Crafty Card Organization

Today's project was both crafty and organizes--WAHOO! I love it when that happens!

I've never known what to do with greeting cards that we receive. I want to keep them, but I'm trying my hardest to manage clutter and didn't have a good solution. I usually just keep them in a box but it wasn't the prettiest thing and to be honest they were just a cluttered mess inside a box.  

I found this project from Kayla Danelle and it looked simple and solved my problem. I decided to start with all the cards that our daughter has received (she's only a year old so it sounded manageable!). Like I always do, I first searched my craft stash and then made my list for Hobby Lobby (man, I should be getting paid for these daily endorsements but, alas, I'm just doing it because I heart the Hob Lob).

I had some scrapbooking embellishments so all I needed was the heavy duty cardboard for the front and back cover, the chipboard letters, acid-free glue, and the rings.  

Simple stuff. I used my utility knife to cut two pieces of the cardboard (think super thick poster board) a bit bigger than an average card. I then used a hole punch to punch holes in both the front and back cover and embellished the front. That's it! I bought the biggest rings that they had but I know you can get much bigger ones. I'll probably have to switch to a bigger size in the future but this should work for now. After the "book" is done just hole punch the cards and slip them between the covers on the rings. Now they're all organized and easy to find and look through when I'm feeling sentimental. I think I'll do our wedding cards next--it's about time I get them out of that ugly box!

Do you keep your cards? How do you organize them?  

Every Day I'm Shufflin'...

I've been on the lookout for artwork for our office and haven't had much luck. We spend massive amounts of time in there so I want it to be something that either makes us happy or...well, that's it. It HAS to make us happy. Our goal is to have the walls decked out with travel pictures that we have taken. They definitely make us happy. I was also hoping to bring in some more color and as I was looking through my Pinterest boards I was reminded of one of my very first pins. This pin from Virginia and Charlie definitely makes me happy. The author made this incredibly fun canvas for a friend with the simple phrase 'Every day I'm Shufflin' from the LMFAO song. And, I decided that this would be perfect for our office!

She gives fantastic step-by-step instructions so I'll let her cover that.  I will, however, share a picture of how mine turned out.

What do you think?

This project was a fun one to do and extremely inexpensive.  If you decide to recreate it yourself you'll need:

• A Canvas - Hobby Lobby currently has 2 pack of 11x14 canvases (one left over for another project) - for $5.99
• Behr paint sample in Carrot Stick (240B-7) from Home Depot - $2.50 - Choose a color that goes with your color scheme!
• White puffy paint - $1.50 at Hobby Lobby
• Mod Podge - ~$7.00 (I already had a bottle and still have a ton left so I've used this on multiple projects and still have leftovers for many more!)
• Wax paper

And...I'll leave you with this (cued up to the good stuff):

 

Dirty Words and Wrinkles

As with anything, crafting can be (and for me, it usually is) a learning process.  If at first I don't succeed, I'm going to try, try, try, say some dirty words, and then try again.  This project looked simple enough, so simple that I thought I could recreate it with just a picture of the final product and with zero experience using Mod Podge.  I thought, "It's Mod Podge for goodness sakes, how difficult could it be?"  Of course, I was basing this on its funny name and absolutely no other rationale.  Silly me.

So, I set out to recreate this snazzed up frame from Craftily Ever After.  Cute, right?

Source: craftily-ever-after.blogspot.com via TeamIbrahim on Pinterest

I scoured my stash of craft goodies to see what I already had on hand before I headed out for supplies.  Ah-HA!  I found my stockpile of wrapping paper that I had purchased way cheap after Christmas last year!  Good stuff.

Tip:  Hobby Lobby offers 'non-traditional' Christmas paper that can be used year round.  Once they go on sale I purchase several that can be used for birthdays, weddings, and craft projects.  Here are the ones I purchased last year:

Since I already had the wrapping paper and a bottle of matte Mod Podge all I needed was a frame and an embellishment.  Hobby Lobby almost always (I'm pretty sure it's always, but just in case I'll say "almost") has their frames marked down 50%.  So I nabbed one that had a flat (not beveled) surface for about $8.00 on sale and grabbed a pink flower for $1.99.

I started by rolling out the wrapping paper and flipping the frame over (top side down) on the back of the paper.  I cut around the frame leaving space around it with my scissors.  Then I took my utility knife and cut a straight edge around the frame and in the inside cut out.

I made sure to position the cut out on the frame to make sure that I knew exactly how to lay it once the Mod Podge was ready.  Next, I used a foam brush to "paint" a thin layer on the frame.

**Let the Mod Podge dry a bit to increase it's tackiness, you want it tacky not wet.**  

Then carefully lay your cut out on the glue.  Start at the top (or bottom) and work your way to the other end.  If you let the glue dry to tackiness it should just sit on top enough that you can run your hands over it to seal it and you should have minimum bubbles and wrinkles.  Carefully look over the frame to to make sure the edges are sealed.  It's very important that you let it dry for awhile before applying the top coat of Mod Podge.

Once it appears the first layer has dried apply a second layer on top of the paper.  Let the top coat dry and then apply one more layer, and of course, let it dry.  Then, add any embellishments.  I used hot glue to attach the flower.

Okay--so that's how crafter's and DIYers WANT you to think it went.  Unfortunately, that's not how it went down.  AND, I'm about to reveal the truth.

I cut the paper to fit the frame (so far so good), applied a layer of Mod Podge laid down the cut out and it instantly started to bubble and wrinkle.  I panicked and ripped up the paper and used my trusty Pampered Chef pan scraper to scrape up the left over paper.  Take Two.  I Googled "how to avoid wrinkles and bubbles in decoupage" and found this video from Addicted 2 Decorating.  Go ahead, watch it...I'll wait.

