A citra solv and graphic fairy inspired night

Soooo tonight I was inspired to up-cycle an old frame sitting around the house...funny how people told Cal and I that we wouldn't display our engagement and wedding pictures and we didn't believe them....  Needless to say this is a frame that is not being used so I decided to recycle it.

My original idea was to create a memo board with muslin fabric as the background as I am OBSESSED with the unfinished vintage look... 

Butttt when I had it all together I didn't love it.... insert CitraSolv....the most difficult solvent to find in the greater Ann Arbor area.  (a word to the wise if you have ANY desire to do a project like this save yourself the time and effort and just order online!)  I searched whole foods, trader joe's, and a couple of novel organic type stores in Ann Arbor and finally started calling to find a location that carried this magical solvent.... needless to say I finally found it. 

And I needed a little practice obviously because I neglected to think about flipping my image before trying to add a fun graphic fairy number onto my current favorite table decor...darn!  

buttt when I flip the placemat upside down it looks super cool...right?!?!??!  Noooo but hey I can pretend right?!?!?

Sooo onto the real project: picking my favorite graphic fairy images---I love them all so that is harder than you might think.  

In this case I wanted to make a bit of a collage so I got to pick quite a few!!!!

**note you have to print onto an laser printer or make copies onto a laser copier (I guess most are) in order for this to work (I really took this part for granted as I own an old college laser printer that my undergrad university auctioned off---check with your local university to see if they do auctions like this----newer stuff for VERY cheap!!)  

This picture also shows how you have to tape or pin down your images before applying citra solv

next apply citra solv---it doesn't take much!  Then add some muscle to a spoon or other braying type object!

I chose to iron on my images after applying them.... this step sounds like it is optional according to the citra solv web page but I liked how it dried the solvent.

****I should also note that at this point in the night I was overwhelmed by the smell of orange (the citra solv sent) sooo we turned off the heat and aired out the house (granted that only lasted about 10 minutes----I mean really---look at that snow!!!)  this might suggest that you should do this out doors!

Anyhow here is my somewhat final product aren't you just in love?!?  I am!

I added a cute quote and put it back into the frame---fun and easy and fast and cheap---all things I love and DID I MENTION EASY?!

A close up on the quote I picked.

And I have to mention that I was somewhat inspired by this splurge pillow cover I bought from the local pottery barn outlet last week.

I should also note that I did successfully make a placemat---what do you think?!?

Loving it!

And lastly since I was soooo inspired by my citra solv transferring abilities I made my house guest, sister and best-est buddy a little something  (Linds also happened to be my photographer for these!).  

We picked a fun scrapbook paper to use as a matte and pressed along the original matte in the ikea frame that I wasn't using-and-was-laying-around-my-house for a guide

I used an exact-o knife to cut out the frame.

Next I got out my trusty sandpaper (I use this for every craft project) and smoothed along the inside edges to make the corners more perfect looking (noting I make is perfect but this REALLY helps).

Next I added a bit of brown ink (the second thing I ALWAYS use in craft projects) with a sponge to the edges to give a bit of a distressed and vintage look.

wooohooo final project is a very excited Linds with a little dachshund art work that she loves....! Woohoo

Vase up-cycle with vintage music sheets

I am back from a wonderfully relaxing and refreshing trip with my love to the amazing Royal Haciendas in Mexico, it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I am feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and yet a bit sad to have to leave the warm paradise and of course Cal.  But here I am staying positive and the main thing helping me do that is thinking, how amazing it has been to have to come home to an empty house, Linds is staying for the month (such an wonderful treat!) and Ryan her boyfriend came to visit this weekend---so nice to not be alone thinking about how much I am going to be missing Cal for the remaining 8 weeks I have here in Michigan!  Instead we had a little celebration (I found out I passed one of the two parts of the written boards that I just took before I left for Mexico).  Anddd I got back to my crafty side!!!!  So here was my fun for the day, I made these treasures out of two ikea vases that I had in my ever growing goodwill pile....kind of fun to rescue something that I was considering junk and make it into something kind of fun!

Pretty simple really, but I used mod podge (I used the matte kind, not the shiny kind-which is totally personal preference) as my main medium as well as my vintage music sheets I found at a local antique store for a dollar.

Cutting the paper made working with it a bit easier and I wanted to eliminate the "white space" and include more of the music notes on the vases...

I was sure to seal the edges well, since the paper won't go all the way around--nice and thick overlapping on the glass and paper with the mod podge.

I decided to add some distressing with brown ink and a stamp pad around all of the edges

I cut the bottom and folded and sealed with mod podge with the first one and then the second I folded more like if I were gift wrapping and used double sided tape and mod podge with that one...both worked fine and sealed well....

The last step was to decide how to seal the top, I wanted a clean look so I got out my trusty sandpaper and used it to "cut and smooth" the vintage paper and then added a nice thick sealing layer of mod podge.  Fun and simple!!

Mexico

After about 5 long weeks of studying, 3 longgg days of tests, and 3 even longer weeks of being away from Caleb we are SO blessed to be able to spend an entire week together in Mexico.  Playa Del Carmen  here we come!  Warm weather, no studying and my husband 24/7 sounds like a dream to me!  Cal and I have not been able to spend very much one on one time together so this is going to be AMAZING and REFRESHING and perhaps a bit depressing when its over....but I am going to enjoy every single little moment we have together and focus on graduation in about 75 days from now, not that I am counting!  

To celebrate my last spring break and my trip, here are some vintage Cal and Jaime pictures from many moons ago (in Mexico)....you know the funny thing is I am still just as crazy about that guy as I was in these pictures from our younger years....  I am beyond blessed.

Have a wonderful week and I will be excited to get crafty when I get home (I have 3 projects waiting for my return and about 200 more on a list to do as soon as humanly possible!)

3 days of testing OVER now bring on the crafty, scrappy, happy!

So I survived my month long stretch of studying for my 3 day written boards...and I am happy to report my brain is still functioning and I am slowly but surely returning to sanity....and to help with that process I am in a full blown crafty state of mind.  So without further silly post test chatter tonight's first project:

So, I have some of the most amazingly beautiful and special silver that Cal and I were gifted for our wedding, its amazing, intricate and so so special because it's from my Grandma and Ed.

The problem-----yeahhhh this Hamburg heaven is a bit informal and needless I rarely sit at the table (shocking since it is just me huh?!) let alone get out the sliver to eat my bowl of cereal for breakfast lunch and dinner....plus I have a strong aversion to polishing the silver... mainly just because I am admittedly a bit lazy.  

So naturally I have come up with a solution for the ignored-but-very-special-ware:

Shadow box plus pins=fun dining room display---I have to say I am really loving shadow boxes at the moment!!!!

And for the first time ever I am going to try linking up my ideas here:

I need a little reminder

I am feeling like I need a little reminder today, to keep my head up, to focus on my goals, to work hard and to KNOW it is going to be worth all this final work that is going into graduating!  Lets just say in my final five days of studying for my 3 day computerized board exams----I have become a bit stressed/crazy/sleep deprived/stressed/sick of studying/stressed---did I say that?!  I feel like this Sunday before my exam week I am going to need to play eye of the tiger and eat spaghetti (that's what you do if you are running a marathon right?!) and instead of cool stretches I will just flex and rotate my wrist for a few hours so I am ready for all of my mouse clicking the 3 days are going to require....but really, if you could just pray that in these next few days my brain doesn't explode, that I don't freak out on any of my crazy stressed classmates, my crazy dog Quinny, or my amazingly sweet but-far-away husband that would be GREAT!

And for my final reminder and inspiration for the night: