crafts

Creativity Shared

Everyday Adventures

We’ll tackle the next art on Thursday, but first I wanted to catch up on some projects that I’ve been working on away from the 64 Arts.

In this month’s installment of The Dirt (Gauche Alchemy’s newsletter) I shared a little bit about the faux terrarium I made out of found objects:

UpCycled Terrarium

UpCycled Terrarium

Then for the blog I made this (I think) very cool Cocktail Clutch out of an old book mailer and the Shaken Not Stirred Mixed Media Kit.

jwalker_cocktail_clutch_upcycle_altered_art

And then before that I got to play with some more outstanding Helmar Glues as part of a swap Gauche Alchemy and Helmar hosted.

jwalker_helmar_scrapdots_grapes_decorated_bottle

The grape clusters and vines are glue applied directly to the glass and (in the case of the clusters) dusted with shimmery glitter.

And speaking of swaps, I participated in a Button Fairy swap with the good folks at Viva Las VegaStamps. This was my first introduction to the concept of Button Fairies and I put together this girly, delicate, pink & pearl fairy for swappin

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I received a fun and funky button fairy in return and am contemplating make a few more just for fun.

Of course, there are plenty of other projects still waiting for their turn. Unfortuantely both the antique desk and the bedroom redo are in limbo–the desk still needs a couple coats of varnish. The bedroom, on the other hand, did get a new bedspread and throw (both from West Elm and our trip before last to Jacksonville) so the pink and grey is creeping in, but I haven’t gotten any farther than that.

Time is the answer for everything, of course, but with the wedding coming up in just 4 months (!!!) I think the bedroom might take longer to finish. I’ll stick to the shorter-term projects until then!

In what ways have you stretched your creative wings lately?

 

 

How To | Joined Name Banner

Third Time Wife, Wedding Planning

It was the Wednesday night before our Saturday engagement shoot and I get the hare-brained idea to make us a banner to use as a photo prop.

Now, before we go any further, I want to assure you this story has a happy ending, as evidenced by this awesome shot from the day of:

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography, cropping by me (mostly to remove our kissy-faces)

Photo by Pink Shutterbug Photography, cropping by me (mostly to remove our kissy-faces)

But it wasn’t guaranteed when I went to start.

You see, just after Christmas I treated myself to an addition to my craft room: an eCraft electronic die cutter. I’d just gotten it, and barely used it so far, but I figured I should be able to have it cut out the letters and leaves with no problem.

Yeah… Not so much. When you’re learning a new tool it helps to be smarter than the machine and the software that powers it. I know, now, what I did that made the first night so tough on myself, but it wasn’t much consolation when I spent 3 hours and I don’t even know how many sheets of card stock trying to cut out 2 sets of 9 letters. In the end, the cutter did save me a lot of time, once I got out of my own way.

Eventually I did get my letters cut out–one set of slightly larger, silhouetted dark shapes for the backgrounds and a set of speckled ivory card stock letters for the fronts. The lighter card stock just wasn’t doing it for me, plain, though, so I set them out and spritzed them with some Glimmer Mist in Burlap and Gold. At that point it was late and they had to dry, so I called it for part 1.

Adding a little dimension and sparkle never hurts.

Adding a little dimension and sparkle never hurts.

The next night it was time to dress up the letters and finish the cutting. I found a free cutting file from SVGCuts.com that had just what I was looking for: a grape leaf, and it was layered, too! Thankfully this night’s cutting went much smoother (a few hiccups, but I got the hang of it) and before long I had plenty of layered leaves cut out, assembled, and put together with the letter sets and let them dry for the night.

The leaves got scattered among the letters.

The leaves got scattered among the letters.

I also cut out the rounded squares for the letters and leaves to rest on. I found this coppery, embossed paper with grapes and leaves on it in my stash–no telling how long it had been there, but I was happy I’d hoarded it.

My canvas was thin enough where I could fold it double and still cut through with ease. I cut some extras just in case I screwed one up.

My canvas was thin enough where I could fold it double and still cut through with ease. I cut some extras just in case I screwed one up.

With this much done, though, I could finally decide how big each of my pennants needed to be and what shape would work best. Sure, the inverted triangle is pretty standard, but I’m still on a square kick so wanted something blockier. Plain squares weren’t quite right, either, so we went with a pentagon that looks like a little house upside down. I cut those shapes out of some lightweight canvas I had lying around (again, being a craft-supply-hoarder pays off) with pinking shears so I wouldn’t have to hem anything. The pentagons are 5 inches wide and 5 1/2 inches long from top edge to point.

Laid-out banner bits.

Laid-out banner bits.

