Creatively Replicated

Finding Forgiveness and Restoration...

2011-08-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

Found yourself on the receiving end of a heap of news or circumstance that was never on your bucket list? Or, were you the one holding the bucket and pouring out contents you never wanted in your bucket to begin with and onto the one who you dreamed that you'd always protect and cherish? Whether it is a recent event, or years ago, you probably still find yourself spinning at times and wondering if this is just your road, worse yet, your destination, and you are just yearning for more than an encouraging word, you need a drop of HOPE.

There are times that I have experienced disappointment or near devastation in my own marriage that my first reaction has honestly not been to turn to the One who can spring a hope that does not fail, instead, my initial response is to connect with someone who has been through something similar and is surviving and thriving: to have a face to face conversation with someone who can relate to the surroundings of the hole I have found myself in but is closer to the surface and has a broader perspective than the narrow view I have from the bottom. However, through the years I have learned a little more about how the Lord works, and works without fail when I yield to Him first. Yield to Him and His Word, and as He speaks and leads through the Holy Spirit, He will provide someone who has done the same and has the broader perspective to confirm exactly what He has been speaking to my heart. And, that is just what He has done time and time again through my friend Cindy Beall. She has just published her first book about how she found herself on the receiving end of a heart wrenching confession from her husband about a pornography addiction, multiple affairs, and a woman who was pregnant with his baby, yet today their relationship has been supernaturally restored to better than new: Healing Your Marriage When Trust Is Broken. And although I haven't found myself with the same circumstance, I know well what it feels like to have trust broken in marriage and floundered for years trying to find a way to piece it back together on my own strength. Once I surrendered to the One who could show me the way, He has brought continued hope from a woman who speaks His truth to glorify God and encourages others searching for the restorative healing that only He can bring.

Reading through the book is like sitting down to have a face-to-face conversation with Cindy on her back porch, coffee with yummy creamer in hand, and a box full of tissues on the table nearby. She reveals the experience in emotional detail and yet stands firm on the foundation of God's Word of how His truth steadied her and even held her in her times of utmost need. She consistently points the reader back to the infallible truth that you have to look to and depend on the Lord. Its not a "How To..." book, as many who have found themselves in a marriage where deception has been revealed know that no circumstance surrounding the marriage is the same, but her writing rests in the promise that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever" and His PROMISE never fails.

Laughing, crying and inspiring hope for what can be ahead, you'll want to read this and have a few copies on hand to give some hope through a woman's story that ultimately leaves you in awe of how nothing is too big for the Lord!

A New Challenge...

2011-04-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

A sweet friend of mine whose little girl is turning 6, requested a dress with a matching dress for her soon to be birthday present of an American Girl doll. She sent me a pic and asked to make something similar. So here they are!

Clip of Whittaker singing

2011-03-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Shanty2Chic giveaway...

2010-11-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

Please, oh please, let me win this giveaway!!

Shanty2Chic has inspired some great projects, now only to win the Silhouette Machine!!

Freeze Frame

2010-11-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

Plain bare wood frames that I stained and painted and applied a resin cross and wooden applique (both painted and finished with a high gloss coat of Cerama-Coat and applied with Gorilla Glue) and added a decorative drawer pull to the cross. They are hanging in my kitchen on a plate rack.

Made the frames to put pictures of my kids that I edited on www.picnik.com

and ordered the prints online from WalMart's one-hour photo.

Under his name it says "I AM the next generation"

Oh my cuteness!!

2010-11-19T17:28:00.000-08:00

Introducing "The Pillowcase Romper

same fabric tie closure, but it splits into pants at the bottom with a TEXAS size ruffle

and is detailed with Miss Bella's initial and adorned to showcase the design!

All About the Pockets...

2010-10-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

Women's Spa Towel Wraps...

2010-10-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

Pillowcase Dresses (Part 2)...

2010-10-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

So, indeed I have decided to make and sell these beautiful dresses and make a dress for The Pillowcase Project for each one I sell. Here is one of the first dresses for two sisters ordered- I'll update with the coordinating one for "little sis" once it is finished. This is so exciting!!

Pillowcase Dresses...

2010-09-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

The mom of a friend of mine bought a super cute dress for her 5 year old granddaughter at a hair salon for little girls as a reward for great behavior at school. The dress is very cute, but very expensive for a 5 year old. So, my friend brings me the dress to see if I can replicate the dress for less. I track down my measuring tape and jot down what I'll need to take some coordinating fabric and turn it into a detailed pillowcase dress. I didn't even take a picture of the original because the ones I made turned out just like it. And now, the requests are rolling in, so now I am contemplating selling these gorgeous dresses... I'll keep you posted! Here are the pics!

Ode to Shanty2Chic...

2010-05-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

If you haven't happened upon Shanty2Chic, you MUST check them out. My friend Sara sent me the link to their blog and all their unique creations and links to other great projects. I saw one project from a post in December and was totally inspired to try to replicate it. It is a wreath hanger, and although I am not a seasonal decorator (only for Christmas and it is very minimal compared to most,) I loved the idea and finally found a good reason to make one. I finished this one to donate for a silent auction that will be held this Thursday night for an amazing ministry.

Instead of a wreath, I chose to hang a sign from 1-1/2" wire ribbon, both from the Hobby Lobby and both on a 50% off week- SCORE!

For directions on how to make the wreath hanger, click here for the Shanty2Chic site with detailed instructions and pictures.

I did purchase an extra spindle and hook to go with my 2 pack of finials so I could make one more for myself or to give as a gift, but I have a feeling I will be making a few more.

And the 2 Shall have 1 Room...

2009-12-28T01:26:00.000-08:00

Whittaker and Harper, ages 4 and 1 respectively, have begun to share a room. Part of their Christmas present was a new room painted and new bedding and decor. I had fallen in love with a bedding set from Pottery Barn Kids quite some time ago, but was not in love with the price and the entire set was gone in a flash. Thankfully, I had taken some screen captures of the bedding before it disappeared in order to replicate it at some point. So, Christmas 09 has turned into sewing central. I can tell you that I have purchased all my material and supplies for a total of $150 which would not have even bought 1 complete bedding set from Pottery Barn. So, without further ado... here is the inspiration

(above is the Austin Bedding from Pottery Barn that inspired my replications below)

(click on the back of the pillow sham above to see the detail of the stitching I used on the middle seam, since I have incorporated some baseball fabric, I wanted it to mimic the baseball seam stitch. Little details like that I'm now able to pay more attention to as I am getting better with my sewing skills. Not bad for not having a pattern?!)

(I made the W out of felt, wanted to mimic the chenille Letterman letters that are on Varsity Letter jackets. I printed out the letter from Microsoft Word using the Princeton font. Glued the white felt to the gold using fabric glue, used wonder under to adhere the gold to the plaid and then went over it with the red stitch on the sewing machine and outlined it with red stitch.)

(I used a denim knee patch for this- then iron on flocked white letters- W for Whittaker who was born in 2005- then did the outline red stitch on the sewing machine.)

(On both of these, you can see the baseball fabric that I used for their sheets and pillow cases. I made their pillow cases with the same type of opening in the back, more like a sham- mostly to save on the amount of fabric- I didn't think I had enough to do 2 standard pillow cases.)

(Below I used a product called Art Wear that I bought several years ago when I made some onesies for a baby shower. I used a font called School Spirit, printed it on the Art Wear Paper and went over the letters in a black Sharpie for it to be nice and dark. The backing on the paper comes off to iron it on to whatever surface you are working with- mine was light gray fleece. I used Wonder Under on the other side of the fleece to attach it to the sham and then outlined it with the red stitch on the sewing machine. I switched to the single foot to make it easier.)

(I'll post the final pics once everything is complete and the room put together, I'm very pleased with how it is looking so far- it's hard work, but those 2 boys are so worth every bit of it!!)

Rearranging Our Bedroom

2009-12-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

From time to time, I just have to rearrange the furniture. But, I really love how our bedroom looks now.

Queen of the Bling Revealed

2009-09-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

The canvases on the left were done by my friend Ralonda's 3 year old niece, just the hot pink on white canvas. I forgot to take a picture before getting started to turn these into something she could hang in her office to go with her hot pink, zebra and "bling" decor.

I taped off the edges and painted them black for a little visual stabilization and then began the first one, which was also the last one that I finished.

Ralonda's tag line (Queen of the Bling) just had to make it on there somewhere. I needed some inspiration to get it to coincide with the other one. A simple "google" search of images of "bling" brought up a picture of "bling H2O" and I just fell in love! The other inspirations for the canvases came from Hambly and their incredible line of products.

