Photoshop Practice

I have bought Photoshop Elements a couple months ago with the hope of learning to do a little photo editing and some basic graphic design. It has been a slow process that has involved A LOT of YouTube videos and hours of trial and error. Unfortunately, I am not too much better at the photo editing than when I started but the design aspect is coming along a little bit.

I found this blog ( www.craftinge.blogspot.com) and her video tutorials have been super helpful! I followed the step by step instructions in THIS post an was able to make this! I am so excited to try out my own designs next!

Green and Yellow Polka Dot Dress

I was a little nervous about my color choice about half way through but once it was done I was in love :) Miss A is finally starting to show interest in pretty dresses so it's even more fun to make them for her!

 

 

 

 

Random old projects

Here are some random old projects in no particular order.

 

 

Little Miss A had hip dysplasia as a newborn so she got to wear this lovely contraption for a couple months (It's called a pavlik harness). No fun, I tell you, no fun! I couldn't leave it alone though so I jazzed it up by sewing ribbon to the straps. Much cuter that way!

 

 

 

 

This was my first project with shirring. The dress= cute. The bow= not so much. She was not a fan.

Mr. potato head Halloween costume. I must admit that this cute project was mostly designed and made by E. It has Velcro pieces so he could change the face every 5 minutes.

 

 

 

Glass etching. I learned this technique in 7th grade art but had long forgotten its existence until it started showing up all over the internet. I found some silhouettes I liked online and printed them. Then I used an Xacto knife to cut then out of contact paper. From there I placed the contact paper over my glass and painted on the etching cream.

Car seat cover. My mom made one of these but I was ready for a change. Luckily I was able to use hers as a pattern only making minor adjustments to make my own version. I'm thinking I need to make another one for #5 who will be here in a few months!

This was something I made for my cute nephew who is a SF giants fan! I never knew making T-shirts could be so easy until I found this tutorial.

 

 

 

I actually made 3 of these purple Easter dresses. Two for the daughters of a friend.

 

 

 

 

This is another of my favorite dresses!

I got tired of L's car seat so I took it apart and changed out the fabric. This was one of my most time consuming projects to date but I love the way it turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

The minifigure display. This project looked great... in my head! Unfortunately, I didn't plan it out that well and it fell apart quickly and didn't even work that well before it fell apart. No worries though, I am planning round 2 in my head now!

 

 

 

 I absolutely love this dress. too bad it went through the washer with a pen on its first wash! One of these days I will learn to check pockets before I load the washer. In the meantime, I am afraid this won't be my last tragic laundry mishap.

Favorite painting projects

Moving so much has had a few benefits. One, we haven't had time to accumulate a ton of junk. Two, everything gets a thorough cleaning fairly frequently. And three, I have gotten to paint a lot of fun rooms! After I finished my herringbone wall (here) I stood back and declared it my favorite wall I had ever painted but then I got to thinking about all the other rooms I have painted and now I am not sure if I can choose a favorite!

So here's a look back at my favorite painting projects!

First was L's farm room. This was such a fun project, though I can't take all the credit. My sister-in-law did the hard part of drawing the design from a Little People coloring book. I then bought a several quarts of 'mis-tint' or 'oops' paint from the Home Depot and Lowes. They were of course all awkward and ugly colors so I mixed them until I got the colors I wanted and over the course of 3 weeks painted it in between taking care of a newborn.

 

 

 

The other room I did in that house was E's square pattern room. My mom helped me with that one and I love the way it turned out. I am actually considering doing a variation of it again when I get to their ( #1 and #2 share a room now) room in this house!

I can't seem to find a picture right now :(

 

 

 

My other favorite room was A and B's room. A boy/girl nursery can be difficult but once I decided on colors (THAT took a while) it came together nicely. It looks like the only pictures I can find of this one are before it was finished (with no carpet!) and a snapshot with all of their new Christmas toys, but you get the idea.



Thomas Cake

This thing took me ALL DAY but it was a fun project for L's 3rd birthday! The pan is actually one my mom bought for my brother's birthday cake 26 years ago! I would say it's gotten it's use!

Happy Birthday Bunting

I love to decorate for birthdays! We have decorations for holidays that come around once a year, so why not for ones that some around 6 times a year!? A couple years ago my mom made me some awesome placemats and a table runner for birthdays which we love! I have been using the same paper Happy Birthday sign for 5 years but a couple months ago we had a birthday and I couldn't find it! Well it was the morning of the birthday and I just couldn't let a birthday slip by without a bright, cheery sign. I happen to have a ton of fabric scraps so I was able to make this out of almost nothing! I cut the triangles and stiffened them up with fusible interfacing. I then cut out the letters and attached them to the triangles using a fusible adhesive. Then I sewed them all to some jumbo ric-rac I had around. I talk like it was so simple, which it was, but designing it and making it took half a day. haha!

Sewing Room- Herringbone wall

This is the first room I have painted in this house and I had a few things I knew I wanted about it. First, I knew I wanted that exact shade of blue and white and I wanted a design on one wall. I was first planning on doing a stencil design but I realized after a little research that they didn't give the rich even coverage and clean lines I was looking for. Then I found the herringbone pattern on www.lifewithfingerprints.com and knew that was exactly just what I wanted!

I started by painting the entire room blue and the ceiling white

Next, I taped out my design for every other section. 10" wide and 6" vertically. I then sealed my paint edges using this technique and painted every other vertical section white. I removed my tape immediately and had prefect, crisp lines! 

This $20 laser level made the project a whole lot easier!

After the paint dried completely, I followed the same process with the remaining columns. 



I used a TON of tape!



The final product. The whole process took me about 4 days but I think it was totally worth it! I am in love! :)