Once you are done, add a finishing seam to any areas that you feel may come loose in wear, the edges are pretty simple to add a quick finished seam on your sewing machine with.

• Adornit- Choose Happy Wood Blank 
• Adornit- Art Play Paintables 
• Various Lace and Ribbons 
• Marvy Uchida- Easy Marker Chalkboard Paint Marker (permanent)
• Marvy Uchida- Decocolor Paint Pens (permanent)
• Marvy Uchida- Bistro Chalk Markers  (erasable)

To begin, use the EASY Marker Chalkboard Marker by Marvy Uchida. This is chalkboard paint in a pen and is super easy to apply.



Once your panel is completely covered in chalkboard pen, add on some Art Play pieces, these are feathers I cut from one of the Art Play sheets. Glue them down with Mod Podge.


 After they are dry, add on some permanent text with DecoColor water based acrylic paint pens.


  Thanks again for joining us all in this fun blog hop!

 Happy New Year!


With this new year in full swing I wanted to share with you a super quick idea to help you get organized.

I am sure I am not alone in saying that keeping up with active kids and a full family schedule is tough.

Year after year we have tried different types of calenders, white boards, booklets and such just to keep communication in our family open.

THEY NEVER WORKED... well for us that is.

I realized that rather than to try and keep our schedule, notes and appointments hidden or mobile, It would probably benefit us more if ALL of us had access and it was easily viewed by ALL. WIth just a few simple supplies, we created this statement style house hold calender. My favorite part of this project is that we use the Marvy Uchida chalk bistro pens (which do not leave dust like chalk). These are my new favorite find from 2014. They are AMAZING and actually make it into my artwork once in a while too.




 Create this gorgeous statement message board with just 3 items.

Black Board Panels

Marvy Uchida Bistro Chalk Pens-

Screws (and anchors if needed)

1) Preparation
To create this board, first find a wall that is at least 2 ft across. The panels are 2x3 feet making them a great size to use alone or add two together and make a larger board (as shown here).

After you remove your hardware and electrical outlet covers from the wall, layout your panels as you want them. To accommodate for these items, lightly rub your chalk pen along the opening of our outlet and press your board against it to create a marking on the back side of your panel.

2) Cut
Now that you have a marking on the backside of your board of where your outlets will be, take a saw and cut out these items. If you don't cut it exactly you can always place an inexpensive frame to help make the cut more appealing.

3) Glue and Screw
Now that your panels are ready, glue the panels onto the wall with wood glue (press firmly onto wall, remove then press again). Or if you don't want to panels to be permanent you can always just use screws. TIP: Make sure to screw your panels into studs if not use appropriate screw anchors to keep your boards from falling down.

*optional- You can also trim your boards with a little molding to help finish it off, we bought some with the intentions of doing so but were really happy with the way the boards looked just as they were.


Important Dates: This is where we put dates of things coming up, things that are not regular or any time soon but that will need to be remembered.


Store Shopping Lists: This takes up a part of our panel and is basically the place we write things that we run out of or need from different stores. I have about 4 or 5 stores written and we just write what we need from each store below each item

Dinner List: This is where our weekly meal plan goes. This is a super flexible plan as well, things hardly even go as planned lol. I also don't account for left overs so this always leaves me some meals to start the next week with. PLUS if I am not the one cooking, this gives who ever is cooking the idea of what to do for the that evening.


Weekly Schedule: Under each day of the week we write what our schedule is in our family color coded pen. We each have a different color pen so we can see our schedule and how it impacts others each week.

This also helps to know who left you the message because it will be written in their color of chalk marker.



Upcoming month appointments: This helps a TON to keep track of what is coming. These dates are in a holding pattern till the time they are to be put on the weekly schedule.


Family message board:This is a place to write messages to each family member... more or less it is a place for our families inside jokes or for my son to practice Japanese which is his new interest. In an ideal world it would be a great place to leave notes for family members when schedules get super busy... we just are not there, lol.