I used a few stencil elements here and there and a lot of free hand and filling in the black with a new favorite acrylic paint called "Black Sequins" that has just a hint of sparkle.

I really loved how they turned out and that Ralonda gets to have the artwork of her most precious 3 year old neice hanging in her office.

Queen of the Bling

2009-09-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

Just a sneak peak until the delivery!

"big" shirts

2009-09-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who is having a baby tomorrow, wanted to make some "big" shirts for the older two siblings to wear when they first meet Baby Noah at the hospital. She ordered some iron-on letters from "Once Upon a Design" on Etsy.com, but wanted some help getting the shirts completed. Together with a suggestion from another friend, we got a few supplies and here are the finished "big" shirts.

For the little miss who loves her sparkle, just added some iron-on "bling" to the letters from Etsy. For the little man, I added some brown and white gingham f

abric using WonderUnder to iron it on and added the Etsy letters.

Creatively Replicated Meets "Inspire Me Monday"

2009-09-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, a friend of mine who writes a blog for her Happy Hearts card company that she has a weekly post called "Inspire Me Monday". I had been looking for something to replace a picture that we had hanging in our breakfast nook and alas, I was truly inspired!

I went out that day and purchased my supplies, 12x12 scrapbook paper in a color and design scheme that would complement our existing decor and two - 1/2 thick pieces of foam board (a piece of styrofoam that has poster board on each side), also purchased some removable gl

ue dots to adhere the paper to the board.

A few stages into the project...

adding a strip from another paper to add some interest to the grunge red paper

then cutting out a floral swirl to finish the embellishment and fit in better with the other tiles

I ended up adding another sheet of 1/2" thick foam to the backs of each to make it stand out more and instead of covering the sides with black paper, I cut our 1" strips from the other sheets of coordinating paper to cover the sides. Here are the pictures of the finished project.

Works In Progress

2009-08-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

I am working on two different projects right now. One is helping a friend recover some chair cushions for a $10 garage sale arm chair that she purchased to beautiful fabric to match her home; the other project is a farm mural for another friend for their upstairs playroom.

I'll put the pics up as soon as I can get them.

Barrett's Office

2009-04-16T09:38:00.001-07:00

The picture above is one from a tv show that used to come on HGTV called "Debbie Travis: Facelift". Barrett and I both loved the "colored geometry" on the wall and that became the inspiration for the decor in his office.

I modified the design concept since he had just painted his office and purchased an 8ftx4ft sheet of peg board from the Home Depot and some hardware to mount it.

I taped off the boarder and then the boxes, the holes in the peg board served as a chalk line would have to keep the boxes squared and even, then painted over with a coat or two of white paint.

After peeling off the tape, we mounted it to the wall with 6 washers and 6 screws.

Shade

2009-04-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

This drum lamp shade from Serena & Lily I desperately wanted to buy and use for a ceiling fixture shade, but it's $238 price tag wasn't going to cut it.

I searched everywhere for an affordable drum shade in the nursery's color palette and had no success for any amount I was willing to pay, but I did find this shade at Pottery Barn that had sage green trim around the top and bottom and happened to be on clearance for $13.99.

I purchased more of the dark brown grosgrain ribbon from JoAnn's and some fabric glue, a light kit from the Home Depot turned the shade upside down and was able t achieve a similar look to what I wanted at a fraction of the cost.

Harper's Nursery

2009-04-13T21:15:00.001-07:00

This crib bedding by Serena & Lily inspired me to make Harper's bedding, one because I needed it in a different color palette, two because of the $500 price tag for a crib sheet, bumper and crib skirt!

The damask print fabric was actually part of a California King sheet set I ordered from Oversock.com for $39 plus $2 shipping, the large and small gingham fabric from fashionfabricsclub.com, and ribbon from JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby. I made the changing pad cover from towels I purchased at WalMart- one matching the wall color, the other a dark brown.

I had actually intended only to use the large gingham, but mistakenly order the small by mistake, so I used both of them to create the bedskirt, an additional crib sheet, the duvet cover for the comforter I purchased at Ikea and for the top of the curtain panel.

The shade came out of desperate search for a cheaper alternative to the original inspiration.

I was able to make a pillow case and a few throw pillows from the leftover fabric and ribbon.

