Name Sign

New Years Eve has been spent working on projects in the Elgin house.  Nick has been off work all week and has been working on organizing the garage.  I have been busy with other projects.  Earlier in the week I went shopping in Louisville with my mom, aunt, sisters and my niece.  One of the places we went to was Dee's Crafts, and if you're in the Louisville area, it's a great store to visit.  This is what I started with...

There are five smaller frames within the larger one, and it's designed so that the smaller frames hang below the larger board.  I did a little alteration.  But first came the paint.  Because it was raw wood, it took 2 coats of paint.  I decided I'd try some paint I bought this summer that I wasn't happy with.  The name of the paint is Pavement, but it looks more brown than black.  And once again, aftetr 2 coats I wasn't happy with the color.  So, on a trip to Lowes last night, I got a sample pot of Valspar paint, in Cracked Pepper.  If you've never used the sample pots, you should!  It's a really inexpensive way to get project paint.

You can kind of see the color difference in the picture.  The one on the left is the Cracked Pepper paint that actually looks black.  So that was the color of choice.  After the paint was finally right, I cut pieces of scrapbook paper to fit the back of the frames. 

I used scrapbooking paper, in five different patterns, and then used Mod Podge to attach it.  You could certainly do without affixing the paper to the backing of the frames, but I wanted it to look nice and tight. 

After I got all the backs done, I cut out the letters of out name from black paper with my Cricut.

I attempted to use the Mod Podge on the letters too, but I found out quickly that my regular old scrapbooking glue worked better for that.  Once all the letters were attached, I put the backs on the frames.

Next, the really tricky part began.  The back of the large frame needed covered too but I didn't have big enough paper to do it with one page.  I wasn't thrilled about having to seam the paper, but thanks to my paper cutter and Mod Podge it actually turned out ok.  I laid the paper one piece at a time and butted the other page up to the edge tight before I put the rest down.

The only thing left to do then was put it all together and hang it.  I used clear 3M hooks because I knew if I asked my husband to hang it permenantly he'd fuss.  But the hooks work for now.

Happy New Year!

I'm linking to...

Make It Yours Day @ My Backyard Eden

Inspiring Creativity @ Dragonfly Designs

Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple

A Crafty Soiree @ Yesterday on Tuesday

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative

All About You Monday @ Texas Monkey

Oh Christmas Tree

I have finally gotten my tree put up.  Thanks to the ice that's covering pretty much everything, Christmas break came a couple of days early.  Our puppy sometimes can't help herself when it comes to getting into things that she shouldn't, so I didn't trust her with my precious ornaments, or the presents that have been wrapped.  Some days, being unsupervised for several hours gets Abby into trouble.

Putting up the Christmas tree has been one of the best parts of the holiday season.  Our family has some great traditions, and one of my favorites is that every year since my sisters and I were born, our parents have bought us a Christmas ornament.  Even after two of us have gotten married, we still get ornaments.  Many of them, especially since we've gotten older, represent major milestones in our lives.  Mom found one of my favorites the first Christmas that Nick and I were engaged...

I search for weeks to find an ornament for Nick and my first married Christmas, and I couldn't find one that was "just right".  My friend, Amy, got us one for a wedding gift, and it was perfect.  Amy knows my tastes after so much time spent together in college.

And finally, Nick's favorite ornament is one that we bought at the Christmas Shop at Holiday World when we took my youngest sister and some of her friends.  It's hand-blown glass with webs of glass inside.

Here's a shot of the finished tree.  Please excuse the Directv in the background.  Nick doesn't enjoy putting the tree up quite as much as I do.

The last accomplishment for the day was getting our Christmas picture taken.  My parents very kindly stopped by to take the photo since I couldn't figure out the self-timer on my camera and couldn't find the manual.  We had to hang out for a few minutes to give Abby time to calm down from seeing her grandparents, but she finally got ahold of herself and sat for the photo.

Happy Holidays dear readers!