When Maris was born, I ferociously entered the world of scrapbooking. I loved collecting the papers, documenting the stories and crafting the layouts. By the time Jack arrived, less than 3 years later, I had already completed 2 enormous books of Maris' first 1000 days. When Jack was a few months old, I started back to work part-time and my free time, allowing for the craft, all but ceased to exist.

The guilt that ensued with only having those 2 books and not having even 1 completed scrapbook for my Jack has lingered for the past 14 years and will probably bother me always. Maybe that is why I now have my camera with me 99% of the time and take pictures of my kids and their friends constantly. I include them in my blog posts so maybe this can serve as some sort of 'scrapbook' of their tween and teen days. {oh, the guilt!}  I love personal art crafted from momentos and that is the inspiration behind todays project. 

 

It's hard to see in the above image, but Maris was given a little Court pin for Homecoming. It's on her left lapel, under a curl. Rather than just throw it in a drawer at the end of the night, I wanted to do something special with it.

I laid her jacket on the bed and slid the gold necklace inside the lapel, trying to mimic the way it fell while she wore it. I took a picture of it and then made a 5x7 print on my copier.    

     

 

 I have a bin of frames that I have collected over the years and found the perfect one that apparently came from TJ Maxx. It is 6x6 and is an inch thick {a shadowbox type frame was needed}. I cut out the copy to 6x6 to fit in the frame.  

 

 

 

I slipped it back in the frame and set it in her room.

 

 

She loves it and now we have a sweet reminder of such a special year...

This would also work great if your child has received a patch, a ribbon or a badge! What have you framed that is special to you? I would love to hear!    

 

 

Welcome!! I am so glad you are here! It's an exciting day as MyColor inspired by Pantone is launching a little par-tay and some great bloggers are sharing the projects that they have all completed using the paint. Make sure you visit all the other blogs to see the other projects: 

 

 

1. Kristen @ Kristen F. Davis Designs *Go Back to the Beginning!*
2. Caroline @ The Feminist Housewife
3. Julie @ Belle Maison
4. Denise @ Pink Postcard
5. Suzan @ Simply Vintageous
6. Shannon @ Shannon Berrey Design Blog *You Are Here!*

 

{and just a little side note -- my friend Kristen just happens to be THE face and blogger of the line! Her pretty face is all over it! How cool is that??} 

Wondering just what Pantone is?? Glad you asked. Read on..

 In 1963, Lawrence Herbert, Pantone's founder, created an innovative system of identifying, matching and communicating colors to solve the problems associated with producing accurate color matches in the graphic arts community. His insight that the spectrum is seen and interpreted differently by each individual led to the innovation of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM®, a book of standardized color in fan format.

If the thought of selecting the perfect purple or the best blue from the 100's of paint chips in your paint store is terrifying, then you will love this line! The colors are carefully selected and pre-mixed and come in clear 35-oz containers that are perfect for small projects. They have ultra low VOC so I didn't even detect an odor while I was painting.

     

  

   

This was my first time using the paint and since I paint alot, I am always excited to try new products. I decided to give it a go on a pair of antique tables that I bought to use in a clients bedroom.

 

 

This was the picture that I sent to my client, who is 9 by the way, and her mother, for approval. We are giving her a new bedroom and I thought these would be perfect bedside tables. They agreed. Fyi--they look way better in the picture than they did in real life. Nothings worse than a bad distressed paint job and these were toting just that. The paint had even been slapped on the pretty brass hardware. sigh.

 

 

I removed the hardware and sanded most of the paint off with a palm sander. Since the paint is self priming, I got to skip a step and covered them with Seed Pearl which is a really nice warm white with just a touch of gray.

 

My clients only request -- she wanted a pink and orange color scheme {a girl after my own heart :) } After the Seed Pearl was dry, I opened up my Scarlet and Carrot. 

 

 

This paint is thick and dries super fast. 

 

 

 

Using frog tape, I created about a 1 1/4" border {give or take - I eyeballed it}. I used the Carrot to fill in the border. 

 

 

Then I added just a touch of Scarlet to accent the legs. 

 

{after one coat}

 

I used more frog tape to create a chevron design on the drawer front. While that dried, I scraped off the original paint on the hardware with a wire brush.

