Vintage Frame with Stained Glass Mosaic & Black Grout Tutorial

Recently I convinced a bunch of my friends to convene for another art event in our garage. This time it involved cutting glass and black grout. See, Luke made this really cool framed mosaic in art class and I wanted to make one just like it. My theory was that if an 8th Grader could do it, I could too. For the record, I do not also believe this to be the case with say like Algebra or French. Since I was too busy chit chatting and picking through the pretty glass to actually make mine, I had to get caught up. Since I was catching up anyhow, I opted to take some photos for a tutorial so you can try this at home.

Step one: Score some free glass pieces. They sell them in various craft stores, but I got creative and hit up a local stained glass place for their extra pieces. They were more than willing to hook me up. I now have LOTS of extra glass for the next big plan, which I have...

Step two:  Find a cool frame and paint it if you don't care for what it currently looks like. In this case I hit mine with some black spray paint and added gold speckles.

Step three:  Glue the piece of glass in with hot glue. We skipped this step when we were making them but mine is a frame where the glass slides in. I figured I should be safe. We also used white school glue to glue our pieces on. Since I was nearly out of white glue, I used hot glue. I think it would be preference as I can see both kinds of glue through the glass.

Step four:  Keep filling the frame with glass pieces. They can be easily cut with a glass cutting tool. I spent around $12 on mine at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon. Since I plan on making mosaics, it was well worth the money. You will want to leave a gap around the edges for the grout and between the pieces. I used a lot of big and chunky pieces on mine. I am thinking in this case the hot glue was a better option. I also used a piece of metal for variety.

Step 5:  Here is where it gets messy. You will need to add grout to all the cracks. I used a flat scraper to push it into all the crevasses between the glass pieces and then a sponge to clean off the rest. You can't clean too much or you'll take the grout out between the pieces. Then you let it dry.

The part Luke left out was that the textured glass would be hard to clean later. Basically I used a pick to really clean out all the grout that lodged itself in the textured parts.

Since I was planning on putting my frame on the window of the laundry room, I added a clear spray for good measure. Really love how it came out...I'll be back at some point with everyone else's projects. Planning my next project now!!

Sunshine & Good Times: Oneida Lake

So, I have dipped my toe in the water of Project Life and a gater snapped it off. No really, I found quickly that I detest the little pockets that you fill up. I didn't like the clear see through nature of them hence ripped them all out of the pockets and glued them down to a regular page of scrap book paper. Having done that with all my pages, it was second nature to take a page of project life paper, cut it accordingly, add a couple of other scraps and voila! Instant patch work page.

My big photo collage echos the background. Just a bunch of cool photos from the weekend. Luke grilling up a huge salmon, Grandpa Roger driving around his three wheeled golf cart, a bunch of crazy peeps on the boat, and a new cottage are all memory worthy!

It's a pretty flat page with the exception of these letters. A couple of them I made, because I must use a LOT of A's so instead of tossing all the letters in the garbage...trying to use some more up!

Happy Happy! Back tomorrow with a layout on a glass mosaic! I do love black grout!

Chillaxing on the First Weekend

We are all officially done with school so this is the first official weekend of summer for me. This is some of my favorite time of year as at least two of us out of four are not stressed out. The boy got a towel as he left middle school prompting at least a couple of So Long and Thanks for all the Fish comments in reference to Hitchhikers. He's off to STEM Academy in the fall due to his own dilegence and abilities. Only forty kids from local schools are picked. I am hoping he's not as stressed out in the fall, but somehow I doubt it. Having found out recently that they asked him to run high school track and go to All County Chorus and he turned them down, I suppose he's good at managing his own stress....it's hard being so awesome. (warning-big Mom brag)

Since we plan camping months and months ahead, it was nice to run off to Oneida Lake for a couple of days. I even managed a few lazy mornings in bed with a book. I had to borrow one from the kids as I don't normally read. I avoid it all costs because once I get into a book I refuse to do anything else but read it and that makes everyone else mad because they like meals and clean laundry. The nerve.

Granda Pratt took us out on his new boat and I spent some time testing out the lounge seats. They are very awesome. Should have paired them up with a book, but again everyone expected me to talk to them too...silly people.

I'm back tomorrow with a layout from our adventures and later on in the week I'll be posting my newest addiction....mosaics with stained glass & found objects....and black grout!

