project 8 of 25/HAND AND FOOT PRINT ART FOR FATHER'S DAY

This project was a really fun one. After taking a pretty significant break (yet again) from blogging and crafting in order to travel and enjoy my life, I was excited to get creative again. This project was fun and checked three different boxes for me: do something fun with Henry, fulfill one of my 25 projects, and make a father's day gift for Henry's grandpas. It couldn't have been simpler. I dipped his hands and feet in non-toxic acrylic paint, then pressed a print onto a flat canvas board. 

 It took a little under an hour to do the whole project, which is long, considering how simple it was. I had to strip Henry down to his disposable drawers, then for some reason I wanted to do each hand and foot print different colors, so I had to walk back and forth to the sink and rinse him off after each paint dip.

I was surprised by how still Henry kept his hands and feet when I pressed them to the canvas. I guess I sort of expected him to thrash and get paint everywhere since he's a busy little boy. For the most part, the prints are really good, but a little messy, particularly on the hands. I'm happy it was a little messy. It shows how he is, how he moves and wiggles. It's realy. Henry got a little uncomfortable toward the end, but quickly recovered. We ended up with a fun, super easy, and child-interactive project that the grandpas will love! 

This is Project 7 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

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project 7 of 25/RECYCLED MAGAZINE PAPER VASE

I had meant to post a 25 projects post every other week all year long, with one extra week. But I got really behind on blogging and some personal goals when I stumbled across a prayed-for job, and put all my time into work and taking care of my family and home, and then we were out of town, first to Utah and then to Palm Springs. Whew! 

Finally, I was able to catch my breath and jump back on the blogging train (though I'm a few cars back from where I had hoped to be). So here is number 7, probably the easiest little craft you could ever do: recycled magazine paper vase. A long time ago, I had wanted to make a sculpture (or bowl or vase) out of recycled paper spirals a la this pin on Pinterest. I had started a bunch of various sized spirals and made a bowl, but it was too flimsy and heavy at the same time. It wasn't strong enough to hold it's own weight, and it drooped and started to fall apart. 

I bagged the spirals thinking I'd come up with another crafty use for them, and lo! 25 projects came around and started eating up all my craft supplies and getting stuff done that I had been meaning to do for years! I used one of the big spirals as a base, and had originally intended it to be solid, stacked spirals on top of one another. A few hours into trying to size the spirals to gradually expand, I decided that would take way too long and use too much paper and glue, so I abandoned it and started climbing in a single layer. The end result is an actual vase, hollow and functional (obviously you can't put water in it, though.) 

War story of 25 projects. While I was still on the "stacked spirals" idea, I burned my finger really badly with the hot glue. It took my breath away for the rest of the night, and almost totally turned me off to the project entirely. That's partly why I decided I hated the method I was using and had to go another way. And I'm glad I did. My finger ended up blistering (I've never had a burn that blistered before), and I would have risked more burns by doing it the other way. Always be careful with hot glue! is the point.

This is Project 7 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

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project 6 of 25/BOOKSHELVES

Oh, this bookshelf. It has given me grief for almost three years, ever since we moved in. The biggest problem in the whole house, of course, was the kitchen, which we remodeled this summer, so now there are a handful of smaller projects I've been itching to fix. This bookshelf was a monstrosity from the seventies, and it was at the top of my list. The geometric division of the shelves made it really hard to store books efficiently (especially that stupid skinny part). So I cleared all the books out, stacked them on my kitchen table, and set to work to remove it from the wall.

I ran into a snag immediately (isn't that how these things go?). There were six screws, all different from each other, and they had been painted over at least twice, which means the grooves were totally filled and stuck. I tried drilling them out, I tried scraping at the paint to loosen them, and I even tried the rubber band trick to remove them. They were totally stripped and not going anywhere. I asked Conrad what he thought, and he suggested either cutting the tops off the screws (didn't know how to do it/didn't have the tools), or hammering them down and risk ruining the wall. I was stumped for about 30 minutes, then figured that since all the stuff done to the house before we moved in was done really shotty, I could probably just pull the shelf right off the wall. And I did.

After that feat of strength, I discovered that the screws had left huge holes in the wall, and the bookshelf was almost just floating there that whole time. I patched the holes, and while it was drying, I dug through my stash of leftover paint from various projects. I went with a dark grey that I had gotten a sample of a while ago, and since I was just doing this one wall, the little sample ended up being the perfect amount. I wanted a little accent, but not too bright. Then I painted the small adjacent wall with my leftover light grey.

