It's not bad spelling, it's a love for Gary Larson

For the last couple months, I've been on a major cleaning kick.  Each and every closet, nook, and cranny have been cleaned out, sorted into keep/sell piles, and reorganized.  During this process, several items turned up that I initially planned on discarding but instead decided to give them a new purpose.

For example, how many of these Christmas popcorn tins have you been given, devoured, and thrown away?  At least one a year since you've been alive?  Yea, pretty much.  Found this empty one in the bowels of our garage and realized with a little tweaking, it would make an ideal container for cat food.

Now, as much as I love Christmas, the current mother and baby deer chilling in the snow (ha, see what I did there) print isn't really jiving with the overall look of our kitchen so it needed to be spray painted.  First things first, the whole tin was cleaned up, dried, and the stickers on the lid were removed.  A few coats of white spray paint later and we have this.

We're not done yet faithful readers!  Using some form of wizardry (Photoshop) and his ridiculous collection of fonts, the husband whipped up two stencils for this adventure.

Kitties!

On to the stencil making!  My current method for creating stencils is using sign vinyl.  The hubs picked up a roll for his own project of dying disc golf discs (shameless promotion for MTP Designs) and I've used it for loads of other stenciling projects.

For this approach, a light box is required however you can also MacGyver something together like I did and use a desk lamp with an end table that has a glass top.  Recently, I saw another DIY version where a bare bulb is placed in a large, clear, plastic container which seemed crazy easy/cheap to throw together.

Anyways, to get started, tape the picture to the bottom of the sign vinyl to keep it held in place while it's being cut.  When everything is sitting on the light box, the picture will be clearly visible as pictured below.  Next, cut out the stencil using enough pressure to cut the vinyl  but not so much that the paper backing is cut.  It's easier than it sounds, I promise.



Once the cutting is done, remove the pieces to end up with something like below.  Now, here is my favorite reason for using this vinyl.  No stencil islands.  See how the eyes on Yigs and the facial details on Hobbes are not connected to an outside edge?  Stencil sections like this are called islands and are normally a no-no beacuse it is a pain/near impossible to transfer them onto whatever is being stencilled. 

Not so with sign vinyl.  Apply masking tape to the top of the stencil so when the backing is peeled away, the masking tap holds the islands in place for easy transferring.

Along with the kitties and Cat Fud stencil, I also added a few strips of vinyl for added detail.  It's a bit hard to see in the picture but there are two small strips at the top and a larger one at the bottom.

After the stencils have been applied, spray paint the tin again with the second color of paint. 

Next comes the moment of truth when the stencils are removed to reveal how awesome or possibly how terrible everything turned out.

Success!!

Never ending staring contest.

Here is how the cat feeding corner looked before....

And how it looks now.

Kitten added for extra authenticity.

For safety reasons, whether real or created in my crazy head, I also sprayed the tin with a few coats of clear sealant and let it sit in the sun for a couple days so everything could fully cure and air out.  Once all that nonesense was out of the way, I dumped in the cat food, threw in an old measuring cup to use as a scoop, and we were ready to get this kitten feeding party started.

And the comic that started it all.  Gary Larson, thanks for being so awesome.

Medicine Cabinet Makeover

Hello, my name is Megan and I am a project hoarder.  When I was younger, I had serious issues with holding onto everything that came across my path.  Opening my bedroom closet was a risky undertaking that often resulted in a pile of crap hitting me on the head.  Over the years, I've managed to break most of my pack rat tendencies to the point where I am now at the complete other end of the spectrum and cannot stand having anything extra or useless in my possession.  This new behavior, much to the annoyance of my husband, manifests itself every few months when I start going though every closet and cupboard in our home and asking, "Do we need this?  What is this?  You don't need this, when was the last time you used it?"   Believe me, I know how annoying I can be, but it's a compulsion that cannot be stopped.   

