Tag Archives: Picnik.com

Fresh Cut Flowers and a Mason Jar!

Posted by Leanne on April 16, 2012 14 comments

Well, I have been dealing with 3 sick kids and a sick hubby since Wednesday, and I am beat! My post on Thursday let you know about my son Jordan, and how we feared he had the chicken pox. It turned out it wasn’t, but Thursday night the poor guy was sick all.night.long. And I was on mama duty, sleeping on the couch next to him, doing keep-up-on-the-cleanup-duty. Then he needed a second night on the couch with me beside him, just in case. Yesterday we figured he was good enough to take out, but alas, there we were in the parking lot of the dollar store, when Anna suddenly got sick. Yup. And who walked by but an old friend from highschool. Of course. Luckily he is an elementary PE teacher, and was very, very kind. I went inside with the baby, to buy some ginger ale, and… the baby started vomiting. Everywhere. That was not a fun ride home. Poor hubby got it by 9:00 pm. Again, on mama duty, I have now spent 3 nights in a row on the couch, have seen (and smelled) way more than I ever needed to, and I am beat! (I am writing this post Sunday night). I hope that wasn’t too much info for you all, but I needed to get it off my chest!

So now I would like to focus on something that makes me much happier, a little project I managed to pull off last week, and I love this little darling!

Fresh Cut Flowers!

What do ya think???

Here’s my “how-I-did-it”:

I started out with my piece of pine, painted the outer border brown, and the inside roughly with a blue, both from my craft paint selection...

...I used a new tip I found online: before adding the top layer of paint, apply vaseline to the areas you want to have easily distresses, as the paint won't stick to these areas. I focused the vaseline on the corners, and added a few streaks randomly on the board. Best Tip Ever! ...

(Source for the Vaseline trick: Shanty 2 Chic - awesome blog, I’ve learned many little tricks from here!)

...I then added a top coat of white paint....

...distressed with sandpaper...whew, that was easy!!! I LOVE the way both the blue and brown show from underneath...

...I had made my template on Picnik.com, and printed it out on my computer. Cut it and decided on its placement...

I colored the back of the template with pencil for the transfer method... I then used my favorite Sharpie paint pen to paint the letters in...

...traced the template with a ball point pen, and the lettering transfers onto the board...

I then took one of these plumber-thingies (oh, hubby just told me it's a 6" hose clamp)... Hubby helped with pounding a nail through 2 of the slots on this, so screws could fit through... I needed hubby's help a lot with this part of the project!

And used the hose clamp to hold my Mason Jar in place! (in case you don't know, because I didn't have a clue, the clamp tightens and loosens with the help of a drill at that big knobby part of it. You can completely open it up too, to screw it onto the board) ...After I took this picture I realized the jar didn't sit straight on the board, so you'll see in the later pictures that I adjusted the jar so the clamp sits lower...

...I waxed it the sign with Annie Sloan clear Wax, added a wire hangar to the back...

...picked our first blooms of daffodils from our garden, with a bit of "greenery" (lavender and chives), added a wee bit of twine to the mouth of the jar, and Ta-da!

...this baby will be hanging on my wall until it is sold!...

Fresh Cut Flowers!

I’m holding on to this sign for our school’s ladies night, but you can check out my For Sale page for more info on how to get your own!

I hope this sign makes you smile as much as it does for me, and I hope we all have a wonderful Monday!!

Thanks so much for reading!

xo, Leanne

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Not Just A Housewife

Fresh Farm Eggs For Sale!

Posted by Leanne on March 19, 2012 9 comments

I am so ready to show off these signs! Take a look at my newest creation! (beware, this post is going to be picture-heavy!

Farm Fresh Eggs!

My How-I-Did-It:

I made the sign templates on Picnik.com, and used blockposter.com to enlarge it, and printed it off on our computer. This is the picture of my creation on Picnik.com

After printing out the template, I placed it on the board, making sure it fit nice, and to get approval from my client.

I stained the border of the signs with Minwax's Dark Walnut Stain. My favorite way to do this so far is using a rag to wipe it on, and 5 minutes later, wiping the excess off with a clean rag.

I gave the board a coat of graphite, and then 2 coats of antique white, leaving the edges of each layer showing. I created the rough edges of the paint by using just a little paint on my brush, and dragging it, so the coverage wasn't solid.

this is how the edges looked, closer up...

when the paint was dry, it was time to get to the lettering... I taped newspaper down onto the board for the transfer method, laid the template over top, and used a ball-point pen to trace the lettering. The newspaper print transferred onto the board like magic!

I would like to hug Jill from I know the plans I Have For You (check out her blog later, it’s awesome!) for giving me the newspaper tip! I was sooo thankful while doing this project… it would have driven me nuts coloring the whole back of this template with pencil first! Thanks Jill!

Check out how well that worked! Yay!

Using my megga-fat Sharpie Paint Pen I picked up at Michael's with my 40% off coupon, I got to work!!

All painted! ...I took this picture as soon I was done painting the lettering, to email off to my client... I loved everything about it, except the edges looked a little too bold for my liking, so I later sanded those down like crazy...

