Craftiness!

For the most part this week, I've been very slug-like and in a bit of a funk. I'm slowly coming to terms with the idea that I might not be able to work in the field I really want to work in right now. It's hard to accept that idea, especially since I spent an extra two years in school to earn my degree in that field. And since, for the most part, I feel really confident about my ability to do that kind of job well. It's intimidating enough filling out job applications and going to interviews for jobs that I know I can do, but it's even worse for jobs I don't have experience in or specific skills for. BUT, I do know that things will work out one way or another. I haven't completely given up hope about getting a job in my field, and I'm keeping my eyes open for any promising jobs out there at all.

All that to say, I've spent a lot of time this week watching TV on the couch! However, Friday I woke up in a much better state of mind, and I randomly decided to do a crafty project!

Here's what I did. By the way, every time I start a post like this, I completely mean to upload the pictures first and type the text around them, and every single time I get caught up in what I want to say and forget to do that!!! ARGH. Anyway! :-)

While we have tons of framed pictures sitting in the floor that need to be hung up around the apartment, we didn't have any that really fit into the color scheme of our bathroom. So I used some stuff I had around here to make put together something that works!

First, I searched the internet for pictures I might want to use. Harder than I thought it would be! I couldn't decide what a good "bathroom" wall picture might consist of, and searching around for ideas wasn't yielding much useful information. So I eventually decided that something abstract might work, and I ended up finding what I wanted by searching Google images for "aqua blue tiles".

Here are the two pictures that I liked:

I'm pretty sure they're pictures of actual tiles people could use in their bathrooms. Which would be cute. But which is way beyond me and our rental apartment! Haha.

I then used good old Microsoft Publisher to arrange the images the way I would want them to look in a print. I am sure there are better programs to do this with, but Microsoft Publisher and I are old friends!

Here is my computer screen as I was laying out the images:

And here is the final result printed out:

Yes, although Microsoft Publisher and I are good friends, the page layout screen and I DO NOT GET ALONG. I have the worst time getting the settings where I want them so that what prints out looks remotely like what I see on the screen. In this instance, the fact that the edges were cut off didn't really matter too much because I was using a mat later, so I just let it go.

I originally had only 6 larger pictures of the tiles on the print, but I think it looks better with a few more smaller tiles.

I had an old frame that used to hold this wacky picture:

I had it above my desk in grad school, along with some big letters that said, "Laugh"...a reminder that I needed frequently during grad school! It's just some goofy pictures of us and our friends, and I definitely want to re-frame it somehow. :-)

Anyway, since the picture I printed was so much smaller than the frame, I had to give it some sort of background. I improvised by using the back sides of scrapbook paper, but I hope to get a large piece of white posterboard at some point so the background doesn't have any seams. The scrapbook paper works for now, though!

Background in progress

I also had some old picture mats lying around left over from a different project. (And left over from days when I did not immediately return any un-used item to the store for my money back!!). I really liked the grayish/blackish/silvery one when I bought it, and I'm so happy to be finally be using it now! I thought it would frame the picture really nicely and look good sort of floating on the white background.

Print with mat

I only took pictures of the final product (which I really like!) once it was on the wall, which led to some weird flash issues.

Close-up on wall

Full picture on wall (that is not brown wood to the right--it's a shadow; someday I will show how uniquely our apartment is shaped!!)

But you can see how the basic concept turned out. And I just taped the print to the mat and the mat to the background so I could switch the picture or the mat out pretty easily. And take it apart when I get my posterboard for the background. And perhaps position the print at an angle at some point! I am just glad to have something that coordinates with our bathroom colors, which you can see in our shower curtain below.

Shower curtain

And I'm very glad to have one more picture frame off the floor and on the wall!