old spirit

I think I have an old spirit. And I mean that in the most "I am boring and a homebody" kind of way. 

I don't like concerts because I just want everyone to sit down, be quiet and listen to the music. 

Pop music makes me cringe. 

Kids these days...

Beyond sounding like a cane brandishing cranky old lady, I think my old spirit status is better supported by what I do like. 

I like to sit at home and watch a movie and read a book. 

I see the value in always listening and observing before speaking and acting.

I learned how to knit and I love it. 

If I had a day all to myself, I would browse an antique mall. 

And more recently, I am getting back into cross stitch. 

I got this book yesterday and I am so excited to start making cute little cross stitch animals and birds and monograms. 

So excuse me as I put on my slippers, curl up on the couch, and enjoy a night of cross stitching (far more that I would ever enjoy a noisy Katy Perry concert). 

artwork to share

What a fabulous week I am having, all thanks to you out there in bloggy world! My craft room was featured on Tatertots & Jello's Facebook page. I am still pretty giddy over that one! And I have surpassed my 100 followers goal! I am thankful to have each and every one of you on board, and I am so thankful for all the sweet comments. My craft room has gone over better than I imagined and I am so happy to inspire others with my space.

I am kind of swamped this week work wise and life wise, so I thought I would post some artwork I did for my son's room. I did this way before I blogged, so no tutorial. Sorry about that. 

 It really is easy! Paint your canvases a base color, lay them out how you want them to hang on the wall, and trace and paint the circles. For the letters, I printed his name out on the computer and cut the letters out to use as a stencil. I traced each letter onto card stock, cut it out, and adhered it with heavy spray adhesive. Then I coated it all with a sealant spray.

I know it isn't a detailed tutorial, but I have lots of projects that were pre-blog that I still want to share with you. So maybe you will see some more non-tutorial craft posts.

Thanks again for your support and comments! It is so lovely to be supported while doing something that you love.

craft room reveal!

Oh finally! It is done. And I am so ready to show it off! It is clean, perfectly staged, and will probably never look like this again. Ha! All you other artists and crafters know how that goes. To get started, let's have a little reminder of what it looked like before.

Here is that same view of what it looks like now.

It is such a change!

I have basically created 3 "stations".

This long counter is my paper crafting area. Behind the curtains hide my papers, paints, embellishments, glue. etc. It is a bar counter height. I wanted it taller to increase the storage underneath.

This smaller nook is my sewing area. I have my fabric and notions in the cabinets below. I painted a corkboard white to hang inspiration and random supplies on. Painting it white makes it a nice neutral back drop for fabrics, notes, or whatever else.

This long desk is my jewelry area and my office. All of my jewelry making stuff is in the left cabinet. The other two cabinets house stationary and office supplies.

Above the jewelry area, I have another painted cork board to hang finished jewelry on. I wanted some place to hang my work that looked like art and not totally utilitarian. Pretty and functional.

I love the wall above my long desk. I wanted a statement wall that was also useful and inspirational. The middle is a chalkboard, I have my jewelry display, and I incorporated family photos that make me happy. I think it turned out great. Plus, it was cheap. A lot of the frames I had already, and I just spray painted everything the same shade of white.

I also added a small organizational area. I hung four clipboards on the wall with detachable velcro strips. I can take the boards on or off to use and write on as I need. The table below is just an old table that I made a cover for. There is a shelf under that table where I store all my chargers and ugly cords.

I have so many pretty, girly touches in the room that make it mine. I have my Olzewski Disney light box collection, my collection of vintage Disney Little Golden Books, glass door knobs, owls and birds here and there, and so many other things that inspire me and make me happy.

I am so happy with it, and I really hope you like it. If you have any questions about where things came from or how I did something, I would love to share with you!

room reveal postponed

I am pretty bummed. Blogger is having some problems with pictures posting, so I can't do my post tonight showing off my new craft room. As soon as Blogger gets this hammered out I will get my post up.

Sorry for the delay! The wait will totally be worth it though, I promise!

hello new followers!

Actaully, hello to all of my followers! I am so happy to have you reading and joining in the fun!

I know it has been quiet around here, but I have been busy. Doing what, you ask?

Finishing my craft room. Yes, finishing! My craft room is done. DONE! I am so relieved and tired and excited. It is such a beautiful, peaceful little room in our house and I am so lucky to have it. Can't wait to share it with you.

I will be doing a great big ole reveal post tomorrow.

Just wanted to say hi and to tell you that you get to see my craft room tomorrow!

P.S. It is March 26th and it has snowed like at least 3 or 4 inches here. Which I think is kind of awesome.

huge follower giveaway!

Hello lovely readers! I have a HUGE giveaway coming your way. Ready to see all the awesomeness I have to offer you?