I bought some white tracks, brackets, and shelves at Home Depot (they'll cut the shelves to the right size for you). A quick wipe down and some book stacking later, I had some completed shelves! It was actually a relatively simple (and inexpensive) project, and I think it looks so much more open than the old wall-mounted bookshelf. The straight, uninterrupted shelves are way more efficient - I couldn't have fit everything on the old one. An added bonus of the wall tracks is that you can adjust the height of each shelf whenever you want. I love the way it looks!

This is Project 6 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

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project 5 of 25/FLANNEL QUILT

Let me preface this post by saying I am not a quilter. I've made one quilt before, and it was so imprecise and such a confusing thing that I swore I'd never start another quilt. Swore it! And so, a year and a half later, I stared another one, then finished it in probably under 24 total hours. I wanted a thrash quilt, something I wouldn't be worried about. Something we could take to the park or the beach and I wouldn't be concerned about grass stains or spilled juice. Something perfect for little boys. So I didn't measure, I didn't wash the fabric first, I didn't press the seams, and I used multiple colors of thread throughout. I figured if it's being made to be thrashed, I wasn't going to slave over a perfect, beautiful quilt. It needed to be dark in color, big, and super soft.

Quilters everywhere are organizing a movement against me. There's probably even a hashtag. #quiltersagainsttheframedlady

I bought one yard each of six different types of plaid shirting flannel. My goal was that this quilt look like it was made from old flannel shirts. I would have actually used old flannel shirts, but didn't have any, and it only occurred to me just now, as I type, that I could have found some at thrift stores for cheaper than what it costs to buy fabric.

I roughly cut ten-inch squares out of all of the fabric using a rotary board and cutter. As I said before, I did not precisely measure, so some of the squares vary up to half an inch. As precise as a craft as they seem to be, quilts can actually be very forgiving of little mistakes. 

I laid out the squares in the size I wanted, about nine rows by six rows. Patchwork quilts are really easy, because all you have to do is sew squares into rows, and then rows into one big face. I did the whole face of the quilt, cutting and all, in one night while visiting my parents. 

A friend of mine has a quilting machine, and she stippled it for me in just a few days. This is the batting I used, and the backing was just six yards of grey shirting fabric. The night I got it back, I cut out the fabric for the binding (this did actually require some measuring, but it was pretty quick). The next day, I ironed it, sewed it on one side with the machine, and finished the binding by hand. Yep. All in one day.

Just in time for Stormaggedon, too. We snuggled up and watched some House of Cards and listened to the rain under what I'm sure is the softest, coziest quilt ever. Perfect for little boys.

This is Project 5 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

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project 4 of 25/STRING ART INITIAL

If you search for string art on Pinterest, you'll get tons of cool, elaborate pins using string and nails. Most of them are really colorful and complicated. I loved the idea of doing something like string art for one of my 25 projects, but wanted to do something more simple and kind of rustic, so I decided to do a simple F for Frame on a plain piece of stained wood. I posted a picture of it in yesterday's post on the clock wall.

First I sketched out an F using the old January page from my large desk calendar where I plan out all my blog posts. I tested a Times type font first (as you may be able to see below the block letter), then decided on a more plain look. I did it freehand, then I used a ruler to make the lines straight, and used a sharpie to outline. 

I bought a pine plank from Home Depot and had them cut it in half (they'll do this for free), so I walked out with two slabs, each the perfect size for this project. I figured I could make one for myself, and if it turned out well, I could make one for a wedding present or something, or figure out another way to use it. I took the slab outside and sanded it on all sides, particularly all the corners and edges where it might splinter. Then I stained it. At first, I thought I'd only need to stain the front, but quickly realized that the pine was too light and it would show when it was finished, so I stained all of it, including the back. It took only about two hours before it was dry enough to handle. 

I cut out the F and centered it onto the board, just eyeballing it until it looked right. I taped it in place so it wouldn't move while I hammered the nails in, and got to work. 

I used over a hundred nails, hammering them about half an inch apart all the way around, and leaving them sticking out about half an inch. Then I tied some craft string to one nail and started twisting it around the nails until it looked right. 

It's too heavy to hang from a wall, but I honestly really like the look of it leaning. For now it's on my kitchen cart, but I don't think it's going to stay there. 

I love the way it turned out! It was so easy and really cheap, no more than about $30 for all the materials, including the second plank. 

I'm linking this project to Remodelaholic's link party and Tip Junkie.

This is Project 4 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

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project 3 of 25/BE MINE BRAILLE VALENTINES CARDS

My mom is vision-impaired. So much so that she hasn't been able to drive for fifteen years, and even stopped reading and had to learn Braille a couple years ago. She's almost completely blind. While I was brainstorming what to get my mom for her birthday, I knew typed or hand-written cards were out. If I wanted to send her a card, it had to be Braille. And that got me thinking about different methods for spelling something out in Braille. And then I realized I wouldn't be able to mail her something in time (and also I don't have a Brailler), so I'd just call her, but I was onto something with this Braille thing. What could I do with it? Valentines day cards! The message would have to be brief like "I love you" or "Be mine," lest the card have more holes than paper.

