Sunday, September 30, 2012

Six Squared: Canvases 2 and 3

This week I worked on canvases 2 and 3 for the Six Squared event in support of the Kingston Seniors Association. They are both paper-craft focused, and kinda girlie. 

Canvas #2 - Paint-chip Flowers

First I painted my canvas with 2 coats of acrylic.




Then, once the paint had dried, I traced three circles randomly on the canvas using a toilet paper roll dipped in some gold ink I had from another project. 



The I started painting the circles in with some gold acrylic paint. 





I did two coats of the gold paint to make sure I got full coverage. 

While these were drying I picked out the paint chips I wanted to use (yes, I have about a zillion paint chips laying about from artwork I did last year), and selected three different sized hole punchers to use. 



Let's make some flowers!
Lay'em out...



Mod Podge'em on...


Now comes the artistic part; drawing some stems and leaves. If you suck at drawing like I do, just keep it as simple as possible. 

First, find a green marker. I use these markers because they're awesome. You can get them at Wallacks. (I used the green one at the bottom.)




Oh and add some grass in too, for effect. 





Once your drawing is dry, go over everything with a thin coat of Mod Podge. 





Now let that beast dry, and you're all done! 






CANVAS #2: COMPLETE.


Canvas #3 - Scrapbook Paper Flower
Those of you who have read my blog before will immediately recognize this craft; it's an homage to my first official Pinter*Mel project

As always, paint the canvas! 2 coats! 



While that's drying, take a folded toilet paper tube and a pencil and trace your flower petals on the back of the scrapbook paper you chose to use. 







Cut'em out, and lay them out on your canvas. I had some extra petals laying around from the first project so I used them to fill in some sparse spots. 



Once you're satisfied with how they're laid out, start Mod Podging them into place. 



Make sure to Mod Podge the overlapping edges of the petals down the sides of the canvas. 



Go over the entire canvas with a thin layer of Mod Podge. 





Let the Mod Podge dry and you're finished! 





CANVAS #3: COMPLETE.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Six Squared: Canvas #1 of 6

A few weeks ago I told you about a fundraising event called Six Squared in support of the Kingston Seniors Association. This week I started (and completed) my first 6x6 canvas! 

The Inspiration: Tape Painting with Metallic Paint  

So first off I painted my little canvas gold. I used a heavy body paint, so I didn't add water to it like I normally do to all my acrylics. I did two coats because I wanted it to be super shiny. 






Then I grabbed my drafting tape (fancy name for skinny masking tape) and taped a random geo-design. 



I decided to use a turquoise colour to paint the parts of the canvas not covered in tape. I mixed four shades of turquoise by mixing in a little white. Wanted to give it that ombre look all the kids are raving about. 









I did two coats of each blue and then let it dry for a few hours before pulling off the tape to see what I'd made. 



There were a few spots where the paint had bled through to the gold. 


So I took a little glob of the gold paint and a fine tip paint brush and fixed it up. 


See! Fixed! 



I really liked how this one turned out. I might make a bigger one for the house or as a gift for someone. 

Canvas #1: COMPLETE. 

Friday, September 21, 2012

Official Pinter*Mel Project #7: Custom Family Sign in a Floating Frame

The Inspiration: Vinyl Letters in a Floating Frame

The Process: 
I *really* liked the look of this project; a nice framed tribute to your family for the front hall. My brother married his longtime girlfriend last weekend, and as soon as I saw this project I immediately knew that I wanted to make it for them. The Pinterest post explains how to make the letters using vinyl and a Cricut Machine, I don't have one of these, so I did it the old fashioned way; with scrapbook paper and a razor.  I'm hardcore like that. 

You will need: 
- A floating frame, size of your choice
- A razor blade
- Scrapbook paper x 3-5 pieces, design and colours of your choice
- Glue Dots
- Cutting board
- Scissors
- Mod Podge
- Paint brush
- Letter stickers





I wasn't able to find stickers big enough and in a font and colour I liked enough to do the "The Flynn's" in, so I went on ye olde internet and sought out a font that would work. 



Here's the size I picked. 


So I printed it out to the size I wanted, and then begun cutting and razoring it out. I recommend cutting as much as you can with scissors, and then doing the finer work with the razor. You'll be a lot less homicidal; trust. 

Fun Fact: Before this project, I had never used a razor for crafty purposes. It's harder than it looks, but once you get the hang of it you'll wonder how you did without! 


Pro Tip: Put the cutting board underneath BEFORE you start using the razor. Your table will thank you. 






Once you have your "The 'insert your family name here'" cut out, you're going to glue it to the back of the scrapbook paper you chose for it. Make sure you glue it on black ink side down, so that when you cut out the scrapbook paper letters they're the right way. 






Let this dry for a couple hours. Once it's dry you can start cutting the letters out. You want it to be completely dry so that it's a bit stiff.  Just as before, start with scissors and then move to razor for the more intricate bits. 




Now that your letters are complete, grab your frame, and Windex the crap out of the glass until it's clean. You don't want to do it after you've affixed the letters because a) that would be stupid, and b) the Windex will absolutely discolour and ruin your paper. 

Once you've cleaned the glass in your frame, carefully layout the letters you made trying extra hard to not get fingerprints all over the place,  and lay out the approximate location of the stickers you'll be using for the names of your family members and the est. date. 



Once you're happy with placement, grab your Glue Dots and start sticking the letters you made on the glass. 


Once you've affixed all the letters (as shown above), you can play around with embellishments if you like. I purchased a few different coordinated colours of scrapbook paper to do this with, and I had some different sized hole punchers from other projects, so I used those too. 



Layout your embellishments on the frame and affix them with a few Glue Dots. 



Author's Note: Sorry about the overhead lighting reflecting. It was late, and my boyfriend and I had watched about 4 episodes of Dog: The Bounty Hunter. I just wanted to go to bed at this point. 

Once you're happy with how things are laid out on the glass, put your frame back together, Windex the outside glass of the frame to rid of any fingerprints, and you're DONE!

Voila! 


It's now ready to be gifted!

I'm not going to go into a detailed breakdown of cost on this project seeing as it was a wedding present. The cost can really fluxuate based on the quality of the floating frame you purchase. Everything I used for this project I purchased at Michael's

Have you done a project like this before? How did you do your letters? Did you use a Cricut Machine? Should I prolly just buy one?

Please leave your responses below, or tweet me @PinterMel


Cheers, 

-Melissa