Love Birds

I joined StumbleUpon a couple of weeks ago. If you want an interesting time-waster, you should sign up to this site. It allows you to put in your interests and then everytime you hit the "stumble" button on your browser, it will search the entire web and pull up sites it thinks you will be interested in. I listed one of my interests as crafts/DIY and I have gotten so many cool ideas! The sites really got my creative juices flowing, so I did a couple projects....

Bird's Nest Necklace

I saw the original idea for this on another blog, but the girl used heavy gauge wire and large beads so the result was much larger. I liked the idea of a delicate charm, so I used very small gauge wire and tiny beads. I started by threading the beads onto the end of the wire; I then twisted the wire together to hold the beads in place in a group of three. I then began winding the wire round the beads to desired thickness. To secure the wire from coming unwound, I added three small wrappings at three points around the nest. I attached the bird charm and loop on the top with metal jewelry making rings (found in the bead section at our local craft store). Finally I created the chain by cutting the desired length and adding a clasp (all found in the jewelry creations area of the bead section.) The result was a nest about the size of a quarter. A little time consuming, but easy and I love the final product!

Love Painting

 Oh boy, was this an adventure. To start with, I tried a similar painting on the canvas earlier this evening, and HATED the final product. I tried too many languages all hodge-podge in the background and it looked sooooo messy. I painted over the whole thing and started again. I started with my graduating color scheme of acrylic paint from light on the bottom to dark on the top; while the paint was still wet, I stood the canvas upright and misted the entire painting with a spray bottle, mainly focusing on the top row of dark color. I left the painting upright to dry. If you are doing this, put down plastic or do it over a sink/tub...it's messy.

  I then chose three languages: French, German, and Spanish and translated the phrase "I love you" into each. I painted these phrases in rows in black acrlic paint and allowed to dry. Over those, I painted the larger English "I love you" with a heart in ivory with gray shadow.

 I love the way it turned out....so much better than the first. I almost gave up and turned it into "dumpster art"; I'm glad I gave it a second chance!

Creative Juices

It was such a beautiful day and my creative juices were flowing so I took an afternoon off to paint. I went and bought canvas from the craft store; it was my lucky day because all of my stuff was almost half off! I came home, set up my paints and plugged in my music and got down to work. It took me all afternoon, but they are finished, dry and now decorating my once bare dining room walls. I really like how they turned out!

Both: 12x12 acrylic on canvas

All 4: 10x10 acrylic on canvas

Happy Fall!

Today was another crafty crap day...it didn't start that way, but it sure ended that way.

This morning I got up and went to have my second follow-up TB check...still no TB. I then picked up Greg and we headed to lunch at a local bar. The bar is famous for their burgers, but I had a pesto chicken sandwich...holy yummy. After lunch, I dropped Greg off at his office to catch up on a couple things, and then I drove to the coffee shop a few minutes away. I settled in with my hot tea and a crossword; Greg met me a little later and we worked on the puzzle together for a while. At two o'clock, he had to head out for his kickball game, and I had to go restock on my crafty stuff. I really just wanted to wander in JoAnn Fabrics for an hour, but I did also needed some paint.

I did my wandering, restocked, and headed home to get to work. I planned on making more cards, but I got started putting lace patterns on cardstock and things sort of just snowballed from there. I did make a couple more cards, but I also had an idea to paint and pattern a picture frame. I started with a small, basic silver frame that I have had for a while.

I panted the entire frame with a deep, metalic, bronze-colored paint.

After the first coat dried, I gave the frame a second, textured coat by tapping the paint onto the frame with the tips of the bristles.

While that coat dried, I placed a piece of lace onto a paper plate and covered it in a lighter, champagne-colored metalic paint.

I then draped the paint-laden lace over the frame and pressed down evenly across the entire surface.

When the frame completely dried, I cleaned the glass and added one of my favorite pictures from my trip to New York City. Viola! The frame looks like a mix of lace and snakeskin....muuuuuch better than the plain original.

