Thing-A-Day #16 – Magnetic Memo Board

Still having problems with my computer, which means another late post – hopefully I can figure it out this weekend.

I didn’t get home from work until 10:30 last night, but luckily I had a couple of easy crafts ready for just such an occasion. Last night I put the finishing touches on a memo board that I painted a couple of months back. This is an incredibly simple project.

First, I hit up the clearance aisle at the local craft store and found a scratched platter used for candle arrangements. I then went in search of a magnet in the store to make sure it was not made out of some kind of non-magnetic substances (like aluminum – thanks 5th grade environmental science field trip!). The magnets stuck, so the plate came home with me.

Initially, I had bold plans of some sort of antiquing method. But decided it wasn’t necessary and had spray paint at home. Here it is pre-spray paint.

Not pretty.

I searched for quite some time for a ribbon that I liked. When I did find one, I was bothered by the fact that one side was the negative of the print and far too off-white. I took it home with me over the holidays, knowing my Mom would have a solution – and this week’s care package came completed with two-sided ribbon. She had fused the ribbon together. Well done, Mom!

The should-be-simple bow became more complex by my perfectionist bent, but I finally produced a bow I could live with. I then hot glued the ribbon to the back.

Now I have a nifty memo board right by my door in which I can hang reminds. Here’s what it looks like:

Pretty!

 

Thing-A-Day #15 – Shrinky Dink Owl Ring

My home computer continues to sabotage my TAD posts, so here’s another tardy post. I’ve hit the mid-month lull in this project, in which motivation comes slowly or not at all. Crafting didn’t beginning until 11 last night, but I did manage to start a project.

I decided to use the Shrinky Dink plastic to create a ring. You all might have seen this version floating around the internet. I think they are awesome, but it’s actually a lot harder to do and do well than it would seem.

I have recently experimented with making rings out of bending molded resin before it’s completely set up and then using wire to complete the ring, and after the success that was last week’s earrings I wondered if that same idea could be applied to shrinky dink.

I have a couple of kinks to work out in the process, but once I do I will post a full tutorial.

Here is the ring after shrinking and bending:

Wee bit lopsided.

After making the medallion for the ring, I realized I about 12 shades too pale to actually wear a white ring. So I decided to paint the back side. The final product with be less of a shockingly bright green, promise:

I’ll keep you posted as to how it turns out.

Song of the Day – The Shape of Us (Ian Britt)

In lieu of lunch today, I thought I would share a quick song of the day. Last night’s episode of Parenthood concluded with this song. I have to commend the music director of that show, as they always feature amazing artists. A thanks goes to that person for this discover.

I’m loving the song, but that video breaks my heart a little.

 

Thing-A-Day #13 & 14

**Special note: This entry was written last night, but WordPress wasn’t allowing me to post pictures. Sorry for the tardiness.**

Holy slow internet, batman. Or perhaps it’s the fact that I dropped my computer last night. I don’t want to get further behind in my posting, so I’m attempting to endure the spinning color wheel of doom.

What must first be address is that my mom is the greatest. And she sends the absolute best holiday care packages. That’s not what makes her the greatest, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

My Valentine’s package included more jewelry making goodies, so I of course had to immediately use them. I went the simple route last night, and made these cabachon bobby pins. I’m keeping some of these for myself.

Adorable!

Tonight I was going for a zen craft, as despite my best effort to choose my attitude and be positive, the last couple of days were ROUGH. What’s more zen than rolling some paper beads? And how many beads can a person roll during one episode of Parenthood? Answer: 38

In my world vintage Smokey Bear ashtrays become bead holders.

I’ll attempt to bring you something a little more exciting tomorrow. Halfway there!

TONIGHT! Online Reed Turner Show

In the spirit of Leslie Knope, we are celebrating all our gal pals today by observing Galentine’s Day. And what better way to celebrate than to get all the girls together for an awesome concert?

The amazingly talented Reed Turner will be performing an online show this evening to benefit the Musicians|Volume II project that he is involved in. More about that project coming soon. If you like tremendous voices, incredible songwriting, like to support independent musicians and have access to the internet (which I assume you do because you are reading this), then please join us. The show will be hosted on Stage It, which allows you to pay what you can for the show. And you get to interact with the artists and your fellow concert goers!  Hope to see you at 8 Eastern/5 Pacific tonight. Click here for tickets.

Image borrowed from the fine folks at Musicians|Volume II.

Thing-A-Day #12 – Glass Earrings

Quick post tonight, as there isn’t much to be said about these. Just paper, glass and diamond glaze – per usual. But this time miniature earring size. It’s my first time to use 1/2 inch tiles, and I think they turned out pretty cute.

 

Thing-A-Day #11 – Shrinky Dink Earrings

It wasn’t my intention to make earrings tonight, but sometimes crafting takes you along it’s own path.

I started out trying to make a shrinky dink necklace with an owl on it and I learned several important lessons. The first being that simple is best when crafting with the magical shrinking plastic, and the second being that it doesn’t always shrink as much as it says it would. So the first attempt was a big giant fail.

Before shrinking -

Traced a drawing in my sketch book.

And after -

Too big and the colors ended up weird...can't win them all.

A little disappointed in the result I quickly traced a tree from a piece of scrapbook paper I had on a smaller circle of plastic. And I LOVED it! So I rushed to make another to turn them into earrings. Here’s the final product.

Tree hugger

All of the things I have made thus far will eventually make its way to my etsy store, but these…they’re staying with me.