This post is sponsored by Art.com. Find your art and love your space with art.com's prints and museum-grade framing.
Decorate with photos you love with Art.com's
Photos to Art (they have
a sweet app for that, too).
Art.com provided me with the ability to take one of my photos and turn it into wall art. They print on canvas, paper, acrylic and can finish your new art with stretcher bars, wood panel or matte and frame. All this in a couple of clicks. They print art from 8x10 to 18x24, and you can print your photos straight from your phone using their new photos to art app (hello instagram pics!).
I took advantage of their canvas option, and it came out lovely. I was encouraged to choose something that had to do with travel. We've not really travelled much beyond visiting parents so I stole this image from my dad - my parents live in Charlotte and have so many fun adventures without us. Last time he came to visit, he told me about this serendipitous moment he had when the sun was setting and the geese were swimming across the lake at Cane Creek. Luckily he had his camera to capture this moment.
When the opportunity to take photos to art, my mind jumped directly to this as a Christmas gift for my Dad (the man who has everything and wants nothing). It's perfect. See, he's the one who taught me how to use a camera. Way back when, I was around 9 or 10, my parents would trade off Saturdays going out with us kids on "kid dates". We could choose what we wanted to do. One weekend we went to the local Aviary and my dad taught me all about his SLR, an old Nikon 2020. There have been several quiet moments like that since then where my dad has supported and encouraged my love and interest of art. And I feel like in some very small way this print signifies my gratitude for his support.
The encouragement to choose a travel-related photo to turn to art sparked another idea: make miniature art pieces with luggage tags. So I decided to make a luggage tag with a miniature version of his photo. Perfect for a tree ornament! I'll be using this as the gift tag for my dad's gift.
These are really quite easy. You can make them with quality paper, felt, pleather or leather. Hang these with your travel photos with the names of places or hang them as part of a miniature art gallery. Sew these pieces together or use glue for a no-sew project!
- leather
- scissors
- pattern (download below)
- tape
- sewing machine
- artwork
Tape pattern onto one piece of leather. Don't cut out the pattern perfectly and don't tape inside of your pattern line. Punch holes for corners.
Cut out your window.
Attach second piece of leather suede sides together and sew. Bulldog clips work great. Be sure to use sturdy thread and a leather needle. Use a long stitch length (4.5 +) and sew about 1/4-1/8 inch away from the pattern's edge.
Once you're done sewing, cut away excess.
Punch out your top hole and remove top paper. It's best if you use newsprint or a really flimsy paper to print out your pattern.
Measure from seam to seam and cut your artwork to size.
This tutorial or freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without the express consent of Melissa Esplin. I love getting shout outs from around the web, but please, link with love. You may publish 1 photo along with credit back to the original post, do not copy instructions. Never link directly to the download. If you would like to use this tutorial or freebie for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!
On my side of the family, we were in charge of giving to my younger sister and her husband. They'll be heading up here from Tuscan to celebrate Christmas and pick up their new puppy. So I thought I would make something appropriate for that. I lettered their names in frames (they can easily swap those out for photos), cut out an ampersand and made a leather collar for the new dog, Reese. I made a little tag with her name on it, but couldn't get it to attach to the buckle (hands too raw). Hopefully they can do that.
The ampersand is really hard to photograph, it's clear 1/4 inch acrylic, but I love it. I actually made two so I can keep one and give the other away. (selfish much?)
On Chris's side, I'm in charge of giving to my brother-in-law Steven and Chris was in charge of giving to my sister-in-law Rebecca. Steven just got his wallet stolen and absolutely loves bow ties so I made him a leather wallet (it's really thin!) and a leather bow tie out of the same leather I used for the wallet. I tried to tie the bow tie and didn't have much luck making it look good, but I'm terrible at tying fabric ones, I'm hoping he can get this one to look good. That was a bit of a gamble. He has also played a lot of guitar lately, so I got him Chris's favorite guitar tuner.
Rebecca is a great sewer. She's made some really beautiful quilts and clothes. Chris is a bit clueless in this arena so I took care of the present for him. This was fun. I made her an acrylic ruler and got her an etsy gift card.
What would I have done for the holidays without access to a laser cutter?! I want one all my own so badly.
How are your holidays wrapping up? What things have you made? Are you surprising anyone this year with something big? I hope all of you have a fantastic Christmas!
I'm afraid of 
The design is really basic, I hand lettered to and from on the front with a bunch of holly leaves on the back. Print it on any color paper and paint or keep it plain if you want! They're a really easy craft (and fantastic for wee ones looking to get crafty, too).
The lovely ladies from 
I've hung up two pieces in our house this week. That's pretty sad considering I have about 50 or more pieces all ready to hang. All of our artwork is just hanging out in a pile in a nook in my bedroom. It takes up quite a bit of space so there's not much room on my side of the bed. It's amazing how hanging art will make a house look lived in.
