The Lavender Tub: December 2012

Monday, December 17, 2012

1929 Breakfast Room

If you've been following The Lavender Tub for long, you know that we are in the process of getting our 1929 Prairie Style home ready for market. As we get a room "show" ready, I've been posting pictures to share the character and beauty of this old home. With that said, I'd like to invite you to visit our Breakfast Room. C'mon, this way......

Thanks for stopping by the tub!

Ellie

Friday, December 14, 2012

Mary and Baby Jesus

It's Christmas season! Wow, can this time of year get busy.

I've been crafting up a storm and haven't posted much in the last couple of days, but I should have some things to share soon.

Until then, I thought I'd share this Mary and Baby Jesus picture from the Graphics Fairy, found here.

I love the Nativity and have collected some stunning sets over the years. They are really the only think I like to collect, but I'm pretty particular about how they look. It just doesn't feel right when the figures look European, and Mary and the Christ child have blond hair. I must have shared my disdain with my children, because when they made this nativity for me a few years ago, they made sure to point out that everyone was painted Biblically accurate per their understanding. That made me sooo happy!

So, while I liked the image above - I decided Mary and Baby Jesus needed to look a little less fair. Here is my remake of the above image:

Now, to make some cards or ornaments.......

I'll update this post when I do.

Thanks for stopping by the tub,

Ellie

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Heirloom Stockings and 101 Dalmations

When my children were very young, we decided it would be fun to let each person in our family choose the fabric and embellishments for their own stocking. Now, when you give this kind of freedom and choice to a 3 year old little boy, you shouldn't be surprised when their stocking looks something like this:

At the time, I tried to talk him into something a little more classic and traditional, but that kind of stuff doesn't appeal to a little boy. So, a bright pink 101 Dalmations stocking it was! I'm sure it will not surprise you that that same little boy was begging me to make him something different a few years down the road. Oh how that bright pink stocking stood out from the rest - but I wouldn't have changed it for the world. It was so fun letting him pick what he liked at 3. I did allow him a re-do a few years ago, and this is his stocking now:

He went more traditional this time, but notice we did have to add a patch for his future college. He is reading over my shoulder as I write and wants to make sure everyone understands that he does not use the pink stocking anymore! Ha, Ha!

Here are some of the other unique stockings we hang on our mantel:

I'm anxious to make a new stocking for my grandbaby, but she is only 7 months old and I want her to be able to choose her own fabric. Until then, she can use the teddy bear stocking that her other uncle refuses to use anymore. Why do they have to grow up so fast?

If making stockings is something you would like to do for your family and you need some help, please leave a comment and let me know. I can post a tutorial.

Thanks for stopping by the tub,

Ellie

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Picmonkey - Fun Craft/Photo Effects For Free

To create this Vintage Clock Upcycle found here,

I used a couple of different images from The Graphics Fairy and combined them using Picmonkey.

Picmonkey is a free photo editor that anyone can access to edit their own pictures. If you go to picmonkey.com - you can upload your picture of choice, edit it, and then save it to your computer.

There are also fun edits you can make to free images from sources like The Graphics Fairy. For example, here are a couple of images I downloaded from her site -

- and combined to create this custom image :

To create my custom design, I started with the french label and then used the Overlays in Picmonkey to block out everything I didn't want to keep. I used a combination of rectangles and ovals, and placed them over top of the wording.

On the pop-up editor that pops up when you add an Overlay, I then changed the black shapes to white. If there are still some small areas that need to be removed, you can go into Touch Up and use the Clone feature to fix them. Just be sure to click on a clean spot on the picture to be the source, and then click on top of the spot to be removed. I think you'll get the hang of this with a little practice.

At this point, I saved the image back to my computer. I might want to use the label empty like this sometime, but, also, it makes it cleaner to work with when I add more overlays. In other words, I won't have to worry about graphic boxes overlapping and moving images from front to back, etc.

To add the 2nd image to the first, I went into Overlays and at the very top - I clicked on Your Own. Picmonkey should pull up your pictures from your computer. Select your Graphics Fairy image from wherever you happened to save it. Once the tub appeared as a sticker on top of my label, I manipulated its size by dragging the corner of the image frame and positioned it on the label where I wanted it. Using the pop-up editor, I changed the color of the tub from black to the same lavender of the label. The color was still a little intense, so I used the Fade slide to tone it down a bit. Finally, I added some text using the Text button, and my custom label was complete.

This is the same method I used on the cold creme clock face. By removing the border of the clock face and saving it back to my computer, I could then pull it up as on Overlay to place on top of the cold cream label. After positioning it in place, I simply lightened the color of the Roman Numerals by using the color guide and the Fade slide button. Once I saved it back to my computer, I was able to insert this new image into a Word document and print it whatever size I needed.

I am certainly NOT a techy person - at all - so if this is clear as mud, I'm so sorry. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will do my best to answer them. Or, if you have comments as to better ways to achieve these results, I welcome those, too!

I hope you will play around with Picmonkey and see what you come up with. I edit all of my pictures there, and I'm finding so many fun new ideas to craft with.

Final thoughts: If you print with the intent to decoupage, I would suggest printing a sample first to see if the decoupage medium smears your ink. Also, I would think you could upload your new image to Walgreens, etc., to get picture quality to craft with.

Thanks for stopping by the tub!

Ellie

Parties I Will Be Linking To:

Sunday - The Sunday Showcase Party at Under The Table and Dreaming, DIY Project Parade at The DIY Showoff

Monday – Brag Monday at The Grapics Fairy Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Tuesday - Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife,

Wednesday - Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style,

Thursday - Open House Party at No Minimalist Here, Catch As Catch Can at My Repurposed Life