Baby's First Christmas

Commemorated with a blob.

Let's wait a few more months to try this hand print thing again.

Salt Dough Ornaments. Take One.

Fail.

I used the standard recipe;

1 cup salt
1 cup lukewarm water
2 cups flour

I kneaded the dough for a few minutes. Then attempted to make handprint ornaments with the baby. (She kept grabbing the dough, so there are fingertip depressions.)

Baked at 300 for 45 minutes.

Poofy, and the back was brittle. They completely fell apart.

With this batch I also attempted some smaller pieces. Cracked.

And a snowman. Drooped and then cracked.

Gah. 

DIY Washi Tape

Washi tape. Another must have for the crafty set.

But how about for those of us without washi tape money? Or maybe you just need a teeny, tiny bit?

I found a few DIYs for us.

Two Sided Tape and Tissue Method

painted and Stamped Method

Smash All the Books

A smash book is hardly a new concept. I remember doing something similar when I was in middle school and high school. You take a notebook and doodle in it, glue/tape things in it. In my lifetime I have made a gazillion of these.


Do you remember doing THOSE smash books?

And now, thanks to K & C Company, they are being mass-marketed and seem to be pretty popular. This is just a new fresh spin on the concept that makes us want to do it all over again. I believe they have even trademarked the term Smash Book.


You go and buy a nice, blank book and all the cute, little accessories to go with it. Can you say cha-ching? 

I say, no. Do you really want the same book and accessories as everyone?

I am working on a couple at the moment, using discarded books. One is for my sister, shhh.

The pages below are a few of the ones I have done for my sister, using some of her favorite quotes.

Cardboard Mailers

I hoard collect wrecked records. I make stuff out of them...but that's another story altogether.

That leaves me with a LOT of album covers.

Some are cool and I reuse for postcards, etc or just save them because they are cool.

Some are just...there.

I joined Swap-Bot recently and today I had to mail out some ephemera for a junk journal. These were obviously items I wanted to keep flat.

Now I had the Priority envelopes, but not Priority envelope money.

For about half the cost of a Priority envelope, I sent out my swaps in album covers.

A lot more interesting to get in the mail than a Priority envelope, for sure. And you know what? That sucker will stay flat. Album covers are made of some pretty sturdy cardboard!

I'm Not REALLY Cheap

I just have a $0 arts and crafts budget.

So, I look for alternatives a lot.

I have a few patterns that require bias tape, and I don't have any.

What I do have is oodles of coordinating fabrics.

So I was pleased to find this pattern for making your own!

Reuse!

I am a lucky girl. My town has a recycling center. Not just because I can haul off my recyclables to a local place, but because of the free tables.

Yes, I wrote free. Think of it as a yard sale, but at no cost. Basically it is a set of sheds with things that are not quite ready to be trash, but they are unwanted by their current owner.

I get a lot of goodies there. Some are good to go. Some need a little help.

The frames were nice enough, just the artwork was not....my taste.

So after a quick little painting, it definitely will work for what I have in mind.

*Not the final result. I wanted to make sure the print would fit AND that it could actually be painted. This is just the first coat of paint, with an unmatted print.

Fabric Stiffener DIY

I needed fabric stiffener, but didn't have any.

I didn't really need much. And being cheap I set out to find a DIY recipe for fabric stiffener.

I googled, naturally.

I found two alternatives. One based with sugar, the other with glue.

I went with glue.

You mix glue and cold water in equal amounts, I read. But it just wasn't the right consistency.

I ended up adding more glue, probably about half the amount I added the first time.

Sorry for the inaccurate measurements, but that's the way I do recipes. In the mad scientist lab and in the kitchen. A pinch here, a dash there, until I get the right flavor. Or in this case, the right consistency.

It did work.

And being impatient as well as cheap, I ended up microwaving my fabric to get it to dry faster.

That also worked.

No way was I in the mood to wait idly by until it dried on it's own. I did, however, give it an hour before I got in a hurry.

I put it in my microwave for 30 second intervals until it was nice and dry.

*should you try this part at home, be mindful of the fabric's flammability. I used a lace in this instance and it was non-combustible. You will, however, hear a Pop, Pop, Popping sound in the very beginning. Like bacon grease popping. 

Triumphs and Tragedies in Crafting and Arting

I am not afraid of failure, not anymore.

I used to be afraid of screwing up. I was that crafter/artist who had all the pretty, new supplies and was afraid to use them. I would see something I thought would be good to make or think of something I wanted to do and I would run out and buy all the supplies.

Then I just couldn't start the project.

What if it didn't come out right?

Guh. So I would shelve it. Sad, but true.

Now I see something I like, I dive right in. I usually have the supplies on hand, as my stash probably rivals Michael's.

There will probably be more tragedies than triumphs here, and the fearful part of me still cringes and now worries that I'll end up as a meme. Nailed It! 

Which brings me to Pinterest. Good grief, I find so many things I want to make on there. So you will probably see a lot of things from there on here. Sometimes things work, but sometimes they don't. But at least I actually tried it and can figure out where I went wrong and do it better the next time. And just maybe someone else can learn from my mistake.

Someone else will then know not to use spray adhesive all willy nilly and end up stuck to the kitchen floor. Yeah, that happened.