Woah!

Wow,

I remember  back when I was serious into the blogging crafting thing and I looked at the overview on blogger to see how many people had looked at my blog all the time, practically drooling to see that number. One blog post and I had 152 views since the first post! Yay! Silly I know but hey, I get my thrills where I can lately. ha ha!

So, I found some inspiration today and made some more collage art. I haven't started my new job yet, so until then I am using as much of my time making and blogging.  Oh and spending time with this little booger!

She is dying to go to school like her other siblings. Poor thing doesn't know how much mommy wants the same thing!! 

Any way, So today I made these. I am still finding my voice or personal style when it comes to collage art but I have fun with it even if they turn out to be crap. 

I don't even know if these are any good. Please comment below and let me know what you think, even if you don't like it or think something has too much. I am open to criticism. 

Do your worst people! (or your best, I will gladly accept compliments too!!!)

Oh, and FYI, 

I got up early yesterday morning and walked. I have proof!

So, I did it, but it nearly killed me. I was so tired, I fell asleep in the couch with the above mentioned booger. I am not used to getting up or something, cause drool on my shirt midday is not attractive. HA HA HA! but I started the process and that's all that matters, right? Humor me people!

Here goes Nothing!!

So I haven't been blogging for a while now. Over a year to be more precise. Sooooo much has happened. Some of which I won't go into great detail about but some I will because I have things to be proud of. For starters, I have lost 70 pounds and kept it off for over a year. I still have some to lose but I will be using my blog to keep myself more accountable and get over this plateau. Below is a picture of the tremendous change I have gone through, a before and after picture if you will.

Still want to loose another 20 or 30 pounds but I have kind of been stuck. I am going to hit the diet and exercise thing again to keep going and post what and when I exercise. Thankfully Endomondo has a way to embed data directly on my blog. Thank you Endomondo. If you don't have the app, get it. I love it. It tracks everything. Wish I had the paid version. For those Family and Friends that are reading this, I want the full version of the app for Christmas! Although, I am hopeful that I will just be maintaining again by then. Wishful thinking, I know.  This is what the widget looks like. 

 I have also been doing a lot of collage art lately. Which is very cathartic for me. I made these recently. 

I have decided to get back into crafting as a second job. Right now, everything is helpful. I will be starting my etsy shop back up as well. 

I am also starting a new job at Jersey Village High School! Go Falcons! I worked there years ago when I was pregnant with my second child and had to give it up due to doctor prescribed bed rest. 

I look forward to starting the new job, getting healthy and making beautiful art and crafts I can be proud of. 

Vintage Wedding!

 So, I have been a little lapse here lately. Haven't posted any good tutorials for a while. I am even skipping music of the week. But I do have news to share. My friend D'anna is getting married! Yeah! And...

I am going to play Wedding Planner! 

Scary!

Now, have I ever planned a wedding? No. The hubby and I were married by a JP. Do I personally want a wedding? I didn't used to, but now that I have been through two weddings in the last year and am now doing this one, I realized I missed out. Anyway, that is another post for a later time, if ever. 

So, D'anna is getting married to Andy and she wants to do it at their place, completely DIY and she knows that DIY is my thing, so she asked me to help, plus she knows I will do it practically for free because I can post about everything we are working on. She also thinks that I manage to keep four kids in line (do I?) so I can handle the day of the wedding and she doesn't have to. I can understand that!

So, she wants to do Vintage Wedding. Which I love. Its perfect for DIY too!! Here are a few ideas I have found that we are thinking about. 

We want to do this but maybe with lace, more feminine! Tutorial to come!

Love this!

Well, I am going out there today to take pictures and do a little planning. Wish me luck! Hopefully I don't screw it up and she never talks to me again.  Anyone have any suggestions!?! I am all ears!

Oh, and I will be posting tutorials throughout this process. Everything will be handmade, so get ready!

Lamp Shade remake!

