Crafting Fail

Now that we have all the stuff in the nursery, I've been starting to work on the decorations. We have 2 things already, one from my mom and one from a friend. I have had the plan for the last 3 in motion since November, but needed some down time to work on it. We had friends in town from yesterday til today, but I did several hours of prep work yesterday and then about 6 hours today after they left.

And I ruined almost all of my work on the last step. :(

I made a paper craft, and it looked awesome. Even Mike was oohing and ahhing over it. The last step was to stick all 3 pictures to the 12x12 canvases that I bought. I used Mod Podge, as I have for many other things. But because some of the colors of paper I used were brandex, the mod podge saturated it which made it stretch out and then made it bumpy and ugly. So my 4 hours of cutting and taping and my hour of painting the canvas are down the drain. ARGH.

I'm just going to re-cut all the papers tomorrow, so that I only have to re-do the 4 hours of labor. The 3 hours I spent on the pattern yesterday aren't wasted because at least I can re-create it. Then I'll just frame the damn things instead of putting them on the canvas. Even though that was going to be the best part. I am so annoyed at myself!!! :(

Baby book

My latest baby book gift. Farm themed this time. One of my favorites!

Year 3 - Day 204 - July 22

These are the two cards we made last night. I didn't do either one exactly right because I was talking while I worked, but that's ok. They will do. :)

Year 3 - Day 142 - May 21

I guess because I have baseball on the brain this week, you're getting yet another baseball related post.

This is the sports section at my local JoAnn's. It's been there for about a year or so now. Every single time, until about 3 weeks ago, They had Nationals, Orioles, and Redskins scrapbook kits. The Ravens tag was ALWAYS empty. I searched the internet high and low and couldn't find it. I wanted to use it for Christmas present things last year, but it would sell out the day it hit the shelves, and then the manufacturer wasn't making more because it wasn't football season. About 3 weeks ago, there was Ravens paper there. (I always check, just in case.) I was excited, and bought it.

But today, the ORIOLES peg is empty. CRAZY!

Year 3 - Day 119 - April 28

I went with friends to the Sugarloaf Craft Festival today. I didn't get any arts or crafts, but I did get some darn tasty seasoning packets to make olive oil dips or marinades out of. I didn't want to anger anyone by taking a picture of their art, so I just snapped a far away (and, it appears, blurry) shot of a jewelry booth near where Sarah bought her art. :)

Year 3 - Day 116 - April 25

These are onesie stickers that I buy from Etsy. (PurplePossom seller, the only one I trust!) For this baby book I'm making, they know they're having a boy and the dad is a sports fan so that's what I went with. Now I just have to finish making the book....

Year 3 - Day 100 - April 9

I decided to spend my last day of freedom reorganizing my craft room. 

You know what they say - it has to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. ;)

It does look pretty nice now, however, I was too exhausted to take a picture at that point!!

Year 2 - Day 356 - December 13

The friend I carpool with is super crafty. She doesn't just make cards, she makes all kinds of cool stuff. I got this idea from here, but had to tweak it due to supply availability. It's a post it note holder made out of an acrylic photo frame.

You start with a frame, something like this: http://www.adorama.com/PZ22013.html?utm_term=Other&utm_medium=Shopping%20Site&utm_campaign=Other&utm_source=gbase

Then, you flip it over so it's laying with a slant. Slide a piece of scrapbook paper in for decoration, make a saying or artwork and stick on the sticky notes. I could only get a hold of 5x7 size frames, which I think are a little big. They're nice for decorating purposes, but they flex a little too much when you write on the pad. 4x6 would be better, I think. Probably 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 would be too small for much decoration. Also, the ribbon at the top has a purpose rather than just being decorative. It holds the paper still and keeps it from sliding out the sides rather than having to use tape.

So, the red flowered ribbon looks terrible with the purple scrapbook paper, but it's all I had!!! I made this as a thank you gift for my department chair at the community college. I'm happy with how it came out! My friend also gets Pentax pens and rolls pieces of matching scrapbook paper into them, but I can't figure out how to make it work. Maybe SU DSP is too thick.

Year 2 - Day 323 - November 10

One of my college friends and his wife are having a baby in the spring. The baby's dad is a chemistry teacher, so I "chemistry-fied" my onesie card for them. (We're hoping to see them this weekend. If we don't, I'll just mail it!)

