Jessica's Musings

I was on pinterest today (when am I not?!), and I saw these awesome letters by Joanne Fink at http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/zenspirations, and I knew I wanted to make a monogram S on a canvas for my last name. I probably made this project about 50x harder than it needed to be, as I traced this about 3 different times by the time it was done, instead of just freehanding it after I had it all painted- But it’s up to you- If you’re a good enough artist that you can freehand an awesome letter after it’s all painted, then by all means go ahead! But I am not, haha, so I traced it-This is my letter:

I made it as big as I could in paint and I printed it out- pretty simple. Then I taped it to the back of my canvas, held it up to light, and traced it on the front.

Then once it was all traced, I got out a sharpie and colored it in so I would still be able to see it once I put a layer of paint on my canvas.

I forgot to take a picture of the painted canvas before I re-drew it over the paint (OF COURSE) So you’ll just have to imagine what it would look like under a layer of paint, haha. Once I let the paint dry overnight, I held it up to light again and retraced over the paint with a thick sharpie- then, since one layer wasn’t enough around the letter, I painted another layer around my letter-

I let it dry, and here’s the finished product!

Now it’s also up to you whether you want to leave it as sharpie or use a little paintbrush and paint black over the top. That’s a little too much work for my and my time restraints right now, but I imagine I’ll decorate around the edges and add some bling to it! (I’ll update that as well, but I figured I better get a few new things up here since I haven’t done anything since May!!)

OK, So, side note- I completely recovered this since I didn’t really like the finished product. I went to Hobby lobby and got a wooden letter, painted it, got a square of fabric and stapled it to my canvas and glued the letter to the canvas.

I always just use cheap acrylic paint from walmart. Sometimes it may take 2 coats, but for as much as I use it, it’s not worth getting expensive stuff. Now- I know everyone on Pinterest is all gaga about the “Make your own Mod Podge” recipes… I tried it, and honestly, I’ll pay the extra for real mod podge. The glue/water mixture is TOO watery, even with barely any water in it, and it’s not as thick as mod podge. When I’m dealing with photos, I am not going to risk it by using less-than-stellar quality glue. (Especially since I had some air bubbles and had to peel my print off the canvas, and I know for a fact elmer’s won’t let you do that!)

(I also use the matte Mod Podge because I don’t like the glossy look of photos when I want it to look professional-)

Ok, so! Step one was to paint the edges black, as shown above. I would be sure to get quite a bit over the lip on the front so you dont have any white showing when you get your print on it. Step two is mod podge the print to the canvas. Easy enough. Be sure to get all the air bubbles out, because it is kind of a pain to have to start over.

(I’m not sure why I didn’t take as many pictures of the steps for this one, apologies, I’ll just have to walk you through it!)

It’s your choice whether you want to wait until the bottom layer dries before you seal the top, but it’s my opinion that it’s easier to wait until the first layer is dry before you mess with the top.

I wanted to make a real canvas looking effect, so I found some scraps of a really thickly weaved fabric and cut it a little bigger than my canvas so I could lay it over the top of my photo/mod podge.

The next step after your picture is glued to the canvas is to cover the top with mod podge and lay the fabric over it and kind of “iron it out” so the glue will pick up the pattern of the fabric. Be careful with this step, because depending on the fabric and how much white is in the fabric, it may leave fibers. If this happens, just get a wet paper towel and it will come right off. Then just recover with mod podge and lay the fabric back on top. Once there is one layer of glue on the fabric, the fibers shouldn’t transfer anymore. I used the same piece of fabric and tried to make sure I didn’t use TOO much mod podge or it would saturate the fabric and you lose the weave.

That’s what it will look like when it’s wet, but don’t worry, it dries clear!

Lay them all out so they aren’t touching and won’t get ruined by something/someone. Once everything is dry, this is the how the top will look!

And here’s from a little further away:

The only thing you notice from far away is that the photo isn’t shiny, so it looks better that way :)

As soon as everything is all dry and cut to size and up on the wall, I’ll update this with how they look on the wall!

I feel that with the number of people starting to follow me that I should post a quick apology for not having posted any craft blogs lately. I work full-time, paycheck to paycheck in a nursing home in the evenings, and don’t have the time or money to do lots of crafts. These that I have posted are over a couple of years, and I haven’t done anything since my summer statistics course started. And now for the rest of the summer I will be across the state taking care of my grandparents. (Which actually may produce some fun crafts, as I won’t have a whole lot to do during the day except read.) So again I apologize if anyone was expecting new and exciting crafts every day, but hobbies come with time, and time is limited. But soon I should have new things up for you to enjoy :)

-Jessica

I found a picture for a really cool chandelier that I wanted to make:

COOL, right?! The effect is to look like “capiz shells”, which are round seashells that are iridescent. This is created by ironing sheets of wax paper together… GENIUS!

I searched and searched for a hanging flower pot that was the right shape and big enough- but the lack of stores in this town took me to walmart, since they were cheapest. Price is directly proportional to size, by the way, but I wanted a big one- So I brought it home, took out the inside part, and spray painted it white.

I’ll start by listing the supplies, since this one is pretty extensive and took me several weeks to complete.

SUPPLIES:

Hanging flower basket

Spray paint, color of your choice

2-3 rolls of ribbon, color of your choice (I made a white one and a blue one, so I used the color of ribbon to match the “shells”.)

Wax paper (LOTS of it, you’ll use close to a whole roll)

Either a cricut or some type of paper cutter to cut wax paper into circles

An iron to iron the wax paper together

Hot glue gun, scissors, and other assorted accessories like beads or gems to add around the top.

Then I went out and bought a paper cutter. You’ll need to rip three long pieces of wax paper and iron them all together. You don’t need the iron to be to hot or use it too long, because wax paper can burn easily. After I had glued 9 pieces together to make 3 large sheets, I stacked them on top of each other and used my paper cutter to make 2” diameter circles. I made a LOT! I felt like I cut out circles forever!

I taped down the edges, as my wax paper tended to move when I pushed down on the paper cutter. After I had several circles, I figured I would get started on gluing them.

(Just for the record, in case my mother sees this, I did NOT use the rotary cutter on the wax paper! But really though, sometimes my cutter didn’t get all the way through and I had to cut a few out.)

Next, I cut my ribbon strips- length is up to you, but I think mine were between 6-8”.

I hung up the wire frame on a hook in the ceiling above the sink in the kitchen. I then began hot gluing the ribbon to the frame on the very bottom rung. I then glued a circle at the top of the ribbon, and continued hot gluing circles below the one above. I offset them so they wouldn’t be so crowded:

I continued up to the top until I was almost done with the last row:

(I had to stop several times to cut out more circles, I severely underestimated my need!)

This is the final ring of circles after they were staggered:

I thought it looked a little bare, and since I had some ribbon left over, I decided to add ribbon to the wire up to the hook, and around the top ring. Then I got some beads and added a little color!

And there it is, all finished!! It looks really awesome when it’s lit. For the light part, I bought the light kits that IKEA has- a plug in and a lightbulb end that I threaded up through the hook. I think it was about $6. I also made a blue version, where I ironed the wax paper on either side of a sheet of blue tissue paper, but it didn’t stick very well and I ended up having to use spray-on aerosol glue, and that was very sticky. Here’s what that one looks like:

I like the white one better, but it was an experiment, and not all experiments go smoothly! I also used less ribbon on this one and just glued the circles to themselves instead of the ribbon. Not sure which way I like it better!

This post is a two-for-one! Hooray! Since I have made many different things out of these cheap IKEA lamps, I figured I’d lump them all together in one post. Anytime I go to a city with an IKEA, I have to buy some of these lamps. Cheap and perfect for crafts.

My two favorite things: Scrapbook paper and mod podge! Anything I can find to glue paper to will soon have paper glued to it. Originally, my dad turned me onto these lamps and this idea. It was to mod podge film strips to the lamps. What a wonderful idea! I have tons of film, as my prior major was photography.

