Anniversary Projects and Happenings

This weekend we tried to be kinda crafty.  We took on a couple different projects we've been meaning to get done. Since our 6 month anniversary was on Saturday, I thought this first one would be a nice gift to get done for then! The first project I did was the photo canvas transfer from home.  If you don't wanna hear about it, just skip down until you see baseball , but it's pretty neat.

Basically all you need for this project is a stretched canvas (I used 8x10), a picture printed on laser printer (on regular computer paper), a gel medium (I used Liquidex), and some kind of brush.  The process is very simple! I assume colored pictures would work but I've never done one.  I used a black and white photo because I knew the transfer wouldn't be perfect so I was going for the antique/old look.  Here's a quick view of the project:

(Sorry the picture is a little small; it doesn't want to let me make it big.  Just click on it if you want to see the quick view in more detail)  

Directions:

(1) Apply the gel medium thoroughly to canvas with brush, covering all areas of canvas

(2) Carefully place the photo face down onto the canvas and smooth out any bubbles. Allow to dry overnight

(3) Once dry, wet the paper and rub off wet paper.  You can use a spray bottle, a sponge, whatever you want to wet the paper.  I just dipped a paper towel in a bowl of water and dabbed on the paper one section at a time.  This part will be messy! I had to do a couple areas a few times to make sure all the paper was off.

(4) Once all of the paper is off, apply another coat of gel medium; this will dry clear, don't worry!

(5) Optional: For a more finished look, cut strips of scrapbook paper to the size of the sides of the canvas.  Use gel or mod podge as glue to attach the scrapbook paper to the edges and apply coat over scrapbook paper

(6) Hang using your favorite decorative ribbon [I haven't done this part yet, hence no picture!] 

You can see the transfer wasn't perfect in all parts, so you may not want to use a picture with a lot of details.  Thankfully the faces transferred well on mine and the imperfections are mainly around the edges. But hey, it gives it character! It's really very easy; I highly recommend it!

On our anniversary we went to the BYU baseball game, which was a lot of fun! We've been missing baseball since we won't be going to any Phillies games this season! (Boo!!) Anyway, we ended up leaving a little early because I was overheating, we were losing, and it was kind of painful to watch at times as we walked people home.  We did end up losing 10-14, but the time that we spent there was fun!  And hey, that is a beautiful sight there! Mountains, baseball, and the Y :)

We got a pretzel and thought it was funny that this was from Pennsauken, New Jersey! Okay, maybe it's not that funny, but it made us smile :)

And I had to share these little gems... because we both just look so lovely! It was so sunny, Jimmie looks so pained. We took two attempts at pictures and couldn't see how they actually turned out because it was so sunny.  And this is what we got. Hahaha, oh well, we love each other anyway!! :)

 After resting a bit from the very hot baseball game, we decided to continue with projects that need to be done and went out to get us an air conditioner.  We had so many road blocks and detours with this project that ended up in an adventurous, funny, and long evening/night.  Long story short-- we got it to work.

Here's a picture of our funny little rigged window unit that we're so very proud of.  Our windows open side to side, not up and down.  So we got some plywood and a few other things to help hold our window unit up and hoped it would work.  As we were setting it up, our neighbors suggested that we duck tape the inside to keep the bugs out and just reinforce it.  When we went to buy the duck tape at Smiths just down the street, we ran into my Aunt Jan and some members of her family who actually live in Idaho but were visiting for a little while! Small world :)

So of course we bought Tie-Dye duck tap!!  I mean if we gotta look at the thing, it might as well be awesome.  I'm not sure if I'm going to tack pictures on the wood or paint it into a beautiful design.  But when I see that, I see a beautiful blank canvas for me to play with :) We'll see what it becomes.

For now, we don't look at it because we have the blinds down.  I've been meaning to get my curtain project done, but I haven't done it.  For now, the tension/curtain rod and unfinished curtains are taking over the gap the blinds leave.  I love how convenient my project procrastination has actually become :)

We also happened upon a Craig's List steal this weekend and bought this little end table thing.  It's technically a small TV stand, but we had been looking for something that was bigger than an end table, but not too big, that we could put the iMac on.  Jimmie's laptop is there too in this picture.  It's actually got a ton of storage as well which we weren't expecting and we're quite happy with our little purchase. You really can't see it well in these pictures, but it looks great in person.

Anyway, that's our long, somewhat pointless post!  But long story short, we had a great day and look forward to the many anniversaries to come :)