Valentine's Mail Box

it's valentine's day! almost. and alex had to make a valentine's box for school. so i made the basic structure of it for her and then she decorated it (i didn't get a picture after she decorated for some reason, but she covered it in stickers: hearts and hello kitty galore. oh and her name in letter stickers.) i started with a basic shoe box. in the lid part i cut 3 the top and the sides of the mail slot, leaving the bottom of slot uncut. i cut out a little notch in the top of the mail slot so she could open it. then i cut with some scrap cardboard a section for the inside of the slot to stop it from opening at a certain distance. it's basically a strip of cardboard about 2 or 3 inches wide and folded for 3 sides (you can see the two inside sides in the bottom picture - the side you can't see is just the back strip.) and i cut the ends at a slight angle. i taped this cardboard strip to the inside of the mail slot and tested it. then i covered the entire lid and bottom of the shoe box with hot pink duct tape. alex wanted a working mail flag so i cut out a flag with the scrap cardboard and covered that in hello kitty duct tape. then i just riveted the flag to the side of the box. it was kind of fun to make, even though the duct tape was a little tedious to do, especially around the mail slot. alex loved it and enjoyed decorating it and says that many of her friends liked hers best. now to fill it with valentines and treats.

secret santa work stocking exchange

every year for our work holiday luncheon, we create a craft of some sort. then wrap it up anonymously and exchange. we've done ornaments and frames thus far and this year we made stockings. i didn't take a picture of the original natural colored canvas stocking, but you can see a little in the bottom image (it's basically the lining of my stocking.) i started by gathering supplies that i already had at home and went from there. i hand beaded all the snowflakes onto grey felt - i made those while playing passenger on a car trip. i then stitched my snowflakes onto this beautiful silk teal fabric (leftover from the flower girl dresses i made last year.) then i added some crazy fur trim - that matched beautifully with the grey felt. then i stitched the outer stocking to the original canvas stocking liner. my favorite part is the label that says "this took forever" - haha, i got those on etsy and i plan to add those to most of my handmade goody gifts. i think it turned out alright and i think the girl who ended up with my stocking likes it. i picked out a wonderful stocking with an illustration of Yukon Cornelius from rudolph.

flowery headband from scraps of fabric

spoonflower has this awesome (relatively new) fabric called faux suede. it's super soft and washes great. i had some scraps of fabric leftover from some project so i decided to make alex another headband. i have some headband blanks (that teal part: which is basically thin elastic with a circle of felt.) i had enough scrap fabric for cutting out 6 circles (approximately 3 inches in diameter.) then you just fold the circles in half and then in half again and glue them onto the headband blank. easy and cute.

love tattoo headband

there's a magazine that with every issue you get a little craft packet project - Mollie Makes magazine. these are great little projects to pack in our "at the cabin" art bin. i especially liked this project: a retro tattoo heart brooch. and i do love a good brooch, but i hate putting a pin thru my clothes, so i thought i'd make this one into a headband instead. so everything you need to make this is in the little packet - except the pattern to cut out the pieces! that is in the actual magazine, which i didn't have, so i freehand cut out the heart and the flowers and banner and letters. i also glued some little jewels onto the flowers. i added a little padding inside the heart as well (which didn't come in the packet, but the image looks like it's stuffed a little.) and finally i sewed the heart onto a skinny elastic headband via a circle felt piece. i love it! i will definitely be sporting this on valentines day.

cut glass

here's a couple of glasses that i cut down and are now holding some of my craft supplies like washi tape and twine and little scissors. these are cut lambic bottles - which i have found to be the most successful bottles to cut. other bottles have been too thin or too thick making it iffy to cut. if they're too thin or too thick they often crack off from the score line and are then trash. i've tried with champagne bottles, which would make a really nice thick little dish, but have yet to succeed at cutting one of those. so the method i use to cut bottles is with my ephrems bottle cutter. the ephrems cutter is set up so you can lay your bottle on it's side on some roller things. you can adjust the length/height to where you want to score your bottle. you apply a little pressure while rotating your bottle and a little blade scores a line - don't go around more than once it does not help that score line at all, it actually hurts it. you will notice when you've come around full circle because you'll hear a tiny little crunch and you will feel a difference as well. now i've tried the candle method and butane torch method, but what has been most successful for me is the hot water technique. For this process, you boil some water or get it really hot and alternate pouring the hot water along your score line with cold water from your faucet. be patient and take your time. the thickness of your bottle will dictate how many times you have to alternate back and forth with the hot and cold water. and when it cracks along that score line you will hear it. if it's a clean crack you will be able to just simply separate the two parts of your bottle. and to finish off the edges and smooth them down; i use grit with a little water added on top of a piece of old glass. put your glass upside down and rotate around in small little circles on your grit slurry mix until smooth. then take some fine grain wet sand paper to the edges of that cut to bevel just slightly. and you're done. with these glasses i also etched designs on them with armour etch cream. i create a negative with sticker vinyl, stick that to the glass, apply the cream, wait and rinse. oh, and the best way to get all the gum residue from the label off the bottle in the first place is with goo gone :)

