Imperfect Slice of Life: I'm so crafty, I sweat Glitter

Ha! I bet that one got your attention, didn't it? A couple days ago I saw this super image that someone had pinned on Pinterest. I thought it was perfect to go into a frame that my mom and I had bought several years ago, and has just been stored in a box since we got married and moved into our home.

The only problem was that I couldn't find the original source of the image, so I took a screenshot to save it to my phone. I figured I'd save it for a rainy day when I could figure out what to do.

Well, it didn't quite make it to a rainy day. It made it to a day when I was waiting for stain to dry on our patio furniture.

So while the stain was drying, I tried to think of what to do. And I think in all my DIY-ness and enjoying my summer, I seem to think I am near invincible.

So, in all my invincibleness, I decided I could create my own version.

First step, pull the frame out of storage. When I was in college, my mom and I were shopping at Crafts 2000, and we came across some unfinished wood frames that were on clearance for less than three dollars. I loved the shape of them, so we bought them all, but I don't have a before picture (Sorry!). During all our wedding painting and crafting, I painted each of the frame a different color. I had painted one of them a beautiful shade of peach.

This Peaches 'n Cream paint by Americana is one of my favorite acrylic paints.

Once I had decided on the frame I would use, it was time to tackle the hard part: figuring out how to make my own version of this.

If you are interested in creating your own, here are the directions to complete this DIY project.

To start, I got a white piece of 8.5x11 cardstock, and cut it down to fit into the frame.

Next I moved on to draw the pennant banner across the paper. I figured it was the easiest part, but it was a place to start. I used a Sharpie pennant marker to draw the string. And a Papermate Flair pen to draw the pennants. First I drew on the string, and then drew on the triangles to create the pennants across the paper. You can draw them any way you want. As you can see, I just drew the line and the triangles, no measurement, no perfect triangles.

Next I selected the colors I wanted to use on the banner. Since I selected the peach colored frame, I figured it would be perfect to have all my favorite blues and greens to balance the peach. So I pulled out my stash of markers and got to picking!

I used a RoseArt Bri,glut green, and the rest Crayola: orange, infra red, teal, laser lemon, battery charged blue, sea foam green, and raspberry.

Next, I decided the color pattern I wanted to use to color the banner in. And went to town coloring. I will caution that when you are coloring, take your time (that's the teacher in me)!

This is what mine ended up looking like.

Next, was the hardest part, the lettering. I searched on Google to find a few different fonts that I liked to get an idea of what I wanted mine to look like.

I decided to start with the world "glitter" since I wasted it to be the most prominent on the page. I decided to go with a plain font so that I would be able to fill it in with glitter. So I used my Papermate Flair and very carefully drew it on.

Next, I moved onto the rest of the lettering. I tend to write up, and since the banners are on a slant, I knew I would end up writing all sorts of crooked, so I improvised and made myself some line guides using left over scrapbook paper scraps.

Between my two papers (aka line guides), I wrote "I sweat" in my practiced lettering. I then repositioned the papers to add "crafty," and again with "I'm so".

This is what I ended up with, a sort of funky script and an open, bold print for "glitter".

The next step takes patience and a steady hand. I used a thin paint brush to paint Mod Podge into the open letters to prep for glitter.

Sprinkle glitter on top of the letters.

Shake of excess glitter over a trash can.

My first attempt wasn't so successful, the glitter was too thin. So I went back over it with a thicker layer of Mod Podge to be sure it would attach the next time.