DIY Gift Idea: Memory Candles

If you've been friends with me for any length of time, chances are I've given you a memory candle for some celebration or event in your life. If you're lucky, I've even shown you how to make them yourself as it was shown to me. Well, now you no longer have to wonder how I pulled off this magic because today's post will teach you how to make them.

(No time? Not crafty? Check my etsy store to purchase your own!)

Supplies
candle/ glass candle holder
picture(s)
photo editing software and/or Word
printer/photocopier
packing tape
water

Instructions
First you should find a candle or candle container that you like. It should be clear, with smooth, straight edges (i.e. nothing that's small at the bottom and widens out to a larger top).

Next, you need to find photos that you want to use and modify them. You should make them black and white, and you need to resize the photos to fit on the candle container.

I turn them black and white and adjust the contrast in an online image editor like Pixlr or PicMonkey, and I re-size them in Word using the handy rulers next to the margins.

Via Guides and Tutorials

Once the photos are black and white and the right size, print them out. Make sure to give each photo a little white border which you'll need in a few moments.

Once you've printed it out, make a photocopy of the pictures. Copier toner is cheaper and the picture looks worse, but that's the kind of ink we need for the project. If you have copier toner at home, perfect! If not, I make photocopies at work or the library and every so often at Staples.

See the difference? We need less quality!

Take packing tape and place it carefully over the picture. You'll want to create a border on each side of the picture. If you have a larger picture, overlapping tape is fine.

Smooth out and press down the tape so that the ink can be picked up by the tape. Make sure there are no bubbles!

Fill a bowl with warm water and let your taped photos soak for 5-10 minutes.

When you notice the paper separating, take the packing tape photo and gently rub to remove the rest of the paper. I find it's easier to remove the last bits of paper under running warm water.

 Shake the excess water off the packing tape and set it aside to dry. As it dries, you'll notice little bits of paper that you missed. You need to run it under warm water again and rub the last bits of paper off.

Repeat a few more times if necessary until all the paper is gone.

Once the tape completely dries and you don't discover any pesky bits of remaining paper, carefully line up and press the packing tape onto the side of your candle holder. Smooth it out so there are no bubbles.

And there you go! You can add more pictures or just leave the one.

Add a candle to your container and you have a wonderful, sentimental gift that can keep forever!

Finished: Silhouette Pillows for Valentine's Day

Remember how I mentioned the week of Valentine's Day that the bf and I were celebrating a bit late because of work? Remember how over the weekend I mentioned that I was still working on his gifts? I'm finally finished! I was afraid it was going to be a month late, but it was only a few weeks late.

Yes, you're seeing correctly. I made a grown man some pillows.

I knew I wanted to make him something, especially since I bought his Christmas gifts (and um, may have skipped his birthday), but I wasn't sure what to do. Last year I made him some terribly awesome paintings (here and here). To be fair (to me), it was the first painting/artistic thing I had done since middle school, which was about 15 years ago. I was generally proud, but I knew it could be better.

His reaction last year? "I love it because you made it." Not quite what I was going for, but I'll take it. I asked him recently and he said the paintings not only grew on him, but he actually loved them because they were reflections of our personality. (Awww!)

So as I was brainstorming for ideas, I saw this painted pillow idea from Cotton and Curls and I knew that was it. But I didn't want to have a bicycle because we're subway people. We're also vain so I knew I wanted to feature us. He's a cameraman in real life. I love dressing up all the time. He loves taking my picture. Perfect! 

As I was searching for silhouettes to use, I came across the vintage couple image having coffee and a smoke.  One of my favorites things to do is to sit over tea or coffee and chat so I wanted to include that one. I cut out the cigarette from the picture because I'm trying to instill good habits!

Okay. So while Cotton and Curls had a great tutorial, I took photos of my process because it's slightly different. Also, I want to add that I know it seems like it's a lot of work in theory, and while it is a lot of steps, this was pretty simple to create.

