Day 72

I love applesauce!  And Stop & Shop has a delicious unsweetened applesauce that I buy in those huge jars.  And I go through one a week.  I was starting to feel bad about throwing out that huge jar every week (though we do recycle) so this last one I decided to keep and use again.  I have tons of buttons and decided that this would be a perfect container to hold them, once it got a makeover of course.

I pulled out some red and black ribbon, some craft glue and Cody (because apparently I can't craft without him) and got to work.  Once the glue dries I'll go back and secure the ribbons a bit more, but for now, this is how it looks, oh and I painted the lid black, but that needs to dry too:

Here is the jar and ribbon before I got started:

With the red ribbon attached (and Cody at the top right supervising):

And now the black ribbon:

Day 70

I started a few crafts today and couldn't get them to work out!  So I finally did this card and it came out good, and I must say better then the other two!  I have a stencil with different Chinese characters on it, so I traced on in pencil onto pink card stock, the one for "love".  I then used blue acrylic paint to paint the stencil.  In the pictures the outline looks white, but it's actually the pencil marks that the flash from the camera picked up.

Here is the finished card open:

Finished card closed:

Day 69

Today I revisited the craft storage box I painted blue a few days ago.  I have a book full of Celtic designs (Key Patterns and Animals by Courtney Davis) and decided one of them would look really nice on the cover of the storage box.  Of course being it's a Celtic design it's a bit elaborate so it took a bit of time to trace the design on the cover.  My eyes were pretty buggy after I finished and my hand was shaky from pressing hard on the pencil to trace onto the wood, so I made an executive decision not to paint the design tonight.  It's going to take some time and a steady hand, not to mention I need to go slow to make sure I correct the tracing issues I had...I really didn't trace well as you will see in the pictures below. (Oopsy)  I really love the design though and I can't wait to get back to it to paint it.  Consider this part 2 of a several part craft project! 

 Here is a close up of the design I chose:

Here is the box cover before I put the drawing and tracing paper down, and notice Cody's shadow, always having to investigate what craft I'm working on!  He is the epitome of the saying "Curiosity killed the cat":

Here is the design and tracing paper taped down, ready to trace:

All traced and ready to paint:

Another view of the traced design, click on the pictures to make them bigger:

Day 67

Today's craft was just something I thought up out of the blue, and I have to say it was really relaxing.  I came home feeling like a zombie and after an hour of painting, I got my second wind.  It's like my brain cleared right out!

I have jewelry gift boxes laying around and decided to try a red and black checker pattern design for a future gift box.  The only thing I don't like about what I did was I did not tape off the lines, so the checker boxes are not straight, but other then that, I'm happy with the outcome!

Here it is finished:

Here is what it looked like before I got started:

I drew lines for the checker box pattern:

I did red and black every other box for the checker box pattern.  I need to touch up a bit once it's dry:

Day 66

This is one of those crafts that looked much better in my head then it did after it was completed.  I got the idea while looking online one day.  The original craft was a recycled journal with a cover made from a cereal box, which I loved, but the problem is we don't eat cereal...well we do, but not the sugar filled delicious kind with the pretty boxes, so I had to use a plain piece of cardboard that I got from work.  Because it was plain, I had to decorate it and that's where it went really down hill.  I used clippings from Vogue and yellow acrylic paint.  Just not what I had in mind.  I'll let you be the judge.

Before, the paper, cardboard and string I used to make the journal:

Here is the journal all bound, sorry for the poor picture quality:

And the inside of the first page:

And here is the outside all collaged and painted, not too happy with it though:

Day 63

Alright, I admit it, today was sort of a cop-out craft.  We had a busy day and by the time I got to sit down and consider a craft it was going on 9pm.  I bought this wood box a long time ago to keep craft stuff in but I wasn't sure how I wanted to decorate it so I put it to the side.  When I bought the duct tape there was paint on sale for .99 cents so I bought a bottle of blue and decided it was a good start for the wood box.  Even though it's now painted, I put it to the side again until I decide how I want to finish it off.  Not to mention, it has to dry!  But I do feel a bit bad because this is obviously not a finished craft. 

Please forgive me!

Before:

After (sort of, need to do more to it eventually):

Inside not painted, not sure if I want to eventually...hmmm:

Day 34

I was stumped today so I asked Stan to help me do today's craft.  He got us started by painting a gift box black, adding a light to the top to make moonlight and added painted snow to the back wall and cotton batting for snow.  I came in and made the snowman out of papertowels, black paint for the buttons and hat and orange for the carrot nose.

This is our tribute to winter, who has been a true pain in the butt this past year, but who also supplied us with many gorgeous snowy nights.

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 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 3

Today I had to run over to Jo-Ann's for some craft supplies and I saw the cutest thing! They had white plaster bobble heads! Different animals, cats, dogs, teddy bears, etc. I am a sucker for bobble heads and cats so I HAD to get one. (I picked up Stan a bulldog, so he could paint with me!) There were cute little various acrylic paints so I picked up some of those too! So for an hour Stan and I painted our animals and they came out really cute. My hands are not very steady, and the bobble head didn't help, but overall I think it came out quite adorable!!