Woot Woot Woooooot: Three Woots in One Project

I went to visit a dear friend this weekend for her opera performance at CCM. I can't go anywhere without bringing a gift, and I usually try to make something. I ended up making a pair of earrings (another upcoming post) and this.... well... floral arrangement? I'm not really quite sure what to call it.I knew I wanted to do something with flowers, since that is traditionally what you get an artist after their performance. But my friend is not traditional, so I wanted to find something fun.

I saw THIS post on pinterest and decided it looked pretty easy. I bought four sheets of scrapbook paper that I liked (if you look closely, two have music note design) and two different flower hole-punches (with a coupon!) that I know I need for an upcoming project anyway. I genuinely thing the hardest part of this whole project was punching out all the flowers. I took Styrofoam balls and the pins I had left over from my state outline project and started pinning flowers. I used a small flower and a little flower together on most of the pins, but in hindsight using just the big flower on the 'under' layer would work just as well. There is a good bit of overlap needed to make sure that you cant see any of the ball.
When I finished three balls I realized that they needed..something. So. I put it on a stick.
the stick is actually a stem from a peacock feather, but I'm sure there are many different kinds of sticks that you could use for this. I know the little dowel rods they sell at the craft store would work just as well. I didn't glue the stick to the ball, but I'm sure that would have been a good idea.

I realized then that I really needed a vase of some sort for my strange flowers. I could have gone to the dollar store and found one, sure. But I'm lazy. I what sort of crafter would I be if I didn't fashion something myself?

I looked at a bottle of wine I had in the fridge. That would have looked nice, but my stems weren't long enough. I tried a mason jar, which had better height, but the wide mouth made the whole thing look sloppy. Then it hit me. Beer! A beer bottle was the perfect height and the mouth was a good vase-like opening (meaning the stems would stand up well). So I drank the beer (crafting rule number one, do not let anything go to waste!!) and got back on Pinterest to see what recommendations I could find for removing the label and painting the bottle. HERE is one that combines both.

Here is the bottle with part of the label removed and the paint I poured in.I had to use black paint (which I planned to anyway) because the bottle was green glass. Think about things like this first, if you're wanting to paint a lighter color. aluminum foil and a hair tie closed off the top so I could swirl the paint around. And by swirl I mean I let my dog chase it around the kitchen floor until everything was coated well.

The label removing part was a pain in the ass. It really does take awhile for it to soak long enough to get all the glue part off. Recommendation: hot hot hot water and lots of soap.
I used scissors to scrape the label, which I know is stupid and incredibly unsafe. Something like a blockbuster card or a really good kitchen sponge would probably have worked better. But after everything was cleaned up, I dumped the excess paint in soap water and let the bottle dry out. I added a bow from some ribbon I had left over from Christmas (note: to make nice bows, use the ribbon with wire in it. It holds the loops out so prettily), tucked in the flower balls, and done.

Difficulty Rating: Easy-to-medium. Each step itself is pretty easy, but it definitely takes time to get the whole project put together. I think some parts (hole punching, paint rolling, etc) could be kid-friendly and entertaining.

Project Cost: less than ten dollars. The hole punches themselves cost approx $12, but I'll use them again for other projects. Each other item (paint, paper, stem, bottle) could be found for less than two dollars a piece at craft stores and/or dollar stores.

Verdict: Woot! I think the project, while entirely slapped together, came out pretty awesome. I plan on making more of these (probably with wine bottles/taller vases) for an upcoming event in sunnier summertime colors as centerpieces.

Woot/Whoops: Hot Oil Hair Treatment

There are so many hair treatments on Pinterest, and I want to try all of them. I really REALLY need a good treatment with as much as I dye my hair (the ends are currently blue, which is a whole other post for on here.) and most of these look fairly simple.

