Hello all!
Just wanted to let you know that I am going to be on a bit of a hiatus for about 3 weeks because I am traveling to Spain!  I have a friend who has been teaching English there for the last year and I am going to stay with her and travel around the country.  If you guys don't mind, I might post some about my trip while I am gone and I will keep my eye out for fashion and craft inspirations. I'm sure there will be tons of new things to see and experience.
If there is anything that you would like to know about or see from my trip, please let me know and I'll be happy to share.

Cheers!

Metal Tray Chalkboard

After running into this pin on Pinterest, I decided to make my own chalkboard from a metal tray. Although you can paint on almost anything using chalkboard paint, the bonus to using a metal pan is that it's magnetic as well so you can stick notes to it.  I made one of these for my mom for Mother's Day (card and a gift in one!). Here is the instructions for the version that I made for myself:

1. Supplies: metal tray (I got mine from Goodwill for about a $1 each. Make sure that it's made of steel if you want it to be magnetic. I ran around Goodwill looking for a magnet to check the trays and ended up using the magnetic clasp of a purse!), chalkboard paint, painters tape, foam brush.

2. Clean and prep your tray. I recommend taping the edges. I was unable to tape the one that I made for myself because of the scalloped edges and it was much more difficult to clean up. Paint your first layer of paint. This layer won't look very good because the paint does not stick to metal very well so don't worry if it looks streaky, just try to even it out as much as possible and don't leave any big puddles.

3. Wait at least one hour for your first layer to dry then add as many as you need to make the surface opaquely covered. I did 3 layers letting each dry for at least one hour between. If the paint is not dry before you start painting the next layer, the paint will smudge and become bumpy.

4. Once your layers are done and dried, run a knife around the edge of the tape before peeling it off. I learned the hard way that sometimes the tape tries to take some of the paint with it and creates a ragged edge if you do not cut it first.  Condition your board for drawing by covering it with chalk and wiping it clean.

Now have fun drawing!

Here is the board that I made for my household (we call ourselves The Nook):

The shape of my tray was really unique and it happened to fit our welcome sign perfectly so, I might leave it and make another just for drawing on. I love this one too much to erase it!

For tips on chalkboard drawing read this blog post here

Stay crafty,

Refashion: Polka dot denim shirt

Here is the finished version of my thrifted denim shirt refashion. I sized it down, rolled the sleeves and created a tie-front. It was a pretty simple project but I got hung up on the pocket. I had planned to size it down quite a bit but when I took it off I realized that the fabric had been lightened by the sun so there would be a dark spot where the pocket had been. I toyed with the idea of bleaching it, but I didn't want to ruin the shirt so I ended up just putting it back on. Oh well, lessoned learned.

Not too bad for $4 and a bit of elbow grease. See my inspiration post here.

Always,