They Have Come a Long Way Since Hamlet

Pretty amazing culture and community in Denmark. We could learn a few things from them.

I am willing to volunteer to go there to do research, who is going with me?

Normal Girl

Gangsta Crafting

I'll bust into your house and I'll decoupage your mama!!!

Warning....don't watch if you don't like the B**** word. It is gangsta after all. If you craft, this will make you howl.

Crafting sure has changed,

Normal Girl

Big Sale!

Announcing a 2 for 1 sale at Normal Girl's Icicle Shop. We have small ones, big ones and extra gigantic ones. Stick 'em in your drinks, stick 'em down your brother's back, hang 'em on your own back porch. Folks, these are grade A authentic natural icicles.

And they are ripping my gutters right off the roof! All icicles must go!

Get 'em while they're hot.....frozen......

Meet a happy customer. This could be you.

Buy now!

Normal Girl

President

Life's a Beach...Chair

I am looking forward to a trip to the beach in a couple weeks with seven of my most creative friends, all artists. This is a photo of our beach house. Love the colors, right?

I shrunk the photo to 2" x 3".

I cut a piece of the photo to fit into the 3/4" bezel cup.

It is glued into the bezel cup with Paper Mod Podge.

Since there is no way to hang the bezel cup, I punched a hole.

This is called the Screw Down Punch, but that is wrong. It should be called the Helicopter Punch. It is one of my favorite tools. It punches 2 sizes of holes like butta.

I filled the cup with Dimensional Magic. You can use any kind of clear lacquer or epoxy, there are several.

Dry and ready to add to a project!

Beachy,

Normal Girl

Russian Tea Time

While in college and living like a bohemian with no money, all of my arty friends and I used to hang out at a little restaurant/tea room in Kalamazoo called The Troubador. It was on a small street behind the East campus of Western Michigan University and I think only neighborhood people knew about it. For a year or so, I lived a block away. We could have Russian Tea for super cheap. Dinner there was a treat, if we could afford it. Believe it or not, the pic above is the actual room the tea room was in. It was decorated like I imagined gypsies would have done it, dark with lamps and scarves. It is now a different restaurant.

Since then, I have made a batch of Russian Tea every winter. I am not sure if I really love it or just really love the memories it evokes. It will put you in a sugar coma if you drink much of it.

I start with:

2C instant tea

2C Tang (yeah, hysterical)

2C sugar

2 pkg lemonade mix

add a couple teaspoons each of ground cloves and cinnamon

I usually add more tea, and add extra of whatever seems to make it taste right.

Drinking it pulls me right back to the upstairs of that building on Vine Street...and makes me feel like an astronaut.

If you don't understand that, you are too young,

Normal Girl

Recovery Story

This is a story that tells how to cover a book by decoupaging fabric to it. I am posting it because it is very easy and several people have asked how to do it. It will work on any book, hard or soft cover. It just happens that the book I covered today is my Bible. I saw this fabric at a craft show last fall, made into kid's clothes. I looked all over the place for some. I finally found one yard of it online and it made me happy.

This will be the second covering of my Bible. You can see that the decoupage medium works like a champ. I could not remove the first fabric cover or the pieces I added to the surface. I was only able to peel the top layer off the papers I glued down.

First: lay the book open and cut a piece of fabric that is a little bigger on all sides.

Brush a not stingy coat of Mod Podge all over the cover of the book. Wrap the fabric around the book, sticking it to the wet Mod Podge. Brush a coat of Mod Podge over top of the fabric.

You can see that I used Mod Podge Gloss. It also comes in a non shiny matte finish. Let the first coat dry. Brush a second coat over everything, going over the edges. The fabric past the edges of the book should be wet. Let dry completely.

With scissors, trim the fabric at the edges of the book.

Decorate at will. To those of you who think God does not like beads, glitter and rhinestones, you are wrong. Just ask Him.

This is a fun and easy way to cover a journal or even your phone book. Come on, covers of phone books are horrible.

It works especially well for procrastinating your homework or other duties you are not quite up for,

Normal Girl

How Long Does Loyalty Last?

I worked for a large manufacturer of craft paint for 20 years. Today, I sent my resume to one of their competitors. I had to also send a mini portfolio. I have never considered myself to be a painter and had a mini freakout thinking about what I possibly could include in it.

Finding way more painted things around the house than I thought to find, I happily show a few of them to you. This is a cigar box purse. Notice anything odd about it? It is upside down. Please don't tell anyone. Remember that thing I have with old eyeglasses????

I did this canvas after a bible study. I traced my hand and my arm. Kind of like a kindergarden painting.

If you can figure out what this painting means, please comment. (Besides the fact that I am apparently afraid to paint hands)

Once upon a time, Wonder Woman and I and a team of women painted chairs for MONTHS to raise money for a mission trip. This is the chair that started the idea. We raised a lot of money, and people still ask about having chairs painted.

Flower. Standard issue.

This is my kitchen backsplash. I started with all white tiles and painted them. I used the kind of enamel paint that you bake to make it permanent. So, my entire wall has been in my oven!

This is a project in a book that I did with The HumanPinball and The Mag. I have no idea why I put tea things on a pitcher. Iced tea? It is not a tea pot. And who wants fuzzy stuff around what they are drinking? Thinking about cannibalizing the tea time beads for something better.

This is in my kitchen. Dig those lips.

I learned a few things from the experience:

- I paint more than I think I do

- You should buy stock in turquoise paint, apparently I use it on everything

- Even 4 years later, I feel weird talking to my old employer's competition

- On the other hand, it made me feel sort of giddy inside thinking I could possible do some work for the competition of the people who thought I was no longer valuable

Maybe I should paint a turquoise painting about those feelings,

Normal Girl