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

Goodness gracious it was super rainy earlier this week which is totally helping to grow the flowers. It's also helping the back yard of the Habitat House we're working on to explode into a jungle. We'll be getting to that soon, but for now when I'm making calls I wander through and look at all the roses. This pink one is my favorite. In fact, I think I'll try to make some cuttings. We can't leave it all since the new home owner has two little kids who will need some space to play. I've been looking forward to working on the backyard since last summer when we looked at the house. 

This one just showed up out of the foliage. Most of the other roses are bushes, but this is a single contributor. All pretty coral & all by itself. I have a couple of volunteers like that. They like to wander off and work on something hard all by themselves with some tunes. 

Others work in groups on a door. Or on flooring. Finish work is fussy work so sometimes it's like watching paint dry. Of course there are also days paint IS drying. Normally Doug is painting and he's super good at it. He just pops around with his brush and before you know it, all your trim is perfect with the nail holes filled. He's a funny dude. He missed last Saturday as he was off at a rattle snake hunt. 

Well, I'm off. There is camping this weekend as it's the very busy time. The folks will carry on without me tomorrow. It will be a nice surprise to come back on Monday and see what got accomplished! 

Happy Friday!

Eataly Layout for Lexi (Subtitled: Get it?)

The oldest was so proud of this photo of a resturant in Italy when she got home. She thought it was very punny, hence it got made into a big page for her book. I also used a smaller photo of pizza that she took. It sounded like between pizza and pasta, that is pretty much what she ate all week. ;-) Well, add in gelatos as well. Poor kid must have really suffered.

Had a fun little play with some blooms, string, and a tassle. I am trying to keep her book pretty flat so trying (for once) to not load up the pages too much. Really digging that vellum with the gold. So pretty!

While I had that pretty paper out, I used a chunk of it on a card that is flying off to a friend who is currently hospitalized. I am hoping it's waiting for her when she arrives home to cheer her up.

I felt pretty clever when I punched out a big scallop and then stamped in the center of it, so the sentiment is actually on the inside...

Well, two pages and a card made this past weekend...here's to a productive week and hoping I get a chance to wrap up a few more projects! Happy Hump Day!

Sweet City: Venice Layout for Lexi & THE CUTTING CAFE

Oh goodness. It's always fun to repurpose a printing file in a cool and different way. Add in some fun stamping on photo paper and I'm all kinds of pumped.





































Check out this cool BINGO card from THE CUTTING CAFE. It's in the Valentine's Day Bingo Set. See I was at the very last of the letters on the sticker sheet and I wanted to say something about Venice being epic...so I cheated and used the top of the Bingo Card for my title...I used a cool little stamp on top of it too which made me extra happy...

Lexi was pleased with her page when she wandered by. I'm finally making a little more progress in her book! I'll be back with another page tomorrow...

Happy Tuesday!

Lexi's New Car & Tie Dye layout

I was going to start working on Italy layouts but these photos & a circular piece of white matte board inspired me to scrap the car washing from this past weekend. I inked up the white matte board with lots of inks and then sprayed them with shimmer spray to get them to run together like tie dye.

I wanted to match Lexi's t-shirt that she made in Chemistry. Love how this page turned out, even without adding a title. Kind ran out of room with two photos and her driving class receipt. Really loving those water color flowers and those purple splats.

Love the little water color paper I added that Lexi made. Tucked it under everything else. The blue splats reminded me of water!

Just a little flat page to add to my book. Another one done and dusted! Off to work on Venice next!

Book Ends & a Vintage Shelf

I knew I wanted a shelf in the laundry room. I have been scouring work for the perfect one. Figured that eventually I'd just have to make one since nothing really had turned up. I happened to be walking through the store when this piece of shelf was on it's way to the junk pile. It's vintage, oak and has that cute little curve in the front. Figured I'd make it work. THE MAN was a bit less impressed....

I showed him the really cool metal pieces on the side and he was a little more convinced. Sunday morning when we were waiting around for the driveway guys, we started by cutting the shelf in half. It was way too big for the space the way it was and since it was already destined for the junk pile...if it didn't work, not a big deal.

Due to much prior experience cutting in straight lines, THE MAN did the cutting. I did all the finish nailing after he was done as we had to rebuild the bottom. I did a quick sand & clean. We then came up with attaching book ends at the very bottom to create a good place for attaching to the wall. A very light coat of clear and it was ready to install.

Isn't it cute? I really love it!!! And I can't imagine the book ends cost me more than a couple of dollars...so pretty much almost free!

Happy Tuesday!

