So, I could go forward with my rant about how overused the word “epic” is. Or talk about how the South Beach diet is (not) going for me (First 5 lbs in like the first week, gone. Then in the following 3 weeks of faithfulness, only 5 more lbs. UGH.) But both of those aren’t very positive, and I need a non-negative post right now. Or at least something in that “neutral” zone.

So, a little history into the crafty side of Elisabeth. I like doing crafty stuff, but generally it’s non-typical crafty stuff. I’ve tried quilting, scrapbooking, and even photograph albums, but I’m just not the best with them. Story of my life.

During my senior year of high school, my totally awesome mythology teacher (yes, I got to take a whole year of MYTHOLOGY in high school. BEST. CLASS. EVER. And not because it was an “Easy A” sort of class, because it wasn’t.) had us do a mosaic project. We could take any subject in Greek/Roman mythology and make a mosaic of it, using whatever materials you’d like. So I took a picture of John W. Waterhouse that he made from The Odyssey.

(You can find “Penelope and the Suitors” and more from the John W. Waterhouse website.)

My teacher had an overhead of this picture, so I was able to project it up on the wall and do a rough sketch of what would fit on my posterboard I had been given to work with. Fifty hours -yes, really FIFTY 5-0 hours- later, after using up lots of beads, thread, yarn, glitter, and paper, I turned this in:

   

Most people really liked it. It was voted in the top 3 of however many students finished the assignment. That was pretty cool. My mom was really proud of it, and as a birthday present the next year, she got it framed all nice for me. It now sits on the wall in our dining room, even though every time I look at it I find ways I could have made it better.

Anyways, around the same time we moved into our house, I got the desire to make another mosaic, this time taking my inspiration from Greg Olsen’s art, White as Snow. It almost turned into a gift for somebody else, but after spending 10 hours just to finish Christ:

I knew that I would be too invested to give it away. Plus, shipping the thing would’ve been a pain. So instead, I gave her this, which was probably much more conveniently sized as well!) This time, the project took about 30 hours, mainly using various beads and stones and some twine. Not having to cut up colored paper into tiny sizes really cut back on the time. It sat around the house for awhile, until this past Valentine’s Day when Jared took it and me to the nearest Michaels store to get it framed. (And let me tell you, that isn’t cheap!) It now resides in our living room wall, looking like this:

Lately, I’ve been doing “glitter pictures,” something that I saw Martha Stewart (and no, trust me, I am no “Martha Stewart” housewife in ANY way or form) do on a Jay Leno show. Very random. But it’s fun. You take a picture, and then you glitterfy (new word!) it.

  turns into

I take the picture, size it and print it out, then glue it to a canvas. After it dries, I glitterfy it. Since I haven’t had time the past year to do this sort of thing, it took me a bit of time to warm up to it, about 5 hours. But the finished result is pretty neat, yes? I’m working on one of Bonnie to see if I can “customize” it more.

Stinky Stevie has not been glitterfied yet. It’s probably a good thing he can’t read this blog, or he’d be offended I did Bonnie first. But he is a MAN dog, after all, and I’m pretty sure Jared would say being glitterfied is not manly.

Anyways, Jared thinks I should try doing this on one of those crafty websites and see if anybody would want to buy it, but I don’t know. What do YOU think?

(Sorry for any fuzzy pictures… our camera is on its last legs and has been having lots of issues…)