Erica & friends make bowls out of buttons.

**EDIT** - In this weird time of covid-19, we did not meet in person to complete this project. The project was started in February before the quarantine began. We got to the part where we glued buttons all over the balloon and Courtney worked on the project some (since we left everything at her house and she's super generous with her time) and sent me pictures for this blog post. I picked up the semi-finished project from her porch--contactless!--and finished up the rest at home.  

I’m so excited because I haven't posted a DIY tutorial (or any sort of blog, really) in ages and I’m finally getting to now! I'm part of a semi-regular craft night with three other women (Courtney--one of my really good friends and mother & wife extraordinaire, Jessa--who is always so generous in providing our art supplies, and Rachelle--owner of the wildly successful international yarn brand, Moon Drake). Our last project was to make a bowl from glue and buttons. They turned out really nice. 😄 Mine is currently in my sewing room. Just a warning: this project takes forever to complete due to having to wait for layer upon layers of glue to dry, so don’t start it if you’re short on time. LOL

The ladies crafting in Courtney's kitchen.

DIY Button Bowl:
SUPPLIES – buttons, balloon, Sharpee (or another brand) marker, paint brush, glue (we used Elmer’s), mod podge, plastic cup, water resistant coating. 

1.   Inflate balloon; the top of the balloon will be the size of the bowl.

2.   Set the balloon on top of a plastic cup for balance. It will remain here for the duration of this project. So use a cup you won’t be needing for the foreseeable future. LOL

3.   Use a permanent marker to outline the size/shape of the bowl onto the balloon.

4.   Brush Elmer’s glue onto the bowl portion of the balloon. 

      We used three coats of clue and left the balloon alone to dry over night. I think each layer took 1 – 2 hours to dry but I wasn’t really timing it. While we were waiting for the glue to dry, Courtney and I ate dinner 🍲😋🥘and painted our fingernails. 💅

5.   Using Elmer’s glue, adhere buttons over the dried glue. 
     *Glue the buttons above the Sharpee line. 
     *Glue a large button in the top center so the bowl will balance once its taken off the balloon. 
The buttons should be spaced pretty close together but don’t worry if there is empty space in between. The mod podge will fill all of that in. We left our balloons alone and let them dry over night. 
While not necessary, Jessa & I covered our balloons with plastic wrap so the buttons wouldn’t get disturbed.

6.   Brush mod podge over the buttons and let dry over night.

7.   Take the balloon off the cup and pop it (cut the knot from the bottom of the balloon and carefully let the air out). Slowly peel the balloon off the button bowl. This is when I picked up my semi-finished bowl from Courtney's porch. I decided last minute to paint the inside of the bowl red to match the buttons.

8.   Brush water resistant coating onto the inside and outside of the bowl. Let dry.

And we’re finally done!! The project itself is pretty easy. It just took forever to dry. I’m curious to make other bowls from different small objects…like beads or confetti or jewelry/charms. So many things to experiment with!! Another quarantine project!!

Lacey & Erica make office memo holders

... one of mine is going to the office, the others will become part of my craft show display.

Its almost been twenty years since our college emo phase; 2019 is a good time to recreate that look. I wish I had an old college picture for comparison but I didn't have digital camera back then. 

Lacey & I have known each other since middle school but I think we really became friends when we were roommates freshman year of college. We were both weird, unpopular and invisible, which sounds pretty unpleasant but it actually was perfect timing because she introduced me to emo music, where all of our heroes sung about being weird, unpopular and invisible.  We had the best times singing along to My Chemical Romance, The Used, AFI and Good Charlotte. I haven't kept up with those bands' music but I was feeling nostalgic one day at work and clicked on one of my older Pandora stations (appropriately named Emo Songs). A new Good Charlotte song came on and then this conversation happened.

So here we are... in 2019, wearing heavy black eye liner and glitter, listening to a CD, drinking vodsprittles and DIY'ing stuff. Just like back in the good old days.  BTW, vodsprittles are a cocktail made with vodka, Sprite and Skittles. 

DIY office memo holders-

Supplies needed: plastic animal figures, electric drill (not pictured because I don't own one; we borrowed Lacey's roommate's), dowel rods, alligator clips, craft glue, spray paint

1. Drill a hole into the back of each plastic animal that is the size of the dowel rod

2. Glue an alligator clip to the top of each dowel rod. Let dry.
**It probably isn't necessary, but Lacey brought a handheld pencil sharpener and we sharpened both ends of the dowel rods so they'd fit easier into the alligator clips and animals.

3. Glue the dowel rod (with alligator clip attached) into each animal's back. Let dry.

4. Spray paint after the glue has dried. 

Not the best pictures because we spray painted out on the patio at like 9pm with only a flashlight for light.

And that's it. Super simple. Super cute. No one wants to do a complicated craft while having cocktails on a weeknight. LOL 😜