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Finidng Inspiration & Using It

June 28, 2013 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

turn an old door into an art piece

What is inspiring you these days? Are there certain aspects of life and art that are sticking out to you? When I think of things that are inspiring me, I think of things that excite me, give me energy, and keep me dreaming and creating. A few things that are sticking out to me are…

  • Nature: trees, fields, animals…anything outside!
  • Worn or old stuff that most would consider junk or trash
  • repurposing an item for a unusual use of that item
  • Textile combinations: loving the mix of metal with wood or fabrics
  • Signs: i can’t stop making them
  • Inspirational Phrases: can’t stop putting them on embroidered hoop art pieces
  • Color: bright and colorful always catches my eye
  • Wood stain pieces: love the mix of wood and natural elements with my color fascination

When I step back and realize what is inspiring me, I totally see its role in my art and creations. My latest art has all these influential inspiration areas in it. I took an old cabinet door and turned it into functional wall art. This door was able to keep the cost of painting a big piece of art cheaper by re-purposing the cabinet door as a canvas. It has color, stain, and knobs of different textiles mixed with inspirational phrases all centered around a fun illustration of a cow. I love it.

I started by spray painting the old door a fun teal background. I then sketched the head of a cow on top and painted it in.

drawing a cow

colorful cow paintingSince I am loving the worn and rough look, I sanded my painted cow down. While I did this I also sanded the outer edge of my door to get rid of some of the spray paint and make the edges smoother. I then stained the whole piece with my favorite stain.

vintage farm sign

painted cow

I liked my piece so far, but it didn’t seem finished. I started doodling all over it. I don’t think I would ever had the urge to do so if it wasn’t for my new shower curtain that I just adore. Once that was done, I added some fun knobs of all different colors and textures (just trying to keep more of a circle shape in mind) at the bottom. I love that those knobs made this fun, inspirational piece also multi functional as it can also hang stuff.

doodle art

farm house decorWe visited my sister last week in Arkansas. She lives in a cute farmhouse with horses, chickens, loud roosters, kittens, a dog, and milking calves to boot (oh and a cowboy husband and adorable little girl). You might have seen some of the pictures from our time on Instagram. I have a bunch of gorgeous pics coming to share more about our time in the country.  I took this sign as a gift for her. It fit her farmhouse and color scheme perfectly and she loved it. The real gift was being able to give it to someone I love, who loved it.

shine bright art

What is inspiring you? Does your list resemble mine at all? I encourage you to make a list of what is inspiring you. The more we are aware of what excites us, the easier it is to make decisions and choices that build back into us. Thank you so much for checking in! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

 

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Minnie Mouse Bedroom Reveal

May 9, 2013 By Erica Deuel 20 Comments

Disclaimer: Compensation and products for review were provided by Glidden via MomTrends. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Glidden.

DCIM100GOPRO

I can’t believe I can finally show you Reagan’s room! I have been planning and dreaming about this room for weeks and weeks! Now that it is complete, I am just giddy. I love it. It came out better than I was even hoping.

Bedroom makeover

Just to give you a quick recap…

  • I bought the Disney Paint weeks ago at my local Wal-Mart.
  • I fell in love with it as I painted my great grandmas’ old dresser and created a DIY Minnie silhouette with it.
  • I started painting Reagan’s room last week and showed you how to do a stripe accent wall.

I am not a good painter, but I was able to paint this entire room in two days. Although I am really messy, I love to paint and I have learned a lot through the years. I want to give you a few tips that I have learned along the way.

