Day 46

Today's craft is from a kit I had purchased from Barnes & Noble.  It's called "Traditional Japanese Egg Decorating".  It came with a wooden egg, a wood stand, paper, brush and glaze.  Once you get the hang of it, it tells you how to do it on real eggs.  Since bunny season is here (aka Easter) I decided this would be a fun and relevant craft!

Here is the egg and paper I had Stan choose:

 

You take the paper, fold it in half, make cuts every 1/4" leaving about 3/8" at the top crease, so as to not cut all the way through.  Then you go back and cut each piece to a point:

 

 Put white Elmer's glue on the inside center of the paper and roll around the egg, starting at the top of the egg glue each point to the egg, one at a time, overlapping as you go, then do the bottom paper:

Let it dry:

Paint the stand and let it dry:

Apply the glaze, let it dry and your done!:

 

Day 26

Tonight I was flipping through my trusty "The Big-Ass Book of Crafts" and I found this craft.  I wanted to do a bunch, but I got side tracked by American Idol, I admit it!  So I did one of my muse, my love, my pookie bear...Stan!  Awwww...

This is my 3D Stan.  For when the "real" one isn't around.  Of course he isn't much of a talker, but hey, he's a great listener.

I took a picture of Stan from his brothers wedding, I cut him out of the background.  I then took a piece of cardboard, scored it with a craft knife on one end, folding about a quarter of an inch up.  I then smeared elmer's glue all over the fold and stuck Stan to it.  (The picture Stan, not the real one.)  It was that simple!!  YAY for simple!!

Before picture - (a picture of a picture):

All cut out and pasted - 3D Stan (and a Cody paw, he's so nosy...Cody, not Stan):

And another picture of the finished Stan and another Cody paw:

Here is what the back looks like, in case you were dying to know:

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 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 2

I'll be honest, it's only Day 2, and I'm tired. It took me all day to think of something to craft after I got home, exercised, showered, made dinner...you get the idea. But I'm happy to say I didn't give up after one day and I came up with something to make, something I actually need no less!


I am an avid book collector. I actually had to purchase another bookcase yesterday for the tons of books I have teetering in towered piles all over the bedroom. So what does a book freak always need? Bookmarks of course!!! I think this may be my go to craft when I run out of ideas, because seriously, I could make one every single day for the whole year and probably still need more.

I was very pleased with the "front" of the bookmark, but I'm not to keen on the "back". I went to dark with some of the clippings and it really doesn't look right, but that's the good thing about a two sided craft, just keep the nicer side facing out!

FRONT:



BACK: