Getting Crafty

     Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday celebrations, I sure did! I just wanted to share what i've been up to over the holiday's and also to share a few of my new year's resolutions. Number one on my list is to get back into shape, I want to live a healthier lifestyle and just feel good about myself. One of my motivations is a wedding dress that i'll have to fit into in about 8 months. Number two on the list is stay in better contact with family and friends. I love my family but don't get to see them as much as I would like to anymore since I live in Kansas City now. So since I won't be able to visit them as often, I plan on calling them more often to stay in contact with all my loved ones, as well as my closest friends. For number three I want to continue to push myself as a designer and artist and try to go outside of my comfort level to try new things and new medias to better myself and to continue to build on my portfolio. There are a few more resolutions that I would like to make for this year, but i'm keeping those private for now ;).

Painting and creating things are a couple of my favorite things to do. Painting is soothing and relaxing for me, and as I'm quickly finding out, is starting to become one of my favorite hobbies. It all started in my last semester of college (well actually in middle school but I never had the time and forgot how much I enjoyed it) and one of the last projects of my collegiate career. One of my favorite professors at Iowa State assigned us a fun project to end the stressful semester on. With this project we had to create a watercolor drawing as a discovery and design expression. Basically I chose two different sections of the floor plans of the hotel my partner and I designed and placed them next to each other. I then chose a color scheme related to the color scheme in our hotel. That was one of my most favorite projects and I had soo much fun working on it. Here was the finished product:

Once I finish designing my home office/design studio I'd like to frame this and hang it up. :)

     Then for Christmas 2009, I was short on money for gifts so I decided to make some of my gifts for family. Iowa State was my inspiration for my future father-in-law's gift. I thought it would be a great addition to their finished basement which is pretty much Greg's sweet man cave. This painting took me about a week and a half to draw and paint it. I finished the sides so it didn't need a frame but told him he could frame it anyway. This was my first time working with acrylics since middle school.

     For Christmas 2010, I'm painting Matt's gift. It's not finished yet but should be in the next week or so. His is a bit larger, it stretches over 3 canvases. I'm excited to see the finished product and i'll post pictures as well! I did create a photo holder for my future sister-in-law Sara. I was shopping in Hobby Lobby when I got the inspiration for this gift, it's soo easy to make too! Everything was bought at Hobby Lobby for under $10. The frame was a cheap one that I spray painted black, the fabric that I chose for the background was 30% off and I just hot glued it to a piece of cardboard then put it together.

     Then lastly I made myself a framed jewelry holder to hang on the wall. I had been wanting to get one for a while but didn't want to buy one since I figured it would probably be easy to make and cheaper than buying one. It's a great way to display necklaces and earrings and see what you actually have instead of fighting to untangle necklaces or trying to find mates to your earrings. I got the frame at Hobby Lobby and again painted it black, and I bought the wire at Home Depot. Here is the finished product!

I wish everyone good luck on their resolutions and I hope you enjoyed my creations! Feel free to leave comments on what you think of them or what I could do to improve them. I've been thinking about opening my own little shop on Etsy to sell the photo and jewelry holders. Thanks for stopping by!