Yet another IPhone case!

The other day one of our friends gave me a Warmachine figure that he had bought and decided not to use.  Since it was for my faction, he said I could have it so that it wouldn't go to waste.  I wanted to give him money for it (the thing cost about 10.00) but he said no.  I felt bad because I hate not paying people back for their kindness.

When I made my hubby his Hulk themed IPhone case, our friend expressed interest in a Captain America one.  I decided that this would be the perfect way to pay him back, so I got an IPhone case and went to work!

I am really happy with the way this one turned out!  I feel I am getting better with each one I complete.  I learn something new every time and they keep getting neater and easier to do!  Needless to say our friend was very happy with his new case!

Marvel comic flats - A Friday night adventure

I've been kind of on a decoupage kick lately and on Friday night I was bored and decided to try something new.  I had an old pair of fabric flats that I wasn't wearing anymore, and I had seen some nice shoes done with comic panels on Pinterest.  So I figured I could try it out and see what happens.  If they didn't turn out, I was only out a pair of shoes I didn't wear anyway.

I went about choosing some various action panels and then a few character panels that I could add on later.  I Mod Podged each panel and went about setting it on the shoe.  The more Mod Podge the better as it makes the panels more pliable and easier to follow the curve of the shoe.  One thing became apparent right away.  Fabric shoes are not the way to go.  They bend too much while you are trying to set your panel and even as they are drying can collapse on themselves.  It is very hard to keep the two materials together while they are drying as well.  I know for next time that a sturdier shoe would be the best for decoupaging.  But, I made the best of it and muddled through.  I even tried stuffing the shoe, but since I had to secure the panels to the inside I didn't want the stuffing to be suck to the shoe too!  After the first layer of panels was down it became a bit easier as the shoe was now sturdier but the toe was always an issue.  I then placed my character panels where they fit best and used three more coats of Mod Podge to secure everything down.  It was at this point that I decided to secure everything with a layer of sealer, just in case.  So, I stuffed the shoe with plastic bags and wax paper and spayed it with the sealer.  I then let them dry overnight.

All in all I am happy with them, and I was able to wear them to "The Avengers" movie.  There are things I will do differently next time, and I will never use a fabric shoe again! 

Hulk IPhone case

Last night I finally bit the bullet and created my hubby's IPhone case.  I used the exact same technique as I used for mine, but having previous experience, I was actually able to improve on some things.  I didn't leave so much excess in the corners and his phone fits better in the case then mine does!

All in all I am pretty happy with the results and a little jealous too!

Iphone case make over!

Last night I was bored and I needed something to do.  We had hung some pictures, but ran out of frames and hooks.  We also tried to do a project that we had started on the weekend, but I hadn't bought the right things to start it, so we were out of luck there.

I was sitting on the couch and was peeling the edges off my iPhone case that had started to come loose.  I had had the idea to cover it with comic pages awhile ago, and we had some left over from our picture craft, so I thought that it may be a good project to do in an evening.

I set about finding the right panels that I would want on my case.  This is easier said then done.  I needed to find pictures that I liked, but also that would fit!  After figuring out what I wanted and where I wanted them to go, I went to work mod podging them on.  I cut the panels as I went along so that they fit where I wanted and with what picture I wanted visible.  After all the panels were on and the whole case was covered, I cut out the hole in the case for the camera and smoothed the rough edges back onto the inside of the case.  This was actually quite easy as the comic paper was very thin.  I then coated both sides with two layers of Mod Podge.

It was at this point that I decided I wanted a smoother glossy finish for my case, so I used the Mod Podge Gloss sealer and coated both sides of the case as well.

All in all I am extremely happy with the results.  I love my case and so does my hubby, who wants me to make him one too!

Repurposing an old picture

It was the long weekend this weekend and due to other plans and general chores, I hadn't had time to do anything particularly crafty.  Don't get me wrong, I did a bit of crocheting, but as much as I love it it doesn't soothe the crafting beast that lurks within me.  I was getting the shakes for the need to make something!

I had had a project in mind for some while now.  We had gotten a wood transfer painting of some fruit for our wedding 8 years ago and had only put it up in one of our many homes.  It was something that had to be in a kitchen or dining room and every place we have had, has had little to no space for something like that.  So it was always relegated to storage and moved from place to place. 

Last year at the Calgary Comic Expo, we got a bunch of prints signed by various artists/authors.  These too were regulated to storage with plans to frame them one day.  This is when the idea dawned on me.  I could paint the wood black and use my trusty Mod Podge to "frame" one of the prints myself!  I had also seen some things on Pinterest using old comic book pages to add a geeky flair to different items.  I thought this would be perfect for this project, providing more of a frame, rather than just the basic black.  I was discussing this with my hubby when he reminded me that he has a whole box of damaged comic books we could use!  We then decided this would be a perfect project to do together that afternoon.

We started out with spray painting the picture black.  This was easy since it was mostly black to begin with.  We just needed to cover the black and white picture part.  While this was drying we went to work finding which comic books we would be OK destroying.  After Mike gave his final approval on the pile we had made, we went to work cutting the panels.  I used my handy dandy paper cutter and Mike went to work with the scissors.

Once we had a good sized stack of panels, I grabbed the now dry painting and went to work Mod podging the panels down.  We tried to keep our favourite panels on the edges where we knew we would see them, and used various different angles and overlapped some of them to give us the look we were going for.  We then let them dry.  After that I added a single coat of Mod Podge to make sure everything was sealed down onto the wood.

