:: paper mâché fun

via

via 

via

via

via 

Some creative eye candy created with paper.  I'm fascinated with paper mache and all of the wonderful fun whimsical things that can be made with it.  I love the idea of being able to create art & reuse all of the excess paper in my life...newspaper...paper boxes...old books. I'm dying over the Angelina Ballerina sculptures...such talent.

{peace, love & hugs}

Pin It

:: memory tree

I'm baaaaack...

two days in a row, wow I'm doing good.

As I said yesterday I have lots to share with you, and this is just one thing of many. This past week has been a whirlwind of activity in our nest. First, we celebrated my 39th birthday on the 4th of June, yes, I am officially on my victory lap as Papa put it. Second, we celebrated our youngest daughter's 5th grade graduation, so Elementary school is now a thing of the past for our family. Last but not least, is the greatest of our celebrations....High School Graduation...our oldest daughter graduated from High School this past Saturday.

As part of the decorations for her graduation party, I created this memory tree. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I recently attended a birthday party for a friend & she had done something similar to this for a decoration so I thought I would create my own version.

All I needed to do was raid my yard waste pile from this springs tree pruning. I stripped what remained of any leaves and brought it inside & popped it into my trusty mason jar vase.  Saturday morning on my way home from the farmer's market I pulled off the road and plucked my lovely wildflower's from a ditch. I just love queen anne's lace, it is just so lovely and delicate.

The most difficult part of this project was going through lots of photo albums choosing photos and scanning them all {most of her photos are pre digital camera}. Once I had all of my photos scanned I made a layout on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet in adobe illustrator. I probably placed about 10 photos per sheet and tried to pair them up by size so I could cut them out and hang them back to back so it could be viewed all around...this sat on the center of our island for her party.

Once I had the photos laid out I printed them from my ink jet printer & took them to the kitchen to age them. I put the whole 8 1/2 x 11 sheet on a small baking sheet and poured our morning's coffee over the sheet to cover it. I popped it in a 250 degree oven for a few minutes then pulled it out & drained the excess coffee back into the pot to be re-used for the project. Then you put the sheet back in the oven to continue the drying process, once it's dry it will pull away from the baking sheet, it's a good idea to check it often. Once it was dry & ready to go I cut out the photos placed them back to back punched a hole in the top and tied them onto the branches using thin yarn. It's a little time consuming waiting for the paper to dry out, but over all this is a really simple project, and my daughter loved it. In fact, I think this may be a keepsake she can take with her to college and display in a vase or hang upside down as a photo mobile.

This is a great idea that could be used for so many occasions. 

So, why not make someone you love feel very special and share all of those wonderful memories....make a Memory Tree. This could also be used to display family photos on an every day basis, in fact I think I'll be trying something very similar soon, hmmm so many possibilities.

I hope to check in again with you next week, for now we are off to Nationals with our oldest wren. This will be her last club soccer tourney before she goes off to college to begin her soccer career there. We are so so proud of her and all of her accomplishments....

We Love You Squeezy!

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

Pin It

:: pet tags

Since finding the idea for Shrinky Dink pet tags on Pinterest,

via Martha {of course } this has been on my list of things to make.

Being the owner of 7 {yes that's right} 7 pets, 3 canines & 4 felines...

buying tags can be quite expensive & we needed new ones.

{it's okay, we've accepted that we have a little animal hoarder problem}

In our defense, we only purchased two of our pets, the rest are rescues : ).

Armed with a 50% off coupon to Michael's 

{gotta love a good coupon}

I went off in search of inkjet printable Shrinky Dink plastic.

Take my word for it and ask someone to take you directly to it,

you'll save yourself lots of time looking, and looking, and looking for it.

Michael's is a madhouse right now with all of the sales & coupons going on.

When I got home I downloaded the free PDF here,

made my changes, printed them, cut them out, and baked them.

Here's how they turned out for me.

They were cute, but I didn't l.o.v.e them. {sorry Martha}

Honestly they were a little big & the numbers too small.

{ the phone numbers are only missing in the images because I don't want the world to have it }

So, back to the drawing board {my computer}.

I went into Adobe Illustrator to create my own tags.

I chose the smallest of the Martha tags as a guideline for size,

and went even smaller, approx. 2.5 inches for my largest pet tag...

then I just scaled the others down according to the size of my pets.

I didn't want them to look like Flava Flav wearing their tags.

Anyhoo, as you can also see, I chose lighter softer colors,

and I had fun picking different fonts for each of the fur babies.