Armed with my newfound knowledge, I started again.  I cut a new cut out and put on a thin layer of Mod Podge.  I let the Mod Podge dry to tacky and carefully laid down the cutout.  It looked great!  Wahoo!  Then the hubs walked past said "Wow, that looks cool!"and my ego and confidence were boosted.  So, I put on a top coat over the paper and it instantly started to wrinkle...and then I said dirty words, lots of them.  I ripped off the paper, scraped off the leftovers, and started again muttering something to the effect of "I WILL win."

So, as you can guess, I did another cutout, put on a thin layer of Mod Podge, let it dry to tacky positioned the cutout, gently smoothed it down and then gave it time to dry.  That was key.  I then painted on a top coat and it did wrinkle a bit but it looked much better.  I let the top coat dry and then painted one more coat.  Finally, I hot glued the flower in the perfect spot (in other words, to cover the wrinkles).  All done!  Now, wasn't that a simple craft project?  Oye.

When it comes to crafting, I win some and I lose some.  I'm calling this one a draw.  It definitely didn't turn out as I had envisioned but it's still something that I'll use.  The important thing is that I tried something new and learned a few things.  BUT, the MOST important thing that came from all of this is that I posted about it.  See, the 'old me' would have dug a deep hole in the backyard and buried all of the evidence.  The 'new me' realizes that the ultimate goal is learning something that I didn't know before.  The next time I decoupage (and there WILL be a next time) I'll have this experience to draw from and my end product may just turn out better.  So, without further ado, here it is with just a few wrinkles, but who cares?

UPDATE:  Much to my delight, most of the wrinkles have disappeared after a good nights sleep--and yes, I'm referring to the frame (I still have my wrinkles)!  This project didn't turn out so bad after all!  

Here it is after drying all night and with natural lighting.  I can live with it.

Have you ever decoupaged?  Do you have any tips to share? 





 

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' Rosettes!

Today's Pinterest Project was inspired by The Idea Room.  I chose it because I liked the way it looked and thought it would make inexpensive decorations for our daughters upcoming Olivia themed 1st birthday party.  It was very easy to make and budget friendly!

I already had a styrofoam ball and glue for my glue gun.  All that I had to purchase was the crepe paper which was $1.99 at Target.  Hobby Lobby did have bigger rolls for only 99 cents but they didn't have red.

The only change I made was that I didn't fold the crepe paper like The Idea Room suggested.  It went pretty fast, once I got the hang of rolling the rosettes.  I also found out that I suffered fewer glue gun burns when I put the glue directly on the ball rather than the rosette.  I'm not quite sure how I am going to use it yet.  I'm either going to attach some ribbon and hang it, or use the black stand shown in the picture.

The black stand is another project that I did years ago.  The top is a cheese board and the bottom was an ugly green candle holder.  Both items were purchased during Garnett City Wide Garage Sales--so my apologies if the 'ugly green candle holder' belonged to you.  I painted both pieces black and used Gorilla Glue to attach them.  I hot glued the ends of some red polka dot ribbon around the base (shown above) so that I could remove it after the party.

To wrap it up, this was a fun project that only cost me $1.99 (and I still have materials left!) and I'm pretty sure I'll use it at Elia's birthday party.  I worked on it throughout the day but I would think its could be done in a couple of hours (while watching TV)--it's a perfect 'multi-tasking' project!

Star Spangled Cuteness!

I have to say, out of all my projects so far, I think this one is my favorite.  Okay, so maybe a tie with the  ice cream.  Today's Pinterest Project was inspired by the tank below.  Unfortunately, the pin that I found links to the picture and not a blog so I'm not sure who to credit with the idea.  There are several variations and you can find them by searching in Pinterest for "4th of July shirt".

I had to make a quick trip to Hobby Lobby to snag a few of the supplies that I didn't already have on hand.  I grabbed some jumbo red ric rac, red thread, a blue star button, and some blue ribbon with white polka dots.  I already had a new white t-shirt so I was ready to go!

TIP:  Saturday evenings are actually the best night to shop at the Hob Lob.  Since they are closed on Sundays they start changing the prices for the next weeks sale items on Saturday.  So, not only do you get the sale prices for the current week but also for the next week!  

To get started, I laid the ric rac in position and secured each row with a small piece of scotch tape.  I made the top two rows a bit shorter on the left hand corner as to replicate where the blue square and white stars on the flag are (or in this case the bow).  Once I had them all cut and positioned I pinned them and removed the tape.  You might not need the tape but I found it was easier to reposition and helped me avoid unnecessary pin holes.  Once all the ric rac was positioned and pinned I started sewing and attached with a basic stitch using red thread.

I made the bow by simply making loops and was careful to start with a tail and end with a tail.  Once I had the bow the way that I wanted it I stitched the middle to secure it and then added the star button.  Then I just sewed the bow to the t-shirt.  You might consider making the bow removable for laundering but I wasn't sure how to do that and so I decided I would just hand wash.

And here it is!

I apologize for not having step by step pictures.  I started pretty late and was worried I wouldn't finish and have time to post!  This is a pretty simple project and I was able to figure it out with just the finished product and I'm confident you will too!

I'm the worlds slowest when it comes to sewing so this took me a couple of hours (with a couple interruptions).  If you have more experience it could easily be a 30 minute project.  I can't wait for Elia to wear this to my sister's party on the 4th!  


UPDATE:  Elia modeling her Pinterest inspired 4th of July t-shirt!