Take my E.A.T. sign, for instance.
For months, I wanted to make some sort of craft revolving around the word "eat" for my kitchen. I wasn't sure of what it would look like, but I knew I wanted it.
One day while at Hobby Lobby, I saw the papier mache letters on sale and I bought an e, a, and t. I still wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I needed to make a start and that was a good one.
I then decided to decoupage pretty papers on each and attach them to frames. So I went back to the HL and searched the stacks and stacks of scrapbook paper. (Because the stacks and stacks I have at my home--under the guest bed, in the end table in the guest room, and stuffed in little hiding places here and there--were not quite right).
I went to the dollar store and scoured the picture frame section trying to find 3 frames that had character and were made well enough to not look tacky and cheap...'cause when you spend a dollar on a frame, you don't want everyone to know. But you certainly don't want to spend $5 on each frame. I spray painted the frames a glossy white (which looking at them again, I should have done at least one more coat, but I am an impatient woman...sorta).
I painted the glass of the frames a dainty aqua (the inside, not the outside). This time I painted about 3 coats to make sure you couldn't see the paint strokes and ensure uniformity.
Then I assembled the parts. The aqua glass in the now-white-frames and glued (with E6000--good stuff) the letters to the glass.
Then the letters sat in the bookcase in my home office. For months. They weren't quite done, but I couldn't figure out what they needed. So as I tried to figure it out (and live the rest of my day-to-day life), they sat. And sat. Finally, I figured I should hang them up and figure it out while I enjoyed them.
And I did.
About a month later, I decided to make some paper flowers, which wasn't too hard. I'd link to the tutorial where I found the instructions, but don't remember which of the millions of blogs I checked out was the one with the instructions. And so, alas, you'll need to just take my word for it. They are easy.
And now, it's been about another month and I finally took the letters down and glued (with hot-glue this time) the flowers on.
So there you have it. A tutorial of sorts. On how a craft that takes other people 30 minutes can take my 492 days to complete. (that is an estimate, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it was the true time frame).
