Sacrilegious Awesomeness

This post has nothing whatsoever to do with Lent, or religion, so stop freaking out. It has to do with books.

Old books, in fact. Old, cheesy books. Old, moldy, cheesy books that no one wants, found in a dustbin at the the thrift store.

I’m trying to justify my actions here.

I found an old RD Condensed Edition book in a “free” bin, and my mind reeled. Who would just throw away a book?? It’s a BOOK!! You don’t just…. discard a book. You revere it, treasure it, pass it on to someone so that they can gather knowledge.

But this is a “condensed edition” book. Like the Cliff Notes™ of Society.

Anyway, I saw this and decided to try my hand at making one. Never would I have thought of doing it, save for the fact that it’s a condensed book from 1953 that no one wanted. Besides, I read it already. All four condensed books, of which I had never heard. So, I will mess around with it, and post my DIY instructions once I figure out all the bugs.

Hopefully there will be no bookworms 😉

Overstuffed

I have come to a conclusion: there is no room for anything in this house.

After days of clearing out the upstairs scrapbooking stuff from the storage closet, only to organize what I kept back in it, it just seems like I still have no room for anything. Add to that the full SUV I took to Goodwill drop-off this past Saturday, and I still have a cluttered garage. Every shelf and bookcase and cabinet is completely full.

I thought of turning to Craigslist or some similar way of advertising all the stuff I want to set fire to banish from the premises. But I am a bit *ahem* leery of doing that. Maybe I’ll just set it all on the sidewalk with a sign that says “FREE STUFF”. All I know is I have plans for this house, and that entails getting rid of a LOT of crap:

• I want to set up a dart board and a fridge in the garage.
• I want to have my own scrapping area.
• I want to put all the books in shelf units.
• I want to organize all the power tools into ONE place.
• And finally, I want to set up my stained-glass art area.

I have PLANS, people. I just need the oomph to get going.

That, and more shelves, apparently 😉

 

A Place to Stick It

I use pins a lot. I use them not just for sewing, but also in my altered art. Pins are useful, needful things, aren’t they? You see them everywhere in your house, until you absolutely need one.

Then you can’t find one to save your hem.

Anyway, I decided to make a few pincushions from old tea cups for the Craft Pay-It-Forward. There are several tutorials on the internet and all are very easy to make, and have few variations. So, without further ado, here’s my simple tutorial on making teacup pincushions.

You’ll need:

• old teacups
• scrap fabric
• poly fill
• needle and thread
• scissors
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
• round template, like a salad plate

First, cut out a circle of scrap fabric using your choice of template. My teacups are about two and three inches in diameter, so I chose an eight inch salad plate for the larger cup, and a six inch dessert plate for the smaller cup.

Pins and Pretties

Well, start of the New Year, and no resolutions for me. That’s what Lent is for, in my opinion. But I want to be more social and make more friends, and if that’s a resolution, so be it. At least it’s a fun one!

Yesterday, my friend MsOz put up a challenge at the social-site-with-faces: 2013 Craft Pay-It-Forward. Basically, the first five people to reply get a handmade item from her, with the stipulation that those participating also place the same status on their social site and do a craft for others as well. After thinking and thinking and more thinking, I decided to make these:

Pincushions made from vintage tea cups! This one I made from leftover fabric and a cracked demitasse cup I found somewhere. So, today I am going out to scour the antique stores for lonely little tea cups in search of a home. I will post the tutorial later this week.

I don’t know if this would work with voodoo, but it would be fun to try 😉

What a Mesh

Seriously, decorative mesh is awesome!!

My sister Reno Queen made those for her front door, because her house is so far from the road, she wanted them to be seen. A wreath just looks like a splotch on her door. You can download the instructions for it: How to make a Santa

You can find deco mesh in any hobby store, but some florist suppliers usually carry it for far less, so shop around!!

Hm….I wonder if you can make a wreath with those bath poufs, too. Yay!! PROJECT!!! Time to drive down to the Dollar Store wait for Hubby to come home to drive me to the Dollar Store.

GAH!! I hate waiting… 😉

If You Wait Until the Last Minute, It Only Takes a Minute…

Seriously, I am not the biggest procrastinator around. But for some reason, I completely thought I had plenty of time to make ten Christmas cards for a swap I am attending this evening.

I only have to die-cut the ornament pieces, paint them, decorate them, measure the cardstock, decorate the front of each card, embellish the ornaments, embellish the card, adhere everything, and voíla!! I will be done.

In a couple of hours….

Hope y’all have a more productive Friday 😉

Down to the Wire

I have been crafting like mad, trying to get a bunch of Christmas presents done well before Christmas.

This year, I WILL BE ON TIME!!!

