I had the best birthday weekend ever! My sister came to town on Friday evening and we went out to dinner (one of the Jonas Brothers was a table over from us with a bodyguard and a date... it was almost as exciting as my birthday). Ha!
I got to hang out with RonChops ALL DAY Saturday (something we have not done much of lately because of our respective jobs)... when we woke up on birthday morning he hugged me and whispered "happy birthday" right off the bat (he knows I gobble that kind of thing up)!!!
Then Sunday we had a swim party at our house with my parents and sister... BBQ and yummy cake for dessert! It was FABULOUS! Somehow in the middle of ALL that I managed to work up a project to share today! I am pretty excited about it!
Enough with the chitter chatter Lolly old pants... get on with it already!
I saw a zinc wall art circle thingy last week on Making it Lovely that I just about fell in love with (on-the-spot). You can see it in this post HERE. It's really a modern art piece but I was inspired to do something else... entirely different!
Barnyard Circle Wall Art Thingy
The base for this project is an old particle board table top!
(if you are old like me... you might remember these from the late 80's)
These tables had 3 legs and were normally covered with a nice frilly ruffle table cloth / skirt thing.
It was a bear to adjust the skirt cause it got caught on the particle board edges...
(is it coming back to you yet???)
Oh how I miss those times!
**snort**
Well the 80's are over so it's time to get that fella out of the attic get crafty with it!
I unscrewed and removed the leg holder things and nailed a little picture hanger to the back...
(my grandpa gave me that little hammer and I love it to pieces!!!!)
I sprayed that fancy table top with Killz in a can!
(it's the most amazing stuff EVER!!!)!!!
One coat and I was ready to go!!!
I used October Afternoon papers (all different collections)!
Then I cut out a few circles...
(for all the newbies out there... when Lolly says a few... she really means a few hundred)
So in reality it was something like...
19 different papers in (forgive me) 6 different sizes (remember that I love you all)...
...with roughly 8 of each size (schmooch).
I am not good at math... but trust me... that's a LOT of circles!
You guys are still with me right?????
Guys?????
This is where I usually loose everyone...
Before I started my circle cutting extravaganza...
I did a little prototype to make sure it was gonna look like I had envisioned it.
It looked ok so I forged ahead and then started cutting out 367 (thousand) circles.
I glued the biggest circles (2.5 inchers) down to the table top with a wet glue.
I wanted to make sure they were gonna stay on there good!
Once I had all of the larger circles covering the base...
(don't worry about the gaps cause you are gonna cover them all up!)
I started using 3 dimensional adhesives to lay the other circles over the top...
(I used all different brands... pop dots, zots, MS pop dots, American Crafts pop dots...)
(I used TONS of the stuff... tons I tell ya)!
I just keep on truckin' and layering circles...
Once you have exhausted your entire supply of 3 dimensional adhesives...
...and part of your Moms supply as well...
You will have something that looks like this...
(only not as over exposed as mine is I hope)
I was honestly gonna stop here...
But RonChops (the official chief craft inspector) took one look at it and thought that it looked kinda plain...
He actually said (this is a direct quote here folks)...
"So what are you gonna put on top of it... it looks kinda plain..."
PLAIN ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?
(6,423 circles and 7,426 pop dots and the man thinks it looks PLAIN????)
(I hate it when he's right!)
So I decided to add something else to it...
Thus enters the animals part of the project...
October Afternoon has a piece of paper in one of their collections that's covered in animals.
It's from their "Farm Fresh" line and it's called "Farmyard"
(fitting... right???)
I decided to replicate those animals in Adobe Illustrator and then turn them into .svg files I could cut with my Cricut and SCAL!
(and I am gonna share all the files I made with you towards the bottom so hang tight)
Soooo.... here we go...
We have Mr. ChickenChops...
He has a chicken body, chicken legs, chicken eyes, a chicken beak and a chicken wing!
(all separate .svg files)
All chicken. All the time.
bock... bock... bock!
Then I made a sheep... Ole SheepChops...
(aka LambChops)
Only once I cut him out he was rather plain and unsheepified...
So I cut cotton balls in half (cut side facing up) and glued them to his little sheepy body.
I think he looks rather sheepish now don't you???
Here we have PigChops...
...and for his little PigChops hooves...
I made "straps" with white pieces of paper and glued them to the feet and legs...
...soooo...
You have perfect little pigs feet!
I also sprayed his little piggy body with some Shimmerz Spritz in the color "Bed of Roses"...
I think that gave him some pigtastic depth... don't you?!?!?!
Nextly...
I painted chipboard letters with....
Whew... a project just isn't a project without the tangy zip of teal right???
(or is that miracle whip...)
I also made a little fence too!
(the .svg files for the fence are at the bottom as well)
...I inked the edges and stuck the pickets together with green brads!
Then I stuck the fence to the board and started arranging animals and letters...
...here an oink there an oink everywhere an oink oink!!!
I cut off the edges of the fence and kinda rounded them in the shape of the board...
Then I played around with arranging animals and letters again...
(I kinda liked "friends" down there but the animals were hanging off the bottom too much)
EIEIO!
I did not like how the letters blended with the board so I tried some different finishes...
(clockwise from left... MS glitter bead ball things, diamond dust and diamond glaze)
(and teal... which is utterly fabulous of course!!!)
Here is a close-up of the top...
...and a close-up of the bottom!
...and a pic with my now standard brick back drop...
I dunno about the letters for "friends"
I think they blend too much?!?!?!
UPDATE:
I am thinking about changing the letters to black and making the fence posts darker...
...once I saw these pics I realized there was just not enough contrast!!!!
What do you guys think????
I am torn and don't know what to do!!!!
(calgon... take me away!)
ACK!!
...and in case you have a Circut and SCAL you can cut the animals out yourself...
(just a heads up... this is a .zip file with all of the animal pieces grouped by color and placed in individual .svg files )
...or you can just print the files, cut them out and trace them onto any paper you like!
I looooove October Afternoon and these papers were a blast to work with!
I think this little project would look awesome in a kids room don't you???
That's all folks! I hope you enjoyed today's project!
I'll be back next week with who knows
what...???
(hopefully a Sizzix video... poor RonChops has been working a LOT
lately so he's had no time to do the editing for us)!
More HUGS than you can stand!!!
P.S. I am waaaaay behind on comments and email! I hope to be able to ketchup this week! Pretty please bear with me!
P.S.S.T. My owl bag class has been scheduled! You can choose between purple or teal!
It's going to be at 10:30 am on Saturday, July 10 at Scrapper's Boutique, North Richland Hills, TX (817-503-0777)!
(I posted the wrong date on my FB!!!)
I hope to see you there!
I will also have owl bag kits for sale as well! I'll post the details as soon as they are available.
Last thing I swears... I have been asked to join Donna Downey's design team!!!!!! I'll share more on that later! WOO HOOT!
