I'm BAAAAACK!!! A Little This; a Little That; and a Crafty Project Tutorial...

Hello, friends! I know, I know, it has been waaaay too long since I've written a post, and I've missed sharing crafty projects, recipes and tidbits of my Oklahoma life with you all. So sorry that I've been out of the blogging loop lately...I've just been SUPER BUSY with work and family, so I haven't had time to work on anything crafty or even cook anything spectacular. I haven't even had the time to read many of my favorite blogs...but I am now getting back into the swing of things!

As many of you know, my son Justin purchased his first home last month. Mike and I are so excited and proud of him! He is now officially moved in and really enjoying being a homeowner at last. I've had a blast helping him organize and decorate his new home. It's consumed a lot of my time and creative energy these past few weeks...and I have LOVED every minute of it!

Last Saturday was the opening morning of deer (rifle) season here in OK, so my hubby spent a cold afternoon sitting in a deer stand waiting for a buck. He was very fortunate to harvest a 180 lb., 9 point buck just before the sun went down! Here's a photo of my happy hunter and his buck:

While Mike was hunting on Saturday, I decided to carve out a little time to make something for my dear friend Megan F. She is a SUPER sweet gal, always doing nice things for those around her and willing to go the extra mile to lend a helping hand. Friends like her don't come along very often, and I am very blessed to have her in my life!

Megan is a very family oriented gal, so I decided to make a project for her using photocopies of some family pics that I lifted from her FB page. Here's what I came up with:

I started out with a wooden letter F that was painted black. I then printed black and white photos of Megan's family onto regular copy paper:

I then trimmed the photos to fit onto the letter F and applied the photos to the F using a generous amount of Mod Podge:

Once the Mod Podge dried, I then dry brushed a little Wicker White acrylic paint around the outer edges of the F:

Once the paint dried, I used some tacky glue to attach the F to a round, wooden frame with a burlap background that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I then added some fun elements to the burlap background, such as a little bird's nest with 3 little blue speckled eggs which represent Megan's 3 kiddos. I also added a little paper heart, flower, button, key, lace, and leaves. I attached tiny typewriter key letters to spell their last name, "Fitzpatrick", and then topped it off with an organza ribbon and a black metal plate stand to display it. Here's another look at how it turned out:

Although I purchased this frame, which already had the burlap background, I really think that a wooden embroidery hoop could be painted to create a similar look. It would be pretty easy to attach burlap to the hoop, simply by spraying a piece of cardboard that has been cut to the right size with adhesive and then attaching burlap. The burlap circle could then be glued to the back of the hoop, and then decorated to your liking.

Thanks so much for dropping by today! I'll be working on some fun things while I'm on Thanksgiving break this week...so be sure to check back to see what I'm up to! :)

Wishing you a blessed day,