Minions!

I knew I wanted to do some sort of a pumpkin craft this year, and was thinking of carving one of those fake ones.  Whatever I decided to do, I knew I wanted it to last beyond October 2015.  There were minion things all over the place this Halloween, including lots of costumes.  I saw this on Pinterest and decided to give it a try..



I began with a plain, orange craft pumpkin.  I started by painting the whole thing yellow (except at the very bottom).  It took several coats to get the whole thing covered.  Once the yellow layer dried, I began painting the blue for the denim.  I just freehanded this, but I did draw it in pencil first and then paint over it.  I found it helpful to do it upside down on a bowl:

Once the blue dried, I outlined the edges with a black sharpie, drew on the pocket, and added two yellow dots so it looked like button holes. I then drew the mouth, added teeth with a white paint marker, and painted the strap for the glasses.  I used lids from mason jars for the eyes (painted the inside of the lids white) and added googly eyes.  I hot glued the lids to the pumpkin and voila!

I have a colleague who loves minions, so I knew from the start where this project would end up. :)

Etched Glass

A Saturday with nothing on the schedule except crafting? Sounds like heaven... and sounds like it's time to try a new craft! I had seen this several times on Pinterest and wanted to try it, and today was the day! 

Inspiration came from here: 



Thoughts on this project... 
-much easier than anticipated 
-more fun than expected! 
-leaves room for creativity 
-shows up better on empty glass than on glass with a colored material inside it (a red candle, for example) 

Such a fun project and I just may have to find more and more glass around my apartment... or go buy new stuff! 

Here are the supplies you'll need... don't get fooled by the sales tactics at the craft store. You only need a very small bottle. A little goes a long way!

First time through, I used an adhesive stencil and stuck it to the glass. Then applied the Armour Etch with a paint brush.

Directions say to leave it on for five minutes but it doesn't seem like that's enough.  We left it on for 30 and then rinsed with water.  Using a paper towel helps to get it all wiped off.

Ta da!

See what I mean about the red background?  Here's one that was on clear glass with nothing behind it to show you the difference.

If you don't have adhesive stencils, you can trace a design onto contact paper and then cut it out with an x-acto knife on a cutting mat.  Adds a step to the process but works just as well!

Have fun!

Gratitude

Last year, I made a conscious effort to practice gratitude on a regular basis... Not just in my mind, but on paper. At the end of each day, instead of thinking about the things that did not go well or that I didn't get finished, I wrote down three things for which I was grateful. It completely changed my outlook on many days. While I will continue that practice this year, I'm going to add to it. I made this "gratitude jar" and when I'm moved to do so, I'll write down things for which I'm grateful and put the slips in the jar. At the end of the year, I'll open the jar and read over all the slips from 2015.

Inspiration from here...

http://pinterest.com/pin/140948663313768268/

Here's a picture of the jar I painted... The jar itself came from the "one spot" at Target, athough it was a $3 item. I used acrylic paint.

And here is the whole project, ready to go, with the first slip in the jar!

Give it a try... I think you'll be glad you did!