Negative Self-Talk

I've been making stuff, but, generous soul that I am, it's all for other people.  So, radio silence until stuff gets handed out.  See if you can guess whose heirloom in the making is under my cat!

Meanwhile, the local craft stores have been a goldmine of items that look interesting enough to make me forget my skill level.

I have discovered mini-canvases!  Step 1: Make the internet tell me what kinds of art things you can actually use on a canvas.  Paint?  Do you need, like, special paint?  Can you use Sharpie Brand Permanent Markers because you're a bad ass who doesn't follow establishment rules (and also because they're cheaper than paint and you can use them to label stuff)?

Step 2: Crushing disappointment.  My best bet is to find the next big thing that's going to appeal to hipsters but doesn't require a great deal of "artistic ability" or "talent."  Possibly some sort of cartoon animal with a mustache...

I also discovered that Mod Podge is now making all kinds of Mod Podge and Mod Podge accessories.  I may need to pick up the little flattening roller at some point, and apparently there is some kind of magic spray that will let me print things off the internet and decoupage them (otherwise the ink smears).  This would be especially helpful since I hate "upcycling" that involves destroying perfectly good things to make a stupid box, clock, or decorative bird.

For example, these pages were published in the mid 90's.  And since everybody in the 90's was convinced that their comics would some day be worth millions, these pages probably came from a book that was in perfectly fine condition.  I've got a few issues from the 60's that are fragile, but are still valiantly maintaining book form.  Also, tearing pages out of old books that were complete when you got them?  Also not upcycling.  Yeah, it's not the WORST THING EVER, especially since most of this stuff is slowly and steadily going digital, but it's not upcycling unless it's trash.

Anyway, I have purchased Mod Podge charms.  They're small acrylic shapes that, now that I've paid for them, I'm not sure how I'm going to glue things on them without gluing them to the table/the protective covering placed over the table.

I usually avoid jewelry since, like sewing, I am not willing to suffer through the learning period.  Just like how I'd love to burn some of my earliest crochet projects which torment me with their ugliness.  But I am okay at gluing things onto other things!  I think I might flip through a Free Comic Book Day issue, find something that might look good on one of these charms, and not pretend that it's helping the environment.  I would use the terrible 90's comics I was giddily destroying to make gift bows, but I assume those are too ugly for anything other than blatantly not upcycling them to make gift bows.  (While I may have referred to that project as upcycling in an earlier post, the issue in question probably counts as garbage.  Which would make it upcycling.)