Personalized Welcome Mat

Since I have finally given this gift I can share with you what I made!

I was actually really excited about this because I wanted to give them something super useful but I wanted to emphasize how they're a family now. (baby makes 3!)

So I decided on a personalized welcome mat, and of course had the most difficult time finding one that adhered to my specifications that wasn't GINORMOUS. Seriously, who has a welcome mat 3 times the width of their door? NO ONE! So why do they sell them (I'm looking at you Lowes).

Before

As you can see its a pretty bold color palette, so my choice for color was limited to black. But I'm hoping some use will fade it and make it a little less garish.

Then of course I was going to be all clever and stencil it so that it wasn't OBVIOUSLY made by me (I think my handwriting is pretty distinctive and not always in a good way). But the stencil didn't agree...

Mutilated Stencil

So I free-handed the rest with a sharpie.

Free-handed lettering

And filled it in with some outdoor quality paint, to get the finished result.

Finished Product

And sadly I'm STILL not done making Christmas gifts!

Comments

Crafting Fails

Let's be honest, sometimes things just don't go as planned. Like when you have this brilliant idea to do screen printing on the cheap and your ink runs everywhere. Ink bleeding everywhere Or when you melt the fabulous tote bag you were working on. Melted Mandala Sometimes you just have to admit that you don't know what you're doing and Google it. And that's what I do. So look out for some tutorials in the near future of things that I've probably screwed up previously and finally gave in and Googled how to do. What sort of things have you failed at recently?

DIY Mug Stencil

I wanted to do a follow-up of my previous post to show you how easy it is to use the same process on a mug. I had these great plain mugs I got for 99 cents at a local discount store and I decided they needed to say something cheeky. Boring Originals So I went ahead and created a stencil using 631. This is an example where removable vinyl or stencil material is a MUST...if you use 651 you're going to cry because the vinyl is not going to want to come off everywhere and you're just going to end up frustrated...so make sure you understand your materials before creating the stencil. Now let's talk paint, you can use oil based sharpies on your stencil, but I already had this glass and ceramic paint available (and my sharpies are all mysteriously missing). Keep in mind you CANNOT use just any paint as it will not stick to your mug. This paint is made exclusively for glass and ceramics. Then, once you're done painting you must FOLLOW THE DIR...

Shoes

Shoes Shania Twain Tell me about it... Ooh! Men. Have you ever tried to figure them out? Huh, me too, but I ain't got no clue How 'bout you? Men are like shoes Made to confuse Yeah, there's so many of 'em I don't know which ones to choose (yeah, yeah, yeah) Ah, sing it to me If you agree There's the kind made for runnin' The sneakers and the low down heels The kind that will keep you on your toes And every girl knows how that feels (yeah, yeah, yeah) Ouch, ah, sing it with me Chorus: You've got your kickers and your ropers Your everyday loafers, some that you can never find You've got your slippers and your zippers Your grabbers and your grippers Man, don't ya hate that kind? Some you wear in, some you wear out Some you wanna leave behind Sometimes you hate 'em And sometimes you love 'em I guess it all depends on which way you rub 'em But a girl can never have too many of 'em It's amazing what a little polish will do... Men ar...

(Re) Chic