Project Wednesday: Subway Art on a Shutter

Every once in a while I venture out of my hermit-like existence.  I like home.  I'm the epitome of the term Homebody.  When I do make it out, it's usually to go shopping.  I try to go with a purpose when I do shop.  Sometimes, like last week, I just feel like wandering the aisles.  Lucky for me, I did this at the local thrift instead of Walmart or Target.  Also, lucky for me, they happened to have some interesting things.  Like this sort-of-old shutter.  It was marked $4.  It really must have been my lucky day because all yellow tags were half of.  Score!  A $2 shutter!

My dear husband, if he were reading this, would roll his eyes and say... "Oh great, how I'm going to have an old shutter hanging around the garage."  Well... to him I say... Ha!  I actually did something with it!  "It's a miracle", he says... I know him as well as he knows me.

I decided that I would take one of the designs I made for the November VDBC Grab Bag and make a Subway Art piece for Thanksgiving decor.  SO, without further ado...

Today's project is... Subway Art on a Shutter

Here's my fabulous find from the thrift.  The paint job on the shutter was more bad-paint-job than vintage-paint-job.  So, I skipped the vintage look and went for sleek shiny painted look.  Either way works for me!  Just call me eclectic... really... do... I prefer it to scatterbrained or cluttered.

I first painted the side I plan to apply my vinyl to.  About 30 seconds into the paint job, the nozzle miraculously stuck open.  This might be a bad thing, but I used it to my advantage and painted the whole thing in one gulp {so to speak}.  It sure saved me from getting "spray paint finger" for which I am grateful.  Luckily, I was able to turn it off when I was done.

In all, it took two cans of paint to cover both sides of the shutter.  I think it turned out quite nice! Since I wasn't planning to actually use this as a shutter, I didn't bother taking any of the hardware off.  I just painted the whole thing.  Remember, deep down, I'm lazy.

After allowing the paint to completely dry, I applied some nifty vinyl decals to it.  I cut them from my Subway Art- Thanksgiving design.  This is only available as part of the November VDBC Grab Bag in case you were wondering.

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I took each part of the design, sized it up, and moved it around so it would fit my shutter slats.  I absolutely love how it turned out.  Now the only question is... where to display it?  It's in my entry way at the moment. I like it!

Time to get crafty, people!

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Trendwatch Tuesday: Subway Art

What do you think of when I say that words "Subway Art?"  Okay, you can't actually hear me saying them, just imagine with me here.  What do you think of?  Graffiti?  Spray paint?  How about typography?

Typography, you say, Jan?  Yes!  Typography!  A new hot trend is the combination of different font faces with words or phrases on a theme.  The inspiration is vintage subway signs.  Today's designers are taking the original concept and turning them into delightful works of typographic art.

Here is an authentic vintage New York subway sign from the mid-1900's.  This is one of many on the SubwaySigns.com website.  Pretty cool, huh?  Want one?  It'll cost you a cool $799.00.

$799.00? Whoa!  If you are like me and don't have that kind of dough to drop on a vintage sign. Why not make your own?  A lot of folks are!

Most designers creating subway art typographic posters have moved away from just one plain font and are using a nice mix of serif, sans serif, and scrip typefaces.  Many even throw in a little graphic here and there, usually just a silhouette.  I especially like those that mix negative space fonts like stencils on a colored background.

In fact, I've got a little roundup of several free printables for Christmas and Thanksgiving!  Be sure to read to the bottom for a link to a tutorial to make your own in Photoshop.  There's also a link to where you can purchase a Thanksgiving themed one to cut on your digital die-cut machine. It's a good deal. Don't worry, I won't steer you wrong.

First from the wonderful eighteen25 a gorgeous Christmas printable Subway Art Poster plus a banner!  Bonus!

Here's one from Mine for the Making:

There's a whole set of gorgeous Thanksgiving printables over at Blooming Homestead.  This one's my favorite:

Lots of colors to choose from on these from Today's Fabulous Finds:  Christmas...

and Thanksgiving versions!

If you want to make your own from scratch, here's a good tutorial from The Daily Digi to make one in Photoshop.

Lastly, if you want a file you can cut on your cutter, here's how to get it!  I've got a great Thanksgiving themed one in the November VDBC Grab Bag.  It's only $7 for $45 worth of designs!

The Subway Art - Thanksgiving design also includes two printable versions (light and dark backgrounds) for us lazy folks who just want to print and frame!  No, I didn't call you lazy, I called ME lazy!  I'd totally print it. But, you who are not lazy might want to cut the design out of vinyl.  I know you will, so go on and do it!

Time to get crafty, people!