All right, so once you find the silhouettes you want to use, you need to print them. Because I didn't want to waste black ink, I converted them into a vector outline. I looked up how to do it on photoshop, and it seemed like there were a lot of steps involved. Since I'm not a photoshop expert (or even beginner), I went back to my tried and true Picasa and just clicked on "pencil sketch." Voila.

I made my pillows 15"x15" so I had 4 fabric squares of that size. I printed and cut out the vectors, then taped them to the fabric. In hindsight, I would center them a bit more because adding the stuffing obviously stretches them out, but place them however you like. Use a ruler to make sure everything's level.

And watch out for cats.

The couple vector had a lot more detail, as you can see from the original, on the above right side. I used small pieces of tape where I wanted detail, like in the chair, the legs, parts of the table. You'd think it would need to be perfect, but it's nowhere close.

After lining up and taping the vectors, I used sponge paintbrushes to transfer the black paint. I suppose fabric paint is best, but I used acrylic because it's all I had. According to the internet, acrylic is just as sturdy, but the dried result is just stiffer than fabric paint. Fine by me.

The aftermath.

And the result!

Then I went through my suitcase of fabric scraps and picked out colors and weights I liked. Some of the lighter fabrics weren't as good for this project because they were so flimsy. I loved the satin, sateen cotton, and the heavy lace the best. I cut out my shapes, arranged them appropriately, and pinned them into place.

Then I top stitched the hearts into place. I used the same blue thread, and I was afraid it was be a terrible contrast (but too lazy to change the thread and bobbin), but it actually turned out quite nice I think.

After top stitching, I took some yarn and a needle and I threaded the balloons. I tied knots behind each ballon and had the strings come through the girl's fingers.Instead of tying them at the end, I used fabric glue to secure them behind her hand and again where the strings are loose.

Then I just stitched up the pillow, leaving a small opening on the bottom for the stuffing. After stuffing, I topstitched the small opening shut.

As for the vintage couple, I decided putting hearts around them would be too much. I didn't want to leave it alone because while it was very classic and simple, it wasn't overtly Valentine's Day and it didn't match with the cheesiness of the other pillow.

I was thinking about putting an outline of a tree next to them because I'm obsessed with regular furniture and scenes taking place outside at the moment. But then I stumbled across a very beautiful photo of some hot air balloons that seemed so nostalgic and romantic. I just loved it and decided I would have hot air balloons.

The boyfriend was more than a little shocked that I gave him pillows for Valentine's Day, but he loved them. (Of course!) He was terribly confused until he saw the little cameraman and he exclaimed, "That's me! Oh, and that's you! This is great!" Ha, I actually thought he would like the couple better because it's simpler and less flashy, but remember how I mentioned we were both terribly vain? Turns out he likes the one where I'm hot and he's being a big shot the best. ;-)

Even Franklin approves!

Pinwheel Painting: Valentine's Day Gift #2

So I'm sure everyone's tired of talking about Valentine's Day, but I still have one more post about it! I made my beau some paintings, 3 in total, and this is the second one.

I was completely into the idea of using my vinyl letters to make quotes and whatnot on the art, so I did a lot of research on quotes, mostly by typing "Quotes" into the search by on Pinterest. I figured they would have a good amount, I could sort by what was popular, and I could avoid those terrible websites with PAGES of terrible quotes that no one would ever use.

I compiled a list, but one really stuck out at me. I hesitated to use it because it's from Alice in Wonderland, but it just seemed perfect. "You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."

This works, in my life in general, but especially in my relationship because he's a little nuts, though not usually in a bad way, and he can't understand why a perfectly sane female could ever want to be around a crazy person.

Once I had my quote picked out, I knew instantly what painting I should use. Once again, I was inspired on Pinterest, this time by a pinwheel painting.

The tutorial looked so easy! How could it go wrong?

I'll tell you. It was the freaking tape. And the letters. The painter's tape that allowed the paint to bleed. And the letters that would move as my paintbrush moved. Sigh.

Generally though, it doesn't look that bad!