I also added a couple of monogrammed tags for myself & my daughters

in order to take full advantage & not waste any of the plastic sheet.

I got 9 tags on one 8.5 x 11 sheet, compared to the 8 on two sheets per Martha.

Here are the tags side by side, though I'm missing a few in this shot

because they are already on my pets { I couldn't wait to see how they looked }.

So, let's do the math {as much as I hate it....math's hard....lol...my bestie gets this}

That's 9 tags on a sheet of Shrinky Dink paper that cost me about $1 with my coupon.

The average cost of 1 pet tag at the local pet mart would be about $10.00 for the smallest.

For me that would be about $70 plus the extra monogrammed tags I made would be $90.

Hmmm, that's about 11 cents per tag for a savings of 89 buckaroonies....not bad.

So, Thank you, Thank you, Martha { and crew } for always coming up with great ideas.

This material is so much fun to work with, I couldn't help but think of other ways to use it.

 think it will make great luggage tags, gift tags, jewelry....the possibilities are endless.

TIP : using a standard hole punch will not be big enough for a tag, I simply punched around the edges to make my hole larger { the hole shrinks too }

Happy Monday!

Only 6 more days until my KINGS birthday,

and the big man in the red suit visits to spread HIS message of giving.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

Pin It

:: recycled newspaper birds

Here it is as promised,

my newest little holiday craft.

RECYCLED NEWSPAPER BIRDS

I thought these would be cute either on the tree....

or used as gift tags for presents...

 

they are really super easy & fun to make.

SUPPLIES:

pen or pencil

newspaper

scissors

embroidery floss

embroidery needle

hole punch

jute twine

cereal box 

bird silhouettes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Find  or draw a bird silhouette that you can use as a template & determine the size you want

TIP:  my birds are 6" & 8" wide 2 up on and 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper

2. Cut out paper silhouette & trace onto cereal box & cut out {this will be your template}

3. Take a sheet of newspaper fold it in half and trace your bird template then cut out your bird

4.  Thread your embroidery needle with 3 strands of floss about 22" long tie a good size knot in the end

5. Begin sewing the two pieces of newspaper together using a simple running stitch

TIP: begin stitches on the bottom of the bird leaving a 2" opening for stuffing 

6.  Shred up some more newspaper & scrunch up to make stuffing

7. Stuff your bird using the shredded newspaper & pen or scissors to push into smaller openings 

8. Once stuffed to desired puffiness, finish sewing closed & finish with a knot

9. Take your hole punch...find a good center point for hanging and punch a hole for your twine hanger.

EASY PEASY....

Now that you've got your first one done,

you can go into production mode as my mother calls it.

You can make more folds in your newspaper to cut out more silhouettes at a time.

If you really want to get speedy, you could sew your birds on a sewing machine...

but I much prefer the hand sewing, I think it lends to a simple rustic look.

So what do you think?

Do you like my little birdies?

Sorry my pictures are a little lackluster, 

it was another rainy gloomy day here...not great for photos.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

Joining the Party @

At the Picket Fence

Pin It

:: what are they you say...

Well, this is my latest project. Remember the craft show I spoke of in my last post, well... I made up these little lovelies to act as hat displays for my little knit hats. I actually think they are really pretty all on their own, and right now that's how they look sitting on my shelves in my studio.

In theory, this is how they are supposed to work. So I hurried and rushed to get these little guys made up to take with me to the craft show Saturday, and guess what... I never even made it. I just didn't feel ready. A girl has to be up for these kinds of things, and with everything else I had going on I just couldn't take the time to go. 

Now, all of this crafting has me thinking up all kinds of ways I can use these little decoupaged balls. First of all, I'm going to be making some Christmas ornaments just like them for my tree {if not this year, then next.} Secondly, I kinda like them as a topiary of sorts, and I may flip the pots and do a double version as a unique accessory. I can actually see a pair on my mantle in my keeping room after the holidays.

You see, the ball is supposed to be the head, and well...the pot is a simulation of a neck. I searched online for mannequin heads and never found anything I liked, so this is what I came up with. That said, it's probably cheaper to buy one of those styrofoam heads for like 3 bucks on ebay, but I couldn't do it....I wanted something different. Do you know how expensive styrofoam balls are these days? It's kinda ridiculous, a large 7" ball is something like $12, and in my book that's kinda pricey for a craft object, luckily I got mine while AC Moore was running a sale on them for half price. Still...add in pots, spray paint, and a dowel rod and it added up pretty quickly. Three dollar heads might have looked good with this treatment. That wouldn't work for me though because I needed different sizes. Most of my hats are for babies & children, and a child sized mannequin head is not easy to find.

