Day Twenty-Six: Ikea picture frames (sigh) - updated

I thought today was day twenty-seven, and that I would only have two days left. But then I discovered that in fact, it is day twenty-six only. WILL THIS NEVER END. Discovery: I don't like doing things for thirty days. Especially when it's hot outside and I'm moving.

Anyway. I don't want to buy any more stuff, so I'm down to using what little I have left in my craft box. Today this meant painting Ikea picture frames. I have a bunch of pictures that I want to put up in my new apartment, with the picture frames painted to correspond - I'm sure it will look neat when it's all put together, but I forgot to order the pictures until just now so you can't see it put together until at least tomorrow. So for now it's pretty uninteresting.

Materials:
- frames
- paint
- paint brush

I learned that I really enjoy mixing primary colours together to make other colours. It's like an adventure! You have to be a colour detective. "Is teal more blue or more yellow than olive green? How many drops of red are allowed until it all turns brown?" It's very exciting. Except that I didn't end up making teal at all. I did it once before, when I painted that frame for my white board, but my directions for colour use weren't technical enough that I could re-create it.

This is what I started with:

And this is what I have now:

I'm fairly certain that I don't need to outline the process.

I have a vision for these frames and a mirror in my long front hallway. I'm sure it will look great. You can come visit, and decide for yourself!

Day Twenty-Six Highlights: being a paint detective.

Day Twenty-Six Lowlights: I'm pretty sure this barely constitutes a craft. That's a lowlight. Also, not being able to make teal.

Tomorrow: who knows. Who the heck knows.

UPDATED with the pictures inside them:

It does look better. Oh good.

Day Twenty-Three: ribbon frame

So these past three days I've been moving all my stuff to my new apartment, and I spent the majority of one afternoon washing all my dishes before I put them in cupboards. I don't have a dishwasher, but I do have a double-sink, so it was okay. However, there is a boring, empty expanse of wall above the sinks that I stared at the whole time, so I decided that I should make something to put there. My first thought was a mirror, because that's easy, but then I immediately nixed that for being too narcissistic, plus I might give myself a heart attack every once in a while. My mom suggested a bulletin board, which I then amended to one of those frames with the ribbon that you stick pictures and notes in. (I half-heartedly googled "ribbon frame" to find out the real name, but Google didn't know what I meant. The pictures will tell you what I mean. You've seen them before.)

Materials:
- largeish frame (Ikea)
- material (Value Village)
- ribbon (Precious Memories)
- thumbtacks (from my picture-hanging kit)
- good quality stapler
- needle-nosed pliers (optional)
- strong adhesive (optional)

I was excited about this project because I have a plethora of Ikea picture frames, but my taste is evolving in the way that I like my pictures to be in more interesting-looking frames, so I've got all these boring frames lying around. My first step was to remove the plastic from the frame, leaving only the frame itself and the cardboard backing.

Then I stretched fabric across it and stapled it to the frame. (I'm not sure if stapling was the best way to go about doing this, but I didn't consult any websites for advice since I can't remember what it's called, and a stapler was all I had.)

This was the only step which caused me any real trouble. I broke a nail pulling out a staple, wasted a lot of staples by not pushing hard enough, and broke my stapler for a bit. (I smashed it against the table a couple of times to fix it, and it worked! That never works!) My fingers look super weird in that picture, but that's because I had to push REALLY hard on the stapler to get anything to happen.

You have to do some fancy folding around the corners to keep the fabric tight, but I think it all worked pretty well. Then I got my ribbon, and stapled that to the outside edges of the frame.

Before I even began this thing I was worried I didn't have enough ribbon, and I ran out when I was 3/4 of the way finished. I had similar ribbon, but not identical, so two of the strands are more brownish than the others - I'm not sure if it looks okay, but I didn't want to go out and buy more ribbon. Also, I had to do some re-positioning on some after I'd finished them all, because I didn't measure or anything. Probably it would look better if you did, but I just made sure they were all perpendicular to each other.