I repeated the same process with the Farm Fresh Eggs Sign...

and Ta-da! ...I still needed to paint a chicken onto the Farm Eggs sign...

and (almost) done. I sanded what I felt needed to be sanded, and painted the rooster onto the other sign.... since these will be outdoor signs for their (very beautiful) farm I still need to add several layers of varnish for protection. I'm thinking 7 - 10 layers.

Farm Fresh Eggs!

What do you think? Did I pass my first custom Farm signs? As I mentioned, Shannon’s farm is beautiful, and the entry way for the driveway is stunning. These signs will be hanging on her white fence, and she has plans to plant fantastic flowers around them. I can’t wait to see the final display! I’ll be sure to take pictures!

Linked to: not just a housewife, aka design,

Amazing Grace Inspirational Wall Art

Posted by Leanne on March 5, 2012 25 comments

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I am a huge fan of Red Letter Words, and when she created her Hymn Collection, I was inspired to give it a try. I love old hymns and their powerful words, and at the top of my favorites is Amazing Grace.

: first I created my templates on Picnik.com….

: …I used the Joyful Juliana font… I then used blockposter.com to enlarge my templates, and printed it off from there…

: …because my pine boards I was using were 11″x18″, I needed to cut each word from my template, and fit it on my board…

: …but first I colored the backs of the sheets with pencil, for my transfer method…

: …after painting both boards with Graphite color paint, I let it dry and distressed the edges lightly…

: …I then taped each word onto the board… and placed it on my mantle for a day, so I could eye whether or not I like the placing of the words…

I then used my transfer method – tracing each word with a ball point pen, the pencil underneath transfers onto the board – and painted the words with 2 coats of white paint, using my Sharpie Paint Pen.

: I let the white paint dry….

: …sanded it lightly…

: …waxed it with clear and dark Annie Sloan wax….

: …attached a wire hangar on the back…

: and ta-da!

: …my dad said they look like blackboards written with chalk, and I agree… very cool!

What do you think?? Do you love them? I’d love to know what you think! These I am keeping on hand to sell at our Ladies Night school fundraiser in May… but if you LOVE them, check out my For Sale page!!

And by the way, you can still make me a comment that you are following me, in my post on my giveaway here, until tonight!

thanks for reading!!

xo, Leanne

I’m partying here! and here…Keeping It Simple, Making the World Cuter, Polly Want A Crafter, Oopsie Daisy, Not Just A Housewife, NiftyThrifty

Every Child Is An Artist

Posted by Leanne on January 30, 2012 10 comments

Monday! Do you love Mondays, or do they make you groan? I love the back to school part, but not the waking up early, making lunch, rush off to school part. Often Monday mornings when I’m driving them to school, I look in my review mirror, and see Jordan hasn’t done his hair, and they both have Nutella on their faces from breakfast. Woops!

We had an awesome weekend, especially Saturday. We went down into the States to visit the Costco in Bellingham, then went to the town of Lynden. I love that place. It is a quaint town, very Dutch (my heritage is Dutch) and full of antique shops and consignment stores. I love, love, love the fact that my hubby and my kids love antiquing and thrifting as much as I do! So fun digging through treasures with the kids…. and showing them what kind of phone mommy and daddy used to use when we were kids. Gulp. Those are in antique shops already?!?

Anyways, today I want to ~~show off~~ show you a favorite project of mine.

"Every Child Is An Artist"

My kids create masterpieces, and the only place I have been showing them off so far is on the fridge… our fridge is getting a little crowded! One day while window shopping in Fort Langley, I spied something like this, and have been waiting for the right spot that was worthy of making it for. So when Abby took up residence in the corner of our living room, the time had come to make it.

From the free scrapwood we collected from Rona, I picked the size needed, and painted it this cool graphite black… I’m sorry, I don’t remember the name of this paint. I purchased it off a paint chip at Rona on a whim for my desk re-do, and didn’t keep the chip. I did 2 coats of paint.

Then I found this website called www.Picnik.com. I am in love with this site, and am in mourning, as they are closing it down in April. No idea why, but it is very, very sad. On picnik, I chose my font, and came up with this,

If you follow my facebook page, you would have seen this already… betcha didn’t know where I was going with it though, right? (to view a tutorial on how to do this, visit this blog here.)

I then colored the back with yellow crayon for a transfer method...

(to see a better tutorial on my transfer method, please see my post here.)

...cut out each word, placed it on the board and taped into place...

..traced the words, with crayon transfering the letters onto the board, and painted in the words...

For painting the words on, I used a product from Michaels, called Sharpie Poster Paint. It looks like a Sharpie felt, and works amazing. I’ve used the same one for a bunch of different projects now, and haven’t run out…. and soooo much faster than using a paintbrush! Awesome. (and no, I wasn’t paid to say this, I just love it SO much!)

... I then measured the centre, and 4 inches in from each side, for placing of the nails (I wanted 3 nails)...

...hubby used a drill to make little holes for the nails (wanted to make sure the nails didn't go through the board!)...

...added the nails.... I ended up taking the nails out and adding hot glue to them before replacing them for staying power, in case the kids yank at them...

... hung it up, added 3 alligator clips and artwork, and ta-da!! Love!

The third piece of artwork isn’t hung in some of these posts, the kids were getting real antsy at this point, and I just needed to take some pictures and get it done! Ahh, real life.

Do you love it as much as I do??

Do you love it? Check out my For Sale Page for more info!

thanks for reading!!

~ Leanne

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