Don't you think it's kind of cute on it's little stand, I think I could even do this with them if I dressed up the base piece with some routing and paint, the possibilities are endless. I'm just in love with the papers I used, I think they just look so interesting glued on all willie nillie. Gotta love the Graphics Fairy, she is so amazing for sharing all of her amazing ephemera. I simply printed off the papers that appealed to me, took a ruler and tore off half inch to one inch strips, I then proceeded to glue them on with a mixture of good old elmer's glue and a little water. My little secret is that I left on the plastic covering that came on the ball, this gave me a smoother surface to glue to, not sure how it would work if you were gluing straight onto the styrofoam...I'm guessing not as well.

So, are you ready for Christmas?

Well, I really thought I had it all under control, but the closer it gets the less I feel so. It seems like I'll never be done, there is always one more gift to buy. I'm feeling a little scroogy these days. I love giving gifts, but I'm not thrilled about having to do Christmas shopping this late in the game. I would much rather be sitting around drinking cider, listening to Christmas music, and making little crafts. 

What's worse, I feel like I'm completely caught up in the exact thing Christmas is not about...commercialism. 

Okay, so maybe I'm not a Scrooge...

I'm more like Charlie Brown.

:: peace, love & hugs ::

Carrie

Pin It

{ a corpse bride & shape shifter }

Hello,

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.

It was really strange having Halloween on a Sunday this year,

made it just a little hard to get into the spirit.

We did the best we could, and this is miss "p" as the corpse bride.

We couldn't actually find a corpse bride costume she was happy with, 

so we ventured out on our own and constructed our own version for a fraction of the cost.

We spent $18 on several yards of muslin, some tulle, a black shirt & tights and some skeleton gloves.

I'm not much of a seamstress so not a whole lot of sewing went into this costume.

We simply cut out the bodice shape, and a square shape for the wrap skirt.

I did hand sewed a pinch pleat to make a sweetheart neckline with some tulle around the top,

but that was it for the sewing...the rest was just a little skillful tearing of the fabric.

To age out the muslin fabric and make it look fresh from the grave, I wet the fabric & painted 

with black watercolors around the edges of the torn skirt and the bottom of the bodice...it looked great.

We already had an old tiara and a vintage crocheted tablecloth which I sewed onto the tiara,

this made up our very old looking & eerie veil, we finished off the costume with a bouquet of dead 

hydrangeas cut on the way out the door to go trick or treating.

Who is that handsome fellow there with my little corpse bride you ask,

Well that is her shape shifter brother, he's pretty scary huh ; ).

Happy to see her since she only returns on All Hallows Eve he reaches out for a hug...

or um is he getting ready to attack?  Not sure...we'll stick with hug.

:: peace & love :: 

Carrie

Pin It

{ a rosey ring }

I'm always trying to think of new ideas and ways to use my knits,

and while I was knitting a rose brooch for a customer 

I had the idea that a rosey ring would be quite cute too.

So, I scrounged through my yarn stash looking for some tiny lace weight yarn.

Needless to say, I don't have a whole lot, but I did manage to find a ball of this turquoise color.

Not exactly what you think of when you think of roses, but it's still fun & I do them in all colors.

I then found one of the tiniest pairs of needles I own, this vintage pair of size 1's.

Then I cast on my stitches and started knitting the tiniest thing I think I've knit to date.

   

It was a little bit of a challenge, because this yarn is a little too fuzzy for this project, 

and those needles are just so small.  I admire all the ladies out there who knit socks with tiny needles.

Maybe one day, I'll tackle something a little bit larger with the baby needles.

For now, though, I'm happy with the way this turned out.

It's a little larger than I would like for it to be, but again I was just playing around with the yarn on hand.

I would like to give some crochet thread a try, and maybe even a smaller needle.

I have some lovely vintage tortoiseshell needles from Australia, and they are believe it or not tinier.

I simply sewed on an adjustable ring base, and there you have it a cute little accessory.

I'll have to get busy making some of these little cuties up for the farmer's market this fall,

I'm sure there are some little girl's and maybe big ones too who would think these very fun.

Lots of ideas popping up in my head for ways to use these little roses.

Thanks for stopping by,

and as always, thank you so much for the sweet comments.

I love nothing more than to read each and every one that comes in, they make my day.

Now, back to knitting for me.

:: peace & love ::

Carrie

Pin It

{ a simple life-the end }

Pin It