Day 91

I wasn't feeling too crafty today, so Stan jumped in and helped me because he is supportive and wonderful and cute too.  :)

We made a candle holder, using a glass container we had from somewhere.  I seriously wonder where we get some of this stuff, it just shows up, or so it seems anyway.  We painted it blue, added black sand and a tea candle and it's really gorgeous actually.  The paint finish makes the light come through in a freaky kind of way, almost reminds me of walking the beach at night in Florida, with the moon peeking out from behind some clouds.  It's a nice memory to have with this craft.

Here it is finished, sort of hard to see since it's dark and the candle is lit:

Here are the supplies, and the glass container all ready painted, forgot to take a "before" picture.  The supplies were the glass container, blue acrylic paint and masking tape:

Here is the inside, full of black sand and the tea candle:

And another "after" picture, with the candle lit:

Day 87

I came home tonight and looked around at the supplies I had around, and I came across the extra beads and stars from the Day 68 bookmark I did.  Mom bought me a really pretty topaz necklace for my birthday (yes, a month early, but I can't wait for fun stuff!) and I thought these beads matched it nicely so I gave it a try.

Now I have to apologize for not taking pictures during the earring making process, but I was on the phone while I was doing it and totally forgot to take pictures!  I did however get the finished shots, and I have to say I'm not too happy with them.  They are very pretty, but very long, and they don't really go with the necklace.  I've put shots of the earrings with the necklace below.

Here are the finished earrings:

Another shot of the earrings, a bit closer for more detail:

Here are the earrings with my birthday necklace.  The necklace sort of looks like a sand dollar which is why I thought the starfish charms would look good, but I'm thinking they are too busy:

 

Day 83

I have this really pretty peacock themed scrapbook and card stock paper that I wanted to use tonight but wasn't really sure how to.  I decided a mosaic style card might be a nice way to showcase the different papers.  I was trying to be precise about my cuts and then realized I wasn't getting anywhere trying to figure out measurements, so I just went for a haphazard approach, which when your crafting seems like a fantastic idea!

I picked a pretty blue card stock for the actual card, I then picked three different peacock themed card stock to go with it.  I cut each peacock paper into three strips and then each strip into squares.  I then applied each square to the blue card stock in a varied pattern.  It was really hard to photograph this when I was done because the paper is very shiny.  But here is what I came up with:

Done card:

Here are the  papers I used after I cut the peacock paper into strips:

Here is a close up of the finished card, trying to get a bit more detail:

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 68

I was online this afternoon looking at different crafts and came across this Charming Beaded Book Thong instructional page.  I headed over to Jo-Ann's at lunch and they are having a HUGE sale, like so big that I'm wondering if they are going out of business or something!  Anywhooo, I picked up some beads, starfish charms and some "jelly cord" because I couldn't find the wax thread the site called for.  Overall I followed the directions except for a bit of variations, and I realized I have no clear nail polish to secure the knots, so hopefully it will stay together until I can get some, but other then that, I think it came out great.  I went with a "sea" theme. 

Here is is done:




At the beginning I decided on the bead layout:

 I started the thong with the starfish:

Added the rest of the beads on the one end:

And then the other side:

And here it is all pulled out, so you can see how long it is:

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 59

Seems to me that Japanese crafts are the theme lately for me.  I'm not exactly sure why.  I think it has to do that I enjoy paper crafts and Japan culture is known for crazy fun paper folding and cutting. 

Today I tried Kirigami.  Kiri means "cutting" and gami means "paper"...so it's paper cutting, cutting paper into decorative forms.  I did the easiest one I could find and I'm glad I did because it's harder then it looks.  Not to mention my blades and scissors are a bit dull.  I did a "classic snowflake"

First you fold the paper as directed and then trace the design on the paper:

You cut out the design:

And unfold!!  All done, not perfect, but still a very nice snowflake:

Another shot, and the best thing is, I can use this for another craft...maybe put it on a card or in a decoupage project, not sure yet:

Day 55

Stan helped me with today's craft again.  I don't know what I would do without him.  I had bought a starter jewelry kit a while back and never really messed with it, but Stan got into it and he's made me two really pretty bracelets.  Today he helped me with some earrings!  And they are in my favorite color, blue!

Earring without flash, hard to see the color, but you get the idea of the design:

With flash so you can see the blue better!:

Day 29

I know some of people might not consider today's craft, a craft.  And in a way, I guess I don't either.  I consider it a WORK OF ART!!!!  :) 

I don't cook from scratch very often but I recently bought these really cute soup/sandwich dish sets (see pictures!) and then I got a recipe for potato soup (recipe here) and decided today was a good day to make it.  I made grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it!  Everything from scratch!  Very not like me! 

When it was all done and ready to be eaten I realized that even something as "everyday" as cooking can be a craft. 

Delicious potato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches on beautiful cobalt blue tableware:

And another beautiful and delicious picture!!

You can see the bowl and plate better here:

Day 24

I got my daily Martha Stewart Craft of the Day in my email today and low and behold, it was a bookmark!  A ribbon bookmark actually.  I was just going through all my craft supplies the other day and when I got to my box of ribbon I thought, "Hmmm...what am I going to do with this!".  So receiving the email today was a good start to get through my supply!

I pulled out two blue ribbons, one shear blue which was a bit larger then the other.  The other was a smaller dragonfly motif.  I cut small slits horizontal into the larger ribbon in 1.5" increments.  I then threaded the smaller ribbon through the holes leaving a little space at both ends.  I did a simple stitch across the top and bottom where the smaller ribbon ended and then fringed the extra of the larger ribbon.  Voila!!!  A blue dragonfly ribbon bookmark!

Here are the supplies (minus needle and thread, forgot to pull them out):

 

Finished bookmark:

 

Close up of finished bookmark:

Close up of fringe end:

And here it is in action!  Works great!!  (P.S. If you have not read this book, "The Girl Who Chased the Moon" by Sarah Addison Allen - get it!!!  She is one of my favorite authors and ALL three of her books are awesome!!)