Doodle station: The doodle station is a place for the kids to just draw, leave funny quotes and just be themselves. It is hilarious the things we find there.

You can see just how easy it is to put this calender station up in your house. We have had this since June of 2014 and it has been a lifesaver. If you are wondering where you can find the pens, check out stores like Hobby Lobby, Art supplies stores, and even amazon. They are amazing around the house.

Thanks for checking in with us this year... I hope this calender gives you some good ideas on how to keep you and yours organized this year. Its definitely not fool proof, so we do have to constantly adjust for our family... but that is the beauty of it all. You just go with it, stay flexible and press on the course of life.

Make sure to check out my friends too!





This post is one of many that I will be doing this year for the theme THRIVE.

This year I will be sharing how the word THRIVE encouraged me to re-evaluate and organize my life. I will be sharing tips on how I work to THRIVE in family, relationships, community and in my art. I hope you'll join me. You can follow this as well as other free classes and tutorials through my facebook page (liz hicks studios), twitter (lizmhicks) instagram (liz_hicks) and tumbler (liz hicks) I use the following hastags for this.
 #thrivefamily #thrivecommunity #thriveart #pajwlh and #lizhicksstudios


Or you can sign up for our newsletter here!

Thanks again, and happy New Year to you and yours!

~Liz ♥

I am a HUGE fan of my projects serving a purpose in my home. I love when something I have creating can serve multiple purposes, it is kind of like multiple projects all wrapped into one! This tree garland is one of those projects... After the holidays this can easily be used in my daughters room decor all year long.



SUPPLIES:

Smoothfoam 1.5 inch balls
scraps of fabric in 1/8th to 1/4 INCH strips (these will be super thin)
glue gun for foam
scraps of lace, tulle and muslin for the spacers
optional: Clear thread

TIP: For this project, I used scraps of clearance fabric. This fabric was on clearance for $4 a yard at my local craft store, I maybe needed 1/8th of a yard so that puts each cut at about $0.50 each.

Step 1 Create Fabric Balls: (This is super duper easy...)
take your fabric and cut it into 1/8 to 1/4 strips. You can traditional cut with scissors or rip it for frayed edges. NOTE: try and keep your fabric strips thin as this will wrap easier.

I kind of have a thing for turning trash into treasure. I guess it comes from my environmentalist mom but every time I look at a jar, a lid or even a plastic yogurt container I often think of things I can reuse them for around the house...give them a second life.

Of course these ambitious ideas never really seem to fit time wise into my life so through the year I tend to grow a collection of items... well today I am putting them to work!


Using vinyl, cut out your designs. I used my ScanNCut and some of the built in snowflake and letter designs for this project. My machine settings were blade depth 2, preasure 2 and cut speed 1. Place the designs onto your clean glass surface. Contact paper offers the cleanest application.




Add a generous layer of etching cream to your glass and allow to process according to directions. I let it process for 15 minutes and used Etch-All etching creme.








Step 2: Colorize your jars

I use a turquoise permanent ink from Clearsnap to add some texture and color to the frosted glass. This helps to make the frosted glass pop with color and you can vary the saturation of the color just by adding more ink.



Step 3: Decorate and Display!


Add a little garland or tinsle to the top of your jars to cover up the lip of the jar and then display your jars with white tulle in them for day display.




Or instead of tulle, add some tealights for the dark to use these jars as luminaires.

These little recycled beauties are great night or day and can be created to be used all year around. These have a holiday twist but you can easily change the designs and make these work for any season. Its a great way to repurpose those jars and add a little style to your yard or home.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you will continue on the hop and use the link below to check out some more fun ideas to get creative during the holiday season.



Thanks again!

~ Liz Hicks ♥

Also, make sure to check out our this awesome giveaway that we are doing here on the blog. Click here on Creative DIY- Fall edition for more details.

Thanks for checking this out today! If you have any questions feel free to ask, Welding with ScanNCut is a lot of fun,  I would love to help if you need anything.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Liz Hicks