So I decided that I wanted the big lamp for this project (The pack comes with the bigger one and a smaller one). I dug out my old film and started organizing. I decided that I wanted the film to go horizontally instead of vertically. Then I started gluing! This was my first mod podge project, so I didn’t quite know how it worked. I experimented a little and ended up having to use more glue than I expected, because the film wasnt sticking around the edges. But after awhile, it looked like this:

(Notice, some of the edges are sticking up- I used rubber bands to secure the film to the lamp until the glue dried.) Once everything was dry, I took off the rubber bands and everything stuck!

It’s not perfect, and some of the film overlaps, but as it was my first project of this type I was still pretty proud. Here it is in it’s final resting place.

(You may notice the keys in the frame next to it- that was a simple project I can describe quickly. While I was in Europe, I went to an antique store and bought a handful of keys for a few euros. When I brought them home, I knew I wanted to do something with them, but wasn’t sure what. I had this frame that the glass had broken, so I decided that was what I would use. I took a piece of printer paper, used acrylic paint and painted it gold, then used hot glue and glued the keys to the paper. then I glued the paper to the back of the frame, and there you have it! The frame is actually hanging on its own on a wall now, keys still inside, although it fell once and all the keys came off- so maybe try some stickier glue!)

The next time I got these lamps, I decided to put scrapbook paper on them. (With one of the smaller ones, I used tissue paper.)

Here is the one with tissue paper:

I tried to cut it so the seams would match and not overlap, as you would see this when the lamp is on. Be careful with tissue paper, because it’s very thin and when wet with glue can tear very easily. It also gets bubbles and warps, so if you’re a perfectionist, I would avoid this type of craft. :P

Here is one I made for my best friend’s daughter’s bedroom. After it was finished I decided to add a white ribbon around it, about an inch from the top.

These aren’t perfect either, but as far as I am concerned, home-made crafts are supposed to have a little personality!

This next one is my favorite. I found this paper and LOVED it, and had it for awhile before I found a project for it.

As this is the bigger lamp, my one block of scrapbook paper didn’t reach top to bottom, so I used a ribbon to cover up the seam. I used an extra layer of mod podge over the top of all of these to keep everything down and make sure the paper wouldn’t tear.

I have one more lamp that I need to cover, but I think I might wait until I know the perfect way to do it!

I love end tables. I have about 12 end tables and not enough space for them! But I found a pair of decent (kind-of) end tables for about $15 at a hospice (salvation army-type store). And they had lamps attached! What more could a college kid ask for? They were perfect. But they were boring. Brown and with that weird flaky covering, they weren’t the most attractive tables out there. So at first, I just hot-glued a string of beads to the lampshade and called it good. But that wouldn’t cut it for my crafty soul.

So, I bought some scrapbook paper that I thought would be just perfect. I couldn’t decide just how I wanted the table top to look, and when I found this, I knew it was what I wanted. I decided on a script paper for the middle and a scroll type for the edges. I used mod podge to glue the handwriting paper to the table top. I didnt bother cutting this paper, since I would fashion the edges of the other paper to cover it evenly. I folded the border paper over the sides and glued that as well.

For the top piece, I had to cut it a little differently, because the lamp came up out of this space. But that was simple enough.

Then I decided that the brown base would not match the black top at all- So, I used some of the black spray paint I had and painted the bottom of the table. I put a few layers of mod podge over the top of the table to make sure everything was secured. It is recommended to add a layer of clear sealant over that so it isn’t sticky later (Not anything I’ve really had a problem with, but its a good idea if it’ll be used frequently in a living room- and probably still use a coaster). The finished product looked like this:

And that’s how this table looked for a few years, until I was bored with the lampshade again. I thought I would buy a new one, but I found some silk fabric laying around the house and I was being lazy and didn’t want to sew it, so I took a hot glue gun, bunched it all up and glued it to the shade.

Then I saw a flower pattern on pinterest and searched the fabric cupboard until I found some black fabric. Then I searched my mom’s button drawer for three buttons to be the center.

So there you have it! I didn’t take pictures of the progress of this one for some reason, but i basically cut a circle of fabric in a scalloped pattern and then cut several smaller pieces in the same pattern. I layered them all together and hot glued them. Then hot glued them to the lampshade. Viola!

