Music Monday! (week 1)

DIY Wall Art & Some Jewelry

Today I thought I'd show off a few simple paintings I've done recently. They were VERY easy, so here we go....

This was the first painting I did. I got the idea from enJOY it. It's just fingerpainting!

All you will need is your canvas of choice (I used this 12 x 12 canvas from Michael's), acrylic paints in your color choices (I chose orange as a base and then used 5 other colors for the dots), and your hands!

Start off by painting your canvas with your base color. I chose orange, because I wanted something bright!

Once the base color is dry, start dipping your finger into each color, adding small swipes of color down the canvas. Keep alternating colors consistently, so it's even all over. Do this until you fill up the entire canvas. And that's it! 

Once the paint is all dry (shouldn't take long with acrylics...), you can seal it however you like and hang it up on the wall! It's a great piece for brightening up a room, and fun for kids to help with as well! (Although, make sure you are using non-toxic paint if kids are helping!)

The second painting I did was completely my own creation. I got the idea when I was cutting out the tags on my scrapbook paper for wrapping Christmas gifts, and i ended up with tons of little triangles. I like using my scraps if I can, so I kept the little triangles and turned it into this! 

So, all you need for this one is.....

a variety of colored paper or  scrapbook paper

scissors

mod podge

glue (or you can also use the mod podge to adhere the triangles)

a foam brush

paint

and a canvas. 

I started out by mixing some paint to get that dark reddish brown color for the base.

After I painted on the reddish brown, I let it dry and then painted on my tree with white.

I let the canvas dry overnight (or several nights..I'm a procrastinator.) and finally I got around to doing the tedious work of placing and gluing these tiny little triangles all over the canvas, so my tree would have leaves! 

After my triangles were in place and glued down, I spread several coats of Mod Podge over the canvas to seal it all in. That's it! 

This last painting was pretty much an accident. I was attempting to do one of those big script paintings with black cursive lettering on a purple canvas, and I wanted it to be the lyrics to mine & Shane's song, "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes. (To hear the song, scroll past the tutorial.)  It didn't quite work out, but what I came up with instead is starting to grow on me. (Although I do need to touch up the lettering so it doesn't look quite so thrown together.)

What you'll need is....

acrylic paint, brushes, and a canvas! 

I wrote a chunk of my favorite lyrics and covered the entire canvas in them. Make sure when you're doing the initial lettering you go over it 2 or 3 times at least so that when you paint over it later it will show through the paint. 

closeup of the initial lettering after being covered.
I did two coats on the lettering.

Once the lettering is dry, go over it with the silver paint (or whatever color you decide). Let that dry, then do your black lettering over that. Seal it up and hang it on the wall, you're done! 

 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home  

Last night, I went through all of the jewelry I've made in the last year or so, decided on what I wanted to keep and sell, and what I wanted to take apart for beads/chain/pendants, etc. Then I started playing with some beading wire I received for Christmas, and it all went downhill from there. I ended up making jewelry until midnight!

Here are the new pieces I made last night: 

bracelet
orange/green round beads & purple bar beads on gold chain.

bracelet
orange/green round beads & purple bar beads on gold chain.

bracelet
faux pearls & blue beads on white chain

necklace
wooden zebra pendant with dark gold chain and yellow beads

necklace
orange and green beads

my first attempt at a wirework necklace.
here's a shot of the middle of the necklace that hangs, my twisted wire

where the wire attaches to the chain

necklace
wire and silver chain.

necklace
orange round beads and blue beads on silver chain

necklace
white & off-white rectangular beads on silver chain

necklace
green/blue stone pendant on white chain

necklace
wooden heart pendant on gold chain

Hope you like what you see! 

That's all for now, get busy crafters!

Ch-ch-changes.

Man, it's been a crazy few weeks. Now that everything is finally winding down from the holidays, the new year and our recent Iowa trip, I'm focusing a lot of energy on getting my Etsy store up and running. I am so excited to get it started and pull in some extra $$! This week I'm gathering supplies and will be hard at work making some really unique pieces and I can't wait to show everyone! 

In my store, I'm going to be starting out with hand-made jewelry, and then branching out from there with home deco items/paintings, etc. I will also be doing custom pieces and special requests. 

In other news, this blog will be undergoing a lot of changes. I know it's changed a bit already, but you will see a much different look in the next couple weeks, as well as simpler navigation and it will be much more organized. Also, I'm implementing some other changes to the blog posts themselves. (I still plan on doing tutorials every week, but probably not until I get the store under control. That is my first priority.)

As far as the changes to the blog posts, I'm going to be doing specific features on certain days of the week. It's going to help me to organize my week and allow me enough time to actually DO everything. (AND KEEP MY SANITY!) 

Anyhow, here's the breakdown: 

Monday: Music Monday (A custom playlist to start off your week right!)

Wednesday: Witty Wednesday (An assortment of funny pictures/videos, etc...to get you through the end of the week!)

Friday: DIY FRIDAY! (This is where you will be seeing my tutorials from now on.)

And of course, while I'm not blogging, I'll still be whipping up items for the store. Check back regularly for updates, follow me, or "like" Questionable Logic on Facebook, so you can be among the first to view all the exciting new changes!

Oh, hi David Bowie.

New year & a surprise!

I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks! It's unacceptable, I know. I've been CRAZY busy lately, so I really haven't had time or energy to blog. Plus, our internet was being silly for awhile after Christmas, so we had to get the cable guy out and replace the modem and it was a whole big thing, but it's better now!


