That's what I just said

First post of December!

I'm going to a crafting post today. Why? Because I already have a craft to share. Convenient, eh?

One thing I've discovered about myself as an adult is that I love word art. I'm guessing it has something to do with my addiction to movies and how I tend to watch movies over and over again until I have them memorized. Depending on who I'm with, quoting movies can integrate seamlessly into the way I talk (when I'm with my sisters especially). Even when I'm with people who I know won't get the references, I still quote movies and then explain them to my friends (My friends are really quite patient people). So, it stands to reason that any art I create tends to have words involved - paintings, coasters, even embroidery often includes quotes.

So, when I was working through the A-Z crafting project last year, I decided on P for Painting and made up a piece. This is one of my favorite jokes in White Christmas (1954) and it's a line my sisters and I often quote when we talk about the movie.

For the background, I decided to use the little fake mountain scene the characters create in the dining car when they sing "Snow." I was always intrigued by that scene when I was younger because it took me years to catch the moment when Phil and Betty create it. And I always thought it was a crazy how fast the little sculpture appeared.

Anyone else make art based on movie quotes?

None of your larking about

For Crafty Tuesday I am, once again, pulling something from my crafting blog to showcase today. I got into embroidery when I was doing a project with my friend, Kat, where we were crafting our way through the alphabet. It was a pretty awesome and pretty difficult project. I learned a lot along the way. I grew a lot along the way. I went from emotional breakdowns over failures (A for Apron) to shrugging them off and moving on (M for Macrame). And I discovered some amazing new crafts that I fell in love with: most notably, embroidery. I absolutely love to embroider. I overdid it last holiday season and got a little burned out so I've been trying to get myself back into it. But it's very fun, easy, and an inexpensive hobby. The first piece I did was a Mary Poppins piece. I'll show you my step by step process below. I will definitely be posting a bunch of embroidery posts on this blog because it is a very fun craft and I feel like it goes very well with my love of movies.

Supplies:
Muslin
Tailor's Marker/Pencil
Embroidery Thread
Embroidery Needle
Scissors
Hoop
Inspiration Image
Clothes pin






I bought plain white muslin (it's usually about $2-5/yard); three different colors of embroidery floss, one for each character and one for the words; a blue water soluble marker; an embroidery hoop; and eventually I invested in a nice pair of embroidery scissors.

I used a clothes pin to pin the fabric to my computer and traced the image onto the fabric with the marker. Being a cautious person, I tested this process on the screen corner but it didn't bleed through the fabric. 

Because the marker comes off easily, I didn't stress about mistakes and so I ended up with multiple lines at certain points. When I was actually stitching, I chose the line that looked best! Doing the words forced me to break out my cursive skills. Those haven't been put to the test in years!

I want candy

This week's craft post is not inspired by a classic movie... but it is inspired by a movie so I'm going to go with it.

My dear friend, Ashley, threw a Marie Antoinette themed party a little over a week ago. A few months prior, she and I were watching Marie Antoinette (2006) and we both fell in love with the minimal styling of playing cards from the time period. I've seen this kind of card before in Jane Austen adaptations like Mansfield Park. Ashley and I looked at each other and we agreed that we should definitely include those cards at the party.

I had this idea in my head that the cards, like Ashley's upcoming party, should all be in pastels. So, I bought a packet of pastel markers and Kat showed me where I could buy blank playing cards on Amazon.

I looked up other playing cards to see how the suits are lined up for each number.

For the royals, I googled Rococo art and found some lovely sketches of ladies and gentleman. I edited each picture to have a little reflection of the image at the bottom. Then I printed each one and modpodged them onto the cards.

End result? Fabulous.

Source: The Tillmans

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Pour me one too.

Okay, so full disclosure here: this is a project I posted about on a different blog that I started and I'm taking that post and using it here. The reason is that I had planned to make these again for the sake of this blog post/as a gift for a friend - and I ran out of time. So, here is the craft for this week: movie quote coasters. Or as I like to call them, Quotesters. Some day, maybe, I'll open a little Etsy shop with these little guys. It'll be great. When I have the time.

So this project was born from me wanting to give my brother a gift but having no idea what to make for him. My brother isn't quite as obsessed with old movies as I am but we grew up in the same household and he likes them a great deal too. And we share a common love for The Thin Man (1934) with William Powell and Myrna Loy. My brother one time pointed out that if you drank every time Nick and Nora drink, you'd be wasted by the end of the film. We actually did try that one time - I drank in sips though, not shots, so I remained (mostly) sober. Anyway. We both like The Thin Man. I had seen a tutorial on making coasters from family photographs, so, I decided to take pictures from the movie and put in quotes about drinking, since there are so many, and he could use those as cool cocktail coasters.

It's a very easy project. You get those little 4x4 tiles at Lowe's, Mod Podge, a sponge, and the pictures of your choice. You Mod Podge the pictures to the tiles and then add three layers of Mod Podge over the pictures themselves. It is a trifle time consuming because you have to wait 15 minutes between each coat. And then the tutorial recommends leaving them for 3 days to allow the sealant to completely dry so that no liquid seeps in.  I used canva.com to make the pictures with the quote bubbles. Oh, and you'll want those little felt stickers at the bottom to keep them from scraping up your furniture or the other coasters. I was able to get a pack of little ones at Walmart that are generally used for lamps and things. 

I have to admit, they turned out really well. I am pretty darn proud of them. I learned after doing this project a couple more times, that it's also good to spray clear spray paint over them. Otherwise, they can be a little sticky.

The one below and the three shown above are the designs I used for the coasters:

The ones below were designs I made but didn't make the cut to become coasters: