Getting Crafty

For this week’s What I Bought Wednesday (WIBW), I returned to my tried and true dollar store. They get new things nearly every week, and I make it my job to scope out these new things.

I fell in love with brads. Yes, more brads. I can’t resist them it seems. I did use a whole bunch over Christmas so buying even more was justified.

They don’t look very special do they? Well that’s because they are not the easiest things to photograph. They are almost half an inch wide squares with a capital letter etched on them with a sort of filigree design surrounding the letter. They look elegant. Here’s a (hopefully) clearer picture of a letter:

(You’ll just have to take my word for it that they are pretty). These brads would be great for anything that I want to create a monogrammed effect on, perhaps invitation cards or a wedding card. I see this looking especially striking on a dark grey/black/white colour scheme, and I think I have some perfect background papers to go along with it.

Following my brad theme, I picked up these brad frames:

You can’t see it well but each frame has some detail on it. There are six people in my family, and six frames—perfect! These frames would look so cute in a scrapbook about family, perhaps framing our baby pictures or something. The only problem I see with these brads is that there is nothing on the bottom of the frame to keep it from swinging around: there is only the brad at the top. If I want them to stay put I’ll have to get out my adhesives.

What do you think of this week’s stash? Have you bought some neat crafting things that you’d like to share? Don’t be shy, show me what you’ve got!

I’m going to start a new feature here called What I Bought Wednesday (WIBW). I’ll share with you some of my ever growing stash, including what plans I have for the things I have purchased.

This past Saturday, I went to Watertown, NY for some shopping. Even though we have Michaels in Canada, I like to check out the US locations because there are always some things in there that we don’t have. This time around I found a couple of things that I did not see at our Michaels the few times I’ve been there:

These are gift card tins. I love the bright colourful patterns on them (the pairing of green and blue on the bottom tin is my favourite!). These tins also happen to be perfect for housing marble magnets.

I forget where I had heard of clear stamps but until I bought some I didn’t understand how neat they were. The best part about them is that you can see exactly where you are stamping, and after the hassle I had trying to stamp “Merry Christmas” on various cards with individual letter stamps, I really appreciate having clear stamps that would show me exactly where each letter will be ending up in relation to already stamped letters! I don’t have clear alphabet stamps yet but I’ll be on the lookout for them.

I bought the clear acrylic block and it’s very easy to switch the different stamps around: just peel them off their back and stick them on the block. Magic! My best friend is pregnant, and I think I’ll be planning a shower for her in the future and this little figure on the left will come in handy when that time comes. However, it looks like I need a little lesson on applying ink evenly. Apparently you can even apply different colours of ink to different parts of the same stamp, so I have some learning to do.

Well part one of my plans to stop procrastinating on the prize is done:

I will be mailing them to the recipient today or tomorrow.

My personal favourites are the leaf and the branch with little bulbs to the right of the leaf:

Once I’ve learned a craft to the best of my ability, and this level of ability is considered appropriate, I tend to get a tad obsessed with it. A good example is the Christmas cards that I made and could not stop making. I’m thinking I should ride this wave and make next year’s cards but I’m still procrastinating on that. Marble magnets are another craft that I’m rather obsessed with, and I have a few sets that will be up for grabs soon. I’m hereby inventing Freebie Friday, where the first commenter on my entry will win the prize that is up for grabs on that day. This may not be fair for those who live in other timezones so we’ll see how it works the first time around and adjust as necessary. If you would like to get your hands on today’s prize (the magnets pictured below), so they can grace your fridge/magnetic board, child’s locker at school, please leave me your email in the comments and I will happily send them to you.

If you would like to purchase marble or other magnets, I urge you to check out etsy. If you don’t already know about etsy, you need to! It is a site that sells things that are handmade, from clothing to cards to magnets to hats. I dare you to browse through the site and not fall in love with a million things.

I was browsing for magnets and look at the pretty ones I came across:

Glass geisha gem magnets
The paper used for these lovely jumbo magnets is gorgeous!

Mother Earth marble magnets
I really like the way the colours in these magnets work with each other.

Valentine bottle cap magnets
What a sweet idea. I like the simplicity of these magnets.

Back in late October/early November of last year, rumblings about NaBloPoMo were made and since I had participated in 2006 on my personal blog (and succeeded!), I didn’t hesitate to put my name back in the ring this time around. I decided to offer a set of my marble magnets up as prizes.

The moment the prize winners were announced, I emailed each recipient about their favourite colour schemes so that I could make them magnets that they’d proudly display. The first winner to get back to me was easy: she wanted a set I had just finished making, so all I had to do was bundle them up and mail them off.

The second winner knew what she wanted too, but sadly it wasn’t anything I had in stock:

My favorite color is red and I like almost all earth tones. I tend to go for modern/simple designs.

I think you would be surprised at how hard it is to find red paper with designs that work well for marble magnets! You need paper that provides sufficient contrast or the magnet ends up looking uninteresting and very blah. On my first paper seeking trip to Michaels, I ended up with this:

It’s pretty but because of the size of the marbles and the size of the design, I wasn’t sure how much of the swirl would actually show up on each magnet. Would it just look like blobs?

Back I went, a couple of times. I hit upon this pad of paper early in my search:

but wasn’t sure if it would work for my purposes. It has a lot of different papers that I might never use but here are the ones that I am considering using:

So pretty! I just love new paper and new patterns!

As you probably noticed, NaBloPoMo has been over for over a month now, so I’m late. I emailed the poor winner who’s probably wondering if something went awry at the post office and told her they’ll be in the mail by Saturday. Wish me luck!

Have you had time to think about your crafting goals? If not, and if you would like some ideas of goals you could make for yourself, here you go:

Make presents
Perhaps your goal this year could be to make presents rather than buy them for your loved ones and friends. This past holiday season, a “buy handmade” campaign was promoted and with popularity of etsy, buying homemade gifts, even if you can’t make them yourself, was encouraged. A reasonable starting goal would be to make one gift every few months, or a total of four gifts that take a substantial amount of time. If you do find you have extra time, work on making quick projects that can be stocking stuffers for this Christmas, or small add-on gifts. Summer has some great ideas for quick crafts, especially gifts with a Christmas theme.

Explore a new craft technique or art form
If you’re looking to try something new, why not pick up a book on a type of craft you’re unfamiliar with, or sign up for a workshop to learn a new technique? From embossing techniques to digital scrapbooking to jewelry-making, there is a lot out there that might have grabbed your interest or your awe. Take the time to learn how to make your own awe-inspiring creations!

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Welcome to 2008! I’d like you wish you good health and success in all your endeavours this year, creative and otherwise.

You may make resolutions in your daily life, or set goals that you don’t dare call resolutions (for fear of jinxing them!). Have you ever considered setting goals or making resolutions for your crafting life? If you have never thought of doing that, you’re not alone. However, you might be surprised at how much more manageable the list of crafting you have to complete by the various due dates in your calendar seems after breaking things down to their smallest bits (or a more manageable chunk).

Ready to give it a try? Let’s go!

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