Then I stabbed thumbtacks at each crossing point so they punctured the cardboard. My secret wish was that the cardboard would be enough to hold them in place, but some of them came popping off so I rooted through my dad's toolbox and found needlenosed pliers. With these I bent the backs of the thumbtacks to keep them from popping out. In the process I punched some holes in the back of the cardboard, so the thumbtacks popped out with their bent backs, so I found some Gorilla Glue in the laundry room and put some of that on the back of each thumbtack. (The instructions for the glue say you're supposed to dampen each thing you want to stick together, which I didn't, and then clamp it, which I also didn't. I also neglected to wear gloves, which you are supposed to, and I think I got some on my skin. Hopefully everything still works even though I blatantly disregarded every single instruction on the bottle.)

Then I waited for a million years for the glue to dry, which it did eventually, and then I stuck stuff in the ribbons, and now I am finished! I think I will also stick some small sewing pins on it to let me stick more stuff in it than just in the ribbons, because I want to cram it full of stuff.

I am so proud of this! I did it without even a plan in mind, or knowing what it was called! Sometimes I am so amazing.

Day Twenty-Three Highlights: coming up with a brilliant plan and succeeding, fixing things by smashing them, double-sinks.

Day Twenty-Three Lowlights: getting Gorilla Glue on my hands, waiting for things to dry, thumbtacks that pop out, running out of ribbon.

Tomorrow: I bought a pack of Menthos gum specifically so I could use the package for a pen holder to stick on my fridge, so probably I will make that tomorrow. If I can find somewhere to stick all the gum.

Day Eighteen: whiteboard

I was just about to type "Hey it's a real craft post finally" but then realized that it is not. It's not a new idea, but it is the completion of one of my unfinished projects. And, as I had to change into painting clothes and as I got paint all over my hands and the table, I think it qualifies as a legitimate craft day.

So, remember this? I was unhappy with the yellow border, since I am head over heels for damask and don't want any of this solid paper nonsense interfering with how beautiful it is. I'd mentioned going to Ikea to buy a new frame, but the whole point of making a whiteboard was that I didn't have to purchase one, thereby leaving my pocket lined with a little more coin. My brilliant idea was then to go to Value Village and buy a cheaper frame, hopefully one that was interesting-looking. I finally managed to get to Value Village today (I could have gone on Tuesday, but Tuesday is Senior's Day and I've learned to AVOID that location on Senior's Day), and almost bought a lovely, old-looking frame for $10, then realized that for that same price I could have just bought a whiteboard. So I settled for a different frame that was simple, but also only $5.

Here are they both side by side:

Materials:
- paints
- paint brush
- newspaper to lay down so you don't get paint on stuff
- old frame

My first step was to test a white board marker on the new frame to make sure it erased properly, and I was pleased to discover that because it's glass and not plastic (like the original attempt), the white board marker came off super easy. So, tip: use a glass frame.


Then I took out my paints and mixed colours together. When I began my painting career (hoping that I would be unexpectedly ridiculously awesome at painting -- SPOILER I was not), I only bought red, white, black, blue, and yellow. This is because during my practicum we had this fancy art lady come in to teach everyone how to do art, and she said that from those colours you can make any colour in the world, since they are the primary ones + lightener and darkener. (If you are going to do this, I will pass along to you the tip she passed along to me: make a LOT of the colour you end up using, because you will not be able to create it the same again if you run out.)

I started with blue and a bit of white, then a bit more white, then lots of white. Then I put the damask paper up to the frame and realized it was too blue, so I added two drops of yellow to make it greener. Then, since I love purple (even if it's secret purple), I added one drop of red. This is what I ended up with:

It looks a little gross from the picture, I realize now. Also, you may notice that I have a TON of paint. I had a lot left over, but I didn't want to run out because it took me so long to find the perfect colour. I painted the whole frame, and then came the hardest part of all for me - the waiting for it to dry part. I watched a tv show I had taped, ate watermelon, washed the paint off my hands (yes in that order, by accident), sat outside with my dog, windexed the glass part of the frame, and then the paint was dry! So I put it all together and voila:

I will include a close-up, because I really like how the colours worked out together.

