Day 9: Dried Flower Ornament

SO there have been a lot of DIY's on Pinterest about dried flower ornaments, mostly for weddings and what not.  I have had some dried flowers for a few years that were from the first time I had gotten flowers from someone.  When I saw the how-to's, I knew it was the perfect way to use them!

Materials:
-An ornament that comes in two pieces that you can put things inside (if that makes sense) (Hobby Lobby, glass jar/wood section, about $1.60ish)
-Dried Flowers (duh)
-E6000
-Ribbon, ornament hanger, and any other glitter or similar you may want to use

Here you can see my ornament in 2 pieces, which hopefully describes it better than I tried to. 

A note on drying flowers.  I have dried flowers in 4 different ways:
            -I have microwaved them (the petals) and it worked
            -I have dried them between printer paper smashed in a book, that worked really well also (takes way longer)
            -I have hung them upside down, duct taped to a wall in my closet, this also worked...and took a long long time
            -And I have used the silica sand stuff, which took a few days, worked pretty well, and is great for things like calla lilies that you want them to hold their shape a little better.

So pretty much any of those are suitable.  I would suggest the book method for flat flowers, the hanging for roses, the microwave for petals, and the silica for lilies and similar.

I put a healthy dose of E6000 glue in the back hemisphere at the bottom. I made a base of the dried baby's breath and put the roses in on top, adding more glue as needed. 

I put a few petals in the back, mostly just because I had them, they really didn't make any life altering changes in the overall appearance.

Once I had the flowers arranged as I liked, I put a very small amount of glue around the ridge and snapped the front hemisphere in place.

This might not have been necessary, but I was thinking about storage and wanted to be safe that it would not come apart and crush the flowers.

I added the little brown ribbon in on top, but think it could have used a better ribbon, this one is somewhat understated.

There are all sorts of things you could add in like glitter or Flower Soft.  FS looks like snow really (not flowers) and adds really interesting texture to projects.

Remember the fuzzy teddy bear stickers? It is sorta like that.  But not.  Go get some, like I said it makes great snow!

This is my first ornament for my tree that I don't own yet but will have in my room at Christmas time.  I plan on making many more personalized ornaments, so be prepared for random bursts of Holiday CHEER!
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Day 8: Trunk Rehab

For many years, my extensive Beanie Baby collection lived in the teal trunk in our room devoted entirely to toys.  However, I finally figured out that they really should be in a clear tub because they could not see out...haha just kidding.  I wanted the trunk because I love trunks, and the Beanie Babies needed to be in a tub better suited for long term storage in variable conditions.  Such begins my trunk rehab experience.

Materials:
-Ugly old trunk.  Mine was teal.  Not pretty teal, pretty HIDEOUS teal.
-Paint.  I prefer Behr paint and primer, I chose a gray called "Anonymous"
-Stencils (optional) and a different color of paint (mine was white crackle paint)
-Paint brushes, drop clothes, tape, whatever you prefer to use in your painting ventures.

Here is my ex Beanie Baby Hotel.  Structurally it has a few small issues, but nothing that hinders its usage severely.  I don't mind not being able to quite latch it.

I don't use painters tape.  I can get projects done much quicker if I paint slow and careful than if I have to take the time to tape.  I may be the slowest taper EVER.

We happened to have an extra cheapo shower liner lying around, so I used that as a drop cloth. 

I would advise using an angled brush (1 inch) or using a teeny tiny brush to trim if you are like me and have no desire to paint.

I bought a larger brush but did not even bother to use it, the 1 inch did just fine for the whole thing.

I bought my stencils for about $3, and they came with two different kinds of patterns on the sheet.  I instantly loved this "border" pattern because by alternating the direction of the sheet it made a damask print.

I found this crackle paint on clearance.  Let me tell you, it made my life miserable.  Unless you just love the look of crackle (which I do) and dont have crackle spray paint (which I didn't)...PUH-LEASE use something else.  Use some neato spray or something because this is just mentally exhausting and it's really fume-y. 

Which should be a legal Words With Friends play.

