Category Archives: Crafting

States of Love Floating Picture Frame

. Crafting, DIY, i want to make this . ,

A very strange thing happened this year for mother’s day. It took a “stately” turn. You see, back in October, I had this really awesome cutting board made for my mom for Christmas. I bought it on etsy and loved it so much I thought about keeping it for myself. (BTW, does anyone else other than Michiganders have a slightly unhealthy infatuation

The only state where you get TWO cutting boards for the price of one!

I found something better to give to my mom for Christmas (SOOOOO much better.) I decided to punt this one for a Momma’s Day gift and I think it was a score. For once, I had Mother’s Day covered well in advance.

Now, it’s pretty easy to buy or make gifts for your own mom (my mom has had her fair share of homemade gifts,) but your mother-in-law is a different story. So waaaaaay back when I first started my Pinterest addiction I saw the pin for a States of Love Floating Picture Frame (by kayladanelle.com) and knew it would be perfect for my MIL. She has grandchildren scattered between Iowa (her most recent grandson),  Colorado, and Arizona.

How do you photo glass straight on and not get a glare? Anyone?

I LOVE how this turned out and it was SO EASY! Even better, I was able to do it with supplies I had around the house. What? You think referring to a picture frame as a “supply” is weird? You have no idea how many dead soldiers we do not have in use right now just waiting for the perfect photo, print, or craft. So yes, this 11×18 floating picture frame was sitting, unopened downstairs in Matt’s office, just begging to be put to use.

The one thing I had a hard time figuring out with this is how to resize the images. I had 4×6 glossy photo paper and wanted the states to fit onto that. But when you go to this site to get the map images (use the Reference Map) it saves as an 8.5×11 PDF…and we all know you can’t resize a pdf. BUT, you CAN adjust your printer paper size, which in turn will scale the maps down to the size you want.

Go to file–>print setup–>and select your paper size under the “size:” section

I had 4×6 paper, but chose 5×7 as my print size and it fit perfectly (there is a slight border and some state facts that also print up along with the state.)

Use a craft knife and if you don’t have a craft knife, find the smallest scissors you own, like eyebrow cutting scissors size.  And the only reason I say that is because I used my eyebrow cutting scissors, only because my craft knife and craft scissors have vanished recently. Because, the more detailed you are with the borders, the sharper it looks.

I would also recommend using a small heart sticker to place over your city. I did not do this and cutting out those tiny hearts was tough. This probably took as much time as it did to cut out the states (Because lets face it, Colorado is not a challenging state to cut out. I’ll let you know long it takes me to do Michigan as I start my own States of Love frame this week with the states where Matt, myself and the kids were born – Michigan, Illinois, Colorado.)

So there you have it, a very “stately” Mother’s Day. Obviously my subconscious is trying to tell me something. I would love to hear what a therapist has to say about this one.

Friday Flop – Cutting Glass

. Crafting, DIY, Friday Flop . ,

One spring night back in 2000, my Senior year of college, in the parking lot of PT O’Malley’s in East Lansing, Michigan, I had a 2:15am, drunken, crying I-don’t-know-what-I’m-going-to-do-with-my-life, meltdown. I declared that I wanted to be a glassblower! And I was not lying. I would have LOVED to move to Makawao, Maui, Hawaii and work at Hot Island Glass….I have dreamed about it since high school. Unfortunately, Michigan State did not offer any glass blowing classes that I could justify taking (but Flower Arranging, I did get 2 credits for that one, Scuba Diving, 1)

Underwater Basket Weaving…if offered, I might have taken it

Where am I going with this you ask? Well, despite my love of glass, it is one crafting adventure I have not taken yet. So when I saw the Cut The Bottom Of A Wine Bottle Off To Make Neat Candle Protectors post, I jumped on Amazon and bought a glass cutter. It was about $8. I bought a really awesome bottle of Reilsling because the bottle was a pretty turquoise and figured I would be able to find a place to put it. Even though candles, or anything breakable in a house with a 3 year old and a 10 month old Godzilla Baby (“I WILL DESTROY ANYTHING THAT COMES IN MAH PATH!”) will pretty much be taken out at the knees (and yes, candles can have knees.) I still think it would be a nice piece of decor in my vastly-decorless house.

I also knew that this was going to be a more detailed project and I would probably not be successful on my first attempt so I decided to practice first on a beer bottle. Because, by just a few days after I bought the cool wine bottle, I found another pin How To Cut A Bottle Using Household Items which inspired to use a Corona bottle as practice.

You are correct, I did not read the instructions

Turns out, there are special bottle glass cutters and the one I was using, I determined, is most likely for stained glass or flat surface glass cutting. Definitely not bottles. I also didn’t hold it under hot water long enough, or cold water….just. a. total fail.

Glass CutterWarning: Do Not Use This To Cut Glass Bottles….

I will most likely use the yarn-rubbing alcohol-fire technique when I actually get around to it, seems like it’s less work with better results.

and that pretty blue wine bottle is still sitting on my window sill

and my future in glass is still bleak….