Craft Fails, and a Little Fun

My niece is leaving for college this week.  I had a few last-minute projects to wrap up for her birthday and to help her take care of a few details...and it felt like Friday was one LONG craft fail.

Sigh.

She wanted to take her large Audrey Hepburn canvas with her, but can you imagine a 40"ish canvas in a dorm room?  Or in a Honda, for that matter?  So I had the idea that I'd just make her a dorm-sized one.

Fine.  Then I realized I used the wrong picture, and I should have made her dress black.  So I put it in the closet and figured I'd redo it when it got closer to her birthday.  Or, you know, Friday, the week before she left for school.  The kids and I went to pick up spray paint because in the meantime, Keely had requested a Jackie O canvas like the Audrey Hepburn one...only in pink.  So, I thought, sure--what can go wrong?

Um, it could be HIDEOUS.  That's what could go wrong.

And the new Audrey?  Yeah, not sure what I did wrong but the paint just wasn't right.  Sigh.

I had the idea to do a 3rd hanging for the group, so I picked the Coco Chanel quote, "A girl should be two things, classy and fabulous."  I wanted to do something cool, like Keely, so I thought an ombre background would be neat.  Only...it blew onto the ground before it was dry, and I ended up with dirt in the paint.  Bleh.

I wasn't deterred--I made a vinyl stencil of the quote and spray painted it (attempted to spray paint is more like it) onto a chalk/magnet board.  And I didn't get a picture, but it was BAD.  Lesson learned:  why stencil when I could have just used the vinyl I pulled out to make a stencil?  Double sigh.  So, my Boy and I put our heads together and came up with a new idea for the magnet board--a cool scrapbook paper and her monogram, which she is crazy about right now.  But more on that in a minute.

So this is what she ended up with:  a remade magnet board, and an initially-rejected Audrey.


While I was at Keely's last week helping her pack (you know I live to organize--it was like Christmas for me!), we found her laundry bag.  I was all, sure, I can put your name on it, no problem.

Problem:  White fabric paint didn't stand out on the lime mesh.  So we tried pink.  And it didn't really work, so I took it outside and used dark pink spray paint.  Only...I sprayed outside of the stencil.  And the stencil slipped at some point in the process, so the Y was smudged.  And the fabric paint adhered to the paper I'd put in between the mesh layers and even a soaking in the washing machine didn't get it...oh, I wanted to cuss!

So, I ended up running to WalMart and getting a replacement bag, and cutting vinyl to make her name. But, the place where I press the vinyl was closed, so I'll get it done tomorrow and put it in the mail.  Geez.

The whole monogram thing started when Keely asked if I could make a monogram for her new computer case.  I was like, sure--because I always say yes.  It's a sickness.  So, I learned that monograms are harder than they look.  But I figured it out, and I NAILED it.  Ha.   After a long day of craft fails, it felt good to knock out several vinyl monograms for her.  I went a bit overboard, though, and ended up sitting up for a few hours later than I should have weeding the vinyl.   It was totally worth it!   I also made a few for our cousin (Keely's freshman roommate!), which was fun.  Turns out, Ms are tough in this kind of monogram.  Who knew?

I wanted to do something fun for Keely, so I thought I'd make her a pajama shirt to go with some cute boxers.  So, I did.  And all was well...until I peeled off the wet stencil with ink on my hands and smeared white fabric ink on the shirt.  AAARGH!!!  Thank goodness it's just PJs...

Once we got going talking about what we COULD do with monogramming, vinyl, etc. it was hard to stop.  Keely wanted a monogram for her new lamp, so I was happy to oblige.  She put this one on herself--not bad for her first try!

...and then, like her aunt, Keely went a little nuts with the monograms.





And those are just the pictures she sent me--I suspect there are lots of things in her room that now bear her monogram.  :)  We had such a laugh over the constant stream of photos that James decided to have a little fun at Keely's expense, and posted these photos on her facebook page:

 I won't name names, but somebody actually thought we put those stickers on Bubby while he was sleeping.  Photoshop, friend...Photoshop.

I don't think I'm ready for Keely to go off to college, or Reagan to start high school, or Kayci to start her last year at Krause and Noble to start his last year of preschool...but time marches on, doesn't it?