When I put the back particle board on to close it all up, I discovered that it was an Ikea frame after all, only I paid $5 for it, with a picture inside! (The last time I used a frame that already had art in it for something else, a friend of mine commented, "I feel bad for the other art!" So do I, so I will try and find a use for the art that previously occupied this frame. It's not so bad, I guess.) Also, it's not one of the cheap-o Ikea frames I normally buy, since the clear part is glass not plastic, and the backing is particle board not cardboard. What a steal.

Day Eighteen Highlights: finishing an unfinished project, mixing paints, getting good stuff for cheap.

Day Eighteen Lowlights: not being unexpectedly ridiculously good at painting, getting paint on my mom's table... :(

Tomorrow: I promise I will take out the last unfinished project and TRY to work on it, but I can't promise I will finish it.

Day Fourteen: whiteboard

In my room presently I have a very nice setup that I got the idea for from a friend of mine. I have two white boards and two bulletin boards side-by-side (bulletin/whiteboard on top, whiteboard/bulletin on bottom), screwed into the wall. It keeps me very organized. The problem with this is that I can't take them with me, because I'd create giant holes in the wall where the screws were, and also I've painted my room since I put them in so there would be a large navy blue square where the boards used to be. I could have perhaps gone out and bought something similar for my new apartment, but then I saw this at paper n stitch and thought it was BRILLIANT. Especially since I have a million Ikea poster frames that are sitting around doing nothing.

Materials:
- picture/poster frame, any size (I got mine at Ikea, but you can probably just use any)
- some kind of fancy backing, paper or fabric or something (I used my awesome damask scrapbook paper)
- paper cutter
- tape
- I didn't use a ruler, but it might work out better if you did

Before I started, I made a small mark in the corner of the plastic part of the frame, waited a couple of hours, and then erased it to see if it would erase. I am so proud of myself for thinking ahead like this. It did erase, but I found that it erased better if I let it dry fully than if I made a mark and erased it immediately. This may hold true for all whiteboards and I've never noticed up until now.

So, the first step was deciding which of the 180 sheets of damask paper I wanted to use. This was a very tough decision. I made sure to choose the least-busy ones, because the words on the whiteboard needed to be the first thing seen, not the pattern.

I narrowed it down to the bottom-right pink or the bottom-middle green/blue, then tried to fill the frame to see what it would look like. This wasn't really effective, because I only have three sheets of each pattern, and I didn't want to cut them up before I knew they would be right. 

I ended up going with this one, because I didn't have any secondary colors that would look good with the pink. I used the cardboard backing as a guide to how to cut the paper - it is at this point that I think you should use a ruler. Basically two sheets side-by-side and then a third chopped in half makes an even rectangle shape.

Then I used solid yellow to fill up the rest of the frame - ideally I would have had enough damask paper to do this without the other colour, but I didn't want to buy anything new for this project. I measured the yellow paper against the cardboard backing for the frame, folded to indicate where I should cut, and then cut.

Then I turned it over so the white side of all this was facing me, and taped it all together so it matched up with the cardboard, stuck it in, and closed the whole thing up.

Super easy. In the words of the website I found the link to this project on, "Let's all kick ourselves now for not thinking of this sooner."

It would probably look better without the yellow border, but I really wanted to use that paper for it. Maybe I'll get a smaller frame the next time I'm at Ikea, so it will fit perfectly. Also, I'm going to paint the frame, I'm just not sure what colour yet. So between that and the laptop bag, I have two unfinished projects on the go. Way to be productive.

Day Fourteen Highlights: success again!, lovely damask paper, stealing good ideas from friends.

Day Fourteen Lowlights: not quite having enough paper, starting things and not finishing them.

Tomorrow: probably I should finish the two things I have left unfinished. We'll see.