I came up with the idea to use the periodic table to spell out baby, but didn't know if the right elements would exist. There is no "A" by itself, but there was a "Ba." Woohoo! I was also excited to find a "Y." I like when I can personalize a little bit more. It's more fun that way. I don't always have the inspiration or a good idea, but when it happens I run with it.

Tonight was my last MASL board meeting. I've been the treasurer since the summer of 2008 and I am trying to cut back on my extra curricular activities. With the college gig taking up a night every week, I'm just spread too thin right now. I'll miss some aspects of the volunteer position, but I won't miss driving all over the place after work once a month.

Year 2 - Day 282 - October 10

I stayed up late this weekend to make thank you cards for all my book fair volunteers. I stole the format from the project we did at stamping this weekend, but had to mix up the colors and patterns so that I could use stuff I already had in my stash. I'm not a huge green fan, but my color wheel put the green and brown together (I think it's old olive and crumb cake) and then I used a pack of DSP with that color scheme.

Year 2 - Day 273 - October 1

Today we celebrated the upcoming birth of our friends' daughter. Rather than play games at the shower, we decorated onesies. I did a lot of research before the party because I wanted us to be able to make outfits they could actually use. A few things kept showing up in the recommendations list of people's blog posts. #1 - don't use puffy paint (it stays tacky forever) , #2 - don't try to glue anything onto the outfits (it will come off in the wash and/or the kid will try to eat it) and #3 - invest in stencils. We started with stencils, but as we kept going we gained more confidence. Most of us made a couple and they all came out really cute! My first one is the alphabet above ... it's hard to see in the picture, but the "I" and "U" are different colors, with the "O" being a heart in between. (Totally stole that from a picture online.) I think the mommy to be made the flower on the right, and I have no idea who made the flowers on the left. :)

Later, we moved on to free hand for large shapes we thought we could handle. We also used masking tape for straight lines like the cupcake wrapper and ice cream cone.

Our Spanish teacher friend made one that is unique - the new mommy will always remember who made that one! The St. Patty's day and pumpkin ones were made by our friend that has annual Oktoberfest and St. Patty's Day parties. How appropriate! :) And how cute is wiggle worm?

The butterfly/dragonfly was a stencil, as was the bee ... but the apple was done freehand. I also love that the butterfly has a smiley face. The friend that made that one put a smiley face on both of her animals. Here's the other ... hee hee...

We were laughing about the fact that although the new baby has some vegetarians in her family, she will be exposed to bacon. The new baby's daddy has been known to say "Bacon is nature's candy!" So this is the perfect onesie for this kid.

And finally, any baby in Baltimore needs a onesie just for Hon-Fest.

The flamingo was done free hand, which is super impressive ... and it says "Hon" on the butt. HA!

We had a great time!

Year 2 - Day 272 - September 30

I really wanted to make a monthly photo book for the baby shower I'm attending tomorrow, but I didn't think it was going to happen. Life has been so busy lately that I haven't had time to sit down and create. I found it in me to stay up super late tonight and got it done just in time! This is the first one I've done for a girl, so it was fun to use my pink card stock and stickers after doing all boy things for the last two. :)

Year 2 - Day 216 - August 5

We got to visit our Stampin Up friends last night at the new catalog open house. It's always so fun and easy to visit with them. I was disappointed to miss July's meeting due to vacation, but I had a ton of fun looking through all the goodies our consultant got at the convention. She even got us all bags! (See picture.) The pile of things she brought home was gigantic and I can't wait to use everything.

I never really understood people's complaints about the cost of our library conference/convention because as the treasurer, I see that we are just charging people what it costs to host the show. But when I found out that it's the same cost to go to the fancy Stampin Up convention as it is to go to our little library one, it all started to get clearer. Maybe because they're such a big show they can save by getting things in bulk, and they are a company hosting rather than a tiny non profit which I'm sure helps. But I spend a LOT of time looking for ways to make ours more affordable and have run out of fat to trim!

Year 2 - Day 193 - July 13

Years ago I started cutting out squares with the intention of making a quilt like thing out of my old shirts. I had so, so many tee shirts and other things that were mementos but I didn't wear anymore. This week, my sewing machine and corresponding bucket of things were out for another purpose, so I decided to keep sewing. The first several sets of strips went well, and then I got lazy. I didn't put as many pins in this strip and about half way down the squares stopped being lined up. Lesson learned. It's boring and slow and annoying to put in the pins, but nowhere near as boring and slow and annoying as it is to take out 44 inches of wrong sewing. :)

Visible in this chunk: Hard Rock Cafe shirts from Vegas & Baltimore, a shirt from when the Orioles were in the playoffs, a piece of our clarinet shirt from UD marching band, my green Rent teeshirt from the first time I saw it on Broadway, and a piece of our high school marching band golf shirt. (Which totally explains why I couldn't find it for the marching band show in October!!!)

Year 2 - Day 184 - July 4

 Our crazy 4th of July weekend finished today, at our friends’ house. We are very excited that people are starting to move this way. We have 2 sets of friends that live (or are getting ready to live) nearby! How nice to drive 15 minutes to a party. Of course I forgot to take any pictures while we were there (which is probably good, because we were in the pool most of the afternoon, and my phone isn’t waterproof) but these are pictures of a card I made. A friend of ours has a friend doing a dual degree program, so it’s kind of a two part graduation. So the first card is for now, and then when she finishes the second degree she gets the second card! If I had it to do over again, I'd put something between the blue and the letters. I had difficulty making the puzzle pieces a shape I liked, so when I got there, I forgot about my original plan. But I think it's fun.

Year 2 - Day 183 - July 3

We went to the most unique wedding ever today. Our friends created their entire ceremony themselves, and did it in rhyme like Dr. Seuss. It had all the important parts of your standard ceremony, just moved some words around and inserted a few sentiments here and there to help with the rhyming and personalization. It was wonderful! This is the card I made for them. Had I known about the theme, I might have been even more creative with the design, but I liked how this one came out. Totally borrowed the idea from a person on splitcoast, but gave it my own touch. I love having a chance to use the sticky pearls!

On the way to the wedding, we stopped at LL Bean so I could get some boots. It seemed silly to drive all the way to Columbia next week when we were going for the wedding. I’m pretty sure that not many people show up dressed for a wedding holding socks and wanting to try on boots. ;) But hey – they almost match color wise!!

Year 2 - Day 156 - June 6

I made our Father's Day cards today. I had a few sheets of artichoke and river rock to use up, because they're not in my standard color rotation and I haven't had a reason to use them. It seemed like a dad themed card would work. I used the cricut to cut out the words and my alcohol themed stamp set to create, color, and cut out frothy beer mugs. The reason for the 2 angles is to show the step cut outs that I did with the card. It's called a center step card and I completely stole the idea from Splitcoast. ;)

Year 2 - Day 152 - June 2

Tonight's project was a graduation card for a family friend. I wanted to do the cool ribbon tassel I've seen on other projects, but I don't have any gold and she graduated from Towson. A visit to the Christmas box sort of solved the problem. It isn't as good as the one in my head made of ribbon, but it works and it's gold! My finger is in the picture because if I don't hold the point down ....

it pops open. Pardon the shadows - they make it look uneven. It's just a triangle fold with a couple corners cut off. The bottom piece of white is the shape of home plate and the top piece of white is a square with a triangle on top. (That makes the pocket to slide in the gift card or check.) I got the idea from Krissie at Strictly Stampin, who does lots of fun folds. I knew I was going to need this one, so I tucked it away. I decided to just use black & white to stay in graduation mode, so it's not very colorful, but I'm ok with that. I didn't want to use yellow after using gold for the tassel.

Year 2 - Day 143 - May 24

I made a bunch more cards tonight, but switched up the style. These are explosion cards that we learned to make last month at stamping. The fold is similar to one we used to make an arrow when we folded notes in middle school and uses lots of small bits of paper. It was ag reat way to use up my old purple and green DSP.

Year 2 - Day 142 - May 23

I made 10 cards in the last 28 hours or so.  I did them assembly line style, but they still took quite some time.  They're called a double slider card and use a piece of plastic grocery bag inside to make the wings slide in and out.  I did a terrible job on the one we made at stamping club last month, but I took that one apart to make sure I got all these working correctly. To use my random paper packs, I made 2 of each color combination.  I haven't done anything this ambitious in awhile - it was kind of fun!