How Pinteresting... Part 3

One of the wedding pieces I blogged about used a printed velum paper overlay on a mat to bring in another aspect of the wedding theme. I used this same technique again to create a gift for my cousin's first anniversary.  Coincidentally, paper is both the traditional and modern gift for a first anniversary.

Their first dance was to a song called Then by Brad Paisley.  The photo is from their first dance, and the lyrics are around the outside.  Sorry for the flash, but it's hard to get a decent picture

The original idea came from a blog called Sparkle & Hay, but the post I pinned the picture from no longer exists, and I can't seem to find it anywhere.  (The blog seems to be out of commission)  I do remember that the project was hand lettered directly onto the mat.  I wasn't comfortable doing that, but if you want instructions, you can see how to do it here.  (And another tutorial for handwriting the lyrics)

I am far too much of a perfectionist AND I like to make things difficult, so I opted to do mine in Word.  I used the same font that my cousin used on her wedding invitations, Tiriani, but you can find hundreds of free handwriting fonts here.  I purchased the mat and frame first - the frame came from AC Moore and everything is inserted from the front.  There's just a thin border around the edge holding the glass in so I could use more of the mat (almost none of it is covered over by the edges of the frame).  This is an 8x10 frame.

Then I measured the exact dimensions and set up a document in Word.  It was a lot of adjusting, tweaking and playing around with sizing and spacing to get the song lyrics to fit and look evenly spaced.  Then I printed it on plain paper, lined it up against the mat, tweaked some more, printed again, and so on and so forth.  I needed to fill in a little space at the end, so I included not only the name of the song and the artist, but their names, their wedding date, and the town they were married in.

Once everything was perfect, I printed the final copy on velum paper and used an exacto knife and paper trimmer to cut it to shape, then adhered it with spray adhesive.  It was a bit tedious and time consuming, but the end result was TOTALLY worth it.

This method looks much easier! http://www.homevolution.co/2012/09/first-dance-frame.html

Or you could use a mat with two openings - one for your photo, one for a printed copy of your lyrics

You could also do the lyrics directly on a photo, then put it on a canvas, like this blogger did here.

And if all else fails, you can pay someone on Etsy to do it for you!

How Pinteresting... Part 2

So in addition to the button monograms I posted about the other day, and the button ornaments I did a few years ago, I have another Pinterest Project to share.

My cousin had a Pinterest Party in December, and asked guests to bring something they made from a recipe they pinned, and a craft project to work on.  I made these Cheesy Bacon Rotel Cups, which were a huge hit.  They are SUPER easy to make and insanely delicious.  Even the guests who said they hated mayonnaise gobbled them up.  I've made them a couple times and the Hormel real bacon in the bottle (near the salad dressings and toppings) works just as well as bacon I cooked myself and was far less messy.

The craft project I worked on was something I've had pinned for a while - floor wax and glitter ornaments.  My friend Michele made some the Christmas before last and said they held up beautifully in storage.  I have been noticing that the clear glass ornaments you can buy at the craft store are much thinner and more delicate than they used to be.  I was worried about them breaking, so I bought the acrylic ones instead.  I also picked up a multipack of ULTRA FINE glitter that had 16 different colors in separate packets (because I have a decision making disorder and can't possibly commit to one or even two colors).  Most every tutorial I read stressed the importance of the ultra fine glitter for the best coverage.  You can also buy a six-pack of the glitter at the Dollar Store, but I found the glitter from AC Moore was better quality and wasn't that much more expensive, especially with a coupon.  An entire packet of glitter was enough to cover the inside of the medium sized acrylic balls, and definitely enough to cover the inside of the medium sized "disc" ornaments.

Monogramed

I won't describe the whole process - I followed these instructions, and they're very good.  The ornaments are really pretty and sparkly all on their own, but they were a little boring.  I had two ideas for jazzing them up a little, a rhinestone monogram using stickers from the scrapbooking section (the stickers in that post are exactly the ones I used) and a snowman handprint ornament.

Since I had 16 different colors to work with, I used a whole packet per ornament and did ones for Little Dude, my niece and nephew, and a pair for my cousin in their wedding colors of pink and black (she got the pink one, he got the black).  This one is Little Dude's.  For the monogram ornaments, I went with the disc shaped ones instead of the round.

A word of caution while using the stickers - they can be a little tricky to get placed correctly and trying to move them around can cause the little rhinestones to pop off (the stickers are the tiny rhinestones set on a clear, letter shaped adhesive base).  A steady hand and a pair of tweezers can come in very handy, and you can press the rhinestones back into place.

Given  Little Dude's train obsession, we did a train ornament for him using stickers.  For this one, the train goes most of the the way around (it was a pack of individual stickers) the ornament with his name in the middle.

