A quick post before we hit the road...

Shane and I are going to leave for Cedar Rapids in a couple hours, so I thought I'd take this little bit of downtime I have to share with you some of the things I worked on this week. 


First, I finished up a couple Christmas presents... 


For Madyson (14 yrs old), I bought a little wooden drawer thingy at Michael's. Her room is painted hot pink and neon green, so those are the colors I painted it. Around the polka dots and on the neon green knobs, I painted on some glow-in-the-dark paint. :) 
(oh, and sorry about the color variation in the pictures, I used two different settings on my camera when taking these. but the true colors are the bottom picture with the flash.)

For Jake, a very adventurous kid who loves playing with Lego's and creating his own little worlds, I bought a wooden castle thing from Michael's and painted it. I love the treasure chest and the skeleton bones on the back. :) 

gold dubloons!

I also made a T-shirt for Jake. My friend Cathy and I tried this technique last summer on a few black t shirts and tank tops. 

Here is a quickie tutorial for you: 

Materials: 

T-Shirt (dark colored)

Bleach-water (you can dilute it however you like, the best solution I've found is about 70% bleach 30% water. This time, however, I used a much more diluted mixture that wasn't nearly as potent.)

duct tape

spray bottle

cardboard

A WELL-VENTILATED AREA

Start with a dark-colored shirt, preferably black or navy blue. 
I bought this navy blue shirt from Target. 
Tape off whatever design you like on the front and/or back with duct tape. 

After taping it off, you will want to tape something like cardboard to the hanger the shirt is on so the bleach won't seep through to the other side.


Spray your t-shirt (in a well-ventilated area!) with the bleach-water, and see the colors change right before your eyes! 
(using some pics from last summer, since I forgot to take a few this time!)

Cathy spraying her tank top.

after being sprayed. you can see the result of my t-shirt
after the duct tape was removed! 

And the result of Jake's T-shirt from today: 

went from navy blue to gray!

Shane's mom has also been making Christmas ornaments, and of course I had to help glitterize them! ;) 

sparklyyyyy.

To make these ornaments, blow up a balloon slightly to a small round shape. (don't use helium quality balloons. you want them to be nice and round.) 
Take cotton string (looks similar to hemp) and cover it in either Elmer's Glue, Mod Podge, or starch. This one, I believe, was done with Elmer's. Wrap the string repetitively around the balloon,to your liking. tuck the end of your string into the top at a secure enough spot and let it dry.
When it is finished drying, pop the balloon, and take care of any leftover glue that may have stuck onto the string. 
Once it looks clean, use spray adhesive (or mod podge could work too) and cover the string in it. 
Then, glitter it up!! Let it hang to dry overnight. 


Enjoy, and have a Merry Christmas, crafters!! 
<3 Meagan.

Christmas Ornaments!

Update: I know I posted the other day about my grandpa and his failing health, well, this morning Charles Kenneth Lane passed away peacefully in his sleep. He will be missed terribly by his friends and family. R.I.P Grandpa Lane. 

It has been such a sad day, and Shane went to work this morning so I haven't really had anyone to talk to. So, instead of lying in bed and grieving all day, I decided to do some creating to get my mind off things. 

Today, I made Christmas ornaments. This is a great project for kids and adults alike, and very inexpensive!

I started off using these materials: 

paper towel roll, elmer's glue (i eventually switched to my hot glue gun)
glitter, a pen, scissors, ruler, clothespins, Mod Podge

First, cut the paper towel roll into quarter-inch strips. 

Once it is cut up, glue the strips together forming a star. Now, I tried each ornament out a different way. First, I just used Elmer's Glue... if you're using Elmer's glue, make sure that you use the clothespins to hold the pieces together in the star shape until it dries. (I also did a few with my hot glue gun, and that worked MUCH MUCH BETTER and I didn't have to bother with the clothespins. BUT if you don't have a hot glue gun, Elmer's is fine. 

After the glue has dried, remove the clothespins.