As you can see I goofed up pretty bad on that last bottom one (cue the mental exhaustion), but if you have a paint can opener or something you can scrape with you can try to make something similar to the pattern and then touch up the paint.

Seriously, be prepared to touch up some paint if you deal with this crackle mumbo-jumbo. 

Anyway, here is my finished product.  I did not do the back because no one will ever see it as it is going at the end of my bed.  I think it looks alright with the small section left untouched, it might also have been cute to paint that a different color.

Something for you to think about.

I absolutely love it, and it will be joining me at college.  Unless its sister trunk that is still at home turns out better whenever I decide to rehab it. 

This one would also look great in my future craft studio, which is going to have a lot of damask in it as well.  But for now, college it is.

The paint cost about $35 bucks, but I have a lot left and will be able to use it on other projects. Counting the stencils and the brushes I really spent about $58 bucks at the home improvement store.  So that is the only thing that really stinks about a project like this.  Paint is never cheap.  But you really could get by on a quart instead of a gallon on something like this, it only took me one coat.  But like I said we have a few other things that need this paint as well (our living room is this color and there are some touch-ups on the horizon). 

So nothing will go to waste!

Day 8 goes down as a success!

And Walsh-Jennings/May-Treanor got gold! WOOHOO! Pin It Now!

Cut from the Same Fabric: Day 7

I think this is day 7 at least! I am already losing track of time.  Oh, and a quick moment, I MUST celebrate the fact that May-Treanor and Walsh-Jennings are in the sand volleyball finals again. I used to play volleyball some, so I love seeing them play.

Anyway, my mom came up with the idea yesterday after making the skirt that I should make something from some of the remaining fabric...challenge accepted!  I wanted to make a statement necklace...but it ended up the same size as a regular necklace, but I still think it is SUPER COOL.

Materials you will need:
-Excess Fabric (in my case, the halter top part of my dress)
-Wood Beads (I find these in packs of 8 near the jewelry section of my favorite craft store, where leather working stuff is)  I used 5 beads in my necklace.
-Other beads, such as silver ones, to use as spacers
-An old beaded necklace you never wear but can upcycle (or strings, clasps, and beads if you don't have one)
-Wildfire cord (or other beading string)
-Needle and thread
-E6000 (optional)

You may want to use better scissors than I did.  Luckily, I didn't really care.

Alright so my theory was sew the fabric around the bead so to speak, mostly by catching the fabric while threading the needle through the bead hole.  If you are going to do it this way you really need to use some thin beading cord (I used wildfire cord) that fits through a needle so that you can string them later, because unless you precisely cut the material it will fill up the hole.

Precision and my attention span never cooperate.

Regardless, do this to all of your wood beads, focusing on the pattern if it matters to you.  This could aslo be done with embroidery thread, very thin strips of fabric, rawhide, etc, really with anything that you could loop through the hole and glue if you preferred not to sew.

You have to start pulling really tight toward the end so that it pulls the fabric back through the hole.  I cut any excess fabric off and did what I like to call a "running whip stitch" (Grey's Anatomy fan) to secure the loose end.

Does it look anything like a real RWS? Oh probably not.  But since I don't know what it looks like, I am going to pretend that it is identical.

PhD in Crafts, baby.

Anyway.  I had a multistrand necklace that had about 4 strands on each side of small white beads and a pendant in the middle.  I cut the cord where the pendant was with the remaining necklace creatively held so that beads did not spill everywhere.

I took about a half inch or so of beads off each side of the necklace.  I threaded some wildfire cord through a needle and sent it through all of the beads.  As you can see I used some silver beads, I like to think they have a little tribal flair in them, between the fabric covered beads.

With the old necklace I just knotted the strands on each side and then tied the ends of the Wildfire cord through them as well. 

I also went ahead and added some E6000 glue at the knots, because I get a little paranoid about my knot tying abilities.

It is my goal to wear a necklace I made on the first day of graduate school, which won't be difficult because I have quite a few of them already, and I definitely think this guy is in the running.

SO raid your closets, raid your jewelry boxes, and go find something to upcycle!

Day 7 and going strong.

