the Corkiest of Boards DIY

This has been a long-running craft because I've been collecting wine corks for almost 2 years. This summer I finally had enough to make my cork board, just in time for the new apartment!

I patiently waited 2 years to collect all these corks instead of buying a big bag on Amazon because I thought it would be more fun to have a board of drunken memories repurposed to something so useful and aesthetically pleasing.

And this is how it happened:
Corks! collected from friends and family
Frame from Michael's ($7)
Hot Glue
Some kind of straight-edge knife 
...rounding up a $7 craft

1) I took out the plastic covering of the frame (along with the adorable puppy preset photo) and put it aside (I have plans to make it a whiteboard type canvas). I was left with the cardboard backing and the frame.

2) I laid out the corks in a chevron pattern, but you can do it in straight horizontal or vertical patterns so that you don't have to cut up corks to fit in the empty spaces.

I had to chop off the edges of the corks running along the far left side. Once all the full-sized corks were securely hot-glued in their position. I took to the cutting board and saw-ed the corks into smaller pieces to fit in the empty sockets here and there.

I can't wait to put it up and pin things. Make your own board of wine memories!

Dip-Dye Watermelon Shorts

I saw watermelon shorts online and knew that I had to make my own. The epitome of summer in a pair of high-waisted shorts. And thus my crafting journey began...

It took about a month to get discounted high-waisted white shorts, but i finally found them at Marshalls!

So I rounded up the materials:

High-waisted white shorts from Marshalls ($15)
Rit Kelly Green Dye and
Rit Fuchsia Dye from Michael's ($2.30 each)
Puffy Paint
Bucket to fill with hot colorful water

1) I taped the shorts so I knew when to stop submerging them

 

 

 2) Follow the dye instructions on the box (hot water, mix, blahblah). I submerged the shorts but my bucket was a bit too small, so make sure you get a bucket big enough! I kept it under for about 10 minutes in the Fuchsia bath, and cleaned it up according to the box.

Then it moved to the Kelly Green bath and stayed there for 10 minutes.

3) I threw it into the washing machine and awaited my masterpiece.

...but wait! It's not done yet.

Although no one likes eating watermelon with seeds, watermelon shorts would be incomplete without those pesky black seeds.

4) I used puffy paint to draw in the seeds because I thought it would give the seeds that shine and 3D feel that they give off in real life.

I plan on wearing it to the beach, summertime adventures, and the Made in America Music Festival. Can't wait to show these babies off!

 

LETTUCE TURNIP THE BEET Canvas

Like I said, it's birthday season for me, so I picked up extra canvases knowing they would come in handy. This gift's for my roomie who's a vegetarian & a dubstep lover. In other words, it's perfect.

(My favorite part is how LETTUCE kinda looks like, well, lettuce)

 

I originally saw the saying on Etsy - I didn't come up with it. They were on shirts, but I wanted to make something myself out of such a clever phrase.

Materials:
Magazines, mainly Cosmo for me, but any colorful one will do
Canvas from the one and only Michael's
Glue stick
Scissors
...for only $3 (canvas) and a few magazines stripped of their greens, purples and reds

It's pretty self explanatory, so add your own touch to it!

Winnie the Pooh Canvas Craft

For some reason, spring is birthday season with my friends and it's everyone's 21st - so it's a big one. One of my best friends loves Winnie the Pooh, so instead of getting her the usual shot glass and handle of liquor, I decided to do the exact opposite. I wanted to focus on the child that's in the both of us so I made her this:

(and got her cake pop maker too)

Materials:
Canvas from Michael's, of course... bought on super sale, of course
Laptop decal of Pooh and Piglet from Amazon
Sharpie
Blue Paper
...for only $6 (decal) + $3 (canvas) = holla at your $9

Painting on canvas is a lot easier, but I didn't have paint, brushes or a steady hand, really (that's my sister's forte). Sharpie is hard because of the rough surface, but I made it work.

NOTE: Don't use pencil on canvas, I'm not an artist and only use canvas for crafts, but I felt like a real dummy when the pencil wouldn't come off...whoops

1) I wrote the quotation on Word and played around with it until I chose a font I liked. I printed it out and used it as a reference to where there's a tail on the y or how the a curls
2)  Write it out, color in the lines, paste Pooh and Piglet chilling in a corner, cut a blue circle and voile! This adorable canvas is done <3
3) For a personal touch, I put a picture of us on the backside of the canvas behind where Pooh and Piglet are

I also wrote her favorite quote about growing up around the edge of the canvas because I wanted to incorporate it somehow.

