So busy and so behind

 If I'm a regular to your blog and haven't left a comment lately, I'm sorry. this is my crunch time of the year with getting ready for 2-3 craft shows in about 5-7 weeks. I try to stop in and have a look, but may not be leaving much love. I just don't want to get too far behind in seeing what everyone else is doing.

I have been in the crafting mood lately, as I very well should be this time of year. I'm mostly pleased with my progress and yet I know I should be and could be doing much better. With that being said, I think the quality of my projects have surpassed previous years. And I can't forget that I'm still working on those Witch Hats for the ladies at the bank. Those are mostly done now. I just need to add the embellishments at this point. They should be seeing them just in time for the beginning of Oct. when most people actually start decorating for Halloween.

This is one of the projects that I worked on. I bought this last year at a garage sale. Although you don't see it in these photos, there's a piece that inserts behind where the square openings are. I had already started to work on it when I remembered I hadn't taken any BEFORE shots so that's why it's not there. I thought it was actually quite pretty, ya know, it had good bones, but still in need of a personal make over. Something chic and trendy.

I had to sand this down to the bare wood because the designs were painted on thickly and you could see the design in the paint, plus there was paint missing in some places that were smooth surfaces and you can't just paint over that.

This is what it looks like now. I kept it the same Ivory color for the background, but decided to go with a star theme instead. I made the 3 dimensional stars out of chipboard on my Cricut and painted them black, then adhered them to that piece that was missing in the previous photos. Next, I made the SIMPLIFY design at the top from black vinyl. I can never remember what cartridge that star frame is from, maybe Joys of the Season? Then I cut the word using the Stamped cartridge. This is a good cartridge for a rustic looking font. After all that, I decided it needed something on the front of the compartments, so I made a bunch of tiny little stars to go across that also with my Cricut and all the stars were cut using the George cartridge.

This is a wooden hanging sled that I picked up half price at the Salvation Army last year. I thought it could use a make over also! I was inspired by the musical design and the tree image that was already on it, but I thought I could improve on that, at least a little anyway.

And this is what I came up with. I have this BIG paper pack from DCWV (don't most of us scrappers have some of those in our stash?) and that's what I used for the background to cover the seat of the sled. I tried inking the edges, but not totally thrilled with how that turned out. Oh, I did that AFTER I repainted it with tan paint and distressed it. I sealed it with some spray sealer then attached the gold resin design that I picked up at Hobby Lobby on clearance last year. It just fit! I added some greenery at the top and a rusty metal bow with rusty jingle bells. This piece is almost 2 feet tall, so it's a decent size. This picture makes it look all crooked, but I was standing at angle off to the side so I wouldn't cast a shadow on it.

I still gotta say, I'm trying to get used to this new blogger version and haven't decided if I totally like it or not. Some parts are much better and others are turned kinda screwy to work with....at least for me.

God Bless and have a great day!

I'm linking up to While He Was Napping Blog