picture time

while i was pregnant a groupon popped up for a photographer and i snatched it up, thinking ahead to how i wanted pics of ryan and i with the new baby. flash forward (or backward, now) to when henry was about 2 weeks old and we became models.

sure, i wish i had lost at least as much weight as i have now, and henry didn’t have his baby acne (and while i like the photos i don’t love love them; i’m glad we didn’t pay full price for these), but i am grateful to have documented our new family and how tiny henry was – because several weeks later he has totally changed already.

what a cute little family of three are we

also: ha!

photos by gloss photography studio

{justine}

henry’s first vacation

a couple weeks ago we took our first mini vacation as a family, henry’s first. with my parents and siblings we headed to a family friend’s lake house a couple hours away for some swimming and relaxation. my family loved spending time with henry, henry loved the boat as it put him to sleep (and we did too – we  may need to buy a boat now, hehe), i loved having nothing to do but relax -  no to do list, and the weather was perfect. it was wonderful.

{cue photo overload}

{love their matching blue eyes}

summer vacations are the best! and so are babies in bathing suits

{justine}

 

personalized flocked art {diy}

sorry for the long absence. i don’t have any excuse except that i honestly don’t know where time goes. i hope to soon have a better handle on time management, but i’m not holding my breath. but here i am, and not with a post about henry. well, i guess in a way it is, because it’s artwork from his nursery, and literally says henry, but he’s not the focus. though i’m sure some people wouldn’t mind if it was.

as seen in his nursery reveal, henry has personalized artwork on his walls, made by moi.

here’s how i did it!

the supplies i used for this project include a canvas, flocking powder (i bought mine at michaels; it makes for a furry/velvety texture), mod podge, pencil (standard wood one, not a mechanical one as seen below), printout of chosen design (henry) and paintbrush.

first, on the back of my printed design (for the design, the simpler, less detailed the better), i shaded the outline with the side of my pencil.

i find doing it against a window is easiest. make sure the lines are well shaded, but you only need to do the outline.

i then carefully placed my design on the canvas right-side up and traced the outline with the pencil.

this will result in a light outline of the design on the canvas (although very hard to see below).

then i filled in the design with mod podge, followed by a layer of flocking powder, one letter at a time. then i tapped off the excess.

(remove those lumps seen in the pic above)

after one layer, i saw where i missed spots, and found i didn’t do a thick enough glue layer.

i simply did a second layer right on top, which helped but it still wasn’t completely filled in yet.

after three it was sufficiently covered. then i used a clean paintbrush to brush away some errant powder to clean up some of the lines.

bam. done.

this was my first time using flocking powder, and i liked it! it was a quick project (that perhaps would have been quicker if i had done a thicker, more precise layer of glue first, or used a stencil taped down) that resulted in personalized artwork for my little man’s nursery. and because it’s a kid’s space, i think the velvety, furry texture is perfect – it can be fun for him to touch, like the touch and feel books.

now i need to figure out what else to do with the rest of my flocking powder. i’m thinking diy cards with some double stick alphabet letters i picked up…

have you used flocking powder before? any suggestions on another project to use it for?

{justine}