Finally, a Canvas with Self Esteem

See this blank canvas here? I've had it for a while. I bought it with a Joanne's coupon a while ago. I knew I wanted to do something fun with it when I bought it, but I wasn't sure exactly what. It's been sitting in my craft closet untouched. . . .like I said. . . for a while. "A while" meaning here about 3 years. Maybe 4 years? Five? What?! You don't let your craft supplies sit that long? Okay, so I know that's a long time, but I wanted to use it well. I was just waiting for the right inspiration to come along. But sadly, my canvas was getting a back of the closet complex. I was starting to feel guilty that I'd neglected her. This only added pressure to make sure that when I did use her, it had to be really great. It was becoming a viscious cycle! I even tried to ignore her sometimes, so I wouldn't feel bad.

Then, a couple of weeks ago Fancy tipped me off to a crafting blog called "Tatertots and Jello." I have quite liked her stuff, especially when she does a "craft round up" where she showcases other people's crafty home decor at the end of the week. Scrolling through her blog I came across this "Subway Art Tutorial".

Hey! That's cute! And I have a canvas just sitting in my closet waiting to fulfill its crafting duties. Once inspiration took, I didn't wait much longer. First I printed out some words that I thought would describe our family. And then cut them out. Notice I totally ran out of ink. I knew this was happening, but didn't worry as this was more of a "rough draft mock up".

After I thought about it I figured, why not print this out somewhere with some higher quality. Costco came to mind and I remembered they did poster size print outs. So I dusted off my photoshop skills (insert a muffled "bahaha" right here. They can hardly be described as skills; much more like ineptitudes). When I was feeling Photoshop Stymied, StarGirl, my 12 year old showed me what to do.

I was pleased and sent it off to costco for printing.
(Note: If you ever want to print something off at Costco and they tell you they can pring 20 by 30's, know that they really CAN'T do that. They just pretend too. We tried and tried to shrink this down to fit. We got close.)

First I painted my canvas black with helper Sunshine (Looking back,I don't know if we really needed to paint the whole thing black, but I didn't want to take any chances. Plus, it was fun. I could paint canvases with Sunshine all day!)

Then we broke out the matte Mod Podge and shellacked the whole thing on. I was afraid it might buckle or bend funny, but no. No problems at all. I'm loving the way it turned out. Actually, I think the canvas is happier now, like her self esteem is better with all these lively, hopeful words emblazoned on her. She is not longer hiding in the closet, she is hanging pretty on my wall. Its pretty obvious this canvas feels good about herself, right?

April Flowers

Come with me and I’ll take you on a little Easter hunt. I know you're immediately thinking "eggs" as most Easter hunts involve eggs, but this hunt is craftier & flowery-er in nature. I wanted to make some hair accessories for the girls for their Easter outfits and though I'd admired some at Nordstrom and Target, I just wasn't ready to lay down the cash and buy anything yet. They were all so cute and homey looking. I especially liked the "rolled roses" style flowers. You know the ones I mean, because you’ve seen these little dainty accessories everywhere! And if you’re like me, you think “how cute! I could make that!”

I could make that is a phrase that haunts me. Yes, I could make that, but WOULD I make that? Do I actually make things anymore or do I just admire other people who have time the time and talent to make things? Hmmmm. .m.m.m.m.m This is worthy of an entire blog post, this is a diversion that this hunt will not take today.

But back to our rolled roses tutorial hunt. Here’s where I first saw these little rolled roses beauties:

This necklace. We borrowed it from Aunt Reachel for the photo shoot. I see it on Luna’s picture hanging on the wall every day and think “I need to learn how to make roses like that.” I even zoomed in on it to try and figure it out better.

But I still didn't know how they did them. Finally, after many months of pondering this. . . I finally googled “rolled roses tutorial.”

My search first took me to an etsy shop where they were selling PDF , 17 page tutorial for $6.00 on how to make these little beauties. But, nonono. I do not want to pay for them! If I wanted to pay for them I’d march my little self over to Anthropologie and buy them.

More googling took me to this tutorial and that tutorial, but these were not right either. They looked more grandmotherly and dainty. I wanted these “roses with an edge”.

I thought about calling Fancy Nancy.

As she is my Fancy Crafting sister and she could likely figure them out in a snap. She's made cute hair accessories here, here and here! And that was all in one week. When I visited her last month it was crafting city: we did crafts, we shopped crafts, I admired crafts at her house, we talked crafting tv. I did say crafting CITY, right? See Nancy has more craft confidence than I do, she is more of a craft connoisseur, her mind a compilation of crafting ideas, a crafty compendium, if you will. Where as me, I just craft long convoluted sentences with lots of crazy alliteration. I should be more like Nancy, I say to myself. I will just dive in with no tutorials in sight.

And this is what I made without a tutorial.

I like it.

It is not chic or urban or anthro-esque.

But I like it.

And the whole time I was making it, I had to FIGHT to keep my confidence up. I had to say to myself, “you can do this! You can channel your inner Fancy Nancy! Keep at it.” Because basically I thought it looked ridiculous the whole time. But I kept on fighting and I finished it! It is made with vintage ribbon and pearls I bought at a garage sale a woman was holding to liquidate her mother's 1950's Chicago based bridal store. The jar of beads and 3 stacks of ribbon were 25 cents total. That makes me like it even more.

But I wasn't quite satisfied. I still yearned for rolled roses. I found myself googling variations of “rolled rose tutorial” and I found this:

(Here are some pictures from this fine etsy seller's tutorial to tempt to you click on that link.

I am soooo happy she believes in sharing her knowledge for free!

thank you! And a link to her organza inspiration beauties here.)

Whoa.

I like those.

And you get to play with fire too? Like real flickering flames?

I’m in.

Here are my results:

I used some fabric scraps I had on hand, so that's why I used fall colors in spring time, but I love it! She says they work best with cheap liner fabrics. They have to be synthetic material in order to "burn" the edges to seal the raw edge. These curls the fabric, too, making them look all the more realistic.

I know what you’re thinking: so cute! They’re probably hard. (But they’re not! I didn’t have to talk myself up the whole time I made them.) I’m glad she didn’t find that rolled roses tutorial.

But really, you’re thinking it’s too bad she never found that “rolled roses” style tutorial too, because it’d be really cool to be able to do both, right?

Yes, right! Of course, right!

And here’s the thing: I DID find that tutorial. Last night I googled one more variation and where did I end up? At Studio 5 web site. The very Utah based Home TV show my own Fancy Nancy told me about last month. Have you heard that Fancy won't let you down? These roses are EVEN EASIER than the other easy ones? Yep. No sewing involved. Just fabric-tac and scraps and you’re on your way. I made a prototype last night, but it is not picture worthy yet. But I had to share this Studio 5 link with you, in case you're loosing sleep over rolled roses. (Yes, I was loosing sleep over this!)

This just goes to show you that you can find anything you want on the internet, and for free. Of course, I’m glad I didn’t find the right tutorial the first time. I love the thrill of the hunt!