The One Where I Pretend To Be A Painter

My sister is an artist.  She teaches high school art classes (including basics, history, ceramics, photography, stop motion, etc.) and has a part-time photography business.  So, pretty much she's amazing. (not just because of these talents, but we'll leave it at that for this post...)

This year, she had a milestone type of birthday (but for her sake I'm not going to mention the age... you're welcome Alisa!)  But I knew I had to do something big.  Something spectacular.  Something very secret and hush hush.  So I worked with my brother in law to throw her a surprise party with all her friends and family.  I decided to go with an art theme (for obvious reasons, see) and I have to say, I think it turned out pretty awesome.  I mean, not to toot my own horn or anything...

Anyway, for her gift (which also doubled as decor for the entry to the party) I decided to put this perfect quote on a canvas for her.  I know you've seen it around, because like I said, it's perfect, so a lot of people obviously love it.  But I'm going to explain my painting technique (which was freehand) and how I got a sort of 3-D effect for the flower.

I was planning on using my cricut explore to cut out the vinyl letters (because that's what it's for, yo!) but sadly my computer is having major problems lately - we blame old age, it's really got one foot in the grave (sorry, old friend, but it's true) - and it won't run the circuit design space software properly.  Or at all.  Gr.

So here's where I started out.  I sketched my idea on normal paper, figured out the spacing, etc, and the fonts I wanted to use.

Then I used a ruler and pencil and lightly drew straight lines across the side of the canvas so I would stick my words down straight.

The next step was to measure out the vinyl to the height I wanted the words to be.  I drew the words on with pencil just eyeballing everything.  And then.  The best part.  I cut every letter out by hand with a scissors.  No I am not kidding you.  Yes I am serious.  And yes, it did take a while.  They ended up nice and straight and I was pretty happy with it.  So I placed it on the canvas.

 I rubbed pretty hard on the letters because I didn't want them to come up and I was a little concerned about bleeding underneath.

 Then, on to the flower.  I wanted to make it have texture and depth, but I am NOT an artist and I'm pretty unsure of myself when it comes to oils.  So I knew I'd be painting with acrylics.  I drew the flower on the canvas lightly with pencil, then went over it with a hot glue gun.  

 I did multiple long lines for the stem, a single layer line for the leaves, layers of curves for the petals and dots for the middle.

To paint it, I did the background first.  I started in the top left corner with black, then without rinsing my brush added violet.  I blended the two together, slowly adding more violet and then, without rinsing the brush again, added indigo.  I blended the violet and indigo, then rinsed the brush and added in the aqua, blending the indigo and aqua, and moving down with just the aqua.  Then I added some citron green and blended that into the aqua really well, moving down to just citron in the corner.  Basically, you rinse your brush only between the dark to light colors, other wise you leave it and just add more color to it.  I went right over the letters, but avoided the hot glue flower.
I used dark green, kelly green and citron on the stem and leaf, just blending and highlighting.  Then I used a cherry red in the middle of the flowers, blended it into a dark pink and blended that into the white at the tips.  In the dotted center I used yellow, mustard and white to highlight.  I just dabbed it on with a round brush.

 And that was that.  When I took the letters off (which I did while the paint was a little bit wet) I did discover a bit of bleeding.  I took care of it with a white oil based paint pen.  I just went over the worst parts to even them out.  

She loved it.  I think it was a pretty fitting tribute to her _ _  years of life!  

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

It's that time again...

Time to make a come back.  It's only been radio silent for a month and a half or so... so, yeah.  Hello.

the mr and I all dressed up to see The Phantom of the Opera which toured to our local PAC from broadway!  So good! 

I'm like Cher.  Or uh... Lindsey Lohan.  Or... someone famous who takes a huge break and then goes back to doing what they were doing as if nothing happened.  Except not famous.

I do not have a good excuse this time (You know, like being pregnant and hurling all the time).  Rather life just got... full of LIFE.  You know?  I've gotta ask.  How do all of the crafty/handy/sewy mama bloggers with kids do it?!  For real?  Like how do you LIVE and blog at the same time?  I don't know if I'll ever figure it out.

So there's some stuff that happened that I didn't show you.  Halloween for instance.  (Which was technically before radio silence but I still haven't shared it yet.  Pip was an adorable octopus and mini was a clown fish with the specifications that she wanted to be a GIRL clown fish, NOT Nemo.  So bug stuck with the theme and requested... an electric eel costume.  What the... how do you make that??  So I made a tail that velcroed around the waist and sewed white Christmas lights up the back of the tail and onto the back of the sweatshirt.  I'm fairly certain no one knew what he was. 

