Happy Birthday JustLeah!

Hey readers!

So much stuff!

My podcast cohost, JustLeah, had a Stevie Nicks themed birthday. I wanted to make her something fun and on theme. Someone else nabbed making a top hat, so I needed to come up with something else. I decided I would try to make a little shadow box that she could hang on her wall (or throw out if she felt so inclined).

I don't consider myself an expert on anything music, but a quick googling resulted in me discovering the quote "Don't be a lady, be a legend." I checked and double checked to be sure that this was accurately attributed to avoid serious egg on my face. Then I found a great picture of Stevie Nicks flipping off the camera that I thought fit the theme and quote perfectly. I chose a fun font and printed the picture and quote.

Things I needed:
Shadowbox
Crescent moon charms
Necklace chains
Floral feathers
Silk flower
Fabric
Foam board
Hot Glue
Tacky Glue
Card stock

Be a legend.

First things first, I need the quote and picture to be on thicker paper. Good thing I accidentally bought 900 pounds of card stock for my book binding project. I tried painting on the glue with a brush and then sticking the photo to it. It worked pretty well, but it did cause the picture to wrinkle just a little. I had one other copy of the picture so I tried using spray adhesive. Mistake 1: Watch your arm hairs when spraying adhesive or you will have a really tough time next time you shower.

Mistake 2: I tried to cut out my Stevie Nicks with a razor when scissors would have been fine. The paper was wet and bunched up with my (apparently not very sharp) razor. So I wound up having to use the painted semi-wrinkled one. I don't think you can see the wrinkles in the finished product, but it did piss me off. Those wrinkles probably would have been super easy to smooth out if I had something like, oh I don't know, a bone folder.

pictured: Not a blanket

Next it was time to put the fabric in the shadowbox. I had wanted to use a shawl but the store didn't have any and this was a "we are making this tonight" kind of situation. I also figured I would need to cut up whatever I used and that seemed like a waste of a perfectly good shawl. Not that I really know what a shawl is for. Isn't it just a socially acceptable outdoor blanket? Maybe I am good with shawls.

Anyway, I found this awesome fabric with layered ruffles that might have even worked better than an outdoor blanket. The shadowbox had a burlap back that I thought looked cool, so I left some of it showing. Just a little hot glue around the edges and everything was secure.

Those feathers are way too long!

Then came the fun part, arranging things! I wanted to have a few things that screamed "Stevie Nicks" in there. Since most of my knowledge of Stevie Nicks came from American Horror Story Season 3 (again, not a music person, I get that she is very famous and I am super uninformed), I needed to do more googling. I found some pretty cool pictures of Stevie Nicks and started my arranging. I laid it all out on the square, putting the frame back over it occasionally to make sure things weren't too far forward. The flower is a little bigger than I intended, but it works. The feathers were significantly longer than the square, so I cut them from the bottom and sealed the edge with a dab of hot glue.

Ignore that label

Then it came time to make things pop out. I had some extra foam board laying around from a previous craft project. I cut it into strips and hot glued them to the back of my quote and my image. If you ever try this, try to either make the foam board the exact same size as the thing you are gluing down, or make it much smaller so that it won't be visible no matter what angle you look at the shadow box. Since I had to use the liquid glued version of my Stevie Nicks picture, it did start to curl around the edges. I made sure to use the foam board as a bade to straighten the image out. I laid everything out and decided I wanted the picture to be in the foreground. If you made something like this, you could choose to go another way, but I really like Stevie Nicks flipping me off.  

Doesn't sag right now since its horizontal

Mistake 3: When it came time to glue the quote in place, I realized that because I had glued the fabric along the back, it drooped when the heavy quote was glued to it. This caused the words to droop down and just was not a good look. I had already glued the photo down and since most of the foam board anchors were glued directly to the burlap, it wasn't doing that for the image. It also meant that I couldn't get under the fabric easily to fix it. I wound up putting the nozzle of the glue gun against the sheer part of the fabric. Some of the glue bled through and therefore held it in place. It isn't the most elegant fix, but it will stay together. Not to mention you won't be able to see the glue since my foam board anchors are much smaller then my card stock quote. In other news, "nozzle." Apparently if you are like me and inadvertently write "nossle," spellcheck has no idea what you are trying to say. Closest guess was "lossless," which is definitely not what I was going for. From the angle in this picture, you can see the foam board providing the anchors to lift the quotes up and give the shadowbox some depth. Once it is in the frame, that won't be visible anymore.

good in theory

I wanted to give the shadowbox something shiny, so I got a few charms from the craft store. I know Stevie Nicks is a fan of crescent moon jewelry, so I grabbed every moon shaped thing I could find. Mistake 4: I did this complicated chain thing to created a layered charm look I had seen in a bunch of Stevie Nicks pictures. It was really hard to get the spacing right and I wound up needing to use a ton of hot glue to get it to stick. I wanted it to sit forward so that there would be another layer of depth in the shadowbox. Then I realized that chains move, and that once the jewels got stuck behind the feathers you wouldn't be able to free them without disassembling everything. So I had to scrap it in favor of two necklaces on the other side. I glued the charms down as well so avoid them swinging around inside the box and damaging things.

Once the jewels were all in place, I put the frame back on and sealed it all up. I think it came out pretty nice. I also think that "Don't be a lady. Be a legend." Is some pretty fantastic advice in general. Other, less wise sounding advice: "Don't take any wooden nickels," or "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Fortunately for us, nickels are clearly distinguishable from wood and I can count my chickens on no hands.

Make something cool! Leave me a comment :)
Until next time,
JoshPrime