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Keepsakes

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I like to make artwork out of things that aren’t really “art” I suppose it’s a bit like scrap booking, I call it Keepsaking.

 

So along with the foreign money I arranged in frames I framed another little keepsake. I was cleaning out my purse not too long ago and I found a ticket stub from Cinderella. I wasn’t overly wowed by the recent live action iteration of Cinderella (fingers crossed for Beauty and The Beast) however it has a more sentimental value. That was the night my boyfriend (ok fine fiancé) proposed to me.

 

When I found the frame for my calendar (you can see that here) I also found this rather epic frame on clearance. So I decided to put my tiny ticket stub in it.

First I had to make a mat for it though

I just cut an old mat up as a template. Then I used some washi tape to jazz it up

And finished off the edge with ribbon

Then, Hey Presto! I got myself a little keepsake for my desk at work.

Not to mention absolutely no excuse to forget that particular anniversary.

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Make it Rain

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Obsolete money.

Yeah, I have a strange plethora of foreign currency. A good bit of which is obsolete. At least the coinage is. A small portion of the paper currency may still be good, I’m not sure. At any rate I’m not using it for anything but décor. I had one of these done already, but then as I was cleaning out my bathroom for its recent remodel (which you can find here) I found a matching frame … kind of. I had forgotten I painted it to hide its gaudy gold. So then it was a matter of trying to paint the new found one to match several years after the fact.

A little brown, a little black, a little bit of pearl sheen. Eventually I got them to match up. Close enough at least.

Then I just arranged the money to fit into both frames instead of just piling it up on top of each other

What kind of artwork do you have that isn’t technically artwork?

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Rings and Things

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I’m taking a little down time while remodeling the bathroom… But it turns out I’m really bad at down time. I feel like I need to be doing something “productive”. Luckily this morning I had a little inspiration brewing. It all started with this little mouse that a friend got me as an engagement present after I had forgotten to take off my ring while we were working on a project at her house.

Then another friend who is going through a KonMari (I had to google it and it turns out I’ve been doing this technique for years) purge mentioned “aspirational clutter”. You know, all that stuff you have laying around that you go “well, I might need it… One day”. I generally hate stuff like that, but I do have a few odds and ends that have managed to hang around for no reason other than aspirational ones. So today I decided to use some of that crap.

(Admittedly the above is not Aspiration Clutter, most of it has actually already been used… It was just the only cluttered picture I had)

Enter Pinterest where I discovered this blog post (you can follow me on pinterest at TinyBows, as a warning lots of wedding stuff of late)

Then I remembered the tiny sad picture frame I had hanging around because “I swear I’ll find something to do with it”.

As you might have noticed most of its rhinestones are gone, so let’s just make all of them disappear, and break out my trusty decorating friend nail polish.

 

Much improved

On to the backing which I’ll be doing with some scraps of fleece and wide lace ribbon. The fleece is another aspirational hang around, it’s just scrap from a Finn the human hat I made for my boyfriend two halloweens ago.

I just cut circles of the lace and fleece the size of the glass that used to go in the frame then did consecutively smaller circles of the fleece to act as stuffing

Now just one last thing, a straight pin with the head painted with the same nail polish to match. It’s mint candy apple by Essie if you were wondering.

I’m pretty sure I now need to do a big one of these to stick my myriad of broaches in.

And now I have a nice pretty ring holder to sit in the bedroom and a nice pretty (but also durable and unfazed by water) one to go in the kitchen or bathroom.

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Silly Rabbit

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Easter always sneaks up on me. It’s the only holiday that I “celebrate” ( I should say recognize in a completely secular way) that follows the lunar calendar. Meaning it isn’t celebrated on a specific date (for example december 25th or October 31st) or specific day (like say, the fourth Monday in November) so you never really know when it’s coming. Clearly the bunny does what it wants

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Generally i have my seasonal desk vinyets changed out a good while befor a holiday but.. Well, one thing and another I put it up Wednesday. Luckily it’s more springy than anything else. So it will stay there for a while looking slap dashed together.

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I was going to do a little tutorial on how I made the cute little ribbon flowers for it. I was actually channeling the flowers from a friends wedding last year. She had the most beautiful decor I’ve ever seen. Which considering I worked in the industry is saying something.

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Apparently she and I were on the same wavelength this week, because without her even knowing I did this little project she has offered all those flowers to me!!!!

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I will definitely be reverse engineering some for a tutorial at a later date. I also have a feeling that despite lack of storage space or a date the boyfriend ( we decided fiancé is too grown up a word) and I will be hanging on to at least the majority of them until we can have our dream backyard reception/housewarming. Though I think some will need to be sacrificed as a couple of wreaths are in order as well, you can’t just give me flowers and expect me not to make a wreath for you.

Until then back to the grind of fixing the bathroom. For progress reports follow Tiny Bows on Facebook. 

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There Will Be Bows

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Adulting is hard was the alternate title for this.

