Fits and starts on my bowl…and St. Patrick’s Day crafts…

I got my camera batteries charged up and can show you more bowl pictures…

Look! This bowl has little feet and sits so cute…notice the awful orange shellac….

I just had to see what was underneath and so I sanded and sanded and sanded…and finally some lovely wood grain has started to show through!!!

Then I decided I wanted to incorporate a dragonfly…which turned into a butterfly…which got sanded off when it just looked wrong…

And this is where the bowl is headed now. Funny how projects start getting away from a person…I start with a vision (usually) and then end up heading in a different direction (usually)…

I got to babysit again this week and we crafted at the kitchen table. While my little girl painted and cut, I drew and cut out all these shamrocks…then decided they needed a little glitter…then decided they needed contrast with the dark brown circles. I printed the saying out, slapped it all in the frame, and boom! Done!

I also printed out this subway art from Eighteen 25 and framed it…

Gathered up a few green bottles from my bottle collection…

Badda bing badda boom…we’re ready for St. Patrick’s Day! (Which also happens to be my hubbie’s birthday…more on that next week!)

In other news I am still struggling with stamping into metal. Grrrrr….. This craft will not defeat me!!! (I hope) Luckily I have plenty of pieces like this to practice on…like around a hundred…I picked up some belts at a local thrift store and this is one of the links on the belt…I’ve gotta be able to get at least one good impression before they are all gone!

Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!

Ahhhhh…back to normal!

Here is one of the gifts I made that I couldn’t show you-

It is a notebook with Gabe’s artwork as the front cover. I just printed out the little robot on cardstock and glued it to the front. Here is a picture of the notebooks as they were being made…

These are all 3x5” with around 50 sheets of paper cut from misc. paper I had on hand (notebook paper, graph paper, copier paper, plotters paper) and backed front and back with chipboard. I clamped the pages together with clothespins and applied padding compound to the top edge (a BIG thanks to Carmen for the padding compound!) and then covered the top edge with book binders tape. FYI: I’ve read that caulking works for the top edge (it holds all the paper together) or several coats of white glue…but the padding compound is just so easy and not messy! Here are some other notebooks we made…

These were fun too…to switch it up a little we busted out our stamps and stamped on random pages in the notebooks with little pictures and sayings…it was a lot of fun…I love girls craft night!

Happy Crafting!

What I’m working on…

A bunch of paper mache ornaments stenciled and ready for the bazaar… (I didn’t make the disks, I just cut a stencil and painted…stencil found here.)

Little pin cushions in various stages of completion - brought to my attention by Julie who pointed me to this tutorial.

And a little something I’m working on…and I’m sorry, but I can’t find my “inspiration” link.

This weekend I’ve promised my little guy some craft time. I’ve asked him to draw a picture of a monster that he’d like to hang out with. He said “are we going to sew it into a stuffed animal?” ahhhh, he knows me well!

Happy Crafting and have a fun SAFE (all you deer hunters) weekend!

Fiddling With Paper

I’ve just been fiddling with paper lately. I’m making these bugs to be a part of a larger project that has been in the works for quite a while now. I finally feel a bit more caught up with housework…but there is still a lot to do. How do you fellow crafters handle the housework/craft situation? Can you craft with a sink full of dirty dishes? Lately I’ve been feeling that I have to have housework done before I can craft…….only problem is…….housework is never done……there is always more to do! Really – how do you handle this????

Cereal Box File Folders

Here’s how you make them – ready for this? Get pen and paper handy to take notes…you lay your manila file folder over your opened cereal box and trace it, then cut it. hehe. Do you think you can handle all those instructions? hehe. Mine will go undecorated because they will be in a file drawer. There are so many darn uses for cereal boxes we may never eat oatmeal again! Especially since we’ve been getting so many hot cereal deals – a dollar a box! woot woot!

Otherwise I’ve had a frustrating couple of days. My kitchen sink faucet has been running at a trickle. A very slooooooow trickle. So yesterday I took it apart. Nothing is wrong with the faucet…today I hope to start in the kitchen and work my way back checking all the valves.  It’s gonna be a long day. When I’m not doing that I’ll be recaulking the trim in my office. I already caulked it once…and when I went to prime it the paint beaded up on the caulked areas…I used unpaintable caulk! I had grabbed the wrong tube the first time…pure frustration! I hope all of your projects are more satisfying!!

Happy Crafting!!

Make an expandable file folder

First off I want to say that this is not my original idea.  And, I have spent a ridicules amount of time on the internet trying to track down where the idea came from this morning…with no luck.  So if this is your idea please let me know so I can give you proper credit.  But – it is a great idea and worth sharing! 

This is an expandable file folder that I made! See the inside -

Side view -

As you can see it’s been well used.  To make one simply cut the sealed ends off manila envelopes (as many as you want – each envelope will make two pockets), fold them in half, stack the folded envelopes, and glue them together (Duh – don’t glue them shut – leave the insides unglued).  The original instructions said to cut off the flaps, but I left them on.  By leaving them on you can tuck them over whatever is in that pocket and it will stay put.  I also glued cereal box cardboard, cut to size, to each side for added stability -

can you see that?  Then covered it with scrapbook paper.  Then for some added insurance against wear and tear I covered the bendable parts of the scrapbook paper with packing tape.  I used a glue stick to glue everything together and I’d have to say it hasn’t stayed glued very well.  Next time I might try a different kind of glue or even double-stick tape.  However, this has proved to be so handy!  This one has kept all my scroll saw patterns in one place and tidy.  I can now empty it, file the patterns in the file cabinet, and reuse this to keep elements of another project in one place and tidy.  Yippee!!!  Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!

Journal Love

Not a whole lot of crafting is going on around here. I hope to change that this weekend. I have plans!! This is a journal I made a while back -

I used cardstock that I had in abundance and sewed six signatures. Then backed it with paper covered cardboard and finally some leather. It’s still not done. I have to come up with some way to keep it closed and maybe some decoration. As you know I love lists – and I love notebooks! Here is a great way to use them-

Monster collection of moleskine tips tricks and hacks

Ultimate moleskine guide

Here is a great site to visit: Moleskinerie

I know – it’s almost a religion with some people!!! Have a good weekend and Happy Crafting!!

Covered Jar Lids

I’ve started cleaning and it isn’t pretty. I tackled my closet and bedroom yesterday and spent hours cleaning and sorting – and I still have hours left. Good news is that I found the winter boots I bought my daughter a couple years ago! Really. Yes, it was messy – but the biggest problem is that I just haven’t gone through things for so long - the boots were in their original box – and I thought something else was being stored in it! You know – when you live with something for so long you quit seeing it? Well, it is time to look at everything!  But since it isn’t the first of the year yet I figured I can still clean in a haphazard way. One thing I’ve done is cover some jar lids. Click on that to get to a great tutorial by Folding Trees.

I’m sure she mentions this but make sure you use a thinner paper – double sided card stock just won’t cut it. I hope you have a great day and Happy Cleaning!