Now, usually I’d spell out our names my name-his name, ladies first and all that, but I knew that with us standing to hold the banner, I’d need to be on the left if my engagement ring was to show (something I knew our photographer would prefer, if nothing else). I could have held his name and he mine, but it would have bugged me to no end, so I put his name first so it’d look right in the pictures. It works well that we have names of equal length, too, but that’s  just luck.

Mr. Road Trip was actually okay with the banner as-is, but I couldn’t leave it that plain. It just went against every decorative fiber of my being, so to the stash I went.

The grapes and leaves also got a touch of metallic watercolors for a little highlighting sparkle.

The grapes and leaves also got a touch of metallic watercolors for a little highlighting sparkle.

I started by adding some strips of lace along the top edge and added another rounded square in a darker color behind the copper to make it pop more. The other edges were still awfully bare and I was nearly out of time for night 2, and I knew there was no way I’d have time to do any stitching on Friday night. Then I remembered my beloved fabric paints and pens. A few quick swoops around the edges with green and some purple grape clusters and my edges finally looked finished.

Just hanging out, like banners do.

Just hanging out, like banners do.

Finally, Friday night, between pin-curling my hair and grabbing the rest of our props, I glued down the lace bits (something I only did for time’s sake–I’m usually quite adamant about sewing fabric to fabric) and the letter clusters and set the 1/4-inch eyelets in each corner. I had a surplus of 1″ binder rings so used those to link the individual pennants together. Turns out they stretched perfectly from one end of our mantle to the other, so that’s where they’re hanging out when not being used for wedding props.

Not counting the cutter (because it’s not strictly a wedding purchase, I plan to use it for lots of things well after the wedding crafting has passed), I spent a grand total of nothing on this project–I had all the supplies in my stash. Can’t beat that when you’re on a budget, right?

Halloween Pin-spiration

64 Arts, Everyday Adventures

If I haven’t mentioned before, Halloween is our favorite holiday and, each year, we like to add to the decorations and props we keep around. Obviously other blogs are great for inspiration, but Pinterest has increased that exponentially!

Thankfully, I have a willing accomplice in Halloween crafting, and this year I sent Todd a couple of fun ideas, just as a ‘look, isn’t this cool?’ kind of thing, and he actually built them!

We’ve been talking about adding a coffin to our set-up for years, but just never got around to it (and often wondered how we’d store it, if we made one). But when I sent him this link to an Ground-Breaking Coffin craft, that seemed so much more doable and now it’s done!

And, hey, it even counts for our woodworking art!

While the coffin craft was 100% Todd, I actually got to help on this next one: PVC Candles.

Super simple, Todd still did all the cutting and filing, but I added the hot-glue drips on the sides and helped with the spray-painting. Lit up in a dark room (or outside, lining a walkway) they look super spooky.

At our party this weekend someone even mentioned they could work for Christmas decorations, too–hadn’t thought of that!

And on the edible front, let me share one last Pinterest-found Halloween treat, this time of the edible variety: Pumpkin Spice Fudge.

One of many desserts at this year’s pumpkin party, this super-rich fudge is super-simple to make and everyone really loved it.

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Halfway woven mini-egg basket

Another Partial-Paper Basket

64 Arts

I swear, one of these days I’ll graduate to weaving with actual wood, but for now I’ll stick to my preferred mediums of paper and fabric. At least this project bears a closer resemblance to the spirit of the art we’re working on.

My mini-Egg Basket of Paper Twist and Ribbon

I used the free instructions from The Basket Weavers Catalog for their Small “Egg” Basket, making my basket about half the size of the example, so mine’s a mini basket.

For the hoops I used hunter green paper twist, as it, straight out of the package, secured with a bit of Tacky Glue at the ends.

Hoop and ribs of a mini-egg basket, made of paper-twist

For the lashing or “God’s Eye” I used the same paper twist, but untwisted it and cut the crinkled paper into quarters, lengthwise. First I tried it with ribbon but it didn’t have enough oomph–I suppose I could have used a wider ribbon, but the sturdiness of the paper twist was really what was called for. Retwisting the paper twist strips I’d cut down made the perfect width for the ribs, also glued-in behind the God’s Eye.

And can I just take a moment to tell you how much nostalgia hit me making the God’s Eyes? Did anyone else have boatloads of these around their room after learning them at camp or some after-school program? Obviously I did, though I’m glad to know there was a semi-useful skill learned by it, not just keeping hands busy.

Halfway woven mini-egg basket

Finally, instead of round reed for the actually weaving, I used 2 shades of green skinny ribbon and a tapestry needle. I found the needle made the ribbon-weaving easier, especially when it was time to tuck the ends into the previous rows to finish each ribbon.

