Heather~Lou Who.....Who?!?!

It is always fun to see what crafty people there are! Very often I find myself LOVING a blog and their creations and wonder "Who are these people"?!?! How do they do it?!?! 

I wanted to take the time for you to get to know me, my family and what Heather~Lou Who is all about. 

Heather~Lou Who The Crafter / Artist / Recycling Hoarder (lol!)

The Spiny Seahorse! I have to tell you that these designs are made by using a cutout and flash light. I hand draw each shape, cut it out and use the flash light to shine the shape onto the board. SO, when you see something a crafter / artist / designer creates I hope you take the time to actually appreciate the love put into each piece. Because I DO love each piece I create.  

Pallet Art is my therapy.

I believe this sums up a bit about my Lou~Who adventures. Recycled pallets, rock collections, flower pots, liquor bottles and love of the Sea! I try to see the beauty in everything.

Heather~Lou Who The Mother

My Lou~Who adventures all started when I found myself a stay at home Mother who wanted needed to contribute to the family finances. With two little ones, day care being SO expensive and one family car I knew I had one sure fire way to contribute that wouldn't be costly and could involve the little~whos...Crafting! We were already recycling and crafting. I combined the two into something hopefully all of you will see the beauty in as well.

Some days a Princess needs a crown!

The Little~Whos keep me busy!
I know..you can tell they are bad
fun, right!?!?

You will often hear me say "Use everyday items to create something amazing". I mean it, from the bottom of my heart! I invite you to email me anytime with your story, ideas and suggestions at heatherslouwho@gmail.com

That is my Lou~Who short story and I am sticking to it!

Heather



These Words Make Mr. Who CRaZy...

"But I was going to use that!"

As an avid crafter, recycler, re-user we I save just about everything. I make Mr. Who stop on the side of the road to pick up all kinds of things. Even the kids have gotten into it, we call it "treasure hunting". I love it when the neighbors drop by bags and bundles of goodies. I seriously don't know what is wrong with these people, throwing out perfectly good wine corks or great bottles. 

This is what my beloved office looked like after Mr. Who decided to evict me from the garage. Seriously?!?! I am wondering why I don't have my own garage too! He gave me a challenge. Anything that I couldn't come up with a project for right away gets...I can't bear to even say the words...TrAsHeD! So I worked like a beast man an put away everything that has a place and found things I have been looking for forever. Quite honestly, there were a few things even I was like "What in the world was I thinking". I will NEVER admit that to Mr. Who though! 

That being said, I think I have proven myself to him in the "Hey that was a good idea" department, if I do say so myself. Need I remind him of the bottle cap collection? 

Now he loves it when we use these candles for "Date Night" out on the back porch!

Or...Rock collection? 

Tale of Tales! We have had SO much stinkin' fun recording the Little Lou~Whos
making up stories with these guys, hours of fun making them AND they are a big hit at our etsy shop as well.

Now I do have a few items left from my "collection" aka stash that has given me a bit of a challenge, I think I am up for it though.

Too bad you can't see the BIG BLACK television stand there!

Here is what I was thinking...The BIG BLACK television stand (there are actually three) is going to be used for a base for the Halloween Yard Signs I have in mind that are freakin' AWESOME! The bags with the black velvet hooks and orange screw thingy are going to be sitting out on my desk today while I frantically look for something to do with them. Spanish Moss! Perfect packing material for shipping! Bada Bing! There you go...AWESOMENESS!

I bet you have TONS of ideas and great uses for everyday items too!
Give 'em to me! I can handle it!

Heather~Lou Who signing off..till I find something to do with these silly orangy screwy things! 

FREE Business Cards

I know! I can hardly believe it myself! These little beauties were 

FREE!

Don't you LOVE it when a project turns out better than you expected?!?!

Today I was on the hunt for free printable business cards (on pinterest, of course!) and couldn't find anything that was perfect...other than being free, that is. I decided to raid my craft stash drawer for inspiration. Recycling / upcycling is our way of life! Unfortunately...the stash pile racks up daily. Fortunately! I had quite a bit of nice things to choose from for this project. 

It started out like this

I used the covers of the big books of card stock I am always buying for other projects (I KNEW THEY WOULD COME IN HANDY SOME DAY!) for the actual cards. I chose this particular pattern from my cricut cartridge splish splash. I used pieces of scrap papers / gift bags / greeting cards for the back layer for the cutout, I printed out my name and information on used copy paper and the twine was from some box or gift I received and had been saving...Prob for THIS! 

I am SO proud of how they turned out! I promise NO one will have business cards like these...or yours!

A few tips you will need...

Go ahead and print out / cut out everything you need. This actually took the most time. 

Spray adhesive works best but is the messiest. It isn't wet and dries beautifully! Because it is messy I suggest you do it outside (my office has bits of sticky stuff on everything). A very light coating will go a long way. Try to work with 5 cards at a time, have everything set out for it and spray all 5 items at once. Assemble as you complete each spraying. 

Never let your Mr. Who see you in the middle of the project as you are telling him how stinkin' proud of yourself you are for coming up with your FREE business cards by using ALL recycled material you HAVE ON HAND. My Mr. Who smiled his cute little smile and said "You used the spray adhesive?" Well that wasn't recycled". REALLY? Now I HAVE to come up with a clever way of doing that too! Not that I will ever use it but just to prove him wrong! LOL! 

Next best thing...I / you could use these for just about anything! 

Gift tags

Love notes to your loved ones

the possibilities are endless!