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Day 6: Dress for Skirt-cess

At least 4 if not 5 years ago, I bought a multicolored halter dress.  I wore it to college orientation (everyone else was in sweat pants, figures) and maybe a few other places.  It was never my favorite dress.  I have had some of my clothes for over 6 years, my Doc Martens have lasted me about 9 years, so I just never threw the dress away.

Lucky me, because now I can upcycle it.

Let me just start out by saying...I can't sew worth a darn.  I have only used a machine once in my life, so I opted to do this by hand.

WHICH I also have no clue what I am doing during.

My materials:
-This dress
-Elastic Beading cord
-Needle and Black thread
-Beads
-Scissors

So I started by cutting off the dress.  I put it on and determined about where I might want a skirt to hit me versus how I might want to do the dress.

I considered making it puckered, but there is little need to make this dress any louder than it already is.

So I stuck with a (vaguely) straight cut across the top.

Here she is once cut.  You better believe I will be figuring out something to do with the top fabric as well.

I used some "On-a-string" elastic beading cord in white and wrapped it around my waist to determine how long I wanted to cut the cord.

I was going for one that would be long enough to tie (a faux drawstring if you will) and that I could add beads to the end.

I then started sewing the cord in, rolling the fabric over the cord as I went to form a pseudo hem.

Because again, I literally have no idea what the appropriate way to do this would have been.

But the people who know the least have the most to learn.

I put my stitches really close together, because at first I did not and I ended up popping some of them when I went to try it on.

After I got the whole thing stitched (twice) I raided my bead supply to find a few that would look good with the print and colors in the skirt.

I think these two kinds do a decent job, no?


I double knotted the ends, and pulled them extremely tight.

Here is my finished product, and I think it is much more wearable now for a longer season than it was as a halter dress.  The elastic cord mechanism seems to work just fine.

My mom says there is elastic thread you can buy that would have worked out easier on this.  Who knew?  Heads up for anyone who may try this, go look for that stuff.

This skirt looks really good with a plain black shirt, and inspired me to make a large statement necklace sometime soon to go with it.  So keep your eyes on the horizon, because more shenanigans will spawn from this I am sure.


Now if only I could learn how to turn things into perfectly tailored pencil skirts...

Day 6- FREE!  Thank goodness I had such an extensive Mecca before this began.  But seriously, raid your house, there are all kinds of great things waiting to be crafted. Pin It Now!

Day 5: ICE CREAM (you scream)!

I finally broke in my ice cream maker.  I bit the proverbial bullet and tried out my new toy...erm I mean tool.  We had a lot of strawberries left over from a cake we made recently, so strawberry seemed like a good way to go.   The recipe goes a little like this:

-A minimum of 3 cups of strawberries (really up to you on how much you like) cut up with 1/2 cup sugar and 4 TB lemon juice poured on them (let it sit for around 30 min so it starts to get juicy)
-2 Cups of Heavy Whipping Cream
-1 cup sugar
-1 6 ounce carton of Chobani yogurt (I used strawberry)
-1.5 cup of milk (higher fat milk yields creamier ice cream)

Cut your strawberries up and let them sit in the sugar/lemon juice for a while.  If you want your ice cream sweeter you can leave out the lemon juice.  Mash them with a potato masher (or put them in a blender for you fancy folk) until you get them to your desired consistency.


I personally like mine to have bits and pieces in it, but it is perfectly acceptable to puree them completely. 

If you choose to, I would err on the side of fewer strawberries as it will be more liquidy.


Anyway, back to the process.

Mix the remaining ingredients and chill it a couple of hours until cold.  Chill your metal canister in your ice cream maker as well.

Plop all of your ingredients in the canister and follow the instructions for adding salt and operating the machine and whatnot.

Look at the pretty ice crystals that formed on mine! I wanted to get a cool picture of the smoke that was coming off of it, but it did not pan out.

Oh, and ice cream salt is located on the spice row in most cases, with the other salt, just so you know when the guy leads you to driveway melting, 40 pound bags of rock salt.

Anyway, churn churn churn, 30 minutes.

When the ice cream maker is done working it's magic, transfer your ice cream to bowl you can plop in a freezer and give it a few hours.

