Fits and Starts II: Crafting!

Awhile ago, I talkked about making some artwork for above the bed. I finally got around to it a few weeks ago!

First, I painted some tree branches on the canvas:

Then I made the flowers using 4 little squares of Sculpey III in some sort of shimmery pink color and a flower cutter I got at Michael's in the cake section (Sculpey is sort of like fondant, right?):

That was the first batch, all made with the medium cutter. I then arranged them on the canvas to get an idea for how they'd look:

At the time, it seemed kind of bare, so I made some more flowers, this time with the large cutter. Now I go back and forth between loving it and thinking it's now too cluttered. Oh well.

I googled and researched and tried to find the best glue for bonding Sculpey to canvas. In the end, I wound up just grabbing a bottle of Weldbond at Michael's and it's worked perfectly. I left the canvas leaning against the wall for awhile and none of the flowers fell so I'm reasonably (fingers crossed!) sure none will be bouncing off my head in the middle of the night.

Ta-daaaa!

And, while we're at it, my exceedingly girly dresser. The frame has always been a bit of a sticking point because I love it, but it has no wall hanger, only an easel back, so I'm forever searching for places to put it with enough room for a sizeable 8x10 frame. Turns out it makes a perfect backdrop for my perfume bottles! Right now that's just an old Revlon ad, but I plan to either order an 8x10 vintage cosmetic/perfume ad off the internet or perhaps find and old Vespa ad.

The pink bottle and dresser are from Ikea (dresser is the 6-drawer Malm chest in black-brown). We also have two four-drawer Malm chests right next to it and I love the sleek effect.

Wall Art Plans

I haven't done much the past few days. Not much to blog about, anyway. Moved some furniture around to create some separation/flat space for a bar/sideboard in the dining room, shoved all the stuff that still needs to be unpacked in a corner, put some of my 90million books onto the empty DVD shelves until I get a real bookcase, stuff like that. I also got some supplies for my next art project.

I've been scouring for the perfect piece of artwork for above the bed. My bedding is cherry blossoms, which are a popular enough subject in artwork, but nothing was really right. It was too pink or too blue or too stylized or too prissy. My bedroom is mostly neutrals with pink accents. I didn't want to post this here because it's a terrible picture, but I want to illustrate. Man those iPhones may be smart but they take AWFUL pictures. Anyway, here's my bedroom:

See? So anyway, I started thinking ... I want something simple, right? And I can DO simple! All I want is a branch with some cherry blossoms, similar to the design on the bedspread and pillows. Then I found this tutorial on making 3D flowers out of Sculpey. In my head, it's so simple. Draw and paint a branch on canvas (wish I could just put it directly on the wall but it's a rental ...), make these flowers, find a way to affix them to the canvas, voila! Mixed media art. So today I got the canvas, the paint, brushes, and some Sculpey. We'll see what happens.

Beyond that, for the living room I am currently on the hunt for the perfect damask fabric in funky colors to put on stretcher frames for the living room. I used to be pretty good at stretching canvas in high school-- way better than I was at actually painting on it-- so hopefully it'll be a simple enough project.

You know, once I finally find the fabric.

I've also been collecting some plates to rip off emulate SB The Clueless Homeowner's plate collage. I got four during the big tax-free weekend sales at Crate & Barrel last weekend, and then two more on major clearance at CB2.

C&B finds. Couldn't find them on the website so I took a picture. Rest assured these are just laid out on my table. My spatial relation skills are far better than this picture implies!

CB2 plates, which will be here soon I hope! Takeout appetizer plate and Compliment salad plate

Well, guess I had more to talk about than I thought!

Back on track

Yesterday was a pretty frustrating day. My beloved scooter Clive was stolen right out of our apartment complex parking lot. I stayed up late making Food Mayhem's soft pretzels, which are delicious and great to have around, but I stayed up so late making them that by the time I was done, I was too tired to clean the kitchen properly. I find clutter in general and, worst of all, a cluttered kitchen, to be incredibly stifling and discouraging, especially starting the day with one. Add in that I still feel overwhelmed and disorganized with the last dregs of moving boxes (where is that flippin camera cable!?) and today was a pretty discouraging day overall.

I wallowed in negativity for awhile but around 8 or so, I got really tired of my own whining monologue, I finally decided to finish off those framed scrapbook paper pieces, especially since I had picked up more paper and an x-acto knife at Jo-Ann's on Saturday.

(Again, forgive the pictures. I can't wait til I have my camera back ...)

First I switched out the yellow background in the big frame for a more lemon yellow one. For some reason when I was paper shopping, I pictured the yellow in the shower curtain as a goldenrod. I got a sheet of the scrolly paper in teal, so I'll likely use the goldenrod sheet behind that in the living room/dining room area.

Before and After

Not THAT different, I suppose, but it was enough to bother me how it was before. I also made the smaller frames. In two of them I layered the yellow textured paper I had with some more of the green scrolly paper. In the other two I layered the textured green paper, the lighter green gingko paper, and the yellow paisley beadwork paper. It was an exercise in futility to get them exactly perfect, and there are some imperfections in my cuts and in my proportions, but after an hour of cutting and recutting and ruining, I decided to call it done.

