My baby sister is about to head to college this week. I had mentioned before that she had asked if I could design a monogrammed pillow for her, and sew a couple of pillows. I finally got them finished for her! The monogrammed pillow required a bit of hand sewing and a bit of geometry. I actually had to look up how to find the circumference of a circle (it's C=πd for anyone who is interested). So once I discovered this I was able to cut a strip of fabric the same size as the circumference, plus 1/4" for the seam. Then I pinned it all around (inside out of course to hide the seams): And then did a careful bit of hand sewing. After it was turned right side out, stuffed, and squished around to get a proper circle shape I had this: I also cut 12x12" squares to make 11x11" pillows (1/2" seam all around). All together, she now has this for her bed: She seems happy with it, and I know I am!
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All this week I have been gearing up to move out on my own again and head back to school (which I am very excited about). Because crafting and DIY is my thing, of course I had to make something for my apartment! My room needed a little something to tie it all together. Being on a budget and realizing that JoAnn's had a fantastic sale going on, I picked up two canvases and some paint and decided to create some abstract art. I'm not really much of an artist, but I had a lot of fun with this project, just watching where it went and how it developed. So with two canvases and some acrylic paint (all less than $20), I created this: I didn't really have a plan when I started. I new I wanted something abstract that would incorporate the colors of my bedroom at the apartment. Maybe it wasn't the "right" way to start, but I took the dark purple paint and a wide foam brush and started making lines. And it sort of grew from there. It's hard to see in the picture, but over the gray lines I used a mostly dry brush with a little silver metallic paint to add some dimension to the whole thing. Overall I am very pleased with this project! I was going to refinish a dresser but it looks like that will need to wait. Still need to gut the tv, and sew a white back to my curtains to keep up with the apartment complex's convenant, but I should be in good shape. My boyfriend and I are notoriously big kids. We play in the toy aisle of Walmart, can often be found watching Disney movies (his favorites though are Pixar), and just act generally goofy. Aside from this, we are also huge fans of the short lived sci-fi show Firefly So when I ran across the idea to steampunk water guns on the blog "Ahem, It's Just Phlegm", I had to do it! I found two cheap water guns at Walmart - can't get much better than 98 cents each! After roughing up the plastic surface a little bit with some sandpaper, I spray painted them black all over, being careful to tape off the openings so they would still be useable as water guns. As you can see, I didn't do the best job of spray painting them, but that was ok because I wanted them to look like they had been roughed up a little. Next, I painted the handles brown with acrylic paint (Anita's All Purpose Acrylic paint in Earth Brown for anyone who wants to know exact details). It took a few coats to get the black mostly covered. In hindsight it would have been better to tape off the handles too and paint them white before the brown, but oh well. Not being able to wait anymore, I started with the metallics. I used Rub & Buff. This stuff is amazing! You put a TINY tiny bit on your finger and start gently rubbing where you want the color. I used Silver Leaf, Antique Gold, and Gold Leaf. And soon I had this: Next I wanted to make the handles look more like wood. So I took a darker brown paint (Americana Acrylic Paint in Raw Umber) and dipped the end of a 1" foam brush in it. Before applying it I wiped most of the paint off, so I could create a "grain." After putting the paint on the handles I used a dry portion of the brush to wipe some more of the paint off. This actually created the look I wanted! I also went back with a finer brush to fill in some of the details. To give it a little more of a steampunked look, I added a few brads that I snipped the ends off of using some clear Tacky Glue (a crafter's best friend!). They still need to be sealed with some clear spray paint, but they're done! And better yet, still functional as water guns! The Boy and I are planning on having a water gun fight at some point. Should be lots of fun. :) I'm sorry, I used glitter. I can't believe it either. I have always sworn off such projects because as Demetri Martin suggested, you just can't get rid of the stuff and it is SO HARD to clean up completely. But the draw of this particular project was too strong. Yet another Pinterest project, and one easily done on a budget, I wanted to make a set of glittered wine glasses. I bought four white wine glasses from the Dollar Tree (by the way, they have some pretty nice glassware considering it is only $1). I also got some extra fine black glitter from Hobby Lobby for about $4, and I had some Modge Podge on hand. I carefully cleaned the glasses first, and then wrapped masking tape around them to create a striped design. This sounds simple enough, but I will warn anyone who tries it that it takes a bit of time. The glasses, while they look nice enough, are from the Dollar Tree and thus are not completely identical or perfect. So wrapping the tape around so they all matched was a bit of a challenge (add in that I have OCD tendencies and we're really having fun now). There is also the challenge that the glasses are curved and the tape is straight. After a few tries, I had all four glasses wrapped with tape about as identical as I could. Next, I used cotton pads to carefully wipe the glass with rubbing alcohol to remove any fingerprints. To do this I stuck my hand inside the glass so that I didn't touch the outside of it. I then used a 1" foam brush to apply the Modge Podge to the desired areas, quickly followed by loads of glitter. I think I will blame my long glitter free spell for the reason that I somehow managed to get glitter in my eyes during this process. I allowed the glue to dry for a few hours before removing the tape, this way the glue didn't crack as I peeled it away. A few areas had to be scraped clean with a razor and others needed to be touched up once everything was completely dry, but I was able to get a fairly ok looking set of glasses. To top it all off, I decided to seal all of the glasses so that they wouldn't leave glitter everywhere with some clear acrylic spray paint. I wanted to block off the inside of the glass, so I used a piece of Press & Seal wrap to protect it (I wasn't sure how the paint would react with alcohol and didn't want to find out). This project isn't 100% complete. I might be adding a third coat of spray paint to them, just to make sure they are good and sealed. Currently they are airing out in the garage. I'll be sure to post a picture when they are done! |