A Kitchen Makeover

I'll spare you all from my silly Chicago blizzard nicknames...I think I've used all the ones I like by now. Ha!

We were once again "banned" from coming to work due to the parking situation (3 days now) so I had to work remotely.  Totally cool, of course.  I'm blessed to have the ability to access all my files and emails from home.  So it was a normally productive day

with a twist!

While I worked, I also had the chance to access all my art supplies and start on a project I've been meaning to start forever.  It's kind of fun to have both items at my full disposal - work and fun.

Awhile ago, I update the rug, hand towels and oven mitts in my kitchen which are more of a mod feel.

But my wall art was more French Art Nouveau (which I mistakenly called art deco). I'd like to publicly apologize to all my true artist friends - I will never mix the two up again as they are so clearly different.  This is one of the posters currently in my kitchen.

Obviously, there was a major mismatch of styles in my kitchen, and it was driving me crazy!  So I told myself that I needed to take advantage of my time at home and do something about it.

So I took out all my cricut cartridges and frantically looked through them for items that might work.  Thankfully, I had SEVERAL options to choose from, but in the end used flowers, leaves and birds from the following cartridges:

• Storybook
• Ashlyn's Alphabet
• Winter Wonderland
• Serenade
• Graphically Speaking

I layered all the cutouts over freehanded branches and then distressed the whole thing with Tim Holtz inks (Pumice Stone and Vintage Photo colors).

Lastly, I crudely painted the frame with old acrylic paint.  It was a bit clumpy, but it didn't matter too much as I knew that I would be sanding some off to give it a distressed look.  I tried to paint as evenly as possible.

Final result?