Family Wall Art

Hi everyone!  It's been a little while since I blogged about Creativity...  so I thought I would tell you about my latest DIY art project for our Mudroom!  Check out all of our Mudroom Makeover pictures in the album on my Facebook page.  Mudrooms are the perfect place to have a bit of fun with colour and art.  It's not a focal room of the house and usually it is just a room for the family.  For our mudroom we painted the walls in Benjamin Moore's Cedar Green which is a wonderfully lively colour that is very energetic and welcoming.  It really added a great feel to the room and our entire family love walking through it every time we enter and exit the house!

Since it is, as I said a room solely for the family I wanted to add an extra special touch that would really add a homey feel and could really be a memorable part of the house.  So I put my talented family to work at what they love to do so much (Hubby too but he wasn't too thrilled about the mess) and we made some great art from hand and foot prints!

Finished Product

What we used:

- brown craft paper cut into 12" by 12" squares

- white acrylic paint (I just used whatever white paint I had lying around)

- leftover wall paint (Cedar Green Colour)

- square shadow frames from IKEA (I used white for these but you can get them in several finishes)

- paper plates

- paint brush

Supplies

With all our supplies ready to go Oliver and I started at the painting.  We had to do the "mom" and "dad's" squares in stages as I wanted to overlap them with the kids hand prints too.

I assisted Oliver with doing his hands upside down with his thumbs and index fingers touching so that the space between his hands made a heart.  We practised this style of hand prints while making Cards for Valentine's Day.

I then printed Opal's foot prints with her heals touching so that it also reflected the shape of a heart.

Just for fun I printed each of our two dogs and cats paws but I didn't end up framing them.

Oliver's Hand prints and Opal's Footprints

Spudnick, Apple and Pickles Paw Prints

Aaron and I then painted our own hands and made white hand prints on the last two squares.  It took some arm twisting to get Aaron to paint (he doesn't like being crafty!) but I eventually got him to join in.

Daddy and Son, Mommy and Daughter

Once all the white paint was dry we went and did the second faze of our art.  We used the left over wall paint in Cedar Green to create a layered look.  We printed Oliver's hand on top of Aaron's and Opals hand print on top of mine (it is still super hard to print an infants hand).  Then on the kids art pieces I added some of the green paint by painting a heart in the space in between Oliver's hands and painted a outline of a heart around Opals Footprints.

Oliver and Opals Heart Inspired Prints

That was the extent of our painting for this project, not a lot but just enough to have some fun.  It is extremely fun to do hand and foot prints with the kids and this time it included the whole family which was great.  I think our art turned out awesome!

All of our finished art before getting framed.

Then when all the paint was dry I went ahead and framed the individual pieces of art.  I bought shadow box frames from Ikea in white so that they accented the white prints.  I traced the glass onto the brown paper to trim the art to the perfect size for the frame.  I Cleaned the glass until it was spotless and shiny with my Norwex cloths (love them!!). 

Framing supplies

Finally I put them together and they were ready to hang.  We hung them evenly spaced across the wall from the corner of the room to the edge of the cabinet.  We also hung them only about 9 inches from the ceiling.  I wanted them to stand out but also wanted to leave room for some hooks and coats.  The result actually made the room feel really tall and spacious!  I also had room to add a rub on wall quote that perfectly finished off the whole family focal wall.

Finished Product Hung on the Wall

Finished Wall

All in all this was a really fun project that I will always have to cherish.  It was the perfect touch for this family space and I love the way the overlapping colours add texture to the bright wall colour!  I hope you enjoyed this fun little post.  You could do this project in many different colours and also by stamping many other shaped items instead of hand/foot prints.  You can even try using cookie cutters for a inverted version!  There is so much you could do with just brown paper, paint, and a classic frame... just have fun with it!