K, here you go:

I know it is hard to see everything. In this huge pile of stuff is:

• A clear alphabet stamp set
• Clear spring stamps
• Stickers
• Chipboard
• Paper Corners
• Paper Flowers
• Metal Charms
• Fleece Embellishments

People, this is alot of goods. It's all brand new, all out of my stash, hand picked to give to one of you!

Want to win?

You have to do only two things:

1. Follow me publicly on Google Friend Connect.

 (On the right hand side of my blog home screen you should see a "Follow" button. Click on it and follow the instructions)

2. Leave one comment on this post.

This giveaway will close Friday, April 1st 10:00pm CST.

over at craft snob today!

Hey all!

I am over at Craft Snob again today showing you how to make this great leather bib necklace.

Click here to go directly to the post. Then stay a while and check out some of Sara's other crafts. I am sure you will find something you want to make!

tutorial: nook cover re-do

I have to start out by saying that my husband is awesome. For so many reasons. Probably like a million reasons. One of the many reasons that he is awesome is that he makes a point of surprising me with sweet gifts, and he always goes all out for my birthday.

This year he has outdone himself. I came home from work last week to a perfect little early birthday present sitting in my craft room.

A nook.

A NOOK!

I did some squealing, hopping, hugging, and more squealing.

And just so you don't think we are loaded and can just go buy expensive gadgets whenever we want, I want to tell you that he used money he had been saving since Christmas. So sweet.

Ok, did I brag enough on the hubs yet? I think I did.

I needed a cover for it, but all the covers at B & N (Barnes and Noble - you know, that is the lingo since I am so cool now and I have a nook) were plain. I looked at the covers, browsed the store, thought about the covers, and then had a vision. I walked quickly back to the covers and picked up this grey one

and turned it into this:

Want to know how?

This is what you will need:

• A Nook cover (the texture of the cover is important here. Mine had a cloth-like texture - not leather or pleather. The cloth is needed so that the Heat 'n Bond will stick)
• Cloth scraps
• Heat n Bond (I used extra strength)
• Iron
• Scissors
• Paper/Pencil for making a pattern

Start by drawing out your pattern. This is what I came up with for mine.

Select your fabric.

Then fuse a small piece of each fabric to a small piece of the Heat 'n Bond.

Ok, all the prep work is done. Next, I cut out each teardrop shape out of the paper pattern to use as a stencil.

I used this stencil to trace onto the Heat 'n Bond, then cut out the piece. As I was cutting out the paper, tracing, and cutting out the fabric, I laid it out how I wanted it on my cover as I went along.

Once I had all my pieces cut out and arranged, I followed the directions on the Heat 'n Bond packaging and ironed the pieces onto the cover.

Be careful as you are ironing - the center of the cover is cardboard or something, and began to warp a bit from the heat. I just bent the cover back in shape and held it while it cooled and no permanent damage was done. Phew!

I love it. And I love my nook. And I really love my husband.

Linking up:







 
dotdotdot linky party  Blue Cricket Design

update on my weekend projects.

Scarf: A bust. Anyone have any tips on elastic thread? I tried a couple things, neither of which worked. If you have tried something that works for you, leave me a comment. My elastic didn't pull the material to make it bunch up.

Bag: Not even attempted. Still on the agenda.

Necklace that I don't have supplies for: Still dreaming of it.

I am just so awesome, right? I think my crafting eyes are bigger than my crafting stomach. In the words of my husband (regarding my scarf), "At least it was an attempt." 

But I do have something that I think will redeem me. Stay tuned.

what's on the agenda?

Do you all even have any idea how many projects I decide to do, buy the supplies for, and then don't do? Um, probably not. I don't want to tell.

In an attempt to undo the damage this does to my bank account and to my crafting momentum, I am going to try to tackle a couple of these this weekend.

First up:

Anthropologie Inspired Scarf at Sew Homegrown.

Isn't it cute? I have some navy lightweight fabric that I want to use for a spring scarf. I am excited to try my hand at elastic thread for the first time.

And this:

Simple Reversible Totebag at Skip to my Lou.

We'll see about this one - I hope I have time to get to it. I have lots of small pieces of fabric that I buy just because I like them. They would be perfect to use up on something like this.

Just for fun, here is a project I have my eye on that I do not have the supplies for. I literally think about this necklace every day and I want to make it so bad!

Wirelace Ombre Necklace at lemmemakeit.

I know you all just died a little. Because it is so awesome and beautiful and we all NEED one of these beauties in our lives. If you are not as obsessed with this as I am then, well, ok - maybe I am just crazy. (but it is awesome)

So, that is what I will be up to. Probably I will just sit on the couch, watch some tv, and eat candy. Which happens to be what I am doing now. People, it was a long week. Don't judge me.

Off to work on a scarf. You can stop judging now.

finally.

I finally made a point to hang my under-counter curtains.

I think a little info is needed as to why these took me WEEKS to finish.