  1. Use painter’s tape: I use painter’s tape to tape off any area (trim, ceilings, knobs, etc) that I don’t want to get my paint on. I have learned to press the tape down well to make sure it is sealed and to pull it up as soon as my project is dry to the touch.
  2. Get extra lighting: I always pull in extra lights to help me see well while I paint. This will help point out missed spots and can be especially helpful if you are painting at night.
  3. Have baby wipes close by: Although I use painter’s tape, sometimes I still get paint on the ceiling or somewhere else I didn’t want it. I told you I was messy. Baby wipes help remove the paint while it is still wet and can usually make it look like it was never there. I use a lot of them when I paint.
  4. Use drop clothes: I used old sheets and tablecloths as my drop cloths on this project, but the main idea is to cover up all the carpet/flooring to help prevent any accidents. I also used a collapsed cardboard box (since I have a few on hand :)) to sit my paint can on just for that extra added sense of barrier from my new carpet.
  5. Have company: I like to paint with someone to talk too. It makes the work more fun and the time to pass by more quickly. Thanks to my husband for keeping me smiling, taking my picture, and helping me through this project.

painting tips

painting a chalkboard wall (black and white)

After her room was painted, I started playing around with where I wanted things to go. I had fun staging and designing. For a little bit there, I forgot I was just a stay at home mom. I felt like I was on some design show. I had a blast. The actual set up of furniture placement and decor took about five days, which was good cause the speciality Disney finish I used was the Great Slate paint. It needed a week to cure, before it could be written on.

Great Slate Wall in kids room

As I set up, I realized other little things I wanted to add. For example, I wanted her to have a stool beside her chalkboard wall. So, I painted her one with my left over Disney Paint.

girl bedroom decor

I love that the Great Slate wall allows her to draw and be creative, while it is also in her reading nook. This little area in her room makes me so happy as it is a learning/dreaming set up to create! Another thing I realized this week was I needed a tad longer piece of bunting to cover the electrical cords, so I made some more.

fabric bunting

I love how the room turned out, and so does Reagan. On the day of her little room reveal party with some of her best friends we set up a lot of her favorite foods with fun Minnie Mouse decor paper items and waited for our guests.

food for a play date

She was so in love with her room, I didn’t think she was going to get off her bed at first. She just sat there for the longest time and took it all in. That was the moment I knew all the work was worth it!

Minnie Mouse fan

Once our friends arrived, we played, colored, and showed the room off. It was so fun to visit and relax after working hard and completing something I am proud of creating.

little girl coloring

eating at playdate

We had a lot of kids over and couldn’t get them all in the picture on Reagan’s bed at once. We had a blast!

Playdate party with friends

Playdate partyEveryone was so sweet about Reagan’s room! I am still picturing some of their faces and hearing their sweet comments in my head. The kids all flipped out about Minnie Mouse. I mean what little child does not love Mickey and Minnie?!

Minnie Mouse Room

Some of the sweet words the adults said were so encouraging.

what they are saying about disney paint

At the very end of the party, we had our giveaway! I made a little You Are My Sunshine sign and then I had a $50 gift-card to Wal-Mart to giveaway. I drew the names, and was so excited to give away the sign and gift-card to people I love.

drawing a giftcard winner

We had a lot of fun at the party, and I think it wore Reagan out! This room makeover was Reagan’s transition from a crib to a toddler bed. I truly believe the fun room and big deal we made over it helped make this transition easy. She has not gotten out of her bed (without me coming in for her) and took a good nap for the first time in her bed-right after the party! The beautiful Minnie Mouse comforter might be part of her love for her bed-thank you Disney!!

party girl tired

We are having a lot of fun in Reagan’s room already! I think it is my favorite room in the house. My friends laughed at me when I did a big speech while we ate at the reveal party cause I must have sounded like the biggest commercial, but I am a huge fan of Disney paint. I have painted a lot of rooms and furniture over the years, and Disney Paint is so smooth and thick. I only did one coat of the Cool Marine (teal color) on Reagan’s walls. It didn’t need another coat! I have never done that. I would totally recommend Disney Paint, and I will be using them again.

I have a lot of DIY posts coming with the how to’s of how I created some of the decor for Reagan’s room, but until then here are some pretty shots of her room.

minnie mouse bed

art wall

colorful girls bedroom

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Disclaimer: Compensation and products for review were provided by Glidden via MomTrends. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Glidden.

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DIY Minnie Mouse Silhouette

April 26, 2013 By Erica Deuel 6 Comments

It’s crazy we are finally at the weekend where everything is happening! We will be closing on both houses and moving in the next few days. It is so exciting!

