bittersweetcrafts: Smile From Ear to Ear

I just noticed that it is exactly a month after Alane's birthday. What a coincidence! This gift was a little late, because I kind of lagged on making it. I had picked up a clear plastic lipstick stand during my last trip to LA. I know Alane loves her lip products, so I thought this would be a nice gift for her. However, I couldn't stand (ha ha..) that it was clear. I mean it's nice that you could see the products, but how boring is that? It was just asking to be decorated.

I knew I wanted a Disney theme, so I narrowed it down to either Cinderella, since she's Alane's favorite princess and this was a girly gift, or Mickey, because she loves Mickey. I had thought up designs for both characters, but ultimately went with Mickey. I chose Mickey mainly on its color scheme. I felt Cinderella would have been too powder blue, and I wanted this to have a more mature feel. She is turning 25 after all.

Mickey's color scheme is generally red, yellow, white and black. Like I mentioned before, I wanted this to feel less childish, so I went with a more earthy tone of each color.

The design was kind of random, but as I was making it, I realized that I was subconsciously making Alane's home pillows which I had helped touch up whenever I was visiting.

I forgot where exactly I had found the quote, "smile from ear to ear," but I know I had seen it on one of the party hostess blogs I follow. I liked the quote, because I felt it suited the lipstick stand and Mickey theme nicely.

I had written the quote using a black pen on paper that had a glue adhesive on the back.

I cut each word out using my little craft knife. It seems tedious, but I found it to be quite relaxing.

I used black lettering, because I felt that it would show up the best against the red, gold and brown background.

The paper that had the glue adhesive made adhering small pieces a little easier. Using a q-tip and a bit of water, I attached each word and Mickey ears to the background piece.

To make the sides, I traced it against a sheet of black paper.

Why the stand is lined with what looks like white paper is because I originally I had a different way of going about attaching the pieces. I will spare you the details, and just tell you that it failed.

The two sides and the back piece will be black.

I found Mod Podge to be the best way to attach the paper pieces to a plastic surface.

To decorate the sides I took the glue adhesive paper and gave it some color with gold nail polish.

I wanted it to look like confetti, so I cut the paper into little pieces using my craft knife.

Do not sneeze.

Using my craft knife, I carefully took each piece and dipped it into water to activate the adhesive.

I then placed each piece sporadically on the black sheet of paper.

Originally, I had only wanted to decorate the outside of the stand. However, as I was making it, I thought the inside looked too bare, so I went ahead and made pieces to cover the inside.