Thank you note and Tuesday Things

Hello again, 

I meant to post about this thank you card last week when I went on my crafting rampage. haha But then I got busy. More about that stuff later. 

Anyways, since I was in a crafty mood, I decided to design my own thank you note for graduation gifts I've received. I thought it would show off my talent and be more personal.

After drafting a few choices, I settled on this one:

I love this script font, the open space it sort of captures with the swirls in the "t" and the "y", and the fact that it looks handwritten (read: personal) without being too messy. I not sure of the actual paper type because it was something I found laying around but, it was textured and slightly heavy/thick. The ink didn't stick to it too well and I was afraid it would rub off in the mail. So I sprayed it with some workable fixatif that I've had since art school. It actually gave the card a nice finished shine to it, which was an added bonus!



Now to the list of things that have been going on:

• I started back at work yesterday. It's just my part-time I've had since high school but, it's better than nothing and the people make it worth while. 
• I saw the last of the Hangover series this Friday. It actually wasn't bad. I liked it better than the second one because it had a different story line. There were definitely some gross parts in it but, it's The Hangover.
• My boyfriend came to see me this weekend. We made a chicken philly cheesesteak pizza, it was fabulous!! I miss him so much during the week, it's great to spend time with him on the weekends. 
• I have a 5k this Saturday that I'm nervous about. Looking at the previous year's times, it looks like a slow course... in other words, it's gonna have some hills. yuck. In preparation, I ran my last practice 5k today (26:22. yes!). I'll run 2 miles with my puppy tomorrow and Friday and a 10k Thursday. Hopefully, that'll get my legs ready but not feeling too tired. We shall see...
• I have too much stuff! I just realized that I have three boxes of stuff from my apartment still sitting in my parents basement! I'm never gonna get it all organized until I move out. Which probably means I shouldn't buy more stuff... sad day.
• I still don't have a job and I had started feeling pretty crumby about myself until I went to church on Saturday. The readings for this week seemed like they were talking specifically to me and I knew I should keep my head up and keep working towards my dreams. In particular this part of HEB 12:5-7, 11-13, "So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed." and this part of the gospel, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate,for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
  but will not be strong enough...And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” stood out and resonated the most with me. I've repeated these parts to myself in my head over the past few days when I feel weak and hopeless and I've been happier. 
• It's sunny and almost feels like summer around here now. Now, that's it's about to be fall...
• Is it Christmas yet??

That's all for now folks! If I kind my box of cupcake recipes I might be making more cupcakes today! First I have to find the recipe box.. it should be in one of those boxes from my apartment in my parents' basement... 

Etching Projects

Yesterday I went to Goodwill and bought some glassware with which to get crafty. Today, I continued my crafting journey into the world of glass etching. It's a dangerous and scary place, let me tell you! Anything that warns you to use plastic gloves to protect your hands is ridiculous! But, I guess if you think about it, the etching cream is permanently changing the surface of glass, so I suppose it has to be pretty powerful (just image what it would do to your skin-ouch!)

I found out the hard way that cutting out my own stencil with a box cutter was going to be pert near impossible. So decided to try something new today- painting on the etching cream by hand. Risky, I know. Luckily, I have a pretty steady hand and eye for detail. It probably also helps that this wasn't my first time at the painting rodeo, I was an art major (briefly), after all.

My first project was the tall rectangular vase-looking-thing. (You see, the one on the far right. That one). This one was going to be pretty simple. Just an initial.

Unfortunately, my first go with this didn't work too well... I left the cream on all night; not that it makes a difference, I just wanted to be sure it was visible. Somehow the edges still turned out all wrinkly and raw looking. I was kind of disappointed- this letter "G" was so much easier to make than that milk bottle, I thought it'd be a shoe in for success. But, I guess that's the way it goes, nothing worth having is ever easy (that was deep.). So I repainted it and left it for another couple of hours to see if it would kind of fill itself out.

Below is the final product, if you can see it. Not too bad... It honestly looks better in the pictures than it does in real life but, it's ten times better than that milk bottle!

So I placed a pretty candle in it, filled in with rocks from the back yard (yay, free things!) and called it complete. I must say, it looks awfully professional in these pictures!