I want to give you a quick DIY project you could do over the weekend.

DIY minnie mouse silhouette

In my post about Reagan’s dresser makeover with Disney paint, I showed a few decor items I have made to help decorate her room. One of those decor items was this simple Minnie Mouse Silhouette. It was such a quick and easy project that you could knock out quickly! Here are the series of steps to do, so you too can create one of these subtle but fun Minnie Mouse vintage signs.

1. Find an old piece of wood.

piece of scrap wood

2. Sand the wood really good on the sides and top. This will lessen the cause of splinters and make it look more finished.

sanding a piece of scrap wood

3. Find bowls that look proportional to the size of Minnie’s head and ears.

drawing minnie mouse4. Trace the bowls.

drawing minnie mouse silloutte5. Paint inside all the circles to create a solid Minnie Mouse silhouette.

painting mickey mouse6. Draw a bow on a piece of paper and cut it out. Lay it where you want it to go.

minnie mouse bow7. Trace around the bow, so you have it stenciled on to your sign.

minnie mouse bow stencil8. Paint in the bow. I used Disney Paints’ Fashionista paint color to color in my bow.

painting minnie mouse bow9. Once the paint is dry, give it a nice coat of stain. This creates a more vintage, subtle, yet stunning design.

vintage minnie mouse10. Once the stain is dry, your sign is complete! Style it where ever you want! I think it makes a great decor item to a little girl’s bedroom, but it would also be an awesome gift to any age Disney fan!

how to make a minnie mouse signWhen I showed my little Reagan her sign, she squealed with delight. She was so excited and kept saying “my Minnie Mouse!” as she tried to hug the wood sign. 🙂

little girl love for minnie mouseI can’t wait to pull Reagan’s room together this next week! Be sure to follow me on twitter and instagram to get pics and updates of the whole moving process and sneak peeks of Reagan’s room getting pulled together. I hope you have a great weekend, and I will try to post again soon!

minnie mouse room decor

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Saying Goodbye to Our Home

April 16, 2013 By Erica Deuel 4 Comments

saying goodbye

Matt has lived here going on twelve years and I’ve been here just short of nine years. Saying goodbye is hard. So many amazing memories. But for me saying goodbye to the house isn’t the hardest part. It is the backyard. My favorite tree of all time lives in our yard.

Old Tree

It is gorgeous and huge. I love to lay on the trampoline with the kids and stare up at it. Watching it fill out in the spring with the early morning sun shinning through its branches is one of my favorite things. I will be sad to say goodbye to it.

As we are packing and talking about our new house, we are getting more and more excited about the change.

You have seen a preview of what we are planning for Reagan’s room and our dinning room, and you know we are really excited about our new place. As excited as we are, I want to fully embrace the saying “goodbye well” stage and let the memories and sweet moments flood my head.

I had the idea that we could paint pictures of our house to stimulate conversation about what we love about our home. These moments and the paintings are something we can take with us to our new home.

saying goodbye to a house you love

Caleb wanted to paint the front of our house complete with the basketball goal and our car out front. J wanted to paint the backyard with all our play stuff, so we stared out the window at our tree and talked about its size and shape and he painted that as the first part of our backyard. Reagan just wanted to paint. 🙂 Matt actually did a painting too, but I forgot to capture him in action as I had already started dinner when he started his painting.

Kids painting House Pictures

I have not painted a house tribute portrait yet, but I plan too. I love how all these came out and I know they will be something special to hang in our new house. After the paintings dried, I sprayed a clear varnish protectant on them.

painting to say good bye to a house

One of my favorite shots of everyone posing with their paintings is this one…

house portraits

 I love my little family!

Have you had to move with kids? I know I briefly told you in our Packing Boxes (part 1) that my four-year old is showing signs of nervousness with all of this moving talk and changes happening. I was hoping this activity of talking, intentionally playing, and processing our life would help him.

Two more weeks! We can do this! I am thankful for my mom taking the kids for most of tomorrow, so I can run to Hobby Lobby by myself and attack packing this place up without cute distractions. I hope you are having a good week!

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