Fantabulous Friday Freebie: Last Minute Halloween Decorating + Product Special

Happy Friday and Happy almost Halloween!  And for me and Victor it's Happy Anniversary! We've been married for eleven years now.  Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Or does it?  If you are like me, when you look back on 10+ years it is astounding how much has happened.  Frankly, I'm astounded by how much happened in the first year.  I remember everyone in the office thought we were cursed.  Two weeks after our wedding, Alex, my youngest step-son {11 at the time} was in a terrible car accident where the driver was killed.  He was sitting next to her in the front seat and was lucky enough only to suffer two broken legs.  It was a very, very sobering experience for the whole family.  Well, I doubt it was sobering for Alex, more like traumatic.  I'm so grateful he wasn't hurt worse.

You'd think that would be enough, but just a month or two later, Victor was in a car accident and ended up upside-down in a small river near our house.  Amazingly, he wasn't hurt at all.  Take that, curse!

We thought we were home free for a while, then just over a year later on New Years Day, 2002, at about 8:00 in the morning, our apartment complex had a terrible fire.  Thankfully, no one was hurt.  The apartment next to us was completely destroyed by the fire and we found ourselves homeless.  We truly believe we were spared by Heavenly Father.  In addition to the destroyed apartment next door, the fire destroyed the attic above our apartment.  All we suffered was some minor smoke damage and some melted plastic in our storage closet on the landing.   The five of us lived in my brother's attic for the next three months while we shopped for a house.

Such experiences surely strengthened our marriage and our family.  So take that, too, curse! Some pretty awesome things have happened over the past 11 years, as well.  Two beautiful little girls were born into our family.  Samantha and Hailey have certainly changed our lives in amazing ways.  Two of our boys have gotten married and started families of their own.  Those two little granddaughters of ours are the greatest gift our boys could ever have given us.  In the meantime, we moved to Arizona.  AND I got to pursue my dream of having my own creative business.  Who could really ask for more?  Of course, I wouldn't turn down being magically skinny or large buckets of money, but hey, who would?  I'm happy with what I have though.  Life is good.

What's that annoying cliche that you see done up in vinyl a little too often?  Oh right... "All because two people fell in love."  It's super sweet, but I suppose it's true.  Maybe I'll cut it in vinyl and put it up in the house somewhere.  Hmmm.... probably not, but it was a nice thought there for a minute.

Blah, blah, blah,  blah.... enough with the chatter, Jan... you promised us a freebie, remember? Oh right!  Sorry, I got all caught up in the reminiscing.  I'll get to the freebie in a minute, I promise.  Gotta tell you about my last minute Halloween decorating first!

The other day, Victor said to me, "Are you going to carry the bat theme inside the house?"  And I said to myself, "Hmmm... why not?"  And then I made these awesome Chandelier files.  And by awesome I mean, amazing!  I'm totally in love with these things!  I've just got to show you since they are up in the store now:

Did you know that I have a special offer going on these right now?  If you buy the Swirly Style Chandelier Collection this weekend you'll get the Halloween Chandeliers for free! That's an awesome deal!  ** Remember you have to put the Halloween one in your cart when you buy the collection to get the deal.  **

I cut the Halloween Chandelier in some black wall vinyl and put it over my Halloween display. Because I only have 12" wide vinyl, I used the 1/2 chandelier and cut it twice.  The second time I mirrored it before I cut it out.  Then I just lined them up on the wall.  You can't even tell it's two pieces.  One of my piano students asked me, "Did you paint that on your wall?"  Hahahaha!

Because I wanted to continue the bat theme, I also threw some more bats on the wall to go along with the chandelier.  This time I used the bats out of my Halloween Twisted Tree file.  I think these are my favorite bats of all my designs!  Who knew that one tiny element in that whole design would be so integral to my overall decor?

I couldn't decide what to do on the shelf.  The pumpkin eventually made it's way outside by the front door.

One of the bats even made it's way onto the clock.  Here's a good creepy story for you.  The night after I put the bat on the clock, the clock stopped working..... ooooooooOOOOOooooooooohhhhh....scary!  Nah, was just a dead battery.

Okay, here's your freebie.  I know you are thinking, FINALLY!  I decided that since I liked that bat so much, I'd share the design it came from with you.  So without any further yakking:

Today I'm sharing my die-cut design:  Halloween Twisted Tree

Boring but Important Legal Stuff: My terms of use are included in each zipped download. If you have any questions about how you may use this file, please read it. By clicking to download the file, you are agreeing to abide by the terms. If you'd like to share it, please don't. Rather, send your friends a link to this blog post. Once it's no longer available as a freebie, you might be tempted to share it with someone. Please don't! 'Nuf said!

