My Office: a WIP!

Now that I'm officially an attorney, they let me move into a bigger empty office. I've started redoing it little by little. Of course I forgot to take any before pictures of anything. *sigh* But, I would still like to share with you the parts I have redone so far. First, the walls were covered with an off white patterned wallpaper that was very dingy in most places and covered with stains in a few. I liked the texture of the paper, so I primed it and painted over it. I chose Yukon Gold (PPG). It brightens up the room nicely without being overwhelmingly yellow.

Here's an example of the wall texture. The color isn't quite right on this pic, but you get the idea!

This one is closer to the right color and shows my "message center" next to my desk. The basket holds my billing sheet and phone book. The green "message" board is an old tin T.V. tray that I punched a couple of holes in with a hammer and nail and wired to hang. Messages and stuff stay on there with magnets. And then of course there is my white board calendar.

This is directly across from my desk. It's a sitting area for clients. The framed quote is something my mom made. The owls were a gaudy gold color so I spray painted them black. I definitely think I need more touches of green and red in here. The black and yellow is a little stark by itself.

Here's a shot of my desk for an idea on color. It's really nice dark cherry walnut toned. It matches well with the other tones in the office. It's L-shaped. Unfortunately, that's all I have done for decorating in here do far. I have a blank wall behind me, one across from the other side of my desk, and an empty spot on the same side as the message area. I plan on hanging my various diplomas up on one of the walls. I really need to find some artwork that incorporates all the colors I have for the rest, but so far no luck! I may have to come up with something creative and make my own.

Do you have any ideas?

Happy Crafting!

New Line: t-shirts!

Hi. I have been absent from here for way too long yet again! I am going to try and get better at this (I know, promises, promises!) and post more often. For today, I thought I would share some of the shirts I've been working on. I've been facinated by freezer paper stencils since first learning about them. Freezer paper makes great stencils because you can cut out a shape and then iron the paper shiny side down to the fabric. The paper will stick to the fabric and you can then paint or bleach the area without the paint running or lines blurring on you. The paper then peels right off when you're done, leaving you with clean lines! I've been experimenting with bleach rather than fabric paint because it last longer, doesn't crack in the wash, or fade after too many washings. Then I had a stroke of genius: Why not do a "reverse" stencil? Usually when you make a stencil, you get a big sheet of paper and cut out the middle parts. Then you use the outside paper for your stencil. Instead, I used the middle part and ironed it on to my fabric. Then I tied up sections of the shirt around the stencil like you would for tiedye. The result? See for yourself:

For bigger pictures, go to my Etsy store and check them out! For more information about using freezer paper stencils, post your question in the comment section or go to the Stenciling Board at Craftster.org!

Happy Crafting!