Recycled Mint Tin Love Token

 My friend Britney and I made a pact in August:  to make some crafty goodness for each other.  We would see each other in October (she lives in Boise and I in Portland) at our Arts Management MA reunion in Eugene, Oregon. 

There was no condition stating that said craft needed to be complete by the time of the reunion or that gifts would be exchanged in person, but to be totally honest I totally forgot about our pact until early October.  At which point, I figured I might as well commit and crank a tiny thing of beauty!

I needed the inspiration to get going anyway.  I feel like a bit of a charlatan, given that my blog's title sounds so... recklessly, hopelessly dedicated to making stuff.

But the reality is this: I work 40 hours a week, man.  This week it actually clocked in at 51 hours.  There's something to be said for the arts being a luxury of the rich, because if I had concentrated leisure time, I'd totally max it out with things I love! I'd paint, I'd embroider, I'd cover things in glitter and learn woodworking (mostly so I can make a badass "no soliciting" sign for my house).

But such is not my situation this fall.  My usual nighttime activity consists of struggling to keep my eyes open till at least 9 pm, and usually snuggles with my cat.

Kitty the Cat, Stalwart Companion

Ah well.  Gotta earn those $$ so you can buy those $$$ woodworking kits!

Pressed for time but earnest in my desire to make something she could reasonably fit within her carry-on luggage, I espied an empty mints tin upon my desk at work.

This tin had been empty for a year, but I could not bring myself to throw it away.  I knew it had a destiny.

And so, I decided to craft a small diorama for my Idahoan friend, who spent 2 years living in Oregon as we completed our degrees.

I did not really document the process because I know she sometimes reads this blog, and I did not want to ruin the surprise!

So I will describe what I should have done.  Yes, for mistakes were made and lessons were learned!

1.  I covered up the outside by mod podging on some adorable woodland-themed paper.  Trimming it to size is a bit awkward, so I opted for washi tape wrapped around the sides and hide the misjudgments.

2.  On some watercolor paper cut to size, I painted trees.  Just trees.  After letting this dry, I scribed on my message and added a tiny rabbit using gel ink.

2A.   I was timid about drawing any woodland creatures, and so only committed to drawing an eensy weensy rabbit head popping up.  And wouldn't you know, the first thing she said when she opened it:  "Aaah, a little rabbit!"  So, aim big!

3.  Having purchased beautiful sparkly paper, I cut this to size and used it as a sky background.  I got lucky and found this raincloud sticker amidst my ancient scrapbooking supplies - I just knew it too had a Destiny!

4.  I just happened to have some mushroomy fabric, so I cut a strip to create the ground within the actual tin.  Before totally gluing it down, I arranged a small mushroom-on-wire which I had found at Collage, along with my other invaluable purchases:

• tiny deer
• small, cheerful gnome-man

5.   I had a devil of the time getting the gnome to glue into place, so I would suggest something more serious than Elmer's.

6.  I decided that the spindle deer legs would DEFINITELY not match up well with Elmer blobs, so I decided to frame this to my friend as the "charming moveable component."

Overall -- 
 

Note the tiny, delightful rabbit head

My friend was delighted, I'm delighted to say.  It also made for a very popular Instagram.

Ta da!  Now that she has it, this concludes my blogging about it. 

T-shirt Deconstruction Bullshit

Thinking to do my part for Mother Earth, I grabbed two ugly pink t-shirts from the Goodwill pile at work.  Because our office is moving this fall,  a wealth of Goodwill-appropriate riches have accumulated in the main hallway.

And I hopped onto the Internet, to determine a wise way to "upcycle" them.  Or "deconstruct," if you will.

I was looking for something easy as well as theoretically useful.  Hence, I came upon the upcycled t-shirt scarf (or, l'echarpe du t-shirt recycle, for my French friends).

It really did take about 10 minutes of simple snip snips:

And then I streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetched the strips, and bound them with the hem:

OH MY GOD A SCARF!

Will I wear this?  That remains to be seen.  I'd like to wear more scarves in my everyday life, but the ones you can buy at Target (le Target) entail way more fabric than my small frame can bear.  I wind up looking like I'm trying to artfully hide a neck brace.

I had one more shitty tshirt to go, and so I thought I'd experiment with something more daring... a workout shirt (un t-shirt de l'exercise, Froggies!).

While I liked the back...

                                                                                                                                                               

Well, I mean I kinda liked the back... Ialthough did just leave the bottom twiney bit loose, which looks stupid, but.  When you get lazy, you get lazy, ya know?

WHOA Blogger is acting stupid.  Ignore the brand new word above, which should read "although I".  Obviously! 

Anyway.  Would I wear this as a workout shirt?  Sure, except that for this particular deconstruction did not change the very cringe-worthy frontside of the shirt.  So fucking cheesy, but it made for a power shot:

Give Life, Live life, bitches!  Register as an organ donor today, etc.

Just for a laugh, I pulled a sleeve over my head and tried to convince Husband that I'd crafted a tiny hat.  He nodded very respectfully.  When I told him I was just kidding, this is just a stupid sleeve, he looked relieved and said "Oh, phew.  I was having trouble pretending that your hat didn't look stupid."

Ha!