Wall Art: Canvas Maps

Hi everyone. I finally finished a craft that started a few weeks ago. I made a new art for my wall so I can put pins in all the cities I've been to. I am in love with this idea and I hope it will encourage me to travel more.

What You Need:
Canvases
Map
Staple Gun
Scissors
Ruler

I used two 12" x 24" and one 18"x 24" canvas
My map was 50" x 36" so I was able to cut the map in two 14.5 inch sections and one 20 inch section. This left enough room to fold the map around the sides of each canvas.  I purchased my map here for $10 including shipping.

Stovetop Clambake

So I've had this yearning to have a traditional East Coast clambake.  Problem is I am land locked in Colorado. Recently my grandma sent me this amazing cookbook. It has tons of recipes seperated by the region of the U.S. they came from. I will definitely be making my way around the country in recipes.

Inside was a recipe for a clambake and I decided this summer I needed to try it, so the bf and I made dinner for my parents.

What You Need:

2 Large Onions, cut into wedges
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 bottle Pale Ale of medium bodied beer
1 cup water
1 1/2 pounds small potatoes
1 pound dry cured chorizo, we used chorizo ground like hamburger meat
Coarse salt
3 Live lobsters, we used three frozen lobster tails
36 littleneck clams, we used about 20
4 ears of corn husked and halved, we used 3
2 pounds of mussels
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, shells on
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 lemons, halved

16 quart stock pot
Steamer basket small enough to sit at the bottom of the pot


Directions:

Combine onions, garlic, ale and water in a 16-quart stock pot.  Place the steamer basket on top of the onions then add potatoes, chorizo, 1 tbs. salt and bring to a boil.  Add the lobsters, cover and cook on high heat for 15 minutes.  Add clams, corn; cook covered for 6 minutes.  Then add mussels and shrimp and continuing cooking on high heat approx. 4-8 minutes until the mussels and clams open, and the shrimp are opaque throughout.

We changed the recipe a little since there were only 4 people instead of the 6-8 it serves.  We basically just cut down all the seafood by a third.  I'd never had a clambake before but this one was amazing. It has the chorizo in it which made it so flavorful.

DIY Candle Votive

On Monday night I was watching a movie, and just playing around with my craft supplies, and before I knew it I had created another craft! The original idea come from Makezine.com. 

What You Need:

Glass vase, or votives

Rubbing alcohol

Tissue paper

Paper cut out

Mod Podge

Paper, any kind

Paint brush

Directions:

This is a super simple, and cost effective craft for decorating for all seasons.  First use the rubbing alcohol to wipe off the vase. This will help everything stick to it better; just make sure you don’t hold the vase without gloves after this step. Then cut the tissue paper you want to use with the paper cutter.  I had issues with the design I chose tearing the tissue paper. Eventually I found that taping the tissue paper to regular paper helped a lot. I made sure the tissue paper was on the top and the paper on the bottom. 

Once you have enough tissue paper to cover the whole vase, or as much of it as you want, you can start mod podging it to the vase. I found it easiest to put the mod podge on a small section of the vase and lay the tissue paper on it, then put another layer of mod podge on top of it. All the mod podge will make the glass look frosted, so any place you don't want that, use a q-tip to wipe it off. 

Fabric Covered Bulletin Board

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day weekend!  I was so excited to have a long weekend.  I spent Thursday at the park where my family has watched almost every fireworks show for my whole life. We obviously have way too much fun with glow sticks. That my sister being handcuffed; my sister's bf, her, and my dad; and then me and the bf below. 

Saturday I planned to do two of the crafts I've wanted to try for a while. The first craft was to glue a map onto canvases to put pins in for all the places I've been. BUT it just wasn't my day and that craft is now waiting for another map to be sent in the mail.  So keep an eye out for that post and more on my crazy day.  

Second attempt at a craft went much better when I updated an old bulletin board by covering it with fabric.  The original pin was found at The Newly Wife. 

What You Need:

Bulletin Board

Enough cotton fabric to cover the bulletin board and go around the edges

Staple Gun

Nail head pins, or thumbtacks

Spray Glue for Fabric

Directions:

I found it easiest to lay the fabric down on top of the bulletin board in the way I wanted it, then flip it over and stapled one side of the fabric to the back of the wood border on one side. Then I flipped the board back over and started on the side where the fabric was stapled and in small sections sprayed the board with the spray glue and then pressed the fabric onto the board. Make sure to keep the fabric taught and start in the middle of the board and work out to smooth out all the wrinkles.

After all the fabric was glued on I flipped it over and stapled the fabric to the wood border on the opposite of the already stapled fabric.  Then I folded the edges over and stapled the two opposite sides.  Since I glued and stapled the fabric, I figured it was safe to just use thumbtacks to border around the edge.  And I liked the color of them the best.  

 (Yes my wall is neon pink, that's the color I picked when I was a teenager, and my parents never changed it)