Now, I had already decided which print I wanted to use a long time ago.  So I grabbed it and with Mike's help we Mod Podged it down onto the comic pages.  We used a weight to try and keep it as flat as possible and allowed it to dry.

Using the same technique I used for our wedding song lyrics, I then coated the comic pages and the print 3 times.  Making sure to allow drying time in between each coat.  There were quite a lot of bubbles underneath everything, but again taking from my experience, I knew most of these would work themselves out.  To help it along we waited for the last coat to dry and weighted the entire thing down again and left it over night.

All in all I am happy with our results, and we have a lot more comic panels, so I am already thinking up new projects to use them with!

Something a bit more...

For my next project I chose something a bit more ambitious.  It was something I had never tried before, but  feeling bolstered by my first success I was eager to try something more challenging.  I wanted to create art out of our wedding song lyrics.  This seemed perfect since our 8th anniversary was coming up and I wanted to give my hubby something we both could enjoy.

So armed with the knowledge from This Humble Home, I set about making this new project a reality.  First of all I decided since I was going to do this as a gift for my hubby, I was going to splurge for the canvas.  It is a bit more pricey, but I found a good deal at Michaels for a four pack of 6X6 stretched canvases.  I got 3 packs, which leaves me three left over for future use.  I already have them ear marked, so it was a good investment.  Since I just started crafting I also grabbed a bottle of Gloss Mod Podge, Mod Podge Acrylic Sealer and a package of 65 Lbs Card Stock.  For everything I bought at Michaels, it cost around 80.00 dollars and then I picked up Black Acrylic paint and sponge brushes at the dollar store for around 2.00 bucks.

 I started off by taking my nine canvases and painting the sides black.  I did this the night before I started the project since I wanted them to dry really well before doing anything fancy.  I ended up using two coats of paint per canvas, since after the first coat dried, it was a little streaky.  I should mention that I should have also painted a black border on top of the canvases as well at this point.  I didn't and ended up doing it the next day and waiting for the two coats on that to dry as well.  Not fun watching paint dry when you are chomping at the bit to start the next step!

The next thing I had to do was create the written lyrics.  As per the instructions on the blog I needed Adobe Illustrator.  Since I didn't have this program and I didn't want to shell out any more cash, I downloaded the free 30 day trial version.  As long as I completed the project within the 30 days, I would be fine.  I created nine 6X6 art boards in a row and created a large text window over the boards.  I then cut and pasted the lyrics of our wedding song onto the art boards using 3 different fonts to separate each line of the song.  I had to use the whole song plus a few lines over again, but the effect looked great and once they are up you won't be able to tell.  When all was said and done I had created 5 lines of lyrics per art board.  With Illustrator when you print the art boards and it will separate them automatically.

The blog suggested using 110 Lbs card stock, but I found the 65 Lbs ones worked fine.  I printed them off and used a scrap booking paper trimmer to cut them to shape.  This I had bought a long time ago when I thought scrap booking may be my thing...it wasn't and this had been collecting dust ever since.  I was glad to have it for this project though!  I shudder when I think of cutting all nine boards out by hand!  The first attempt at cutting failed, as I cut the lyrics out to be perfect 6X6.  Each canvas was slightly different in their measurements and weren't very accurate.  So after the first failing, I decided to mark the card stock using the actual canvases and used that to cut out the lyrics.  This worked out very well and I only had to reprint that first art board!  I also numbered the back of each lyric page and canvas while I was cutting.  Since each one was unique, if anything got moved around I would know which page went with which canvas.

Now came the tricky bit.  This was the part I had never done before.  I cracked open the jar of Mod Podge and went to work with a sponge brush.  I painted a thin coating of the Mod Podge on the canvas and carefully matched up the lyric sheet.  I then pressed down and tried to get as many air bubbles as possible.  As per the blog I was following, Mod Podge does get tacky very quickly and you have to work quickly as well.  I found this to be accurate, and I also found that air bubbles do happen no matter what, but mine appear to have vanished as everything set. 

I let the Mod Podge dry for about 15 minutes and then I went about sealing the sheets.  The instructions I was following never used a sealer, but some people who had tried this project mentioned smudging occurring with the printed sheets.  Since I wasn't sure what would happen on mine, I figured I would play it safe and use the sealer.  I sprayed each sheet (now on the canvas) with the Mod Podge Acrylic sealer and let them dry for 15 minutes as per the packaging.  Be forewarned, this stuff smells!  Make sure you are outside, or in a well ventilated garage.  I wouldn't want to do this in my house, but if you open all the windows it should be fine.

The next step was the most time consuming.  A lot of waiting, but if you have stuff to do around the house this is a good time to get at it!  I proceeded to coat the sheets with 3 thin layers of Mod Podge

I did make a bit of a mistake, but it actually turned into something nice!  While using the Mod Podge, I wasn't exactly neat and a bit of it got onto the sides of the canvas.  This left little spots of gloss on an otherwise matte finish.  So when I was applying the last coat of Mod Podge to the sheets, I coated the sides as well!  It gave the sides and nice glossy sheen to them and made everything look a bit more uniform.  Bonus was it also covered up my mistake!  Win-Win!

I was really happy with how this project turned out, and my hubby was thrilled with his gift.  I finished it off with some picture hangers I got at the dollar store, so now all that is left to do is hang them!  And I know just where too....