I don't have a photo of it, but on the back of the ornaments, I used flat silver stickers, also from the scrapbooking section, for the year.  A little trick I discovered for perfectly lined up stickers was to use the sticky strip on a post it note to line up the individual number stickers to form the year.  The tweezers will come in handy here as well.  Be sure to put them in reverse order, sticky side up.  Once your numbers are arranged and spaced to your liking, use the post it note to transfer them to the ornament, rubbing over the post it note to adhere the stickers to the ornament.  MUCH easier than trying to get the stickers lined up straight and evenly spaced on the ornament itself.  I used the same stickers for spelling out Little Dude's name as well, using the same post it note method.

I also did some other round ornaments with the glitter, and for these, I painted up Little Dude's hand with some white acrylic paint and had him put his handprint on the ornament.  We practiced a few times BEFORE I put the paint on his hand, and he did really well with this.  I walked him through the process very slowly for each ornament, and I was amazed that he cooperated.  Once the handprints dried (you can see the little cardboard rings I made up to hold the balls in place until the paint dried) I painted on hats, scarves, faces and buttons, as well as the year.  Little Dude chose the blue one for himself, my ILs got the red one, the gold one went to my husband's aunt & uncle, and the green went to my aunt & uncle.  (We handed them out at Thanksgiving so they were able to put them on their trees for Christmas).

How Pinteresting!

I'm an avid pinner, and while there's tons of projects I've pinned and will never do, I DO have something I've actually completed.  Two kinds of projects - one involving buttons and the other involving glitter and floor polish.  Let's do the button ones first, since I did them a while ago.

I have previously mentioned that we inherited a large bag of buttons from my husband's grandmother, some of which were turned into Christmas ornaments.  Another few buttons were incorporated into a piece my husband stitched and framed for his mom in memory of his grandmother.  I wanted to do something else with them as well, something that could be displayed year round.  I hit up Pinterest for some ideas and found many links to artwork made with buttons, including a cute button elephant, a button sheep, a star (one of my favorites, of course!), word art, a heart, and flower pictures like this one and this one.

Monogram for my niece

But what really piqued my interest were the monograms, and as soon as I saw them, I knew that's what I would be doing.   These were sewn onto fabric, but I decided to go with scrapbook paper and hot glue, which worked out fine.  I wanted to do a monogram for each of the great grandchildren - my niece and nephew, and Little Dude.

All of the buttons were sorted by color, The first thing I did was go through the hundreds of fonts I have on my computer and test out which ones I wanted to use for the different monograms.  Since I was using pink buttons for my niece, I wanted something swirly and feminine for her monogram.  I figured out what size frame I was going to use, and adjusted the font to fill the frame.  I chose a pink scrapbook paper for the background, then printed out the monogram.

Little Dude's Monogram

Originally, I had planned to do the monogram on velum paper and place it on top of the scrapbooking paper, but it ended up muting the background more than I wanted, so I made a very light outline on the scrapbook paper with pencil and laid out the buttons to fill it in.

It was a slightly tedious process and there was no good way to place the monogram under the scrapbook paper and avoid the pencil lines.  If you look VERY closely at the finished product, you can see a bit of the outline, but if you're not looking for it, it's not that noticeable.  Once all the buttons were in place, I started gluing them in (hence the tedious part).

Our Monogram

I made a monogram for my niece and nephew, and for Little Dude.  (I don't have a good photo of my nephew's, but his is done with pearlized white buttons on a wavy green background in an oak frame.)  I also made F monograms for our family name, one each for our house, my in-laws and my husband's brother's family.

Each one is a little different, and I tried to personalize it to the house it would be in.  For ours, I used blue and white to match our living and dining rooms, and front hall, where the piece now hangs.  It's also the same font we used for our wedding invitations. 



For my in-laws, I went with red since it's my MIL's favorite color, and the buttons came from her mother.    And for my BIL and SIL's, I used the gold buttons on an antique looking background.  All three are different and very pretty.  I apologize for the pictures - it's hard to get a decent picture with glass and I was taking these just before I wrapped them up for Christmas gifts.

 

For my in-laws

 

For my BIL and SIL

All of the frames were purchased from the craft store.  The ones for my niece and nephew were in rectangular frames.  I had those done first, and then a while later, I found the square frames that included the mat (I think the opening is 8x8 in a 10x10 frame, and I cut down a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper for each one.

The gifts were well received, and on the back of each of the frames, I put a sticker that says "In Loving Memory of Julia ____" and the dates of her birth and death.

If you are looking for other button art ideas, here's a few links.  I'm pretty sure the button trees will be happening here, and perhaps the salt shaker flowers.  (My friend Michele did some cute button flowers for Valentine's Day last year)

Links to Button Art Ideas:

http://craftandcreativity.com/blog/2013/01/12/buttontree/

• Crafts to make with Buttons and Sequins on Tipjunkie
• Button Pumpkins
• Button Bicycles
• Salt Shaker Button Bouquets
• Wired Button Tree Tutorial
• Another Button Tree
• Pearly Pin and Button Tree
• Vintage Button Lampshade
• Button Garland