Homemade Birthday Invites: Estro Fest 2012

One day I just decided that I was going to have a birthday party for myself this year. This was like one week ago... I had a notebook of Strathmore Imperial Watercolor postcards I picked up at Craft Bits and Pieces for .10 cents.  It was one of the random purchases that I had no idea when I would use them but for .10 cents and Strathmore paper come on... you just have to get them.

During Saturday Art with the ladies I began playing around with layering paint, adding texture mediums in, stamping, etc... using the postcards and later when I got home an idea started to form. Why  don't I turn these into birthday postcard party invites?  I spent another Saturday Art session making a total of 13 postcards and with my friends help came up with the theme; "Estro Fest @ Casey's House. Come Party!"  This is based off of an old Vagina Monolog's advertisement.  I decided to have an all ladies party this year going along with my pre-vorce theme this year of "girl power" kick that I'm on.

Each invite is unique. I'll post the fronts of the cards but not the backs because obviously my information is on the back. Can't wait for the party!

The one self criticism I have is that as I was writing the words on the front of the cards I began to wish I hadn't. The fronts are so neat and took so much time to make that I wish I would have kept them just as the piece of art and put the words all on the other side. The problem was writing all of the info. on half a side of a postcard was tough to fit it all in as it was, but I still which I hadn't wrote on the front.  Another criticism is that my writing style still sucks. I need to take a class or something. Anyone know of tutorials online?

The Magic of Modge Podge: Transfer Images using Modge Podge

I saw an image on wood on pinterest and it briefly mentioned; use modge podge to transfer images from a photo copy.  I'm also interested in finding easy non expensive ways to transfer images/words for projects so I checked it out. Of course there was no link so I did a google search and found this helpful tutorial; http://kristieshelton.com/?p=665.

I immediately knew what I wanted to try this out on. I had a finished piece of bare wood I picked up at Craft Bits and Pieces for 1.00 a while ago. At the same time I had a co-worker begging me to make her one of my unique coat racks for her office for her birthday coming up in September.  Tada! and I was off!

I printed out 4 black and white images I found online. I printed them on regular copy/printer paper. Sized them and placed them where I wanted on the plaque/board and then covered each image with podge modge and put them face down on the wood. I smoothed them with my hand and a spatula (since I don't have a rolling pin) and let it sit over night.  In the morning I wet a sponge and dampened the paper, started gently rubbing the paper away, applied more water, rubbed some more, and repeated until all of the paper was gone. Whala! It worked! And pretty good too. I think I rubbed a little to much or hard in some spots as some of the ink rubbed away but for the most part it all stayed on and affixed to the wood.

To finish up the project I used some of my living room paint (alligator tears) which I think will match her office decor and painted the back, edges, and rubbed a little on the edges of the front where the images were (to cover up some of the ink that I had rubbed off).  I found 3 vintage coat rack hooks from my house and recycled them for this project by spray painting them black. Drilled some holes and added some screws and all done. The entire project was made for a DOLLAR!

Participate in a Random Creative Act of KINDNESS Just Because You Can!

For the past few years I've been participating in donating my art creations for varies charities/fundraisers. I want to start to do this on a more regular basis so I did a google search for charities looking for donations that are art/handmade related. I decided to start off with donating to: Love Letters Random Cards of Kindness, Inc; http://loveletterscares.org/. I thought with work starting back up and things about to get hectic that this would give me something positive to focus on accomplishing while at the same time doable with the limited time I'll have to work on art projects.

Here's their overall goal.
                                                  Mission Statement: 

Our goal is to create positive and inspirational homemade cards for children with life-threatening illnesses. We also want our "Love Letters Pen Pals" to inspires others in their community to commit to making a difference through our organization.

I found a bunch of blank cards just waiting to be turned into something and lots of random unused envelopes I had sitting around.  For the cards I printed out images I found online (reversing any image that might need to be reversed) and then used the transfer method I shared in a previous blog post to transfer the images onto the card.  With some of the cards I colored them in or added backgrounds with crayons, the postcards were painted and layered, stamps were used, and finally a thin black marker to do the lettering.  One thing I'm learning is that I could afford to take a class in writing styles. My writing  stinks! Any suggestions on how I can improve it?

All in all I made 13 cards/postcards and sent them out including envelopes and stamps. I hope they will brighten up some children/teenagers day. I'm pretty proud of my cheesy positive sayings. :)

Creative Smores

I found this recipe on pinterest; http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2012/05/campfire-cones.html and gave it a whirl while my nephew was up visiting. We were planning on making it over the fire pit but it rained that night so we tried the recipe in the oven and it worked out deliciously.

It was easy (even for me) and fun to make with my nephew. Of course I had a ton of left overs and now 3 weeks after his visit I've finished off the rest of the sugar cones and half of the other goodies making a "campfire smore" almost nightly. Yummy!  Below are some pics of the process, but we were so excited to eat them we forgot to take a pic of the finish project. I guess you'll have to go make your own to see the results for yourself!

Keva Planks Interactive Exhibit

My nephew is visiting and since he enjoys science/play related things I decided to take him to Rochester Museum and Science Center ;  http://www.rmsc.org/.  My friend provided me with a coupon from the Entertainment book so both my nephew and I were able to go the museum for a total of $10. This was way worth it as we spent the entire afternoon there and had a blast.

One of things we had fun doing was participating in the Keva Planks Exhibit.  There is a section on the mezzanine level with art pieces all created out of Keva Planks (little rectangular pieces of smooth wood). They art work is amazing!  Then they have tables and huge rolling buckets full of keva planks. You can sit down for as long as you want and create your own artwork, take a picture of it and they encourage you to post it on their facebook page.

Below are my nephew and my pieces of artwork. We both had fun creating that afternoon!

My 5 y/o nephew's masterpiece.

                                               My piece- My ode to the Mighty Colosseum.