{...some inexpensive wall art!}

For my first ever gallery wall, I wanted to mix in something fun with the photos. Scrounging around the house, I found a plain wood plaque in my craft room stash. I had purchased a package of stencils from Hobby Lobby a few months ago. Using black and white craft paint, I taped off the plaque and painted. Once dry, I applied the stenciled image with a stencil brush, using a pouncing motion. I considered applying some poly, or wax, or sanding the piece to distress it...but then decided I like it just the way it is.

This hallway is right next to my dining room where the dominant colors are black and white. Before pics would've been too embarassing. ;) I removed the blue plaid wallpaper that was on the top portion of the walls. The wood paneling along the bottom was oak. I primed and painted it to match the wall color in my dining room. Next, the hubs tore out the old blue carpet that had been there for 20 years. He installed a floating wood laminate floor - and can I just add here how much I love this floor? Holy geez...all you need to do is swiffer this thing and you are good to go. :)

For my other no-cost piece of wall art, I gorilla glued a pretty white plate (Pier One purchase, last year) to a black dinner plate. Fancy Pants letter stickers spell out "Family".

I'm really happy with the way this narrow hallway turned out.

Linking up @At Home w/K's Terrific Under Ten Tuesdays.

Thanks for stopping by! patti

{...a twine covered lamp & shade}

Twine is one of my favorite scrapbooking embellishments. I love the old fashioned charm that it adds to any project. Brown/white twine from The Twinery was used to cover this five dollar lamp I picked up last fall at Walmart. Five bucks for a lamp? Okay then. :) I use it in my craft room for a bit of extra task lighting.
To cover the lamp base, I began with a dab of glue placed at the top, while winding the twine around the entire lamp -- all the way down to the bottom. I randomly placed small dabs of glue as I went along - not entirely covering the lamp with glue. The process took about 3 hours.
A plain shade just didn't work. I knew I wanted to paint the shade. Using brown, sky blue and white Folk Art paint, I taped off the rows and got to the painting. When dry, my scrapbooking friends, Kelly & Marti suggested I add twine to the shade. Hesitant at first...I decided I liked it once it was done. :)

Lit...

It's different and looks pretty in my craft room. {I love it.}

I've gotten a jump start on my spring cleaning this year! Last week, I cleared out my craft room to paint the walls, shelving and closet doors. The shelving is lime green and the walls are light turquoise. So springy! It is looking fresh and everything is organized. Love that! We're now waiting for our wood laminate flooring to arrive so that the hubs can remove the old gray carpet in there and replace it with clean flooring. :)
I'm sharing my lamp at Every Creative Endeavor, Tatertots and Jello's week-end wrap up party and at Domestically Speaking's Countdown to Spring. Thanks for stopping by!

hugs, patti