The one area of my life that still echos with old habits is anything to do with crafting.  I have piles of untouched fabric, random scrapbook paper, thread every color of the rainbow, crafting kits that remain unopened (BJ - I promise I will open and love the screen printing kit you bought me two Christmases ago), unfinished wooden chests, dozen of items picked up with the intention of adding fresh coats of spray paint, fake flowers, glass rocks, etc, etc, etc.  Once we moved into our house however, I self-imposed a no new craft shit rule.  I was/am determined to whittle down my supplies project by project.  

Now that we're all up to speed, I bring you my newest project.  Around five years ago, I picked up a medicine cabinet at a thrift store which then sat unaltered in various closets up until a week ago when I finally decided to get off my ass and either do something with it or donate it back to a thrift store.  Considering there was no use for an actual medicine cabinet in either of my bathrooms, this guy was going to be transformed into a jewelry cabinet that could hang in the master bedroom closet. 

    

There are no proper before pictures of this thing before the makeover started because I get overly excited about projects which causes me to jump right in and not realize that no pictures have been taken and the project is already half over.  As shown in the above picture, the cabinet was previously silver.  Not shown in the picture, is that there are two adjustable shelves inside.  There, all important aspects of the medicine cabinet have been discussed.      

The whole thing, minus drying time for the paint, took around two hours from the first spray till it was up on the wall.  It helped that I had all the materials used already on hand and didn't have to buy anything additional to complete it.

Supplies
medicine cabinet
foam board
chipboard
fabric
ribbon
masking tape
glue
anchors + screws
spray paint 
sewing pins 

Assembling this piece was pretty straight forward.  For the outside of cabinet, a black satin finish spray paint was applied using painfully thin coats of paint which takes forever but yields the best results so don't pull a me and try to glob on thick coats to quicken the time.  To make the inside of the cabinet accommodating to my jewelry, foam board (allows for pins to be pushed into it creating a space for necklaces and bracelets to hang) was cut to fit in the top section of the cabinet and chipboard (creates a uniform look to the back while being thin enough to not take up valuable storage space - helps to not read dimensions properly when placing an online order so that you have WAY more chipboard than a person will every actually need) was cut to fit in the bottom sections in between the shelves.  Cover each piece in fabric and it's done.   

 

Foam board covered in fabric

Chip board covered in fabric.

Yes, that is masking tape being used to adhere the fabric to the foam and chip board.  This material was chosen because I was feeling lazy at the time and didn't want to bother with glue.  It came together perfectly fine though and once the fabric covered boards are in place the tape is never seen.

To add a bit more storage, another piece of chipboard was cut to size to fit on the inside of the cabinet door.  It was also covered in fabric but ribbons were added as a place for pictures or other items that required hanging.       

Always a kitten close at hand plotting to sit on whatever is being worked on.

Jump cut to around a day or two later when the cabinet paint has fully dried, all inserts are covered in fabric/ ribbons, and everything can be assembled.  Using E-6000 craft glue, the the fabric/ribbon chipboard is attached to the inside of the door and weighed down with whatever was close at hand for a couple of hours.

Enlisting some help from the husband in the hold-this-right-here-and-don't-move capacity, the cabinet was positioned on the wall, pencil marks were made where the holes were, screwed in anchors where the marks were, repositioned the cabinet, and added screws to hold the entire thing up.  

One music montage later and we have a fully functional and decorated jewelry cabinet.  Once the cabinet was screwed into the wall, I put the shelves and the fabric covered inserts into place.  I didn't use any kind of adhesive to keep the inserts in place since if I needed to move the cabinet I would have had to rip them out anyways which would have been a pain.  Past Megan helping future Megan out.  Thanks Past Megan, much appreciated.  Luckily, the pieces were snug enough where they stayed put once wedged into place. 

    

The hangers for the necklaces are regular sewing pins snipped in half with wire cutters.  Once popped into the foam board they work perfectly as jewelry hangers.  Be sure to allow enough rooms in between necklaces so things don't get tangled up.  

Final shot of the cabinet hanging in place.  I approve and it looks like that one Homer Simpson slipper approves too although I'm not entirely comfortable with how he is leering at the cabinet.