the writing is on the wall.....

A few weeks ago I showed you how I made this:

Remember?

I had a custom stencil made at Wallwords.

Well the good people at Wallwords caught wind of how much I LOVE their products, so they sent me a $50 gift certificate to give away!!!!

FIFTY BUCKS!

They have wa-a-a-ay more than stencils.

Do you have any idea how cool their stuff is???

You can either buy one of their popular quotes, or have them make you a custom one.

They have loads of fonts and colors to choose from - the sky's the limit!

They can even curve it to fit an arch.

 And don't get me started on the graphics...

...the monograms.

...faux windows!

  

For your inner rocker....

...or cowgirl. 

You can apply them anywhere - they're vinyl!



I could go on and on about how much I love Wallwords.

How inspiring they are.

How personalized they are.

How easy they are to apply.

But I think you would rather hear about this giveaway.

Here's what you do:

Simply dream up your own clever idea for a quote, and leave it as a comment here. I will pass it on to the team at Wallwords and have them pick the most original and/or inspiring quote.

You have ONE WEEK to enter.

As a bonus, I am going to pick a random winner who will win a vinyl decal, 8.5" x 4" that says:

Let Heaven and

Nature Sing...

in gold!

So put your thinking caps on and go to Wallwords to get inspired.

Come back next Thursday, December 16 to find out if you won!

And don't forget to join me on Monday for the next

Have fun!

xoxo

(Killer) White Chocolate popcorn for White Wednesday!

The following easy recipe will make you the most popular kid on the block.

I'm not joking.

Here's all you need...

Pop two bags of your favorite microwave popcorn.

(you can do it the old fashioned way - you'll have to make two batches)

After the popcorn is completely popped, dump it into a large mixing bowl.

Melt one 12 -14 oz. package of vanilla Candy Melts (or Melt 'N Molds or whatever Safeway or Michaels has on sale) in the microwave slowly.

The key here is to melt it in 30-second increments.  After each 30-second round, stir - back in for 30 seconds, stir - you get the idea...until every morsel is melted.

After about four 30-second rounds (2 minutes total) it looks like this:

Immediately pour over popcorn and mix together thoroughly.

Cool for at least an hour.

(If you are impatient like me, you can throw it into the fridge)

I bag it up in cellophane bags for gifts...



bowl - $1 Walmart! bags: 16/$4.99 Michaels!



 ...but the greatest thing about this treat is putting a bowl of it out and watching people's eyes roll back in their head when they first taste it.

looks innocent enough.....

You see, it looks like regular old popcorn, so the look on your friends faces when they eat this stuff is worth the price of admission.

The Eighth Wonder of the World.

Oh yeah, and come prepared with the recipe - you're going to get requests.
(I believe it was my good friend Beth who gave me the recipe)

This stuff is like crack cocaine.

The first one's free....

I'm linking to Faded Charm today for White Wednesday!

If I were you, I'd jump on over there to check out all the pretties!

Bon appetit!

xoxo

smoke and mirrors II ~ or how to stretch your dollar to get the biggest bang for your buck.

About a year ago at this time, I wrote about a set I designed when I was Visual Arts Director at a church in California. 

For those of you new to this blog, you can read more about it HERE.

 

This year, I am back at it again, but this time in the role of a volunteer. I am now part of the creative team at Lake City Community Church in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I was asked to design a set for the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve that would be less thematic and more generic. - one that would fit the moderate budget and could be reused throughout the year. The lobby would give everyone their traditional Christmas fix, but when you entered the auditorium, it would be more abstract and theatrical.

So I went fishing around on the Internet and saw many grand designs.

The word "spandex" came up in several conversations....

As cool as it looks, it is a bit pricey.

designed by Duke Dejong (aka: The Duke of Spandex)

Then I remembered how cool that faux stained glass looked....

 designed by Patrick Fore from Journey Church in Norman, Oklahoma

But the printing and paper costs were a little high.

Then this caught my eye:

designed by Camron Ware

I bet you can't guess how that was done...

Smoke and mirrors baby.

This is where we started...

...and here is what we did:

Bought a roll of 5' wide Weed Block from Home Depot (about $100)

Cut several 30' lengths from it - I cut it 6' longer than required so it would "puddle" on the floor.

(I love my huge foyer - fondly nicknamed "the bowling alley")

Sewed a casing along the top edge of each panel.

We laid them all out on a lot of painter's plastic.

Using brooms of all kinds and a few gallons of cheap white semi-gloss paint we randomly "broomed" and dribbled the paint onto each panel.

It took five of us and almost no time at all - it requires a person on either end to hold the cloth taught.

Biggest concern ~ the paint seemed to soak into the cloth ~ would the treatment dry "opaque" enough for it to create the effect we wanted???

(To be completely honest, I went to bed that night a little freaked out ~ I had no Plan B...)
Moving on....

Using cheap conduit cut into 5' lengths, we hung them from the catwalk - the biggest decision here was how many to use - five or seven?

(design rule #1: always use odd numbers)

I decided on five.

Now comes the smoke and mirrors part...

The lighting crew!!!!!

All light is absorbed by the black landscape cloth, and only the paint is illuminated.

Cool, yes?

AND...we can change the mood of the room simply by the flick of a switch...

We can also use these panels at other times of the year, in different configurations and placement to create a completely new design.

A huge THANK YOU to Dennis, Tod, Patty, Myrna, David, and Ron for sharing your gifts and working your magic.
See ya in the pew....

xoxo