But! The best is yet to come! Of all the glass projects that I planned during my Goodwill hunting trip (see what I did there?), this next one was my favorite. I had designed a logo for my boyfriends farm last week and printed a black and white copy of it yesterday. Unfortunately, it was pretty intricate, so I  got discouraged when I realized the box-cutter thing wasn't going to work. After the "G" project, though, I had a pretty brilliant idea, if I do say so myself! I taped the logo to the inside of the glass and traced the type with a paint brush! Oh, my goodness! It made eyes go cooky looking at for so long as I painted but looked so promising!

Again, I left it on for longer than it probably needed but there was no way I was redoing it if it didn't show up the first time! Luckily, it looks fabulous! This is my favorite of all the glass projects I've done. The etching is still fairly light and I taped it on slightly croocked but, other than that- I could probably pass this off as professionally made! Go me! I have one more of these little vases to do, to make them a set, but, I want to give my eyes a break. Haha

DIY Milk Bottle

I supposed I couldn't really call myself a crafty person if I've never completed a craft in my life. But, I admire crafty things! I have a whole board on Pinterest for "When I'm feeling crafty". I've felt crafty quite a few times but, as of yesterday, I still hadn't made a single thing on that board (isn't that the way Pinterest works though? haha)

However, since I've had nothing but spare time with my lack of career, I decided I deserved some time to do something fun to help me relax. Things that take away my stress: running, cooking, concentrating really hard on something other than what's making me stressed. Well, I already have have a blueberry buttermilk bundt cake sitting in the kitchen so baking is kind of out of the question. I had already run 3.1 miles yesterday and, although I could run some more, I still wouldn't feel accomplished afterwards. At least baking would produce a final product I could be proud of (and eat!). It was another rainy day in Georgia yesterday so, I thought, well, what the heck, let's craft something!

So I went to my handy dandy Pinterest board and narrowed it down to decorative pumpkins (to put me in the mood for Fall) or monogramed glass ornaments (eh, who needs Fall. Let's skip straight to Christmas!) In the end I chose glass etching because I am an unemployed graduate don't really have a whole lot of money to spend and I'd rather buy pumpkins and glass ornaments when they go on sale. Regularly, etching cream would be expensive but, it's 80% off at the Michael's near me currently.

So I got some cheap glassware from Goodwill, paint and etching cream from Michael's and Con-Tact paper from Home Depot.

Here are the glasses I bought:

I have plans for etching the small vases and the tall rectangular one later. For now, I wanted to start with a cute vintage milk bottle.

Step 1: Spray paint! Honesty time. This was my first time spray painting. It was so much fun!!! I was kinda sad when it was all done and there was nothing left to paint... The paint I used was Krylon colormaster in Ivory.

The bottle said it only took ten minutes to dry but, I needed more time to cut out my stencil so it ended up drying for hours. I made my design myself and printed it on copy paper. Then I cut a piece of contact paper, laid it over the design and traced it as best as I could. I messed up once and had to do it again. Honestly, I didn't think this through very well. My design was way too small and intricate to be cut by hand, especially with a box cutter on crummy cardboard. To say this is an amateur project is an understatement. It was almost comical to watch me try and cut those delicate lines.

In the end, I settled for an imperfect stencil because I knew there was only so much I could do. I painstakingly placed it on the "milk bottle"  and painted over it with Martha Stewart glass paint (vanilla bean). The bottle said to let it air cure for 21 days. 21 DAYS!!! So I left it dry over night before I pealed the stencil off.

From far away, it doesn't look too bad! (I hadn't put the lettering on yet).

Up close, however, is a different story... This thing looks like an old woman with a shaky hand painted it while she was sneezing!

The final product, words and all. Not too bad but, not fantastic either...

My mom and I looked up some machines that would make the delicate cuts for me, using my own design and boy, are they expensive!! Overall, I'm glad I finished something and I don't completely hate it. The design looks fantastic, if I do say so myself, and the idea was inspired! In the end, it did what it was supposed to- I concentrated hard on something other than my stress and produced something I can be proud of. I'm also encouraged to keep practicing and making cool projects! I'll post about the actual etching later!