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Hand Print Valentines

Oliver and I got crafty and made Valentines for the family today.  When it comes to painting with Oliver the funnest way to go is hand prints (its a bit less messy too!).  I love seeing his little hands printed into all different colours and designs.  Since it is Valentines Day the most suiting design would be hearts... so we printed his hands upside down with his thumbs and pointer fingers together to make a heart with the space between his two hands.  That was the plan anyway!

What We Used:

- Card Stock

- Acrylic Paint

- Paper Plates

- And Little Hands

We took turns painting the paint onto his hands with a paint brush.  Then I help him press his hands down onto the card stock.  We did two different colours.  So we did one hand with one colour first, washed our hands and then did the other hand with the other colour.

Oliver choose the colours so the hand prints don't look very Valentine themed... but they do look cute.  And I love the heart it makes!

I had some card stock with a multi-coloured foot print border left over from some invitations I made a while ago.  I thought it looked cute with the hand prints and I tried to coordinate the colours with the coloured footprints.  Most of them were sucessful but their were a few where Oliver got caried away and the heart shape isn't completely visable.  But all in all Oliver did a pretty good job... now it was Mommy's turn to get creative.

I cut some hearts out of yellow card stock using the old "fold the paper in half and cut a hook shape which unfolds to make a heart" trick.  After a few tries I cut one that fit in the heart shape of Oliver's hands so I used that as a template and traced it on all the other folded card stock pieces.  I cut them all out and carried on.  I try to utilise every scrap piece of paper when making cards or scrap booking, so I used the folded pieces of card stock left over after cutting the heart on the back for a quick heart embelishment.

I stamped "be mine" with red ink on the little hearts... which I thought were so cute.  And "Valentine" on the back over top of of the heart cut out.

Then with a white button and a needle and thread I hand stitched the heart to the card right in the heart space that Oliver's hands created.

And that was out Valentine's Day craft!  I'm sure our family will love them and Oliver is super excited about handing them out and showing them off!  Happy Valentine's Day!

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Christmas Bulbs

The kids and I decorated Christmas bulbs!

I bought a package of 6 ready to paint glass bulbs at a craft store in Vaughn Mall.  I think they may have been primed because they had a cream matte finish.  So I bought red, white and gold acrylic paint and we went to town.

To start I swirled some gold metallic paint around the bulb with my hands to give the bulb a nice background tone.

Oliver's were easy!  And he loved it... he loves anything to do with getting his hands dirty.  The easiest way I could get most of his hand print on the bulb without smudging was if I let him hold the buld in his palms with both hands.  We practised a few times and then he helped me paint his fingers and palms.  I told him to open his hands then I rested the buld in his hands and let him hold it for a few seconds.  I told him to let go and then I set them out to dry.

Opal's on the other hand... were a very different story.  Foot prints for young ins are not easy as it is... try it on a bulb and it just gets harder... try a hand print on a bulb!  It can't be done!  So we did her foot print.  But not without a few failed attempts.  Once with red paint which I swirled around with my hands to blend in and once with white paint.  Finally Hubby had to step in and we pulled it off!

Once they were dry I used permanent marker to write the year and their names on and tied some bronze coloured ribbon in a bow at the top.  We made 6 bulbs, I kept a set for myself and we gave my parents (Nana & Papa) and Hubby's parents (Grandma & Grandpa) a set for Christmas.

They All Loved Them!

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Reindeer Foot and Hand Prints

The kids and I were busy today creating!  My Hubby brought home a giant roll of brown paper the other day for our Christmas gifts.  I thought it would be cute to decorate the paper with Christmas themed hand and feet prints of the kids.  So to practise we made reindeer faces with their hands and feet and ended up with a keepsake on canvas.

What we used:

13`` by 21`` white canvas

beige acrylic paint

brown acrylic paint

black acrylic paint

red acrylic paint

paper plates

permanent marker

Their feet are the faces and their hands made the antlers.  Then we used their thumbs to make the eyes and nose.  Using only THEIR hand, foot and thumbs for THEIR individual reindeer ensured that the reindeer features looked proportioned.  Then I just wrote with permanent marker the year and their names beside each face.  Simple right! 

