And.... she's back!

Well, hello! Yes, it's been a lonnngggg time. As my son says, don't judge.

I wanted to share my latest little project, which uses a beat up frame to make a lovely door kind-of-wreath. I tried to think of a clever name for this, but it isn't happening. A frame that becomes a wreath... maybe a Freath? That felt sort of creepy, as I could also use it to describe a freak on meth. Not really the image I'm going for to welcome people to my home.

Here's how I made it:
I wanted to make the frame-wreath something I could change up with the seasons, so I decided on neutral paints. First I painted a couple of layers of a sea foam shade of acrylic paint on an empty frame. I then painted 3 coats of white acrylic paint over that. I didn't bother with taking too much care with neatness since I knew I would be distressing the paint after it dried.

Note: I am not a great painter. Distressing is such a fabulous thing for those of us not gifted in this area.

After the paint dried, I distressed the paint with a sanding block and a heavy duty nail file. I find that a nail file gives me greater control in creating small pockets of distress. Great band name: Small Pockets of Distress.

I glued down thick pieces of felt on the corners of the frame. This keeps the back of the frame from scratching up or chipping the glass on the door.

Now, what to put in the middle? Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, hearts seemed the best way to go. I took a medium-sized heart-shaped foam wreath and wrapped it in red and white chevron ribbon, gluing it down along the way with E6000. I had a wooden heart with a chalk board center from Hobby Lobby, so I pinned that into the foam wreath to allow it to dangle. On the chalk board, I wrote Love Lives Here. I'm kind of afraid to see what the guys in the house might change this to say.

I had my frame ready and the middle ready, but how to put them together? I didn't want to permanently affix them together, since I want to be able to change out the middle. It was time for my favorite solution for hanging things: tiny 3M Command strips. I put one on the back of the frame, added a ribbon loop to the heart, then hooked the ribbon on the tiny Command strip.

As a final step, I added museum putty to the back of the frame in strategic spots to anchor the bottom of the frame to the glass. This should help keep it from banging around against the glass.

Let's hope my next entry isn't How to Repair Your Glass in Your Front Door.

What the heck am I doing now?

The last time I tried blogging, I was pregnant and the word "blog" was still "web log." Now that unborn child that made me puke like it was my newfound religion is 13 and starting the 8th grade next week. My vocabulary has been shortened to half-words, acronyms, and various forms of smileys. As a professional writer, this should be distressing, but I am, frankly, relieved to be able to end any conversation with gtg :-).

All my little crafty friends (meaning they create craft objects, not that they are sly) seem to have blogs to share their stuff, so I'm giving this a try again as a way to share info about and photos of the projects I'm working on. I'm sure people will be happy to stop receiving picture texts from me saying "Look what I just made! Can you believe that??" Now they will receive texts saying, "Go look at my blog and see the picture of my project." Hard to believe I'm not more popular.

I am, at best, a reluctant crafter. Very unsure of my skills and certain that I am going to suffer a severe crafting injury. So far I've only gotten a bad case of scrapper's thumb, a swollen and tender thumb and tendons caused by extreme gripping of paper and an X-acto knife. I traded the knife for a good paper trimmer, took some anti-inflammatory, and that first injury is just fine. I'm picking up new skills, but am sooooo slow. I kind of like the slow pace I move at when I'm crafting--the rest of my life seems to scoot along so fast I'm sure I'm missing some good scenary on the way.

So, there's my first post. Going forward, I'll post some projects, some info on techniques I've just learned, info on products I'm discovering (and yes, it's like Columbus discovering the "new" world where thousands of people lived for thousands of years before his arrival), and random thoughts. I'm no Jack Handy, but, really, who is?

gtg
:-)