Monday, April 27, 2009

A Worthy Attempt

It's been about 7 months since I first started making coasters and note cards out of my photography.  I don't think I'm alone, as a crafter, when I say that lately I've become a little bored with looking at/doing the same thing.  A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to expand and experiment with a couple ideas I'd been wanting to try.  First, I wanted to make magnets out of my photos.  I had found some small tiles Leftovers, and I thought they'd be the perfect item for this project.  I was excited to finally make something out of a reclaimed good.  I painted the sides and made tiny prints...and that's where the fun stopped.  The tiles have curved edges, so it was difficult to know exactly how small to trim the prints so they wouldn't hang over the edges.  Plus, the Mod Podge seemed especially difficult to work with on the small surface.  I managed to get a few tiles assembled and let them dry for a day before applying the magnetic back.  However, I made the mistake of buying a roll of magnetic sheet.  I should have known, because I experienced this when I bought my first roll of cork, but I had a really tough time measuring and cutting the sheet because it kept curling up.   How am I supposed to cut a straight line?  And then to try to get it the exact same size as the tile back...sheesh!  I was able to cut a couple crooked squares, which I assured myself were just for a practice run, so it's ok that they weren't perfect (I'm surprised I was able to convince myself), but once I got the magnet back on the tile, I realized that that stick on the tile was quite weak, as was the magnet itself. Then I ditched the sheet idea and went with strong magnetic circles.  I distinctly remember standing in the magnet isle of Hobby Lobby fretting over which magnet size to get.  Fearing that the large circles were too big, I opted for a smaller size and would put two on each tile back.  I also bought a tube of Gorilla Glue--I didn't want another magnet sheet incident.  I thought my problems were solved, but little did I know just how gosh darn difficult it is to work with magnets and Gorilla Glue.  Positive and negative attractions meet strong glue that puffs up three times its size as it dries.  You can use your imagination, but just know that it was a downright mess!  It makes it a problem when I expect to be amazing at anything I try for a first time.  One of my cats, Francis, decided to give me moral support, so that helped.  Here's the result!

The other project I decided to attempt was a photo box.  Ideally, I wanted to use a cigar box so I could keep up my new "reclaimed goods" mantra, but I decided to experiment on plain wood boxes bought at Hobby Lobby.  I bought a gorgeous stain and went to town.  That was messy, too, but certainly not as frustrating.  My mistake in this project, though, was using a spray mount for my photographs instead of Mod Podge.  The spray mount just didn't want to adhere to the oil-based wood stain (duh, Julie).  Overall, I thought the boxes turned out pretty gorgeous.  None of them sold at the show I was in over the weekend, but I'm happy with them.


1 comment:

  1. Oooh, I love the boxes, Julie! Very pretty, so great for keepsakes :)

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