Annie Lang's Blog!

Here's a most delightfully festive DIY project to make the holidays bright!  Painted with acrylic paints on a wood cutout shape, this design has lots creative possibilities.  Simply add a little glitter paint for added sparkle.  After transferring the design, you can also drill small holes to attach little fairy lights around the wreath after painting.  The pattern can be reduced or enlarged to suit your needs.  My original wreath was 36" which I used for holiday wall art.  The line art provided below will fit a 7" wood cutout.  To download the printable pattern or enlarge specific instructions, simply right click the image and SAVE .  Enjoy!

While cleaning out my craft supply closet I found both new and used stretched canvases saved from former painting sessions.  Since I try to repurpose as often as possible, giving the art a "makeover" while decluttering my storage closet seemed like a very practical solution.  I covered over 2 older canvases ( used for teaching demonstration paintings )  with fabric from my crafting stash.  I then painted a new blank stretched canvas with black craft paint and adhered them together to create a dimensional wall art home accent to hang and enjoy all season.  By simply changing the fabrics, I can also make wall art suitable to any season or room theme I choose.  I still have quite a few used canvases to use up and plenty of fabrics tucked away on my shelves for future wall art projects.  Cost for the finished sample project shown above was under $10 after hitting a 1/2 off Spoonflower sale for the fat quarters and already having the canvas on hand.  You can also purchase new stre

What's under YOUR jar bonnet?  Just fill a canning jar with anything at all, dress up your homemade delights with a colorful paper bonnet lid designed by Annie Lang and you've got the perfect homestyle gift for any occasion!  Whether it's canned goods, bath salts, homemade jelly, hot cocoa mix, coffee beans, candy treats or dried flowers, herbs, dried mixes or whatever, you can make it even more special in just minutes with a homestyle paper bonnet you've crafted by hand.  Annie's 53 page Paper Jar Bonnet Lids publication includes templates for both regular size and wide mouth size canning jars, templates to make perfect size round metal lid stickers and folded hang tags that you can attach to your filled canning jars.  This papercraft activity book also includes step by step instructions along with 48 vividly colored full size patterned printable papers that have been custom designed by Annie Lang to create your jar bonnets. You can print as few or as many papers

Here's a fun decorative project you can paint up on a rainy day and use it as an accent piece on a shelf, bookcase cubby or even outdoors in the garden.  If using outdoors, be sure to give it a good coat of clear sealer finish once the project is completed to protect it from the elements.  This house can also be modified to create a cute gingerbread house, mock birdhouse, fairy garden house or anything else your imagination can come up with!  Here's how I painted the pictured sample but you can use any color, painting technique or brushes you desire. I hope you'll give it a try because anything IS possible when you're on a creative adventure!   NOTE:  Here's the online links to my wood suppliers... Stand Alone House Shape:    https://www.craftdealz.com/deal/stand-alone-house-shape 5" Garden Gate Ornament:    https://www.cdwood.com/collections/garden-gate/products/5-garden-gate-ornament

Here's a fun and easy way to brighten up both your world and your day with painted wooden Flower Swags!  You don't need to be a decorative painter to make these fun little flowers in only a few hours or less.  All you need are some craft paints, brushes and glue and then use the finished painted items to decorate and embellish all kinds of items for your home or friends.  Enjoy this step by step tutorial along with a few ideas to get you inspired.  Happy Crafting!

When the weather turns warm, it's time to once again get outdoors and enjoy every minute of the season!  Nothing could be more fun than an outdoor picnic with goodies served up from a bright and cheery picnic basket covered with smiles.  It's also a delightful shower or wedding gift that will not only be well used, but treasured for years to come.  I purchased this reasonably priced basket online from Amazon after I was unable to locate one with a wooden lid locally.   It arrived within a few days, was fabric lined, filled with accessories and was easy to paint.   You can find the FREE DOWNLOADABLE line art pattern and painting instructions for this project on the DIY page at my Annie Things Possible website.  Hope you enjoy because life truly is a picnic basket meant to be enjoyed!

