Owl Picture

Have you noticed lately that everyone is obsessed with Owls?  I mean, everywhere you go, there are owls.  There are all sorts of Owl clothes, Owl housewares, Owl toilet paper, you name it!  If they come out with an Owl Tampon, I am done. 

Because of this popularity, I decided to capitalize on this trend and make an owl picture.  And, I confess, I saw one similar to this at a craft fair and thought, "I can make that myself!", so I'm shamelessly copying someone else's idea.  My apologies to this person, but since I don't personally know them, it doesn't count, right? 

Anyway, to start here's what you need:

Canvas any size (I used 11x16)
Coordinating scrap book papers, at least 4 different prints
Mod Podge
Black sharpie
Scissors
Tulle

I chose pink themed paper because I'm going to put it out around Valentine's Day. 

First paint your canvas in whatever background color you want.  I always opt for a "sky blue", but you can go with anything that suits your decor.

All you do is free hand draw the shapes of the owl above and then cut out of the scrapbook paper.  It was so simple.  Here is where I became thankful that the trend right now is Owls and not Praying Mantis' or something with too much detail.  As long as you don't feel the need to detail every feather, owls are easy.  And for the eyes, it helps to have a circle punch, but if you don't just use a quarter for the eyeball and a shot glass for the white part.  I'm sure everyone has that laying around their house, right? 

*Tip: make sure that the scrapbook paper you pick is not all too busy.  I found out the hard way that if I get all busy prints, the owl disappears, so get some with print and some that are more solid.  Then, just eyeball it to see what works for which cutout. 

Then, using your Mod Podge, glue the paper to the canvas as it's pictured here.  Once you are done, get out your trusty black sharpie and draw in the lines.  You can also leave the lines off, but your owl is a little vague...I wanted my owl sharp and defined.  I'm vague enough for both of us.  Once that is finished, you can spray a sealant on it if you want, but it's not required.  It'll still hold up fairly well without it, so if you are  too lazy or cheap to use a sealant, no worries. 

At the top of the canvas, take some scissors and poke two holes, evenly spaced, and thread tulle through.  I used a measuring tape and poked a hole at 4" and 7".  Then tie a bow on the front, while leaving enough in the back to hang it from a hook on the wall.  This way, you can either hang it or prop it up and the bow finishes it off in the front. 

That's it!  So easy and cute.  And, once you've done it once, you can experiment with adding more and more owls.  Here's the same concept with a little different spin:

Owl be seeing you!  Have a great day...

Easy Bow Holder

I have recently become obsessed with hair clips and bows.  With the birth of my 5th child (who is my first girl), I've become a little teensy bit OCD about accessories.  That being said, the hair accessories are about to take over my home.  When I first realized I was having a girl, I went all out decorating her room and made a bow holder to match. Here is a picture of Lucy's room with the original bow holder to the right of the picture. 

Now that it is full, it was time for Bow Holder #2.

Luckily, on my one trip to Goodwill (see earlier post) I had picked up a large wood frame.  Here it is:

It was an ugly wood frame, but it was only $4.  I spray painted it black like this:

I would recommend using Flat black spray paint. It seems that when you go to buy spray paint, there are 1,000 cans of laquer spray paint.  I'm not sure who is painting everything in their house so shiny, but when I meet them I'll be interested to see it.  Not sure I could be friends with those people.  haha!

Once the paint dried, and several days later, since I have to do all my crafts in 5 minute intervals between diaper changes.... I picked out some ribbon, got my staple gun and stapled the ribbon on.  I used a flower clip that I have to eyeball the spacing and then measured the rest to make the ribbons 3 inches apart.

These pictures are totally for your benefit, because I am definitely NOT a perfectionist!  In fact, toward the end of the ribbon row, I just eyeballed them so the spacing is not perfect.  The good thing about it, is that once you add the bows and flowers, no one can tell.

Once I had all the ribbon stapled on, I had to add a picture hanger to the back of my frame so that I could hang it on the wall.

Here is the finished project!

What do you think?  I have it propped on the crib for this picture, but plan to hang it on the wall soon.  As soon as I get done with the next diaper change....