elastic hair ties

these elastic hair ties have been everywhere, and unless you make them yourself people are grossly overcharging for them. so i went the diy route and made a load of them as well as making headbands. i bought some fold over elastic online by the yard. i can't for the life of me remember where exactly i ordered from, but i got some fun neon and houndstooth and glitter and alex's favorite, glitter rainbow. i used some to make headbands with big flowers on them - alex has been wearing her rainblow glitter headband daily. and i made at least a dozen hair ties and still have elastic left over. the hair ties are beyond easy to make. i cut strips measured to 9.5 inches. then fold in half and tie a knot. and just seal your edges: you can use fray check if you'd like, but i just take a lighter and melt the ends a little. you don't need to actually touch the elastic with the flame just get close and you'll see it melt and you're good to go.

snowmen ornaments

i'm just now getting around to showing you the ornaments that alex made for gifts this past christmas. these actually aren't the finished snowmen, i can't seem to find a picture of a finished one. after this shot, we glued on some red gingham or red satin bows above the buttons and tied red twine to hang. i love these little natural wood peg people for crafting. alex painted the bodies, it's a winter white color. i added the metal screws in the top to hang. alex and i both did the eyes and noses and buttons - she'd do some and get a little too creative with them when she got tired so i'd help do some. i thought these made for such cute little handmade gifts from alex for the holidays.

shoe crafting

http://boogiebeans.blogspot.com/search/label/shoe i was crafting on some cheap shoes that i bought ages ago. there was a yellow pair that i drew circles on and added buttons and they were really cute until my cat dragged them into her water dish. i had bleached them and they looked okay after that but i decided to redo them anyways. so finally i did. i cut scraps and salvedges of fabric and glued and sewed them on with twine. i think they're cute, but i probably shouldn't have bothered glueing them because they're kind of hard. i need to wash them quite a few times to soften them up, so hopefully i will do that. if i try this technique again i'll just sew, no glue.

flower rings and hair clips

i made all these while on vacation in the back woods of Canada. they're so easy to make and much cheaper than if you bought them from some boutique. you can find the resin flowers in most craft stores or online: i believe i got some of these at JoAnn's and some at Amazon.com. i also got the stretchy ring blanks and bobby pins thru amazon. then all i did was glue them on using e6000. and they're done!

my birthday cake

my birthday was last week, and i usually make my own dessert. here's the cake and topper i made for myself. the cake is a funfetti cake with buttercream frosting. i used a boxed funfetti cake mix with some tweaks: i used butter instead of vegetable oil, milk instead of water and i added an extra egg. the buttercream frosting is from the grocery store bakery. i thought it turned out pretty yummy. for the cake base, i cut out some cardboard and covered with tin foil. then i cut out some decorative paper and glued it to the bottom (it's pink and pretty on the bottom now instead of gathered foil.) and for the cute cake topper: i took some bamboo skewers and tied across some red and white twine and added fabric bunting. i added a drop of glue to the bows on the skewers to keep the line in place. the fabric bunting are just small pieces of scrap fabric folded in half over the twine and glued front to back. super simple and quick and uber cute.