There were a lot of park visits.  Mr. had lots of random trips for work that left the kids and I alone and needing to get out of the house - A LOT.  So. Yes.  Parks.

It was nice.  November was unseasonably warm for a while so we played in the leaves.

Some of us tried to eat them.  Weirdo.
It almost took my mind of the fact that mr was in Italy - the one country that has been on my bucket list of places to visit since BIRTH.  Almost.  No, actually, it totally didn't.  Not at all.  Italy.... sigh.

"Hello, Dad?  Yeah, uh, you better come home now.  Mom's going NUTS over here.  NUTS."  I have to be careful letting him play with my phone now... recently while he was relaxing in his crib and I was in the shower he called my mom and had an entire conversation.  Not one she could understand, mind you...

When mr WAS around we took the kids on a few day trips around the state - trying to take advantage of the nicer fall weather we are definitely NOT used to.  We went to a beautiful hilly, forested area called Quartz Hill where all the rocks are quartz.  I wanted to haul a few boulders back to the van so we could renovate our kitchen counters, but mr said it doesn't work that way...

I did manage to get a few good shots of the kids - which is a feat in and of itself...

I mean, this one smiles but never sits still and

this one never smiles.  But look at that.  Nice photos!

Oh, and more parks.  But much colder.

And THEN - and this is REALLY REALLY CRAZY - we did something completely atypical of us and actually spent money on a real family vacation.

Something we have literally NEVER done.  Because vacations are always about going to visit out of state family (which is super cool, don't get me wrong, I love Justin's family... hi guys!) But this was our first totally all fun and playing and just us kind of vacation. 
The kids saw the ocean for the first time (and yes, it was cold on November 29th, but MUCH warmer than here, so...)

And then we put on our Mickey shirts and fun sunglasses and

walked through the Mickey head entrance onto a real live Disney Cruise!

It was surreal.  Like I said, we don't really vacation, so everything was extra magical - for me too!  We had a fun little verandah outside our stateroom.  The bunk bed disappeared into the ceiling!  We saw musicals and movies and ate awesome food and had impeccable service and swam in the pool and played in the splash zone and ate more food and then we went to the Bahamas and went to an amazing little tropical island with literally the most perfect weather on the planet and we played in the sand and did I mention we ate amazing food?  We ate some more food and looked out big portholes, and dressed up like pirates and watched fireworks and ate more, and played mini gold at 10:00 at night and the kids got to play in a special "kids only" club and Justin and I ate at the fanciest restaurant of our lives and then... THEN...
we met all the princesses!!!  And Minnie and Mickey!  And Tinkerbell!  And Donald!  And Sofia the First and Jake (from "and the neverland pirates" fame) and Doc McStuffins.  Seriously.

And then we came home to this weird polar vortex where is was like 20 below zero WITHOUT windchill.  It was, searching for the right word here... ugh.

And of course there was Christmas.  Which is pretty much the ONLY good part about winter and one of my favorite times of year.  So there were magical lights strung, and

decorated pianos since we have no mantel.  I made that chalkboard.  Remember that?  I also put tied little squares of tulle around LED lights - two per bulb all down the string.  You can see it there behind the music holder thingy.  It's kind of pretty, I like it.

We decided on a "peacock tree" again this year - aptly named because it is navy, purple, green and turquoise and makes use of feathers inside glass ball ornaments.  Those globe lights?  Not globe lights.  I decided those were too expensive so I made my own.  Know what they are?  Bulk ping pong balls.  Yep.  Normal lights, cut a slit in the ping pong ball and slide it over every other light.  Bam.  Want to know a secret?  If you order the super cheap generic balls on Amazon not only are the waaaaaay less expensive, but they have no logo or company name printed in black, they're just plain white.  They're also easier to slice through with a craft knife.  So now you know.

We had my whole family over for Christmas, which was loud and busy, but fun.  In the morning it was just us.  The kids got lots of new books to read!

And appropriate shirts to wear.

And isn't it funny what the favorite presents end up being when you pick and choose so carefully and in your head you've gotten the very best, most awesomest gift (like SKYLANDERS for the wii, FINALLY!!) and then they end up loving the fake shaving cream and razor that you got for like 5 bucks and stuffed in their stocking instead?  So weird.