Then, spread Mod Podge all over the inside and outside of the star.

Once it's covered in Mod Podge, cover it in glitter. 

After glitterizing it, set it somewhere to dry. (should take anywhere from 20-45 mins depending on how thick you put the Mod Podge on.) 

DRY, you bastards, DRY!

After it is dry, add a piece of string or an ornament hook and you've got yourself a pretty, sparkly new ornament!

Have fun! 

Ramblings

Hello everyone! This week has been fairly hectic, and we've got an even busier week ahead of us! So, sorry ahead of time for the lack of posts. As you know, I have been working on Christmas presents all week, so I haven't had much time to do crafts. I still have more presents to put together too, it seems like it never ends! I'm just thankful that I'll get to see my friends and family for Christmas. 


Speaking of family, my grandpa's health has unfortunately taken a turn for the worse recently, and he isn't likely to be with us much longer. He's in my thoughts every day. I'll always remember climbing on top of his big tall bed as a kid and watching him play his mandolin. Grandpa, I hope you leave this world painlessly, with all of your memories. 

grandma & grandpa lane (and my cousin brandon)

In other news, Shane got a call about a new job at a warehouse, so he is starting right away on Monday and he'll be working 2nd shift on weekdays and working at the restaurant on the weekends, I feel like I'm never going to see him anymore! :( But, he is going to be making more money, so I suppose that's a plus. 
As for me, I'm working on getting some projects done in the next few weeks so that I can start up an Etsy store, and start making some money off of my jewelry/home deco items that I've made. I probably won't be doing tutorials on the things I am selling unless there is a request. I will post the Etsy store information once I'm finished with it. Stay tuned!


Good evening.

(P.S.: go to Google.com and type in "let it snow". Be amazed.)

Hand-painted Reddit Coasters!

Hey all! Last night I was cranking out more Christmas presents, but I also whipped up a set of Reddit coasters and a couple cute owl coasters for your viewing pleasure. Here you go! :) 

owl #1

owl #2

Reddit alien

NYAN CAT!

fuck yeah.

I will have more to show you later! 
Coming up: Dr. Who coasters & Christmas Ornaments!

Christmas Craziness

Sorry about the lack of posts for the last few days. I've been holed up in my little workshop, and I feel like one of Santa's elves. I can't really post a lot of what I'm working on right now since I want my friends and family to be surprised when they open their gifts, but you'll see them after Christmas. 


Also, Shane and I are going to be going to be going back to my hometown again for Christmas so that we can celebrate and exchange gifts and spend time with my family. We're heading out there next Thursday and coming back home on Christmas Eve. I'm just hoping the traffic isn't too ridiculous on Christmas Eve, and that the weather stays as calm as it has been lately. 
It was beautiful outside today!


One thing I CAN post about is the Reddit coasters I'm making tomorrow so stay tuned for those! Also, as soon as we get a chance, Shane's mom is going to teach me how to make Christmas ornaments and we'll have a tutorial for you as well! 


Oh, and a quick story before I completely forget to blog about it... Shane and I were at Wal-Mart the other day and I was cashing my paycheck. We got in line at the customer service counter behind a plump little balding man who was talking very excitedly and waving this DVD in the air: 

 He got my attention, so I started listening to what he was saying and he was ranting and raving about the plot of the movie. Basically, it's a quadruple feature, 4 films in one. Here's what I got off Wikipedia, to save you the expletives and ravings from this weird old man. 

So, as you can imagine, when this man is waving this ridiculous DVD around, yelling about "The Gays"(his words, not mine.), Werewolves, Zombies, and Hitler I'm going to start cracking the fuck up. I lost my shit. I almost got the kid working customer service that had to get yelled at in trouble because he started laughing too. Finally he assured the man he would do something about getting that movie off the Children's dvd shelf. Made my day. 


Oh, and Happy Freakin' BIRTHDAY to my Dad and my friend Cathy today! 


More crafts soon! 
xoxo, Meagan.