However, the last couple of weeks has proved to me that despite all attempts to avoid the dreaded adulthood, it has caught up with me. Not only did I somehow get engaged I also managed to land a (nope) two new jobs, I’ve revisited my graphic design days and rediscovered how much I love publisher, I’ve somehow managed to save up a good chunk of a down payment on a house and … Stop… It can’t all be good all at once. Enter the bathroom sink of doom.

So I wash my face every morning and every night, as one should. The other night I was washing my face as usual but when I was done I heard this steady drip drip… the pipes are fine almost like new. However the basin of my sink looks like this.

(and yes that is teal paint stuck to the basin of my very old sink)

Upon further investigation it turns out the drain and tiny fractures in the basin are in fact the culprit. Soooooooooo. Of course it’s not a standard size, and of course I can’t find anything suitable, and of course the cabinet is actually nice but has a kick plate to the floor without tiling under it so if it’s removed I then have to retile (and the tile is actually kind of nice too). Looks like despite all efforts I might have a big project on my hands.

I’ll just ignore that for now and make bows. Bows always make life better.

First I’ll need some felt and hair clips.

And a template, you can find it at this website. I actually used a different one but now that I’ve found this PDF one I’m super excited to use it.

Or you can click on FeltBow  … assuming I have this technology thing figured out

Then just cut the felt from the template

Sew the ends of the large pieces together.

Then sew the back to the circle through the narrow center to create the bow shape. Then just wind the tiny strip of felt around the center of the bow to cinch it and sew it tight.

(That’s not blurry at all… Sorry)

You can then secure it to a hair tie or adorn a wreath what every you would like.

Aaaaaahhhh….. yes life is back to blissful again.

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Faking It

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I studied graphic design for four years and used to work in a sign shop. This, by no means has made me a master at the art of hand lettering. Not to fear, there is a work around for this.

Those dreaded Target bins suckered me in again with an absolutely darling (does anyone say darling anymore) chalkboard easel and I’ve been sitting here debating what to put on it. Well, I’ll give you a hint at a future blog post as I am working on a massive cross stitch project. I decided I would open up Word and just type up something appropriate for my easel to motivate me through that particular project. Not that I seem to need much help.

I then just printed it out and made sure everything was the appropriate size for the piece. Then I took a piece of chalk and rubbed it on the back of the paper anywhere there was lettering. Essentially making carbon paper (only, obviously… chalk paper?)… I don’t think anyone uses carbon paper anymore and I wouldn’t even know where to get such a thing, but it can make things a bit easier if you’re attempting “hand lettering”… The work around for carbon paper is just rubbing graphite on the back of the paper.

Then you just place your piece of paper onto your chalkboard where you are going to want the lettering and secure it with tape. Print side up, chalk side down. Then trace over the letters with a pen or pencil or stylus, anything to apply pressure to transfer the chalk from the back of the paper onto the chalkboard.

After I did all that I did go over the transfer image with a sharp piece of chalk just to make the lettering starker. You could go over it with a chalk marker but, keep in mind that the markers usually don’t wash off chalkboards or chalk paint very well.

Lastly I just did a little bit of embellishment. A little washi tape around the edges to act as a frame/border

And a few designs here and there to dress it up a bit.

Hopefully that will motivate me to get this project done a little faster.

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It’s Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Cold Season

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That doesn’t necessarily mean it feels cold here. This is a picture from December 1st.

No, I don’t live in the southern hemisphere.

You’re going to have to settle for another short post as I was battling the seasonal bug for a couple of weeks. I did manage to get a little work done on those chairs, though they are not ready to be revealed to the world yet.

However I did get all of my Christmas decorations up. Well… the village has no snow, but that’s a bit laughable around here anyway.

Of course there are bows on my Christmas tree!

Mostly it was a matter of putting up our tiny tree and, making my desk (see my series on it here) a little festive.

I decided presents would be the easiest thing to do, to the rescue empty gift boxes (again). This might be because of my obsession with wrapping presents. Sure I love giving them, and receiving them is nice too, but wrapping them is the best part.

As evidenced in the pictures above and below.

I also have a candle that has been on my desk for a while now that I periodically burn. I thought I would Christmas it up a bit (did I just use Christmas as a verb?) I started off with a plain old apple candle and took off the label. Any old candle would do, the fact that mine is red is a plus.

Next I took some wrapping paper and cut a 2″ wide strip to go around the candle. I got lucky and have a grid on the back of the wrapping paper I’ve been favoring this year but you can measure it out. In fact if you have a pattern you like or even a saying you can always print something out.

I then just taped it on tightly. I then put a second 1″ wide strip of another pattern over it.

Then to top it off just tie a ribbon around it. As you can also see I’ve been favoring twine ‘a la’ brown paper packages tied up with string.

Not only is it a cute way to spruce up your own candles it would be a nice way to gift a candle. The scent name is usually printed on the bottom or lid of the candle as well as the label so its not a big deal to peal it off. Don’t worry about the paper getting too hot. I guarantee with proper candle use the outside of your candle does not reach the required 451*F if it did you would have a problem even if there wasn’t paper around the jar.

Also,I forgot until after the fact, I have those funky patterned scissors hiding in my craft trunk, they would work well with this and you wouldn’t have to worry so much about straight lines… who needs straight lines anyway.

