Stretch like you mean it

While I'm at it, I figured I would put up the story of me and Strech.


Background: Last year around October we were contemplating something to get my grandparents for Christmas. Yes, we start early. They are both University of Texas graduates and we LOVE getting them Longhorn things. My mom went to Armadillo Christmas (an event here in Austin with local artists' works) and decided to get them a super cool wrought iron longhorn. However, the only ones they had were about 2 feet tall and we wanted one at least 4! Yeah, go big or go home. So we went to the man's studio/home and I was enamored by all his artwork.

November rolls around I told my dad I wanted to try something really cool... welding. Then Dad informed me, out of the blue, that his friend is a phenomenal welder and he would love to show me some cool things with some of his scrap metal. Just now telling me?! So we go to his house and I bring a sketch of what I would like to attempt to build.
He says, "This is something that even grown men have a hard time doing because it is against human nature to not pull away when there is fire in your face/hands so don't get too nervous."
Me, "You're only making me more excited."
"Okay great! I love your enthusiasm! What were you thinking about making? A flower or a little sun or something?"
"I was thinking more like a 5 foot giraffe."

So that's how that went. Here are the pictures:

 Tracing initial outline of the body 

 More body etching

 Rounding the body to the neck

 Rough start of the body and neck. Bob assured me it smooths out with the buffering phase

 Cutting legs and face

 Dad kept making fun of my faces and stance when sanding. It was harder than it seemed! 

 Making light of all the jokes about my facial expressions

 Time for the big gear!

 I forget what this part is called, but its just little dabs of welding to get a general idea of what it is going to look like. It can be moved around or broken at this point.

 Getting his back legs all muscled up!

 See Bob's sweet helmet thing??

 We found some left over bolts around the back of Bob's house that made perfect antlers!!

His eyes ended up being a metal pipe that Bob sectioned.

 Would you look at that?

 Semi-finished product! I named him Stretch and I love him!! 

Bob, me and Stretch! What a great guy and an awesome teacher. One of the best days I've ever had!

He isn't finished all the way yet, but at some point I'll make it back over there! He still needs spots and a little twig with some leaves hanging out his mouth. He gets hungry ;-)

=) T

Jewelry framed me.

Hm, I've never made a blog before, so if this works I will be excited
A few months ago, I decided I wanted to tackle some cool things I see on Pinterest (www.pinterest.com). My first big one is transforming an old picture frame into a fab jewelry holder. Cool right?
Step one: Supplies
Step two: Paint crackle then over color
Step three: Mesh
Step four: Knobs
Step five: Accesorize

Step One: Turns out that requires a little more money and it's not exactly "go to the flea market and get a bunch of stuff for $4!" My parents recently redid a room in our house and I became the new recipient of an old AWESOME frame!
Next reality check, knobs and paint cost money too. Darn. It ended up being the coolest birthday ever because I couldn't think of anything to put on a "wishlist." This ended up in mom and dad surprising me with the news they were going to fund my crazy project for my birthday! Step two and four, funded! Step one, check.

Step Two: Paint. Went to Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Academy and a couple other places looking for "crackle paint." "We only have Martha Stuart crackle in silver," they would all say. Well, the frame was already a goldish color and I had my heart set on turquoise anyways. Last stop: Lowes. Awesome girl named Jessica helped me at the paint desk (shoutout!!) and taught me that crackle is a process. We then purchased the Valspar "weathered crackle" faux finish and a matte teal overcoat, under Jessica's recommendation. Worked like a charm! You put the crackle coat on and let it dry at least one hour, but no more than four. So paint the  clear crackle then in 1-4 hours (at your disgression) paint the teal over it. We waited 2 hours and 30 minutes. Then... IT WORKED! Yes, we were shocked. :)

There's the frame with the teal crackling and drying.

Step Three: I went to Breed and Company (ACE Hardware type of store) and bought metal screening. My original plan was to get chicken wire, but upon the recommendation of David, "this would hold earrings much better." Thanks!

 Close up of the mesh attached to the frame and the crackle if you look close enough. I attached it with a staple gun. Rob helped out with this part too!

Did I forgent to mention my frame is huge?!

Step Four: My favorite part! The stinking adorable knobs my mom and I rummaged around and got!! I was very nervous up to this point about adding the knobs, because I had spent literally 6 hours just painting and putting the wire on this silly frame!

Dad to the rescue!

Power tools, hammers, screws, tape measures and measure twice drill once. I organized the knobs in the order I wanted them to be on the frame, which embarrassingly enough took about 45 minutes. Over multiple days. Anyways... 

Got them in the order I wanted, which you will see is not the order they ended up in.

 Carefully measured where I wanted the spacing with a ruler and pencil

 Drilled holes to act as a template for the knob, this way I wasn't screwing them into the frame, which would undoubtedly crack the frame in a few places. (I encountered this with the staple gun)

 All knobs sitting in their pace and ready for a little glue to hold them down

 VOILA!!!! 

 Close up of the left four knobs

 Close up of the right four knobs

 Hanging out on my wall, waiting for accessories! 

Step Five: Accessorize! Turned out the nails I used did NOT hold up the frame. I caught the issue before it fell but it was probably only minutes away from the plummet! Yikes! So I took this picture with it resting up on my dresser :)

There you have it! A repurposed frame-turned jewelry display! 

=) T