the letters. 

Next I drew the lines in pencil on the board. I used this as a starting point to fill in using Sharpies. Fine-tip Sharpies worked well. 

I liked the color-fade of these colors. It reminded me of a beach sunset. 

I think my sis liked her present for her 30th birthday!