Or eat it on the soft side right when it comes out of the machine, there is no judging here.


This has so far been my tastiest craft yet!

Oh, and if there are only two people in your household...be prepared to share unless you just really eat a LOT of ice cream.


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Day 4, "Nevermore"

As I mentioned back during my DC trip, we went to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum while we were there.  I absolutely loved the place and it was probably my favorite part of the trip.  What, the geology nerd loved the Poe Museum the most? It's true, it's true.  I'm a chameleon.  And one that loves The Raven.

Anyway back to craftiness.

So I had seen many things on pinterest using those small glass rocks to make magnets.  I had no magnet backs (of course) and no clear small rocks (of course) but what I DID have was a larger rock.  So I sat there and pondered what I could make, and now proudly present to you my raven pendant process:

Materials: Glass Rock, Image of Choice (I printed mine on photo paper), wire (in color of choice), E6000 glue, jump rings and jewelry closures, and necklace chain/accessories desired.

So, to make this I printed out the image on photo paper.  I am not sure it is necessary but it just holds up better I think.  I used E6000 to attach the image to the glass rock.  Again, you really want to let it dry or it is super annoying.

I should know, I'm impatient. 

Anyway I made the loop with the wire and then wrapped it around a few times on the rock.  I wrapped the remaining pieces around the loop to secure and strengthen it. 

I am a big fan of using chain scraps.  Chain is expensive, and I am a college kid, so the less I waste the better.

Funny sidenote, I have all of my chain in a pokeball, because I am just that cool.

Regardless, I grabbed all of my scraps, along with a neato silver thing I extracted from some earrings once.  Big earrings have the coolest pieces on them.  So I started reconstructing the pieces using jump rings.

Here is what I ended up with for the necklace.  I completely love things that are asymmetrical. 

There is even chain on here from my recent Big Bang Theory Necklace from a few posts ago.

And here is my finished product!  I put a few coats of mod podge on the back of it to make sure that the paper would be OK against skin and whatnot. 

If I could, I would have made it say "Nevermore".  I thought that it would be too small to read and whatnot, but after looking at the pendant I think it could have handled it.

I am not sure why The Raven is my favorite of Poe's work, but I completely enjoyed reading it, and know I will enjoy rocking my necklace.

It is a really awesome feeling to be able to make your own jewelry and to get exactly what you want.

Because seriously, where can you buy something this cool in stores?!

Day 4 is in the books, and this didn't cost me a bit! So far, so good.





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Spoon Pendant, Day 3

Well today was anything but ordinary, and involved a lot of distress, but somehow I still got a craft done.  I had seen a very similar thing on Pinterest, so I had to give it a shot.  So here was my shot at a spoon pendant.

First, I had to bend the spoon.  Some people cut the end off, I personally did not have a hack saw or any handy tool whatsoever, so I opted to try to bend it.

Just for the record, it is difficult to bend stainless steel. 

So anyway with the use of the pliers and a hammer, I finally got this thing wrangled around such as it is. 

Next, I cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit in the spoon.  I mod podged under and over it, just to give it a nice coating. 

I let it dry, touched up a little trim, and moved on to attaching the odds and ends to make it interesting.

Using my ever-favorite E6000 glue, I attached some watch pieces and some hardware pieces.  I was going for a sophisticated steam-punk. 

If there is such a thing.

So I didn't really let the glue dry before I put the resin in, and I don't know if that mattered or not.  Seems to not have mattered.  And that's all that matters.

Now on to other matters.

Like I said, I am terrible at mixing up small amounts of resin.  However, I discovered that using a plastic spoon you can get relatively even amounts (which is critical) and you can do much smaller portions than say...randomly pouring it in.

Now, you need to be prepared to have a space this thing can sit without tipping over.  I opted to use a beer cap, because I have a lot of those in my craft Mecca.

A whole lot actually, when you consider the fact that I don't drink.

It's so nice to have friends.

Anyway, the resin will need to dry for up to 24 hours.  If the top of it is still a bit tacky feeling, paint a clear coat of nail polish over it and it should take care of it.

Oh, and I had all of this stuff already! I see more of these in my future.

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