Saturday, April 9, 2011

beauty in everyday things. :)

Today’s blog is a craft idea! :)


You know those days when you wake up, start the day, and all of sudden it’s like 5:00 in the afternoon? Thursday was one of those days. When I got back to my room, I just wanted to paint! To sit still, and try to make something, piece by piece. Do you ever feel like that?

I have this “craft dresser” underneath the bed in my dorm room filled with tissue paper, cards, brushes, paint, sketch books, sparkly pipe cleaners, bottle caps, a bent fork and a lot of other random things I figured I could use someday! Today, I wanted to make a picture of a bird, holding a little plant in it’s mouth with a little saying off to the side. :)

For this particular project, I grabbed:

~a small blank canvas

~modge podge (both glittery and normal)

~a paint brush and foam brush

~buttons

~black and white paint

~thin black sharpie

~glue gun

~and a lot of colored gift wrap tissue (I startes keeping pretty gift tissue after my graduation party from high school. There were so many cool colors and designs, they’ve very often come in handy)



I picked out several different designs and shades of pink for the background, one by one ripped off the pieces I need, and brushed modge podge on to the canvas with a foam brush for each lit

tle section. Spread a thin layer of modge podge on the canvas, lay the tissue on that small area and modge podge on top of the tissue as well to ensure it stays in place. Continue this until the canvas is covered! :)




After the modge podge dries, which takes about five-ten minutes, I hot glued various sizes and colored buttons to the bottom and trickling up the sides of the canvas. Now, I finally got to paint a little! Using the black paint and a fairly firm paint brush, I outlined a little cartoon bird.


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Brush white paint lightly in the birds body and tail to make it stand out. You can use black or green to paint the little, sweepy plant in the bird's mouth. Then use the thin, black sharpie to write a saying, quote, or verse to the left of the bird. I also ended up using the room at the top to write 1 Thess. 5:16-18, "Be joyful always, pray continually, rejoice in all circumstances. For this is God's will for you..." (what a great verse! God's general will for us is to thank Him, rejoicing in every circumstance, learn to live a life of prayer by grace, and find joy- despite our circumstances because we have an firm hope.) Quick Paul Miller quote I read earlier today...

"as we learn to pray well, we'll discover that this is my Father's world. Because my Father is in control of everything, I can ask, and He will listen and act. Since I am His child, change is possible- and hope is born."


And now the finished product! :) "Look for the beauty in everyday things." The more thankful you are and aware of the good in your life, the sweeter your life will be! :)


2 comments:

  1. This is SOO cute! I LOVE the bird, but I'm thinking there is NO WAY I could draw the bird... any suggestions on what I could do.

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  2. yeah! i used a cute little graphic from a calender to paint the bird. you could trace one on the canvas, closely follow a picture, buy a stencil or stamp or make your own design!

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