This isn't the exact one I used, but for some reason I can't find it now. It did have the olive oil and honey, but the one I tried also had vitamin E oil. I picked up all three ingredients, as well as the shower cap, from the dollar store. The directions I used are the same as the link. The honey makes it smell really yummy. However, key step here is to let it cool down enough that you don't burn your head. Because honey HOLDS HEAT. The olive and vit E oil make the treatment comb through really smoothly, and didn't take long at all to coat my whole head. I wish I had pictures of how super attractive I looked lounging around with a shower cap while crocheting for half an hour. I'm pretty sure I found the reason why it's so difficult to get a date. haha.

I sat for the half hour, and then i blasted it one good time with the hairdryer because on another pin I had read that extra heat would help. And then I tried to wash it out.

And I rinsed. And rinsed some more. And then panicked a little bit and rinsed again. I do know that my hair is really absorbent when it comes to treatments and dye, so maybe this is why I had such a hard time washing the excess out. But even when I got out of the shower, my hair just felt oily. It smelled nice and combed out like silk, but I just felt like I looked like I hadn't showered for a few days. Luckily it was a weekend and I got to hide out. I didnt take a photo of this either because I was too embarrassed.

HOWEVER. the next day when I shampooed and dried, my hair looked/felt AWESOME. Especially in the winter, I tend to have really bad static/frizz but for the next solid week my hair was great and behaved itself.

Price: $4.00 (including shower cap, which I suppose isn't an absolute necessity)

Verdict: I think overall it is a good, and cheap, treatment. I would just recommend doing it on a day where you don't have to go anywhere in case your hair goes into revolt like mine did. And be super super careful to make sure that the treatment has cooled enough before you use it.

Woot: Paper Covered Outlet Covers

One thing that I have learned about myself as a brand new homeowner is that I am rather obsessive compulsive about light switch  and outlet covers.  In my opinion, an ugly, old fashioned, or dingy/dirty light switch cover can throw off a whole room.  I happen to like fancier ones, like brushed silver and bronze ($8-15 each typically), which adds up in price when you're replacing a whole house of them.  The good news is that you can jazz them up yourself for much cheaper!

The original pin: http://housewivesofriverton.blogspot.com/2011/10/covered-light-switch-outlet-plates.html

I was drawn to this pin because I thought that the possibilities of it were only as endless as the scrapbook paper selection at your local craft store.  Off I went to Lowe's (my new home away from home) in search of outlet covers.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that they're only about 60 cents, so I grabbed 6 of them.  Then, I went to the craft store and got 3 pieces of scrapbook paper for about 60-70 cents a sheet.  I got one to match my bedroom, one with popcorn on it to go with my movie theater room, and one with flowers on it to match the living room.  I already have Modge Podge, but if you don't, that will be the most expensive part of your project...  It's probably about 6 bucks a jar.  There are tutorials on Pinterest to make your own (maybe we'll try that here!) or you could also try watering down some Elmer's.

The materials I had were: 3 large pieces of scrapbook paper, 6 outlet covers, scissors, X-acto knife, Modge Podge

I cut the scrapbook paper to a bit bigger than the switchplate.  You want to make sure that you have enough to cover the edges and go around to the back, or you will just end up having it peel off later.  I Modge Podged the scrapbook paper to the front, folded it around to the back, and trimmed where necessary.  I had a difficult time getting the paper to want to stick to the back using the Modge Podge.  (And when I say "difficult," I mean I was cussing it up one side and down the other.)  I wonder if that part would be better to use a glue gun for because it would set up much more quickly.  After the scrapbook paper was on, I cut around the shape of the outlet holes with an X-acto knife and Modge Podged over the whole thing.  I didn't bother doing anything with the screw holes, figuring that when I attached the things to the wall, I'd be sticking the screws through anyway which would make an easy hole (and it did work fine like that).

You can see on the middle ones that the paper raised and "bubbled" up some.  I'm not sure if that is because I used too much Modge Podge or not enough Modge Podge, but I was unable to fix it.  That particular paper also wanted to tear easily when wet and some of its pattern wore off around the edges.  It also didn't cut as cleanly around the outlet holes.  It was the same thickness of paper, so I'm not sure if it was the ink/design on it or what.  You may have to experiment with different scrapbook papers.  I've seen online where some people have done this with printed tissue paper, and I'd like to try that next.  I think part of the reason that I had trouble folding the edges over the back was the thickness of the paper, so I think thinner paper could work better.