I hope this inspires you to make your next gift!

Wanderlust; World Cork Board Craft

Wanderlust (n): A very strong or irresistible impulse to travel

 I saw a world cork board selling online and immediately knew I had to have one...better yet, I could totally make one! The actual crafting of the project took only about 1 hour all together, but getting creative with the gridded matting and finding the right type of corkboard took much longer.

Materials:

1/4" cork board from Marshall's - got it on clearance because there was a hole in it, didn't matter to me! I saved a bunch of money just to cut it up anyways
Gridded Matting that I spray painted gold
Cut-outs of continents
Box Cutter
Hot Glue
...for only $12 (for the corkboard)! I had all the other materials already at home and now I have an extra frame ;)

I didn't want just separate pieces of cork continents randomly placed on my wall and I remembered I had gridded matting just lying around from another DIY and it reminded me of the longitude and latitude of a map, so I now had something I could glue my continents onto that pulled the whole project together - win win!

How it was done: 
1) I spray painted the gridded matting turning it from old lady tan to shiny gold
2) I punched out the corkboard from the frame, which was surprisingly easy with pliers to yank out the staples

3) I didn't want marker showing the outline of the shape so I just lightly taped the cut-out onto the board and used a box cutter. (Here's Africa!)

It's important to get thin cork board because you don't want to make it impossible to cut - especially because there are no straight lines when it comes to the world map. You also have to watch out for cork board that's too thin though because it'll break too easily. My board was actually only a few mm of cork with a foam backing which works perfectly for this craft.

4) I hot glued the pieces onto the matting trying my best to get the distances right...I tried! After marveling at how amazing hot glue is, my craft was done!

After adding a heart to my hometown, I plan on pinning places I want to go I want with colored tacks and pinning places I've been with small pieces I've brought back with me.

Keep Calm and Relax

Day 11 Photo Challenge: Relaxation

This is a picture of us digging our feet into a pool of hot, red clay balls at a Korean spa. The whole point of this spa trip was to detox and just relax. It's hard to stress out when you're completely relaxed and peaceful.

Part of  the Korean spa experience is that you get completely naked for the unique whirlpool area. It's definitely an interesting experience and I highly encourage letting go of all your inhibitions about being completely nude and embrace your body - it's for the whole relaxing experience.

Try something new and don't let your inhibitions stop you.

Keep Calm and Appreciate the Little Things

Day 10 Photo Challenge: The Little Things

that bubbly sensation when you sip that just opened ginger ale on a hot day...

Just sit back and let that sensation tickle your tongue.
Don't let little photo ops like a super bubbly soda pass you by. If there's something that catches your eye, take a photo! It could turn out really good and it'll be like capturing a little piece of life.

Keep Calm and Give Love - V for Vendetta, In Case of Revolution Gift

Day 9: Photo challenge: Gratitude (Day 8 was organization and not that interesting on my part)

"For the second year now, my group of friends have gotten together to exchange Secret Santa gifts. We take time out of our busy schedules to get together and appreciate each other's company. Our celebration was full of laughs and inside jokes."

There's also a craft How-To along with this topic!

I was the Secret Santa for my friend who loves V for Vendetta. I was browsing wanelo and came across this V for Vendetta mask in a shadow box with the words "In case of Revolution, Break Glass" being sold on etsy (the artist did a great job, but was asking $20 without shipping). I've never bought anything on etsy because if someone else can make it - I can too! Picture of my version of the gift below:

So I got work trying to find all the supplies I needed.

I hit up my favorite store: Michael's <3 and got a shadow box and white vinyl letter stickers. I ordered the mask off Amazon. All this came out to about $11!

The directions after that are pretty simple.
1) I put the mask in the shadow box, but the V mask has such a big schnozz that this happened:

Ruh roh! That shadow box is NOT closing. I tried cutting the edges of the mask and squishing the mask to fit in the shadow box, but all that did was distort the mask so that it looked like a really creepy clown.
I ended up taking the hard backing out of the shadow box and created a "soft" backing made out of felt - just enough so that the mask wouldn't fall out. I secured the mask to the felt with bobby pins. This way the mask would fit without being squished, but the back was now all bumpy and wasn't hangable anymore.

If you wanna do this project, which is super simple and not that time consuming, MAKE SURE YOU GET A SHADOW BOX THAT'S BIG ENOUGH! and don't make my mistake.

