Wow…I still can’t believe Christmas has come and gone and been almost all put away.  We still have some outdoor lights to take down but hubby has unplugged the lights on the white picket fence and the lighted snowflake icicles hanging from the gutters.  The only thing left lighted out front is the the up-lights on the dogwood trees.  In the back yard, the two ornamental cherry trees still have lights.

Like most people, my thoughts have turned to organization and rearrangement.  Cleaning out closets, cabinets and other little nooks and crannies, holding who knows what.  Now…I didn’t say I was doing anything about those things,  not yet anyway.  But I am definitely thinking about tackling those in the coming weeks.  I just had to do a craft first =)

While my baby sister was here visiting for Christmas, I couldn’t resist taking her and my niece to my fave thrift stores.  The day after Christmas, instead of standing in some crazy long return line, we were perusing GW’s offerings.  {Unfortunately, my absolute favorite store wasn’t open. =( }

My favorite find that day?  A set of two blue, zippered pillow covers for $3.99.  Perfectly plain, ol’ boring.  But also, perfect for personalizing any way I wanted.  And I wanted…..snowflakes!

I found this snowflake stencil at Dollar General for $1.  The cardboard is from a new calendar.  I always save these, they have a multitude of uses.    In this case, I put it inside the pillow cover to prevent paint seeping through to the other side of the cover.

Here a little bit of blue painter’s tape holds the stencil in place.

I love these foam trays (found at $Tree) for painting.  I bought a 10-pk years ago and keep re-using them.  They allow plenty of room for mixing your own custom colors.  Here you only see the FolkArt Metallic Pearl White.  The other two blobs are of Textile Medium.  The stencil brush came from a box full of stencils, paints and brushes found at a yard sale ($2 for the whole box!).  Not shown is the FolkArt Turquoise and White acrylic paints mixed with Ocean-colored glitter (Gary’s Glitter from Pat Catan’s).

The textile medium transforms acrylic paint into a washable fabric paint (according to the bottle).  I’ll have to get back to ya later about how true that is.  I found this at Hobby Lobby for $4.99 for an 8 oz. bottle.  The directions say to mix 2 parts acrylic paint with 1 part textile medium.   Paint your material and when it’s dry, iron for 20 seconds to heat set the paint.  Let cure for 7 days and then machine wash on gentle cycle with mild soap and then air dry.

Awwww, aren’t they cute?  But I think they look a little lonely.  Maybe I should add some more?

Well, it was cute with extra snowflakes.  I even mixed up a pale turquoise-y glitter paint for some of them.  But then the rubber stamps came out.  Every time I walk past the couch, this pillow makes me smile the most.

 Here I layered the pale turquoise glittered snowflakes over top of some white snowflakes.

Close-up of glittered snowflake.

Perfect little spot to curl up with the newspaper crossword….and a pen.  What?  You don’t use a pen?  Just one little way to live life on the edge

Want to see other stenciled and stamped pillows?  Check out the Stenciled Initial Pillow made with regular paper and an inkjet printer.  The Canvas Pillows are stamped with foam and rubber stamps using acrylic paint.  It looks like I have the beginning of a mild obsession with stenciling and stamping fabric for pillows.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should seriously start thinking about creating my own unique designs.  It could happen.

So, now that we have something a little cheerful to look at, what’s next?

Right on the horizon is the makeover of my craft/office.  I’m just waiting on a call from a lady who listed some  shelves on Craigslist.  These will be the key component of getting my little “studio” organized.  While I should take the time and effort {read: move all the freakin’ furniture out, like the huge corner desk, work table and book shelf} to paint, I’m not even going to worry about it.  The walls are cream colored and the shelves are brown so I’ll bring some color in with my storage containers.  Hopefully she calls SOON!

Also coming up, my 6 month blogiversary.  I will recap my favorite projects and yours (as determined by comments) and maybe, just maybe, offer a little giveaway.  Look for that in the next couple weeks  =)

Plus so much more.  I have so many ideas rolling around in my head.

Thanks so much for sticking around and leaving wonderful comments.  Hope your year is starting of stellar =)

Please take a minute to scroll down and leave a comment.  I would love to know what you think.  Did this inspire you?  Will you use this as a jumping off point for your own project?  Or just say –  Hi, I was here.  Comments are the only way to let me know what you are thinking.  If you enjoyed, please share with your friends or followers.  Thanks =) 

  Andrea

Linking to these great parties…

The DIY Project Parade @ The DIY Showoff 

Monday

Meet Me Monday @ You Are Talking Too Much

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Made by you Monday @ Skip to my Lou

Time to Shine @ A Diamond in the Stuff

Tuesday

Tip Me Tuesday @ Tip Junkie

The Inspiration Board @ Homework

Turning the Daunting Into the Do-able @ Project Queen

Wednesday

Show & Share @ Southern Lovely

Crafty Sasse Wednesday @ The Sasse Life

Thursday

Crafty Scrappy Happy

Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Creek Cottage

Thrifty Decorating

Friday

Tickled Pink @ 504 Main 

The Shabby Nest

Remodelaholic 

Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Saturday

Show and Tell Saturday @ Be Different Act Normal

Saturday Night Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

Sunday

Sunday’s Best @ My 1929 Charmer