  Now that I've changed out my calendar to start a new year, I decided to repurpose my beautiful 2021 scenic calendar so I can continue to enjoy the art any time I want.  Here's a fun little project you can easily complete in a day.  So grab your favorite beverage and a few craft supplies and let's make something fun! You'll also need some rags for staining, a pencil, scissors or craft knife,  something to make a door handle (I used a decorative upholstery tack) and 1/4" double sided foam tape to make a pocket to hold interchangeable artwork behind the framed window on the door.  To begin, lightly sand the wood and apply 2 coats of white basecoat paint.  When dry, put some wood stain on a rag and drag it down from the top of the door down to the bottom, creating the look of streaked weathered wood.  Paint the front and back of the window panel with white.   You'll find this wood door plaque in assorted sizes from cdwood.com

Today I'm getting ready to mail out this year's greeting cards to friends and family.  I thought this would be the perfect time to reshare this " 15 fun things you can make with recycled greeting cards " project ideas post for you just for fun.  Wondering what to do with all those wonderful greeting cards you've been saving up?  Here are 15 fun DIY ideas anyone can try and I hope you'll share this fun video with your creative friends and family.   All the pictured sample crafts were created with 5" x 7" cards printed on heavy cardstock with a gloss finish.  I'm sure many of these ideas can be easily adapted for use on  cards of various sizes, so go ahead and enjoy your creatively recycled cards!

As one of my favorite holidays approaches, it's time to start planning our Thanksgiving feast.  This year, I had a little help from my 4 year old granddaughter who helped create turkey napkin holder place settings for each guest.  With a few basic supplies and a sky filled with blustery snow flurries, we completed this project together and had a lot of fun chatting about our many family blessings.  So go right ahead and invite a turkey to dinner this year.  I hope you'll give this fun project a try and enjoy the smiles! 

It was a great year for my outdoor herb garden but the time has now come to harvest and dry what I can to be used for the long winter ahead.  Since I don't have a kitchen window to grow fresh herbs indoors and a cat who loves to indulge in anything resembling greenery, I had to come up with a way to safely dry my garden delights while keeping them handy for kitchen use.  Up until now, I've been hanging them "willy-nilly" from cabinet knobs and kitchen peghooks which simply isn't practical.  So here's what I came up with to work for my limited kitchen wall space.  I already had a 9" x 12" board which I painted white and then streaked with wood stain.  The two Command small wire hooks I used were those I had on hand which I sprayed with green paint to match my board lettering.   The tree branch "rod" was one from my grandkid's outdoor "enchanted fairy forest" and the herbs were naturally harvested from my outdoor garden! I hand

Next to my kitchen, the busiest room in the house seems to be the laundry room .  I decided to finally freshen things up a bit in there with a whimsical sign and a few favorite decorative touches.  Here's a fun free DIY project you can try with only basic craft and painting skills needed.  To download the line art pattern, just right click and save to your computer.  You can find most of the supplies at your local hobby or home improvement store.  I found the wood scroll and wooden plaque at Cupboard Distributing.   Happy Laundry Day!

Anyone can paint up this fun DIY wood project to decorate any way you wish for any season of the year!  Here's the basic step-by-step project to get you inspired to welcome the Autumn Season.  So grab your craft supplies and get started...no pattern needed!  You can find the  10" x 20" Door with Panel Kit used for the sample project online from Cupboard Distributing (also comes in smaller sizes!)  Just click the images below to see full size how-to instructions. Please Enjoy and feel free to SHARE THIS PAGE LINK!

Whether you draw traditionally or digitally, now is the perfect time to get those bunnies hopping along the bunny trail!  If you need line art patterns to get you started, I've got some cuties for you in "Kitty Cats, Pups and Bunnies".  Available as a paperback edition you can use for tracing and transferring or in digital .pdf format. The digital format allows to to easily import pages directly to your Photoshop, open and save pages with your Adobe Reader to import and edit in other image editing programs.  If you import images, you can skip the step for digitally tracing as shown in the video.  The bunny character used in the video was used as a lineart pattern used for the book.  So jump right in and hop right into spring!  ENJOY...  

Download this free "Mr. Lucky " character line art pattern and make this your lucky day!  This design was originally hand painted as a calendar art project and it's a timeless image guaranteed to make you smile.  I transferred the design onto tracing paper, placed the tracing over a sheet of graphite paper and then transferred it onto a sheet of Acrylic Paper.  The entire design was colored using acrylic craft paints that were thinned with water to create this sample project.   Here's an expanded view of the paper used to paint this sample project.  I've use this acrylic paper for years with all types of mediums including watercolor brushes, markers, inks, gouache, tempera and tube acrylics.  This paper has a smooth linen weave finish and canvas-like texture that grabs the medium and holds the vibrancy of your colors.  It's a quality heavy weight paper that doesn't bleed through to the backing and best of all, doesn't curl when wet!  I seems a bit pr