We have a very blank wall above the stairway. It's one of the first things you see when you walk into our home. It needed art on it badly. I had this vision in my head to do some lettering with all the nicknames we call each other and just fill the entire paper with those nicknames (kinda like 
I went through about 7 sheets trying to get it all perfect and this is the best that I came up with. I'm still not thrilled about it. But no matter. I've got loads of this paper, I'll just practice some more. It's not very hard to replace the art, either.
I like the idea of something about our little family and our names and having those words fill the page entirely, bleeding off the page behind the frame. What do you think? What should it say?
I didn't have to take in the shoulders, it just needed shorter sleeves and a narrower bodice. I took it in by about 2 inches on each side, and cut off about 3 inches of sleeve. It's a fantastic staple shirt that will go well with cardigans this winter, or with flowy skirts this summer.
I love the little keyhole in the back.
I'm pretty excited to party in my new shirt, can you tell?
Outfit details:
Saturday night I was having a hard time going to sleep, my mind racing with projects for the next month. I guess I needed something to unwind. So I made myself a 
There's something about brainlessly and successfully completing a piece that you can actually wear that I crave all the time. But I don't think I need a million of these in my closet. Only like 4 or 5. I found this fabric at fashionfabricsclub.com on super clearance. It's sort of an off-putting color scheme, but I still like it. The texture is great as is the stretch, lending itself perfectly to a tube skirt. I made 
I wonder if I'm the only one whose confidence waxes and wanes in one's own ability to sew (or DIY) a project. Does yours? I'm happy I finished this simple piece successfully. I'm hoping it'll give me the confidence I need to attack all the projects I'm brewing for Christmas break.
Outfit details:
I haven't quite decided where I'm going to put these newly awesome stools. I think they'll tend to float, because they're perfect for additional seating for parties, etc. They would look nice in our bay window in our Master Bedroom. I've got to get about 16 paintings out of the way before they can hang out there, though.
This project cost me less than $1 to make (hence the Zero Budget categorization). The fabric was $2 for 3+ yards and I used less than 1 yard to make this. Chris's brother was about to donate a perfectly good memory foam mattress topper, so I used the foam from that. Since it is memory foam, these cushions feel quite nice. I'm really happy about the transformation, but I'm not sure how Chris feels about it. He mentioned that the floral was a bit girly. Maybe so. But I think they're pretty rad. Read more for instructions on how to make your own.
I just slapped together these graphics. It's all pretty self-explanatory, but you'll need a sewing machine, possibly a drill and a staple gun to accomplish this. If you're a DIYer and you don't have these tools. GET THEM. You'll use them for everything. I have the 
Here's a completed logo I did back in October. Lauren from 
Here are some prelim sketch ideas we ran through. I tell all my calligraphy students my least favorite letters to write are C and D, but this was a really fun name to letter. B, r and y were my favorite parts.
Also, a little heads up, I'm offering a 
You can also print this on any kind of paper. I cut down some ikea wrapping paper and used that! I love the natural feel it gives. I would've used paper grocery bags, but I didn't have any on hand. I would recommend you print on a medium weight text stock so you can bend and pinch the paper with ease (28-80lb text stock - your local print shop will know what I mean).
Decorate your boxes with glitter ribbon, fancy brads, markers, paints, crayons or anything. This would be great for a family activity for neighbor gifts.
I do hope you get around to making a few of these this Christmas season! Read more for the download and step by step instructions for assembly.
You'll want to print it out on medium stock and cut out the design, it's 8 inches by 8 inches. Decorate as desired and turn design-side down.
Fold the bottom corner to the top 1/3 line. If you've printed on medium weight stock, you'll see a line where to fold. Repeat on top and bottom.
Fold sides in thirds as well. Be sure to nicely crease your paper with a bone folder or tongue depressor.
Fold out the diagonals by meeting one 1/3 line to the adjacent 1/3 line. repeat for all four corners.
Now meet those folded corners to the opposite 1/3 line.
As you meet the corners to the opposite 1/3 line, the paper will start to fold in and form the box. Repeat for the other side, meeting those corners on top of your previous corners.
Punch a hole through all the layers of paper. Use paper and brads or knotted string or ribbon to secure those fold together to form a box. Fill with goodies and give away.
This was our first rework with paint remover and a tinted stain, and it took somewhere around 30 hours to rework. The spindles were definitely the hardest. Perhaps that explains why I went for 
This rocking chair looks worlds better with its new stain, and since we did it right the first time, the finish has lasted 5 moves! This is exactly why taking an extra hour (or 20) makes a huge difference when reworking furniture.