After I finished this frame, I had the idea to do a set of frames for my living room. I had one blank wall.....very large....veeeeeeeeeery blank. Last year, I used a set of 4 plain, thin, silver frames in my old apartment; I had been keeping them in storage, unsure of what I wanted to do with them.

To begin, I did the same paint process as earlier...first a dark coat, then a texture coat, and finally a lighter lace coat.
While the frames dried, I used a cut a piece of lace and covered it in dark metalic brown paint.

I layed this lace over dark khaki-colored cardstock and pressed the lace evenly across the paper with napkins. I removed the lace and cut the cardstock to fit in the frames.

I then picked four of the leaves that I had dried previously; the leaves were similar in size, shape and color. I applied tacky glue evenly to the back of each leaf and pressed one on to each cardstock background.
I then placed the backgrounds and glass back into the frames and hung them on the wall. Viola...again!

After I cleaned up the mess from the painting projects, I found that I still had a LOT of dried leaves left. The colors were so beautiful, it seemed a shame not to display them in some way. I remembered that I also had decorative fish bowl in storage, so I dug it out and cleaned it. I placed some amber-colored glass beads in the bottom, and poured in the leaves.

I let them fall, haphazardly, so they were visible from all sides of the bowl. I love, love, love fall, so I really enjoy having a little of the beauty of the season inside.

Mom is coming to hang out with me tomorrow...we are going to a pumpkin patch festival and I am making lunch...can't wait!

Happy Fall Everybody!

We Card.

I've spent the last two days doing crafty crap....oh how I love crafty crap.

This particular brand of crafty crap is cards. I have been on a make-your-own-cards kick lately, and I am loving the results. I went yesterday afternoon to my current favorite place, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and found some lovely lace in the bargin fabrics. I was looking for a couple big patterns and a smaller, delicate pattern and I found exactly what I was looking for.

When I got home, I cut the pieces of cardstock to the size I wanted and then folded them cards. I used all different colors, mostly sticking to deep, dark colors however. From here, I used the larger lace patterns as a kind of "pattern sponge." I cut large pieces out of the lace, measuring about 8 inches by 8 inches. I placed a cut piece on a paper plate and spread acrylic paint over top of the lace, making sure to really saturate the fabric. On a separate paper plate, I placed a card and then layed the paint-soaked lace on the paper. I pressed down evenly on the lace with a paper towel, lifted the lace and moved the card to dry. I reused each piece of lace multiple times, until I was finished with that color of paint. I started with white paint, but found it to be too much of a contrast; black, navy, dark brown and gray are much better shades to use on the dark cardstock.

Earlier in the day, I had printed several of my photographs on regular computer paper, some in sepia tones but most in black and white. While the cardstock dried, I used craft scissors to cut a decorative edge to all of my photos. When the cards were dry, I cut a piece of the smaller patterned lace to fit behind each photograph. I made sure about 1/2 inch of the lace was visible on all sides of the photos. Using a thick-bristled brush, I applied a thick layer of tacky glue to the back of each photo.

 I then pressed the photo into the lace and through to the cardstock. The glue will chage the color of the photo slightly, but in these pictures, it worked to my advantage.

A few weeks ago, I collected some of the first fall leaves that had dropped. I placed them in an old book to dry and found them to be dry and flat when I checked them this afternoon. Using the same idea as before, I took cardstock and painted on the lace pattern in autumn colors. After the cardstock was dry, I used the same thick-bristled brush and tacky glue to paint a thin layer of glue onto the back of the leaves. After the entire back of the leaves were covered, I pressed one onto the center of each card.

I have several more leaves and some fall flowers drying and they should be ready to use in a few weeks...can't wait to start working with them!

