Collage Prints out of Kids' Artwork

Twinboy and Twingirl came home at the end of the school year with all their artwork. Adorable? Yes. But also huge and unwieldy. They each brought home over a dozen pieces that were at least 14 by 14. We don't exactly have a lot of bare wallspace, and even the fridge couldn't handle more than two of those pieces at a time. I tried to roll them up and put them in a tube, but they were too bulky even for that. How was I going to save their beautiful work?

They sat in one of those huge plastic tubs for a few weeks until I came up with this idea.

First, I decided that from here on out I was going to take a digital image of each piece of art as it came home, and create a special folder for each kid on my computer where I would store the photos. I found something we had made out of posterboard, flipped it over to the empty side, and put it on the floor. Then I had the kids lay out each piece one at a time against the white background while I stood above, snapping away.

But I wanted to do more than just keep the photos on my computer. So I decided to make and print a collage that I could hang in the kids' playroom.

I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 to make my collage. If you have this, you can follow this process:

1. Click on "Create" on the right hand side, then click "photo collage." I chose the 12 x 12 size so I could enlarge it and still be able to have a somewhat standard size for printing.
2, The basic template gives you eight photos. I wanted nine, but I quickly figured out that the preset photo slots included a white border, while ones you added manually did not. To keep everything the same, I wound up deleting all the preset slots (hover the cursor on top of the photo slot and his the DELETE button).
3. I import my photos by clicking "File" and then "Open." Then I navigated to the photo I wanted and clicked it. The photos I importedshowed up in the project bin at the bottom of the screen.
4. Once my photos were in the project bin, I clicked back on the empty background so it appeared on the main screen. Then I simply "dragged and dropped" my photos onto the background. One caveat: the photos drop in at full size, so I needed to shrink them to the approximate size I wanted using the little boxes on the corners. Once a photo was at the right size, I clicked on the green check box to save it.

5. Once I had all nine photos on the background, I spend some time rearranging, resizing, bringing forward, bringing backward, and tilting the photos until they were organized the way I wanted them. Then I saved it as a JPEG file.

I wanted this puppy blown up to 24 x 24 (in retrospect, I wish I had gone a little bigger) and I found PrintKeg, an online print shop that was the least expensive option I found that would print such an unusual size. It said "poster prints," and I was a little afraid I would get a super thin papery print, but it was not that at all.  It was regular, thick photo paper.

Meanwhile, I got two pieces of 24 x 24 inch plywood, a quarter inch thick. I could have used poster board, but I couldn't easily find the size I needed. I got the plywood from D & D plywood online but you can also get plywood at places like Home Depot.

The poster prints came in a tube, so I had to flatten them out somewhat before adhering them to the wood. I unrolled them and put them good side to good side, then placed the boards and some heavy books on top for a day or two.

Meanwhile, I sanded the edges of the plywood and then painted the edges with green poster paint.

When I was ready to attach the prints to the boards, I used binder clips to place the prints in the exact place I wanted them. They were slightly bigger than the plywood. I used eight clips - one in each corner and one on the middle of each side.

Once the print was positioned where I wanted it, I removed the three clips along the left side and pulled the print to I held it out of the way with one hand while I used the other hand to apply an even layer of Mod Podge to the exposed wood with a foam brush. Once the Mod Podge was applied, I started at the center of the print and slowly smoothed the print down against the board. I moved my hand up and down to push out any air bubbles, and smoothed the print down from the center to the left side. Then I put the clips back on the left side and repeated the process on the right side.

I tried to smooth out any air bubbles I could, then I put the clips back on to hold everything in place, and let the Mod Podge dry for about a half an hour.

Once the Mod Podge was dry, I flipped the board over on a cutting mat and used a rotary cutter to cut the two edges where the print was slightly bigger than the board.

Then I applied a layer of Mod Podge to the top of the print.  I made sure to keep my brush strokes going in only one direction (up and down OR left to right).

I put about three coats of Mod Podge on top in all. I also made sure to coat the sides. I alternated brush strokes for each coat to give it a canvas-type look. I made sure to let each coat dry completely in between.

I used velco picture hangers to attach the boards to the wall in the kids' playroom when I was done.

Homemade Grungy Timer Tealights

I love grungy candles.
But even moreso, I love flameless candles.  My love began when my kids were little: Cave toddlers and open flames are not a good mix. The more I got to know flameless candles, the more I liked them. No mess, no melty wax goo, no soot marks on my wall, no panicking about whether the candles were all blown out or not.
When a friend turned me onto flameless candles with TIMERS, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Going around and turning on a dozen or so candles every day was only slightly less annoying than lighting a dozen candles every day.
The problem for me was, that there really weren't a ton of options available with the flameless timers. I found some pillar that I liked, and managed to find some grungy candlestick type ones that I put in my windows. But search as I might, I couldn't find any grungy-esque tealights with times.  Grungy tealights, no timer. Timer tealights, no grunge. But no combination of the three.


So I decided to make some!
You can buy white timer tealights lots of places - craft stores, online, etc. I bought about four 4 packs of these.

 

You will also need:

 

• Mod Podge
• Ground Coffee (for texture)
• Instant Coffee (for color)
• Plastic container with lid
• Disposable spoon
• Small flat painbrush - bristles should be about 1/2 inch wide
• Water
• Wax paper

 

I don't have any pics of the process because I did these awhile ago. But it will be fine.

 

Pour some Mod Podge into your plastic container. Add a little instant coffee and stir. This will dissolve completely and will give you mixture it's color. Keep adding until it gets to the color you like.
Then add your regular coffee. This won't dissolve as easily and will give you the little bumps and granules that will add texture. Add as much as you like.  Stir stir stir.
Cover your work are with wax paper. These suckers are going to be sticky.
When painting your tealights, hold them by the flame part and paint the top first. Don't worry if you get a little on the flame part - it's not supposed to look perfect. Then paint the sides. It will go on thick, don't worry. If it seems TOO thick add a LITTLE water. But you don't want it too think. Somewhere between paint and glue is a good consistency. Also, don't panic if it doesn't seem to cover much with the first coat. This is plastic, after all. It's a multiple coat project.
Once all of your tealights have their first coat, leave them on the wax paper to dry COMPLETELY. Drying completely between coats is an important step. Otherwise, you will end up with a mushy mess. If you press in with your finger and you feel movement or leave a fingerprint, they are not dry.
The first coat will probably take about 6 hours to dry. Subsequent coats, even more, like overnight.
Keep adding coats until you have achieved the coverage you want.
Add batteries, turn on all the timers at once, scatter throughout your home, and enjoy!

Put the lid on your container, and save this gooey goodness for another project!

Tile Coasters and Clay Pots Coasters

I've seen several pins on Pinterest about how to easily make coasters with scrapbook paper and Mod Podge, and I decided to kick it up a notch.

The tile coaster method usually involves buying the cheapo 4 inch ceramic tile squares in basic white.  But while I was browsing the tile aisle at Lowe's I found some really cool porcelain tiles that had more of a tumbled stone look. Were they as cheap as the cheapos? No, but at 33 cents apiece I didn't really feel that it was an issue.  This was still going to be a super inexpensive project.  I bought four in a cocoa color and four in a lighter beige color.  Since most of my home is decorated in browns, it made more sense to me than stark white tiles, anyway. I also bought four 4 inch clay pot saucers at Michael's.

Scrapbook paper in the brown family is not exactly plentiful, but I did find two really cool patterns that I absolutely loved.  One was the words "live," "laugh," and "love" printed in various fonts against a beige background.  The other looked like letters and numbers in various sizes of printer's type - all brown shades. The other ones I had would have been ok, but these were the ones that seemed to "pop" the most when held up against the different types of tile.

Be sure to use wax paper!

I used my paper trimmer to trim four squares of each of the papers. I made the squares a little smaller than 4 x 4 so the paper didn't extend competely to the edge.  Once I decided which paper I wanted on which colored stone, I brushed a layer of Mod Podge on each tile and centered the paper on top, making sure not to have any bubbles.  Once it had set, I covered the top and sides with two coats of Mod Podge, letting it dry in between coats for about an hour.do this on wax paper in case it drips down.  If it does, you can pretty much just pick off the excess.  If it leaves a bump, a little sanding block action should take care of that.

Make sure it's dry before flipping!

 Moving on to the saucers.  First, I painted the tops and bottoms with two THIN coats of Rustoleum Metallic spray paint in Oil Rubbed Bronze. Be sure to let the paint dry adequately in between.  Don't be impatient, especially once you flip over to do the other side.  If you rush it, you'll be sorry, in the form of messed up edges.

Meanwhile, get out your circle cutter.  Or, if you're like me and don't have one, find a glass or some other round object that is close to the size of the inner circle of the saucer.  Use that cup to cut out four circles of your choice of scrapbook paper. Use the same Mod Podge technique described above. This time make sure to coat the inside of the saucers as well.  You want the whole thing waterproof. Two coats again, being sure to let it dry completely in between coats. Then a coat of clearcoat, just cause.
 
Last step.  You need something on the bottom to keep the stones and saucers from roughing up your tables.  I used little felt circles that you put on chair legs. They're a little thicker than I would like, but it's what I had. I cut them in quarters and put one in each corner. You could also use felt or cork. Thin cork sheets would probably work best.  But I'm happy with these.  I think they look really unique and I'm so glad I didn't go with the cheapo white ceramic tiles.