Trimming the Tree: An outdoor holiday project

It is the most wonderful time of the year! While you are busy decking out your living room with Christmas trimmings you can also put those decorating talents to use by trimming a live tree in your yard. This time of year the trees are awfully bare without their leaves and so some sparkly decor is perfect to accompany your holiday lights on the house. This is such a fun, fast, inexpensive way to add a little sparkle to the outdoors!

Step One:
Gather and collect pine cones from your yard or purchase a bag of inexpensive pine cones from your local craft store.

 

Step Two:
Spray paint half of the pine cones a dusting of white paint and the other half spray all over with a silver glitter paint. Both of the spray paints can be found at a craft or home improvement store of your choice.

Step Three:
Attach some fishing line to each pine cone (after they have dried) at the length you desire.

Step Four:
Add in some colorful round ornaments. I chose all green glass ornaments, but you can have different colors, shapes, sizes, and the non-breakable outdoor ornaments work great!

 

Step Five:
Hang all pine cones and ornaments from your tree and different lengths and different branches.

 

Items Needed:
Drop cloth
Spray paint (white and silver glitter)
Fishing line
Scissors
Pine cones
ornaments

To Have and to Hold: Wedding Program Design

Creating wedding programs has been my unofficial business for the past two years. I love designing in Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign ever since Architecture school, and it has carried over into designing items for friends, family, and their referrals for weddings. It gives me such creative freedom and I have so much fun thinking up new designs for each couple. These are some items to keep in mind when designing for someone else:

1) Keep the couple's interests and what is important to them as a first priority, this makes each program unique to the couple.
2) Use the wedding colors in a creative way.
3) Make sure to design a size and shape that is easy to print and fold (and cost-effective).

Here are some of the programs I have completed thus far:

The Wedding of Caitlin and Matthew

Back and Front - a folded 8.5 x 11 program

Inside

The Wedding of Erin and Blake

Back and Front - a folded black and white 8.5 x 11 program

Inside

The Wedding of Lisa and Marco

Back and Front - a folded 8.5 x 11 program

Inside

For more information about these programs, or for a request, please contact me, Corrin Wendell, at corrinwendell4@gmail.com. I would be happy to design a program, announcement, invitation, or save-the-date etc for your special occasion!

Shutterfly to the Rescue: Christmas Photo Cards completed!

Thanks to a great friend of mine, I have been able to order some Christmas photo cards for a discount: here is my project on Shutterfly!!

Shutterfly Christmas photo cards!

Enjoy!

It's Sew Easy! Making Pillows and Placemats

For my Grandma's upcoming birthday I decided to make her two pillows for her porch. I had some great leftover fabric from a previous project that would match her decor. Making pillows is very fun and easy! I have previously made pillows for my guest room and have made placemats as gifts. I am working up to making a t-shirt quilt someday. Here's how to make your pillows!

Step One: Pick out your fabric, measure, and cut.

Step Two: Wash and iron all fabric.

Step Three: Layout fabric and decide which combination looks good.

Step Four: Pin fabric and sew pieces together.

Step Five: After pieces are sewn together as one, iron again. Make sure to iron seams down.

Step Six: If you are going to make a placemat, then iron on batting.

Step Seven: Cut and sew back piece of pillow to the front piece. Make sure to leave an opening on one side in order to pull it back through.

Step Eight: After pulling through the fabric so that it is the on the right side, put stuffing in the pillow or insert pillow form. If you are doing a placemat, to finish, after pulling it right side through, then complete with an outer finishing stitch around the perimeter of the placemat.

This is a great project that doesn't take a whole lot of time and is fun and creative! You can customize your pillows to change with the season or redecorate a room in your house. You can also make pillow covers to cover existing pillows from one season to the next. It also makes a great present.

Items You Need:
Fabric
Thread
Pins
Stuffing or Pillow Form
Measuring Stick
Scissors

I Love Paper! Making Your Own Cards

It is a known fact that I love paper - I love buying different prints, thicknesses (weights), and colors. More so, I love making cards for my friends and family for special occasions. For the past couple years I have made my own Christmas cards. For this particular card, I had a wedding coming up and decided to make a card to match the colors of their wedding - blue and black. I thought that this would add a special quality to the card and make the couple feel extra special. Using cardstock and some embellishments, cards can be made in a matter of minutes and make a big impact!

This card was made to match the colors of my friend's wedding.

Finished card with envelope and embellishment on the front.

Step One: Find an envelope that you would like to use.

Step Two: Select a piece of cardstock and measure the envelope to know how large the card should be.

Step Three: Cut your piece of cardstock to the size measured.

Step Four: Find the middle of the card and make a crease.

Step Five: Start embellishing!

Enjoy!

When in Doubt: Freshen Up with a New Knob

Repurposing furniture is one of my favorite pastimes and finding a deal is even better! Sometimes it only takes a coat of paint or a new knob to freshen up a piece of furniture. I found the side tables, dresser, and vanity pieces off of Craiglist for my guest room. The entire room was put together for less than $100. I gave some of them a new coat of paint and wanted to replace the old knobs with new ones that would match the style of my guest room. The guest bathroom yellow sink vanity and the closet doors were also in need of some new knobs as well.

For the most unique looking knobs, I looked around and was able to find some really great ones at Anthropologie. There is such a variety and if you catch them on a sale day, it is the best! I have also been told that Hobby Lobby has some great picks as well.

This bed side table is one of two found on Craiglist. I gave them a fresh coat of paint and added two flower knobs.

I replaced the guest bathroom vanity knobs with these fresh, fun new knobs.

I found this vanity on craigslist and gave it a new fresh coat of paint and some new knobs.

This dresser was $10 on Craiglist! I added four new white knobs to match.

It is always fun and easy to change up existing furniture. Adding knobs is a great way to do that! Good luck with your garage sale, flee market, craigslist, and side of the road finds!

Simple and Easy Wall Art

This is a great way to use an old poster, artwork, or in my case an old map, for a great inexpensive piece of wall art. I had found this old map in the back of my closet which I acquired in Berkeley awhile ago. I decided to put it up in my office as a fun piece of artwork. The print is an old world map in an antique style and goes perfectly in my office.

Step One: Go to the craft store and pick up four cheap canvases from the paint section.

Step Two: Measure and cut the map into four equal pieces.

Step Three: Take each section of the map and wrap it around the canvas and with a staple gun, staple the map to the back of the canvas along the edge.

Step Four: Hang all four sections on the wall so that the image is in the correct order!

Make sure to arrange the image so that is recreates the original map.

Items you will need:
Image (map, poster, artwork)
4 canvases
staple gun
scissors
ruler or measuring stick