Have fun! And remember remember the fifth of November.

Keep Calm and Stay Happy Surrounded by Friends

Day 6 & 7 of Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Happiness and Friendship

So I may have forgotten to put up the photo from yesterday, so it's getting paired up with today's theme!

This was my happiness entry:

because...
The beach is the epitome of happiness to me. It offers relaxation, beautiful scenery, gorgeous weather and sand to burrow yourself into to get away from everything.

Being that the beach is such a happy place for me, I have a couple of beach related crafts coming soon!

And I reminisced about friends with this entry:

of a time that...
We all packed in cars for a mini road trip to visit one of our friends in Southern MD. We ended playing on a playground for hours. It's so great to run around a playground with friends who are just as into it as you are.

Keep Calm and Stay Creative - Dark Side of the Moon Melted Cray DIY

Day 5 Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Creativity

In honor of today's photo challenge for creativity, here's a How-to for the melted crayon interpretation of Pink Floyd's Album cover.

I couldn't get enough of melting crayons with the palm of my hand so I made this and gave it as a gift to my roommate!

1) I started with a black canvas I bought from Michael's -  more expensive than white canvases, but it's worth it. $5

2) I had a big white paint Sharpie (lovingly known as obese Sharpie) laying around so I drew the triangle as centered as I could

3) I cut the crayons in half, keeping the color label side, and then glued them on

I glued them on with the color label showing because I thought it added a nice touch:

4) Melting the white crayon was tricky. It splatters everywhere! But I held the canvas so that the crayon was pointing straight down and directed the splatter the best I could.
I did the same with the colors and it turned out so great!

*Make sure you do this in an open area. I opened a window and did everything on the window sill to prevent all the melting wax fumes from invading my room.


This project only cost me - $5 for the canvas + 8 crayons out of a 24 crayon box ~50cents = $5.50

I'll be posting up more crafts and DIYs so
Pin it, Share it, if you wanna DIY it <--to the tune of Kim Possible

Keep Calm and Reminisce - 365 DIY

Day 4 of Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Memories

When I reminisce about the warm weather, colorful surroundings and crisp blue water, I feel like I'm back in the Bahamas. It's a little escape from the every day.

It's important to create memories and if you find yourself only drifting day to day, it's time to go do something!
One of my newer projects is the 365 Photo-a-day challenge. Chances are, you've heard of it.
I've chosen to make my album on Facebook because I like the photo interface, but I made it private/only visible to me because I didn't feel like the world needed to know my daily activities.
I'm not much of a writer, so taking pictures is such a good way for me to reflect on the highlights of my day. I'm more alert of what's around me and if I enjoyed something, laughed at something, or thought something was beautiful, I would snap a quick photo on my phone.

I love scrolling through the photos I've taken and smiling at the little stuff that made my day a week ago or a month ago. It's a really great project for de-stressing and appreciating each day :)

Keep Calm and Enjoy Nature

Day 3 of Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Nature

"We hiked up to this cliff after a day of white water rafting. It was one of my first experiences hiking so I was fascinated with what we saw. We even saw the river we rafted on earlier that day! At night, we camped out and went star gazing. We saw three shooting stars amidst a sky drowning in stars. It was breathtaking."

Nature has a way of taking our breath away because it's something so crisp and pure. It's a great way to de-stress because it's a good place to clear your mind and focus on the beauty in front of you.

Keep Calm and Be Active

Day 2 of Keep Calm and Photo Challenge: Being Active

"This is us at the finish line of Rebel Race - a 5k mud obstacle course. Running + sliding in mud = happy college students. This photo shows the energy and lack of stress we felt when we finished. I love fitness and how it can instantly lift a mood."

Keep Calm and Laughter

It's (technically, was) April Fool's Day! Also the first day of the Keep Calm and Photo Challenge that I have been kinda geeking out about :P

It's a 14 day photo challenge where you take pictures of things that help you de-stress. I love challenges like these because it allows people to sift through their old photos and have that ah-ha moment when they find the perfect one and it encourages everyone to slow down a little, appreciate the little things around them and let themselves be inspired.

Of course there is a prize at the end, an iPad, picked raffle style. I can't guarantee an iPad if you do this challenge yourself, but I can guarantee you'll have a blast doing it. Have fun snapping your stress away!
 
