Be-You-tiful!

It's been a while since I've had time to paint, and I was recently inspired to paint on canvas.  I'd never done it before, but once I got the idea into my head, I couldn't get it out.  I love how it turned out!

As for me...

A few weeks ago Mike and I (finally) saw the movie Courageous.  If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.  We were both touched and inspired by it.  At the end of the movie (right before the credits) a verse comes on the screen.  Joshua 24:15--As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  Mike commented to me about how much he liked that verse, and that was the inspiration for my most recent plate.

I wanted to put an emphasis on the words in red.  Try saying it outloud, with a bit of attitude on the red words! 

I love how this turned out, and Mike was quite please when I gave it to him.  Now we just have to find a place to display it!

Painted Wine Glasses

A friend from high-school saw my wine glasses on facebook and asked me to paint a set for her one year anniversary with her boyfriend.  These were fun to do and I love the quote she chose!

"It's just the beginning...
...of our beautiful adventure"

Daisy Plate

Did you know that daisies are my favorite flowers?  I made this plate/serving dish after making my Patriotic one.  I love how it turned out!!!

Unfortunately, I only had 2 blue stemmed wine glasses, and this was my last one.  Now I have to scour the thrift stores again to find more cool wine glasses!

Wall Expressions Party

Last year I went to a make-and-take Wall Expressions party and just loved it!  I couldn't wait 'til I had my own house to decorate so I could host a party of my own.  Last Friday I was finally able to.  I had a great group of friends come over, including Mari (you can read about the party on her blog too!)  Mandy, from Mandy's Wall Expressions, came to my house and led us in a great night of fun!  She brought along a ton of samples of her work, everything for growth charts, to cute sayings on blocks, to plates, to tiles!  Pretty much if you can imagine it, she can create it!  After she explained what her business is all about and all the great items she offers, we headed out to the garage to make our own word blocks!

We were able to choose between a 12 inch or 24 inch long block and then we chose our color to paint it.  

After our painted blocks were dry, it was time to apply the vinyl letters.  Mandy had many expressions that we could choose from and there really was an expression for everyone!  I chose: "Memories" and "Friends, Food, Laughter".

Mandy then showed us how we could sand the edges of our blocks to give it a weathered look; this was an optional step, some people did it and others left their blocks completely painted.  

And of course, what's a party without food?!?!  (I'll be posting the recipes on my recipe blog soon!)

The finished products.  Don't they just look fabulous?  I had such a great time and I know the other ladies did too!  Mandy is available for parties at your house too, so if you live in the West Michigan area, be sure to check out her site!

(Thanks to Mari for letting me use some of her pictures!!!)

Bench Makeover

My mom recently gave me this old organ bench so we (Mike) would have a place to sit when he put his shoes one.  We decided it would go in the garage.  Then one day I got to thinking about how boring the bench looked and how much extra paint I had left-over from painting our house.  My brain started working and over the course of a weekend, I transformed a dingy old wooden bench to a bright and cheery shoe container, rack, and bench.

This is how the bench looked before.

I think the inside of the bench will be perfect to store my flip flops this summer!  I also am thinking about attaching a shelf under the bench to store Mike's shoes on.

First I sanded the bench to get rid of some of the varnish (it was so old that most of the varnish had already worn off!)

Then I painted it "Burlywood".  My original intent was to paint the bench twice and then go over it with sandpaper to rough it up and give it a worn look.  I realized after one coat of paint that you could still see some of the original wood color through the paint, which was exactly what I wanted, so I only did one coat!

I didn't trust myself to freehand the flip-flop shape, so I used a pair of mine and traced it onto the bench.

This is my final project!

I love how bright and cheery it looks!  It will be perfect for our shoes and it sure brightens up our garage!

Patriotic Plate

I love how this turned out!  I have so many other ideas for similar tiered plates!

Grand Opening!

My Etsy shop is now open!  You can check it out here:  Wine and Dine by Melissa

Here's a sneak peek at some of the items you might find...

Plates

The more time I spend painting wine glasses, the more ideas I come up with!  Earlier this year there was something going around Facebook for crafters to "pass it along".  The idea was to comment on someone's status who was participating and in return you would receive something they made.  In return, you had to post the "pass it along" status and make something for the first 5 people who commented on your post.  I decided to play along and so I commented on a friend's post.  I only had 3 people comment on my post so I just had to make 3 things.  Here's what I came up with:

They were really well received and I think they turned out really well!

This is one of my favorite creations so far.  It was inspired by this plate from What Allie's Making Now.  I've never watched Pride and Prejudice (I know, shame on me!), so that quote really meant nothing to me.  I decided to put my own spin on the plate and paint it instead of using vinyl.  I love how it turned out and I haven't decided yet if I'm going to keep it or put it up on my Etsy site.  (Which by the way, is now open!)

My Newest Hobby

In a post back in January, I mentioned a new hobby I've recently picked up.  I wrote: "Finally, I have recently picked up a new hobby. Something that is just for myself and my personal enjoyment. I'm not sure where it's going to lead me, but I'm hoping it's something I can really stick with and have fun with. I'll have a post about it soon!"

Well, after a month of "practicing", creating, and brainstorming, I'm ready to share what I've been up to!  I will be opening up an Etsy shop at some point, but I'd like to see how my work goes over first.  I think I'll call my shop, "Classy Glass"...what do you think?

I've had a lot of fun coming up with ideas and creating what's in my head.  I started painting on goblets, then moved on to wine glasses.  I'm working on some other projects right now, but I won't be sharing those until next week!  I hope you enjoy these!

This was my very first design.  It took some adding of snowflakes (Mike's idea) before I was thrilled with the result!  These are gorgeous with a votive candle in them!



Then one day I was inspired to make a snowman in the snow too!

I created these for New Year's.  I also made some glasses for everyone at our New Year's Eve party, you can see those here.

Polka-dots are aways fun!

I'm really partial to this design as daisies are my favorite flowers!

I love these heart-shaped dishes!

Like I said, polka-dots are always fun! :)

This is my new favorite design.  I just finished it today, and it's just perfect for Valentine's Day!