No More Bugs

My boyfriend (yes cooler boy is now my boyfriend) and two friends recently moved to a new house with an amazing and large backyard and the most perfect back porch for just sitting and enjoying all the marvelous Missouri weather that we have been having. The only negative to this is the bugs. After sitting outside for ten minutes my legs where a mess of itchy bug bites that ruined my next week considering the itching never ended.

Now normal people just decide to go out and buy a few citronella candles and let that be the end of it, however me being the crafty girl that I am decided that I was going to dive into the world of candle making head first. Not to mention it would be the perfect housewarming gift.

So to Pinterest I went to find a tutorial on candle making and not only did I find one but I found one for Citronella candles to make things so much better!
Here is the link to the original post for candle making. She does a really great job of spelling out exactly what needs to be done to get a good result.
https://brightnest.com/posts/repel-with-a-cause-diy-citronella-candle

My first thought is I wanted to put these in mason jars because face it mason jars are awesome! But they just look so plain and since I just bought white candle wax I really wanted to spice up the jars. Now he lives with a couple so I knew that the mason jars would work well with the girl because she is obsessed with Pinterest, like me, but I really wanted to make them just manly enough that the boys would not feel weird having them around. Since both boys are obsessed with the St. Louis Blues hockey team I decided to use that as a theme. My original idea was to paint the jar blue and then paint the Blues note on the jar. So I bought glass paint but after applying several coats to the jar I just couldn't get the look I wanted out of it so after a little research I found another Pinterest link to tint jars. I was super easy and turned out amazing!
http://www.itallstartedwithpaint.com/blue-mason-jars-vintage/

With my jars perfectly tinted and a lovely shade of blue I decided to paint on the symbol. Unfortunately I didn't really do my research and I could never quite get it the way I wanted so I ended up getting rid of the design idea and just leaving them a tinted blue.

The end result after all this is two lovely citronella candles in mason jars!

Using a double boiler to melt the soy wax

The jars all ready to be filled with wax! They have been tinted using modge podge and I used chopsticks to hold the wick in place where I wanted it.

I hope this helped to spark some ideas and let you know if I can make candles anyone can.

Cooler painting part one

So a couple of months ago I met this really great guy. At first we were just friends, but not quite just friends you know that awkward pre-dating stage. But anyways after knowing each other about a month he asked me if I would be his date for his Senior Year fraternity formal, what they call the Red Carnation Ball, and I was thrilled because to me that was a sign to be more than friends. But enough about my love life the whole reason for this post is the crafts! As a sorority girl it's only polite that if a boy is kind enough to pay for you to go to his formal, basically a drunken weekend in which you spend one night dressed up and stay in a hotel room, you should paint him a cooler for the occasion. Thus began my project. 

The first step is to do some research about the person and figure out their favorite things. The great thing about cooler painting is that you can personalize it to that specific person making it a really memorable and useful gift. Personally I love the cooler connection group on facebook. It's a great resource where girls post pictures of cooler that they have done as well as useful tips and a great document that details how to get started (just in case you need some more info)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/5377024169/

Personally I choose to do a Makers mark side, STL blues, some of his favorite beers and a side representing his fraternity.

Once you have your cooler planned it is time to gather your supplies you will need:

a cooler (you can pick any size you want)

sander or sand paper (if you are going to make several you can buy a cheap sander on amazon, it really is                worth it to save yourself the hassle of hand sanding)

Plastic primer (I prefer it in white because it helps the paint to pop more with less coats)

Acrylic paint and paintbrushes

Paint pens

Tissue Paper and Sharpies

Modge Podge (I prefer the outdoor kind), and a water-based sealant (I like minwax in the bright blue can)

Now you paint! I used the tissue paper and sharpies to transfer things like images and the lettering and I modge podged printed images of the beer bottles because I am not that good at small detailed painting.

Once your paint is dry and you like what you have done let the paint completely dry and do several coats of the outdoor modge podge making sure to let the coats dry in-between. 

Once the modge podge is completely dry put a coat or two of the min wax and then you should be good to go!

I don't have any of the process at this time but I am sure I will paint another one soon. In the meantime here is the finished product.

Not my best work but I did it all in a week so I'm still proud of it.

The pictures where taken while the modgepodge was wet which is why they aren't completely clear. Normally there are not white patches or streaks over the paint.

Crafting as a way of life

Growing up I had a mom who was always working on some new project. Whether it is sprucing up some thrift store find or cooking an amazing dinner I owe my original love of crafting to her. Of course after going to college and joining a sorority crafting became an obsession and the glitter began to run in my veins. So here is my blog of all the random craft projects and more than likely some funny anecdotes from my life as I navigate life post-grad.

Also have to give a shout out to my friend and almost-roomie Allison who inspired me to this. I attempted one in college but was so busy I could never really keep up with it or post regularly so I deleted it so here's hoping this one goes better.