Difficulty Rating: Easy, but more fiddly than it initially looks.

Project Cost: About $5 for 6

Verdict: This is a woot.  It's a fun, easy, and very inexpensive way to add a touch of creativity and color to your house.

Whoops: Shattered/Fried Marbles

Everyone has seen the shattered/fried/whatever marbles on Pinterest. They are beautiful. And have SO MANY CRAFTING POSSIBILITIES. Here is one link to what I'm talking about, if you haven't seen this yet.

I figured surely this would be easy. throw some marbles in the oven, throw them in ice water, make millions of dollars with my beautiful shatter-marble jewelry and retire to some island full of sand and yarn.

Marbles are cheap if you get them anywhere except a craft store. This really isn't surprising. But if you hit a coupon day, you can get a good size bag for around two dollars. So I did some research, bc the time/heat preferences are really all over the place on Pinterest for how to do this. It seemed like the slightly lower temp for the longer period of time would be the best bet, so that it had longer to warm up, etc. So I got out an unused baking dish and turned on my unused oven and went to work. I let them sit for half an hour at 400 degrees and then dumped them in a bowl of ice water and let them cool.

Nothing. not a single marble crackled. So I figured, ok, maybe it does need higher heat. So I dried the marbles off and shoved them back in the oven. I don't remember exactly what temp I put it on, but I'm sure it was ridiculous. I let twenty minutes pass before I decided to take them out this time. Half had already exploded in my oven (which is no easy job to clean THAT up) and when I did the ice dump, only a few marbles crackled. And frankly, I don't think it's even a pretty crackle.

Difficulty Rating: Easy. You put marbles in an oven and then ice. come on now.

Project Cost: $2.00, plus oven cleaner to clean up the shattered bits stuck inside.

Verdict: If you could find that magic ratio of time and heat, this may be worth it. But I spent a good part of my evening to only get a few marbles, which really ticked me off. I label this as a definite Whoops.

Woot: State Outline String Art

Pinterest links back to this Etsy store.

I saw this back before Christmas and just thought it was gorgeous. I feel like I'm fairly proficient at crafting, so I decided I might as well try. Clearly I did not take into consideration that there isn't a single straight line in the state of West Virginia (possibly slightly exaggerating). All of the projects I had found like this used a board and real nails. And not saying that I'm lazy, but I knew I could find a way to make this easier. So I found a cork board and these little pins:
I liked these because they weren't as noticeable as nails, but still stood up well in the cork. I had to put several coats of paint on the cork for it to soak in enough to have a solid, uniform, not-faded-looking color. I'm sure with the wood I could have used a coat of primer and any coat of paint and just been done with it, but I liked the dark paint with the light string/gold pins. I used tissue paper to trace the state outline off of my computer screen (which I don't recommend doing, I'm sure there are much much safer ways to go about this. and then started placing in the pins on the board thru the tissue: With so many zig-zags, I really had to use a lot of pins here, but I'm sure if you lived in a more normally shaped state, you wouldn't need quite as many. As it turns out I think I used only a little over half of the package of pins. The great thing about using tissue paper for this part is that I could rip it up without messing up any of the pins, and there was no writing on the cork which sometimes just makes crafts look half-finished. But I digress. I think that with just the pins the board looks pretty nifty and it gave me an idea to try it again sometime with those stick pins that have the larger, multicolored heads on them. But this is what it looks like when all the pins are in and you've picked the location for the heart (I should note that in the pics I was making two simultaneously and so the hearts are in two different places.) The stringing part is not hard, it is just painfully monotonous. You need to count the pins for the outline and then the count the number for the heart so you can divide (yes, sorry, there is math involved here) to see how many times you need to loop on the heart pins. I used embroidery floss for this. The easiest way I found to start was pick a spot on the outline that would have several strings coming near it (for me it was up in the northern pan handle), that way the tail would be hidden, and tie the string off on one of the pins. it's probably easier to just pop the pin out of the board, tie it, and put it back, but i didn't think about that until just now. And then you just loop back and forth to the heart, making sure you loop the correct number on the heart pins (I think for this one, it was eight or so loops onto the pin) and then back out to each outline pin. If you have an easy state, you probably wouldn't need tweezers to do this, but I did use them and it helped. When you get to the last one I looped the string a couple times on the inner pin, tied it off very carefully, and then coated all of the heart string inside with clear glue. I probably didn't need to do this, but I figure better safe than sorry right? So here is the final product:

Difficulty Rating: It's easy, just tedious.