Your Business cards don't have to be like everyone else's. It makes you and your business stand out. Hopefully the recipient of my business cards will use them as gift tags and pass along my information to another lucky soul. 

Have a Lou~Who kind of day!

Heather

Do You Know What I LOVE About Thursdays?

EVERYTHING! 

Mostly because it gives me another beautiful Florida day to create something fun and special!

Check out Chloe's Birthday Monogram Sign! 

Chloe is the dog of a very special young lady, she asked me to come up with something fun and personal for her Chloe's 3rd birthday party. 

It fit the bill PERFECTLY!

It makes me SO happy when I get to see the reaction of the recipient of something I have created. 

How cool is it when a sheet of paper can change something SO dramatically! All I did was add a sheet of black paper to the back of the piece and I LOVED the effect! By the way....Isn't that the most ADORABLE octopus you have ever seen?!?! 

Happy 3rd Birthday Chloe! 

Allie Sparkles, Thank you for sharing your pictures with us! 

Have a Lou~Who kind of day!

Heather!

We Welcome The Newest Members Of Our Family...

 Our adorable Sea Babies!

These wee ones are PERFECT for little hands, big hands or no hands at all! I love it when I hear the sea inspired stories my kiddos come up with when they play with their Sea Babies. Adventures of Pirates and Mermaids, Octopus who save the sea by cleaning it up with all their arms, little girls who ride seahorses, Shark boys protecting their friends from fishermen. 

We hosted a Magical Mermaids and Pirates of the Sea Party featured here. We have an old firepit that we cleaned, painted with outdoor paint and use for the kiddos to dig treasure out of. The Sea Babies love to play in the sand there and it keeps the stories going for hours! 

To add these precious Sea Babies to your family see Heatherslouwho Etsy Shop

Another favorite "Story Time" project we use at home is our Story Stones. We call them "Tales of Tails" 

See how creative the kiddos are?!?!

 The idea is that you have 10 stones in a bag. You pour them out and come up with a story using the image on each stone. Please do yourself a favor and record your kiddos coming up with some of the stories when they get used to the idea. I like to do this right after lunch and a hard day playing. Add an afternoon bath and story time then they will slumber for a good while so you can get in some quality "Me" time. I share the video with my hubby after the kiddos go to bed that night and we laugh forever! They come up with the funniest stories!

 You will be able to see the full line of "Tales of Tails" available at Heatherslouwho Etsy Shop . 

Have a Lou~Who kind of day! 

Heather

Use Everyday Items To Make AmAZinG Things!

When I say "My Mom is GAGA over these necklaces" I don't mean she likes them. I mean she CAN"T GET ENOUGH OF THEM! 

They are classy, fun, dress up or dress down necklaces. She has asked just about EVERY day for "just a few more". She has given them to the very special students at The Arc of St. Johns (A very Special School check them out here :), anyone with a birthday, she has to have them in ALL colors to wear with each outfit, changed the chains to dress up or down. She honestly CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THEM! Makes me kind of proud! 

These darlings are available for sale on my BRAND NEW ETSY SHOP!!!! 

Check me out at Heatherslouwho Etsy

Can you guess what they are? Clothes pin centers! How adorable is that?!?! 

If you would like to see a tutorial you are going to have to ask!

So stinkin' cute and really easy to do! 

And another thing....They ADORE this girl! For Father's Day We took some Chalk we have laying around the house (I think EVERYONE with kids does) and drew love notes on our drive way, threw the kids down on the concrete and used my iphone to capture the fun (just kidding! they laid down willingly!). We framed it with a simple little frame we probably had laying around and it was his "Best gift I ever received in the whole world Father's Day gift". His EXACT words! 

Papa Ron is ONE LUCKY MAN!

I have to get better kids!

Seriously! Sometimes just getting there is the MOST fun! 

Just another example of how everyday items can be used for amazing things! 

I would love for you to share your AmAZinG everyday projects! 

Have a Lou~Who kind of day!

Heather

I Would Hate For You To Think I Am All Talk....

Our friends over at The CSI Project host a weekly Challenge where they offer followers an opportunity to post their version of the weekly challenge for a chance to win bragging rights and a spot to share their creativity and blog sites. Check out my weekly obsession  inspiration HERE

WELL...This reminds me...at Heather~Lou Who it is our mission to use, re-use and recycle everyday items. We are always trying to encourage people to do the same. Most of the items I have for sale or create are made from recycled - re purposed - upcycled materials. I often forget that not everyone can take an object and automatically see the end result especially when that object is not seen in it's best light!

Thanks to The CSI Project's Challenge this week, you  will get to see one of the projects I am VERY proud of :

Remember this Beauty?!?!

Can you believe this was a "Trash to Treasure" project! Big Daddy and I were riding down the road and saw "her" on the side of the road in the trash. We asked the homeowners if they were getting rid of it and they said they were hoping someone could use it. While I had forgotten to take a "Before" pic of the table I did get a shot of the "After the Before" .

It's not where we start but where we end up
that matters! Even now you can see the beautiful
details that spoke to me from the road!

So how do we get from trash heap to an elegant lady sitting in the living room of a loving home? LOTS OF WORK I TELL YA! Well at least a wee bit of elbow grease and some great spray paint! Because there were no chips, missing parts or huge dings a light sanding, new hardware and a coat of spray paint made all the difference in the world! I chose to use spray paint for this project because I wanted a nice smooth finish without the texture a brush or roller would give.

I would love to see what recycled-reused-upcycled projects you have been working on lately. Feel Free to post pics and share them with us!
Have a Lou~Who kind of weekend!

Heather