day 293: chalk board canvas

the finished chalkboard canvas hung in the kitchen :)

day 293 and the printer is still not talking to me as i would like, so there are no surprises when i tell you today's creation will not involve printing anything ;)  it does involve art though, changable art.  some of you may remember my complete LOVE of chalkboard paint when we painted a chalkboard on the classroom wall on day  214, my obsession with this ingenious stuff continues today as i create some changable wall art, in the form of a painted chalkboard canvas.

i saw this idea from chic and cheap nursery on pinterest and i thought this is one of those things everybody should have!  i plan to put it on the wall and change what it has on it according whether it is a holiday season, someones birthday, a welcome for family and friends coming to stay, all sorts of occasions.  i love crafts that are so usable and, of course the first use of this wall art will be for easter.

AND IT'S ABOUT HERE IN MY PREPARATION FOR TODAY'S CREATION, I TOOK A LITTLE TIME OUT ... the rest has been written today :)

what you need

don't forget to paint the sides for completeness 

thanks steve :)

i was not having the best day yesterday, so steve and his "friends" went out to the shed to paint the canvas while ben and i watched the rugby before i fell asleep.  and then i sleep and sleep and sleep ... and nobody dared to wake me : D  then i woke up and the creation i had set out to complete was done~!  so i had no choice but to put my pj's on and i went to bed for the night and slept some more!


outcome:  i've popped this up in the kitchen because the kitchen doesn't yet have any chalkboard paint in it (shame on me!).  i totally love this and it was so easy for steve to complete for me (lol) while i slept!  honestly i was all ready to paint and had everything out, thought i would have a rest before i did the actual craft and the rest is history!  good old steve, standing in again for me today, just as well i warned him 293 days ago i wouldn't be able to do it without my families support ;)

thankfully my observation husband was around to make sure day 293's creating was finished so i have to thank him for that, otherwise i would have been up REALLY late!  thanks also goes to chic and cheap nursery for this awesome inspiration that has given me some cheap, cheerful, and always relevant wall art!

zzzzzZZZZZZzzzZZZzzz

naughty egg, get outta my photo

she is tired and sleepy ... i will let her tell you what was created today tomorrow but here is a sneak peak of day 293 ;)

day 106: you are someone's reason to smile

i really need to get some cake decorating tips off pinterest!

 day 106 and we need comfort food in this house, it has been a week of highs and lows, busy and stressful, and i am so grateful it is friday and we can look forward to a weekend at home.

today's sentiment is pinned to my must have art board

you are somebody's reason to smile

i live with four reasons to smile and this week i haven't done that much of it, so i am hoping that when we have it for dessert tonight it will make us smile and lighten the load a bit, especially when it is served up on a chocolate cake ;)

the cake is pinned to my recipe must do's board and is called the fastest fudge cake from fine cooking.  this cake has me written all over it, it's a one bowl wonder with no heavy machinery required.  melt, whisk, mix, and pour ... then wait to cool. 

this turned out to be my mum's favourite
pinterest recipe yet! everyone had seconds,
which ironically was about how long the
cake took to make!

outcome:  pinners must pin with such integrity, this is another outstanding fudgy style cake ... i am seriously wondering when my first disaster creation from pinterest will happen ... i can tell you it won't be with this recipe though! the chocolate cake i made on day thirty five was outstanding so this one had a lot to live up to and it did.  both cakes are very different in style and texture so they are both being added to my sure fire winners when i need a cake made in a hurry.  this is the type of cake i LOVE to make, easy to bake but the results are outstanding!

my sincere thanks to the fine cooking website for this awesome recipe, if all the rest of them are this good i won't need another recipe book!

day five: dated wall art

the finished product, ignore the frame!
our bedroom is currently green, can you tell

day five, only 360 projects to go and its sunny outside!  todays pinterest creation comes from my must have art board and was pinned from the gallery from andrea steed's website (so many great creations you should check it out!). she calls it dated design wall art, which is totally apt, given the dates are all relevant dates for your family.  i loved individualised art so this was right up my ally! she gives you a great link to a version you can fully customise and even have it sent away for printing ... how cool is that.

unfortunately, i live a long way from the states so the chances of me getting the print today were slim! so in the spirit of my p365 venture i decided to create one myself and print it out at home on photo paper!

the start of the process

i found a frame in the shed and, after blowing away the large amount of dust on it, decided it could work with a repaint.  my first job was a light sand followed by a quick paint with opotiki (dulux colours of new zealand), then a thick coat of tim holtz distress paint called peeled paint (green), that then followed another coat of opotiki because the green was too much ... are you still with me!  Yeah, the frame painting was an adventure all on its own ...

yet another layer

in between the layers of paint was drying time and during these times i played on my computer working on the art to put into the frame of layered paint ... really should have just purchased a nice cheap black frame, next time!

the finished file right before printing!

it should be noted here, i am not computer savvy to a point where i can walk up to the computer and know exactly what i need to do to achieve something.  i don't have photoshop and i don't know how to use publisher (yet :)) so this was done in powerpoint ... yes ... i know how to use powerpoint!

what you need to know:

• i used five 1 x 7 tables to make this wall art, which i then lined up vertically, this gave me the flexibility to have the size gap i wanted between each birthday
• i created a table for each birthday and put each number into a different cell ... why? all numbers are not created equal, just like my family some of us are wider that others! so every cell was set to be centred meaning when the tables were lined up vertically so were all the numbers regardless of their individual width (i feel your pain zero ;)
• i added some decorative vines and coloured each birthday to match our bedroom as that is where this art is destined to hang.
• printed out on glossy photo paper to get that nice polished look, add a frame (preferably one you didn't have to paint three times) and you are good to go :)

outcome: definitely going to do this again now i have a template! figuring out how to sort the number width issue took some time and drove me a little insane :)  however, this is probably to do with my lack of computer skill as opposed to anything else ... now i have the knowledge, there's no stopping me.  in fact, my sweet mum is next on my list! for her, i am going to do one with all the grandkids birthdays :)

thank you so much to andrea steed at a.steed's.life for wonderful wall worthy art that you can totally customise!  if i lived in the states, i would totally use andrea's option and use her customised version available at zazzle.com. 

and for tomorrow ... think carrots :)