Buttered Up and It's Peachy

What an eventful week! I have finished my canning for this year. I went home last Wednesday and picked apples off Grandma's tree. We don't know what kind of apples they are, but they are large, yellowish-green and delicious! (Perhaps yellow delicious?) Mom and Dad came along to help, and we picked 3 five-gallon buckets and a half-bushel sized box full of apples. I spent the next day parked on my couch in front of the TV with a peeler and three clean buckets: one for peeled apples, one for bad apples and one for peelings. If I don't have to peel one more apple until next canning season, it will be too soon. I only tossed out 3/4 of a bucket full of bad apples; the rest were peeled, cored and cut into slices. The sliced apples were placed in a large kettle, boiled with water until soft, and then blended with my hand mixer until they were the consistency of applesauce. Then I added my spices and let the mixture cook down for 6-8 hours. I placed the mixture into jars and followed the canning procedure. Over the next 3 days, I repeated this process in the large kettle three more times and the end product....viola! 63 12oz jars of apple butter! Mmmmmmm....let me tell you, it's TASTY!
This last Sunday, Mom came over with a 25 pounds of peaches from Papa's Pumpkin Patch, and she helped me to blanch, peel and can them. We made 16 pint jars and one quart jar of honey-spiced peaches and 14 pint jars of honey peaches. I haven't tried them yet, but they looked and smelled so good!

I'm sure my neighbors have been wondering about the smells coming from my apartment...first salsa, then apple butter, and then spicy sweet peaches....it's smelled so good in here!

I also worked last week to finish up my applications for graduate school. Things were going well until I had a bit of a set-back...okay, a major set-back. Earlier this summer, I was told by CASPA, the program/company we use to apply to PA schools, that processing of our information would take between two and three weeks. I did a lot of job shadowing and class work late in the summer that I wanted on my application so I waited until three weeks before my deadline to apply to turn in my applications. I talked to CASPA again, and now the processing time is 4-6 weeks...which causes me to miss my deadlines. I called the schools I am applying to, and all but one say that processing time does not matter because they consider the day you turn in your information is the day you applied....give you one guess which school doesn't go by that thought...yup Central. I shouldn't have waited so long; it sucks that the information changed, but it's still my fault. I talked to an advisor at Central and he told me not to worry, he knows me and knows how hard I have worked to be eligible for their program. He said he would do everything he could to help. I went drove the next morning to Saginaw and then turned around and drove to Ferris to pick up official transcripts and reference letters to take with my printed application to Central; they aren't the official copies, but at least the program has all of my information before the deadline and they can see how serious I am. The advisor was impressed when I brought him the information, and said he would talk to the admissions board right away. Here's hoping it all works out...

On a happier note, I finally got a job interview! I have applied EVERYWHERE, and I finally have an interview for a CNA position at the hospital on Friday. The building is just down the road from my apartment, and they apparently pay very well. Keep your fingers crossed....I would love to get this job, and my bank account would love to see some money roll in instead of roll out!

Tomato Time!

I have been busy the last few days....learning to can! I love it so much...I think I am addicted!

On Friday, Mom came over with 25lbs of tomatoes bought from Papa's Pumpkin Patch to help me learn to can. We boiled and peeled and chopped all the tomatoes and then canned them in quart jars. The process made 7 quart jars of stewed tomatoes, but only 6 sealed. The jar that didn't seal I used in chili on Sunday...the tomatoes were tasty!!

On Saturday, I went shopping and got all the peppers, onions and special ingredients I would need to make my own salsa. I also purchased another 25lbs of tomatoes from Papa. Mom came over Sunday morning to helped me chop everything and get it started on the stove. I let the salsa cook all evening...about 6 hours and then canned the salsa in pint jars. All of the jars sealed....woo! I made a second batch yesterday, and only had one mishap...all the jars sealed, but one the bottom broke out of one of the jars during the canning process...what a mess! All in all, the process was worth the outcome....the salsa is super delicious-spicy but still sweet- and it made 40 pint jars! I'll be enjoying salsa for a while!

Next up: I will be attempting to can honey-spiced peaches and homemade applebutter...yumm!