Day 23

Today's craft I got from the book "The Big-Ass Book of Crafts".  Yes, that really is the name of the book.  One of the reasons I got it!  The crafts in the book are great, but pretty involved and in need of many supplies I never have.  I decided to flip through once more, since I usually do it quickly and forget what's in there.  I saw the "CD jewel case notebook" and decided to give it a go. 

I realize I already did a notebook (the tea box notebook - Day 12) but this one is a different concept, and hey, you can never have enough paper notebooks around! 

First I took a CD case, took out all the stuff inside (the cover, black cd holder and the back cover) then I cut 10 sheets of regular copy paper to 10" x 4.5" and folded it in half.  I then cut a piece of decorative scrapbook paper to the same size and glued it to the first white paper.  I cut another piece of paper 2" x 4.5" for the spine and glued that on to the bigger sheet.  I stuffed it all into the CD case and then put in a pencil (that I had to sharpen, and sharpen, and sharpen...until it was the right size!) and closed it all up nicely!   

The finished CD jewel case notebook closed:

Close up of finished CD jewel case notebook closed:

The case open:

The back of the case open (sorry about the reflection):

Day 22

I think it's no secret that I love Stan.  I think he's just the cutest, most lovable, most wonderful man I have ever met.  I think since we have been together for 7 years now, sometimes we get complacent in showing our love for each other.  Because of this, I decided to make him something that will remind him daily, even hourly that I love him so very much.

I had a matchbox laying around and saw an ornament craft in one of my books, so that's where I got the idea.  I have always loved miniature crafts, but never really do them because of my sausage fingers!  I end up getting in my own way and it causes me to just have a temper tantrum and abandon the thing I'm working on...forever! 

I pulled out some leftover stickers from Valentines Day, some paint, card stock, a heart punch and the glue and set to work.  I cut purple card stock and glued it on all the sides inside the matchbox.  While that was drying I cut a window into the matchbox sleeve and painted (or tried to paint) it pink.  The paint wasn't thick enough to cover the design on the matchbox, so you can see that it came from a steakhouse.  (I'll go back to that in a minute!)  I took the 3D stickers, added pop dots to the back so they would be even more 3D and put those inside the matchbox.  I then cut out hearts with a punch and glued those to the sides of the matchbox sleeve.  I added some more 3D hearts to the back of the sleeve, so all the sides would have some pizazz!  Then I poked two holes in the top of the matchbox and threaded some 24 gauge wire and formed a heart, sort of like a little handle. 

When I presented it to Stan, I'm happy to report he didn't think I was corny and he loved it.  When I pointed out that you can see the word steakhouse on the cover, he said "well when I look at it, it will remind me how much I love you and steakhouses!"  :)  I love him. 

This is the full front view all completed:

This is the sleeve and matchbox, can be taken out to see details:

And here is the side of the sleeve:

And now the back:

And now a close up of the back:

After I finished making this I made grilled cheese for lunch, and being in a miniature mood, I made our dog Izzy a mini grilled cheese...she loved it!:

Day 21

Since I'm still not feeling very well I didn't want to do a craft that involved pulling out all my craft supplies and making a mess that I would then have to clean up, 

I decided on a card, I guess this would be considered an "any occasion" one since it really doesn't have a theme.  I had some left over orange card stock cut in the perfect size so I grabbed that and I have a huge supply of old magazine laying around so I decided on a collage format.  I cut out a page full of color, in various sizes and then glued them on to the front, then I went back through the magazine and cut out words that were positive sounding, and glued them over the mosaic pictures.  Overall I think it looks fun and funky, just like me!  LOL

Day 20

Because this is a wedding craft, I can't go into details.  Here is a really horrible picture to keep you guessing!  This is sort of a cheat because I have to make several of these, and it's going to take some time, but this is one of many.  You will have to come to the wedding to see what it is!!!  ;-)

Day 19

I need to point out a few things about me and about this craft.  First, I'm immature when it comes to stuff like this.  I see a toy section in a store, and I'm there!  I can't even go into a Walgreens without spending a considerable amount of time on the toy aisle, and as most people know, the toy section in Walgreens is not even good!  Second, I'm sick, so I left work early today and headed over to Target to get medicine.  Being I wasn't feeling good, I skipped the toy section, but on the way to pick up a box of tissues, I walked past, (or tried to walk past) the office/craft section.  I love Rose Art stuff, and when I saw this kit, I was like "YAY!"...not only a cool craft, but one I can do in bed, in between blowing my nose and sucking on throat drops!  Again...."YAY!"!!!

