Mixed Media Art - Complete!

Well, I finished her! I was really impressed with myself on this one - she was flat plain paper (I traced her from a guide online), and I gave her dimension and painted on her hair;-)

Mixed media means you use just about every craft supply in Michaels. Lucky for my wallet, I already owned most of these, thanks to my other adventures and projects.

It took me awhile to get it all finished, but I was definitely working in stages. All told, it's probably 8hrs worth of time (not including paint drying time etc of course)

I just kept adding and adding and adding, until it felt right. And then I hit a point where I felt like I might be taking it over board, and should likely just stop.

It's hard to capture on camera, but I really love the dimension that exists on the canvas. 

I am totally in love with how it turned out. TOTALLY.

Though, not quite ready to throw myself into making another one;-) Although I am sort of inspired, I also can't draw, so I do have to find figures to trace online. I did however paint some of these things free hand, totally a first for me. And yes, I googled how to paint branches and grass, so I didn't mess it up:-)

I "hid" a few words in the painting, sunshine, smile, joy, rest, dream and fly. Happy, whimsy, and just fitting for this piece I think!

Valentines Craft

I will preface this by saying - Brian thought these were ridiculous. {Perhaps only because I made him help me fill and tie the bags}. I think they're adorable!

The kids had to give out Valentine's to EVERY ONE in their age grouping at the co-op we attend. So I needed SEVENTY Valentines. When I was pricing them out at Walmart, I realized this could cost me a little bit of money! So I decided to go the cheaper crafty route.

The reason it was cheaper for me, is that all I had to buy was the goldfish. I got a large box for $7. Everything else was close to free. Incidental crafting supplies. Popcorn I popped myself. And I used off brand ziploc snack sized baggies, and cut the "zip" part off. This was because, probably about 2+ years ago I bought 200 of these in error, and we seldom use this tiny size. I still have about 190 left. So I thought maybe I could start using them up. Brian thought this was a waste of money - but really - I think it's creative usage. Right? I think Brian was just looking for any out that he could come up with to get out of his "chore". It didn't work;-)

Well anyway, I think these are just perfect!

Cup Places

Having lots of kids running around = lots of dirty cups. My upper dishwasher tray is usually totally full, while the bottom tray is half empty. Mostly, it's all the cups.

So turning two not useful things into something useful. 1) the counter beside the stove. 2) odds and ends coasters with no "matchers" from my Christmas crafts

I had 4 coasters left and they were all "throw aways". The kids and I painted them, and then I sprayed them with the matte sealer to seal it in (just like the coasters)

 

And just as easy as that - a place to put your cup. Then everyone knows you aren't done with it, and no else drinks from it, etc. And you can keep the same cup all day instead of getting a new one each time. And the whole system fits perfectly in that little bit of counter space that is useless for anything else.

I had coaster demo's left over - 2 of them! I'm using the "B" one for Brian, and the flower one for Sonny&May

My Wedding Invitations

*warning* this post has a lot of pictures, maybe more than necessary, sorry!

Our wedding invitations. At the time, I liked them. I saw something similar back in 2003, and I decided I could make them. I wasn't really very crafty back then, like at all. But I've always had a pet peeve for homemade things looking...homemade. I think I did a decent job of it, really. A year or so ago I pulled out a wedding box full of invitations extras - And I wasn't really impressed.

I wish I'd been as crafty then, as I am now.

Original invitation pics:



All the enclosures

The invitation to the reception

Inside of reception invite

RSVP card

RSVP envelope

Extra bbq party invitation for all out of town guests

Hotel info, and church locations

Front of hotel info sheet

Back of hotel info sheet

Belly band, holding all the enclosures together

missing the bows, but showing the details, I embossed this

I made - thousands of these little itty bitty bows. Using hot glue. And I had extremely long nails back in those days. It took me forever, and I totally scalded my fingers

Surgery time! I opted for sticky strip instead of hot glue this time;-)

 All done. Can you see the difference to the original? The left hand "white space" is much smaller now, and, I think, a better balance. This was my main dislike.

Fixed

Adding some colour on colour texture with Versamark and Glassy Glaze enamel 

I added the same heat embossed texture to the reply card

removing the bow, I added colour and pearls to the reception invitation

The 3 main elements of the invitation

The "extra" elements - the hotel information, the bbq invite and the reply envelope

Response card and envelope

New belly band, vellum, with heat embossed texture added

enclosures, ready to go!

Ready to go in the envelope!

 Now for display - I had this old shadow box with pics of Kenna in it...

 I made a new false back for it, using black cardstock and lace

 All done!

 

 Now on display in my house!

 

Overall, I am happy with my original invitations, and who knows if I'd choose that again - I'd certainly not NOT choose it, so I think that is saying something:-) With the few tweaks I made, improving the originals, but not really changing them much...I just think they are a little more "me" now.

This is how I would have done them 11 years ago, had I had the knowledge and skill I have now:-)

Earring holder

For a long time (like...about 7 years), I've worn the same pair, or so, of earrings. After having babies, my body composition changed or something...and I couldn't wear anything fake at all. Well, the budget for gold jewelry ain't what it used to be, thats for sure;-) It was simple, but not necessarily fashion forward of me in any way, but I was fine with it. I am not huge into jewelry (but I do love rings). I wear the same necklace every day (my vintage pearl loves), and on special occasions, I'll put on something "costume" or fancier.

Anyway, about 6 months ago, I tried a pair of fake earrings, and noticed that they didn't burn my ears within minutes. Wow and yay! I have slowly started building up my collection of fun earrings. I can't wear them forever, but definitely for about 6 hours or so, until I notice they start to feel like they are getting irritated. Thankfully, not many events last that long, so I'm good! So now, I'm into earrings!!

I definitely don't have a lot of earrings, as you will see, but I didn't have a place to put them, and it was getting a little unwieldy trying to keep track of them on the surface of my dresser. Pinterest to the rescue for a quick DIY. On Pinterest, everyone used this lace idea which I loved, with an empty picture frame. But I don't have any picture frames and really wanted to do this one on the cheap. I do have quite a few blank canvases for my painting projects though...and I had a pair of pantyhose/tights with a lacy pattern to them, and a run...so my thought was to just stretch the pantyhose over the canvas and cut/staple the edges down. It would work fine that way, but I felt my (black) hose were not "pattern-y" enough for what I wanted, look wise. So I bought some lace from Walmart's fabric section, and it came to $1.99, and I have enough to probably make 2 more of these.

NEED
Canvas (mine is 8x10, any size would work)
Paint (optional - I choose a fun green)
Lace
Office Stapler & Staples

HOW TO

Paint the canvas and let dry. Stretch the lace over the canvas, cut to fit, and staple in place on the back side. This takes (paint drying aside) less than 5 minutes.

All done! Earrings all hanging place!

I hung this on my master bathroom wall, it's kind of like art, really - it looks so pretty, and it's also functional!

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