Sunday, February 5, 2012
Paint Chip Wall Art
After receiving a large bag of paint chips from my wonderful Aunt and stumbling across this tutorial , I decided to jazz up the living room. The plain white canvas was painfully dull, so I painted a faux wood background, and it gives it a bit of a surfer vibe which I'm all about. Nobody has complimented my mom on the piece yet (it's hanging in her living room,) but I know they are all secretly admiring it. That plus she doesn't ever have people over.
Wedding Bowls
When my mentor and friend Stacy announced her engagement, I began looking for a good handmade gift. It wasn't until I stumbled upon glass etching that I knew I had a winner.
After a trip to Ikea where I bought a large salad bowl and four smaller personal bowls (for a grand total of $12), and a trip to Michael's where I picked up Armom Etch and clear contact paper, I was ready to go. Well, kind of.
Using the Cricut to cut out the shapes was a brilliant idea. Sometimes, however, good ideas don't always turn out so good.
Cutting the slippery contact paper was a bit of a trick with the Cricut, but after many many failed attempts, I finally figured out the right speed, pressure, shape combination.
After a trial run on some old glass tumblers, I stumbled upon a few problems:
1) Even application of ArmorEtch is a little tricky. ArmorEtch is the consistency of watery Elmer's glue with some sand mixed in. Applying it evenly is difficult, and can vary how 'etched' it looks when all is said and done.
2) The corners of the contact 'stencil' will not stick to the glass very well, thus leaving you with not-so-sharp corners. If you wanted to etch a five point star, the corners would peel and not be perfectly clean. This is a problem for a perfectionist like me.
3) Applying a large stencil on a not flat surface is infuriating. Really infuriating. The tumblers with the straight sides and smaller stencils were a little tricky, but overall not bad. Applying the large stencils on the seriously rounded bowl, though, that was not fun at all.
4) Complicated shapes with a stencil of 2 or more parts (ex, a donut) is also tricky, especially if the precise placement of the inside sticker-stencil is crucial.
That being said, I went ahead and violated three of the four lessons I had learned. Below is my result!
After a trip to Ikea where I bought a large salad bowl and four smaller personal bowls (for a grand total of $12), and a trip to Michael's where I picked up Armom Etch and clear contact paper, I was ready to go. Well, kind of.
Using the Cricut to cut out the shapes was a brilliant idea. Sometimes, however, good ideas don't always turn out so good.
Cutting the slippery contact paper was a bit of a trick with the Cricut, but after many many failed attempts, I finally figured out the right speed, pressure, shape combination.
After a trial run on some old glass tumblers, I stumbled upon a few problems:
1) Even application of ArmorEtch is a little tricky. ArmorEtch is the consistency of watery Elmer's glue with some sand mixed in. Applying it evenly is difficult, and can vary how 'etched' it looks when all is said and done.
2) The corners of the contact 'stencil' will not stick to the glass very well, thus leaving you with not-so-sharp corners. If you wanted to etch a five point star, the corners would peel and not be perfectly clean. This is a problem for a perfectionist like me.
3) Applying a large stencil on a not flat surface is infuriating. Really infuriating. The tumblers with the straight sides and smaller stencils were a little tricky, but overall not bad. Applying the large stencils on the seriously rounded bowl, though, that was not fun at all.
4) Complicated shapes with a stencil of 2 or more parts (ex, a donut) is also tricky, especially if the precise placement of the inside sticker-stencil is crucial.
That being said, I went ahead and violated three of the four lessons I had learned. Below is my result!
As you can see on the etching above, it looks dappled, and that is because I didn't apply it evenly. Unfortunately, you can only apply ArmorEtch once. Reapplying it, trying to achieve uniformity, doesn't work. Also, if you look at the left outer point of my background shape, you can see how the sticker bubbled up a bit and gave me some less than desirable lines.
However, for my first project, and for a resourceful college kid, I'd say this project turned out pretty well, though I'm not too anxious to try it again. I'm glad I did it though!
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Saturday, February 4, 2012
Christmas Card
Over the summer, we played foster parents to a perfect little puppy named Dexter. Since we already had three Christmas dog costumes, we decided to pose a perfect little Christmas shot. Roscoe is on the left, Lola in the middle, Dexter on the right. Merry (belated) Christmas!
Resurrection
About a year and a half later, Glowing Empty Page is back in action.
After my discovery of Pinterest, I have been inspired to step up my crafting game. After stepping up my crafting game, I'd love to show off some of my work, thus the real motivation behind bringing Glowing Empty Page back from the dead.
I'm hoping I'll post about twice a month, but we all know how that worked out for me last time.
After my discovery of Pinterest, I have been inspired to step up my crafting game. After stepping up my crafting game, I'd love to show off some of my work, thus the real motivation behind bringing Glowing Empty Page back from the dead.
I'm hoping I'll post about twice a month, but we all know how that worked out for me last time.
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