I soon realised that hand prints with young kiddies can be tricky.  I wasn't intentionally planning on writing Reindeer at the bottom but my son got carried away with his finger painting and we ended up with a blob of beige paint at the bottom of the canvas.  So I made it into a large R and wrote eindeer beside it and I think it looks really cute! 

Now we have a super adorable painting keepsake that I can bring out every year and show off too our family and friends! 

I hope you enjoyed this quick post...

Be inspired...

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Christmas Photo Shoot

I'm always looking for different ideas for Christmas cards. 

I saw some pictures on Pinterest with kids playing with Christmas lights so I thought I would try it out with the kiddies!

 

 

Opal as you can see loved the lights and would have sat there for hours

... and hours

Oliver eventually joined in

We eventually moved to the floor because it created a great reflection effect that came across even better then I pictured it would. 

The above picture is the one we ended up using for our card this year. 

I went to Zehrs and printed 4x6's,

I used their kiosk to add Happy Holidays at the bottom left hand side in white script. 

I then bought 4x6 envelopes at Staples and

made awesome photo Christmas cards for under 50 cents each!

And everyone loved them... I heard for weeks after we sent them out how cute they were!

And those are our 2011 Christmas Cards!

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Disney Cars Party

My two year old is crazy for Cars so a Cars crazy party is what he got!  I had lots of fun with this... luckily the Cars 2 movie was coming out in theatres in August so there was Cars stuff everywhere in stores.  I got most of my supplies from Dollarama.

First I made the invitations.  I used red folding cards from Dollarama (these are great, they are available in all sorts of colours and come in a pack of 6 for $2!).  I searched all over for a Lighting McQueen stamp but all I could find was a "Ready Set Go" which suited pretty good.  And of course a few weeks later I found the exact stamp I was looking for at Dollarama of all places, but the need for it was long gone.  So I found some pictures on the Internet and printed a bunch of McQueen's and Mater's out on photo paper.  I used some gold metallic rectangles to set it off a bit and then embossed the "Ready Set Go" stamp in glossy black.  For the inside I stamped "Your invited" and printed the party info also on photo paper with another picture of McQueen racing as a watermark.

I didn't go too crazy on the decorating and focused more on things for the kids to do.  I put up red and yellow balloons and just used plain yellow and red plates, silverware, napkins and table cloths.  I got Cars tattoos, Frisbees and beach balls and let the kids go wild.

Oliver showing off some of his funky tattoos!

My dad rented a red "sports" car and offered rides around the block.  Well it wasn't really a sports car but it was red so Oliver couldn't tell.

Oliver pretending to take McQueen for a spin.

I also planned some activities that the kids could do inside in case it was too hot outside and they needed to cool down.  I found these great cardboard canvas pictures with McQueen printed on them.  Instead of goodie bags I got Cars themed paper bags and filled them with Cars stickers, stamps, crayons and markers for each of the kids.  All of which I also found at Dollarama and the kids loved using them all over their Cars pictures.

Oliver colouring his Cars picture.

I also baked some plain sugar cookies in a bunch of car and truck shapes and put out some maple syrup cream cheese icing and a bunch of sprinkles and candies.  The kids had a awesome time decorating their cookies and couldn't get enough!  It was messy but fun and super cute watching the kids put a few sprinkles on their cookie and then a few in their mouth.

Oliver decorating his car shaped sugar cookie.

I made my signature birthday cake with rice flour and maple syrup.  Oliver just loves it and its not packed full of sugar like store bought cake so I feel better about him eating three pieces.  The icing I also made with maple syrup whipped with cream cheese.  Click on the lower right picture for the recipes.  I used green sugar on the top and let it run in order to look like grass and created a road with chocolate cookie crumbs that went across the plate, up the cake and down again.  Yellow gummy bears made the road lines and I used a tiny McQueen from a Kinder Egg and reflective stickers on toothpicks of the other movie characters.