Click to download your preferred file type.  This download will be available for the next 24 hours so get it while it's hot!

Sorry!  This download has expired!  Look for this design in the Sam & Hailey Designs Store!

As always, if you make something with this design, feel free to post it on your blog or in the VDBC gallery and post a link down in the comments section!

Time to get crafty, people!

Double Project Wednesday: No-Carve Pumpkin + Halloween Wreath

Are you excited for Halloween yet?  My kids are, as usual.  Hailey has decided that she wants to be a Black Cat.  I think I can handle that!  A friend of ours has a tail and ears she can borrow.  I just need to pick up a black body suit and tights and she will be good to go!  Samantha, on the other hand, has it in her mind to be Pocahontas.  Not necessarily the Disney Pocahontas, but a Native American girl.  She's been reading the American Girl books and one is about a Native American girl.  That's where the idea for the costume came from. That leaves it to me to pull it off! Last year I made princess dresses for the girls.  Hailey was Cinderella and Samantha was Tiana {from Princess and the Frog}.  They were so cute!  Once again, I neglected to blog last Halloween {did I just take the whole year off, or something?}, so I guess I should share some pictures from last year.  The photos aren't very good. I don't know why I continue to insist I can take good pictures with my phone.  I guess you just go with what's handy.

So, although I am completely capable of sewing a Native American Girl dress for Samantha, I'm totally not wanting to do it.  Last year I wasn't really working and so I had a ton more time to do things like that.  I need to just do it.  I shouldn't allow work to keep me from doing the things I love with my kids.  In later years, Sam might not remember what she was for Halloween this year, but she will remember that I took the time to do this service for her.  I'll have to keep it simple, though.  Last year I think I went a little over the top.  Gotta keep it all in perspective.

Okay, now that I've made you look at some pictures of my kids, it's time for some quick and easy Halloween decorating ideas!

Project #1 is: No-Carve Pumpkin

First up, the easiest way to decorate a pumpkin.  You will need a cutting machine for this project.  If you don't have one... well.. why not?  Maybe just become best friends with someone who has one.

I don't particularly enjoy carving pumpkins.  My main reason is because of the mess.  Now, if you know me, you'll know that my house is one big pile of mess.  I always point out my lack of housekeeping skills when people say how creative I am.  Perfect, I certainly am NOT.  The truth is, I don't like the mess of the pumpkin guts because I don't want to have to clean it up!  We got a large pumpkin at the farm last Friday and I've agreed to allow carving as long as it's done outside and I don't have to clean up after it.  I'm trying, just barely.

I prefer pumpkins in their natural state.  Then I can bake them into pies.  Mmmmm... delicious! My solution is to decorate them with vinyl!  I think it took me longer to get out the vinyl and cut it off the roll than it did to cut it and apply it.  I'm not even writing a tutorial on this.  Just do it!

I used the tree, raven and bat from one of my new designs, Page Scene Haunted House.  You can use whatever design and you'll be done in no time!  It certainly adds an extra element to my creepy shelf.  This is on top of my piano music bookshelf.  My students are loving it!  The effect is especially cool on a white pumpkin.  I wonder if these are good for pie?  I guess we will find out!

Project #2 is: Halloween Wreath

Here's another relatively quick and easy project idea.  No vinyl, this time {shocking, I know!} but I did use my cutter to make the banner.  I'm sure you could use a pre-made banner or even cut your own by hand if you don't have a die cut machine.  I went with a little E.A. Poe theme.  By the way, you can read all about the popularity of Ravens on this weeks Trendwatch Tuesday and also watch a great rendition of Poe's The Raven while you are at it.

I looked all over the craft store for a black wreath but couldn't find one.  I purchased a plain grapevine wreath about 20" in diameter for a few dollars.  I figured since I was painting those little pumpkins to look like mercury glass, I could just spray paint the wreath while I was at it.  It definitely took a lot of paint to get in all the nooks and crannies of the wreath.  I think it turned out great.  I love the glossy look of the paint.  I used a few of my painted pumpkins in the wreath, too.

I also decided to use some autumn flowers I got on sale to add to the wreath.  For extra creepyness, I painted them and a few leaves black, too.  I didn't want to add a lot, but I love how these few little things add to the wreath overall.

My only word of warning on this project is... while it may seem like an easy task to spray paint a few flowers and leaves, you may be surprised when you blast that first leaf with the paint and it flies away.  You will then be tempted to just pick up the leaf and hold it while you spray it.  Trust me when I say, this is really not a good idea.  Unless, of course, you want to be best friends with a cotton ball and bottle of nail polish remover followed by a scrub brush for the next hour.  Better to use a stick or something to hold the leaves and flowers in place while you spray them.  I'm sure I'll remember to do that next time.... right.

