Make-up Magnet Board

I love this idea from another crafting blog on StumbleUpon- a magnetic make-up board! I'd love to try this :) 

Wallflowers

I got an awesome birthday present this year, something I've been eying for a while- wallflowers! I knew I wouldn't be able to put 25 nails in my wall to put them up though, so I had to get creative.

I bought four dollar store canvases, and covered them with blue and purple paints (it took four coats to get a solid colour) and then painted a design on each canvas with a mix of white and blue or purple.

I made sure all of the designs stemmed from the middle to make it seem as though it were one disjointed piece. Then I laid out the flowers where I thought they should go along the "vines".

Next I took stick on pearls (also from the dollar store) and placed them at the centre of each flower, just to add a little shine. I then hot glue-gunned all the flowers to the canvases. 

Then with a lot of measuring and pencil marks, I cut 25 nails in the wall down to four! Thank you so much for the awesome gift Mika! ;)

Quilling!

I have been meaning to try quilling for a while, but I didn't have very much luck finding the right tools in crafting stores. I decided to try it without the tools, just to give it a try. 

The finished product! It's pretty much the quilling equivalent of doodling, I was just experimenting with different shapes and sizes. 

Steps: 

I started with cardstock (I used up scraps of old sheets) and cut the paper into strips based on the first line of my cutter, which I believe is about 0.5 cm. 

I then rolled the paper (here I used a purse hanger, which didn't end up working as I could not slide the paper off, so I ended up using a thin paintbrush) and made sure to roll it tightly to avoid creases and folds (disregard my chipped nailpolish ;] ). 

Then I sized the circles (there's a tool for this too- somewhere) with different sized lids. Here I used a film cap lid. Then I glued the end down using a glue pen to make the spiral into the circle size that I needed. 

Next I pinched the circles to make the shapes and widths I needed...

...and used a similar idea to make letters. 

And done! It wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, but I'm sure it would be much easier as well if I could find the tools! The search continues! 

Summer Dress!

If you know me, you'll know I really don't like paying a lot for clothes. That's why when I came across dress patterns in the Salvation Army Thrift Store ($0.25 each, turns out I don't like paying a lot for those either!), I knew I wanted to attempt to make a dress. 

This is the result! I used the Simplicity 9-in-1 pattern, and fabric that I had purchased a few years ago in the clearance section at WalMart (I think it was 4 or 5 dollars, and I still have a lot left). 

I aimed for the dress design in the bottom right, but I mostly ended up winging the sewing bit (so many diagrams!). I forgot to take pictures throughout, but I basically followed the pattern, with only a few deviations. 

I threw this last picture in to show you what it looks like on a human being :) I will definitely be doing this again sometime! 

Mother's Day Cake

I decided to go a little crazy with the marshmallow fondant this year :) For this cake, I used: 

Cake mix (yes, I cheated a little) 

Marshmallows

Icing Sugar

Whipped Cream Cheese Icing

And lots of candy :) 

First I mixed up the cake mix so that it could bake while I was making the decorations. 

Once the cake was in the oven (I made two 8" layers), I put the marshmallows in the microwave with a splash  of water for one minute. 

 I stirred the marshmallows until they were smooth, and then poured the mixture into a bowl full of icing sugar.

Then I covered the marshmallow mixture in icing sugar, and kneaded it until it was similar to pizza dough. I rolled out the "dough", and cut it into a circle piece and two long rectangles to cover the cake.

I decorated the top circle piece with smaller pieces of marshmallow fondant, and I coloured them by kneading in food colouring. Making black food colouring (for the lady bug) was interesting, I just mixed all of the colours until it was as dark as I could make it. 

I then iced the cake with cream cheese icing, and decorated the long strips of fondant before sticking them to the sides of the cake. 

Then I carefully transferred the circle from the cutting board to the top of the cake, and used candy to add some more detail. 

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! 

Coldplay Butterfly Canvas

Two years ago I went to a musically and visually spectacular Coldplay concert. During the song "Strawberry Swing", they launched tissue paper butterflies over the crowds with air cannons. I knew I needed some, and my awesome cousin grabbed a handful for me from her seats on the floor. It took me two years to finally decide how I could best use them to remember that night.  

It took me quite a while to position them in a way that I liked- some were only half butterflies. I bought the canvas and paint from Dollarama, and designed the "lost-sea-scroll" label on Picnik (I burned the edges with the element on my stove after as well). 

Then I coated the entire thing in several layers of ModPodge- which is the best creation ever. I love the bright neon colours, and the story behind the canvas. 

"Now the sky 

Could be blue

I don't mind, 

Without you it's a waste of time."

Card Banner

This one didn't actually take much effort, but it brightens up my room a lot. I forsee a lot of banners in my future ;) 

It's a great way to display all of my wonderful birthday cards! 

T-Shirt Quilt

This was a project from a few years ago- I decided I had waaaay too many t-shirts that I didn't want to wear anymore, but I had no idea what to do with them! Luckily, I found a wonderful book called Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt, so I didn't have to get rid of all my old shirts. 

I started by cutting even squares in the fronts of all the shirts, and sewing all of them together. This is the point when the t-shirt book said you were "done", but I didn't like that you could see all of the stitching and connections in the back, and so I also added a turquoise backing to the quilt. It is definitely the comfiest blanket I've ever owned, and the one that starts the most stories!

I already have another pile of shirts in my closet waiting to become matching pillows!

Thrift Store Frames

Yesterday I did a little frame rejuvenation- so until I find more pictures from past projects, I'll post some of these. I bought a pack of four frames for $2 (for another project) but decided to fix up the few that were left over to give them a little more life. I literally decided to make a blog halfway through painting this one:

...So there is no before shot. The frame was initially decorated with pink and purple roses, but they were faded, undoubtedly by years of sun damage in someone else's home. I painted the roses, but I believe I will leave the leaves faded- it adds dimension and makes the roses stand out. I love the pearl paint that was used initially as well, so I'll probably leave that too. 

Again, there is no before shot for this frame, but it was off-white with gold accents -I'm not really a gold fan. So here it is- blue! :

And then speckled with Martha Stewart blue stamping ink (which didn't dry for a good 12 hours, I don't think it's meant for acrylic):

And I've still got two frames to go! 

First Post!

Hallo there, this is my first blog post ever. I have decided to create a blog in order to share anything and everything I find awesome, with particular focus on crafts. I greatly enjoy stumbling for hours on end and looking at crafting blogs, so I figured it was about time I made a blog of my own that had all of the projects that I loved and attempted myself. I decided to name my blog White Blank Page because I adore the idea of a new beginning, of a blank slate, and of the opportunity to create something completely new and wonderful from absolutely nothing. That's what I hope to accomplish in my future endeavors, so read on as I continue my creative journey.