Hope Still Flies

First week of my fifth year of college is complete.

While I'm very glad to be learning again (I'd missed using my brain), I hadn't quite prepared myself for how busy I'd be. I started using a planner to keep track of everything and it is holy-cow full. Classes, work, career fair, just.. everything. While (as of now) I don't think that the coursework will be as difficult as last year, it's still going to be fun. 

I found out that I'm not quite as close to being done with my biochemistry degree as I thought. I have a full semester of research to do still. That made me panic. Professors pretty much have their researchers for this semester, which means I have to do it in the spring. Spring is going to be very, very busy. It's just so much.

In between all this craziness, though, are going to be some fun time. September 17th Michael and I are going to KC to see the US Women's National Soccer Team play Canada. (1st row seats!)... then on October 8th, Sarah and I are going to Wichita to see Sara Bareilles and Sugarland in concert... and then that next weekend Michael and I are going to St. Louis to see the SYTYCD tour. Yay!!

And in the middle of all of this, we're trying to buy a new (to us) car. The poor Thunderbird has just about had it, and we're definitely a 2 car family. We're trying to work out something for our budget. And we're getting there... albeit slowly.

I'm also trying to keep taking pictures. It's been a lot harder to keep up with my 365 project since school started. I have a couple of photoshoots set up for Sunday... and I need to get out to take some nature pics, too.

Basically.. I'm alive. Things are good. I'll leave you with this picture I took of Beth's kids a couple weekends ago... (They were getting ready to jump off the deck)

So the summer has gotten to me.

I am definitely not an artistic person. Never have been. I joke that I failed elementary school art. I'm better with writing and solving equations.

But joining Pinterest has made me wish I could be more artistic. So after seeing an awesome canvas print idea, I thought I'd try it. I'm really good at starting craft-like projects and leaving them halfway through, so I thought I'd spend my afternoon off doing it today. Then I decided I'd go ahead and write-up how I did it here. Not that it was difficult, but hey, why not.

So, along with pictures, here we go. These are the supplies I used.

* 4 10"x10" white canvases

* Small wooden letters to spell out whatever you'd like

* Acrylic paint in 2 different colors... one for the canvas, one for the letters

* Paintbrush

* Ruler

* Heavy duty glue

* Disposable plates

* Something to paint on, and to let the canvases dry on (I used old magazines)

So I had no idea what colors to use, so Michael suggested using our wedding colors, which I thought was a great idea (I knew I kept him around for some reason. :) ) So first thing's first... Paint all the canvases the right color... black in my case.

I had never used acrylic paint before, but I got my paintbrush a little wet and then mixed the paint around so it wasn't so thick.

Repeat for all 4 canvases.

After I got the canvases all painted, the letters came next. I only bought one paintbrush and it was a little thick. I ended up holding part of the letters and painting the rest of them. I did the front and as much as the sides as I could. After they dried, I went back and painted the rest... then after that I ended up going back and getting the little crevices on the sides with my fingers. Yup.

So after I finished up the letters, the canvases had already dried. (Acrylic dries quickly!) I started with my first batch of letters. To center them, I checked the size of the letters, divided the size in half, and subtracted it from five (half the size of the canvas). I went that many inches from the bottom of the canvas and marked it with a piece of string. I made sure it was the same length on both sides. This marked where the bottom of the letters should rest.

After arranging the letters where I wanted them, I used the ruler to mark where I had either the left side of the letter, or the right side of the letter.

Then I picked up each letter and used this glue on the back of it, and put it back where I found it. I pushed down a little bit, but if you push too hard, the other letters might come off. (Haha, ignore the paint all over my hand.)

Repeat the same sequence for all four (or however many) canvases. Just making sure to let the glue set. Here's how my four turned out...

They are by no means perfect. I'm no artist, after all, but they turned out all right. If I ever do it again, I'll search for a different font (not a huge fan of the letter style...) and definitely buy a different sized paintbrush for the letters. Or bigger letters. 

Now, if I could only figure out where to hang them up...

-edit-...figured it out (if only I could hang things up straight)