{Tutorial} Kids' Artwork as Gifts

Do you remember the toddler artwork I featured earlier on this blog where my 2-year-old niece painted the background of four canvases and I added LOVE to them?  This is the same concept, except using both of my nieces!  They worked together to make a beautiful painting for my sister for Mother's Day - a very special gift that she will treasure.

I bought a pack of 16 x 20 canvases at Hobby Lobby (my favorite craft store) for super cheap.  Loaded up on acrylic paint, brushes, palettes, and water bowls. We were ready to rock.  The 2-year-old used three shades of blue for the background and went to town painting.  Once I convinced her painting her knees wasn't a good idea - to just stick with her hands - we got things moving.  Baby niece used a large craft paint brush and her hands to cover the canvas.  We flipped it around a few times to get all the white area covered (and helped just a little).

While baby niece was painting, teen niece used the back of wrapping paper to draw an artistic Palmetto Tree.  Next: cut it out, dry the massive amount of paint baby niece used on the canvas, and use the wrapping paper tree as a template, lightly tracing the tree onto the canvas in pencil. CAREFUL: you don't want to poke a hole in the canvas or make too dark of a mark.

Teen niece painted over the outline with dark blue...

Filled it in and then got crazy artsy with it. By mixing colors she had shades of blue for dots inside the tree.  She added a crescent moon in the corner, and gray "moonlights" to one side of the tree.  White/yellow dashes in the gray just to make it interesting.

She did such a good job, I love all the fun and unique things she added that created texture and movement to the piece.  Love it!

Since teen niece will be at her mom's house for Mother's Day, we celebrated a week early and surprised my sister with this coolness! She's a SC History teacher and she LOOOOOOOOVED it.  (For you non-South Carolinians, the Palmetto Tree is part of our state flag.  We are very proud of it!)
The best part is this gift is nice enough to be displayed in the living room; both girls feel a sense of pride and "ownership" in seeing their talents displayed in the house and for creating something so nice for their mom/stepmom; and my sister treasures a gift from her girls.

I really do encourage you to try it and share your experience with me! I'd love to see what you create.  Please don't think it has to be perfect - that's part of the special uniqueness of the artwork! Just let them go for it and see their pride when it's all complete. :)

Wanna pin it? Use this:

Mother's Day Book - #2!

This weekend I wrapped up the second Mother's Day book and I do really like it.  As the folks in my office said - it's more sophisticated than most of my other books.  This is true, but it makes sense being that it's for a mom and not a child. :)

So, what do you think??? Mommy enough without screaming great-grammy? Fill me in on what you think of it!  And view the entire shop here.

 I have to tell you - this is one of my favorite pages EVER.  

 This is my Mom's favorite page from this book. :)

So there you have it!! :)  Any thoughts?  Leave me a comment so I can keep learning and growing from the feedback.  I'm working on a baby - 15 years right now, but then what?? Baby books, baby registries, beach book? Not sure. 

Want to see my shop? It's located here!

{Tutorial} Photo Flower Pots

Pinned it, Did it!

Here is the pinned item:



And here is my item! :)

Ya'll know I don't usually do tutorials, but this project came out so stinkin' cute, I had to share it. I found the original idea on Pintrest (Pinned It, Did It!) but never found great directions. Here are the directions for an adorable photo flower pot.

What you will need (or what I used):
Newspaper or something to avoid a major mess
Terracotta Flower Pots
Mod Podge
White Acrylic Paint
Foam Brushes
Access to a laser printer or copier - NO INK JET
Flower

Optional:
Ribbon, Buttons - your choice of stuff for the lip
Oil Diffuser Ring
Hot Glue
Super Glue

Ok, I think that will get you ready for cuteness. I did this at work it's so easy, so pretend like you don't see my work desk in these pictures, ok?

I first painted the clay pots white. You don't have to, I just liked the look of it better.  I used a foam brush and wasn't careful because it will mostly be covered up with pictures and ribbon. It dried super quick. 

I didn't paint all the way inside because you'll be adding a flower later.  I chose to include the base of the flower pots, too, but that is optional. 

I used Publisher to make up plenty of pictures for the pots. I think my pots were 6" and it took 15 pictures to cover pretty well. I did use two different sizes - a smaller (2" x 2") and larger size (2.4" x 2.4"). I also learned to leave a bit of "dead space" in the pictures and not fill the frames up with faces BECAUSE you'll need to overlap a bit.

I printed on a laser printer with regular copy paper and worried they would streak when I applied the glue, but they didn't.  I do not believe an ink jet printer will work on this.

I also learned by the second one to lay out the design to see if you'll be covering up people's faces or not. Or to make sure the kids are scattered all the way around and not just in one spot.

Grab your Mod Podge and smear some on the pot with another foam brush. Take a photo and press it into the glue, smoothing it out as you go with your fingers. Keep doing this until everything is covered.  I did have some white gaps showing the painted pot at the top, no biggie. Just keep smoothing as you go. I did end up with a few wrinkles, but it wasn't very noticable. The copy paper is very thin, but I think anything thicker might not adhere as easily?? Thoughts on this - please share.

Once you are totally covered, smear Mod Podge all over the outside using your foam brush.  It dries clear so no worries! (I had never used it and it was SO EASY!) I do recommend keeping it going in one direction because you will see brush strokes in certain lights.

See, it's clear! I must have done 4 coats or more, letting each one dry before adding another to it. I wanted a good solid coating before I gifted it. 

After they dried I used super glue to adhere ribbon around the top lip for decor. Hot glue seems to leave ridges and super glue doesn't.  Understand, it will NOT lay flat all the way around because the edges are tapered. To get bubbles at the bottom edge of the ribbon out, I made a little snip with scissors right in the middle of the bubble, overlapped and glued down the two sides and it removed the bubbles. I hot glued buttons and bows to add some color to all this black/white scheme! And thankfully, I found flowers that fit perfect into the pots with liners!!

Optional addition:  because I was planning to use live flowers that would require water, I decided to add an oil diffuser ring to the bottom so the bottom of the pots wouldn't be standing in water.  I hot glue those on, too. Anything would work - like a shower ring, I would think. But those only added a dollar to the overall cost. I thought they turned out so cute - the diffusers are almost like a little pedestal for the pots. :)

Tell me what you think! I'm sharing this on Pintrest, too. And please share your pictures if you decide to do it!! I'd love to see how yours turn out. It's awesome to see everyone's take on it, you know? So please share!! :) 

Mom with her gift

My sister with her gift

Oops. after seeing everyone else's, I think I misunderstood. :) I'll do better next time!