Crib

2009-04-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

The crib above was one that Barrett and I fell in love with while searching for crib bedding for Whittaker. We had located a favorite online store with some great bedding and most of the pictures used this crib. I contacted the store and found out it was a NettoCollection crib, found a store in Dallas with it's then $1500 price tag, got all the measurements and Barrett made our crib to look like the designer one for about $100.

One of the coolest things about this crib is the shelf on the bottom slides out on gliders and gives additional storage. The crib is now priced at $1690, we spent $100 and have used it for 2 kids, I think we got the better deal.

Bricks

2009-02-19T19:58:00.001-08:00

our kitchen before

our kitchen after creating a stencil to make it look like a brick facade

Damask

2009-02-19T19:57:00.001-08:00

I was exhaustedly looking for a damask stencil for my living room, and when none could be found, I found this trinket box at a Hobby Lobby store, took it to a local copy shop and had a photo copy of the box enlarged.

I used 2 large blank stencils to trace the design and a hot tool to cut it out.

I used an interior glaze without tint and a stencil brush to apply it.

It is quite subtle and is barely noticeable from some angles. I didn't continue the design because I really wanted a higher gloss, but accented with the 2 frames, it works for us.

Casino Night

2009-02-19T19:52:00.002-08:00

Making these enormous dice was a bit more challenging than I had expected, but they sure turned out like I wanted.

The extra large playing cards on the windows were fun to make!

Inspired by the Vegas signs used in advertising last years 3-point and Dunking College Contest.

Daddy Daughter Dance 2008

2009-02-19T19:52:00.001-08:00

These are pics from the Daddy Daughter Dance that was held at the Keller Campus of Cross Timbers Community Church. The theme was Sugar & Spice so obviously we went with a candy and candy colored decor.
I used Foamular insulation purchased from the Home Depot which comes in 8ftx4ft sheets about 1"thick. I painted it with interior gloss paint and then used glue and glitter for accents.

The hanging candies were made with Foamular and styrofoam discs that we painted with the same interior gloss paint. The styrofoam candies were then covered in clear mylar wrap to look like cellophane.

The lollipops framed the dance floor. I used white plastic trash cans purchased from Ikea that we painted with interior gloss paint, stuffed the can with floral foam to hold the stick which was made from wrapping paper cardboard tubes that we spray painted with chrome spray paint. The top of the lollipop was made from a beach ball that was painted with the same interior paint and covered with the clear mylar wrap an secured with fishing line and a ribbon.

The window decor was done using the Foamular insulation sheets, painted with brown interior paint to frame it out and create the swirl patterns. We hung it with a brown satin ribbon.

The registration desk was surrounded by the pipe from a pipe & drape set that was wrapped in white Christmas lights. We hung a few extra candies and 2 light kits purchased from Ikea. The white lamp shades also purchased from Ikea I painted with acrylic paint and accent ribbon from JoAnn's. Although, once the light shown through, the paint appeared splotchy, so I inserted a piece of construction paper to obstruct the light from coming through the lower part of the shade so the light still came out of the bottom of the shade to give additional light to the volunteers working registration.

The Garage

2009-02-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

I took this design for Cross Timbers Community Church kids team and replicated it onto a car hood for the room for 1st-3rd graders themed "The Garage"

I used Rustoleum™ high gloss paint for the gray background and acrylic paints for the lettering and shading.

I made a template using a roll of parchment paper which I had to do in three stages for the dimension and shadowing.

This was the logo I used for the other hood.

I had to modify the colors a bit but stayed within the same scheme as the prints that were used for the team.

Whittaker's Room

2009-02-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

This is the Dwell crib bedding we ordered for our first born in 2005, most of their designs are inspired from vintage wallpaper designs.

I used a swatch from the website to to print a photograph and then enlarged it to the size

that I wanted for the wall stencil that I made by tracing the pattern, one for the leaves and one of the stem.

The circles I painted by using a plastic potting tray from the Home Depot, held it against the wall and traced the circle and then painted it using acrylic paint for the mushroom and blue and leftover interior paint from our living room for the dark brown.

DADDY DAUGHTER DANCE 2009

2009-02-19T19:34:00.000-08:00

This was the print design that I worked from to create a sign for the dance area at Circle R Ranch in Flower Mound, TX.