Construction Site Portable Play Mat

My best creative ideas come when I am creating for someone I love. No doubt about it. My number one inspiration most days are my crazy love-able 3 year old twin boys. Last year for Christmas I made them these time intensive felt car mats. I love them, but  I'm not crazy about how the felt has held up (especially because I used velcro for the closure, take my advice and don't do that!). So for Christmas this year I thought I would try something new for the construction site play mat I wanted to make them: designing my own fabric and having it printed by Spoonflower!

Sound crazy? Well it was really. Designing the fabric took quite a long time since, well, I started out without really knowing anything about Adobe Illustrator. But I love how this construction mat turned out!

Spoonflower was great to work with and I love how my fabric turned out! I think my little construction enthusiasts are going to love these! Of course I made a few extra for my etsy shop :)

Linking up with: Decor and the Dog, Maybe Matilda, Newlywoodwards and Primitive and Proper!

Rustic nail and string art state ornaments

I love it when a creative bender ends somewhere fabulous! My sister loves NYC and I wanted to make her some kind of ornament to put on her Christmas tree to remind her of a place that is really special to her. And this is what I came up with:

Mini rustic nail and string art NY state ornament!

I seriously LOVE how this turned project turned out!! So much so that I decided to add these state string art ornaments to my etsy shop. My sister is going to love this ornament! 

I love them so much that I made one for each of the states we've lived in since we got married. 

One of my customers is ordering one for each state her kids were born in and letting them choose the string color (awesome!). I love that there are so many ways to personalize this gift to make it meaningful for the recipient. Plus they look gorgeous against the dark foliage of a Christmas tree! 

I won't rehash the specifics of how to do this project since I know there are tons of nail and string art tutorials out there. Just follow the tutorial you find, but do everything on a mini scale! 

Linking up with: Decor and the Dog, Maybe Matilda, Newlywoodwards and Primitive and Proper!

 Tatertots & Jello