Carnival Party Hats

Tada! here are the party hats that i made for alex's carnival birthday. alex got the special ringmaster fabric hat while all the guests got the harlequin fabric hats. i made all the pom poms this summer while on vacation. the pom pom trim is from the fabric store and the fabric is from spoonflower - alex's party skirt was made from the same fabric. i started with some super cheap paper hats as my foundation and pattern. i took all the paper hats apart and threw away the flimsy elastic. next, with the paper hats opened flat i glued on the fabric and trimmed. i cut new pieces of elastic and stapled those onto the hats. i used a hot glue gun to form the hats back into a cone. and finally i hot glued all the pom poms and trim to the hats. i think they turned out fantastic and alex loved having the special hats for her party - she doesn't think it's a birthday party if there aren't hats!

Santa frame

at work, we had a secret crafty gift exchange this week. we all received a plain white 5x7 photo frame to do whatever we wanted to it. when done we put them all on a table, wrapped up, and when your name is picked out of the bag you go pick a gift. this is what i made. i painted the frame in a glittery candy cane striped design. then i printed a vintage music sheet of "Up on the House-Top" with a creepy little santa on the chimney smoking his pipe and i stitched on it. i like how it turned out, i might even have to craft one for myself. i chose a gift with fun rudolph wrapping paper and it turned out to be a couple of black and white photos, printed in the old school film method way a few decades ago by my friend. one is a photo of an old train station in Boston and the other is the Spanish aquaducts - i love them!

life is better at the lake

life is better at the lake: so true. and in helvetica. i made this wood sign as a birthday gift to be hung at theIR cottage on the lake in canada. i have helvetica stencils in 2 sizes; i think 2 inch and 4 inch. so i plotted out what size i needed the board to be and my husband cut me a piece of nice plywood at 15x15 inches. i painted a couple of coats of blue stain - which is harder to find colored stain than one might think. i saw a tutorial on pinterest about drawing out your letters with a pen first and when you painted the letters you'd have perfect edges because the paint would basically well up in the pen line ridge. that did not work well for me at all. seriously, i would recommend against that technique. the well of the pen line did nothing for me and worse than that the ink from the pen bled into the white paint. so i had to do extra coats of white paint in order to cover up the blue ink bleed, and even went over the edges with a white paint pen as well. so i used white acrylic paint for the letters and carefully painted within my templated pen lines. after i did several coats of the white paint is when i went over all the edges of the letters with the paint pen. in the end, the letters look pretty good, however not perfect, but oh well, handmade has character. i wanted the sign to be indoor/outdoor ready since i didn't know where it would be hung. so i painted several coats of mod podge outdoor sealant on all sides of the sign. you have to be super patient here because the layering of this thick sealant takes forever to try, and the humidity in ohio does not help that along at all. it was still somewhat tacky to the touch a month later when i went to wrap the sign (so i wrapped it in freezer paper first to be safe.) the sign is hanging on an outside wall of the cottage now and i believe holding up well.

Guys' Weekend Flasks

it's becoming an annual event where my husband and some guy friends go on a weekend fishing trip to canada. last year i started making guys' weekend favors and i started with an etched pub glass http://boogiebeans.blogspot.com/2011/08/bass-glasses.html. this year i decided a personalized flask would be fun. i designed the look, which includes the year, lake they're fishing, the event, and an old fishing quote "may the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it.

i printed all the papers out on a laser printer and mod podged them to the flasks. then i added several coats of a sealer mod podge - it's specifically for furniture finishes. making sure that all the seams were covered and no water could get down to the paper. after the sealant is done you have to let it cure for about a month before you're completely water safe. then my husband filled them with liquor and gave them to the guys on the drive up. i think they all enjoyed their weekend favor.

vacation crafts

we had beautiful weather at the lake this year, so there was not a whole lot of crafting. here's a sampling of stuff we made though. first is my neon headband. i have some plain, generic headbands for general crafting and i got some neon embroidery floss and just wrapped it and adding a drop of clue every inch or so. next are the googly eyed rock rings. alex had a great time collecting rocks - she's always enjoyed finding rocks. and then all we did is glue them to some ring blanks and then glue on the googly eyes (which are supposed to be peel and stick but we were not able to peel off the backing on any of them, so glue was used instead.) and then are the sun prints. alex collected aldl the leaves and flowers herself (it was so dry that flowers were hard to come by) and she arranged them on the paper all by herself and put them in the sun. they turned out so well that i'm going to find some fun frames to hang them.