The kit I bought is called "Window Art: Trace it, Peel it, Stick it".  It comes with five colored "paints", two clear transparent plastic sheets and a book of traceable art.  You put the plastic sheet on the page of drawings you want to trace, you outline it in black and then color it in with the other colors.  You let it dry, you peel it and then you stick it to a window or mirror, and take it down when your bored with it!!

I get home, put on the PJ's, get into bed and find the picture I want to trace.  A really cute, detailed butterfly.  I put the plastic down, open the black paint and squeeze the bottle.  The black paint proceeds to explode, sending black paint across the bedroom, all over my side table, my hands, my pants, and the book.  I proceed to start yelling for Stan to come upstairs and help meeeee!!!!  Ever heard a 34 year old woman whine loudly while doing a project for "5 years or older"??  It's not pretty.  Stan was kind enough to help me clean up, and with almost less then half a bottle of paint left, I decide to try again.  Turns out the paint is clogging the tip,so I had to cut the tip down, making the tip super wide, which makes tracing the picture a messy endeavor.  By the time I finish tracing the butterfly, I'm ready to write Rose Art some hate mail.  And I'm thankful that I'm not indeed doing this with a 5 year old because we would both be whining at this point.  I put the messy black outlined butterfly to the side to dry.  After about fifteen minutes I begin to try to color it with the colored paints.  Two of the colors begins pouring out of the bottle the moment I get the cover off!  The others, clogged!  Luckily I learned my lesson with the black paint and managed to NOT spray them across the room. 

Needless to say...not my favorite craft...but still cute, and maybe, once I buy a hazmat suit, I'll try another design.

COVER:

INSIDE COVER:

CLOSE UP OF FINISHED BUTTERFLY:

AND ANOTHER:

AND HERE IS THE FULL PAGE, WITH THE ONE I DID BOTTOM LEFT:

Day 18

I don't feel well today.  I know when I get home I'm not going to feel like doing any crafting.  This brought up a thought.  What if I get sick and don't want to craft, will I skip a day or just fight through it.  I guess it depends on how sick I am, hm?!  Well today, I thought ahead and drew a sloppy kitty while at lunch.  It's all I could think of before I put my head down and took a nap on the kitchen table in the break room! 

So please forgive the sloppy, pencil drawn kitty....he's sick too....

Post 17

I debated on today's craft because I was thinking that maybe this wouldn't be considered a craft, but then I realized, of course coloring is a craft!!!!  COME ONNNNN!!!! 

I admit it, I love...love...love to color!!!  Get me in a dollar store and the first area I go to is the coloring books!  There is nothing that relives stress more then sitting down in front of the boob tube with a coloring book and a box of crayons!  Don't believe me??  Next time you have a hard day, try it, I guarantee it's better then therapy!  And I don't care if you are 16 or 70 years old, coloring is fun no matter what age you are!

I found this sugar skull design online:

And once I got the coloring pencils out, this is what it looked like when I finished:

Day 16

Today I was stumped for ideas.  I looked online, I looked in my books, I looked at all my craft items and I was coming up blank.  As I was looking around the room I found a candy box from Valentine's Day.  I had picked up two mini boxes of chocolates, one for me and one for Stan.  Four little delicious pieces of chocolatey goodness.  Stan loves to save boxes, he just adores them.  So we had these two laying around and I found a use for at least one!

I decided to make a gift box.  I had some Spring themed cardstock, and quilling paper.  I originally was going to make a flower motif on the cover, but I didn't have enough of the yellow quilling paper so decided on this design instead.  In the pictures, you can still see the white of the glue, but it will dry clear. 

The box is tiny, so it will be nice to put some jewelry or some other small trinket in it. 

BEFORE:

TOP AFTER:

SIDE AFTER:

 BOTTOM AFTER:

TOP & INSIDE AFTER:

Day 15

I am really tired today so I did a very simple craft.  I went to Borders today and since the store is going out of business they are having an "ok" sale.  I picked up some more books for my out of control book collection and decided I needed more bookmarks, of course!  I tend to read more then one book at a time, since I get bored so easily, so tons of bookmarks are helpful.