I liked "Be mine," so I punched the words out onto a simple piece of cardstock with a hole-puncher and stuck a heart on it in the spirit of Saint Valentine. I rather love how it turned out! It's an easy DIY - just look up the Braille alphabet and grab your hole-puncher and you can spell anything.

On the inside of the card, I wrote "My heart sees love that my eyes cannot." You could also write something to the effect of "Love is blind."

I'm going to try to make some cards with my mom's actual Brailler (you know, with the bumps?) and list them for sale in the shop. They probably won't be Valentine's Day themed since it may take me some time to get it all finished, but I'm excited to see what I come up with! Meanwhile, if you're interested in other paper ephemera, check out my mini books for sale now! Limited availability, so hurry!

This is Project 3 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

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project 2 of 25/SILHOUETTES FOR THE GALLERY WALL

This was a project that came to mind a loooong time ago - before I was even pregnant. I had wanted to do some silhouettes of myself and Conrad and hang them somewhere. I couldn't figure out the easiest way to do it, though, so it sat in that file cabinet in my brain where stuff like "buy an apartment complex" and "become a millionaire" sit. It's the "I'll get to it later" file. Skip to a couple years later, this last Christmas, in fact. Conrad got me a Wacom tablet which has been the saving grace of my online life (and much of my creative life, too). It's a pad with a stylos that you can draw/write with and it will be like you're drawing onto the computer directly. It's WAY easier than using a program like Photoshop or Illustrator (I considered adding "learn Photoshop once and for all" to my list of professional goals for the new year, but decided against it because I like not murdering everyone). It's about as simple and intuitive as MS Paint, but with more realistic and artistic end-results (looks less Paint-y, I guess). You have a lot more control with the stylos than you do with a mouse or [cringe] a track pad. If you're like me and cry every time you open Photoshop or Illustrator, get one of these tablets. The Small Tablet costs about five times less than the advanced Photoshop programs, so there's that, too.  

To make the silhouettes, I took profile pictures of all three of us and uploaded them onto my computer. Using the software Artrage with my Wacom tablet, I traced the images and saved them. From there, I just printed the traced images (so easy, and uses way less ink than printing the image and tracing it by hand), cut them out, then traced them with pencil onto black cardstock. I cut those out, and mounted them with tape to white paper, then framed it (I contemplated framing each face separately but decided on a single 11x17 frame like this one) and hung it on our gallery wall. 

This is Project 2 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

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This was not a sponsored post, but links throughout are affiliate links. One more word about Wacom tablets. I've not only used it to redesign my blog and do creative projects, I have also used it professionally. Conrad has started a few separate online services, and I've created some images for those websites (if I still haven't convinced you to get one, call it a business expense and write it off!).  I highly recommend a tablet over trying to use a track pad or even a mouse to create images on the computer. Click any of the Wacom tablet links to explore more.

project 1 of 25/NATURE BOY SCRIPT PAINTING

I have a small rotation of lullabies that I sing to Henry, and none of them are actually lullabies. Sea of Love is our song. I sang it to him all the time while I was pregnant, and as if the song was written just for us, when we were leaving the hospital, the song was playing in the lobby. That song never plays. It was the sign I needed to boost my confidence and know that this baby, right here in my arms in this wheelchair, is the baby I sang to, the baby I waited for. 

I was going to paint that song for him, but the lyrics are very short. I needed more words, so I chose our second favorite song, Nature Boy, originally sung by Nat King Cole (see? also not a lullaby).

I'm a canvas recycler and decided I was done with the yellow drip painting (pictured above) that hung on our walls. The canvas is huge - probably the second largest one that Michael's sells. I propped it up, popped a movie on, and started painting. 

I quickly realized that I would use a whole tube of paint in order to cover the previous layer, so I called on the can of extra paint from when we painted our master bedroom white. I was worried it would have too much sheen once it dried, but it looked great.

I used a pencil and wrote the words in a whimsical, kind of sloppy cursive. I knew if I tried to paint it without tracing the words, it wouldn't look right, and I knew it would look best if it was my own natural handwriting. To balance the shininess of the white paint, I wanted to use a more matte black, and luckily, I had extra chalkboard paint from when I made the chalkpaint cheese tray.

