Day 39: Haiku

Write a haiku about something that happened today and illustrate it.
I had planned to write a haiku about the Macho Man Randy Savage who passed away today but as I tried to focus this happened...

Day 38: Underwater

Fill up a fish tank, bowl, or vase with water and create something inside.
My first idea was to use saran wrap and bubbles to create some sort of jelly fish but no saran wrap. I drew the shark and (to be honest) I traced the girl. Slacker!
I used shrinky dinks, colored pencils, a vase, and of course water for this project.

The final product. I was really excited to discover the girl floated perfectly with half her body in the water.

Day 37: Staples

Make something with a stapler or just staples.
I only have a cheap small stapler so actually stapling something wasn't working out, I ended up having to just make something using the staple. My stapley sense was tingling.
Spider-Man (made of staples)

By the way staples are like dominos and there was a lot of cursing during the making of this.

Day 36: Old to New

Take something old and make it look new.
I've been on a hiatus from crafting while I worked on moving and settling into my new place.  There hasn't really been a night to relax.  The work I did actually qualifies for today's craft:
I flew my mom in to visit me for her birthday and mothers day and being the amazing daughter that I am, put her to work.  We went to a thrift store to look for some needed furniture to find out that everything was half off.
I have a lot to learn yet, my mom luckily had the eye to see the possibilities in all of this furniture.
Before & Afters
Fish tank stand ($12). Perfectly hides all my fish tank equipment!

File cabinet ($6). I work from home and always had my docs and office equip awkwardly stashed around my desk and even under my bed. So excited to have this.

My craft equipment has a home!($7)


Nerd Case ($25). This bookshelf had space camp and 'Artificial Intelligence is Real!' stickers all over it.
Look at this ugly thing!


Can't find a before picture of this table but the top was different than the legs but it looks great painted and will work great as my work AND craft desk! ($25)

Bathroom Storage ($23). This thing was so ugly without the paint, mom had to do some persuading.

Last I made this coffee table. We found a bucket of random table/chair legs $1 each at a flea market. Unfortunately, the kid at Home Depot couldn't cut a consistent height and kept chopping the legs shorter and shorter. Finally I took them as is and tried to even them out with felt.


I learned:
- Sellers in LA know what their products are worth at flea markets and apparently that value is, more often than not, more than it's worth to me. I get more pride in a cheap find that I made an attempt to make my own vs a ready-made very cool but very expensive item. I found it best to stick to the thrift stores for cheap big fixer-uppers and the flea market for the unique smaller accents. *The midwest is completely different, there is always an attic, basement, garage, or even barn being emptied full of amazing treasures.
- I may be wrong on this point but I prefer going to the flea market later in the day; the professional shoppers will have finished their shopping and I hate haggling so the fact that the seller may not want to pack this item up and haul it back home takes care of some of the haggling effort for me.
- Take time to sand and clean the furniture before painting.
- When in doubt use a primer before painting.
- For small projects save money by going to the dollar store for paint trays (and depending on the project, even rollers and brushes).
- Don't screw directly into wood or it may split, drill a hole first (thanks mah)
- The wood for the coffee table seemed smooth enough until I tried to wipe it off with a paper towel and this item will need to get wiped off regularly I guess I should have sanded it with a fine sand paper? Ryan's going to help me fix that one, will update with the results.
- Last, if you make your mom do heavy lifting, clean, paint, and decorate over her bday or mother's day (or in this case both) make sure to take her drinking afterward to earn back her love.
Happy birthday and mother's day mah! Thank you for all of your help. Love you!
Mom & I at the flea market. She bought me that tree for my jewelry.

Day 35: Instructions

Create instructions that others can use to make something.
I'm always asked for this... here you go... make millions with my instructions.
How To Make a Record Album Purse


Click on the link "How To Make A Record Album Purse" above. 
Click where I circled below and you should be able to open or save the file.

You should not be asked to download anything unless you don't have an adobe reader program.

Let me know if you have any questions or you see any missing steps or other issues with the instructions.

Day 34: Wire

Work with wire.
I made a number of failed attempts with this one.  I had florist wire which is extremely flimsy; it made it difficult to maintain a shape.  If I had planned ahead I would have bought some thicker guage wire.
Here are some of the creations:
First I tried to make a 3-D person...
 
but I got frustrate and am a quitter so I tried a flat image

Boring... so I made this guy and was satisfied enough...

Day 33: Pen Project

Use a pen for your project today.
Well I used markers... my inspration came from this very cool project: Wallpaper Pen Project
I bought a 30 pack of markers and attempted to add them to a piece of cardboard to create something similar to the inspiration project but it was too difficult and was taking too long to poke big enough holes and to keep the markers straight.  Instead, gathered them into a bunch and wrapped a rubber band around them.
I started in the middle of the paper holding the markers down for about 15-20 seconds then worked my way out holding the markers down for less time.  I noticed the image in the middle resembled an ape face so I took out a few markers and added additional dots to define it.

I think I might finish this by fleshing out the full ape or at least the head. 

Day 32: Ephemeral Project

Make something Ephemeral (lasts only a short time).
I did a 'painting' with water.  Since it disappears within seconds I made a video instead of taking a picture. 
Baby Crying:

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiJCXBJFLq0