My "Happy Little Accident"

I had tons of fun last week.  On Tuesday I went to G'nosh!, it's this art studio where you can paint an easy, fun, and breathtaking painting... in one class.   They have an instructor that takes you step by step from blank canvas to a masterpiece.  The best part is that you can take your drink of choice and a snack.  Now, you don't have to be a great artist to take these classes, they were made so anyone can follow along and paint in their own style.
I was lucky to go with my friend Corinne who appreciates art as much as I do.  I wish I took my camera so I could have taken a picture of us holding our paintings.  Here is a picture of the painting I made.

 The class instructor did a little introduction of herself and what they do in the studio.  I liked how she described the environment and compared it to what Bob Ross said,

“We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”

 Love it! So I titled this post "Happy Little Accident"  because I had one of my own this week.  A long time ago I bought this wooden sign from Savers.  I didn't buy it because of what it said... something about golf being serious and not a game... don't quite remember exactly.  I bought it because I knew it would look great on my wall with a favorite quote.  So I took off the vinyl lettering and painted my wood black.

The edges were already sanded down so I decided to leave it that way and I am glad I did.

I used my Silhouette and some vinyl to cut out this really cool quote I found and placed it on top of the wood. I only used the vinyl as a stencil and painted the letters in white.  My happy mistake happened when I decided to use water to delude the white.  I was trying to go for a white-wash color against the black.

The water seeped under the vinyl and created a bleed effect on my letters.

When I peeled the vinyl off, this is what I saw.  My first thought was, "Oh no!  Now I have to paint over it again."  Then I remembered about happy mistakes.

So instead of doing it over I decided to just clean it up a bit.  Enough to where it still looks distressed but you can read what it says.  Then I wanted to add paint droplets.  I made sure they were around the main words, the ones I had made bold.  I added the droplets by dripping a brush soaked in watered down white paint.  Using a paper towel, I twisted a corner and like a pencil I lightly touched the droplets.  This sucked out most of the paint leaving behind a faint water droplet.  

  This was my finished project and I have to say that I LOVE my happy little accident!

Thanks for reading!

Making simple pillow cases

Hello everyone! When we got our sofas, they weren't the colors I wanted but who could refuse a really good price on two comfy sofas?
So I knew I would have to spend a little bit more in order to make them my own. Overall I did save myself a lot of money. I sat down and thought it through... well not really I stood in my living room and imagined how it would all come together. My husband must think I'm crazy for staring at the sofas and talking to myself. Hey, it really helps me concentrate.
My first step in approaching this big project was to start with the pillows. This will definitely be big for me because I have never reupholster a couch before so getting the little things out of the way seemed a good idea.
Thanks to Hobby Lobby (one of my favorite stores) I found these cute fabric patterns. Plus they were the right colors.

I grabbed the scissors and started cutting. Of course I measured the pillows first. I cut a square 16.5x16.5" and then two smaller pieces 10x16.5". I did this so I could make an envelope style pillow case. You can find plenty of tutorials online for this. I found mine through Brooke from All Things Thrifty. I wanted one side to be the chevron pattern and the other side the aqua, white, gray and black pattern.

Then I pinned the fabric together and started sewing.

I was able to make two pillow cases but need to do 2 or 3 more. I love how they turned out.

Thanks for reading!

Hot Air Balloon painting (sketch)

Okay Okay, I know I have not posted in awhile. I feel really bad about it because when I don't work on my blog, I don't get things done that I want done. Like my painting and other stuff I have started and never finish. The whole purpose of this blog is to help me create... and I love to create. When I don't create, I am not happy. So I jumped back in and told myself to not let this happen again.
It's funny how well my husband knows me because when I am not in a good mood he always asks if I started painting yet. That's him trying to tell me to go to my happy place. Last night when I started working on my pillow cases (which I am posting next)he noticed how happy I was because I was like a child. "Look at what I made! What do you think?! Do you like? huh, do you like it?" Now imagine me with a giddy face and pointing at my newest creation.

His answer is always, "Cool, it looks nice." I don't know how honest his reaction really is but I just think he is glad to see me happy.

You might ask..."So where is that painting you have talked about in past posts?" Well, it's sitting on top of my work table, staring back at me. You might have guessed that it's not finished and you are right. Shame on me. But I have made progress. My excuse is that I ran into a tiny problem. Tiny because it was an easy fix but it stopped me from going on further. So when I started sketching it on the canvas, I didn't like it. There was something that bothered me about it. So I stopped. A good friend of mine looked at it and gave me some suggestions. Thanks to her suggestions, I made the necessary changes and it looks great. All I need now is to add the paint.

I am looking forward to finishing this painting soon since it will be a gift to a best friend I have.

Thanks for reading!