I love old windows. Any kind of craft that involves an old window, I’m in! Last summer, we were cleaning out my grandmother’s old garage when I found this old window, and she said I could have it:

It was quite a hassle to get this bad boy clean, but I finally did it with a little powerwashing and some good scrubbing. Then I took it home, taped it off, and spray painted it. It would have been just as easy to use a brush and some acrylic paint, but I had the spray paint available and I’m all for easy.

It didn’t bother me that there were a few spots here and there, because I planned on using some sandpaper to rough it up a little (It is an old window, after all). Once I sanded off just enough paint to make it look cool. :) Then, I decided I wanted some hooks on the bottom, so I ran to walmart and bought three silver hooks.

I measured the length, divided it by three, and screwed in my hooks.

After that was finished, I found a few pieces of scrapbook paper and taped them inside each pane. After awhile, I got bored with that, so I printed out some 8x10 photos that I took in Germany when I went for Christmas a few years ago, and put those in front of the scrapbook paper. This is the final product:

I would suggest finding some studs and using heavy duty wall hanging hardware, as windows are very heavy and I’ve had this thing come crashing down once. This thing is huge and takes up a big chunk of wall, but all-in-all I am very happy with it. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to click the comment link below and leave me some words!

So, in the pack of canvases I bought for the last craft, I used 4 of them for this project (again inspired from a post on pinterest).

Again, these are 16x20 canvases that I bought in a 5 pack for $20 at Michael’s. My leaves are a bit smaller than in the original picture I saw, but honestly I like it this way better.

First, you’ll start with some blank canvases. I took each section and drew the leaves and the trunk and each stem that was in that quadrant. Then I did the same for each of the other canvases.

The pencil is faint, but if you look hard enough, you can see it. Then either pick 2 different colors for two opposite corners or you could paint it all the same color- up to you. It is my advice to you to paint just outside the pencil so you can go back through and erase it, as some lighter paint colors won’t cover up the pencil marks. With the grey paint this was unnecessary, but you can see some of the pencil marks under the yellow paint. I also did two coats, because one isn’t quite enough. I used a small paint brush to paint around each leaf and stem so I wouldn’t accidentally paint over one!

It doesn’t matter if the lines aren’t perfect, because no one will ever know! I also painted the edges of these so that no white was showing except for the tree itself. I painted them outside, which was a plus because the sun dried them very quickly! It took a few hours (despite a few distractions), but it was very well worth it! The finished project looks like this:

So it turns out that people love my crafts! In turn, I thought I would blog a few posts about how to do them. They’ll be short and sweet, since most of the crafts I do are pretty easy. First things first, I’ll start from the most recent craft!

I saw this on pinterest, and thought it looked really awesome to try out. Above is the completely finished product. This canvas is 16x20, and I bought it in a pack of 5 for $20 at Michael’s. GREAT buy!

So anyway, you’ll start with a blank canvas. It is up to you what color to paint it, or if you want to paint it at all! I buy acrylic paint from walmart, because it’s cheap and easy, and they have a lot of colors. I obviously chose black here.

After you have your canvas, you’re going to want to pick out some fun colored scrapbook paper! You can get scrapbook paper darn near anywhere these days. I have some from Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, Walmart… For this project, I was already at walmart and walked by the packs of paper they had and found this! It was perfect and it was only $5 for 50 sheets. Quite the deal!

Now that you have your canvas, paint, and paper, you are set! (You will also need some elmer’s glue and mod podge to set your paper to the canvas)

Cut out the paper in the shapes of flower petals and lay them out on the canvas to get an idea of what you’d like it to look like.

This was my first go at it, and it seemed to work out all right. Now, you’ll want to paint your canvas and reapply the pieces of paper so that you are ready to glue!

The pieces along the edges I just folded over and glued to the side. You only need a dot of elmer’s glue on each petal, since you will use mod podge over the top to secure everything in place. You should wait until the elmer’s glue is dry before using the mod podge as it may move the pieces around if they aren’t quite dry.