First of all, I had to sew these. Wait, let me say that again. I had to sew these! I hemmed curtains, people. It took me a few nights because I had a hard time cutting a straight line, ironing hems, jamming the sewing machine, stabbing myself with pins, etc. But I did it.

Also, I only have about 2 hours a night to work on crafts, maybe like 4 or so nights a week. So my craft time is limited and when I have a frustrating project, I just tend to ignore it and work on something else. Which is what I did. For like a month.

And the biggest problem of all: I could NOT figure out how to hang them. This is the genius track I found to hang them on:

It really is a great idea. It is a lot like the track that they hang those hospital divider curtains on. This is a view from the ground looking up under the counter.

These are the little hooks that the curtain should hang on:

The track came with small hooks that hooked on that plastic loop and then clipped to the curtain. But when I used those, it left about a one inch gap where you could see what is behind the curtain which kind of defeats the whole purpose.

So the dilemma - great track, but I don't know how to hang the curtains.

I tried sewing them on. Nope.

I tried threading a small wire through and securing it in the back. No go.

At this point I was angry. Frustrated. Annoyed that I couldn't figure this out.

So I plugged in the glue gun and glued the cloth directly onto those plastic hanging things. And I don't even feel like I cheated.

I worked harder on trying to hang the stupid curtains than pretty much any other project I have worked on in a long time.

OK, so they are not stupid. It actually looks really good and you totally cannot tell from the front that I used hot glue.

Nice, huh?

 I am still looking for a counter height stool to go here. With my mad Craigslist chair hunting skills I should be able to find one easy.

So there you have it. Hot glue curtains.

tutorial: glass tile necklace

I am ready for spring! Considering it snowed here today, I think I need a little taste of spring to hold me over until the warm weather decides to set in for good.

So, I made an interchangeable spring/summer necklace. Themey without being too themey.

They really are easy to make, once you get the supplies.

Here is what I used to make these:

• Patterned Paper (I used Graphic 45 and DCWV Mariposa)
• Glass tiles (Amazon)
• Glossy Accents (Michael's or Hobby Lobby)
• Chain (Hobby Lobby)
• Bails (Hobby Lobby)
• Scissors (not pictures)
• Pencil (not pictured)
• Matte Modge Podge (not pictured)
• E-6000 (not pictured)

Start by selecting your paper, laying the tile over it, and tracing it.

(by the way, isn't that Graphic 45 paper to die for? Their paper is awesome)

Cut out your square and apply a pretty generous dot of the Glossy Accents.

Squish your tile down onto the Glossy Accents, and wiggle the tile around a bit until it is completely adhered with no air bubbles. You may have some ooze out the sides -- just wipe it away. This is what you will have:

Let them dry. Before you put the bails on the back, you will want to give the back of the paper a couple coats of Mod Podge. This just seals the paper and makes your necklace a little more durable.

Apply the bails using E-6000. It is a really strong glue so you won't have to worry about the bails falling off.

(Side note: Seriously, if you make jewelry or anything else in the world, buy a tube of this stuff. I use it all the time, but especially in jewelry making.)

Now be patient and let them dry.

All done! You know what I love about this kind of tutorial? If Graphic 45 paper and butterflies make you want to barf, you can use what you want. This is a great necklace to personalize for a gift...or make like 20 for yourself.

If you make your own, I would love to see... maybe I will even feature some of your work here on my blog!

Linking Up:

Thirty Handmade Days Pity Party

 dotdotdot

tutorial: custom pencils

I know you all have been on the edge of your seats waiting for this one. A pencil tutorial. I know, I know. Mind-blowing. (Actually, I think this is pretty cool, but I am trying to down play my excitement because I know haters* are gonna be all - "Really, a pencil tutorial??")

Let's just say this. The fact that I had to make special pencils to go with my craft room gives you a glimpse into my extremely particular tastes. I don't know why I had to have pretty, paper colored pencils, but I did.

So here is what I made:

Here are the supplies I used:

• Pencils (I found these in the dollar bins at Michael's. The rhinestones were alrealy attatched, but you could easily attatch your own if the pencils you have don't have rhinestones.)
• Patterned Paper
• Mod Podge (I used matte)
• Paintbrush
• Scissors (not pictured)

Start by measuring around your pencil and adding about 1/4 inch so that the paper will overlap itself.

Cut out paper the length of your pencil, and the width of the measurement you just took.

Coat your pencil and the back of your paper in Mod Podge and wrap your pencil in the paper.

You may have to apply a little extra Mod Podge and press down the edge of the paper.

Hang your pencils to dry so that the glue doesn't stick to any surface. I have one of those hanging rack things for scrapbook supplies, so I just used that with one of the clips that came with it. If you don't have one of these, you can use a clothespin and string to hang them.

Let them dry overnight, and they are done. I sharpened one of them, and the paper didn't snag in the sharpener or anything. It works like a charm.

Now I have pencils to go with my crazy picky desk set.

* I don't say "haters" in my non-blogging life.