McQueen and Mater Cake Balls

Cars Cake

The cake balls were my favourite part about this party.  I made them chocolate cream flavor with chocolate cake and vanilla icing.  Click the above left picture for the recipe.  I coated half with red chocolate and half with milk chocolate.  I used yellow chocolate on the red ones and wrote "95" on them to signify McQueen and used shaved almonds for Mater's two buck teeth.  I love how the Mater's turned out!  They were almost to cute to eat!

Oliver really taking McQueen for a spin!

All in all the party was a huge success by Oliver.  It was tons of fun and a great memory with the family.  He suitingly got a McQueen car as one of his presents and scooted around the backyard for the rest of the afternoon.  He absolutely loved the entire day!

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John Deere Party

It's the little guys first birthday!  What better way to celebrate a little boys 1st birthday who has a half Mennonite Daddy?  John Deere of course!

  

We kept it simple and just decorated with a few bunches of helium balloons.  I could not find any John Deere themed balloons so I got generic yellow and lime green balloons and wrote JOHN DEERE on them with permanent marker and decorated them with tractor stickers!  (this trick works great, I once threw the Hubby a Tom Tom party and wrote TOM TOM, LEFT and RIGHT on the balloons and it made great conversation pieces... a Tom Tom is a GPS by the way!)

 

We bought pre done invites because they were a really good deal.  I still wanted to customise them a bit so I printed a really cute One Year poem on Vellum and pasted it in.  Here it is below, I think it is so adorable!

A year's gone by

Oh how time has flown,

We can't believe

How Oliver has grown!

He's such a joy

And so much fun,

Oh my! Our baby boy

is turning One!

I also printed the info on vellum and layered it on top of the printed prefixes to make it look like it was all printed inside and then I didn't have to hand write them all!

Oliver sporting his Birthday hat!

We lucked out at a party store in Groove City when we were on a weekend trip and found everything we could possibly need for a John Deere themed party, which is also where we got the invitations and thank-you cards.  I think the table looks awesome all Decked Out in John Deere print!

Oliver's cousins also sporting their party hats!

the Dinner Table

Gotta love plastic table cloths!  I know their bad for the environment but just roll them up and gone is the mess!  And look how great the table looks with all those tractors...

the Dessert Table! YUM

Cake for the Adults!

Healthy cake for the Kiddies!

The most important part to any birthday, but especially for a 1st birthday, is the cake!  Of course! 

For Oliver and the kids I made a rice flour cake sweetened with maple syrup.  The frosting was cream cheese also whipped with maple syrup.  Click the above picture for the recipe.  I was going for a muddy tire to tie in with the John Deere theme.  Once I iced the cake I placed a cup in the centre and covered the icing with cocoa.  I used a wooden spoon handle to notch ruts around the edge.  Then I cut the same size circle out of a piece of paper and placed it on top of the cake and sprinkled the hole (in the centre) with yellow sugar sprinkles. 

For the adults I decided to try cake balls!  I did a double chocolate version, click the picture to view the recipe.  I covered them with yellow and green chocolate and drizzled some with the contrasting coloured chocolate and sprinkled the rest with various yellow and green sprinkles.  I was very thrilled with how they turned out and they were fairly easy too. 

Both the cakes were a huge success among the adult and miniature guests.  And Oliver was completely thrilled with digging his hands into a slice.

Oliver ultimately enjoying his 1st Birthday Cake!

Oliver suiting got a John Deere tractor as a birthday present from his Nana and Papa.  So I took him and the tractor to Zehrs (that was an interesting trek) and got some pictures done.  The one I used for the back of the Thank-you card was my favourite!  It really captures his charm!

So Oliver had a fantastic 1st Birthday!  We sent the Thank-you cards out and we have tons of great memories!

Be Inspired...

Get Creative!