This is in the Bag!

Chance and I were lucky enough to be able to go to the Congressional Baseball Game. It is a game in which Democrat Congressmen play Republican Congressmen in a charity baseball game. 

When we walked in all kinds of companies started handing us free merchandise (SWAG!)

C-SPAN (the channel on which you can watch what is happening on the floor of the House) gave us these messenger bags. 

We're going on a vacation soon and I think the messenger bag is the fanny packs cooler, younger brother. So I really think these could come in handy. Sorry, C-SPAN, I don't really want to advertise for you! So I placed thick cardboard under the logo and used plain ol' masking tape around the edge. 

I painted two coats of white acrylic paint over the logo to get a nice base. I mixed the white with a Textile Medium, which is just a liquid you can mix with acrylic paint to help it bond to fabric and become washable.Then I went crazy with aqua paint. I painted one whole box aqua and then part of the second box.

I decided to go with monograms. I just eyeballed it because I'm kinda lazy and I like immediate results. :)
I made mine a black cursive and Chance's a blue Arial type font.

When I took the tape off I saw that I had a little leakage. Not surprising really since I used masking tape...*hangs head in shame*

Anywho, I just touched up the edges with black.

Here's our end result! Maybe not show room perfect, but it was FREE! And it allowed us to carry stuff on our vacation without a purse or a heavy backpack or heaven forbid an actual fanny pack.

Last Minute Decor

So, last month I tried my hand at a project I saw on Thrifty Decorating. I failed at it. I really need Nikki to come sit with me or something while I do it. At any rate, it involved cutting a piece of foam board into a rectangular frame shape. So I had this foam board sitting around and a big, empty space on my wall. We've invited people over for a little party on Saturday and I really wanted to have something up. Out of desperation I took some scrap fabric that I love, my trusty mod podge, and my foam board. Here the result:

My supplies:

I cut the fabric into random sizes and mod podged it on to the board. I would recommend going around the edges first and then covering the rest to create a random pattern. I would also warn that the mod podge you put under the fabric is more important that the mod podge on top. The under layer acts as the glue and will keep the raw edges down.

Mid-way through:

Drying:

Ta-Da!

This project was essentially free because I already owned all the supplies. It only took an hour and that it because I was on the phone the whole time I worked on it!

Since it's St. Patrick's Day I'd like to leave you with an Irish Blessing:

May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow,

and my trouble avoid you wherever you go. 

I'm linking up to Thrifty Decorating's linky party Thrifty Thursday.