Initially

I needed something to decorate my new "office". What's kind of artsy but not to difficult and says "me!"? My initials of course. I bought two letters from Joann's made out of a cardboard type material. They're about 8 inches high. I saw an example, on Pinterest of course, that had had pages from a book, rolled into small tubes and glued to the letter to create kind of a striped effect.

 

 

 

 http://www.pinterest.com/pin/348184614912474496/

I wanted to do something similar but with materials I had around so I ended up using some old magazines. I liked the black and white print look though so I tried to use only pages that had articles on them and not pictures.

Before doing the front of the letters though, I painted the back and sides a light blue. I knew I wasn't going to have the patience to cover each side of the 3-D letters and I wanted a little pop of color.

Then, I moved on to the magazine strips.

 At first I tried to roll the pieces on a pencil so all of the rows would be the same size and nice and even. After a lot of different attempts at various techniques, I finally gave up on that method and I wish I had even earlier. In the end I basically just kind of rolled it by hand and tried to keep things fairly similar.

After I had a lot of rolls, I used mod podge to glue them to the front of the letter. I tried to trim the edges off any parts that weren't even or hanging to far off of the letter itself, sometimes that was easy, sometimes I nearly broke the pair of scissors. I recommend trying to get it as close as possible before you glue it down.

  

In the end, voila!  My very own, personalized cubicle decoration.

Colorful Rain

I'm addicted to Pinterest.  I have to admit I didn't really get it at first. Once I discovered the craft boards though, I was hooked.  

I saw a painting with the sillohuette of a girl holding an umbrella, with paint drops falling down on the umbrella, and I had to try and recreate it.  

I took a white canvas, taped a section where the sillhouette was going to go, picked some acrylic paint colors, and then starting putting blobs of paint at the top and letting it run down the canvas (tilting the canvas to get the paint to run at an angle).  I had to experiment with adding some water to the paint so it would run more easily. 

After the drops dried, I found a sillhouette shape I liked and traced it by placing a piece of paper over the computer screen.  (Had to go old school since I don't have a printer.).  Then I cut out the sillhouette, traced around it onto the canvas, and then filled it in with black paint (using black sharpie to help with some of the edges).

In the end I wasn't thrilled with the colors and I'd use different shades next time.  But overall it was fun to make and I liked the whole effect.  It was a fun first Pinterest project and motivated me to keep trying more.