New pictures of my hair, and why it pays to be friends with me
I’ve been lazy about uploading photos lately, so here’s a whole mess of them all at once that I’ve been hanging on to. Up first: my new haircut after washed and self-styled.
I am totally loving this hairstyle! It pretty much looks like this when I get up in the mornings.
These are some ornaments and necklace charms I made for friends for Christmas this year.
Here’s a close up of one of the adorable little cupcake necklaces.
Here’s an awesome coffee mug I hand-decorated.
And here’s the awesome plate that went with it. I know you guys are super jealous that I didn’t hand these out to everyone I know, but I’m only one woman! Just look at it this way; you have almost a whole year to butter me up to get one this year. Start brown nosing!
More Necklaces!!
I still have more buttons laying around, and more storage space for jewelry. The day I run out of space will be a weird day. I had both of these things that I decided were just too shiny and pretty for me. How should I darken them up?
NAIL POLISH. I don’t just use it so much because I like the smell. I painted some on this metal heart, then rubbed it off with a napkin.
I love this because it looks like tarnished silver, instead of bright shiny new craft store metal.
I followed the same process with this one. I painted on some black nail polish, then rubbed it off. Rather than paint the whole thing black at once, I did each piece in thirds.
I love how the black really defines the detail on the rose, and makes the individual petals visible.
What else was I fooling around with? Nail polish and bottle caps!
I poured a little black nail polish in there, and swirled it around, gently. I used the brush to make sure it coated the sides completely. I love this stuff, because it gives you such a shiny, enameled look.
And here we see the final products: top left is a ceramic star I made and just finally glued a necklace thing onto, top right is a cute chick cut out of a magazine and glued into the black bottle cap (see this tutorial for bottle cap necklaces), bottom left is the swallow button glued onto the back of a black bottle cap, and bottom right is the filigree heart with skull and cross bones! I love having a mess of new jewelry to wear! It’s almost better than new clothes.
The Epic Fail
Many of you already know this, but my Hubby is artistic out the wazzoo. His cell phone stopped working, so he went and bought a little $10 Go Phone, and just put his sim card in it. It was just a boring phone, so he decided to paint it. This is what happened:
The picture’s a bit blurry because he used the webcam, but amazing, right? Well, my phone is boring, too. It’s lime green, but it could always use more personality, right? I removed the back from the phone, and set to work with masking tape to make my design.
What did I choose? A skull!! Of course! And I think it was looking pretty bad ass, yet adorable at this point. Even after I spray painted the whole thing, it was looking fine.
The tape did not peel off how I envisioned. Big chunks of the bones vanished, and everything else is flakey and horrible.
I probably should have done the design, then sprayed primer on it, then the black spray paint, but I still have no idea if that would have helped. Maybe I should have sanded the whole thing first? Either way, I have a big sad face on, and I’m conscientiously hiding my phone at all times (except from all of you, of course). Learn from my fail.
– That Clever Chick
Yes, even more skulls!!
I guess you guys have figured out by this point, that I’m a little obsessed with skulls (as you can see here, and here, and here, oh and here, here, and here). I could wear a different skull t-shirt everyday for a week, and now, I can also accessorize with skulls! When Beans and I went to the thrift store, we found a tangled pile of mardi gras beads with skull and crossbones on them. Of COURSE I brought them home.
I simply cut the skulls loose from the rest of the beads, and threw those away. Yes, they are shiny silver, but that’s nothing some matte white spray paint can’t fix! A few of them, like those in the picture, were missing a bone or two. Hubby snapped the extras off for me, and sanded down the sides.
I decided Day of the Dead was the way to go with these (especially appropriate for Cinco de Mayo). I pulled out my paints and tiny brushes and went nuts! Here’s a mid-way through work picture:
And a couple of finished ones:
I used a fine point sharpee to do the detail work. The one with blood pouring out of its eye sockets is my favorite!
I just mixed small amounts of the colors I wanted, and went from skull to skull adding flowers, leaves, hearts, and other details. I just googled images of Day of the Dead to get inspiration. I can’t wait to do more stuff like this!
Several of these will be for sale at the Rockin’ Mama’s Day Celebration this Saturday, May 7, to benefit SafePlace. I hope to see you there!