So, my kids are hard on everything in my house. Sometimes I am amazed that the house is still standing when I get home. I have a great babysitter. But it never fails, they get a hold of something and ten minutes later, someone, usually Elena, runs up and tells me someone broke it. So, I recently inherited a lamp from my grandmother who passed away last year. Actually, I have been given a ton of her decor and I love every bit of it. Its quirky and weird and I love that she is all over my house. I will post picture of all her stuff, because it is awesome! Anyway. The Lamp is kind of modern brushed metal with a simple white cloth lamp shade. Well, as I was setting up the lamp I noticed that the shade was starting to come apart a little bit. I thought, oh, I can fix that, maybe do something to the shade to liven it up. Then, like clockwork, Elena runs up to me and says, "Look what Nevin did!" Big Surprise. she ripped the shade apart.

Please ignore the mounds of crap behind the shade. My "craft bar" is usually the last thing on my very long list of things to keep clean. Did I mention I have four kids under 6?

Also, Please excuse the pictures. My camera's battery pooped out on me as I started to take the first picture. Camera Fail!!

Anyway, I thought, I have ribbon, I have hot glue, I can fix this and make it cuter and to my style.  First thing I did was tape the ring to the top with just some regular tape to hold it in place.

So, I measure my ribbon using the shade (sorry no picture) and cute 6 strips of ribbon. 

Then I positioned the first ribbon right on the seam, that way at least one of them would be straight. I hot glued the inside first to make sure it was sturdy, but you have to remember to add the hoop under the ribbon. It was freakin hard to hold but thats how I attached the hoop to the shade. 

Then set the shade down on a flat surface, grabbed my glue gun and put a semi-thick line of glue all the way down the seam. then attached the ribbon as straight as humanly possible.

Don't you just love my "old as dirt and covering in glue" glue gun. It was originally my Moms and i have had other glue guns but this one gets super hot unlike some of the newer guns and gives me more time for manipulation (not to mention burnt finger tips). I love it!

So I sectioned off the shade into three's at first, and glued ribbon to these three spots I "eye balled". Then I went back in between the three spots with three more ribbons. By doing three ribbons first it made it look more uniform than adding one at a time.

Then with some craps of ribbon I added little bows. I think it is sooooo much cuter than it was and it's pretty durable. At least the kids haven't destroyed it yet.

I will probably go back over the ring with more hot glue to really strengthen it, but for now, I like it. The bows are cute.

Well, hopefully my camera will be ready to go next time I need it. So better pictures next time, I promise. Well thanks for stopping by. Be sure and check out my ETSY shop too!! I add more items everyday!!

Now, to go see what the minions are getting into! Later!

Linking up here:

DIY Magnetic Makeup Organizer

I decided it was time to clean up my makeup. I am not much of a girlie girl, but I have to wear makeup. Getting older, have imperfection, got to cover them. But my makeup usually is just a mess and a hodgepodge of junk. Probably not the best way to store my makeup. I went from this...

To this!

Now mind you, I didn't attach magnets to the brushes and a few others, but that is in a container neatly on my vanity. I will figure out what to do with that later.

Anyway, You will need a cookie sheet (Dollar store), magnets (Dollar Store), Mod podge, Glitter, scrapbook paper (or you can do what I did and print out a great pattern off the internet!), sponge brushes, and scissors, and ribbon (not pictured)

and of course, a hot glue gun. No project is complete, till you have burned off any remnants of your finger prints with hot glue!

This is my trusty, very old, very worn hot glue gun that I, sort of, stole from my mom. She will probably see this and go, I was wondering where this went!! Hi MOM!!!

So, I had multiple sheets of paper to cover this, as the cookie sheet is bigger than your standard 8.5 x 11 paper. Using my exacto knife and scissors, I sized the paper, in the tray, and cut it to fit.

This is the part where the kids get involved. My girls love helping me do projects, especially when glitter is involved. So Mod Podge is harmless, so they helped me spread it onto the cutting board.

Then I placed the paper on top, making sure it didn't have air bubbles. 

Then I added glitter to the Mod Podge. 

And applied to the entire thing, even the lip that is outside the paper. Yes, it was a big mess but was it worth it, YES!!

