Erica is going back to crafting...

...that's not to say that I had abandoned crafting. (Oh no, I would never do that!) I just had a few weeks of recipes and a craft show taking up my time. Speaking of craft shows, I will blog about The Summer Show next week. I just wanted to give it a week or two to sink in so I had sufficient time to gather my thoughts before writing my reflection on it.

But it's called "Monday Craft Night" so I'm back to it. Way back, actually... back to when I had an old friend over each Monday evening for dinner and crafting. The original Monday craft night that started almost four years ago. I made this as a going away gift for my former crafting buddy last year. She moved to Texas and much has happened since. Sadly, both the occurrence Monday craft night and our friendship has dissolved but I think this project is very fitting for how we left off. Life moves everyone in different directions and sometimes, it's best to accept that life has come between us and let go.

Let's rewind to Christmas 2014. There is a Needtobreathe song titled "Keep Your Eyes Open" that I felt was really appropriate to use as a going away gift. The recipient of this gift is young and her life was ready to begin a new chapter. The adventures would be boundless and all she needed to do was to leave what was comfortable behind and start anew. She was very excited for this journey but I also sensed a little bit of hesitation. I decided that this would be a reminder of the goodness that lay ahead.

The chorus is:
Cause if you never leave home, never let go
You’ll never make it to the great unknown till you
Keep your eyes open, my love
So tell me you’re strong, tell me you see
I need to hear it, can you promise me to
Keep your eyes open, my love

Its a really great song. I don't know how to link to YouTube or Vevo from my blog so I took some screen shots of the video as it was playing. Find it and give it a watch.

I knew I wanted to use the lyrics somehow in her gift. I settled on wall decor because I figured that everyone needs something to hang on their walls when they move into a new apartment. And, we went to an arts festival several years ago and saw paintings with beaded jewelry hanging from them. We both liked the art and I really wanted to try that technique. I don't have step-by-step pictures but this tutorial is super simple and gives you a lot of artistic freedom.

Layered Collage Wall Hanging tutorial:

       Materials needed: three canvases for painting (I used different sizes.)

                                    card stock

                                    paint 

                                    string

                                    decorative items (I used ribbon, beads and charms.)

                                    hot glue gun & glue

                                    duct tape

1. String your beads onto the ribbon in any pattern and length. Leave about an inch of extra string at the top of each strand of beads.

       I made mine varying patterns and lengths. This was over a year ago so I don't remember if I did that on purpose or not. I think it's probably better to measure your string to painting ratio and sort your beads before starting. Just so you don't make anything too long or run out of beads.

2. Paint your canvases and let them dry.

3. Paint your card stock. I did a solid color, let it dry and then added the lyrics. I chose black and white to give it a chalk board feel with the standard cursive handwriting. 

       Or you could buy card stock in whatever color you intend it to be in the end and skip the whole painting part. I'm sure mine was left over from some other project and I didn't like the color it was. 

4. Once the canvases are dried, hot glue the card stock onto them.

5. Turn the canvases over and hot glue the strings of beads onto the back. 

       Measure and lay the strands of beads on the canvases before gluing. I left a lot of slack at the top of each strand so I had plenty extra string for gluing. 

6. Once they are all glued on and the hot glue is dried, duct tape the strands on along the bottom margin of each canvas. 

       No one will be able to see the duct tape since its on the back so go crazy! Make sure those beaded strands are securely on there!

7. Flip the canvases back over and add whatever other decorative items you have. I'm not sure if you can see clearly in the picture, but the decorative items I chose were cages, keys and birds.