Crafty Pants!

So I really failed at thing-a-day… I started strong, but with a weekend ski trip, and late nights till 10pm+, I really haven’t the gumption to be creative each day. Honestly, I’ve had to save all that creative energy for work lately. But, I did use day one to complete a project I had been meaning to get around to. I LOVE my tea, but I am in reduction mode, so I refuse to buy more than three or four types of tea, and I have to finish one before I can buy another. I had three ugly tea tins that I was re-using, so I decided to cover them in some beautiful Amy Butler paper.

The brown/blue one is black tea, the pink one is red tea, and the green flower one is green tea!

The penguin is my teaboy. I LOVE him! He automatically lifts my tea from the water when the timer goes off, so I never over-brew my tea again!

I made this stationary for the swap and thought I would share it. Just print it, cut it, and cut off the corners, and you have a fun pants-themed stationary set! I was inspired by an inside joke my boyfriend and I have, but I think everyone can appreciate the message. Although, some people might feel that the opposite is true! ;P
Here is the printable stationary:

Over at Craftster  I finally decided to participate in a swap. I chose the newbies only swap because it would be the perfect introduction to swaps.  My partner liked Nintendo and had a sense of humor so here are the things I made:

Crocheted Boo:

Gnome, Mario Mushroom and Boo. These guys are made from polymer clay and the gnome is about an inch tall:

Hand carved stamp:

Stationary. I made magazine envelopes to go with too:

Everything together:

I also made a wooden ring for her, which is not pictured. It is the beech wood with beeswax finish, like the ones available in my shop.

#11-16 of 50

 

I’m still inspired by my roommate. She bought the cutest mini garden gnome (it came with a book, too!) and I couldn’t resist. I had one very small block of white sculpty so I made the gnome a mushroom. But then I decided he needed another gnomey friend.

The guy on the left was my first try. I found it was far to hard to add detail on a 1 inch tall guy when all you have is a pencil. So, I made the guy on the right and painted the detail. His nose is lumpy because he got punched in the face. Actually, it’s because I couldn’t get it right and painted over it too many times!

What should their names be?

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I don’t really discuss my shop often because I consider it more of my art than my crafts. But I do have to share the new wood that we bought. It’s called Mozambique, and it has a stunning wavy grain. It’s really hard to get a picture that really does it justice…

Etsy :: Exotic Mozambique Wood Ring

This wood is what inspired us to find a good food-grade polyurethane to use on our rings, because the wax really hid the gorgeous grain. We made samples of all our previous rings with the poly finish, and posted them. They really turned out quite nice if I do say so myself:P

We also bought one more kind of wood, but the samples are still in progress. I’d count all these in with my 50 in 2007, but that would feel like cheating!

My super wonderful roomie and I got into a little innocent trouble. We stenciled a wee gnome, and thus there are gnomes spray painted all over the property. Don’t worry, we didn’t do it anywhere that caused damage. Just head scratches (”Why is there a gnome on the garbage can?”). I’ll take pictures on a sunny day:P

I discovered she has a thing for gnomes, even though she’s never heard of David the Gnome! So, I carved her a little stamp so she can have gnomes wherever she goes! It’s only about 1.5″ tall, and I’ll tell you, making sure I didn’t accidentally remove his little itty bitty eyes was a true test of my motor skills… I think I’ll make a set of stationary with him and give it to her as a set!

The first picture is my pencil sketch, and the second is the stamp:

Sketch vs. Stamp

#9 of 50 

While cleaning out my room, I found one of my little gift boxes, and couldn’t remember how I had made them. However, I did remember that way back when I had created a tutorial for them and posted them online. I searched my computer and found it! I wrote this tutorial way back in 2002. The pictures are a bit sloppy, but they get the point across.

So you wanna make a paper box, huh?

You can create this box with just about any paper, but I prefer old greeting cards. The thick cardboard makes a sturdy box that (usually) doesn’t require any tape or glue to keep it together.