Rocking the Japanese Garden

I have been trying since early spring to get this garden done. A bonus for me was that a house we are working on at work has a LOT of extra rocks that I have been mining. Got a huge load on Friday and spent quite a lot of time Saturday working them in.

The little irises are looking so pretty with all those stones. We have huge pine trees around the house so with all the pine needles it's hard to keep that garden clean. The rocks will really help as when we put wood chips down, those just blow along with the needles. I have one more load of rocks to get the garden wrapped up...ugh! So close!

The irises are even pretty from this side! Love that huge juniper! Fun times this garden! Can't wait to install my ceramic koi fish I got for Mother's Day! Well, I'll be back to show you the whole thing after another load of rocks and a fish install!

Happy Monday!

A Happy Mom Layout

It's a well known fact that you must comply with Mom when she wants a photo. Even if it's a silly photo of the World's Third Largest Garden Gnome and you...

See the folks at this farm thought it would be cool to build this oober large gnome and then must be others thought the same thing and built theirs a wee bit bigger so now this gnome is only the third largest. Is is however, not something a 16 year old wants to be seen with....hence all the action shots of Lexi fleeing....proving the point the kid can actually run although nobody has seen that since she was ten....until now.

It's a pretty simple page. Using up a long strip of kraft paper that I cut a bunch of leaves out of was pretty satisfying. This is the last page I'm making (I think) of our trip to the Hudson Valley. I still have Italy photos to get through! (I think I'm focused on Venice this next week, we'll see!)

Happy Sunday!

Eagles Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE

I have REALLY been focused on making scrapbook pages from our trip this past weekend. A fresh new camping trip means I'm pumped to make layouts. Combine that with a cool cutting file and a sweet graphic? I'm extra inspired!

Regina asked us to use the Its Road Trip Time Again files. I made good use of the card shape cut out REALLY BIG for the background and then some cute little printables as accents,

Check out these adorable little bingo cards? Just one of the many printables included! Sequins make good bingo chips!

Really digging this photo of the four of us....with two of us being freaks....and notice it's the two older ones! Buzz on over to THE CUTTING CAFE and check out this file!

Happy Hump Day!

Gangstah Layout at the Sky Lake

Had a bit of a play with some paper this weekend. I didn't have MUCH of a weekend, so just a few pages done of our camping trip from last weekend. It was very satisfying though to get my very favorite photo of the trip glued down on paper.

Really had fun with the flowers! The green and purple were some florals I had taken apart ages ago and I added a gem brad. Loving the contrast! And somehow it pulls in the color of Lexi's shirt.

Was digging that bug sticker and some older wooden camping Close to My Heart embellishments. I have yet to do the journaling, but I needed to look up the name of the park we went to. It was spur of the moment as another section was already too full for hiking!

You'll see another page from this trip tomorrow!

Laundrying & Half the Battle

If you've been reading this blog for a bit, you'll know that recently we have been working on our laundry room. Well folks, we now have running water in our sink! The laundry room counter is looking mightily fine & things are functional on this side of the room. This is awesomeness and now I have to just remember I actually have a sink and soap dispenser I can use! So pretty.

We wrapped up the install this weekend with a little vintage wooden foot that I installed on the very edge and a nice piece of molding along the bottom of the counter. A little white spray paint helped it blend right in!

On the subject of blending in, at my day job I learned something cool. One of our volunteers Doug quite often paints the pipes in the laundry room. Since they are usually white with the purple primer, painting them the same color as the room allows them to blend better. You might notice on top I painted them the gray brown of the walls and the bottom they are white! Doesn't take that long and really helps make things visually blend!

Now to tackle the rest of the room...it's where the hot water heater, water softener & electrical panel are, which involves some careful plumbing work to bring some things up to date & some painting...Good thing it's Monday and we're all back to work...

Still the One Layout for Another Freaking Scrappy

Anne over at Another Freaking Scrappy wanted us to scrap about a wedding this month so here you go! A little silly page with some more formal wedding paper...very fact that Yogi's green hat matched so well with the leaves on the roses gave me great joy....

I still do love a banner for using up paper scraps! In this case I made quite a few. They seem to draw your eye down to my photo. And look at those two smiling people! I was so happy THE MAN agreed to take a photo with Yogi!

In case you are straining trying to read my journaling...here's a close up. I wrote about how many years we've been married....as next February we'll be at 20. It seems like the time has flown by.

Hope you have some wedding photos to scrap! If you don't, you can get a little non traditional like me and come up with something that works!

Happy Thursday Day!