Sunday Crafts: Melted Crayon Art

Preview:

I absolutely LOVE Sundays.  Why so?  Well, for one, I don't have to go into lab (most of the time) to check on my cells and it's usually my day of relaxation.  Recently, my only obligations seem to be my morning long run.  I fueled up with pb toast and bananas and headed out for a 12-miler on what just happened to be a gorgeous day in San Diego.  It actually got into the 80s today, but luckily I finished by run when it was only in the low 70s.  Warm, but beautiful.  I was also feeling good because this was my last long run before the half marathon next weekend!  I scoped out a majority of the course and besides a gradual hill from mile 8-10, the rest of the course is flat and the last 2+ miles are downhill!  (today's run, 12 miles: 9:56 min/mi 1:59:14; took it pretty easy, but legs feeling refreshed)

View on my run, via Instagram

Onto the important things!  Sundays are also great because I have time to do things I normally don't: CRAFTS.  If you're currently breathing and especially if you're a girl then, more likely than not, you've heard of Pinterest.  A lot of my crafting inspiration comes from Pinterest and one of my favorite finds is melted crayon art.  My favorite ones I've seen are one using blues and grays to look like rain and another using greens and yellows to look like grass and then with flowers added for embellishments.  There are many other ideas and color schemes, but I chose to replicate those ones.

Supplies:
2 boxes 64-count Crayola crayons
2 canvases (I used 11 x 17)
Hot glue gun
Hairdryer
Newspaper or something to cover floor/wall
Black marker/paint
Floral embellishments

Directions:

• Get your supplies together

 

• Choose your colors and set them up in your chosen pattern.  Optional:  Stencil on a picture you like with permanent marker or paint.

• Use hot glue gun to glue down crayons.  My personal preference is having all the crayons symmetrical with the "crayola" side showing.

• Let crayons dry for ~20 min. to make sure they're firmly glued to the canvas.  In the meantime, grab your favorite beverage and drink up!

 

White wine for me on a nice sunny day.  You can bet I bought the wine purely for the name and label

• Set canvases up against a wall with something covering the floors and wall in case wax spashes.
• If you drew or painted something on the canvas, make sure to cover it with masking tape.
• Plug in hairdryer and put on high setting.  Crayons may begin to melt at different rates and you may want to focus the heat on certain area more than others.  Play around with the settings and movement of the hairdryer to get the crayons to melt the way you want it to.  It may not be perfect, but that's the beauty of this art.
  
  
  
• I let the crayon melt further down the canvas on the "rain" one and made the crayons melt together more.  I wanted the "grass" one to look more individual, like stems, and still have room to put flowers.
• Turn the "grass" canvas over and apply flower embellishments
  
  
  
  Overall it can be a little time consuming, but it's the perfect craft for a free day.  Can't wait to hang them up!
  
  

Deck The Halls

 Shaun and I got our very first, real, live Christmas tree to celebrate our first Christmas living together.  Even though we're both celebrating the actually holiday with our respective families (the drawback of our hometowns being far apart) we both wanted a tree of our own to decorate.

Ornaments from Shaun's grandparents

Our finished tree

We I got in touch with my creative side and added more festive decor:

It's amazing what a silver tray, epsom salt, tea-candles/holders, some pine cones, and mini white lights can do.  The centerpiece really warms up the whole room.

  I also love something as simple as putting ornaments in any clear glass vase or container.

Lastly, I have to share the amazing wrapping paper and supplies I picked up from Cost Plus World Market.  I can't wait to give family and friends some pretty looking presents that are totally "me".

Owl, bears, nature, the simplicity...I love it all!

Now I just have to finish wrapping all those presents...

Home Team Pride

If you really know Shaun and I then you know we both love baseball.  What makes this a little more interesting is that our respective love is for rival teams.  I bleed Dodger Blue and Shaun is a Giant's fan.  There has been some name calling here and there but, overall, we've made it work.  In fact one of the only times we fight is when our teams play one another.

When we moved in together, I struggled with how I would decorate and somehow incorporate our love for our teams without seeming too one-sided.  I've already not so discreetly out my Ethier bobblehead on our bookshelf and I'm not sure how much more he could take.

Naturally and idea came to be while surfing the interwebs, mostly Etsy and Pinterest.  Those prints of hometown pride/ "home is where the heart is" are all the rage.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LilyGene?ref=seller_info

What if I could make something similar that included our love for our teams?  I'm not super computer savvy, so I was slightly intimidated.  However, this was as simple as using PowerPoint -- found an outline of California, filled in background with selected color, add text and shape. Ta-da!

I printed out our pictures and bought some fairly cheap frames from Kohls and there you have it!  I decided to surround the two larger 8x10 pictures with five 4x6 pictures of us at both ballparks.  I pretty happy with the results because it's not too easy to blend nice design and sports without looking a little crazy.  But hey, we're both a little crazy for our teams.

What do you think?

I've Got that Fall Feeling

Can you believe that Halloween is in 1 week?!  I sure can't.  I also can't believe that I've already been living in San Diego for almost 1 month already.  Time sure does fly!  Things are coming along smoothly in the apartment, but we still have a long way to go, decor wise.  However, my mom has certainly made it easier to decorate for the holidays with her adorable gift packages she's sent me.  Items have included decorative dishtowels, place mats, napkins, and candy to boot!  Plus, Shaun and I finally bought two chairs for our dining table so at least we have a fun place to eat our meals now :)

 

What do you think? Fun, huh?  Those little "spiders" that are our wine glass holders are actually supposed to be cupcake holders from Crate and Barrel.  When my mom went into the store, she saw the them holding the wine glasses and I couldn't resist once she told me. 

Now we just need two more chairs so we can finally have people over to eat! ...Oh, and I guess I'll need to find a new place to put my bike that is currently hiding on the opposite side of the table.

I'm also so excited that ABC Family has started their 13 days of Halloween movie marathon, including showing my favorite Halloween movie, Hocus Pocus! (Even though I own it on DVD)

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 Question:  What's your favorite movie to get you in the Halloween Spirit?