Sunday, January 30, 2011

Something a Little Different

Lately, there hasn't been anything blog-worthy happening around the Elgin household.  The only projects I've done consist of Powerpoint presentations for my Masters classes and projects for school.  Needless to say, it's not been very eventful around here aside from having a sick puppy.

I did, however, get a couple of projects done today, once again, revolving around my job.  I made a poster today for my sophomore classes who are preparing for their state graduation exam.  During their writing, it helps to have an idea in mind of exactly whom they are gearing their writing to.  After holding a "Test Lady Pageant" this was our winner...


They named their test lady Medusa Doonesbury Hotcakes.  I don't really know where they name came from...I didn't ask.

While I was working with the Cricut, I decided to try my hand at making a card with one of the new program I got for Christmas.  I think it turned out pretty cute.


I could make an envelope to go with it, but that requires a Cricut that uses 12x12 paper, and mine only uses 6x12.  So, I'm either going to have to use a friends and make a bunch of envelopes, or figure out a way to sell my Cricut and use the money to get a bigger one.  I think I'll go with the first option.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Inspirational Word Pictures

There's a local store I love.  It's a gifty type store that has a little bit of everything.  There's some furniture, some Willow Tree figurines, sections devoted to Vera Bradley and Yankee Candles, but most of it is home decor.  The last couple of times I've been in that store I've seen these little pictures.  They were in small, black, square frames.  The background looked like newsprint and there were words like: faith, hope, dream, imagine, believe on them.  They were super cute, but they were about $12 each.  I REALLY wanted to buy them, but I couldn't bring myself to pay that much for something I could make...(so I bought Christmas decorations instead...shhh...).

On my recent trip to Dee's crafts, I also found some plain, unpainted wooden frames.  They're a little bigger than the ones from the gift store, but they work.  So I went back to my trusty sample pot of Cracked Pepper paint and gave them a couple of coats...


Finding the newsprint background was a little tricky.  I couldn't find any actual newsprint that worked right, and Dee's didn't have newsprint scrapbook paper.  Luckily I had some in my vast collection that looked like french classified ads, so I went with that and cut it down to size.


Then it was back to the cricut to cut out the words out of black scrapbook paper and glued them onto the backing.


I had planned to put the pages back in the frames, and be done with it, but they slid around and looked crooked, so it was back to the Mod Podge for some preventative gluing.



It was a little trickier to get these pages to stick to the backing of the frames than I expected.  It took quite a bit of Mod Podge, but I finally got all three glued and put into the frames...





I don't know where I'm going to put them yet, so right now they're decorating the bookcase in the office.  But I'm happy with the way they turned out.  I did all three for less than the price of one at the store, which is a much better bargain!

Lucky Linky Tuesday @ Lucky Star Lane
Toot Your Own Horn Tuesday @ Silly Little Sparrow
Make It Yours Day @ My Backyard Eden
Inspiring Creativity @ Dragonfly Designs
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
A Crafty Soiree @ Yesterday on Tuesday
Passion for Paint @ Mural Maker & More
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping It Simple
Make It 4 Monday @ Cottage Instincts
All About You Monday @ Texas Monkey