It is always bittersweet to move. While the prospect of a new house is exciting, leaving the place where you had so many memories can be sad no matter how the space was not working for you. I made this frame to help some very good friends decorate their new home while reminding them of all the good times they had in the last one.
Get the whole tutorial on the Cardstock Warehouse blog!
For my sister’s 30th birthday, I wanted to make her something because she is always making something for either me or my kids. Since she liked the yarn wall hanging I made for myself, I decided to do a spin on it and try macrame with the actual rope you are supposed to use.
This is only the second time I have tried macrame and this post is not a tutorial, but I wanted to show you how you can mix different types of textiles, fibers, and techniques to create a unique piece. 
After looping the macrame rope onto a wood dowel with a lark’s head knot, I taped it down to my cutting mat to hold it in place. The macrame was made entirely with diagonal double half hitch knots using a tutorial from Parlor. I wanted my pattern to be somewhat geometric and clean.
After I decided the pattern was finished, I tied rope around both edges of the dowel, knotted it and then brought both ends up and to the middle to make a triangle shape and then knotted it again.
To play on the macrame pattern of circles and triangles, I tied the triangle into the gold hoop. I had previously looped the dark grey yarn along the bottom of the hoop with the lark’s head knots, similar to my other yarn wall hanging project. 
I always cut the ends last because I want to see the entire project before I do something so final. For this piece, I decided to go super short thinking about my sister and her love of clean lines with a touch of mid century modern. I actually left the dark grey yarn for her to put her own touch on it and decide how long or short to go. 
Although the macrame did take some time, it was the same knot over and over again and that made it a little less complicated. I love taking something that I have done already and putting spin on it to create something unique and new.
Looking for a really simple, easy but meaningful gift for the grandparents? When my husband was a kid, his family used to play Scrabble all of the time. I had seen large scrabble tiles used for wall collages saying words like “FAMILY” or “HOME”. I wanted to do a pared down version using all of the grandkids’ names.
You will need:
Lay out your “scrabble board” on your background paper with the mat board so you know where to center them. I took one of the letters I knew I probably would not use (Q) and drew a heart with a black sharpie on back.
One thing I always think about when using the grandkids or kids names is what happens when you know your family is still growing? That’s why this project is so perfect, because of how simple it is, it would be easy to pull off the letters and make a new one for additional names!
Edited:
We have a new addition to the family, my niece, Kelsie! We were able to find a spot for her without moving too many names around.
I share my home with my awesome husband, Ben, two gorgeous children, Jenson and Johanna, and my two hairy feline friends, Fluffy and Shiny. I was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, and moved to England to go to University, where I lived for 10 happy years and met Ben. We decided to move back to Vienna 7 years ago for various reasons, and we are so happy we made that decision! We both love living in this wonderful city so much.
I work for a non-governmental organization, and spend most of my weekends with my children hanging out in a park or lake somewhere. After hours, I am usually eating great food that Ben has prepared for me (he’s amazing in the kitchen!), drinking a cheeky glass of wine and watching Netflix with some embroidery on my lap. I try to make time to sew and draw as often as is humanly possible. If I could have one wish, other than the usual (end poverty, peace on Earth, etc..) it would be to have more time in any given day, or to not have the need to sleep (hmmm…., I love sleep, so scrap that idea). So if it could be arranged that a single day could be extended to 30 hours, and then the extra 6 hours could be used exclusively for creative and leisurely pursuits, that would be wonderful.
Photo: Sarah and her family
The goal: to have a space that was exclusively mine. As a full time working mum, I really felt the need for a space where I could sit and relax and be creative once the kiddies were asleep. It had to be functional, yet Pinterest-worthy. And in this space I would be creative, I would have all the time in the world to create masterpieces, enjoy the quiet alone time I sometimes so desperately craved, all the while sipping blissfully on a glass or two of wine. Happy! 
I decided that the bedroom would be the perfect spot. We drove to IKEA and found some amazing grey geometric wallpaper, and this happy looking yellow chair, and table. It was lovely. And I enjoyed sipping my coffee in the lounge chair during the occasional quiet moment.
But it wasn’t quite the creative space I desired. So, for my birthday in April, I asked Ben for my very own desk. Off we drove to IKEA again, I love IKEA!
I decided I wanted a bamboo top rather than the standard white top. In our excitement, we bought it without measuring (helpful tip: always measure before you buy!). The bamboo top wasn’t wide enough!! But that’s okay because the bamboo looked way better than the white, so I just got Ben to “fix” it by sawing the trestle legs a bit. 
This is the table all ready to go, I just needed to add some finishing touches (notice how we tackled this project with a glass of rosé on the go. classy! And there’s Jenson, making himself at home). While we were at IKEA we bought that plant (now called Agatha, she has since been relocated to the living room, where the cats take a nibble out of her once in a while… sad times), and we also bought that chair, but I think I would like to replace it with something else in the future. I’m not sure what I’m looking for yet but I’ll know it when I see it!