Ok, I will try. But I do have a lot of incentive. This year we are travelling down to my brother-in-law’s for Thanksgiving. Which means I want to have all of their gifts done so they can have them under their tree. Of course, that also means taking down gifts for the rest of the family in the area. And that also means birthday presents because December was a good month for those who celebrated St. Patrick’s Day.

This is me, only not young, male, or blond.

And no, I can’t post any of the stuff I’m making because there are some recipients that actually bother to read this fluff. So, y’all will have to wait until after Christmas. But that’s ok. I’m making plenty of other crap with which to bore you, so don’t despair 😉

Out of My Gourd

I love pumpkins. As an Aggie, I had…. issues with their color for a long time, but once I had my first slice of pumpkin pie, my issues were over. Carrots weren’t such a big deal because Texas A&M figured out a way to make maroon ones. But not pumpkins, which is a real shame because I bet a maroon pie would look amazing.

Anyway, yesterday I showed y’all the paper mache, or if you are a stickler for correct terminology, papier-mâché pumpkins. I had waffled around trying to figure out what to do with them for months. But finally I managed to decorate them.

First, I applied a thin coat of medium and laid strips of Ideaology™ tissue as I went along, pressing it into the curves. Once it dried, I sprayed some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist™ in Tattered Leather, a dark brown, and then rubbed in Distress Ink™ in Spiced Marmalade, repeating the process twice. Once THAT was dried, I glued jute twine into the crevices for definition. I applied some Distress Ink™ in Peeled Paint to the stem, as well as to some Sticky Back Canvas™, also spraying it with the brown glimmer stuff. Then I cut out leaves from the canvas, peeled the backing off, and stuck it to some more tissue paper. I crumbled it, and then reformed the leaves to suit, gluing them to the stem. I curled some more twine and voìla! Rustic pumpkins for my Great Pumpkin Mantelscape of 2012!!

And yes, the big one in the middle is a mercury glass one that I purchased a while back. It is open in the bottom, so I placed some Christmas tree lights inside and light it during the holidays. I couldn’t light it for the pic because A) it would be too bright for my crappy phone camera, and 2) the extension cord was too short. After Thanksgiving it will be moved down to the hearth area so I can once again plug it in.

Oh, and I just remembered the rest of the pumpkins I have stashed away. I may or may not have enough room on the mantel, but hey, that’s what the fireplace is for 😉

Cut to the Quick

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Jennie told me of a scrapbooking class she will be teaching. Five minutes later, after a round of SQUEEEE!!!– I confirmed my spot to take her class. Five minutes after that, I was taking inventory of everything I would need for it.

This is where I noticed some of my stuff was *ahem* out of commission.

Apparently, one of my kids needed to use some of my paints and tools for a project. Normally that would be fine, since I am of the opinion that things are there to be used. But it hurt to see the sorry state of my scissors. My beautiful, magnetized, do-everything scissors, which someone thought meant “do-everything-including-use-as-pliers”. I am not at a loss for scissors, not by a long shot. But these are special!! They cut through chipboard and wire and short of doing dishes, they make me happy. Now I have to make do with regular, run-of-the-mill scissors, and that’s going to take a bit of adjusting to do.

But enough wailing about that. Some of y’all may remember this.

Well, I finally found some paper mache pumpkins!!

So today, I am working on altering these for the Great Pumpkin Mantlescape of 2012™, without my scissors. But no matter. I can do just fine with a knife and a ballpoint pen.

Trust me. I’m a professional 😉

Guest DIY Post!!!

My sister, Reno Queen, puts my DIY skills to shame. Actually, compared to her, I have no skills. I am a total and complete n00b. In my family, we all agree she is Bob Vila’s fraternal twin, only prettier and far younger. You need new screens? She builds them for you. New backsplash? She will cut tiles to fit and make a mosaic that would rival those of Pompeii. I’m telling y’all: the gal can do almost anything.

And I say “almost” because she never got around to working for SpaceX™.

Anyway, she was gracious enough to write a tutorial on making a beautiful work of art for your home. So without further ado, here you go!

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How I Planned to Paint Furniture and It Turned Into Some Other Craft 🙂

Supplies: Cabinet door, sander with 60 grit sand paper, Krylon™ Fusion paint in Satin Black, Paper towels, 180 Grit Sanding block, Stencil, Precious Metals liquid leafing, sponge paint applicator, E6000 and a Cross.

First you take your piece (in my case it was a sample cabinet door) and using 60 grit sand paper you sand off the original finish. (Image 1) I used my mouse because it is easier and faster, but if you don’t have one you can do it by hand (but it will take forever). Make sure you sand the grooves well. (Image 2) Make sure you do this in a well-ventilated area because dust will be everywhere!

Image 1

Image 2