Turn Your Face to the Sun

I started this rooster sign about 2 years ago, finished the rooster, got sick and never got the lettering painted on because my hands were always so shaky while on Prednisone, I couldn't paint anymore. Well...I am proud to say that I am finally finished, and it's hanging above the entryway to my kitchen, in a spot that gets a lot of sunlight to reflect the metallic paints.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. ~Maori Proverb

The inspiration comes from a photo I clipped (years ago) out of a catalog of a rooster watercolor painting by Susenne Telage called Hope Dawns. Her rooster is A-MA-ZING! I can't paint like that. I just don't devote the time to it.

But I will share how I painted the letting.

I followed this tutorial. I used an embossing tool instead of a ballpoint pen (can you see the indentation?) and I printed my font (Lobster 1.4) in light gray to save ink. It was fairly easy!

Cute Birds and a Bathroom Update

A few months ago we decided to re-paint the kids (and guest's) bathroom. We found a shower curtain Rob and I could both agree on and then TRIED to find a way to decorate the bathroom without it being all match-matchy straight from the store ugliness. I painted one wall a silvery brown color on top of the chair rail and a darker chocolaty brown on the lower half. Then I decided I wanted to make a cute bird and an owl for in there...only by the time I finished painting everything else I wanted in the bathroom, the bird and owl just didn't go so they are now proudly hanging out on a dining room wall.

I LOVE the quotes and think they look über-cute in these dollar wood frames I painted from Michaels flanked by $2 heart plates I scooped up at Ross's.

Since the shower curtain has rectangle graphics we wanted to have shapes like squares and hearts and circles too, (also the other towels I have that go in here have circles on them but they are in the washer today.) So I had my husband cut out a round disk of scrap wood and I painted this little design and then roughed it up a bit.

Overall we like the final look of the bathroom and I love my new little dining room birds! Now I have about 300 more unfinished projects to tackle, eventually...!

Dot Art Sign

I made this cute little dot art sign for my Mom. It was so simple but it really looks spectacular in person. All I did was dip the ends of my different sized paint brushes and even pencil tips into the paint to create a random dot pattern, kinda swirly for the sun. Same thing for the edges. I used tiny black dots to make up the lettering. No talent required for this one, honestly.

Painted Rocking Horse

After many months of procrastination, the pink and brown zebra striped polka-dotted rocking horse I started for my niece, Destiny, is finished. Love it!

Nauvoo Project

Going through photos on my computer I came across these pictures from a project I did awhile back. I was asked to paint a "log cabin" from Nauvoo for a church activity. I painted the Family Living Center of Historic Nauvoo, in two sections on brown contractor's paper (same stuff I used for the Fiesta decorations). I used the color of the paper to my advantage. Not bad...I didn't remember to get a photo of it finished, up on the wall at the church. Oh well. You get the idea.

Fiesta!!

The same day as Corey's Prom we were in charge of the decorations for a quad-stake church dance with a Fiesta theme. Wanting to stick to a really cheap budget I volunteered to paint a lot of the decorations myself. I had a lot of fun doing them. I bought a huge roll of brown paper from Lowe's and used up a lot of old paint I had sitting around the house. We had help one night from the Young Women at church who made tissue paper flowers and decorated the piñatas. One of the ladies from church made about 50 more flowers at home for us. (WOW!) It looked cute and we only ended up spending about 20 bucks total. Job well done, I say!

Miscellaneous Projects

Here are just a couple of the projects that I've painted for my house over the years. Can you tell I really like wooden trays? -They're cheap. ;)

Family Home Evening chart from years ago. Once we had our last baby, we combined Mom & Dad and added a heart for Gabby. That marker faded though, so I'm going to have to re-touch it someday. The hearts are attached with Velcro circles.

 

Easy Light Switch Covers

These are really so easy to make. Get an inexpensive plastic light switch cover plate. With tacky glue (may have to thin with water a bit) cover the light switch cover plate with a plain coffee filter, generously glued on, making sure to get out all the bubbles, and cutting/poking out the holes

for the switch and the screws. Be sure to overlap on the back side and glue that down well also. Once it's dry then you can paint whatever you'd like on the switch plate cover and it won't rub off with use thanks to the coffee filter. When your design is dry, coat with a varnish or sealant. :) FYI-I like to make sure it's very dry before I

mount it to the wall...or it's almost impossible to take off the wall later.

Words of Wisdom

This quote hangs outside our front door. It is a really beat up piece of wood.

Our bishop was giving a talk in sacrament meeting and he read a portion of Thomas S. Monson's First Presidency Message found in the April 2006 issue of The Ensign. "It is in the home that we form our attitudes, our deeply held beliefs. It is in the home that hope is fostered or destroyed. Our homes are to be more than sanctuaries; they should also be places where God’s Spirit can dwell, where the storm stops at the door, where love reigns and peace dwells."

I went home from that meeting and could not stop thinking about that, that our homes should be a place where the storms of the world are left outside. The chaos. The contention. The discord. The despair. The filth and the ungodliness. I painted this sign so all who came here would see what we are trying to stand for. But ultimately, what I really hope for, is that we are actually living it.

These are scriptures I painted on my bedroom walls a couple of years back. All I did was pick a font I liked on my computer, print out the scriptures, chalk them on the wall while looking at the print-outs and then use some water-based tole paints to "write" them up there. They aren't perfect, but I really like them a lot anyway.

This first one is for husbands and wives. It reads, "Remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another. D & C 90:24". In the temple we make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father and with our spouses. We don't make covenants with anyone else. Ever. I picked this scripture so that I could see it when I woke up every morning and remind myself that Rob comes first above everyone else in this mortal life.

This second one is found in 3 Nephi 22:13, (also Isaiah 54:13) "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord: and great shall be the peace of thy children." This is a commandment and a promise. I love that. It was painted near the baby photos of my 5 precious children.

I wanted a scripture that could be a family motto so I also chose to paint 2 Nephi 5:27 on my walls. "We lived after the manner of happiness." While we don't always have peace at home, at least it's our goal and I think we actually do pretty well. :)

Football Room

Some wall murals I painted for the boys football themed room.

As a family we love the Redskins, always have, always will. They are Corey's favorite team also so they got top billing in the room as you walk in.

Tyler likes the Patriots, not because he cares in the slightest bit for football, but because he thinks it's patriotic, so I painted the Patriots logo for him on one wall.

Ryan loves the Giants. Don't really know why, we don't know anyone from New York, but at least they are doing really well this year!

Some early sketches.