Wednesday night fun times!

On Wednesdays, D bowls in a league... this means I'm home alone and free to play as I please!

Tonight's project: Transfer images on to stretched canvas.

I'm cheap. Since this was the first try, I wanted to go as cheap as possible, so I printed out 2 pictures of our kiddos at an undisclosed location (that's right, SECRETS!) and got the smallest canvases I could find. Because they're cheapest. Yep.

Step 1:  Print picture on regular printer paper. Use gel medium to adhere picture (I flipped the picture around before printing it, as they transfer backwards) to canvas. Cover canvas in one good flat coat of this stuff.  I was told (by Pinterest) to get medium gloss gel medium or something, but I ended up with this stuff and it apparently worked just fine!

Glue the pics on to the Canvas with ^^ That stuff... looks like this... 

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Step 2: Smooth out lines on paper with something flat... credit card, ruler, or... you know, cardboard from the new glitter you just bought... :)

Step 3: WAIT forEVER for it to DRY.  (And by forever, I mean about 3-4 hours)
Step 4: Douse the paper with water from a squirt bottle til it soaks through... pull/ball/roll off the paper slowly.

 Rub gently and the paper will start to rub off.

I rubbed the edges of each picture to make them look all jagged, too. So that's neat. :)  ALSO, Carmen is too dark. I kept re-wetting and re-rubbing to get all the paper off of her picture so that I could see her & accidentally rubbed off some of the picture. Oh well. That adds to the novelty, right? 

Carmen's finished picture... note the white spots where I rubbed the picture off. Haha oops. 

Tini's completed picture... 

Step 5: When the canvas is pretty much dry, swipe with a medium-thick layer of the gloss/gel medium stuff again to set it. This way- you won't continue to wipe off the picture! YAY!

I am so excited to know how to do this! You better believe that I will be doing this with every dang picture from NOW ON.

Oh- relatives, loved ones, etc... you're welcome. You're welcome for your awesome pictures you'll be getting done like this for the rest of your lives!

Enjoy! 

♥ 

EM

Way Past-Due Stuff-making updates

This post was from 12/4 but just posted this morning when I realized it never made it... oopsie

So, I know all my updates have been about making stuff- stuff I've made- stuff I'm going to make...
Suck it up, because more is COMING!
This is my first ever experience playing with canvases and putting them where people can see them. Yes. That's right, it's like I'm an artist - except not a really good one! 

This has been completed since October--- well, kinda completed. I'm still not 100% sure that i'm finished. I need to cut the edges off and wrap them, but I kind of think I need another bird.
What do you think?


So, yeah the Edges need cleaned up. Here's the pretty much finished product.

And if you would like to take a tour of my brain... here's the step by step! But be careful, you may get lost in there... 

#0. My inspirational stuff that I looked at and morphed into my own thing: 

   (Both pictures taken from Pinterest) 

#1. I taped (yes, classily taped) the canvases to the wall like I thought I would like. Don't underestimate me, now... this was tape job number 387290 and picture number 30. And calling D freaking out about "ARE YOU SURE THIS IS OK" time number 6.  It's a tough job he has, but someone has to embrace my crazy

#2. I then- Everrrr sooooo carrrrrefullllly ripped pages out of my Alice in Wonderland book and started modge-podge-glue-paper machet-ing them all over the canvases for texture...

#2.5/3ish.  I also cheated and knew where i wanted the branches to be, so I strategically covered the branches in the parts of the book I wanted to be visible. It looks like an accident, but it was 100% plotted out step by step.

And yes, in some of these there is wax paper on the table I'm using. That's because I'm 4 years old and I can't paint or glue anything without getting ie EVERYWHERE. We're talking in hair, on clothes, on the dang dog, and oopsie on the carpet. Maybe my creative artristry is better reserved for the garage...

or maybe I'm just making the place festive with my whoopsie marks?  It might be on purpose. You don't know!

 #3.5/4ish. Painted all non-branchy parts with pretty sky colored paint. Thanks, Martha. You are the stuff. Martha Stewart Craft Paint---- WORD

Just a little bit of some of the words and pictures under the paint show, so it's PERFECT!!!  

#5. We'll go with 5 because I have lost "ish" count.  I took water colors and colored all the branch parts with those. I tried brown- but that was disgusting, so the color I went with in the end was like a mustart and yellow and brown and something else mixed together.  It worked... 

 A Close-up for you...

#6? Is that where we are?  All the texture pages on, paint dried, and branches painted... I picked where I wanted the birdies to go and couldn't decide what I wanted to do with them. I was torn between painting the craft paint around and making them with black watercolor or making them black craft paint... I think I am glad I chose the craft paint- Much easier and prettier. I like the boldness better than if I had made them water-colory and muted.

