Art by Rowan

Rowan's Dad is an artist.  A GREAT artist.  For Father's Day, I thought it would be cool for little dude to create a masterpiece to give as a gift.

Add caption

 I was hoping to capture at least one photo of Rowan in action, but this 10 month old artist needed a lot of help and lost interest quickly.   His footprints proved to be a challenge too; however they turned out much better than I had anticipated.  Bonus: I didn't get ink everywhere!

Instead of framing the picture, I nabbed a 'Collage It' travel mug from Starbucks.

Functional art!

Cuttlebug!

My new toy arrived this morning!! 

It's a belated Christmas gift (from myself) that I found at The Scrapbook Cottage.  The cuttlebug is a little embosser and die cut machine and for whatever reason, it's in very high demand.  It was on back order so many times, I thought it would never arrive!

My Aunt Debbie made some gorgeous Christmas cards this year (and wouldn't you know it, I can't find the card to show you!) with her cuttlebug, and after a long conversation, I realized it was the one little thing missing in my paper-crafts paraphernalia. 

I was playing around with it for a little while...albeit, I only have two embossing folders.  I received the owl for free - how did they know about my obsession with owls?! :)  Fortunately for me (but not my wallet) I live within walking distance from a Michael's; I surveyed the die cut/embosser folder stock before I purchased the machine.  Let's just say: J-a-c-k-p-o-t. 

I played around with ink, but I think I need to get the proper applicator and not use textured paper....that just doesn't look good. 
There's a project that I will need it for, but you'll have to wait a little while before I can put up the post.

Have a great Family Day weekend!

Frames, Flowers and Baby Leggings

I have exactly two hours and 45 mins before I (and baby) need to be packed and ready to go away for the weekend and what am I doing?  Trying to slap a blog post together last minute.  AND to make matters worse, there are three separate things I wanted to share to make up for my lack of posts this week.

Numero uno:  My new frames.

I LOVE shopping at Value Village.  I've never been able to find clothing that I like (except for a brown leather belt that I adore) but I regularly find some great deals in the housewares department.  I have an addiction to buying glass jars (another post for the future) and picture frames!  I found some frames that had 'good bones' but need some help otherwise.  They ranged in price from $3 for a pack of 4 up to $8 for one of the larger ones.  S-C-O-R-E.

Nothing a little black spray paint with a satin finish can't fix.  I really like when things don't match perfectly.  I dunno...I think it's more interesting.  But that's just me.

Isn't he just the handsomest?  Thanks again to Kennedy for taking these adorable photos! 

Photo collages are one of my favourite things.  The first time I did it, I had major headaches trying to make sure the pictures lined up and were evenly spaced, yadda, yadda, yadda.  A few months ago, my brother-in-law Mark let me in on a secret...

 

 

...trace each frame onto newspaper, cut out and put them on the wall!  So genius!  Isn't the second picture scary?  I'm in the middle of getting my craft/home office room together and it lives in a constant state of disgusting disarray. 

Anyway, back to putting up the photos.  To make life easier on myself, I put a dot where the hanger is on the back of the frame so that I would know exactly where to place the nail.

Want another gross craft room picture?

AHHHHH!!!  :)

Seeing that Monday is Valentine's Day, my second topic is FLOWERS!

Aren't they beautiful?  They're nine days old!

I learned a secret for keeping flowers fresh from the very nice gentleman who sells flowers at the market.  Bleach.  Really.  1/2 teaspoon of bleach in 1 litre of water (with a tsp each of sugar and lemon juice) really extends the life of cut flowers.  I had always just used the little packet of who-knows-what that comes with them.  This is so much better!  Maybe you've got your own secret? 

Last topic:

We're spending the weekend in Ottawa for Winterlude.  I wanted to make sure my little tyke would stay cozy while gliding down the canal, so I made him two pairs of baby tights (to wear like long underwear) from the tutorial over at Made By Rae.  
Hehe!!

Alright, I need to pack!  Have a great weekend everyone!