Do you need a tutorial for this one?  I used hot glue to assemble everything.  The banner is made from my Flag Banners 3 design with some letters added.  The patterned paper is from Teresa Collins and the solid is Colormates Treasures.  I tied it all together with some homemade bakers twine.  Easy peasy!  No tutorial necessary  just get out some of your supplies and get inspired.

Do you feel creative yet?

Time to get crafty, people!

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Project Wednesday: Vinyl Halloween Decor

A Quick Note:  It's Anniversary Celebration Week at VDBC!  There are tons of challenges and prizes to be won.  Click here to find the spot where all the challenges will be posted (there are already a few posted by yours truly).  Also, be sure to sign up for the VDBC Newsletter so you'll get the Anniversary Guide that's coming out soon!

Well hello there, friends!  Nice to see you again.  It's the third day of Fall Break and I still manage to have my sanity mostly intact.  Funny how quickly I've gotten used to having the house to myself all day.  To be honest, though, I've really enjoyed having the girls around.  They've mostly gotten along and I enjoy sitting and listening to them play when they think I'm not paying attention.  The think I'm not paying attention most of the time until they hear me yell at them from the other room.  Hee Hee!  It's always fun to hear the scramble as they realize they've been caught up to something they ought not to have been up to.  Mostly it's involved jumping on the bed.  I think I can handle that.

The biggest issue I'm having with the kids is with Sam these days.  That girl cannot stop herself from raiding my craft studio!  I'm pondering moving into the guest room and installing a padlock.  The girls have have their scissor privileges revoked recently.  That was after I discovered Hailey's bangs cut to about 1/4" at the peak of her forehead.  And then everyone denied cutting her hair.  Well, I knew it wasn't me.  So, no more scissors.  However, no matter where I hide them, Sam manages to find them.  She's not very good at being sneaky.  For example, she brought me a pre-birthday present she'd made from cut up paper.  Hmmm... and where did you get the scissors? I ask.  Sigh.  And I've repeatedly told her that I'd be happy to let her borrow them as long as she asks first and returns them when she's done.  Apparently, she thinks I'll say no even if she asks.  The problem is, she never gives me the chance to say yes!  So, yesterday, I did my best to be trusting and let her borrow scissors several times.  This time all she sneaked out of my office was a nice full sheet of scrapbook paper.  I suppose that wasn't on the banned list specifically.  Time to lay out the rules one more time.

Okay, time for the easiest project EVER!!!!

Today's project is:  Vinyl Halloween Decor

The other day I was trying to think up some quick and easy Halloween Decor ideas.  I said to myself. "I've got my cutting machine and yards and yards of vinyl, so why not use it?" So, that's just what I did!

I decided I wanted to make it look like a whole bevy of bats {I know the correct term is "swarm" but I like bevy so much better} was flying past my house and casting shadows on it.  I cut a bazillion bats out of some glossy repositionable wall vinyl.  Okay, not a bazillion, somewhere around a hundred.  Anyway, it took about 8 feet of vinyl to do it and was quite possibly one of the easiest vinyl applications I've ever done.  I simply weeded the parts out I didn't want and then stuck them on the house like stickers.  The girls even helped me put them up with no issues at all.  I didn't bother with transfer tape since they weren't particularly intricate.  We only had one or two issues with the vinyl sticking to itself like a sheet of plastic wrap.  I was using the repositionable kind so it wasn't too hard to straighten them out.  The girls loved getting into the act, too.  We tried our best to make sure the bats were all flying in the same direction.  The girls wanted to put them up however they felt like so I had to make occasional corrections, but all in all, it was a fun hour long project to do with them.

I was concerned that they wouldn't stick to my stucco finished house, but they stuck just fine.  And when it got hot in the afternoon, they melted a little like shrink plastic to conform to the contours of the house. Not bad at all, if I do say so myself!

Sam decided to count all the bats and came up with about 93.

If you have a cutter, you should totally try this.  I used my Itty Bitty Halloween Scene design for the bats.  I cut them in sizes ranging from a few inches wide up to about 15" wide.  I would recommend something that doesn't have a lot of detail.  I don't think you need it.  If you don't have a cutter, find someone who does, or just stop on by!  Okay, maybe call first.

We've even had neighbors come out for a walk just to see our bats!  Awesome!

You too, can make this!!!!

Time to get crafty, people!

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Eighteen25