Pa Pa Pa Pa Paparazi (did I get the right amount of "pa's in there?)

So if there’s one craft I really love, it’s paper crafting of all sorts.  Scrapbooking, card making, present wrapping, anything of that genre.  I love paper, patterns, ribbons, stamps, etc, etc etc. 

I actually never thought I would really get “into” that kind of crafting, but for our wedding I had scrapbook tables set up for people to make pages for me to use later with the pictures on the table cameras (it’s crazy, we’ve only been married three years and I think table cameras have been completely replaced by iPhone apps…seriously check this out if you don’t know of what amazingness I speak).  If this and Pinterest would have been in existence when we got married, let’s just suffice it to say things would have gone a little differently.  

Anyway, two events happened after this to make me fall in love with paper crafting.  1) Compiling all of the pages people had made for us and scrapbooking all of the remnants of the reception photos, and 2) my very sweet mother-in-law bought me a Cricut for Christmas.  Admittedly at first I was thinking “what in the world am I going to do with this?”  But after I used it a couple of times I sadly can’t even image my life without it (such a first world thing to say…).  I especially love the Wild Card cartridge and use it often to make cards for others.

Speaking of weddings and pictures, this next project I have to give credit to my husband for making it necessary for me to do.  Craig has this new-found obsession with being the paparazzi at weddings.  He takes a bazillion pictures (especially of all the little details and people that you may otherwise not get a picture of at your wedding) and then likes to burn a CD copy and mail it to the newlyweds for their enjoyment.  I think this is a sweet sentiment and idea, especially for a dude to have come up with.  Anyway, he recently went to Walmart and found these nifty little CD sleeves (that are made from recycled material if you're passionate about that sort of thing).  And asked me to decorate one to send to our friend Jason with pictures from his wedding.  We had a program from their wedding left over, so I utilized it as well:

                                  

I do promise that it looks better in person.  The ribbon looks all jankity in this picture, but it really wasn't in real life.  I blame it on my very poor photography skills.  Maybe Craig should be taking these pictures. 

I also found out that I am evidently not the only person in the world that thought to decorate a blank CD case and that the company that makes these will actually send you a $10 coupon if you send them a picture of what you did to yours.  Well, dear Guided (used to be ReBinder)...I'll do you one better.  I'll feature you in my blog that all of five people read so you get some free** publicity!  So stick that in your back pocket :)  (Actually after perusing what others had done I just wanted to throw mine away in shame, but since I'm lazy I stuck with what I made in the first place).   

**I guess it's not technically "free" if you're sending me a $10 coupon, huh?

My Favorite Friday #1

I am a fan of spray paint.  I am not a fan of having spray paint caked on my fingers and underneath my nails after I get done using it.  Approximately three spray paint projects ago I stumbled upon a tool that I am absolutely in love with.  The Krylon Snap and Spray.  I think when I first bought it I paid around $6, which at the time seemed like a lot to pay for a peice of plastic.  But it has been worth every penny (the last time I was at Lowes I did notice that the price seems to have gone down though, which makes it even better of a deal).  My fingers no longer hurt when I spray paint and I don't have a huge mess (literally) on my hands when I'm done.  I absolutely love it and think it is a wonderful addition to any crafter/diyers tool box. 

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

So, I feel that I am a quasi decent crafter/diyer/baker/homemaker/etc and thought I might give the whole crafty blog thing a go.  Mostly because I'm a narcissist that loves to brag but also because I'm thinking with this whole Pinterest explosion going on that people seem to enjoy finding new crafts and decorating ideas to try.  So here is my contribution to the masses..."see Cbuss craft!"  (I know, you are literally shaking with excitement, right??)

The 4th of July is a day that I have grown to love.  Mostly because my husband is generally working that day and I'm by myself, off work, left to my own devices (not that I don't like spending time with him, but sometimes I just want a day-o-crafting without the guilt of ignoring him for 8 hours).  Last year I spent the entire day scrapbooking our wedding.  (Still an ongoing project, btw...my first goal was to have that finished by the end of our first year of marriage.  Since we're currently on year three I've revised this goal to be completed before children come along.  Let's hope that gets done.)  This year I also had hopes for working on that scrapbook but I also had one other project to complete that I've had on the proverbial to-do list for about a year now.  My mom gifted me an old gold-toned mirror and I've been wanting to "do" something with it for awhile now.  In the meantime, I fell in love with a $300+ mirror from an online retailer you can see here:  really-pretty-but-definitely-not-in-my-budget-mirror.  Since Craig (aka "el husbanjo"; yes I know I just made up a Spanish word for husband that probably means something more like "bathroom"), would laugh at me as though I was a crazy person for even suggesting buying said mirror, I decided to try and make something relatively similar with the mirror my mom had given me.  Which brings me to my 4th of July day craft....

I started with the mirror, two things of paint (one is the leftovers of the paint sample from our living room, the other a multi surface acrylic from the Martha Stewart line at Michael's in a satin, and some silk florals from Walmart.

I taped the mirror off to make the mess a little less messy...

Then came the fun part?  Hand painting the mirror and silk flowers.  I felt a little like the guys from Alice in Wonderland when they're painting the roses...

  *Note, I didn't end up using the pink zinnia looking flowers...I just didn't like them as much as the others.  I started with the blue wall color first, painted the flowers, leaves, and mirror.  I let those dry and then "rough brushed" (I don't know if that's really a thing, I just made up the term...) white over the blue so they look distressed.  You can see the color difference a little below with the one flower having been painted over with white and the rest still with blue only.  (I used scrapbook paper scraps as my "drying off surface" because I was too lazy to clean them up before I started...)



After they dried (sort of, I'm impatient sometimes...) I hot glued them on the corners of the mirror.  The flowers stiffen up quite a bit when they dry and don't look like silk florals anymore. 

And so you have it!

A little tedious?  Yes, definitely.  But I think well worth it and I am quite the fan of how it turned out.  Craig even seemed impressed and that doesn't always happen.  All in all, it took about $15 worth of materials (but the mirror was free...) and 2 hours of my day (plus drying time). 

Hopefully I'll be back with more soon....I've tried and failed to keep a blog in the past and I'm not always great about taking pictures, but I'll try!