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 One: magnets

First of all, I'd like to say how ridiculously difficult it is to find small magnets (or any magnets at all, really - everyone I asked gave me a strange look, like what would anyone want a magnet for?), and quality flat clear marbles. Finding this craft at not martha is what inspired me to start the whole thing in the first place, so I wanted it to be the inaugural bit of creativity, but I had to keep postponing due to not being able to find any of the stupid stuff.

Also, don't buy the marbles from Wal Mart. The ones there are cheap cost-wise, but also cheap quality-wise. They were cloudy and had cracks in them, so you couldn't see the picture through them and they were completely useless. I dislike spending money (and Michaels is so expensive... sigh), but I also dislike crappy things. So Michaels it was.

Initially I'd planned on using the small marbles, since those were used in the example I saw, but the pictures I wanted to use were too pale to show through such small marbles. I ended up buying the larger ones from Michaels (only $2.99/bag, a lot cheaper than I thought), because in order for my magnets to be as pretty as I'd imagined, I needed more of the images to be seen.

So, the materials I ended up with:
- Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue (Wal-Mart)
- large, clear, flat marbles (Michaels; and a few small ones from Bowrings)
- assorted pictures from O Magazine and the Ikea catalogue
- 3/4" ArtMinds craft magnets (Michaels)

First I traced one of the marbles onto a piece of cardboard that I could then use as a tracer for all the pages I ripped out of magazines. An actual circle tracer or hole punch, like I've seen for scrapbooking, would have been super helpful here, as I quickly got bored of this process. (I am new to this crafty stuff and the patience and tools it requires. Bear with me.)



I completed one whole one before doing it assembly-line style, just to see if it would work. With this one, I glued the picture picture to cardboard like in the example, but found that wasn't necessary so I will not continue with that part - I am all about skipping steps. Also, the cardboard started peeling away from the marble after it dried (but maybe this wouldn't be a problem if you were more liberal with the glue than I am.)

So with or without the cardboard attached to the cut-out circles, squirt a bunch of glue onto the middle of the underside of the marble, then squish the picture onto it. The glue spreads out and comes a bit off the edge, which is fine I guess because it probably helps the picture stay on. Or maybe you can wipe it off or something. Whichever.


It was at this point that my dog decided to get involved, but as you could probably guess she was not much help. Especially since I think the glue is toxic.


Waiting for stuff to dry is one of the hardest parts for me, because I want to finish it NOW. (Hopefully, as these thirty days progress, I will learn to enjoy the process.) But probably that's really important to dry fully before you glue the magnet on and stick it on the fridge. So I waited, waited, waited, and then looked on craft websites for what I could do tomorrow, and then got really overwhelmed that I am now committed to doing this for thirty days. Then I pondered my fear of commitment, and then the glue was dry. Some of them needed to be trimmed because my tracer was flawed, and some needed a bit more glue squished around the edges to make it look nicer, but all in all it looked pretty good.

Then I glued on the magnets! I was worried about these magnets, because I didn't splurge on the expensive, heavy-duty metal ones, and I wasn't sure if they would hold. (I'd initially bought small marbles from Wal-Mart, and I was clever and taped one to the magnet and then stuck it on the fridge as a test, but then I returned the small marbles to Wal-Mart and forgot to test the large ones.) They are good enough for the job, and it may be interesting to note that both sides of a magnet will stick to a fridge, so it doesn't matter what side you put the glue on. (Or maybe that just makes me sound dumb. I thought it important to check because one side of the magnet will stick to another magnet while the other side of the magnet will repel another magnet, and I didn't want to create a bunch of magnets that repelled the fridge.)


And now I'm done. I am very pleased with my first attempt! Especially since there was about a week of build-up, trying to find the right materials and then finding out I'd got the wrong materials and having to wait for today for my 50% off coupon for Michaels to be valid. But here they are!


Day One Highlights: looking through magazines for pictures, 50% off coupons, success, helpful dogs, glue drying on fingers and then pulling it off and pretending it's fake skin

Day One Lowlights: cheap marbles from Wal-Mart, waiting for glue to dry, not having a hole-punch, fear of commitment

Tomorrow: who knows. Maybe a writing thing to take the pressure off.