The one big lesson I took away from the little project is that you start at each end and work your way into meeting in the center. Without the directions, had I been hacking through it myself, I probably would have worked from one end to the other and wondered how in the hell to get the end looking nice and neat.

See, sometimes it pays to read the instructions.

Mini-Egg Basket filled with Mini-Food

And my little mini-basket is just the perfect size for these cute little food erasers I picked up at our local toy store and soda fountain, Lofty Pursuits.

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Elsewhere

Have I mentioned Gauche Alchemy enough for you? Well, next week I’ll be sharing the details on a cool stamp and paint project I did as part of our swap with Viva Las VegaStamps. If you’re at ALL into cool stamps or are looking to get some Gauche Goodies at a discount, check out both blogs for their respective discount codes.

Drawing of how to make your own tissue bag

Project | Tissue and Washi Gift Bag

Projects

This project originally appeared in the July Gauche Alchemy Newsletter. I’ve been writing as part of the Gauche team of Alchemists for 3 months now and am constantly floored by the amount of creativity in the projects I get to write up every week. If you’re ever at a loss for inspiration or want a creative shot in the arm, the Gauche Alchemy blog and newsletter is a sure-fired way to get it!

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For Mother’s Day, this year, I found a book full of pretty pictures of dressed-up French Bulldogs that I knew she’d get a kick out of. Wrapping a book is kind of boring, though, so I thought I’d use a package of yellow tissue paper I found in the hall closet (heaven only knows when I bought it, but Mom’s favorite color is yellow, so, score!).

Of course I couldn’t find the tape. Whatever I did with it the last time I used it, I definitely didn’t put it back in my dry adhesives drawer. BUT! I could easily locate my new stash of Washi Tape from Gauche Alchemy and there was a pretty green and yellow floral tape that would match perfectly.

What is washi tape? It’s patterned masking tape, sometimes also called paper tape, that is very fun to work with. I just like using it in place of plain tape for various things around the house (makes the mundane more fun) but it’s great for scrapbooking and general craft purposes, too.

My small collection of washi tape

Or, as Mom put it, it’s makes you look even more artsy-fartsy than you are.

Gee, thanks, Mom!

Anyway, I started out thinking I was just going to wrap it like any other present, but then I started to play, and this is what I ended up with.

The front view of my tissue gift bag

I realize the point of using a gift bag is to make wrapping easier, and that making your own bag out of the tissue paper that’s usually stuffed inside as filler defeats the purpose, but I promise this is really quick and simple while creating major impact.

Since I wasn’t planning on this being anything of consequence when I started, I didn’t take step-by-step pictures. Instead,  I drew you some pictures to explain how i made it.

Drawing of how to make your own tissue bag

Start by spreading your tissue paper out and placing the book on one side (figure 1) and folding the other side up to cover it. In order to obscure the book title I had to use all 5 sheets of tissue paper–this was a good idea considering the end result. Then fold up the bottom corners (figure 2) and and the sides into the center (figure3), taping each seam with the washi tape (figure 4).

Fringe the extra paper at the top of the package (figure 5, this was the point when it started resembling a bag, to me) and fold down the outer layers of the fringe (figure 6). Because of the folding there were, essentially, 3 layers of tissue fringe at the top of the package, so folding the outer layers of the front and back left a center section that resembled the tissue fringe usually poking out of traditional gift bags. To keep the folded layers of tissue down, I added a length of washi tape, folded over, along the top edge (figure 7).

Side of the tissue gift bag, reinforced by washi, and strung with a ribbon handle.

The only thing left was to add a handle! Since we’re dealing with tissue paper, here, I thought it would be a good idea to reinforce the ends of the “bag” with 3 layers of washi tape folded over the top edge (so 6 layers of tape, total, figure 8), punch a hole in each side (figure 9), and thread some wide ribbon through each hole and double knot it on the outside of the bag. I wouldn’t say it would hold up to a lot of weight, but it did it’s job admirable.

Back of the tissue bag with a quilt block-style pattern of washi tape

After the bag was made I decided it needed a little dressing up. For the front I kept it simple, just making a square of the tape to frame in the shape. On the back, where the functional taping was, I filled in the “starburst”-style pattern that the first 3 lines suggested, then framed it in with more tape. The end result was a little more like a quilt square.

Of course, when we got to dinner and Mom tried to remove the book without destroying the bag, we discovered it’s a good idea to leave a little wiggle-wiggle-wiggle room when folding the sides (figures 2 & 3). I eventually got the book out without tearing the wrapping, but a little forethought would have made it easier.

You craft and you learn, right?

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Once again I’m linking up with:

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