Anyhow, NYE was sort of a bust. To begin with, I thought I was going to have to spend it alone, since Shane was scheduled at work, but he found out he had the weekend off a couple days beforehand, so we had a relaxing night. We tried to watch a marathon of The Office (Shane had never watched it before, so I am making him start it from the beginning, and we're on the 3rd season. Seasons 3-5 are my favorite!!) but it didn't work because we had to watch it on Netflix, and alas, the internet was crap. With that plan failing, we tried picking from the DVDs for something to watch, and wound up deciding on Dead Like Me. I started falling asleep after one episode, so we just ended up going to bed around 9:30, didn't even stay up til midnight. I know, we're pretty wild and crazy, right? 


As for New Years resolutions? I never really make any. The way I see it, I'm changing constantly, no matter what day, month or year it is. If I have a bad habit I need to break, or a change I need to make, I will do it when I'm ready, I'm not going to do it just because it's the first day of the year. I know it works for some people, more motivation to say "I've gone the whole year without ______!!!", but that doesn't really cut it for me. On the other hand, I did make a mental list of things I need to work on this year. Here are a few of the things on my list:
1) Consuming healthier foods/beverages on a daily basis. This one explains itself.
2) Less TV, more books. I love reading, but whenever I have free time to relax, Netflix is usually my go-to for entertainment. I have so many books on my shelf I haven't read yet, and I really need to get on it!
3) Set aside certain days or times each week aimed specifically at creating. The problem I run into sometimes is that I don't FEEL like it when I actually have time. This needs to change. I figure that if I have the same day or time set aside each week, I WILL be motivated, if only to keep up the routine. 
4) Start and maintain a successful Etsy store. I won't be opening one until I have a big enough selection of things to sell (so, within the next few months).




Since New Years Eve, I've been working on birthday presents for both my sister Carolyn and my best friend Emily. Here's a few of the things I made for them....




For the cloud wall decoration, I painted the canvas a dark grey, painted a silver cloud with eyes and a mouth, and outlined it in black, then i shaved various blue and purple crayons and arranged them underneath the cloud, covered it with wax paper (wax side down) and used a hair dryer to melt them onto the canvas to look like rain. CUUUUTE. :) 

For this wall decoration, I hot glued crayons (after taking the wrappers off of them) in various shades of green, yellow and brown to the bottom of a canvas, and blow dried them so they would drip down the canvas. I left a bit of room at the top for the "flower heads". For the flower heads, I chopped up various red, orange and pink crayons into 4 pieces (per crayon) and glued them onto the tips of some of the "stems" and blow dried them a bit as well. I wish I would have used crayon shavings instead, because I intended for this one to look much different, but I think it still looks pretty cool. 

For this one, I used my 5'' x 7'' canvases, painted them gold, then hand painted some black lettering. I need to get better at doing letters! Or use a stencil. 
Either way, it still leaves that personal touch that says "Hey, I actually spent time painting this and thinking about ya".

So, the presents were finished, and Emily's birthday was on Saturday the 7th. I hadn't planned on coming into town for a little while since we had just been there over Christmas, but it was my best friend's birthday! So, Shane and I worked with Justin (Emily's boyfriend) to arrange a surprise visit. We left our place on Friday night and got there around 1am on Saturday. After sleeping in and having a tasty lunch with two of my good friends, Cassie & Jen, it was finally time to surprise Em! We met up with them at her house as she was getting ready to go out and she was SO surprised, and kept yelling "AHHH MEAGAN'S HERE!!!". She had absolutely NO clue we were coming, even though all of our friends did. (THANKS FOR KEEPING IT A SECRET, EVERYONE!)

emily & i

emily, carli & andy.

(check out carli's & andy's blogs.)

there's me in the back!
in front of me, left to right: sharelle, cathy, emily, nikki & carli.

cathy & sharelle gettin' their groove on

(you can also check out cathy's & sharelle's blogs.)

We all had a great night. Unfortunately, I don't have more pictures to share of the evening, I tried to take many more, but I was much too inebriated, and each time I tried to, the pictures kept coming out blurry. So that's all you get! :) 

I hope everyone has had a fantastic beginning to 2012! I know I did!

I heart Sephora! (...and my boyfriend too)

I am a lucky, lucky girl. I quite possibly have the most wonderful boyfriend in the universe. For example, he brought me breakfast in bed this morning for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I know, UR JELLY.  :P


Anywho, I received my Christmas gift from Shane in the mail yesterday, and I couldn't be happier! For a makeup-loving girl like myself, this was perfect! 
The goodies I received are from the bareMinerals "Putting on the Glitz" collection. 


Here's what it looks like:

closeup of the box

my spread. fantastic.

The collection includes:

- 0.13 oz Pretty Amazing Lipgloss in Perky (warm rose)

- 0.1 oz Prime Time Primer Shadow in Toasted Almond (iced coffee)

- 0.02 oz Eyecolor in Glamtastic (warm champagne luster) 

- 0.02 oz Eyecolor in Glitz (smoky plum sparkle)

- 0.044 oz Round The Clock Waterproof Eyeliner in 5 pm (deep plum)

- 0.33 oz Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara in Black

- 0.03 oz Blush in Gorgeous (petunia pink)

- 0.03 oz All-Over Face Color in Luxe Radiance (apricot pink)

- Double-Ended Luxe Cheek & Eye Brush 

- Sparkling clutch 

(Description taken from www.Sephora.com) 

For my free samples,  I chose bareMinerals Purifying Facial Cleanser for combination skin: 

Viva la Juicy Perfume: 

Korres Antiageing Primer: 

And, Gucci Guilty Intense perfume: 

I love them all, and I cannot wait to try them out! I will do a review as soon as I get a chance! :)