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.