Christmas Craft Decorations

I realized that Calvin was probably old enough to help make some Christmas decorations, so I pulled out my scrapbook paper, buttons, beans, gems, yarn, siscors and glue. It was soooooo hard to even let him glue the buttons on because I am such a perfectionist.

Lesson learned: make doubles so I can make my own and he can do his own with out Mommy fixing it!

 Calvin mixing batter for a tree cake

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Tree, Santa Claus, Snowman, Rudolph, Tree, Calvin, and Heatherlee

Winnie the Pooh

As God would have it, my Twin (Natassia; born on the same day, one year apart) and I are pregnant at the same time with only two weeks between our due dates. Little Dante will be her and her husband Ray's first baby. I am sooooooooo excited to meet this little guy! I've even had dreams about how adorable he is going to be.

I knew Natassia was going to be decorating in Classic Pooh theme (of course! She's always LOVED Classic Pooh), so I set to work on making some reproductions of the original illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard. I had a hard time imitating his style, so I put my own flair into it. Here are the final pieces:

Fire Truck for the Little Fireman

 

Fire Truck with Dalmation Children's Painting by Heatherlee Chan 

 

I painted Calvin a fire truck for his room yesterday. My dad is a retired fireman, so obviously Calvin's got a love for big red trucks that have sirens and puppy dogs! We got him this Big Boy bed around February when we found out we were having another baby. He LOVES being in his fire truck bed!

Miz Jackie

My friend Jackie turned 25 last week, so I painted her a picture of flowers. It was my first time doing flowers, so I was kind of nervous about it. She was so cute when she opened it! She said it looked like it belonged in a Nicholas Sparks novel. I love that girl :)

The painting was 12x12 and it was fun painting the thick sides. I love to do that so they don't need to be framed.

Happy Birthday, Jackie!!!

Vision (almost) Complete!

I set up the two new paintings with the chalboard and the kids' handprints. I love it! Not so sure the husband does, but oh well. I have one more painting that I am working on that could hang with these cool dudes, but I'm getting frustrated trying to paint the flowers.

Anyway, this is what it SHOULD look like. You know, if I didn't have two boys eating like the uncle-ghosts on Casper (you know that part where they scarf down the food and it just falls to the floor).

Kitchen Makeover...coming soon!

The top two are new paintings for the kitchen. I plan on putting all of the pictures up on the wall mish-mash style with the chalkboard above the kiddie table. I had Calvin and Ethyn do their handprints on scrapbook paper and then put their initial and age in stickers. All I need is baby Clara's handprints come October for the purple one!

P.S. I love these frames from Dollar Tree! I have them in my bedroom, too.

Kitchen or Studio?

I decided to get back in the saddle and start painting again. It's only been a few months, but I feel so rusty! I started with a small painting and there are two more sketched out and ready to be attacked.

Of COURSE Calvin wanted to help. My little unwanted helper decided to reorganize my brushes (according to him, the brushes prefer to hang out with paint bottles). When he started to go for the paint with the brush I put his "helping" to an end. I gave him watercolors to play with at his table, but there's something so much more alluring when it comes to Mommy's paints.

I decided to set up in the kitchen, seeing that my "studio" is a corner in the garage and since it is July it is not all that welcoming. New paintings coming soon!

Butterfly collection

Unfortunately, insects and butterflies creep my husband out. Therefore, the butterfly painting remains in the garage over my work area (that I never work at because it is too HOT!).

Sitting pretty in the country field

This painting is nice and big. It hangs right above our couch...just close enough for my 2 year old to knock it crooked ;) Although its colors are muted, it is one of my favorites!

A tall, sturdy tree

A tall, sturdy tree. Orginally created to hang in our dining room. Nothing spruces up a room better than a big painting!

What's that glare?

My original vision for this painting was to have the sunlight look reallyreallyreally awesome, but after I started painting the white I totally began to regret it. Now my pretty picture looks like I was trying to paint the coming of an angel or prophet...and was very unsuccessful.

 Oh, well. You win some, you lose some--right?

Entryway

I got crafty with our entryway by making a few things:

Cabinet thingy:

I spray painted two little cabinets for our entryway. I used a light green with the silk finish. Spray painting is so easy and fun! My mom got me addicted to doing it.

Vase:

The vase is just a veggie can with scrapbook paper (from an Amy Butler paper pack) hot glue gunned on. It is so easy to do and you can make multiples for a stationary set to put your pens in.

Birdhouses:

I picked up three wooden birdhouses for fifty cents each at Michaels. I painted and modge podged them with some scrapbook paper from Paper Crate. I like that it spruces the place up and that it was cheap! :)

Bathroom Fun

Our main bathroom has been begging for a makeover, so I finally took charge. I've been eyeing this new shower curtain at Target for awhile and after I received a Target gift card for Christmas, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

The shower curtain has owls, squirrels, and colorful trees.

Of course, it's gotta have some artwork to match...I just made up my own paintings to kind of match. They are both on canvases and painted with acrylics. I get the biggest kick when Calvin looks at them and spots the owl because he'll say: "It's-a-owww-uul. Hoo hoo. Hoo hoo."

And while I visited a thrift store, I found this cute little nightstand for 7 bucks and decided to paint it blue and add some trees, leaves, and owls to make it match. Voila! A new bathroom that is fun, cute, and not too girly for the 3 boys:1 girl ratio in our house.

Welcome!

This is my first blog post on Lady Poppins! While I already have Scrap Anatomy for my scrapbooking posts, on Lady Poppins I intend on posting my art.

My mom inspired me to start painting after having taken a three year break. It all started when she decided to redecorate her house in a Hawaiian decor in honor of her and my dad's favorite vacation spot. She needed art, but figured she would have fun making her own. Now here I am creating my own paintings to decorate our humble abode!

I have so many ideas, so this will be a fun spot to showcase them. Bring on the posts!