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.

Bright and Easy Idea for LOOSE Photos & Cards

I saw this basic idea in a photo book I checked out at the library this summer and I fell in love with the concept!  Get out all of your old loose photos and those cards you wanted to keep but had no idea what to do with them so you just gathered them for years in a basket or box in a closet. Here's an awesome way to display them!

All you do is find or purchase a spinning card rack and put your loose photos and cards that you want to keep in the card pockets. After looking for a display rack in yard sales, thrift stores and craigslist with no luck, I went for a search on the net and found a 12 section spinning display rack at www.displays2go.com. This was the smallest rack and least expensive at $25. The shipping is what hurt $10.  I kind of wanted to go bigger and get one of the tall floor ones to put in a corner in my dining room but wasn't 100% sure how it would look. I now wish I would have went big. It's the right size for now and it has room for a lot more pics and cards but someday I will need the larger version which is about $50.

This is my new fav toy/idea.  I had fun pulling out my boxes and putting my grandfather's old postcards from the early 1900's in the slots and then my trip/vacation postcards next to them. I also had cards from special occasions that I had kept, black and white photos, polaroid images, handmade cards and pics from my nephew, etc... and they all fit.  I used an old antique envelop to put tiny pictures in it for display otherwise they wouldn't have fit.  My goal is to create some sign to put on the top of the spinning rack (there's a place for it) once I come up with what I want to put on it (for now I have a polaroid snapshot of me when I was little). Now I have a talk piece for guest to look through and stories to reminisce and share with others instead of leaving these mementos hidden in the recess of my closet never to be seen or looked at for years.

DIY Creative Coat Rack

The first image below is of a coat rack I made for my work office. There's an older post about it somewhere on my blog.  I was going for a raw screen printed kind of look.  I liked it for a brief moment in time but after three years of planning I now have a brand new office space in a new building.  I'm working on redecorating my office using some of my old art pieces and bringing in some new things like plants and a revamped coat rack.

I've been creating a bunch of arts and crafty projects lately which of course is thrilling, productive, creative and therapeutic in their own right but this is the first mixed media piece I've done all summer. Here's how I did it.

I started with the blank piece of wood from the old piece, painted with reds and yellows, used a crackle medium followed by yellow paint, modge podged some sewing pattern paper I got for .25 cents at Craft Bits & Pieces, tried some other collage pieces... didn't like the outcome so I tore most everything off and started all over. I found an image about REST that I liked in a magazine and cut it out, painted the background with blue, violet and white, added more modge podge with the sewing patterned paper, modge podged the cut out image on, smeared paint around the edges, epoxied buttons and an old key lock I found around my house. I used stamp letters and black paint to add the quote, "PS Enjoy Your Life" to the image.  I found old large headed nails in my basement and hammered them in the corners of the wood. I then used modge podge and an acrylic spray sealer over the entire piece then drilled and reattached the coat hooks. I put holes in the back for hanging.

 Viola!!! I love this piece. Way better then my last attempt! And the total cost was only $5 for the coat the coat hooks from HD. Wood was a left over piece from house projects.

First Coat Rack made a year ago.

Newest mixed media coat rack.