 

 

Just for fun, I added a touch of Carrot to the top edge of the drawer. I love this simple little detail! 

 

 

 If you are regular reader of my blog, you probably recognize this as my daughters room. We are still painting my clients room so I couldn't get any pictures of the bedside tables in their 'forever home' so I let them pose in Maris' room for some 'after' shots.   

 

   

 

 

 

 

Need a great room of your own...call me!!! 

 If you’d like a chance to win 3 samples of MyColor™ inspired by Pantone^® for your own project, here's how:

1) Leave a comment below and share how you’d use it in a project. I will pick my winner on Friday {10/13) and I'll send you 3 colors of your choice. 

2) Leave a comment on the other blogs in the party too – they’ll all be giving away samples.

3) Tweet your project ideas to @MyColorPaints using hashtag #PassItOn.

4) Check out and like the MyColor™ inspired by Pantone® Facebook page to get access to the schedule for today’s parties as well as the rest of the parties going on this month. Share your project ideas there for one more chance to win.

 …………………………………………………

 Contest closed -- Congrats to Grey!

MyColor™ inspired by Pantone^® reached out to me to participate in the MyColor™ inspired by Pantone^® Painting Party. My post represents my honest experience with MyColor™ inspired by Pantone^® paint. I am not being paid for my answers, but I did receive MyColor™ inspired by Pantone^® paint to use for this project.

 

 

So many small apartments and homes are lacking architectural details. And it's these details that give a space interest and personality. For folks who are renting, adding their own crown moldings and replacing flat hollow doors usually isn't an option. 

 

TV show producer and blogger, Janet Lee moves a lot {think 12 times in the last 20 years}. Right inside the front door of her current studio apartment is a prominent closet with folding doors. Their 'blahness' bothered her. She wanted to add some impact and painted them a bright chartreuse yellow. Then she bought some stretcher bars.

 Stretcher bars are what artists use to make their own canvas. They are the back support over which the canvas is stretched and then stapled to. They come in different lengths, are inexpensive {at about 60 cents a foot}, are very lightweight, and they are mitered so they slide together. No cuts necessary!   

 

 

After she made her squares and rectangles out of the stretcher bars, she gave them a coat of the same yellow. She then attached Command Brand large picture hanging strips and within minutes those doors were transformed!  

 

  

When she moves, she pops them off, along with the strips, and she reuses them in her next space.

 Janet just recently released a book where she shares her amazing inexpensive DIY's, Living in a Nutshell. I can't wait to get a copy!

 

 

Maris didn't decide what she was wearing to homecoming until the night before. Which meant that we had to find shoes the day of, in a town that has 1 shoe store...Shoe Show. Not the ideal place to find fancy designer kicks, but, it will hardly put a dent in your wallet.

  As soon as the talent show was over, we took off in search of a chunky-healed, any color, size 10, shoe. Even though she wanted bright blue. 

 

 

We spotted these chunky-heels within seconds. A skinny heel would make it impossible to walk across the football field without her leaving the shoes out on the field. These fit the bill. Oh, and speaking of bill--a mere $19.99. At 3:45, we were on our way home.

 

  

I grabbed this paint that was the perfect match to her blazer and applied 3 coats {using the hairdryer between each coat} Because she had to be at the school for pictures at 5:30, I didn't stop to take pictures of this part!

{the color is a little off with the filter I used in editing--they really are 'spot on' color wise!} 

They weren't completely dry when she was ready to go. I told her to wait and put them on when she got there. It's how we roll, peeps. And once again, this paint came through for us! Even though we didn't let them cure at all for any kind of appropriate time, there wasn't even a scratch 5 hours later.

And while we were checking out at Shoe Show, we saw some cute little neon color-blocked purses.   

 

Maris' volleyball team has 'secret sisters' and for all home games, they give 'their sisters' little gifts. At the beginning of the season they went around the circle and gave ideas on what they liked. Maris' ss loves neon. We liked the 6$ price tag and I knew I could personalize it a bit, so we grabbed one.   

Using the same paint as above, I got started. 

To give you an idea of it's cute size!

 

{Just in case you missed my other painted shoe posts, feel free to click here and here.}