So once its all covered and glitterized, let it dry for about 30 minutes. You can be working on the other side of the project and it should be done by then. 

Next, Get your glue gun ready and your makeup. Using the magnets from the dollar store. Hot glue them to the back of the compacts. Oh, and I had to learn the hard way that you need to pay attention to which side of the magnets neet to be attached to the makeup. I had a few that I had to redo because the magnets wouldn't work on one side. 

Once the tray is dry, flip it over and measure the ribbon so that it goes from the bottom all the way to the top with lots of extra so you can tie the two pieces together and make a bow. I did the ribbon all the way up the tray with hot glue to make sure it had plenty to hold onto and would be sturdy enough to hold up the weight. 

Then, tie a bow at the top and hang. Once hung, add your makeup! 

Voila! Makeup Organized! Nailed it!

Hope you like the tutorial. It looks great in my bathroom and my hubby is just glad there is not makeup all over the sink in the bathroom!

Mom's Silver Necklace and How to

If you have ever looked at my blog, you will see that recently we gave my Mom a 60th birthday party, luau style. My sister did it up great!! But because I couldn't post this until after the party, I am going to show you what I made mom. I gave her this silver necklace.

I am going to give a very basic tutorial just to show you that it is truly easy to make something like this without any training (I am completely self-taught!)

The main item you need, obviously need silver clay. You can get clay like this in gold, bronze and silver. But with the price of gold being what it is, start with silver!  I use Art Clay Silver. Get the slow drying version or you will be rushed and it won't turn out well. 

You will also need a olive oil, a stamp, a cookie cutter, a brayer, gloves, plastic guide/gauge strips, something to dome the piece ( I used the bottom of a soda can that I cut open, I will show that later), A self igniting butane torch, firing block, large tweezers, a stop watch, sand paper, nail file, stainless steel brush, thin pointed files. I know it seems like a lot, but I got all of this in a kit from Fire Mountain Gems.  Here is a link to it. 

First you need to put on the gloves and coat your hands and work surface (I use a floor tile) with olive oil. This will prevent the clay from sticking. Then you need to condition the clay (just like polymer clay)

Just mash it up, fold it over and repeat. Silver clay is so soft, you will only need to do it a few times. Plus, you need to remember, this stuff has to air dry when you are finished, so time is an issue. 

Then roll it out using your plastic gauge strips and your brayer.

I made this picture bigger to see that after I rolled it out, I used a heart stamp and pressed well, but not hard into the surface. Make sure you oil the stamp first, or it will stick and you will never get it out of the stamp!

Cut it out using an exacto knife (Sorry no picture). Then carefully remove the outer pieces of clay till all that is there is the heart. Take a clay blade like this one and carefully lift up the piece. Then grab something to dome it with. I cut the bottom off of a soda can and use that. 

Make sure you use an exacto knife to put a little whole some where on the silver, otherwise you have to have a bail and its easier to just use jump rings with the finished product.

Let it dry completely. You will notice the color change from grey to white, this is what you want. Generally speaking, I usually give it a day, to make extra sure it is dry, if it is wet in anyway when you fire it, it will have drastic effects to the silver. 

Once it is dry, you need to file it. I had to learn the hard way to carefully file your clay. easy small strokes to get the edges smooth. Honestly, I have come to realize the less you have to file, the better. However, you need to know it is really hard to file it once it is fired, so make sure you did what ever filing you are going to do before the firing process.

Then you fire it. I will be honest. I didn't take any pictures of the firing process. Mainly for safety reasons. Its fire with a torch. I thought my focus needed to be on the project at hand and not the pictures. So, instead I found the perfect video on YouTube that demonstrates the process perfectly, enjoy!

Once it is fired, you will need to burnish it with your brass brush and a polishing cloth helps too! Once again, I did not take pictures of this part but I found a video telling you how to burnish, its pretty simple, just brush the piece till it's silver then polish it.

Then, once its silver and polished, use jump rings to connect it to your cording and add embellishments. 

My mom really liked her necklace and I think it means more that I made it myself!! 

Love you mom! Happy Birthday! 

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