I did NOT finish this rocking horse.  Turns out he's too short anyway, so I think it's ok if I take my time with it.

Also on the list of things I haven't shown you yet... this baby had a birthday!  Way back in September I'm ashamed to admit, but we DID have a party of sorts which I WILL be sharing at some point... oh, and there were other birthdays too...

Like this "Excellent Elephant" party for bug which we had in January although his birthday is right after Christmas - poor kid -

because elephants are his favorite animal.

Now wait, you're thinking.  That's only two parties.  Doesn't she have three kids?  And you'd be right.  I do.  But we were actually in the Bahamas for mini's birthday so she celebrated on the cruise.  Not exactly the DIY kind of party you share details about, but she obviously had a fun time.

Oh, and in that same vein, I threw ANOTHER party for my sister in law and my new niece Gemma!  This was actually a while ago, too, because she's like 4 months old, but still.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I HAVE been making stuff.  I just haven't been blogging about it...

The kids and I even decided to make some more recycled crayons... which is a story in itself, but you'll have to wait for it.  Short version?  Don't use molds from the target dollar section and definitely don't forget they're in the oven... just sayin'.

Also.  I made a wreath.

So welcome back.  Yea!

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

About time.

Ok, ok.  As promised, I'm done with the DIY gift posts now.  It dragged on and on, but I hope you stuck with it and got some AWESOME ideas for the now approaching all too quickly holiday season.  (yikes)

If you need a quick reference back to all things Gift it. 2014, here's your wrap up!

1. 5 Favorite Handmade Gifts for Kids - Red Ted Art

2. Stud Earring Holder - Young and Crafty Sisters

3. 5 Grandparent Gift Ideas - Hi! It's Jilly!

4. Fat Quarter Doll Quilt Tutorial - Simple Simon and Company

5. Birthday Sack Lunch - A Girl and a Glue Gun

6. 8 Gifts for Gadget Lovers - Melly Sews

1. Personalized Recipe Book

2. Gift Wrap Cut-Outs

3. Friendship Bracelet Kit

4. Top Secret Spy Kit

5. Easy Peasy Art and Photo Display

6. Pretend Play Dr. Kit

7. Light Up Reclaimed Wood Wall Art

8. Mini Photo Block Necklace

9. Underwater Superheroes (Superhero Inspired Rashguards)

1. Giant Stuffed Drinking Jar

2. Encourage-mints

3. Lemonade Basket Teacher Gift

4. Best Pop Gift

1. 30 Gifts Parents Will Love - 

10 Must-Make Gifts For Mother's Day, 

10 Fabulous Gifts For Father's Day, 

5 Fantastic Gifts for Grandma, 

5 Super Fun Gifts For Grandpa

2. 100 "Newbie" Gifts - 

25 A+ Gifts for Teacher, 

25 Highschool Graduation Gifts, 

25 Friendly New Neighbor Gifts, 

25 Lovely Housewarming Gifts

3. 50 Great Giftwrap Ideas (+ 6 Awesome Sources)

4. 20 Cute and Clever Gifts for Cat-Lovers!

5. 30 Lover-ly Gifts - 

10 Valentine's Gifts (for anyone and everyone), 

10 Wedding Gifts (they'll love to use), 

10 Anniversary Gifts (for those you love)

6. 113 Awesome, DIY Baby Gifts!

There you have it!  Gift it. 2014!  That's exactly 362 gift ideas for you to make for every kind of occasion you could imagine! Also, don't forget that most of these come with free printable gift tags, etc., just click on the post and scroll to the end. Now get cracking!  We've got gifts to make!

If you don't know what this series was all about, read the explanation here.

Also, you can see even more ideas:

Gift it. 2013

Gift it. 2012

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

A "SUPER" kind of gift.

Well, I don't want to draw this gift it series into ANOTHER month - since it was supposed to be finished in August, you know.  BUT, I did want to share just one more "super" cool gift I worked on in collaboration with a friend of mine.

UNDERWATER SUPERHEROES

So, last year my friend Kim contacted me by email and asked if I'd be willing to help with a project.  Her partner was turning 30 and she wanted to throw him the biggest, awesomest birthday party around.  After considering her options, it was clear she needed to combine his two greatest loves: free diving and Batman.

(I should probably mention that at the time they lived in the Cayman Islands (is that cool or what?) so diving was not an uncommon hobby.)  