This is what it will look like when it is wet- don’t worry, it will dry clear! I also used mod podge on the edges, since there were petals that folded over and I wanted everything to be uniform.

Then as soon as it is dry, it will look like this!

I do not promise to fix all your problems. But I sure as hell promise you won’t have to face them alone.

I cannot promise you that I will not get angry, or upset, or freak out sometimes. But you better believe I’m worth riding it out. (And trust me, I usually get over it really fast, especially with a simple “I’m Sorry.”)

I CAN promise that I’ll be goofy.

I can’t promise that I’ll always be happy, or always be cheerful, but when I am, it’s worth it to see me smile. :)

I can’t promise that I’ll ALWAYS be able to be physically there for you, but I’ll do the damn BEST I can to give you emotional support at all times.

I can promise that I will always feel better after a shopping trip.

I can’t promise that I won’t complain, but know that if I complain to you, I TRUST you with my problems.

I can promise that I’ll always play video games with you. (And I love to just sit and watch you play.)

I can promise to support you in your decisions, whether I agree with them or not.

And I can promise to voice my opinion to you if I DON’T agree.

But I won’t put you down, and I won’t speak badly about you if you treat me right.

I can promise that I will do my best to make every day a good memory.

Well, since it is apparently physically impossible for me to go to sleep before ten (no matter how early I got up), I guess ill bitch for a few. I am by no means hilarious. I say a few things that elicit chuckles every now and then, but I’m no comedian. Most of the garble that falls out of my mouth is an awkward spew of verbal suicide. Maybe I try too hard, who the hell knows. All I know is that I am appreciative to have found someone on the internet who hilariously hates on the same shit I do, and has been able to put that into some words I can relate to. WWW.bitchesgottaeat.blogspot.com. fantastic.

With that being said, I am super annoyed lately with people who are so self-centered that they literally cannot wait for you to finish a damn sentence before they feel the need to hear their voice drone on unapprovingly at you with the opinion or advice you didn’t ask for. Because of course, they’re a genius and why wouldn’t you want their advice?

Bitch, shut up. Seriously. And I’m not even worried about anyone thinking it’s them, because A) that person is too self absorbed to even read anything I post and B) too self involved to even think I would think this of them even if they DID read it. (Which they won’t). God damn woman, does every conversation have to be about you? I can’t even get a word in edgewise without you interrupting me with one of your stories to “one up” me. Friends are not supposed to one up each other. Not girlfriends anyway. Unless its like “so this hott guy hit on me at the bar last weekend…” and you say “well I bet he wasn’t as hott as the guy who hit on ME at the supermarket…” or whatever.

(Who says supermarket anymore anyway? Geez.)

But its NOT like that! I can’t even explain it. Plus, you’re married and boring and shit. I don’t care to hear how you went home to your husband playing Xbox and how you’re so lonely blah blah. Maybe if you got out of your 2x2 house and did something with some friends without “seeing what your husband” is doing first, then you wouldn’t be So miserable and make everyone else feel miserable by having to listen to you! I also shouldn’t have to be a buffer, because no one can stand you long enough to hang out with you one on one.

Not everything is about you honey, and we’re gunna do what we want for freaking once. Deal with it.

Also, I’m gunna zumba the shit out of my wii so I can be not such a fatass in Mexico at Christmas. Laugh all you want but that shit is fun. And I’ve seen it work. And its cheaper than dancing at the bars, because I have to have at least two beers down before ill even dance in public.

Anyways, goodnight. And don’t worry, this post wasn’t about you.

So I haven’t posted in awhile- Nursing school keeps me busy. But I have a few minutes while I sit here and wait to leave for work. I had a good night last night with my friends Savannah and her brother Chris. I don’t get to see her very often, so I love when we get to spend time together! We are so alike :) It was thursday, of course, so we were at the legion… I took it back old school and sang some Celine Dion- It’s all coming back to me now.. I love that song! I always used to listen to what my mom listened to when I was a kid… so I know a lot of Celine Dion and Eagles, haha. But it was fun. That place is my home. No matter who I’m with, or whatever shit is going on in my life, I know I will have a good time and forget about all that while I’m there. It was fantastic.

