decorating

Signs by Andrea -- in Action

Andrea — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:12:01 -0500

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!

Butterfly Party Decorations

Andrea — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:04:45 -0500

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!

Paxton 3-6-9-12 Framed Collage

Andrea — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:52:13 -0500

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.

Bathroom Collage

Andrea — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 09:32:18 -0500

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? :)

The Perfect Wedding Gift

Andrea — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:19:21 -0500

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!

Monkeys Hanging Around

Andrea — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:35:29 -0500

For Paxton's 1st birthday party, I continued (and maybe concluded?) his monkey-themed year with monkey decorations. I kept the decorations very simple, using his banner, some stuffed monkeys from his bedroom hanging from the chandelier and candle holders, and a bag of balloons.

We had a very low-key party. Just the local aunts, uncles and cousins over for dinner (shishkabobs) and dessert (monkey cupcakes of course).

I can't claim credit for the design of the cupcakes, though I did make them. I just searched Google images for "monkey cupcakes" and I got LOTS of ideas. :)

Two-Sided Sign

Andrea — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:17:27 -0500

This is one of the signs I made a couple of weeks ago...a birthday present for a 12 year old girl, who just got a brand new bedroom:

Side one -- Her first name painted with her middle and last name as patterned paper overlay:

And the "fun" side two - Twilight (ooh, don't we ALL love Twilight?) with a patterned paper overlay:

and my favorite touch...the silver blood drops---oooh, chilling! :)

The cool part about this sign is that it can be hung on the wall and flipped to whatever sign she's "feeling" that day OR you could use the eye hooks to hang it from hooks & chains from the ceiling to enjoy both sides at the same time.

Bidding War

Andrea — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:30:49 -0500

We held a silent auction at church this past weekend to raise money for a mission trip to Honduras and I was shocked and flattered to create quite the bidding war for one of my personalized signs. It turns out three people bid $95 for a personalized sign! Who am I to stand in the way of worthy cause fundraising? Instead of donating one, I just went ahead and donated three signs to the top bidders. I'm happy to help raise money for a great mission.

So, as a result, I've been a painting fool this week getting the auction signs done as well as some regular orders (providing immediate confirmation of the old "give and you shall receive" mantra).

Here are a couple that I can share now...the others will have to wait since I believe they are suprise gifts!:

3ft x 6in

A Bridal Tea gift for the bride...
1ft x 6in

The weather is great for painting right now! Place your orders. :)

Trimmings

Andrea — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:20:28 -0600

For a moment, I wished every season had a "tree" to decorate...

Then I realized it wouldn't be near as special that way. Perhaps that can be my excuse for NOT decorating for all the other seasons...to make Christmas decorations more special...

See that ribbon on the wall? Add a few clothespins and it's a SUPER-easy way to display our Christmas cards. Here's another idea that I used last year.

Love my wrapping paper this year (and probably next year too--there's a ton of it in the Sams-size roll). It's reversible. And, it's not Christmas specific, so it's good for Hannukah and maybe even weddings or birthdays too!

A view of our kitchen side nook. Although you can't see them, the four frames on the wall usually have my "HOME" pictures in it, but have been switched to holiday photos along with the frames all over the main level of the house. Makes everything look a little more festive and is CHEAP decorating!

I hung our stockings on the railing in the kitchen this year since we don't really spend much time by our fireplace down in the playroom. And yes, Paxton has his own now! :)

Now, if only all that rain we had last night could have been snow....

Christmas Stocking Photo Tags

Andrea — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:38:54 -0600

Instead of doing all the things I *should* be doing today, I was inspired to make these photo tags for each of our Christmas stockings as I was in the middle of decorating the house for the holidays:

I made Paxton one too...but he doesn't have a stocking yet! I gotta get on that...

Supplies:

Pressed Petals Chip Chatter Alphabet
Imaginisce Polar Expressions Rub-Ons
Imaginisce Polar Expressions Ribbon
Clear Scraps acrylic circles
Crop-a-dile
large white eyelets
alphabet beads
artistic wire
StaZon black ink
glue dots