Monday, October 31, 2016

The other shop door

makes it clear as to whom the shop belongs.


Using pieces of the left over pickets from the plant deck Handy Randy built last summer, I created these signs for the side door of his shop.

I used the Paint and Peel method for this sign. I don’t have photos of the process but it is pretty simple.

Most often I use whatever paint I have on hand for making signs; it may be latex, craft paint, acrylic, chalk, indoor or outdoor. If I want to preserve it for a while, I will give it a couple coats of polyurethane. Since I have AADD, I don’t go for longevity in signs. They are easy to repaint or do-over when a whim hits.

First I sanded the wood; of course this wood doesn’t actually get smooth, but for this project that is okay.

I painted the base white and let it dry.

While it was drying I created the words in the Silhouette Portrait  program and cut them from the ugly contact paper I picked up at a yard sale.

I placed the letters on the base board and painted over the letters with the same white paint (this kind of seals the edges to prevent the paint from bleeding.)

After the white paint is totally dry, I painted the Handy Randy sign gray and the shop sign red, not bothering to cover it completely as I wanted a rustic look.

With the help of tweezers, I pulled the contact paper letters from the wood, revealing the words.

After the paint dried, I attached heavy duty magnets to the back and hung them on the shop door.

And that is all there was to it.

Justa Girl and her Blog has very detailed instructions for the paint and peel method on her blog which is very helpful if you are not experienced in using the Silhouette. Note, she used vinyl where I used the cheap contact paper. Of course you can Google “paint and peel using a Silhouette."



Monday, October 24, 2016

A little Bohemian in the garden? Why not?


One of the doors leading from HR’s shop into my garden looked pretty blah, all white and industrial. Before leaving on our fall travel adventure, I decided to have a little fun with it.

Amazon offers 6”X6” pieces of various colors of Oracal 651 craft vinyl for around $8 for a package of 12 pieces. I ordered two packages. This was a really easy project since it was pretty much random placement. I cut the flowers with my Silhouette Portrait, using the Silhouette Nature Flower designs.


Love it! The Oracal 651 is weatherproof so I am sure I will find other ways to use it in the garden (probably will add more flowers, maybe some leaves and who knows what else to this door.) 

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Missed me?

Yep, I have been wandering around above ground for the past couple of months.
In late August we loaded The Wanderer

with a few craft supplies, my easel  and my little Singer Featherweight,

along with gifts for our niece and her husband’s mountain home which is currently under construction.

Handy Randy made the sign in his shop
Freezer paper stencil cut with Silhouette Portrait ironed onto burlap and painted with craft paint

We traveled to Texas via Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. We plan to stay in Texas through the football season.

The Featherweight is set up at my mother-in-law’s home where I have stitched a couple of bags including a phone sleeve to carry to football games. 

Pocket for phone
Pocket for ticket


























It complies with the SECrequirements for bags that can be brought into the stadium; depending on the person taking the tickets, it might have to go through the line to be searched. So I stick it in Handy Randy’s pocket until we get in the stadium (wonder why pockets aren’t searched?) The pattern is one I frequently use from  Sher’s Creative Space. (I no longer see the pattern on the web site, but there are a ton of other free patterns listed.)

On the flap of this wristlet is a photo from our visit in Cortona, Italy.




How did I do that? I ironed a piece of heavy cotton fabric onto a piece of freezer paper and printed it on my home printer. I think the image would be brighter had I treated the fabric with digital ground before printing.

Currently I am working on a surprise for the folks with whom we traveled to Italy last May. I would tell you about it, but it is a secret. Perhaps I will share photos after our get together next month.  


Even though I am not in The Underground, I continue to feed my soul with crafting.