Creating with Joy

I love to frame photographs and postcards from my trips, because I every time I look at them, they bring back the memories of the relaxation and fun I experienced on my vacation. It's easy to personalize a plain store-bought frame with Joy embroidered letters. For this project, I used the initial for my last […]

This motivational quote is a little throwback to Burt Bacharach and the 1960s. It's an important little message, both then and now. To make a wallhanging like this, you'll need a 8x10 white canvas, Joy embroidered letters, blue acrylic craft paint, and glue. By mixing the paint with water, I created a light watercolor effect […]

It's easy to dress up your chip clips with JOY embroidered letters - just adhere the letters with tacky glue. For words with an even number of letters like "snacks," mark the center of the clip and glue the letters evenly on either side. For odd-numbered words like "chips," center and glue the middle letter […]

Pin or frame a large piece of white felt to the wall in your kid's room and let them choo-choo-choose how to build a fun and colorful felt alphabet train to spell their name and lots of other words.  Felt lightly sticks to itself, even when hanging vertically on the wall, so you can easily […]

I've been working on projects for my grandson Connor's nursery.  I started with the letter "C" written in shades of blue buttons, glued to a painted gray canvas with white stars. Then I spelled his name in small wood letters on painted blocks. Really cute, but we needed more!  My daughter-in-law found a galvanized metal […]

To keep yourself cool (and looking good!) during this super-hot summer, personalize a baseball cap with your monogram. Here in the South where I live, monograms are all the rage. You see them everywhere - on purses, clothing, you name it! So I decided to get in on the monogram craze, but I didn't want […]

Years ago, we put all our movie DVDs into soft, black cases like these to cut back on shelf space. But over time, they got mixed up with the same kinds of cases filled with music CD's. I finally went through and reorganized our whole collection and labeled the cases using Joy letters and some […]

I love making pillows. Especially when it's a quick and easy "no sew" pillow! For this project, you need a 12" plain canvas pillow cover, an all-over patterned stencil, spray inks and large iron-on embroidered letters from Joy. Using removable painter's tape, I taped the stencil onto the canvas pillow cover. I wanted my pillow to […]

I picked up three 4" terra cotta rose pots at the craft store. Rose pots are a bit taller than regular terra cotta pots and are perfect for this craft. Paint the bottom of the pots tan and paint the top band in yellow with a 1" flat brush.  TIP:  I prefer DecoArt Americana acrylic […]

I recently took an online class with Seth Apter, a mixed media artist who specializes in creating unique painted surfaces by layering colors, stamps and stencils. I tried his techniques to make a peace flag on canvas - visit my blog to see how I put down each layer of paint. With Joy embroidered letters, I spelled […]

Two of my very favorite things are traveling and scrapbooking. I am prone to making large, elaborate albums to document my journeys, but a few years ago I decided that I wanted something a little more concise to show ALL the trips I had been on. Something I could keep on my end table and […]

We have a wedding coming up this summer! On a recent trip to the craft store, I found everything I needed for the bride's bachelorette party. So far, we have a shirt made for the bride and maid of honor. Bridesmaids are to follow. The wedding colors are black, white and teal with a touch […]