I’ll be the first to admit that the title is too long, but I really could not help myself.
I’ve seen The Avengers 3 times – not as many as some, but more than I am accustomed to visiting the big screen, so any chance I have to quote the movie is a win in my book. This was one of those chances; I took it.
Along with my cooking adventure today, I finally nailed down an idea for a use for two glass bowls(?) that I got for dirt cheap at the local Goodwill. I had originally intended to do a basic decoupage on them, make them a little more than just glass. Nothing was coming to me, and nothing was shouting at me for an answer. I scoured Google, Pinterest, all of those crafty-people web hangouts, and I couldn’t nail anything down.
Until today! Thank you, Well Dressed Home.
If you follow that link, you will see a series of 6 “profile magnets”, which are pretty much what they sound like. I didn’t have magnets, though, I had bowls(?), so I thought it would probably be even easier. Then I sat around for about a half hour, trying to decide what kind of profile I should design and cut out.
With Dark Knight Rises looming over the horizon, my first thought was the Bat Signal! How epic would that be? But then I realized that I didn’t really have anything to “pop” behind the black signal. I thought about taping some paper down and painting around it, so that the shape would be glass, and the rest would just be painted. But I wanted the bottoms to be completely covered if I could help it.
Then I remembered that I bought some temporary tattoos a while back for testing purposes – i.e. will temporary tattoos stick to wood or glass? They are Avengers tattoos, and the cardboard backing in the package had a big picture of the heroes! Perfect! Avengers is pretty much just as good at Batman, so I would just use that. And I did.
But, this being me, there were a few snags.
1. My first thought was to cut out the Avengers’ A from the cardboard, so I would have a colorful A surrounded by a sea of black, or maybe blue. This wouldn’t work because I would have had to cut the A so small that you would not see the characters at all.
- Math! Had to make my A the right way…
- What’s it pointing to?
2. It did not occur to me that the bottom of the dish is concave where I would be pasting things, so when I slathered the whole shebang in Mod Podge, it didn’t stick because there was nothing to stick to but the sides.
3. Having not foreseen number 2, I had glued the black paper A to the cardboard before making sure it would fit, so I had to peel the A off of the cardboard and stick it on separately, which resulted in some interesting positioning requirements later.
4. After sticking the A to the concave center, the cardboard still would not stick to the sides well with Mod Podge alone, so I ended up just super gluing it to the sides.
My next step, I think, is to buy some cheap comics that I wouldn’t mind cutting up and decoupaging over the main attraction in the bottom of the dish. That would add an extra layer to secure the bottom, and it might make it pop a little bit more.
But wait, you cry! Weren’t theirtwo bowls(?)?
Yes there were. There still are. I didn’t break the other. I went a little bit more, ah, chic for the second one. We have these great coasters monogrammed with “S”. They are black and cream, so they go with anything, and I like to think they are rather classy.
So I traced the S onto a page from a book of Milton poems (not Paradise Lost…one of his lesser known ones) and cut it out. The S was not perfect. It came out a little bit…”wibbly wobbly” to use the Doctor’s term. But that’s okay. I ModPodged that sucker down, and then I painted the glass around it black. I still need to do a sealing varnish coat, but I want to wait about 24 hours before doing that.
So despite my rather late start, I think I accomplished quite a bit today. Tomorrow is a work day, and I my mother-in-law is coming for a visit in the evening, so I will not promise a post. Until next time, then, keep it crafty!
P.S. Post number 42! Woohoo!
You say Polymath like it's a bad thing... 