Monthly Archives: September 2012

Fall Porch

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Last Fall, we decorated the front porch with lots of pumpkins and yellow mums. This year, I wanted to go a bit more on the rusty side. I like the mixes of muted orange, greens and rust colours with the hits of black in the front door, planters and iron mat.

These stately planter boxes from Lowes anchor the front steps and are the perfect scale for the space. I love the contrast between the black planter box, the stone steps and the rust coloured mums.

The 2 mum plants were purchased at Costco and each one came in a round plastic container. We removed the containers and transplanted them into the large planter boxes. Hard to believe that each mum plant was only $10.00 since they are so huge.

The Designer Outdoor Pillows that I made in July, are paired with a rustic floral print. The muted rust colours really tie in with all of the wicker and with the colour of the mums. A few rustic decorations, like some raffia pumpkins and a large acorn, throw in some extra colour and texture to break up all that wicker. The tall raffia leaves in the basket add height and tie in the colours of the pillows. I hope you all enjoy decorating your porch. Happy Fall!

Autumn Print

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Now that it is Fall and the trees are just starting to change colour, I was inspired to design an Autumn Print. I have a love of typography and used the letters and the shapes in between the letters to create a colourful graphic print. I placed it in a shiny mirrored frame and love how the colours contrast with the modern style of the frame. I displayed some rustic raffia and wicker pumpkins as well as a large wheat sheaf on either side of the frame to create a colourful Autumn nook in our family room.

In your design program, I use InDesign, set your page up for the size that will fit in your frame. My frame is 7”x9”. I separated the page into 6 boxes, one for each letter. I turned each letter into outlines to become a vector. With the black pointer tool, I dragged the sides and bottom of the text box to fit the space. I did this for each letter. Once the letters were all in place, I used the white pointer tool to drag some of the corners of the letters so that they would touch each other, creating more areas to colour in. With the pencil tool, I drew a shape around each area and filled them in with various colours. I then sent the coloured area to the back so that the colour sat behind the letter. You may have to play around with the colours until you get your desired look. Then print, place in your frame and enjoy your new colourful Autumn Print. You could also print this and stencil it onto a canvas or board and paint it similar to the Citrus Artwork craft.

This project was linked up on The Fall Mantle Parade at Centsational Girl.

Citrus Artwork

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I know that summer is over and glorious fall is upon us, but I cannot seem to get summer out of my mind. I was looking at the bowls of citrus that we had on the island, beautiful bright yellow lemons and green limes. All of a sudden I was inspired to paint a picture of citrus slices. Don’t ask me why I get these crazy inspirations, but when I do, I have to fulfill them. So I got out the sketch pad. When I drew the graphic shape onto paper, I loved the simplicity of it and thought that it would look great with different sizes and colours.

I sketched out a simple shape of a lemon slice. I repeated the shape with different sizes and some running off of the page of a 11” x 17” piece of watercolour paper. I labelled each section with an O for orange, a Y for yellow and a G for green so it would make it easier when it came time to paint. I used acryllic paint and did the first layer with a smooth flat coat of paint and filled in all of the areas like a paint by number. Then I loaded up the brush and went over the sections again, this time with a lot of paint on the brush. This adds texture so you can see the ripples and bumps. I glued it onto a piece of cardboard then trimmed it using a ruler for a straight edge and a box cutter. You could also paint this onto a canvas or onto the cardboard itself. Now I have bold graphic artwork of some citrus slices to remind me of summertime.

 

Cereal Bowls

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Every morning my husband drinks his coffee from a mug that simply says “Good Morning”. I picked them up at World Market and love how the crisp black letters look against the bright white. They brighten the morning routine, and make me happy with two simple words. I had these plain white bowls from Pottery Barn that I thought could use some cheering up and help make eating breakfast a bit more fun.

Measure the blank space on the side of the bowl and type out the word you want, then print. Flip the printout over then colour with pencil behind the word to create stencil paper. Cut out the word then hold it over the bowl and trace the letters with a pencil. The lead from the back of the paper now transfers onto the bowl where you can outline then fill in with a Sharpie marker. Place it on a cookie sheet or baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. The marker will set, but just to be on the safe side, I would recommend hand washing.