Spring Fever!

Hello!

I don't know about where you live, but here in Albany, we still have snow on the ground and I'm absolutely ready for some sunshine and SPRING to kick in!

Despite the weather outside, I figured I could do my part to get our apartment somewhat more springy inside. I have a few projects in the works, but I thought I'd share this little printable I made. It's a quote from Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, Detective, and it absolutely captures how I feel about spring!

Feel free to use it for your own purposes... hope it helps get spring going for you, too!

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Sunday Showcase

Digital Chalkboard Art

While browsing Pinterest, I found some great chalkboard backgrounds and tutorials for making your own digital chalkboard art in Photoshop.

It was a quiet Saturday evening in our apartment as we watched the playoff games and enjoyed pizza + wings, so I opened up Photoshop and played around with the chalkboard background from here and the tutorial from here. These are great free resources, so check them out!

Using one of my favorite Winnie-the-Pooh quotes, I made this simple little sign. There are three different versions - feel free to save them for your own use. Here's a brief summary of what I did:

1.     I opened the chalkboard background in Photoshop, selected the Type tool, chose a fun font (or a few), and typed out my quote. Then I selected "crumpled paper" as a pattern overlay in blending mode under layer style.

2.     Then I rasterized the text layer and added some noise at less than 30% to make the "chalk" not so smooth. 

3.     Next, I used an eraser on 20% opacity to make some parts of the letters lighter than others. Finally, I made a new blank layer on top and used a white round brush set to 20% opacity to make some smudges on a few of the letters. All these steps are explained really well in Courtney's tutorial :)

This last version incorporates a bird graphic from The Graphics Fairy :)

I'm looking forward to creating more Photoshop chalkboard art soon!

Linking up at

Alderberry Hill
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It's Overflowing

Twigg Studios

Sunday Showcase

2012 Favorite Posts

Happy End of 2012, Everyone!

I have a hard time with Christmas ending because I love all the family time, music, tasty food and beautiful decorations, and I hate to see it all end so abruptly! I do look forward to the New Year coming with a chance to start fresh. For some reason, I get into super cleaning mode, but before that kicks in, I thought I'd share the 12 most popular posts of 2012. It's been a wonderful blogging year for me, and I'm very much looking forward to 2013! Thanks for all of your support and encouragement as I make my way through medical school, doing fun projects on the side!

Here are the most popular posts in no particular order:

Autumn in New York - Crafts

Musical Pumpkin

Bow Clutch

Mod Podge Transfer Jewelry Box

Mini Flower Boxes

Turn Your Eyes

Mason Jar Wall Plant

DIY Tinted Glass Jar + Mod Podge Image Transfer

Chalkboard Paint Projects

Vintage Fancy Chair Coasters

Sheet Music Paper Flowers

Winter Paper Flower Wreath

We're in Seattle with family right now... enjoying company and some refreshing rain :)

Hope you all have a lovely end of the year!

Linking up at

Alderberry Hill
The Winthrop Chronicles

Someday Crafts

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Whimsy Wednesdays

Live Laugh Rowe

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Happy Hour Friday

French Country Cottage

Delightfully Noted
Do Something Crafty

The Shabby Nest

It's Overflowing

Twigg Studios

Sunday Showcase

Joy To The World - Printable

Hi friends!

Sorry for being MIA for so long... I'm on my OB/GYN rotation and it turns out there are a lot of people having babies this month, which is keeping me busy! Hopefully I'll get in another post this week about a Christmas craft, but I'll start by sharing this free printable I made: "Joy To The World" in the shape of a Christmas tree! Feel free to use it however you would like! (It's a JPEG. Right click it for larger size)

I love the Christmas season for so many reasons. I love the time with family and friends, the smell of evergreen trees, the taste of fresh fudge and homemade cookies, the beautiful lights and decorations. Most of all, I love that Jesus came to our dark and hurting world to bring salvation, love, guidance, hope, and light!

I hope you find this little graphic encouraging to you this Christmas season!

Linking up at

Alderberry Hill

The Winthrop Chronicles

Pincushion Creations

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Southern Lovely

Whimsy Wednesdays

Live Laugh Rowe

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Happy Hour Friday

French Country Cottage

Do Something Crafty

Sunday Showcase
Savvy Southern Style

Turn Your Eyes...

This song has been on my heart all day. It is such a sweet reminder of what really matters in this life, and helps me keep things in perspective. May you have a blessed Holy Week as we prepare for Easter on Sunday!

Feel free to print this little graphic I made :)

Feel free to use the images that I create for your own projects, just link back to my original blog post. Thanks!

I printed the words alone on burlap and attached it to a 3x3 canvas. 

I used Heat'n Bond iron-on adhesive, and attached the burlap onto printer paper so I could print directly onto the burlap without the printer getting jammed. Then I used a wet paper towel to remove most of the printer paper backing so that the burlap would wrap around the canvas better. Lastly, I wrapped and stapled the burlap onto the back of the canvas.

The PNG file is below if you would like to do the same!

Linking up at:

French Country Cottage
Crafty Scrappy Happy
Alderberry Hill
Someday Crafts
One Chatty Chic
It's Overflowing
The Winthrop Chronicles

"If Music Be The Food Of Love, Sing On"

I love that quote. I also love the song. We sang it in high school, and it has become one of my favorite choral pieces. Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and because I love this song, I made a little graphic that could be used for a Valentine or other card, or whatever you want! The music background is from none other than The Graphics Fairy

The lyrics to the song are below, again with a music graphic from Graphics Fairy.

Feel free to use the images that I create for your own projects, just link back to my original blog post. Thanks!

Vintage Fancy Chair Coasters

While browsing the incredible graphics at The Graphic Fairy, I stumbled upon these adorable vintage chair graphics and decided to use them for a coaster project.

I started with four coasters that already had. I measured the diameter so I knew how big my graphic needed to be. Using Photoshop, I imported both the chair photo and this frame image from The Graphics Fairy.

After playing around with dimensions and adding some text, I ended up with these four images:

I printed them out on regular computer paper, cut around the edge, and mod podged them onto the coaster surface.

Then I painted the gold edges with a light blue paint, let it dry, and rubbed some off to distress it a bit.

After everything dried, I covered the coasters with two coats of clear acrylic paint sealer.

Click here for a PDF template of the four coasters.

Feel free to use the images that I create for your own projects, just link back to my original blog post. Thanks!

That's it! Super easy, thanks to The Graphics Fairy!

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Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

The Graphics Fairy