Today's theme is: Laughter

"I can be as weird as I want around my sister. She always gets me laughing with funny faces or quotes from Bridemaids. Ever since we were little, I would always tickle attack her, although we're older now, it still amuses me just as much."

Check back for tomorrow's theme: Being active!

Melted Crayon Rain Project

This is my first ever blog post! And I thought it'd be a good idea to start with a craft that I had so much fun doing. It's a project that's been done many times over, but what I wanna promote is adding a piece of yourself into every project and getting great deals for all your materials.
Here's a quick rundown of what I did to make this:

1) Get a canvas. It's really the best for a project like this - it looks professional and it's really easy to mount! I got a great deal at Michael's (a 2-pack 11x18 white canvas for $7 - as a note, I rarely ever buy things regular priced because Michael's always has such great coupons in the newspaper!)

2) Get your crayons. I recommend Crayola, they're quality crayons so they'll melt to your demand, I've heard from other crafters that brands like Roseart just do not cut it. Again, I found a great deal, this time at Staples ($3 for a 2 packs of 24-color pack of crayons).

3) Glue the crayons down whichever way you desire - I laid mine out so that it would resemble a cloud. I recommend good ol' Elmer's glue because the heat from the hair dryer won't mess with its stickiness like it would with hot glue.

4) Now is the time to decide what you want to protect from the melting wax. If you want to create an umbrella scene, you need to tape off the section on the canvas you want to stay white - so that'll include the umbrella and all the space underneath the umbrella. (Sorry for not having any pictures, I did this project before I even considered doing a blog). I wasn't too successful in keeping the canvas white, but I've heard of people using blue painting tape to section off the white parts while I constructed this ghetto arch out of paper plates <-- don't do this unless you know what you're doing.

5) Prepare your work area because it's about to get real messy. Lay out newspaper all around you because melting crayon splatters - EVERYWHERE. I don't know how other crafters kept their lines so uniform, but crayon is unpredictable and crazy...and I love it!

Also remember to have good circulation in whatever room you're in because the fumes from the wax are really strong at first.

6) Now, you can break out the major artillery - the hair dryer. I used a really high powered one because I had heard of stubborn crayons not melting. Start the dryer on high and go back forth from side-to-side. It's a really magical moment when the first crayon starts spewing color everywhere. It actually happens so quickly I found myself freaking out over all the color that suddenly appeared.
Once the color has reached a certain point down the canvas, it'll lose it's steam and you'll have to encourage it down the canvas with the heat of your dryer. Keep doing this until you get the desired length.
7) Let the piece of art sit for a few minutes and solidify as you stare at your colorful accomplishment. You can take this time to find a romantic scene to put underneath the umbrella. You gotta love those heart-wrenching scenes under the rain :')

How to Make the Romantic Scene under the Umbrella:

 
I wanted a silhouette photo, but couldn't find one so, I used this picture from google images:

I stuck the photo in Word, removed the background, turned the photo into washout mode, printed it out and cut it out very carefully.
I wasn't going to give up on my silhouette vision of the couple, so I tried using a black Sharpie to color in the photo and was pleasantly surprised by the the very original looking photo! With the artistic abilities of a squirrel, even I was able to follow the lines and shade in where I needed to - yey!
I then constructed an umbrella out of plain white paper and colored it in with Sharpie so it would have the same look as the couple. I added lines of glitter glue on the umbrella because the solid black umbrella just wasn't cutting it for my imagination.

Silver Linings:
 
Like always, I came up with an idea while doing the project - the silver lining on the clouds. The saying: "Every cloud has a silver lining" is what inspired me. I always find that the best ideas come to me once I'm in the zone of crafting because I'm able to pull in inspiration from everywhere.

This idea incorporated two things that are very important to me: glitter and a deeper meaning (the whole thing I was saying earlier about leaving a bit of yourself in each of your works).

All I did was draw streaks with Elmer's glue over my "clouds" and loose sprinkle silver glitter (which was part of a pack of 5 different glitters from Target, $6). I shook off the excess glitter, stood back and admired my work.

I had so much fun working on this project because it was all about manipulating the crayons into a whole different form - I basically did magic. I also did this whole project for around $7. I can't think of anything that offers that much fun and aesthetically pleasing art work for your walls for only $7.

Thanks for reading my first post! Look out for my next post soon :) Next week, I'm going to be a part the Keep Calm and Photo Challenge at my school where each day I'll upload a photo according the theme of the day that shows how I de-stress, so I'll upload those to my blog as well.