First, rip or cut the card down the fold. Be sure to keep the back, since it makes the bottom of the box. You can make the box as big or small as you want, but I usually use the width of the card as the dimensions of the card. Using this measurement, cut the card into a square. The center of the square will be the top, so try to center it around something you like on the card. (For this example, I centered it around Santa’s bag; there’s a small chipmunk in it)

Turn the card over and draw lines from corner to corner.

Fold each corner to the center. Carefully crease each edge.

Take the top and bottom edges and fold them to the center, carefully creasing. Once the top and bottom edges have been folded, open it up, and repeat on the other sides.

Cut along four of the creases you just made. Only cut far enough to snip both layers of paper, no farther)

Open the two corners that you just snipped.

Grab the two points to the side of one of the open corners. Bring them together as shown in the picture. Take the corner with your other hand and wrap it over the two points.

Crease the edges of the box. The four corners should meet in the center. To make the bottom of the box, follow the same exact steps as above, except make sure the square is around a quarter of an inch smaller. The thicker cardboard, the smaller the bottom square needs to be.

Once finished, you have a cute, unique box that carries a special meaning. Unfold it, and you still have the message from a loved one, written inside.

OK, I’m not going to go into excuses about why I’ve been gone for so long. Well, maybe I am. I am a full-time student in the throes of my Senior Project. I barely have time to sleep, let alone use the computer for recreation!

All this stress has given me a bad cold, and the symptoms are making me grumpy. I’m always chilly, and my taste-buds are on vacation. I decided I needed something hot and spicy to kick some life into me. I looked though my cupboards and came up with this super easy, college-life recipe:

Spicy ‘Chai’ Recipe:

• 4 tsp. Loose tea (I used 3 parts oolong, 1 part vanilla roobios cause that’s what I had on hand)
• 1/2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie spice (this contains cinnamon, nutmeg and all spice, but mostly cinnamon)
• 1/8 tsp. Cayenne pepper (this is pretty spicy, so use less or more depending on taste)
• 4 whole peppercorns or a dash of ground pepper (optional)
• 1/4-1/2 cap-full Vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. Brown Sugar or Honey

Stir together. The tea will be sticky or wet. Use 1 heaping teaspoon to brew one cup, adding milk if desired. Store in an air tight container. Serves 4.

I just whipped this together 15 minutes ago, so the proportions might need to be changed. I just needed something hot and spicy and this seemed to do the trick with what I had on hand.It is not extremely potent in flavor, because I prefer my tea to be pretty mellow. If it is too weak, double the spices.

If you do make this, I’d love to hear how you liked it!

Is that I have been busy crafting for my local craft fair. I had been working my fingers to the bone trying to make enough stuff to sell! I did it to help out a school club I’m in, called Roteract. Roteract is a community service club on campus, and does many wonderful things to help out the community. The leftover items are being posted (slowly but surely) to my new store, Chali.etsy.com.

‘Chali’ is the combination of our two pet’s names, Chewie and Ali. After a while, we got lazy and just started combining them! Since my brother, sister-in-law and I all created items for the booth, we felt that Chali was a fitting name. It sure sounded better than “Jaronate” or “Arojesate!”

Our main item are these wonderful handcrafted wooden rings. We spent over four months just perfecting the technique for creating these. They are very durable, and really a joy to wear. They are finished with beeswax, which makes them water resistant and gives them a soft, natural sheen. We are working on finding the perfect lacquer also, but since it will be resting against your skin all day, we don’t want anything unnatural or with irritating additives.

I will also be adding the remaining scarves, jewelry and handmade greeting cards. A portion of the profits will go to continue to support Roteract!

I love the 80’s! Inspired yet again by a post on craftster, I made some cute retro fuse bead coasters for my brother. He buys and restores arcade cabinet, so I thought he’d enjoy them. Two of them are diskettes, one is the Galaga ship, and the other is a space invader. I would have made more but I ran out of grey and black.