09.15.12: DIY Dorm Project #3:
Melted Crayon Art
Finally! I am finished with all of my artwork :) I upcycled another old canvas by repainting it with acrylic paint and stenciled/free handed a girl. Apparently, making stencils out of transparent paper and an exacto knife is just not my thing! I haven't been getting very good results out of the technique! But anyway, back to the project. Since regular crayons are too fat for a glue gun, I shaved them down with a mini garden spade (it was the first thing I saw in my dad's tool box) and used a pen to push them through my glue gun. It gets pretty messy, so I suggest that you put a ton of newspaper on the floor and that you wear gloves. Hot, colorful wax does not feel good on your skin. Trust me. There were a few curses and screams thrown around, but this project was totally worth the pain, and I hope you think so too!
09.13.12: DIY Dorm Project #3 ( TWO in one day! Pretty productive, huh?)
Fabric Covered Bulletin Board
After lots of burns and Neosporin, I am finally finished with my fabric bulletin board! And I must say, I'm pretty pleased :) I upcycled an old, used canvas by glue gunning cork boards onto it and covering the whole thing in cute, patterned fabric I got at Joann's (September apparently is national sewing month or something so there are lots of sales!). My dad and I then stapled the fabric onto the back of the canvas--making sure it was nice and taught. I thought it looked a bit plain, so I embellished the board with gold buttons and ribbon. To give it that "sewn" look, I pinched the ribbon at the ends and glue gunned the folds.
Materials:
- canvas
- cork boards
- glue gun
- fabric
- buttons and ribbon (optional)
- staple gun
- dad
09.13.12: DIY Dorm Project #2 http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/07/summer-social-guest-project-make-mod.html
I pretty much followed all of the instructions above, but since I'm going to be a broke college student soon, I figured I could save some money and not use vinyl to stencil. Instead, I used transparent paper to make a stencil for the bird and outlined letters onto magazine paper from my laptop! Pretty nifty, huh? All you have to do is put up paper onto your screen, outline, and voila! Perfection. Or at least, better than free-hand.
09.10.12: Wow, I've been MIA for awhile! Keeping up a blog is hard work. I guess I'm just not hardcore enough...yet! This summer has been pretty eventful and eventless. Some trips and lots of eating and sleeping...but I did manage to get some crafting done! I decorated four pictures with different techniques that I will explain below. They're little pieces of home that I will have with me at my dorm <3
Frame #1 (top left corner, going clockwise): I wrapped a whole bunch of yarn around the picture frame by using homemade mod podge (equal parts water and bottled glue)and a glue gun for the ends. Unfortunately, the yarn made the frame too thick to put the glass back in, so I had to improvise! Here's where I found the cute idea from http://craftpond.com/yarn-wrapped-picture-frame/. Hurray for craftgawker!
Frame #2: The frame was originally white, so I didn't need two layers for the distressed effect. I slathered vaseline on parts of the frame and painted blue acrylic paint on top. After the paint dried, I wiped the vaseline off to give it that scratched- up effect. http://downtoearthstyle.blogspot.com/2012/01/salvaged-frame.html.
Frame #3: This has got to be my favorite frame--not only because of the design, but because of my parents' picture. Love it <3 I cut 1.5 in. thick strips of scrapbooking paper and wrapped them around the picture frame with mod podge. I snipped the paper to fit the corners http://blog.basicgrey.com/?p=3735
Frame #4: This has got to be my least successful frame :( I wanted it to be glitzy, but you can barely see the glitter! I covered the frame with mod podge, sprinkled glitter, and glue gunned sequins onto the corners
