Welcome to all the KevinandAmanda.com blog readers! Good luck on this week's sign giveaway!
I'm so enjoying reading your comments and hearing about which signs you'd love to have! Remember, each sign is custom made, so the sky is the limit! It can say anything you wish and if you're looking for something even more custom (not on the general order form), just let me know and we'll design something perfect together!
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Thanks for stopping by!
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 09:23.
Thanks for all your great ideas about my wall collage. In order to fill those frames and take advantage of a $1.99 flat rate shipping sale at Scrapbookpictures.com (that ends Aug 31st), I decided to go ahead and order some prints! Including that $1.99 shipping sale and a 15 prints free promo code (which saved me $3.75), I got all nine 12 x 12 prints for only $12.10 -- shipped. Can't beat that.
I went with photographs of the kids playing outside. No special, fantastic, clever theme, just pictures of them having fun outside. And I'm *sure* I'll want to change them at some point in the future. But for now, I think this will do just fine.
That den/playroom project is *slowly* taking form...we finally got our toy cabinet fiasco taken care of (which involved re-cutting shelves, reordering doors, and lots of un-needed stress.) They are now assembed, with shelves and doors. Yay! The toys can finally be put away! Only took a month... Oh, but there are still a few more things to take care of before the "after" photos... coming soon...I hope!
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Tue, 08/24/2010 - 14:53.
Inspired by this:
and this:
I put up these in our not-quite-finished-yet den/playroom:
As you can see, these nine 12 x 12 frames are located above the play area section of the room. So, now we're trying to decide what to put IN them. That's where you come in. I'm looking for suggestions! Got any brilliant ideas for me?
Here's what we've come up with so far:
- family pictures (rather predictable)
- family pictures of us enjoying sports/recreation/play activities (running, sandbox, disc golf, volleyball, bike riding, football, playground, hiking, etc.)
- board game boards (Sorry, Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, etc)
- photos of iconic places we love (old houses we lived in, city skylines, parks, etc.)
- a favorite line of scrapbook papers (I like that idea...but I doubt Ben will be interested in that...)
The trick is...I need nine! It doesn't *have* to be kid-themed or play-themed, or even themed really. It doesn't have to be photographs, it can be artwork or newspaper or wrapping paper, or anything. We just want some great ideas!
So there you go...you've been commissioned to help brainstorm. Let's hear what you've got!
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 09:17.
A few weeks ago I got to work on a very cool sign project. My customer wanted something unique to use as a backsplash for an outdoor kitchen he was building. They tried the store-bought vinyl letters with the quote "may all who enter as guests, leave as friends", but weren't happy with the quality, so they commissioned me to paint it for them. It was a tricky project, with several layers of color and different fonts, but it was so fun to see the finished project come together:
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Thu, 08/12/2010 - 11:13.
While we were in Minnesota, I got to see a few of my signs in action!
Which made it that much more fun to come back home and fill more orders!
Order one today!
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 15:12.
When a little girl requests a butterfly birthday party, I'm happy to oblige. I went the VERY simple route for this one, even though I could have gone crazy with the decorations and crafty projects. There just wasn't time or money for anything too complicated! So here's what we ended up with:
- butterfly birthday plates & napkins from Big Lots
- white tablecloth with patterned paper butterfly cutouts sprinkled around it
- three scrapbook pages featuring newborn Ayla and pictures from this past year
- a borrowed cupcake stand
- butterfly and flower cupcakes from Sam's Club (we added gummy worms for caterpillars)
- strawberry & grape butterflies (just add toothpicks)
- fruit
- apple juice & lemonade
- Party Favors: butterfly nets, wings & glasses from the Dollar Tree
- butterflies made with fabric strips tied in knots (so the kids could throw & catch butterflies in their nets)
Easy! And it all fit into a rubbermaid tub and cooler to bring over to the park. Too bad the butterfly birthday balloon I bought flew away as soon as I opened the car door...guess I didn't have it tied down as well as I thought!
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 16:04.
I finished up this 3-6-9-12 month framed collage this afternoon, displaying Paxton's first year portraits. Rather than matching Ayla's framed collage, I ended up going with a completely different frame style and photo opening layout. I figure...different kid, different project. Separate and unique, but equal. Paxton's pictures were all horizontal anyhow, so it was kind of necessary to do something different. :)
Initially my intent for doing this was to show how much each kid changed over their first year, wearing the same white onsie with a black background (and I tried to include a prop - flower for Ayla and stuffed monkey for Paxton...but that didn't go over well after 3 months!). It's funny how in the end, these portraits actually ended up showing how much they looked the SAME all year! Though Paxton does get a little rounder in each photo! Perhaps if I had to do it over again, I'd choose to dress them differently each time...nah, probably not. I still think it was a good idea even if it didn't turn out quite like I planned. :)
Here's Ayla's, which I did several years ago - the openings are wallet sized w/one 5x7:
And Paxton's - which has four 3 1/2 x 5" openings:
So there we go. Two kids, two frames, two first year collages -- done, and hung.
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Mon, 06/07/2010 - 21:52.
With all the pictures I take, it's about time I framed a few. :)
I've had this collage frame sitting in my "to do" projects forever, and finally decided that a bathtime baby bathroom collage would be the perfect use for it. So, I printed several bathtime baby photos of both of our kids in black and white, added some patterned paper & Imaginisce "Splash Dance" rub-ons and stickers and viola! A cute little bathroom collage.
While I was working on this project, I flipped the Splash Dance packaging over and was surprised to see a familiar face looking back at me!
Cool, huh? :)
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Sat, 06/05/2010 - 09:32.
June is deep into the heart of wedding season. How many weddings are you attending this summer? Do you have a gift picked out yet?
I tell you what. Let me make it easy on you. Give them a personalized sign from "Signs by Andrea".
What's a new bride getting on her wedding day? -- A new name! One that she'll be proud to display in her new home.
Even better...the groom will be thrilled to see something with HIS name on it (the poor groom gets left out a lot in all those boring houseware wedding gifts).
Plus, a family name sign can also become a cherished family piece that can be passed down to their children as a token of their history and heritage.
I told you. It's the PERFECT wedding gift!
Place your order today to give the most memorable wedding gift they'll receive. I'll even ship directly to the couple if you'd like!
Posted in
Submitted by Andrea on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 07:19.