Aside from that, I was supposed to give blood for the first time yesterday. I got there, hyperventilated, shook, thought briefly about passing out, and then after all that, I couldn’t even give blood- I’m still on antibiotics. Boooo.

But, on a good note, I totally passed my injection check off this morning. I never thought I wouldn’t, but I didn’t even think about it like I did with the last one. Didn’t worry about it, didn’t go over notes again, I was confident that I knew what I was doing, and I did! Yay! I feel a little better about my life choice haha :)

OK, well it’s time for work now, and then I’ll be studying for the 325 test for monday. Have a happy friday!

What is this life, if but a shadow of the past?

I can’t help but think lately of the past. Isn’t our past supposed to teach us? Entitle us to a better future because we learned from our mistakes? In my experience, history has done nothing but repeat itself. Unknowingly, I make the same decisions I would have made if I had never made the prior mistakes. Is there some ‘I can’t learn from my mistakes’ disease? And if there is, is there a cure? Can someone save me from myself? I would like to think that I’m not one who needs saving, but…  I try not to be a liar. I’ve only ever been strong when I needed to be, when I had to be. But on an everyday, live your life basis, it’s not enough.

“How do you do it?” I love/hate this question. Well, love is used sarcastically, so I guess that I only hate it. Don’t freaking ask me that stupid question. How does anyone do anything? By breathing. You either do it well or you do it poorly, but everyone always does it- Does what? Live. Yes, I work while I’m in nursing school. How do I do it? I have no freaking clue. NONE. I am always tired, always crabby, and I guarantee my schoolwork suffers because I have no time to study or do homework. I’ve got so much freaking information in my brain I can never remember assignments, tests, quizzes, check-offs, work schedules, where I’m supposed to be, when, what I’m supposed to bring with me, and what I was supposed to do before getting there. I AM FREAKING OUT! I am nervous all the time that I am forgetting something. And believe me, I try and write EVERYTHING down… But it is extremely probable that I will forget something eventually. I mean seriously! How am I supposed to do this? I worry about the bills I can’t pay, the gas I can’t pump, the food that I am addicted to and HAVE to have… I’m not really sure I can do it!

So, how do I do it? I’m not sure I do.

So last night, I went to the legion - same as every thursday- and had a good time. But what was different about last night? I drank water. I still sang, I still hung out with my friends, laughed, joked… but I have no hangover today, no stomachache, no headache. Originally, it was a trade-off I had made with a friend who was on 24/7 but continued to drink. So I told him that if he could come and hang out with us and NOT drink, then I would too. But actually, I enjoyed it! I sat and watched, as fights broke out, drunk people who could barely stand and were falling over, dropping glasses, popcorn, being loud, obnoxious, and rude… and I thought… what fools! Why would anyone want to disrespect themselves and the people they are with that way? Some of them were wearing firefighter sweatshirts, or other such things, and I thought that was absolutely disrespectful.. Anyway, my point is- I have been there before, drunk, slurring, stumbling, loud… and I know how annoying it can be for your sober friends. So, from now on, (and this saves money too!), I will maybe have one, or two. And then water. I will respect myself and my friends and enjoy the company, not the drug.

Another thing- I have a confession. I am seriously addicted to fast food. Or any food that isn’t from home. Sometimes mom will make dinner and I’ll still eat something after that, even though I’m not really hungry. I am ALWAYS hungry, and I always eat. It’s getting to the point where I’ll go down a never ending spiral if I don’t catch it now. At this point, I don’t really know what to do about it, but I have to figure something out. Even if I don’t have money to go out, I still try everything in my power to do so… and when that doesnt work I am seriously pissed off and in a terrible mood. HELP! Haha Not having any time is another hard part. I’ve never taken a ‘sack lunch’ ANYWHERE. Not at school, not to work, not anywhere. Someone’s gunna have to teach me all these things that children can do so easily! Like run around, and play, and bike ride.. Ugh.

Well anyway… This is the first day of a 4 day work weekend stretch. :( I’d better get to it.

Have a good day!