friends are the family you choose

hello!
did you have a lovely weekend?
mine was nice and quiet with a mix of resting, church and shopping.

today i wanted to share an altered canvas i made back in the fall for my friend. one of her favorite sayings is "friends are the family you choose" and i wanted to incorporate that into a gift for her birthday. she had hinted before at wanting an altered canvas so i thought that would be the perfect gift. the winter before we ended up at church wearing very similar outfits and so i decided to incorporate that pic into the canvas. here is the pic from that weekend.

i took the pic and printed it out on just regular copy/printer paper to use as a loose template for the clothing styles. i was really happy with how it turned out and she immediately recognized that i'd used the pic as inspiration for this gift!

- jess

usa project

do you like to travel?  i really do.  for as long as i can remember i was traveling someplace.  my grandparents lived in michigan (where i was born) but my parents and i lived in arkansas so from the age of 7 i spent my summers up there... my last summer up there i was 16.  and from the age of 14-17 at the end of may i would go on school trips to international competitions for ace (accelerated christian education).  it feels odd now if i go too long without some kind of road trip.

so for a couple of years i have been wanting to make some kind of piece to show all the states that i have visited.  i bought a cork board about a year ago and have been looking for just the perfect map to mount to it ever since.  then i ran across these pre-cut state pieces from studio calico.  hello!...perfect.  in fact, so much so that i'm not the only one to think of using it for this project.  amazing how great minds think alike!

it was super easy to put the pieces together and i was amazed that they fit so well on the cork board that i had already purchased.  i used my atg to stick them to the cork.  not sure if this will hold them on permanently but i guess i'll see!

i had a few decorative pins and then "borrowed" some from my mom's sewing stash to use.  i sat down and made a list of all the states and towns that i had visited.  then i just pulled up google maps to get an approx location for each of the cities.  i was going to put tags on each pin listing the city, but i thought that would look too cluttered.  i'm liking just having the pins for now.  however i am thinking of adding some kind of small envelope w/ like journaling cards to list each city, year and reason for visit.

there are a few states that i don't have pins in taht i have technically been to.  but it's just states that i passed through on my way to another state and didn't stop there besides spending the night in a hotel or grabbing something to eat.  so for this project i chose not to include them.

part of this project is to encourage myself to get out and visit the remaining states i haven't visited.  in case you can't tell from the pics, i've been to 16 states and have also been to washington d.c.

here are the 16 states i've visited:
arizona - flagstaff, grand canyon, phoenix
arkansas - too many to list!
florida - destin, panama city, orlando, cocoa beach
illinois - mt carmel
iowa - des moins
kansas - wichita
kentucky - benton, paducah, shepherdsville
michigan - trenton, detroit, warren, sterling heights, port huron, sault st marie, most northern point (unsure of city name)
missouri - branson, kansas city, st. louis, columbia
new mexico - carlsbad, santa fe
new york - niagara falls
north carolina - high point
oklahoma - too many to list!
tennessee - memphis, nashville, knoxville, chattanooga
texas - dallas, tyler, san antonio
virginia - charlottesville, alexandria

~ jess

my niece's 12th birthday

my niece turned 12 back at the beginning of march.  as soon as i saw these jars on stephanie howell's blog, i knew i wanted to make a version for my niece.  only instead of just a few pieces of paper, i wanted to make a jar that would last her all year long.  it was sooo fun creating all these prompts...some are just sayings, like 'you are beautiful'...some are prompts to take pictures...some are prompts to help her family...some are prompts to pray for someone or help them...some are just fun prompts.

i will say it took much longer to create this project than i thought it would.  of course i did wait to the last minute like usual. ha!  i think it would be a fun gift for friends or adults too!

i also created an altered canvas artwork piece for her bedroom.

~ jess

...{...wedding shower gift...}...

friday night i went to a wedding shower for a cute young couple at my church.  they are getting married on 11/11/11...what a fun date for a wedding!  both of them are such sweet people and i wish them all the best!

for years now i have been creating canvas art for gift at church showers and birthday parties and now they expect them ;-)  used to the canvas' i created were more like a scrapbook layout, in that they featured a picture and embellishments.  but now that i've been working on the paper-pieced and painted figures, that's the only style i've been creating.  so for their gift, i had to make them one too!

hexagons make good lanterns ;-)

~ jess

...{...rachel's canvas and card...}...

friday could not get here fast enough for me this week. try as i might, i was never able to get in bed before midnight most of this week, so i am really looking forward to sleeping in saturday morning!

wednesday was the 18th birthday of a dear friend of mine from church, rachel.  and as i learned this week, she shares that date w/ a lot of people in the us as it's the #1 day to be born.  anywho... :-) i decided to make her one of the canvas girls.

i love all the yummy textures

rachel LOVES coach purses so i wanted to incoporate that into the design

that's a strip of washi tape!...

look closely and there is more washi tape above the lanterns

what's a birthday w/o a birthday card!?!

my favorite combination is to mix floral and animal print...of course a dash of sparkle is nice too

rachel really seemed to like it and especially the fact that i'd incorporated a coach purse ;-)
~ jess