Back to Work....

Hello world :) It has been a very long time since we have done a blog post! Well, it is no secret that consistency is a struggle for me and I have been on hiatus from many things. Mostly in part because we moved to a new city (well, pretty much out into the country) this summer and then found out we are expecting our third child so I have been out of action for a bit. However, now that life is settling down again, I felt that old nagging feeling to do some crafting.

Setting up our new house has been a wonderful, fun and tiring experience. We have pretty much painted the place head to toe and made it our own. And now, I am settling in and really starting to decorate more. We are very visual people in our family and so I have taken on a few craft projects (as always, inspired by Alicia!) that would be great visual representatives and pieces of art for the family. The first one we attempted was our family rules.

Hubby and I took some time to really think about what is important to us and what is important in how we raise our children and we really wanted to focus on the character traits that we are trying to build in them. I googled several other great blogs that had also created similar rules and artwork and took a lot of inspiration from them. Myra over at My Blessed Life had some great family rules done in an artistic style that totally appealed to my sense of style. Rachelle, who is the mommy blogger at Fingerprints on the Fridge, also had some great ideas and a wonderful step by step tutorial that got me started!

We chose the perfect time to take this project on because Michaels Art Store had all their canvases on sale so we were able to get decent size canvases for a decent price. After buying a few foam paint brushes, a large bottle of matte mod podge and a different paper pad each, the project cost about $40 each.

So, following Rachelle's instructions, I painted my canvas a nice green color that goes well with the yellow walls in our new place. I spent a good hour or two choosing the papers that I liked and putting them in an order that seemed to balance out wild and crazy with a little more subdied.  I tried to stagger my rules so that there was a mix of longer ones and shorter ones and that they made some sort of sense in order at least in my mind.  And this is what I got!  It felt like a long process, it took me 2 days to complete this project - but it was a lot of fun.  I spent a couple hours the first night and several hours the next day to finish it all up.  I was very greatful for my cricut machine that allowed me to cut out the lettering in the sizes and fonts that I liked and saved me having to try and hand paint anything.

As commented on many of the blogs I read on this project, the paper did wrinkle and ripple as modge podge was applied.  Despite my best attempts and sureness that I had worked with paper tons and would be able to get it to stay flat, it did what it wanted.  So, if you decide to take on this project, be forewarned!  It will wrinkle and crinkle, but if you can embrace this, it actually does add an authenticity to the project making each piece quite unique and now that it's done and hanging on my wall I don't notice the bumps much at all.  So here is my final product!

Because I had so much fun making mine, and I have the cricut, I also helped Alicia with her family rules as well and it's amazing how different they both are, but they both totally suit our personalities and family homes.  Here is her finished project....

Happy crafting and don't forget to let us know if you decide to make your own family rules!  

Nadine