All the bows!!!

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Gobble Gobble

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Just a quick post to say Happy Thanksgiving and of course Black Friday. Comical how we give thanks for everything we have then promptly go out and buy everything we don’t have. So here is a way to use up things you have in ways you might not have considered before. I am a bit of an organizational freak. By that I mean I’m pretty terrible at organization and hate myself for it, so am constantly looking for ways to improve that.

I have to wear a full face of makeup to work every day so my vanity drawer where my most used products are stored was getting a little overwhelmed. Enter gift boxes to the rescue.

I won’t show you before pictures of my vanity drawer, the horror is too graphic. I just used some of the gift boxes that I’ve saved over the years to reuse (or in this case repurpose) to give me some compartments to store my makeup in a more organized way. It saves me the hassle of digging around for one particular product and saves my products from getting tossed around and possibly broken in the drawers. I left some blank space in which to put pallets. They will, of course rotate out as the seasons and my mood change. Currently MAC and Too Faced holiday pallets have taken up residence but it allows me to wake up and not worry about hunting down what makeup I’m going to put on that morning.

Hope your holidays find you well.

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Night of the living Wed

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Halloween!!!

So I’ve been avoiding doing any posts about skin care or makeup. Yes I do this stuff for a living, that doesn’t mean I’m confident in my abilities.

But… It’s Halloween, It’s my favorite time of year and an excuse to be someone different for a change. So I thought I would show off what I’ve been doing lately.

Last year I had a couple of different costumes.

My social costume was Marceline the Vampire Queen. Although technically I wore the clothing pertaining to Marshall Lee because a little boy’s black and red plaid shirt was far easier to find and implement. Not to mention something I’m likely to wear again.

Marceline and Marshall Lee in case you’re not hip to the kids.

And my work costume was a Tiger. Never underestimate a pair of cheap costume ears as inspiration for a costume

Oddly I have a collection of costume ears. It all started with a pair of bunny ears to hold my hair out of my face while I washed it or did my makeup … It’s gotten a bit out of hand since then.

Luckily this makes for a great party game that I had the privilege of playing this weekend at a Halloween themed bridal shower. Think “Who Am I” only with animal ears on your head. The devil horns made for a bit of a puzzler. “Do I have wings?”….That wasn’t really a yes or no question, we had to think about how to answer that for a moment.

I also had the privilege of being involved in a Halloween themed wedding this weekend. The ceremony was relatively normal and exceptionally gorgeous, until the zombies showed up. No seriously, there were zombies. Then the reception was costumes encouraged. Being the crazy person that I am I took fifteen minutes and dashed to the bathroom to transform from a lovely bridesmaid to the living dead. I’ll link to the video tutorial the groom sent me that inspired my quick change here.

These are pictures from my preliminary run through to figure out if I could actually do it in 10minutes. Turns out I could.

I was enjoying myself too much at the reception to bother with pictures.

All this being said I think the way to break my fear of posting makeup blogs is to just do costume makeup. I could work around a pair of ears and do a costume related post every month. It might also help me not run out of blog posts, which is super exciting as I am running out of projects or rather time to do them having just started a new job. I love doing costume makeup despite the fact that I don’t actually own any “costume makeup”. I’ve always just used makeup I already have. Things like bronzer (a.k.a. Tiger orange) and black khol liners and lipstick (blood more blood) and lots of eyeshadow.

I actually Have yet to figure out what I’m being this Halloween. It was suggested that I just do the zombie, but that is definitely not work appropriate. And I’ve tried out a couple of other looks the last month or so. Without loving them unfortunately.

I have the most marvelous devil horns, but this look just wasn’t… dramatic? .. enough for me.

And this look though really fun and surprisingly easy… I just don’t know what it is. Though a friend did point out that I look a bit like the captain from Treasure Planet

Photo bombing the photo bomber.

At any rate it’s something I’m new at so criticism or critiquing is certainly welcome and appreciated because I’m learning and love to do so. Also my amazon wish list just got super weird having decided to do this with things like liquid latex and rigid collodion and … yeah its super odd.
I’ll have a post up later about what I actually ended up doing for Halloween.

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(Not About The) Desk Part 3.5: Pride is One of the Seven

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Yep! I’m am pretty proud of what I have wrought.

 

So after the contact paper in the drawers I went a little contact paper crazy.

Or perhaps a lot.

I decided I needed a pad for my keyboard and mouse to sit on. That was easy enough I just stuck felt and contact paper together. Two sheets of felt, some scrap contact paper, a seam in the middle. Tah dah!

Using it right now I can say it makes a great mouse pad and I’m no longer worried about wearing a spot in my desk.

I also used every bit of scrap I had to cover my icky tape dispenser. Not exaggerating, it really was icky, covered in goo and sticky stuff and what have you. Now on to find fun washi tape for it.

And line a pen holder. Obviously the paper in the pen holder isn’t stuck to it. Its just two scrap sheets of contact paper still on their backing, with backs facing each other, cut to size, rolled up, and stuck inside it.

Oh yeah and a composition notebook just for the hell of it.

Did I go overboard? I feel like I might have gone overboard