Project Cost: I had the cork board and paint all ready, but I don't think I spent more than $5 total on those. The pins were on sale 2/$1.00 and the floss is only a couple dollars too, depending on what type you buy.

Verdict: I really like how this turned out. It looks so much harder than it is. Definitely a Woot!

Woot: Melted Crayon Art

Since this is our first post, I don't have "in process" pictures, but I'll be doing those for future projects. I'm going to talk to you today about my most recent Pinterest adventure, melted crayon art.

The original pin link: http://unsimpleliving.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/melted-crayon-art/

This one looks pretty easy, right? Glue gun, canvas, some crayons, melt 'em with a hair dryer, and boom... You have art for your walls. The good news is that yes, it is pretty easy.

Michael's had a great sale on canvas this week, plus a 25% off coupon for President's Day, so that's why I chose this project. An 8x10 canvas that's normally about $7-8 (I can't remember exactly how much, so let's say $8). Take 40% off of that and 25% off of THAT, you get $3.60. Not bad! However, a box of 96 crayons at Michael's was $7.99. What! Even with my 25% coupon, I wasn't paying that for crayons that I wanted to destroy anyway! At Walmart, I was able to find them for about $5. That was a little more reasonable. I wanted to do a garden scene, so I also bought some flower scrapbook stickers for about $2.75 on sale at Michael's.

So here's what I had when I started: An 8x10 canvas, 96 crayons, glue gun and sticks, and a blow dryer

As I said, I wanted to do a garden scene, so I started by picking the green crayons out of the box. I quickly realized that there are not 8 inches of green crayons in a box of 96, so I had to decide what other colors I wanted to mix in with them. I decided on yellow and brown. It took 22 crayons to cover the bottom.

Sticking the crayons to the canvas was easy with the hot glue. I turned all of mine so that the "Crayola" part of the label was sticking up. Watch the hot glue, obviously. It burns your fingers if you get it on them. Make sure you get a good amount on there because I had one pop off after I was finished before I hung it up.

Now it's time to melt. I'm an impatient person, so I turned my hair dryer up full heat and blast and waved it around over the crayons. It only took about 15 seconds for them to start melting. Number one thing to realize about melting crayons? They SPLATTER. Don't do this on the carpet of your living room floor with just a little piece of paper under it like I stupidly did. I'd recommend some newspapers or better yet, a dropcloth if one is available to you. The splatters also mean that the design can be hard to control. If you are anal retentive about control, this may not be your project. :P

I didn't let mine melt very far because I wanted them to turn them into flowers, so I left some white space. I found that if you see a trail of melting that you want to continue, you can sort of "chase it" on with the hair dryer. This gives you a little control, but not much. It dries pretty quickly once you remove the heat. Then I added the flowers. First, I tried blue flowers.

I didn't like those. I think it was because of the yellows and browns I had to put in my grass. So back to Michael's I went for a different color.

I liked these warmer colors much better.

I had a bunch of crayons left, obviously, so I made a second one in shades of pink and purple. This one I just let be more abstract and about seeing what the melting did rather than trying to follow any sort of pattern, and I liked how it turned out, too, but for some reason, I didn't line the crayons up as well that time...

Difficulty Rating: Easy. If you can dry your hair, you can make this kind of art.

Project Cost: About $12 with sale materials

Verdict: I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. This would be a great project for kids (with some hot glue help) to create some cool art for their rooms. There's a lot of potential for coming up with your own spin on it, too.