DIY Faux Fireplace

Well, it's been a long time but I finally have a few things I wanted to blog about. The first is my diy faux fireplace. I have always wanted to have a fireplace in my home so that I can decorate the mantel each season. Since I don't have a fireplace, I decided to create a faux one after being inspired by all of the faux fireplace ideas on pinterest. I also loved the idea of harnessing my creative energy to create different displays for the firebox depending on the season. Since Christmas is almost upon us, I decided this season was the perfect time to start this project because who doesn't love a festive fireplace mantel at this time of year! First I scoured kijiji for a few weeks looking for fireplace mantels that I could give a makeover and found this one:

I already knew I wanted to paint it white and happened to have white furniture paint patiently waiting for me in the basement. I washed the fireplace off with a damp cloth and once it had dried I lightly sanded it so the paint would adhere better. The paint I had was from the Beauti tone collection at Home Hardware and had the primer built into it which made it much easier. It took me 3 coats and probably could have used another coat but I loved how it looked and was tired of painting! Here's a progression of the fireplace as I painted it:

Once it was all done, my hubby helped me move it into the perfect spot in our living room. It still isn't finished because I want to cut the trim so it sits flush against the wall and also build a firebox and paint it with chalkboard paint. But one step at a time! Here it is all decorated for Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Mixing Bowl: March 2013 Challenge

Good morning everyone! Here's the latest recipe card from the Paper Mixing Bowl:

And here's my take:

I had no idea what I was going to scrap for this month's layout until I went scrapbooking with my crafty friends a few weeks ago. One of my friends gave me a few wee photos she had developed from our scrapbooking retreat back in November. The pictures were perfect! The main background is actually green although it's hard to tell in the photo of my layout.  For my irish lace I chose a lacy stamp by Fancy Pants and stamped over the bottom corner of my pictures.

My title was cut using my friend's Silhouette (love that machine!) which she helped me with by "welding" the letters so it was all one piece.  I also wrote a limerick to go along with the photos and added some gold brads for my pot of gold.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Layout

Just a quick post to show you the first in a succession of wedding layouts. I got married 6 years ago but still have all of the pictures and scrapbooking supplies lying around. This album may be a bit of a challenge because some of the scrapbook supplies are a little dated but I plan on trying to incorporate them with more modern layouts to update them. Here's my first attempt!

The Paper Mixing Bowl: November 2012 Challenge

As I was busy buying a house and selling mine, I never got around to finishing the November PMB challenge until recently. I loved the recipe for this month so much that I decided to make it a two page layout.

Here's the recipe:

And here's my take:

 

And a close up of each page:

My favourite part of this layout was the maple leaves.  They were extra special because they came from our tree that we planted in the backyard. This tree was a gift from my Uncle that he had dug up from his property and given to us on a Thanksgiving several years before.  It was our first tree at our first home and we would soon be moving away and leaving it behind. The colours were so spectacular this past fall and our little maple really put on a show. So I collected several leaves of varying sizes and glued them onto the layout, then used a special spray paint to "laminate" them so that the colour won't fade. That's it for now! Wow, two posts in one day ;)