I had to go over the letters a couple times to get the depth I wanted. You can see that those bottom two rows (pictured above) are a little too light with just one coat. I hung the finished product over our dining room table, and it anchors it really well since the canvas is almost as big as the table. 

I'm linking this project to Remodelaholic's link party and Tip Junkie.

This is Project 1 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog.

Some links to products are affiliate links. This was not a sponsored project. That white pitcher is from Target and the kitchen table is from JC Penny Outlet (five years ago). 

25 PROJECTS IN MY 25TH YEAR

As I mentioned in yesterday's post on personal goals, I'm working on building my creativity and expanding and developing my talents. I was inspired by a blogger to do a "birthday challenge," and as I'm turning 25 this year, I will be doing 25 projects. I thought it was the perfect challenge for this goal. I'm hoping it will stretch me and I'll be able to try some new things - maybe even some Pinterest projects! They will be medium to large projects and crafts, and I already have a few in mind that I'd like to do. I'll be sharing them every other week, and I'm itching to reveal my first one this Friday!

I stated last week that in my new big plans for the blog, I would not be taking regular blog sponsors anymore. However, due to the time and cost that twenty five medium to large projects will require, I will be accepting sponsors for this challenge. If you have a small business that sells crafting supplies or handmade items that you would like to take part, please email me at tess[at]theframedlady.com for more info and rates. Your small banner ad would run at the bottom of the (single) relevant project post and your product will be credited. I will be choosing sponsors that best suit the blog's audience and the current project. If there isn't a business that seems like a good fit, there will not be an ad. My goal is not to flood the blog with sponsors for the sake of money.  

Look for project #1 this Friday!

PERSONAL GOALS FOR 2014

A lot of people choose not to set goals at the beginning of each year, as they feel it sets them up for failure. Being a huge goal-setter, I've always loved it. I reassess often and feel great personal accomplishment in it. For example, a goal I have at the end of each year is to set new goals. Once I do that, I can actually cross an item off my list and feel like I've completed something I intended to. I'm all about small goals.

When I was thinking about what kind of goals I wanted to set for the new year, it was important to me to improve. Not really to start or stop something, but to be better. That's why I chose the word "build" to represent the majority of my goals. I want to build on what is already there.

So here is my subset of personal goals. (I also posted a few of my professional goals here)

Conrad and I have created a strong, beautiful foundation for our family and have already begun to build on it. My goal this year is to continue working on our personal relationship. Time together has kind of gone out the window these last four months (though, to be fair, during pregnancy, we spent tons of time together), and I want to make dating him a priority. The plan is to go on a date night once a month without Henry (dates with Henry are frequent and fabulous, but we need our couple time). 

Build on my creativity. Expand my abilities and talents. I was inspired by another blogger to do "25 projects" for my 25th year (I'll turn 25 in August). I feel extra motivated on this one because we're trying to save money and I need to be a little more creative with how I decorate and craft. I've already started, and I'm really excited to share my first project next Friday! I've even created a label for it so you can follow along as I crank out my 25 projects.

I want to build my own confidence. Honestly, having a baby has hugely boosted my confidence, as being entirely responsible for something usually does. I feel like I've really gotten to know who I am and what I like, and I'm always working on liking that person. The plan for this one was a little harder to devise. I decided that being a better friend would be how I want to get there. After all, building up others is the best way to build up yourself. I'm on the lookout for opportunities to be a better friend. The other day I brought a friend who had morning sickness a couple bags of groceries. I'm working on being a better listener and shoulder. My relationships are improving and I feel better about myself.

Walk/run a mile everyday. This one is kind of easy. Between all the errands I run regularly, it's not difficult to reach a mile a day. I'm setting this goal more so that I have a deliberate reason to leave the house every day, and don't spend whole days inside. Fresh air and sunshine are necessary for this mama. There's a fun insta-movement called #mileaday and I thought it would be really fun to record what I did for each day's mile. So far I've done IKEA, and gone on a couple different walks on the beach and at different parks. You can view or join me on instagram @tesiahframe.

Nurse Henry until the end of the year! This goal is one I'm SO looking forward to doing, and barring an unforeseen obstacle, I know it will happen. Breastfeeding is one of my very favorite parts about mothering so far (I wrote a whole post about it here). Since Henry's very beginning as a little bundle of cells, I have been his entire survival, and I hope to exclusively breastfeed as long as he will allow it (my dream would be seven or eight months).

And finally, I want to build on the book I've been writing. I've been working on it seriously for about three months, and I'm about a quarter finished. I'd love to finish it by the end of the year, but realistically, that may be a lot to tackle, so I'm just going to set the broad goal of working on it once a week. This is a continuance of my goal last season to have a writing day each week.

Stay tuned for my (and our) professional goals for the year!