Shoe Addict Thriving: Crafting on the Go

Shannon:

02/01/2011

I am in the process of packing for my vacation and I always take along a few things with me to do on the plane. I usually take a small crochet project and a sketch book with me. Here are some tips for taking crochet on the plane.

1. Get yourself some bamboo or plastic hooks. This goes for knitting as well as crochet. Crochet hooks tend to look less threatening than knitting needles. This article has great tips for knitting. While plastic hooks are cheaper I have to say I would invest the money in the bamboo. I purchased them a year and a half ago for an Orlando, FL. vacation with my husband and they are now the only hooks I use.

2. Small, blunt craft scissors with a blade under 4 inches are allowed on the plane! TSA's prohibited sharp objects list shows that "Scissors - metal with pointed tips and blades shorter than four inches" are allowed in carry one. I am always paranoid that they are going to take away my craft scissors even child ones with blunt tips. Also, the cruise line that we are going on has notorious crazy scissor confiscation stories and a whole message board dedicated to ways to outsmart the scissor police. So here is an out of the box option - Empty Floss Container!

3. Don't get to carried away. Be realistic you will probably only work on it during the flight so work on something with only a couple of colors.

Shoe Addict Thriving: Practicing with Mod Podge

Shannon:

01/26/2011

 

I have been wracking my brain and searching the Internets to figure out how to achieve the look I wanted for the wall art in Ben's man cave. I wanted to mount the pictures from the University of Maryland on canvas and then hang the canvases on the feature wall of his room.

When I searched the Internet there were many websites that had snarky answers such as, "Why would you want to mount a photo on a canvas? Why wouldn't you just have the photo printed on the canvas?" I had basically given up on the idea and just decided to do the collage in giant frames from the craft store.

Luckily at the homemade gift exchange last Friday my friend introduced me to the little product known as Mod Podge. I am not quite sure how I have made it this long without knowing what Mod Podge is, but am I glad she let me know about it! I searched Mod Podge the other day and found that there are many how to articles on how to mount photo's to canvas with it.

digitalscrapbookplace.com had a lovely tutorial on making art on canvas. They used one print out to cover the entire canvas. Check it out for lovely ideas for canvas art.

ehow.com had many articles on how to use Mod Podge on canvas. They say to use the fabric kind to mount things on canvas.

For my test run I simply used the matte finish regular kind. I used an old canvas and painted it blue with left over latex wall sample paint. I then took pictures of my niece, nephew, and dad to make a canvas "scrapbook page" for my dad and mom.

I didn't do the most perfect job on it - some of the pictures are mounted crookedly. I really just wanted to get an idea of how the product would work. I was pleased with how easy it was to use, how it adhered the photos to the canvas, and how the finish looked. I believe I have found the technique I am going to use...now to plan out the canvases themselves.