Closer-up of the birdies:

I'll eventually slice off the edges of the paper that doesn't want to stick to the sides (no matter how much glue I use) and take ribbon and wrap around for smoothness like I did the other 2...  But for now, I'm ok with it.

What have you made recently? Please share!

(please oh please share my 2 blogger friends who sometimes read my blog!)

Don't you worry- there will be more.

I have done a lot since I last wrote...

Enjoy!

♥ EM

My turn! 101 in 1001

Several blogs I follow did this last year. It has taken me a year to decide to do it! I'm a stalker, it's ok. Today is January 2nd, but I'm going to say I started it yesterday, as that is when I hand-wrote some of it out. This should make my 1,001st day September 28th, 2013.

I'll get started- the 101 in 1001 is a to-do list of sorts. Definitely 7943182 times better than a New Year's Resolution. I am excited and nervous- which sounds really silly to me, but I want to do all these things and not have one left. I guess I better get ON IT!

**UPDATE: To see my original 101, click here. I have updated the goals because some were very lofty!**

1. Visit the beach 

2. Attend a Georgia Bulldogs game (preferrably in GA) 

3. Go to a(nother) Awesome Concert  

4. Pay off the Truck  

5. Use a free night (or two) on my Marriott Rewards card

6. Get term life insurance for D & me

7. Change my name on my passport (I should probably pre-post a "FIND my passport" one...)  

8. Travel across multiple states (by car or plane! 

9. Go on a surprise super romantical date with my hubby

10. Attend a Packers game at Lambeau Field 

11. Finish painting our bathroom

12. Decide what to do with the extra shower in our bathroom

13. Stabilize our fence

14. Decorate our naked wall in the LR

15. Save up an "emergency fund" 

16. Participate in the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart

17. Learn how to use my Crock Pot (I will measure this by completing 5 meals in said Crock Pot) 

18. Figure out what I want to do when I grow up... or at least for the next few years

19. Get a tune-up for my car

20. TAILGATE  (Like a pro)

21. Go to Disney World

22. Update my resume

23. Re-cover our dirty storage ottomans 

24. Get occasional chairs for naked wall

25. Get Ladder Shelves for LR

26. Get current on Criminal Minds Season 5

27. Attend a Braves game in ATL

28. Re-landscape the front of our house

29. Plant *(& GROW) grass in our yard

30. Figure out if Carmen IS deaf and how bad it is

31. Get down to the weight I was at in 11th grade 

32. Send/give a friend a gift for no reason (1/6/11) 

33. Keep fresh flowers in the house for 2 months straight

34. Eat ABSOLUTELY NO Gluten for one month 

35. Spend time in California

36. Host a dinner party

37. Blog 2x per week for 3 months

38. Build a fire pit

39. Go to NYC 

40. Buy and wear an outfit that is not my normal cup of tea

41. Buy flat boots

42. Wear a scarf as an accessory (not just to keep warm)

43. Go to Washington DC

44. Visit a winery outside of TN

45. Take an entire week off of work (straight)

46. Throw out/Donate old/worn out/ill fitting shoes

47. Get a new TV (Possibly for the BR or a big one for the LR and put the LR one in the BR)

48. Make our driveway 3 feet wider 

49. Get a hot tub 

50. Make backyard a more entertainment-friendly space

51. Build seating area around fire pit

52. Put furniture on our front porch

53. Have friends over to play cards

54. Go back to Reno/Vegas

55. Dye my hair almost completely blonde

56. Go to a Preds game IN Preds gear

57. Get a professional massage (again) 

58. Quit biting my nails/fingers 

59. Go to the chiropractor

60. Visit NOLA 

61. Get a new mattress/box springs

62. Co-build a bed for said mattress and box springs Unnecessary. We have a box spring and frame. Changing this to something funner.

63. Babysit for a friend as a gift

64. Do yoga for a month straight

65. Make 10 things out of one of my cookbooks

66. Read 12 books

67. Make "gourmet" doggie biscuits for all my dog friends 

68. Get a new surround sound system... and actually have it hooked up and SURROUNDING the LR

69. Go on a date with my hubby to the Melting Pot

70. Make a curtain/something to cover the window in our back door

71. Get a pedicure (it's been a loooooong time!)

72. Put crown molding in our bathroom and/or bedroom 

73. Find 3 add'l pictures to put in my big frame in the LR to complete my seasons idea 

74. Make an awesome present for my husband

75. Buy new bedside tables HA! 

76. Put a desk (of sorts) in the office

77. Put shelving on a wall in one of the BRs

78. Take a (good/sober) picture of Donnie & Myself for 6 months out of a year

79. Do all my Zumba Dvds

80. Buy bright colored shoes

81. Ask about/possibly invest in contacts 

82. Go to the dentist

83. Repaint our bedroom

84. Attend a college volleyball game

85. Obtain a pearl necklace to match my beautiful studs that I got for a wedding present 

86. Have a "top tier" of a wedding-ish cake made by Jay at Maples Wedding Cakes for an anniversary dinner

87. Buy something awesome at a yard sale

88. Tip a server 100% of the meal or more

89. Read the whole new testament (I've seen where some of my blogger friends want to read the whole thing... I think I'm going to skip the begats and begots this go-round)