Today's bookmark was inspired by spring.  Sunflowers are not really spring, but they are my favorite flower so I included it.  We are supposed to get snow tonight so something to bring spring early is nice!

All this bookmark is paper and glue.  The sunflower was a diecut, but the rest I cut from cardstock, didn't really do well with the clouds, but the idea is there.  Now everytime I go to stick this bookmark into a book, I'll feel like I'm in a beautiful field, with the wind lightly blowing the sunflowers, and the clouds slowly going by.  *sigh* 

Day 14

Two weeks into the challenge and I'm a bit surprised I have stuck with this.  I think it has to do with the love of crafting and not so much the ability to follow through with stuff!  Anyone who knows me knows I get bored easily!  I see other people's blogs, who are doing this challenge and a lot of them stick with one craft theme.  I was thinking about doing that, but I know that would be the beginning of the end!  I need variety. 

Today's craft was more of a lesson for me then an actual craft project, but I feel it still counts!  I had picked up this book called "Drawing Lab: 52 Creative Exercises To Make Drawing Fun" and the first exercise in the book is called "Cats in Bed".  The book is fantastic, it basically takes the fear of a blank page away from you.  Anyone who has sat down to draw has felt that fear or anxiety, I'm sure.  The instructions for this exercise were simple.  Get a piece of white card stock, a pen and get into bed.  Once in bed, draw cats!  Simple, easy, nothing fancy cats.  Being a self described "crazy cat lady", this exercise was right up my alley.  And since one of our cats, Cody, was on the bed next to me kneading the blankets, I used him as my muse.  He was thrilled at the idea of being captured on paper, let me tell you.  Once I explained what I was doing to him, he quit kneading and proceeded to clean my forehead.  (See, I told you...crazy cat lady!)

Here is the book cover:

And the exercise I did:

And here are the cats I drew, sort of hard to see so making the picture bigger (yeah, they look insane, but they are cute if nothing else):

Day 13

I love to draw, but I'm not good at it.  Or maybe I should say that I am not good at coming up with my own drawings, from my own imagination, so I tend to draw things I'm looking at (not trace mind you, just look at whatever and draw it freehand).  I first realized I enjoyed doing this when I had to draw a tree outside our class window for school once upon a time.  Again, I'm not great at it, but I enjoy doing it.

For today's craft I decided to draw the Artist Zombie from the book "How to Draw Killer Zombies".  He has a step by step way of doing it, but I suck at that whole process, and he says to use tracing paper, stencils, etc...and I don't have all that.  So I grabbed the book, a sheet of white copy paper and my trusty #2 pencil and set to work.  The image on the top is my drawing and the image on the bottom is the picture in the book that I looked at while doing my drawing.

Because it was in pencil, and I scanned it, it's hard to see, but I made it bigger in the hope you can see it!

Day 12

I'm really proud of today's craft!  It's a "tea box notebook".  The premise of the craft is in a book I bought called "Craftcycle: 100+ Earth-Friendly Projects and Ideas for Everyday Living", but I'll be honest, I didn't understand the directions!  So I winged it, and I'm really pleased with the outcome.  My design has a little flap and flap holder on the inside, so it will stay closed when it's in my purse.  I really like it! 

I used an empty tea box, scissors, craft glue, stapler and white copy paper.  Took me less then an hour to cut, glue and staple everything.  If I knew what I was doing, it would have gone faster, but since I had to figure this out as I went, I think I did good.

Day 11

Today's craft is wedding related!  I realized that I have to get going on wedding stuff or I'm going to have a nervous breakdown as time gets closer, so tonight I did some stuff.  However, I realized I don't want to ruin any surprises!  So I took a picture of today's craft in a way that is NOTHING like what it's going to look like at the wedding.  I will say however that these will eventually be the centerpieces.  I know they look odd, stupid, etc...here, but that's just the way it has to be.  :)

Day 10

The other day I was looking online for card ideas and came across a charity website called Make A Child Smile (http://www.makeachildsmile.org/).  The site lists kids who are have various illnesses, tells their stories and gives you the opportunity to mail them a card, to make them smile.  I thought it was a great idea, so today's craft is a card for one of the kids on the site, a 3 year old named Nathan. 