I first painted the canvas a sky blue color because white just seemed like too much of a contrast. Then I carefully placed all the letters where I wanted them. Then, after finding my "center," I carefully taped painter's tape to the canvas and painted in the colors I wanted.

As I stated before, the painter's tape didn't work exactly as I wanted, but after doing 2 sections, I learned how to avoid lots of paint bleeding. Once I picked off the vinyl letters, after everything dried, I realized that the letters had moved while I was painting. I still need to go back and touch them up.

But I still gave it to the boyfriend, and he loved it! He seemed a little confused by the quote, but once I explained it, he became a fan. And unlike my last painting, there wasn't any, "I like it because you made it" nonsense. That counts as a success for me!

Fort Painting: Valentine's Day Gift #1

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know I'm a little late, but I've been too lazy to take pictures off my camera of some crafts I made for my boyfriend. This post is dedicated to the first craft, that I've dubbed the Fort Painting.

I've been going a little crazy on the craft section on Pinterest, and I've been inspired by a lot of artwork to the point where I've decided my new apartment will generally only have art hung done by me.

I found a tutorial from someone who liked a photo and decided to pixelate the original and paint it herself. I loved the idea of pixelating a photo and going from there, but my boyfriend is not a big fan of modern art (or whatever this would be considered) and he vetoed the idea.

But when I saw ANOTHER idea that involved painting over an old/unwanted painting, I knew I could do both!

Oh. One last thing I was inspired by: this card on Etsy. My sister posted it on facebook, and I knew it was amazing. I hate cards though, and I didn't really care for the inside of the card either. I thought it was summed up nicely on the front. And it was pretty awesome since my boyfriend and I like to make forts in his room.

So I did a google search for forts, then adult forts since I thought it might be weird to pixelate a bunch of kids, though it probably didn't matter because you can't really make the picture out anyway... So after I picked a picture (that had a tv in it, since tvs are crucial to good forts!), I cropped it, played with the colors, and pixelated it in picnik.com. Then I set to work!

I grabbed a ruler and traced a grid onto the canvas. Somehow I found a ruler that wasn't straight. Seriously. But I suppose it added a little something, don't you think?

Here I am halfway thought it! As you can see, I had limited colors, but I adjusted them by adding drops of white or black paint. There's probably a way to adjust the colors in some photo editing software, but I wasn't sure how to do that nor did I care when I first started. But if I do it again, it would probably help because I got tired of doing exact matches about 5 minutes in. I looked at a couple tutorials, and they all said it was as easy as doing a paint by number, but if you choose not to adjust the colors, it's not that simple. That being said, I was happy with how it was turning out, so I didn't really care.

 Here it is finished! You can't really tell, but the tv is on the left, and the rest are curtains and some lights. Even though you can't really tell what it is, I thought it turned out quite nice! Well, nice enough considering that I didn't bother staying in the little squares or getting the colors right. My boyfriend was present for all of this (I decided it didn't matter for this stage because it was still preliminary- and I had already told him he was getting a homemade craft.) and he nodded and said, "I like it because you did it. I never understood what parents meant when they said that, but now I know." Haha, I appreciate the support.

So then I applied reusable vinyl letters exactly where I wanted them, and painted white over the entire canvas. Even though the paint seemed dry, it started to run, so I panicked and stopped, letting it dry overnight. When I picked it up again the next day, somehow the existing paint still ran when I painted over it with white, but I just decided to go with it.

And there it is! Not exactly high quality, but I'm happy and proud of it, and considering it's the first artwork I've ever done, I don't think it's that bad. Plus, like most things, it looks better in person. My boyfriend likes it better than the original - he LOVES the three sentences. I just thought it was fun and romantic, but not overly cheesy!

Memory Candles

I can't believe this is the only picture I have of any of these candles! (Ignore the cracks! My sister's cat decided she was mad at me and knocked over everything on the table, effectively ruining this candle.)

This was my go-to gift last Christmas. Basically, I tooka picture that's near to someone's heart (or that I stole off of facebook), edit it a bit, then stick it on a candle. It's so simple, and everyone who got one loved it.

What do you think?