A Bracelet Inspired by Anni Albers Washer Necklace

I use my summer to multilax.  You know; do multiple relaxation activities such as, chill pool side while working on a tan, while drinking a cold one, while reading a book.  Hard stuff!  I know I could be doing other more important things but summer comes but once a year and who am I to waste it?  The guilt of my sloth like behavior began getting to me and so I decided to work on a little productive procrastination project.  (Try saying that three times fast!) These are projects I work on while ignoring the actual important chores like mowing the laundry.  Ugh!  I know the laundry won't go away if I ignore it, but a girl can dream. 

This little bracelet was inspired by the Anni Albers washer necklace original.  You can make that using my same technique and staggering large, medium, and small washers.  A few bloggers have attempted to make this but I'm not much of a necklace person so I decided to make a bracelet instead.  This was so easy to make, even the village idiot could make one!  I'll cut to the chase, here are the instructions.  

This is what we're aiming for people.

My Amazing Tutorial

I used gray grosgrain ribbon.  It was free.  It came off some packaging. 

I stole eh-hem My husband gave me some washers.  Use as many as you need for the length you want.

Thread your ribbon through your washer.

Thread a second one.

Thread back through your first washer.

This is what you should have at this point.

Add another washer.

Put the ribbon back through the previous washer.

Keep going over and under in the same pattern until you have the length you need.

Super cute!!! Am I right?

Here I am holding a pineapple because I'm classy like that.  Oh by the way, this was FREE!

Nydia 8)

Photo Canvas How To

Lately I’ve been battling obsessive computer disorder.  What do I mean by that? Well simply put; I’ve been surfing the net obsessively.  I have a lot of down time in the summer because I’m off from work.  This usually gets me in trouble, so I’ve been trying to keep myself occupied with all the pretty pictures and such.  That’s where this quick little project came in.  It kept me busy enough to take my mind off the strong desire to purchase pleasure myself.  You see folks, here’s how the math works with me: bored>broke, bored=spending, spending=debt + clutter, debt + clutter>paycheck + patience.  It’s very clear to see.  Here's the project I'm talking about. 

 I had seen these little canvas prints on a few blog sites such as here, here, and here.  Check them out I urge you.  These ladies actually do this with love, not out of necessity for the sake of mental health.  All I did was follow their tutorials, half-assed, with my own special twists. 

Here’s what I used:

3-  8x10 canvases ( I had them already but they originally cost $5 for 3.)

3- printed pictures (I used regular copy paper because I didn’t feel like looking around for photo paper. I suck, I know.)

Modge Podge

A foam brush

Scissors

Decorative paper

Black fabric marker (you can use whatever)

Brown acrylic paint (seriously use whatever- coffee grounds- anything really)

Step 1- Coat the entire canvas with Modge Podge and let it dry.  This makes it less porous I think. 

Step 2- Cut the strips of decorative paper that will cover the canvas’ edges.  Also cut the picture to size. 

Step 3-  Re-Modge Podge the edges of the canvas and also the paper strips.  Adhere the strips to the sides and smooth out the bubbles.  Work quickly!  This crap dries fast!

Step 4- Re-Modge Podge the front of the canvas and the back of the picture.  Stick these two together smoothing out bubbles as needed.  Seriously hurry up!  I wasn’t kidding about the drying.

Step 5- Modge the Podge out of the whole thing.  Just brush it all over the darn thing in light, even strokes.  Don’t worry it will dry clear.  Let it all dry for 20 minutes. 

Step 6- Dry rub some brown paint of the exposed edges of the canvas.  Once this has dried go over the edges again with a black fabric paint marker and wipe off as you go.  This gives it an aged look. 

Notice the dark edges around the pictures?  I forgot to take a picture of that part.

That’s it!  These make really nice gifts and my cost was only $5 for the canvases.  All the other materials were things I had around the house.  Here’s an idea; take pictures of friends and family throughout the year and hit them with these around Christmas (or whatever time) as a thoughtful gift!  They don’t have to know how cheap they were to make.  Shhh…. It’s our secret.

Nydia 8)

Owl Gift Envelopes

I’ve been super busy lately!  I’m talking eating oatmeal while driving busy!  Don’t try this.  You see my sun plays little league baseball and he had three games a week plus practice.  Yeah seriously!  Also the games went from 5 to 8 pm.  That was tough on everyone; trust me.  But he loves to play ball and he’s quite good at it and I’m his biggest fan so everything had to be put on ice.  Capeesh? Finally the season is over for him and I’m beyond ready for a break.  Here’s the sad part though, he has played on the same team with the same coach and the same kids for three years now.  This was their last year together because next year they get drafted, whatever that means, into teams.    I wanted to hand out something to the boys to remind them to stay in touch.  Cards would’ve been good but I wanted to create something that wouldn’t get thrown out.  As I surfed the net for ideas, I came across this site.  I just immediately fell in love and so the following is my attempt at this level of genius.  Here’s what I did. 

First using my silhouette, I cut out a pillow envelope out of some pretty patterned cardstock.

Then I cut two large circles out of white paper and two small circles out of black vinyl.  These will be the eyes. 

I cut out two large ovals out of the envelope cardstock.  These will be the wings.  I also cut out 12 small circles, the same size as the vinyl circles.  I used a contrasting patterned paper.  These will be your feathers.

I cut out a heart out of orange patterned paper.  Then I cut the heart in half.  This will become your beak and claws. 

Finally you can glue all the parts down in this order.  I added whites to the eyes to give it a goofy look. 

Aren’t they cute?!!!  Oh and by the way on the back I wrote, “Owl miss you.  Let’s keep in touch.” I added my sun’s name and phone number.  I also filled the envelope with candy. 

I made one for his teacher as an end of year gift.  I put a gift card inside with a little thank you note. 

Nydia 8)