The outside is a 3D sticker of Cookie Monster (it's fuzzy too!) with some 3D cookies!  Really adorable.  The inside, I wanted to put a joke but the only one I came up with was "Why did the cookie go to the doctor?"  "Because it was feeling crummy!".  It's really the only cookie joke I could find online, but I was sort of hesitant to put it in the card, as it's going to a "sick" child!  But after some thinking, I thought it would be okay, as it's a card about cookies and Cookie Monster!  I really hope I don't offend with the joke, but again, I feel safe sending it.  I did the joke on a little flap, so you have to lift the question to get the answer.  And put cookies around it, with a personal note at the bottom.  I hope it makes him smile. 

Day 9

I could not for the life of me figure out what to do today, so I enlisted Stan's help.  He suggested a frame, and I have had this picture of our cat Rascal (aka "Coo Coo") sitting next to my alarm clock for a while frameless, so this was a great opportunity to get him looking even cuter!  

I had an empty cardboard box that I cut down to about an inch bigger then the picture on all four sides.  I glued the picture to the cardboard, used acrylic paint around the edges in blue, stuck the various stickers on it and added the brads in the "I love my cat" banner.  On the back I stuck an extra piece of cardboard in a triangle to hold the frame up.  Overall an elementary but totally adorable frame.  It's super cute, but that might just be the picture!!  Below are some not so good pictures of the frame, the lighting is really bad.  Also, there is a picture of Izzy trying to help get a good shot.  Obviously it didn't help.  :) 

Day 8

Today's craft was tricky!  I chose it because I really thought it was going to be simple and quick.  I have tons of books around the house and most of them I will never pick up again, so I had purchased a book on how to do crafts with old books (lots of irony there, huh?!).  One of the crafts was to make mats using rolled book pages, white glue and bobby pins.  I decided to make a drink coaster. 

The hardest part was rolling the pages!  Tricky little things.  I don't know why I had such a problem with it, I guess maybe the way the book paper was, I'm not sure, but each roll ended up being a bit different size then the last, and they were all supposed to be "uniform".  The book suggested using a "rolling tool, such as a dowel", but all I had was a BBQ skewer, so that's what I used.  It wasn't much help!  After I rolled each page, I used white glue along the edge, held it, got glued to the paper, got unstuck, got glued to the table mat, got unstuck, got restuck to the paper, swore, shook off paper and started on the next roll.  I did this 20 times as per the instructions.  After letting the glue dry, and attaching the rolls side by side with bobby pins, I realized I only needed 14 rolled pages, so I got stuck on paper/mat/paper 6 more times then was neccessary.  I swore again. 

After all that, I was pretty happy with the outcome.  Upon showing Stan, he tried to blow into the ends, saying it looked like a pan flute.  I then showed my mom, who was in a different part of the house and had no idea what Stan said.  She proceeded to try to blow into the ends, saying it looked like a pan flute.  I then showed our dog Izzy, who proceeded to try to eat it.

No one knows good coaster art when they see it!

Day 7

The other day I was looking on Amazon.com for some craft books and I came across "Zombie Felties" by Nicola Tedman & Sarah Skeate.  The cover alone is enough to make you "SQUEE"!  (Think I'm kidding?  Go to Amazon and look it up!)  So I ran over to the bookstore and scooped it up.  As I was checking out the cashier did her own "SQUEE"ing, so I knew it was a hit.  Zombies are cute, I don't care what anyone says.  I waited all week to do this project.  I cut out the template during the week, that was pretty time consuming, because these pieces are small, tiny even!  And with my sausage fingers, I was a bit worried, but I was determined, and determination can overcome chubby fingers! 

The pieces of the dog and the bone are felt, the eyes are beads, the head is stuffed with toy stuffing, the black/white nose, pink gums and blood on the bone are all sewn with embroidery thread.  The dog and bone are put together with some craft glue and hand sewing, and I had a BLAST!  I really enjoyed this project, even though our dog Izzy tried to eat a skein of thread and one of the cats decided to roll all over the cut pieces of felt and tried to walk away with felt pieces attached to his back.  I forgive them....the project, with animal interference and laundry breaks took about 3 hours give or take.  Now let the cuteness begin...