Day Twenty-Four: fridge pen holder

I'm all about accessorizing my fridge right now. My project for today sprang from the mind of not martha, but she used a Starbucks gum container and I am not made of money, so I searched high and low for something similar. The funny thing about this craft stuff is much of what I find is how to recycle old or broken things, but I don't have any of those old or broken things so I have to break nice things or buy things that I can recycle. I wish I was more of a hoarder so I could just sift through my miscellaneous belongings to find the materials I need, instead of going on hunts and buying stuff.

Anyway.

Materials:
- Methos gum container
- magnets
- scrapbooking paper
- liquid glue
- scotch tape

I was about to use a tic tac container (they make giant ones all of a sudden!) and then found a good-sized Menthos gum container that was cheaper.

First I discarded all the gum in the container (I don't really care for gum), peeled off the stickers, and took the lid off. The stickers left nice residue that made it easy to stick the paper on - I used damask again, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. The thing about the one at not martha is that the tin case is easier to paint and put tissue on - I thought I could just wrap paper around the case and be done with it, but the top was gape-y and the green plastic was visible. So I got liquid glue all over my fingers and smeared it over the paper like paper-mache for the top, and then glued the paper on regular for the rest.

top

rest

That was easy enough. Then I glued two magnets on the back, leaving room for a third in case pens were heavier than I anticipated, and waited for the glue to dry. WAITED. Luckily, it's vacuuming day so I was kept busy for a while.

 Then I stuck it to the fridge with two pens inside to test the weight, and voila:

My fridge is the luckiest fridge of all, you guys. It's so pretty right now.

I was going to make a corresponding paper-holder, but it suddenly got a million degrees hotter and I can't focus on anything new. That might be my project for tomorrow.

Day Twenty-Four Highlights: peeling dried glue off fingers, magnets, damask paper.

Day Twenty-Four Lowlights: waiting for glue to dry, gum.

Tomorrow: the corresponding paper-holder, or else there was something else that I wanted to do but it's so hot that I forget right now. Probably it was something awesome, so you should stay tuned.

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 Sixteen: bookmarks

Confession: I really didn't want to work on the laptop bag today. I want it to be finished, and I want to be able to tell people that I made it, but I can't stand the sight of it right now. At a loss of what to do, I read my book for the majority of the day; usually I use whatever piece of paper is in the vicinity as a bookmark (receipts, post-its, other books), but today it happened that a left-over piece of my most favourite damask paper was the closest thing at hand. It inspired in me a brilliant idea: damask bookmark! Since I want to use that paper for every single thing until it's all gone, because I love it so much.

My initial plan was to chop off a bookmark-shaped piece and then slap some packing tape on it, but I thought you guys might call foul on that being an actual craft. So I endeavoured to make it more difficult for myself.

Materials:
- lovely paper, patterned and corresponding solid (HomeSense)
- ribbon that matches (Michaels)
- packing tape [or laminator, if you're so inclined, but I'm not sure if the ribbon would work in that case]
- glue
- scissors/paper cutter
- light cardboard (maybe that is what's known as "paperboard"?)

I decided to make two, since I had two matching solid/damask combinations. I estimated bookmark-size and cut all the paper to those imaginary dimensions - I probably should have used a ruler. Why don't I learn anything from all my mistakes.

Then I glued them together, more damask showing than solid colour. At this point, I ruined the pink one because I didn't use a ruler, so I cut it crooked, and then I didn't like how the paper looked together. I decided instead to make a plain damask bookmark with the pink paper.

Then I chose ribbons that looked nice, and glued them on with a stupid glue stick. I hate glue sticks for stuff like this. The funny thing is, I have wonderful liquid craft glue in my craft box - however I was in the dining room and the liquid glue was in my bedroom. Instead of walking over to retrieve the liquid glue, I angrily used the glue stick. Laziness, thy name is Laura.

Then I trimmed everything to make it uniform, and sealed it with packing tape. This was tricky work, but thankfully I didn't end up with any tape bunch-ups (except on the back, which doesn't matter anyway). Then I thought that perhaps they were too flimsy, so I cut up the cover of one of my scrapbook paper packages and taped it onto the back of each bookmark.

And now I have two beautiful bookmarks. They satisfy my need to make stuff like this - I find scrapbook pages too daunting; cards are the perfect size but I don't like giving them away after I spent all that time on then; these bookmarks I just made use the same principles as making a card except I get to keep it! Until I lose it. Which is why I made two.

Day Sixteen Highlights: brilliant ideas, damask paper, reading for half the day.

Day Sixteen Lowlights: glue sticks, laziness, spending hours making a card and then giving it away and then it ending up in the garbage.

Tomorrow: I'm going to SAY the laptop bag, but in all honesty it will probably not be the laptop bag. Maybe more novel, or a glove squirrel.

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.