90. Go out for a "girls night"

91. Host a game night

92. Re-decorate my blog (1/2/11)

93. Make Carmen a Packers shirt (and possibly make a new one for Tini since hers has 12 taped over the 4 that it came with)

94. Talk seriously about making a McBaby...

95. Stay up until sunrise with my husband (for no good reason)

96. Make a wreath

97. Buy an issue of The Contributor for $20 (instead of $1)

98. Go camping for more than one night - and possibly even enjoy myself?

99. Swim in water I can't see through (ocean, lake, whichever)

100. Go to Cedar Pointe While I still would like to do this, I don't really care that much. Let's change this to something funner, too. Ill think it up later. 

101. Get a new tattoo
 

So, there you have it! This will be done, however in no order whatsoever. I'm excited to attempt to take pictures of me crossing off some of these things and blog about them. Maybe putting this list up here will help me complete number 37 at least?

If there is anything on this list that you have ideas to help me complete, please let me know. Also, if you happen to post one of these babies- please link to it in the comments section!

Some of these, you may notice, might also be hints for things that I can't necessarily do... and they may take action from someone else- namely D. hahaha That's not wrong, is it? It's just being nice by dropping explicit hints!

Because I like putting a picture on each post...

Here's a pretty pic of the park where we had to walk our dogs in ATL when we were there in November... it was a gorgeous little potty spot!

Now, if I start walking immediately, I may be able to cross off number 1 by February...

REEAAAADDDY.... GO!

Lazy Sunday

Today is a lazy day. We haven't had one of these in a while.

I think I'll try to do a quick little update on the past week or two!

SO Last weekend we were in Atlanta. The Packers played the Falcons at the Georgia Dome and we went down there Friday - Monday. It was some of the bestest fun I've had with my hubby and our kiddos in a while!

We drank a lot of this:

The girls went with us, and lounged around our room...

It must be SO HARD to have their life. :)

On Friday we got there and walked to the closest pub for dinner- it was ridiculous!! The food was a really strange combo of stuff that went perfectly together! Meehan's Pub had a "Holiday Hangover" menu that was only non-holiday food, so it was a pleasant surprise!

Saturday we decided to take 3 hours to find IKEA (I was not impressed. There were 79023281 people in there and you couldn't even take a deep breath without hitting someone. Maybe next time it won't be

so crowded and I'll see what all the fuss is about?) and then ate lunch at The Vortex. Good burger, great atmosphere. We then came back to our hotel to find that our room hadn't been cleaned yet, so we went for about a 13982 hour walk. Only to come back to see that they STILL hadn't gotten to us! Seriously? It was almost 5. DidI mention that we didn't take coats/jackets? Because it was supposed to be kind of warm all weekend. It was not that warm. In fact, it was down right FREEZING at times!

Saturday night, we met some of the people we had met on Friday night (the city was overrun with Packers

fans... it was like we were in Wisconsin!!) And hung out at the pub, then followed them to a 24-hour karaoke bar where they proceeded in drinking until 3 the night before the game... Don't worry, they're PROS. After we left the bar, we heard that one of the guys tackled the Karaoke machine and they were asked to leave. Not to mention they were yelling "FREE BEER! FREE BEER FOR ALL PACKERS FANS!" into the karaoke machine which plays on the street. hahaha They were so much fun, it was like we were with family or something!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!

We got up (sloooowly), had breakfast in our

hotel and saw all the other Pack fans, and started our 1 mile trek to the stadium. Everyone had already beat us to tailgating (granted, we had nothing with which to tailgate), so we walked around and watched the crazies.

We then made our way into the game and it was SO MUCH FUN! This was our first Packers game... and it was a good one to attend. I just wish it would have ended with our team having the higher score.

This is the view from our seats. Not too bad, but not the best. Next time I'll pay the extra and we'll be MUCH CLOSER.

That's about all I got. Pretty boring post, I know, as I have nothing really witty to say today... but there's all the pictures from my phone that I took on our trip! :)

NO CLUE

I am so excited, I have no idea what to write.

It only took me about a month to decide what url to use... and yes, I went original on it. First initial-last name. It was difficult.