Crafternoon: Canvas + Rhinestones FINISHED PRODUCT!

Here's the finished product! My big surprise to unveil was that I did my monogram instead of a phrase or word! I am so excited with the final product!!

Here's what you need:

1. Canvas: any size, just know the bigger, the longer and more labor intensive it will be

2. Gems: any color! I picked pink and green ones out of a big colorful pack. I added pearls and pink glittery ones, and then added 10 HUGE crystals throughout it!

3. Hot glue gun: I used a hot glue gun to affix all the gems to the canvas, but a friend of mine helped me out and she used Elmer's too.

4. Letters or words: I used a box cutter to make the letters as accurate as possible so they turned out best on the canvas.

5. Patience grasshopper: this is not a fast craft, you need time.

First lay out your letters:

I taped mine down so that they didn't move or change places on me while I was doing it. You could also trace them, but the letters were good stencils and placeholders.

Next, start adding your gems:

You can see I started with clusters from the big silver gems first.

Continue adding your gems:

Once all your letters are outlined and with the gems and you fill in their open spaces, you can get ready to peel the letters off. I jumped the gun because it could have been cool to wait until the very end, but I wanted to know what it would look like!

Then, peel off the letters:

It's starting to take shape!! Now you just have to be patient, and keep adding the gems all over!

Soon enough, you'll have this:

You're almost ready for the last step!

If you want, you can add gems to all the edges:

Once you're at this step, you can work on finding a place to put it and then finally hanging it!

Hang it:

I hung this right by my bed! I'm hoping it's well hung and the ribbon is sturdily attached!! 

Do you like?

Happy crafting y'all!

xxKatie

My Next Roadtrip/Vacay: Washington, DC

(So technically it's not my "next" roadtrip, since we already went on it but, I'll bend the rules this one time!!)

Last week all the girls decided to go to DC and be super tourist-y. My mom, sister and I couldn't remember the last time that we did something like that, but we ended up having a blast! We headed to Union Station to eat lunch in the America restaurant after looking around the whole place. Grace and I decided to be REALLY touristy with Barack and Michelle:

(Politically incorrect? maybe.)

We then started our way on over to the Museum of Natural History. We looked through all the exhibits and really had an awesome time. 

Rexy? Night at the Museum...anyone? Well it was so cool. The dinosaur exhibit was one of the best.

Dear future fiancee...

The Hope diamond (sorry these few photos stink...BBerry)

For anyone that hasn't made a trip to the Natural History museum, Harry Winston and the Smithsonian together held a competition for the new setting for the hope diamond and "Embracing Hope" (the pictured setting) was the winner of the year-long competition! It's pretty tough to get a good picture of the Hope diamond itself because the light changes often and it's on a rotating pedestal...surrounded by hmm 4 guards? Wild!

After finishing up a Natural History, we headed on over to the National Gallery to see some of the paintings (quickly since our meter ran out at 4!) and I got to see this (for the second time):

The Degas ballerinas were so delicate and pretty! I loved seeing them on display. We were practically by ourselves so we weren't rushed or anything!

We had a great girls day in DC and I can't wait to go back once it's not so awfully cold!

xxKatie