Her plan was to invite his buddies for a birthday free dive in the coolest setting ever - but not just ANY birthday free dive.  NO.  A SUPERHERO free dive!  She wanted to present each participant with a rashguard made to look like their favorite superhero, then capture the whole dive with some underwater photos.

She asked me to design and create the rashguards.  Naturally, I said yes - because it seemed like the coolest idea ever and also, I'd never created superhero rashguards (has anyone?  I mean, that's not like a common request, is it??) so it was an intriguing challenge.

And thus began my superhero rashguard extravaganza.  Kim polled the guys for their favorite heroes, then purchased rashguards in appropriate colors and had them shipped to me.  This was a whole lot better than me trying to find rashguards since I know nothing about them or about diving in general.
My job was to figure out the best way to get the superhero logos on the rashguards.  I considered I few different options - hand-sewing something like felt that wouldn't fray, iron-on transfer, and freezer paper stencil were contenders.  In the end, I decided to make appliqués out of nylon knit and spandex since that's what the rashguards were made out of.  I was afraid that the other options would not handle stretching well and could quite possibly fall apart under water.  Plus I wanted them to look really professional, and while freezer paper stencil would have looked nice under normal conditions, I thought the logos would warp when the rashguards were stretched out while wearing.  
Oh, yeah, I also needed to make some capes, and I knew the knit nylon would be best for underwater capes.  I didn't have to make any of the masks, since they'd be wearing diving masks.

I bought red, white, yellow and black nylon knit with spandex in it - found in the dance/swimwear section at JoAnnes.  I also purchased heavy duty heat n' bond.
My general steps were as follows:
I found the appropriate superhero logo online and resized it how I needed to.  I printed it off on cardstock for a pattern.  
I cut the logos out, then laid them on the knit fabric I'd bought and drew around with a marker.
I cut squares around the logo, then ironed the square of fabric to a square of heat n' bond.
I cut the logo and heat n' bond layers out simultaneously since they were already ironed together.  It made cutting the knit fabric so much easier since the heat n' bond was sturdy and kept the fabric from stretching while I cut.
Once they were all cut, I used my iron on a medium setting with no steam to iron the different pieces onto the rashguards.  For some I had to stack the different pieces onto each other.
I used a stretch stitch with a walking foot to machine sew each piece down onto the rashguards.  (I didn't bother with zigzag stitching the appliqués because they're knit, so they won't fray.)  Fortunately there were no unfortunate "sewing the front to the back" moments - which I often do when adding something to a pre-made garment.  Phew!
I created the capes with the knit fabric and sewed a gathering stitch across the top to make them bunchy.  I added velcro pieces to the sides and the middle, then also to the rashguard at the back of the shoulders and right under the neck - wrong side of the cape, right side of the rashguard.  This way, the divers could easily detach the capes if they needed to.
I did this with much less bulky capes in red for Superman and black for Batman.  I just cut the capes narrower and more triangular.  

Some costumes were easier than others... here's what I did for each superhero:

Batman: 
cut - a yellow oval, a black oval with the bat symbol cut out of the middle
iron - First I ironed the yellow oval over the rashguard brand in the center of the chest.  Then I ironed the black oval/bat shape over the yellow one.
sew - all around the outside edge of the black oval and all around the inside edge of the bat shape (which also sewed down the yellow oval since they were stacked.)
create cape - cut a long trapezoidal shape that was 1 and 1/2 the width of the rashguard from should to shoulder and approximately down to my mid-calf.  Cut the bat wing points at the bottom of the cape.  Gathered the top edge.  Folded above the gather and sewed it down.  Attached 4 squares of black velcro to the underside of the cape and the outside of the rashguard (at the shoulders and neck areas).

Superman: 
cut - a yellow diamond-y shape, a red diamond-y shape with the block letter "s" cut into the middle
iron - I first ironed the yellow piece down, then the red piece with the "s" on top of it.
sew - I sewed all around the outer edge of the red piece, then on all the inside red edges as well.  There were some small areas that needed to be sewn, I just made sure that any red edge was zig-zagged down.
create cape - cut a long trapezoidal shape that was slightly shorter than the Batman cape and just as wide.  Gathered the top edge, then folded above that and sewed the raw edge down.  Added 4 velcro squares to the cape and rashguard - the same as the Batman cape.