pattern weights

another project that i found on pinterest, and what a genius idea. i never thought of pattern weights before and i absolutely hate pinning my patterns down - so i never do and then my cuts are off which of course makes assembly difficult and wrong. i should have realized while watching project runway that they were using pattern weights and i did wonder what something mondo was using once, but i didn't think about it too hard and the moment passed. i saw a pin on pinterest where someone did this exact thing and i had to do it. the pin i saw used larger washers, but this size (i think they're an inch and a quarter) were what my hardware store had and i'm sure they'll work fine. i haven't used them yet, but i have a project to start in the next couple of weeks that will be much easier with these. i did look up the price of store bought pattern weights and they were insane at $16/4 pack! these are probably less than $10/10. i just wrapped embroidery floss around each washer and tied off - that simple. i cannot wait to try them, and they're so bright and colorful - i love that.

the retro duffel bag

i've been wanting to make this bag for a long time - it's the kids size retro duffel bag. i found the tutorial over on saltwater-kids http://www.saltwater-kids.com/2008/10/retro-duffel-bag-tutorial.html other than the prepping of the fabric (washing and ironing and buying) this bag literally took me a few hours to put together. it's so cute and the perfect size for a kid - although i think too small to hold a soccer ball, but i haven't tested that yet. the tutorial gives you measurements of what pieces to cut which was really easy and i had the perfect sized plate for the end pieces which made the circles really easy. it's really just sewing a glorified tube with a zipper. i added some sporty initials on the bag to personalize it - i ironed those on after cutting the pieces but before sewing. the only step i skipped was sewing the tops of the handles to make them easier for little hands to hold - my sewing machine was mad at me and acting up so it's in the shop getting cleaned right now - i will probably fix the handles once i have my machine back. i was thinking this would be a good swim gear bag, but alex wants to use it for toys of course - we'll see who wins out on that one. i recommend making one or several of these bags, so easy and cute.

easy swimsuit cover ups

this is another project that i found on pinterest and followed thru on making. victoria's secret also sells a swim cover up similar to this for about $50 i think, and this one costs less than $10 to make (and i made two.) i found instructions for this on pinterest at http://laviediy.blogspot.com/2012/02/diy-20-minute-beach-cover-up.html. i got my jersey fabric from fabric.com. so you measure the fabric by wrapping it around yourself loosely, cut there. cut armhols in two corners - i used a plate to get a nice shape cut. then cut some strips to braid for the straps - it was so nice out when i was making this that i did all my braiding in the backyard by the inflatable pool. figure out  how long the straps should be and stitch them to the armholes. and now you could be done, i went one step further and surged the entire seam - but it is jersey material and won't fray so you could skip this step. of course, this step is where i ran into trouble because my sewing machine started eating my fabric and i yanked it out, but it still turned out well. i had enough fabric left over that i made a second cover up for alex, as you can see her modeling it. the cover up is really light and comfortable to wear in the heat, i think i might make another one in bright yellow. the only thing i'd change is i'd make my armholes a little smaller - i believe it would pull less with weight if the armholes were smaller.

Tea Towels

i've been dabbling in fabric design lately on spoonflower. i've entered a few contests made a few dolls and so forth; i showed you my cut and sew purse contest entry previously. before i entered any of the contests i started with designing tea towels. i just love the light thin fabric of a tea towel with all the great design possibilities. the first one i made was actually the periodic table of beer styles - the perfect gift for any beer connoisseur. and since i have a serger now it was so easy to finish these off - especially with that cool blade on the serger that cuts as it goes. i recently just gave this set of tea towels as a housewarming gift - which includes: the periodic table of beer styles, utensils and sporks, skulls, multi-colored houndstooth, and glasses. i recently entered a retro kitchen fabric design contest and plan on making that fabric into a fun kitschy tea towel as well. http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/kfay

origami bows

i love doing origami and i love bows, so when i saw this how-to-make origami bows on pinterest i knew i had to create some. of course, the instructions are in japanese, but luckily the photos are nice enough that you can figure it out. the left side of the picture above are the instructions that i found on pinterest and all the rest are the bows that i created. i made the bright lime bow first as my test, which alex ended up using on her gift to her cousin-to-be. i created four more origami bows and used those to decorate all the other gifts for the recent baby showers. they're so cute and really easy to make once you figure out the instructions. and depending on where exactly you put your folds you can make a bigger center part or smaller and so forth. i think i might have to create these for all my gift giving.