My brother recently bought a gorgeous house just outside of Vienna, and he found a bunch of old window frames in the basement that were used in the house originally. He was going to throw them out anyway, so I think I was doing him a favour taking them off his hands. Best find ever!
I was tempted to sand them down and paint them an awesome colour, but when I put them against the wallpaper I thought they looked awesome just as they were. They had a rustic charm to them. That decision saved me a lot of work, which meant more time for crafting and wine. Hurray! (There’s Ben again, doing all the manual labour.)
I slowly started to add more personal items to the area to make it a place that I would feel inspired and happy. There are two photos taken by Ben when we first moved to Vienna: he took the same photo over the Danube river for about a year and some of the results we just stunning; an old photo illustration that I had custom made for me back in my early twenties and a number of little cacti plants and other bits and bobs.
This space continues to be a work in progress. Eventually I want to add some shelving so that I can put the cacti and other more useful items on it, which will allow the desk to be a bit more spacious. I also want to add some extra storage to house my small fabric stash that I am desperate to transform into a LARGE fabric stash.
I would also like to get a record player in the room somewhere. I’m in the habit of automatically turning the telly on in the evening, and then I inevitably find myself distracted by zombies or Tom Hardy, depending on what I’m watching. I think it would be lovely to listen to some records and fully immerse myself in my creative little space. I have my heart set on a Crosley X UO Sterling Vinyl Record Player in turquoise from Urban Outfitters. I think this would make the perfect Christmas present (she says with her fingers and toes crossed, hoping a certain husband will get the hint).
Thank you so much for listening! Sarah xxx
For more of Sarah’s creative adventures, make sure to follow her on Instagram! @scarethread
When I moved into my new office a year ago, I wanted to make it mine in a way I hadn’t done in my last office, but as often happens, I was overwhelmed with such a blank slate. I wanted a way to incorporate photos of family and friends in a way that was suitable for a professional office, that didn’t include a lot of picture frames (talk about too many choices…), and that kept the photos in a place that I could enjoy them. So many of my colleagues have photos in their offices that are only visible to their visitors. I wanted these to be for me when I need a little pick-me-up or to help me escape to some of my favorite places and past vacations.
My plans often came to back to corkboard, but it didn’t seem polished enough or appropriate for the office…a little too college dorm room. Roaming the aisles of Target one night, I was struck with the inspiration to add some geometric designs, fancy push pins, and GOLD paint. All of my supplies were purchased at Target and the whole project easily came in under $20 and took me just one evening to complete. The corkboard even came with adhesive to easily hang them on the wall. 
I used painters tape to mark off random designs on each piece of corkboard, playing around with different angles and amounts of space.
I painted with the eggshell paint first, allowing about 15 minutes to dry in between coats. Since the cork soaks up paint, it took about three or four coats to get the coverage I wanted.
After the eggshell portions were dry, I removed the tape and applied new tape in different directions to mark off where I wanted the gold portions to be. Again, three or four coats of paint were needed.
I almost didn’t want to cover them with pictures once I hung them, but I love that I can see all my photos when I look up from my computer screen.
It’s so easy to change them out when I feel like it without worrying about the photos needing to fit in a certain frame or be a certain size, and since all of my photos these days are just inexpensive online prints of iPhone photos, I have a never-ending supply of new material.
LAUREN AND I HAVE BEEN BEST FRIENDS FOR OVER 20 YEARS AND SHE IS MY “GO TO” PERSON FOR ANY AND ALL THINGS CRAFTY. HER TECHNICAL MIND MIXED WITH A LOVE OF DESIGN MAKES FOR A BEAUTIFUL AND EASY EXECUTION OF WHATEVER SHE DECIDES TO CREATE.
It’s February and the month of LOVE. To express my love affair with metallics, each post this month will be a GOLD project!
We have a good collection of decor photos from our wedding taken by Karen Nakamura. I love that they show the thought and work we put into that day as well as the feel and ambiance of our venue. When we moved into our home from our condo, we switched to white wood pieces instead of dark. Instead of getting rid of this frame, I decided to paint it.
I found this paint at the local craft store and although I have never used it before, I absolutely love the color. It is more of a champagne gold than yellow gold and it has super tiny sparkles, just enough to make it elegant and dynamic without being too cheesy. 
I admit that I am not a fan of sanding. I did not sand this frame and instead just put the paint right on. It took about 3-4 coats to cover the black, but a little black still shows through which gives it a really interesting texture. I did gloss it, which took it from home craft project to something you could find in the store.
The frame hangs nicely in our master bath. You can see how different the color looks depending on the lighting and time of day.
Finding artwork for your home is one of the most challenging parts of decorating. I am always saying how I prefer things with meaning, things you already have access to, and things that bring such good vibes and memories to your home. What’s better than to use photos from your wedding or any happy occasion that you love to remember.