Thor: 
cut - Two large white circles, 4 medium white circles, one long skinny yellow rectangle that was the width of the rashguard about 4 inches from the hem.  Three small rounded rectangles (each slightly smaller than the last) plus a circle and a "T" all out of yellow.  This is the Thor symbol for the belt.
iron - the two large circles across from each other at the top of the chest, then two medium circles about an inch lower, then the "belt" (or skinny rectangle) across the shirt at belly button height (or so) and then the last two medium circles below that.  Iron the 3 rounded rectangles touching each other, biggest to smallest vertically in the middle of the belt.  Then the circle on top, centered, and the T on top of that, centered.
sew - around each circle and the outside of the rectangle.  Sew around every edge of the smaller belt pieces as well.

create cape - Thor's cape is huge and billowy in pictures, so I made his longer than the other two, more rectangular than trapezoid, and about 2 and 1/2 times the width of the rashguard.  Gather it at the top, then sew down the raw edge to the inside of the cape.  Then I attached the velcro differently, to create the puffiness of Thor's cape at the top.  I sewed the velcro to the OUTSIDE of the cape (the right side that you can see when worn) in 4 spots.  Then, the cape is is kind of rolled under at the top to attach to the velcro pieces on the rashguard.

Green Lantern: 
cut - A white circle with the green lantern shape cut into the middle, a smaller white circle to fit in the very center.
iron - the large circle first, right in the middle of the shirt.  Then iron the small circle in the center.
sew - around ALL white edges.  The big circle, the middle circle, the inside weird shape, ALL.  

Spiderman: 
cut - A large black spider shape
iron - a large black spider shape
sew - all around the outside edge of the spider (and the billion skinny legs...)

Wolverine: 
cut - 8 long skinny black diamonds, 2 of which were slightly bigger and 2 of which were slightly smaller
iron - Fit the smaller diamonds with the middles right at the shoulders and the points going down the front and back.  Iron the medium diamonds across from each other just under the armpits with the middle at the side seam, the largest diamonds across from each other about 3 inches lower with the middle at the side seam, and the other medium diamonds about 3 inches under THAT with the middle at the side seam.
sew - around each diamond.

Lion-O from Thundercats (and you better know what that is because it's pretty much the single greatest cartoon of my childhood.  Seriously.):
cut - one white circle, one red circle slightly smaller, one black thundercat roaring cat symbol thingy.
iron - the white circle in the middle of the upper chest, then the red on top of that - centered, than the black cat symbol coming from the right side of the circle.
sew - AROUND EVERY EDGE.  around the white circle, the red circle, the black cat - everything.
note:
(I didn't want to cut the belly off of rashguard to resemble the real lion-o costume, and I was back and forth about making the logo appear down on a "belt" around the waist of the shirt or just putting it up on the chest like the others.  In the end I put it on the chest because I wanted it to look more unified with the other rashguards.)

 Aquaman:
fortunately does not wear a shirt or have a logo, so I was spared!


Like I said, this was kind of a long process, but I actually had fun figuring it all out and making it work.  

Kim hired a professional photographer for the occasion and had these awesome underwater photos taken.  ALL of the water photos and ones with the actual heroes were taken by Heather Holt. There are lots more photos of the superhero dive here. You can find Heather Holt Photography here.  She does all kinds of photography, not just underwater:  family photos, weddings, kids, etc. and her stuff is gorgeous so check her out!
(These are copyrighted photos, so please don't steal them, mmmkay?)  

I really love how the capes look underwater and I think it's particularly cool that it looks like the flying superheroes ARE flying as they glide through the water.

The name of the shipwreck they were on is the USS Kittiwake.  

It's just off Grand Cayman's Seven Mile beach and is only a 5 minute boat ride from shore, which makes it popular with divers.  Plus look how clear that water is!  

Here is the birthday boy, AKA Batman, in his underwater, saving the universe glory.  

They had some fairly epic battles.  Unfortunately, I don't know who won.  Perhaps it was a stalemate - they are ALL superheroes, after all.  It would be a pretty even match.

Kim told me the guys had a great time and all saved their rashguards to wear on later dives as well.  I'd call it a successful gift!

It would be pretty easy to alter this idea to fit t-shirts for Halloween costumes!  Otherwise, think ahead to summer and make your kids some hero rashguards to wear to the beach!  My son would love the Batman one.  I may have to get on that.

OR, even better... go to the Cayman islands RIGHT NOW.  It's been cold enough here lately that I am DREADING winter.  So a trip to tropical isles sounds pretty perfect!

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*