Reindeer Wall Art~

It's no secret that I'm a bit of a silhouette fanatic.  I think I may have talked about it a bit here and there on the old blog. ;-)  So given that it's the jolliest season of the year, I thought it would be fun to create a reindeer silhouette.  And due to the popularity of deer heads in decor right now, the fact that a reindeer and a deer look virtually identical, means that this little bit of holiday goodness can easily translate to year-round decor.

My holiday palette this year is basically silver, white, green and black.  So the colors I chose for my reindeer might not look holiday-ish to you...but that's all the better if you want to use it year round...and keep in mind that it can be translated to any colors you wish.

To make my reindeer art you will need:

• an unpainted, stretched canvas (available at virtually any craft store)
• paint and paintbrush
• adhesive vinyl in a the color of your choice. 
• scissors

I basically followed the same method as I did to create the silhouettes of my kiddos with a couple of minor tweaks.

First of all, I didn't have any photographs of a reindeer head to go from, so I found a picture that I liked online and freehanded the silhouette onto a piece of paper. 

I realize that the idea of freehanding a silhouette might be nervewracking to a lot of people...so for those of you who feel this way, try following the instructions from my kiddo silhouette post.

After I got the silhouette looking the way I wanted it to look, I cut it out.  Then simply traced it on the backing of my adhesive vinyl and cut it out again.

I had previously painted my canvas with a graphic design...and you could do this too...or simply paint it a solid color. (which, in retrospect, would probably work better with the silhouette - live and learn, right?)

Then just stick that cute reindeer right on there.  That's it.

Of course, you could also do what I did with my kiddos silhoeuttes and purchase an empty frame...then stick the silhouette onto the glass. 

That way you can switch out the backing paper to match  your whims.  A Christmas print during the holidays...a different pattern in the spring.  Etc.  As a matter of fact, I might do this myself. :-)

Happy Crafting~

How I Created My Living Room Accent Wall~

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for your very enthusiastic and sweet comments about my living room.  I couldn't be more thrilled that you like it so much!

Now about that accent wall.  That back wall is our entrance wall.  And it is large.  And it was BORING.  So I wanted to do something special that would set it apart from the rest of the room, and give it visual appeal.
 
I liked the idea of wallpaper, but of course, that wasn't in the budget.

So I decided to do something else.  Something different.  And no, I  DIDN'T stencil the wall.  I DREW on it.  Yep, DREW on it.  With a magic marker.  My husband may have had a slight heart attack when I told him my plan.  And I'm not sure he entirely trusted me even after I started the process...but thankfully, he LOVES the finished product. (whew!)

Here's how I did it...

The pattern I used was based on a fabric that I had seen while the Princess and I were out shopping for fabrics for her bedroom.  I just sketched the pattern on a receipt, and filed it away for this very purpose.

1. The first thing I did was create a template.  I wanted the design to be large scale, so I took a piece of 8 1/2 by 11 inch cardstock, and sketched it out using a bowl to make the curved sections.  Once I had the design looking the way I wanted, I cut it out.

2. Then began the fun (or the lunacy depending on how you look at it.)

I traced that template on the wall with a pencil 231 times.  Yes really... I counted.  The pattern fit precisely 21 times across the width of the wall and 11 times down the length.  And that was really due more to good luck than to good planning (but we'll pretend it was good planning, shall we?)

3. I have had people ask me how I kept the pattern level.  Well, the trick there was to trace the top row first.  I kept it level with the ceiling and then I left about 1/2 inch between the first row and the second and so on.  That's it.  My trick.  But since, I realized not all walls are completely level, I was able to compensate a bit if I needed to by simply moving the pattern up a tiny bit or down a tiny bit as I went.

4. Once I had the entire wall done in pencil, I went back over the whole thing - freehand- using paint pens. 

I had originally hoped to find plain gray paint pens, and perhaps they exist, but I couldn't find any.  So I finally settled on using metallic silver.  And I'm so glad that I did!  The whole wall came alive this way.  Depending on the time of day, and the angle at which the wall is viewed, the pattern goes from silver, to white, to charcoal gray. It's mesmerizing.

The whole project took me about 8 hours from start to finish.  But I did it over a couple of days, and I quite enjoyed it actually.  (Once I got that top row done, that is.  I'm not very tall, and even standing on that bar stool, it was a stretch to get it done.) But it wall worth it, because I couldn't be happier with the end result!!

So what do you think? 

Are you brave enough to draw on your walls??

Have a great day~

My Home Office - The Built-in Desk~

Ever since we moved into the house 2 1/2 years ago, I have wanted to turn this strange closet in our library into a useful built-in desk. Well, as you may remember, our house is on the market, and since not everyone wants a built-in desk, we had to modify our original plan just a bit.


As I showed you in the slideshow yesterday, after removing the doors to the closet, we finished the interior and the Hubby built a shelf. We had planned on building the desk portion as well, but opted instead to use a fabulous $10 yard sale table that we found a couple of years back which just happens to fit perfectly in the closet. (Yes, that was just good fortune!)

I skirted the bottom to hide all my computer paraphenalia, because as you can see in the pictures, my computer is ancient-of-days and is about to wheeze it's last wheeze. But it still does the job, so I can't complain (or replace it just yet.)

To make the space my own, I added my pretty pinboards, a few of our vintage cameras (turns out HUGE computer monitors make good display shelves), some cute white baskets with little chalkboard tags, and bits of this and that to make me smile. If we were planning on staying in the house, I would add a permanent light fixture of some sort, but for now, the light clip does the trick - even if the cord is a little unsightly.

Some of you may know that I work from home as a part-time editorial assistant , so between that and blogging, I spend a lot of hours sitting in front of the computer. Now it makes me smile everytime I sit down. And the moral of this story is...persistence definitely pays off!

Just love my vintage printing block "H" and my cute damask stamp (found in the Dollar Spot at Tar-jay!)

I love the texture of the folded book, the twine and the starfish on linen. mmmmmmm.

I love this vignette...a photo of me and the l'il sis, a rubberband ball that the kiddos helped me make out of rubberbands my mother sent home with us this summer, and the hubby's birthday pixie.

A few of our vintage cameras.

And the winner of the Single Stone Studios $40 gift certificate is Mary Ellen (Megardengal) from Mary's Meanderings. Congratulations! Drop me an email and we'll get you set up!

Have a great day~