I know I keep harping on my ridiculously simple paper crafts, but I'm pretty proud of myself. I plan to expand my horizons soon by stretching some fabric on stretcher frames for the living room and making simple flowers out of either Sculpey or paper to make a mixed-media piece for over the bed. In my head, I'll sketch and paint a simple branch design and attach the flowers to it, but we'll see how that turns out in reality.

Can't always get what I want? WHY!?

I was catching up on my pal Sarah's excellent blog, The Clueless Homeowners today and she had a post from a few days ago that really encapsulated a lot of the frustrations I've been feeling with pulling together the look(s) that I want with the apartment.

The bane of my existence has been finding cheap square white frames. If I wanted to spend $10-20 a frame, I would just buy something already put together and be done with it. I know Ikea has them for $5, but something just didn't seem ... right about them to me. I had this image in my head of four 5x5 slightly off-white frames and it seemed that I should be able to get them for about $5 each anywhere I chose. Just a white square frame. No mat. No shadowbox. No glued on hearts or tiaras or teddy bears. From CVS to Target to BB&B. I should be spoiled for choice with inexpensive plain white square frames!

Instead I looked. I scoured. I decided maybe the Ikea ones weren't too far off from my vision and I could just get them on my next trip there in a couple of weeks. And this happens to me a LOT. I get fixated on something I think should be so simple (I once spent two weeks looking for a skinny red patent leather belt. IT SHOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN THAT LONG. Don't even get me started on a good black cardigan.) and then find myself tearing my hair out, considering paying 5x what I originally thought I'd pay just because it's now become an obsession. A crusade. A red patent leather cardigan FRAMED IN A $%&*#@ SIMPLE WHITE SQUARE FRAME crusade.

But then. THEN! A ha! Enter Christmas Tree Shops! Oh the choir sang and the heavenly light filtered down, mingling with the harsh, buzzing fluorescent bulbs. BEHOLD!







Er. Hang on. Let's try that again. BEHOLD!







See? Aren't they perfect? And $2.99! I'm a sucker for a sweet bargain. That's half the fun for me, putting together a (hopefully, anyway) classy-looking place on as little cash as possible, without settling for less than my vision of How It Should Look.

In update-y type news, I finally got around to putting that scrolly green paper with the yellow background into the big white frame. A month to get around to doing it and 45 minutes to actually complete it. Go figure.







I'm really pleased with how it came out. So much so that now I'm on the fence about "wasting" that gorgeous frame in the bathroom. But I don't have anything else to put in it right now so for now it'll go in the bathroom.

Now let's play "What has Flann blown her money on this week?"

Bedding: Pem America "Zen Blossom" from Macy's. On sale for $89.99 through August 15!

Lenox "Chirp" placemats from Macy's. On sale for $6.99 through August 15!

Lenox "Chirp" napkins from Macy's. On sale for $4.99 through August 15!

Custom 12"x16" pillow covers from This Little Home on Etsy. Haven't seen them yet, but the prices are reasonable, the fabrics are gorgeous, and the seller is very pleasant and accommodating!

I'll surely update again as things arrive. Also finally getting the last dressers and the nightstands this weekend so hopefully I'll be able to show off a completed room soon!

Well, aside for artwork. Don't even get me started on wall art.

Decoratin': I LOVE SCRAPBOOK PAPER

Whew. Sure is dusty around here, eh? Lots has changed since I last wrote and once you get out of the habit, it's hard to get the momentum back. But I've been reading a lot of design blogs and recently moved into a new apartment that I'm super-excited to decorate so this seems like a good place to share it.

Let's start with the bathroom, shall we?

To start, I walked into Target dead set on a brown/green theme and instantly fell in love with this bright, busy, flowery shower curtain. I added these rugs in green and yellow and these towels. I also added these accessories, with the toothbrush holder and canister in yellow and the trashcan in green. I love that not only were they exactly what I was looking for, but also so cheap!

Now, once I got this all done, I was done, right?

WRONG. Now, I have never in my life hung "art" in a bathroom. Why bother? The walls are usually tiny and bathroom "art" is generally cheesy and weird. But when I had everything set up, something still seemed missing. Check it out:

It's kind of hard to see, because there wasn't much room to back up, but the toilet is in a narrow alcove between a wall and a toilet. And it seems so ... barren. Empty. It needed something. But the shower curtain is just so busy that any of the usual art subjects would just clash.

Enter scrapbook paper. So off we went to Jo-Ann's and I came out with $10 worth. I am so in love and need more frames for what I got.

Here's the stash:



The green and yellow on the bottom right are two different pieces, a textured goldenrod and a swirly patterned green. The one on the bottom left didn't photograph too well, the pattern is actually a lot more subtle and it kind of matches the swirly, vine-y stuff on the shower curtain.

I also found this frame in one of my boxes so I'm going to use it, probably with the swirly green vine-y one on top of the yellow:



I'm still brainstorming and thinking, but I'll be back when there's more to show!