long overdue...

Dear friends and readers,

Hello! I'm back!

I apologize for the unforgivably lengthy hiatus on this poor blog. I suppose I can sort it blame it on Tucker.

Yes, that's right! We are now proud puppy parents and this our darling little boy. He is just over 3 months old and we've had him for about a month. He's fabulous and we love him. However, I will never downplay the amount of work a new puppy requires! Here he is having his first bath.

Anyway, enough about the pup and on to craftier things!

While I've been gone, I've still been working on a project or two! Here is a gift I made for my friends for our trip to D.C. (which was fabulous of course). 

 I bought some little metal jewelry pieces from the hobs lobs for a buck thirty-four for a two-pack! Unbelievable! There were varying sizes, but I chose the 12mm to start because I think that small things are cute. So basically these little metal pieces have a pushed in center that is ready to be decorated with whatever you find and like the look of!

The cardboard that the piece came attached to had an "actual size" square printed on it, which served as a perfect template. I traced the template onto the background patterned paper. Then I cut teeny animals out of an old anthro catalog I had lying around. Using Mod Podge, Dimensional magic, I glued the animal to the background, initial stamped it and then pasted it into the metal piece. I filled in the rest with more dimensional magic, which looks cloudy while its drying. **Note: if you have bubbles in the glue, use a toothpick to drag them to the edge and then pop them.

 This one actually had a small bubble, but since its above the mouth of the fish, I still thought it was slightly appropriate! I put a pearl on this one using my jewelry making tools. I think these square ones can also be turned sideways to make a bracelet. I prefer the necklaces myself, but there's always room to experiment.

 If you want to try this at home, you'll need:

Jewelry pieces found at hobs lobs

Old magazines or any sort of miniature pictures

Alphabet stamps, or even chopped up letters from magazines

Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

A little imagination! 

All in all, I really liked the way these turned out, and proceeded to make quite a few more in different styles. I'm still trying to find a way to print high resolution animal pictures on such a teeny scale, but it's proving to be difficult with my resources thus far. If you find a way, don't hesitate to share with the rest of us!

I will take this moment to say I am rededicating myself to this blog and there will not be such a long wait for more splendid things in the future! I'm sorry and I love you all.

Happy crafting!

a place to hang your pretty things

Hello! 

This is my first blog post of my first blog. My basic plan is to post creative projects as they come to me, so that everyone can see what I've been up to. I'll try to offer helpful hints as well, so you all can try the projects at home! Some ideas I find on other blogs (which I'll include links to, naturally) and some ideas sort of just come to me. So, without further ado and jibber jabber, here we go!

The problem: I needed a place to hang coats near the shoe basket and key rack. I wanted something that would match the adorable key rack my Grandma gifted me, without being overly matchy. I found an unfinished coat rack at Joann's and bought it (with my 40% off coupon, of course). I covered it in strips of newspaper mixed with a water/mod podge paste. In the end, I didn't exactly like the way it looked. I took a very pale gray/blue paint, mixed it with water and white-washed the whole piece. Once it was dry, I pained leaves on it with a subtle gold paint. 

I loved the idea of the shelf on top, since it meant I could decorate the rack however I liked. I found directions for the paper mache birds in a magazine, which are made with cardboard and blown out eggs. I white washed those as well. The bottles were a thrift store find. The word home was unfinished wood that I painted blue, then gold, then sanded the edges so a little blue and natural wood would come through.

I really like the way it turned out, and once we stuck it on the wall, it was as utilitarian as it was welcoming!

If you want to make this at home, you'll need:

unfinished coat rack (local craft store)

newspaper

paint (white-wash color and accent color)

paintbrushes (one for mod podge, one for paint)

mod-podge (I used matte finish instead of glossy)

Good luck crafters!