1.30.2012

Cupcake Baby Hat

My cupcake baby hat is finally available in my Crafterella Cupcake shop!!!cupcake hat collageI am so excited that it’s finally finished! AND, just for you guys, I’m having a special promotion from now until February 11th., enter the coupon code BLOGFRIENDS and receive a 20% discount in my Crafterella Cupcake store.

1.27.2012

Friday Finds

Welcome to my new monthly feature, Friday Finds!!! I’ll be sharing some of my favorite finds(stuff I loved so much that I bought it) each month.
My favorite find of January was this light up globe (vintage 1982 – is that really vintage?!?)light up globeIt works great, but it does have some damage here on Africa and also on the top. I think I can patch it up with some tissue paper and Mod Podge. If not I am making it into a light up Death Star(scroll down).
One of our local thrift stores last day of business was today and they we selling most of their clothing for 25¢. I managed to only spend $4.00, but it took a lot of restraint. This pair of gray cords and these camouflage cargo shorts looked perfect to recon into some tote bags.camo short and grey cordsI was really excited to find this 100% cotton velveteen jacket in my size, now I need some fun accessories.red velveteen jacket Velveteen is apparently difficult to photograph, it is not nearly this bright in person. I won't bore you with all the t-shirts I brought home.
And finally some treasures that I found cleaning in the basement. My vintage (from the 80’s again) rainbow unicorn bandanna, my witch boot cookie jar, and my Victorian boot vase. I actually have a fairly large collection of shoe figurines, but really no where to display them.basement findsWhat is your fabulous find of January?, I’d love to hear about it.
Have a super crafty weekend!

1.25.2012

Mini Pin Cushion Jars

Eight years ago I was working at the Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee. I delivered room service during the week and bartended on the weekends. Everyone who ordered a sandwich for room service got a tiny little jar of mayo, a tiny little jar of mustard, and a mini jar of ketchup. I loved those tiny little jars and I would often rinse them out and bring them home. They were stored in boxes and hauled to several new apartments, back here to Nebraska, a few more houses, a storage unit, and then to our new house where they we promptly stored in the basement with everything else. I brought a box of them up this weekend, one of the treasures found while cleaning.
A milk jug cap was the perfect size for a pin cushion for the lid, I have attached it permanently to the metal lid with a brad.mini pin cushion jarThe pin cushion will, of course, be embellished more (rick rack!!!) and the metal lid will be painted. This color combo reminds me of cotton candy, which then makes me think of the circus, so I will be painting “big top” stripes on the lid. (Yes, that is exactly how my brain works!)
Fill the jar with buttons, safety pins, and thread card, add some more pins and a needle to the pin cushion and it’s a mini sewing kit, wouldn’t it make a great gift?
I have a lot of these little jars, anyone have any ideas on what else I can do with them?

1.23.2012

The Basement Hoard, 2 Years Later

It’s been 2 years since I shared photos of my messy basement and talked about all of my plans. The good news is that some of those plans have worked out. My husband does have his nerd cave set up and often has friends over to play Magic the Gathering and my craft room is set up and staying fairly organized!basement hoard 2We have divided the basement space into three separate areas using giant shelves as walls. The far end is the nerd cave, the center area has been stacks of boxes and totes (all my stuff) and the other area is laundry land. This weekend I decided to start working on the center area. We want to set it up to be our paper craft/collage making area. We have an old school paper cutter (the kind you can chop fingers off with), some library card catalog files, file sorting shelves, and a drafting table waiting to be set up.
I made a ton of progress! However it doesn’t look like it (forgot to take a before photo).100_7159-1 I labeled some of the piles to give you an idea of what all is down here. Once I get things more situated all of the holiday stuff will be put into a small storage room at the back of the basement. Right now that room is filled with chairs and bags (and bags) of fabric. Baby stuff will be eliminated. A lot of the totes will be emptied, they are full of clothing that needs to be sorted, sold, and donated. Personal memorabilia (photos, cards, and knick knacks) will be relocated to the up-upstairs. I have learned a lot:
1.  I seem to have some sort of obsession with glass jars/bottles and tins of all kinds.
2.  We are not minimalist, we like stuff and we like to display it all on shelves and tacked to the walls.
3.  I have a lot of fabric! (no really, A LOT)
4.  When the zombie apocalypse hits we will have enough supplies to survive (now we need to start stocking up on food).
Once we get this area cleaned up and set up I’ll share more photos.

1.18.2012

Champagne Chairs

The minute I saw these tiny chairs by Martha Stewart on Pinterest I knew I HAD to make them! I asked all my friends to save their champagne corks and cages on New Years Eve and I ended up with 3, I was soooo excited, I didn’t think I was going to get any (there were a lot of screw on lids this year)!
champagen chairsI LOVE them, I love them so much that I’m thinking about starting a new tradition of drinking a bottle of champagne every New Year and making a little chair with the cage!

1.11.2012

The Crafty Closet

I hung my giant buttons today and was excited to learn that my Mother had found me another cheese dome, because I NEED more of giant buttons on displaythese giant buttons! I’m having a hard time deciding how the holes should be positioned, I may be over thinking this.
As I took this picture to share with everyone I realized that I had never mentioned my crafty closet. Not only am I lucky enough to have a craft room, but my crafty room has a closet! And, let me tell you, it is packed to the gills with all sorts of goodies!
Notice that everything is sorted into clear totes and most of them are labeled. I am always amused when people are amazed that my mess is really organized, it’s more of a volume issue. I have so much stuff that looks cluttered.
The center is all totes (shoe boxed sized), to the left is wire shelving for fabric storage (it’s still all neatly folded), and on the right is a sweater organizer that is holding an interesting selection of supplies that aren’t in totes. There are also boxes stacked to the ceiling on the top shelf and Boobzilla (my duct tape dress form) now lives up there too.
I am hoping to eventually have all of my supplies in the craft room (and out of the basement), but it seems to be more of a life goal than an overnight project.
What color should I paint my next button? I’m thinking orange or brown.

1.09.2012

Less Pinning, More Doing

I love pinterest, but honestly it is a time sucker. I could waste the day away and while I am getting a lot of ideas and inspiration I’m not making anything.
This weekend I tried to do a little more making. Ribbon bookmarks.
bookmarksA lotion bottle cell phone charging caddy.
lotion bottle charging caddyAnd, my most favorite, giant buttons from domed cheese boards!
giant buttons finishedIf you look closely, you’ll see that the paint isn’t even dry. Believe me, this picture does NOT do them justice and they’ll look even better once I add the string and get them hung up! I am on the hunt for more domed cheese boards, I NEED a large collection of these for the craft room walls.
You may have seen this one on the Facebook page: I also started cutting out and sorting letters, eyes, lips, and textures for visual journaling, I’m calling it a ransom note kit.
ransome note tool boxI have a huge board of journaling ideas pinned, now to start doing. It will be nice to have this ready to go.
I will be marking the pins I have done with a * at the beginning of the text. I want to make sure that I am really doing and not just wishing the hours away.
Have you been making things from your pinterest boards? I'd love to hear about it, share some links in the comments :)

1.05.2012

Insanity

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.                    -Albert Einstein
I think that a lot of times we get stuck repeating the same actions over and over again because it’s comfortable and easy. When you realize this it can be a bit upsetting and disappointing. I will be doing different things this year!
In that spirit this is what I’m currently working on…lots of baby hatsbaby hats! Samples of my knitting and crocheting skills. I have a plan for these hats and I’ll share that next week. I am also taking a class at the community college, it’s a self improvement class. I’m excited to learn something new (and different).
What new things will you be doing this year?