Gail is a native of Florida, but has now adopted California as her own, thanks to her love of avocados and mountains (one of which Florida is lacking). She has been working as an in-house book designer for over 8 years and works on freelance illustration projects in her spare time. She has illustrated one educational digital picture book and hopes to publish one of her author/illustrated stories one day as a classic picture book. For her, picture books bring together her love of illustration, typography, and printing–and she will yammer on about them for hours if you let her.
For the past number of years, I’ve made it a habit to create nursery art for friends, family, and close coworkers when I find out they’re expecting. I’ve tried to make them a bit fancier each time in an effort to push myself to get better at my art and build a portfolio of work. More complex = more time, and recently I’ve run into a dilemma. Between the day job, my own personal art projects, and the number of IOUs for friends and expected little ones, I found that I had more of these art pieces than time to create full colored illustrations for. To find a solution, I had to simplify: pen-and-ink drawings, maybe a hint of color. That is all.
I decided to make use of what I had lying around: scrap watercolor paper (Arches, 140 lb), remnants from larger sheets that I cut down to sizes needed for various finished projects. I cut the remnants into 5×7 sizes, with any smaller pieces heading straight to the scrap bin, to be used later to test watercolor mixes before I apply them to finished pieces. Each large sheet of watercolor paper is too expensive to let anything go to waste.
Drawings were done in pen-and-ink, sometimes being sketched out first in pencil, sometimes drawn freeform and impulsively. That is particularly true with some of my favorite animals: foxes, elephants, giraffes. They are fun to draw and I’ve probably drawn them a few too many times.
To follow Gail and her artful adventures:
website: http://nightengailart.com/
twitter: @nightengailart
instagram: nightengail
A good friend has been searching for art ideas for her home and after the Keira letters, I couldn’t wait to try another set. The biggest challenge in this project was choosing a style that was refined and contemporary for their home, which was a lot harder than letters for a little girl’s nursery.
The walls in their house are grey and I thought the black letters would give a nice contrast. I was lucky to find this set of scrapbook paper with mellow geometric prints in a neutral and grey color palette.
After tracing and cutting out the letters in scrapbook paper, I used spray adhesive to affix them to the front of the wood letters.
One thing I really liked about these particular letters were that they stood up on their own. This gives my friend some flexibility in where she can put them in her home.
Since the letters were already black, it allowed me to save time from not having to paint them and accented their depth.
With all of the fronts of the letters on, it was time to add some decoration. I picked up some paper daisies, pearls, white twine, and metal-like embellishments and the stickers came with the scrapbook paper set. 
Using craft supplies by Handmade Modern from Target, I painted the wood shapes gold and added some daisies and stickers.
For me, this project was all about simple elegance. I wanted it to look crafty but not kitschy, modern but not cold. Honestly, it was not easy to find coordinating pieces to meet this vision, but knowing my friend and her style definitely helped. The daisies instantly reminded me of her and I based my decor around them. 
I am an auntie again! My adorable little niece is a week and a couple days old and to celebrate this new life, I wanted to share something my mother in law, Vicki, and I made for her.
Vicki told me that she got some letters from the craft store and would love my help in thinking of ways to decorate them for the nursery.
In brainstorming this process, I knew that I wanted multiple textures in order to keep the letters interesting and to give it a really custom and handmade feel. After a very successful shopping trip, we picked up yarn, tulle, embossed scrapbook paper, glitter, adhesive pearls and chiffon flowers.
To cover the letters in scrapbook paper, trace a flipped over letter on the back of the paper. After cutting it out, we used spray adhesive to affix it to the letter. In a matter of minutes, it was dry.
Spray adhesive was also used to cover the “I” with glitter. We used a couple coats of both just to make sure that there was an even cover of glitter. Using white glitter on a white painted letter helped to disguise any holes, if there were any.
Wrapping the letters in yarn and tulle was by far the hardest step. I found that by wrapping in the long direction first, as pictured above, and then continuing to wrap in the short direction covered most of the gaps. A glue gun also helped tremendously to keep the wraps in place as we went along.
Probably the most fun part of the process was embellishing each letter with the florals and pearls in a unique but cohesive way.
It was a challenge to mix so many different elements while sticking to one style. One thing I try to do, is to pick one element that you really love and center your design around that. The fabric flowers were one of the first things we found and our favorite. Everything else we chose was based on those flowers.
We can’t wait to see what they will look like up on the wall of the nursery. I will have to post a photo when they are hung.
Stay tuned as I really want to try these letters again for a friend’s living room!
Mixing lace and fabrics of different texture, I created a very economical and beautiful showcase of embroidery hoops for the entryway. Simply stretch your fabric across the hoop and tighten with the second ring.
To create dimension, I embroidered our initial with metallic thread and made wool felt flowers.
