Getting Crafty

Leaves are my latest obsession: I seem to be on the lookout for the perfect leaves with which to make some jewelry, earrings mostly. Want to see what I’ve found so far?

Walmart has been a surprising source of leaves:

I see these ones as pendants more than anything: they’re a bit too heavy to be anything else in my mind. Black cord would be a nice contrast, and go nicely with the black veins that are visible in the leaves.

These cuties could be used on a necklace too, or mixed with some fine chain and tiny jump rings for a long and delicate looking set of earrings. It might look nice to have different lengths of chain too in one pair of earrings.

If you’re into making jewelry and live in Canada, the best place you could go is the The Sassy Bead Co. This store is a delight for any jewelry lover: every surface is covered with glass jars, from the tiniest of jam jars to larger mason jars of beads. The beads all have funky names too, clearly chosen by the employees. The newest location in Ottawa is so bright and sunny that I was surprised to find the store all but empty the last time I visited it. While I was there I picked up these delicate looking leaves:

Another thing I’m rather taken by is kidney clasps. No, this isn’t an extreme jewelry fetish of mine, they are the delicate earring clasps that are used in this beautiful etsy offering:

(photo courtesy of juneshin)

Dooce also featured a pair of earrings with a kidney clasp opening in her daily style section, which you can read about and see here. I found a large pair of sterling silver ones that I can’t wait to use:

How fitting that the results of preliminary adventures with shrinky dinks coincides with the demise of my camera! Never fear though: I managed to borrow a camera so that you could share in the magic that is shrinky dinks.

Prior to this year, I had never heard of shrinky dinks. A coworker had the cutest earrings and when I commented on them, she informed me that they were handcrafted. Another coworker, overhearing our conversation, told me that she strongly suspected that shrinky dinks were involved in the making of the main “bead” of the earrings. After hearing that I just had to know all I could know about shrinky dinks.

What I found out is the following:

• shrinky dinks (SDs) is the brand name for shrink plastic
• when put in an oven (not the microwave!) this plastic sheet which resembles a sheet of acetate used on overhead projectors more than anything) will shrink up and thicken
• the stuff has been around since the early 1970s and seems to be making a comeback

When I did a search for jewelry made with shrink plastic, the first thing that caught my eye was Planet June’s tutorial, which I shared earlier. A search on etsy revealed the beautiful rings of Dillon Designs

I decided to pick up some ink made for unusual surfaces such as plastic, and some of this plastic and see if I could fashion some cute earrings.

Here’s what I started with:

…and here is the final result.

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WIBW is late this week, not because something wasn’t bought but because the purchased item was misplaced. But it has surfaced:

I love these fabric flowers, and they come with jeweled brads for their centres. Who can look at these bright colours and not be happy? Certainly not I!

These would brighten up any card, or they could be arranged in a cluster at the corner of a photo if you’re scrapbooking. I see these being used on yellow or black paper; the colours would really “pop”. And one day, instead of talking about how you could use them, I promise to actually use them and let you see what I’ve come up with.

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The biggest obstacle to crafting has been time, and this obstacle remains. Between my two jobs (one full time and one part time) and other obligations, I come home drained and want to do nothing more than sit in front of the computer screen, reading about other people’s lives, barely taking it in but just vegging. Or, I like lying down with a good book, an inspiring or motivating book, then promptly falling asleep the moment I crack it open and read a few words. That’s been happening a lot lately.

Needless to say, it is hard to create when you’re weary, and it’s even harder to get “unweary” when the same routine keeps happening day after day. But before you lose all hope, a lovely day is upon us: Valentine’s Day!

So, Happy Valentine’s day to you! If you need some last minute crafty ideas, may I point you to Martha Stewart? She’s got some beautiful things up that you must see. Enjoy!

What I bought Wednesday will be skipped for this week because in the past week I haven’t bought anything! Shocking, I know. It wasn’t for lack of trying though, at least from the dollar store. A couple of thing tempted me but they were firmly from the brads category and we all know I have far too many brads.

I haven’t been the least bit creative lately, and besides time, the biggest impediment to creating has been clutter. Clutter sometimes inspires people; but it can also be a hindrance because you simply don’t have a clear place in which to create. Everything is a mess, and even if you have an idea, the process of searching for just the tools and materials you need can be an exercise in frustration. Trying to find something in the midst of chaos is a good way to go insane, let me tell you.

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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.

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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Sometimes you don’t realize what is involved in an undertaking until you try it yourself. It not always a case of discovering that something is more difficult than you suspected, sometimes you just discover that something has more steps than you thought. That was the case with stamping.

When I made Christmas cards earlier this month, I experimented with stamping on some cards. I didn’t know how to switch ink pad colours on the same stamp without getting the old colour on the stamp except to wait for the first colour to dry, and hope it doesn’t transfer along with the new colour. I tried rinsing the stamps off between uses with water, but that didn’t work. “There must be something meant to clean off stamps,” I thought to myself as I headed to the dollar store this week, and sure enough, there is. I found these solutions at two different dollar stores:

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I can’t resist the dollar store for crafting aids, but I have been very good: I mentally slapped my hand every time it tried to reach for something that I already have a million of (brads) and I didn’t come home with even one package of brads, even though I went to three dollar stores and Wal*mart last night (do I get a medal?)! I even resisted the Christmas papers because I really want to focus on simple colours and using all those darn brads I stockpiled to make this year’s cards.

What did I come home with? Just this adorable set of letters:

Aren’t they cute?

Although I have a few stamp pads, I’ve never really stamped. Kari over at All Paper Arts stamps all the time on her cards and does such a beautiful job that I really should have tried this sooner! These letters convinced me to give stamping a whirl, and I took one of yesterday’s cards and stamped five letters onto it in green ink:

What do you think?

At this rate of adding one small piece to the card each day, the card will be elaborate thing by the time it’s sent…well it would be if I wasn’t sending it tomorrow!

I didn’t quite stop with the stamps. I saw these cute chipboard albums marked at a dollar each and I had to buy one three.

I was attracted to the deep yet bright purple shade immediately, but I hope to take a trip soon and document it in the brown one, and the orange one would make a great gift for a couple of my longterm friends. I also bought some gel pens in festive colours for all that Christmas card writing. Nothing makes the monotony of address envelopes more fun than using brightly coloured pens.

So, if you’re seeking inspiration for either decor or gifts, stop by your local store and see if there isn’t something that you can bring home and build upon!

The whole purpose of the Get Crafty challenges was to encourage participants (gently, mind you) to stop waiting for the perfect time (whenever that is) or waiting until you have all the right materials, or when you’re feeling creative before embarking on a project. If you find yourself waiting for weeks or months for these things to all come together in a certain way before you can finally create, you will probably continue to wait without ever getting anything done (a feeling I know well!).

Sometimes you just have to say “I’m going to do it, no matter what”, grab the supplies you need and get to it. Just as important as doing it is making sure you keep doing it: it’s easy to start things and not finish them, or keep restarting them. These are all traits of a good procrastinator. Many times while making the cards, I wanted to start all over and I really forced myself to work with what I had: if I did something that I didn’t like, I was more likely to cut the offending portion away, or cover it up creatively, or try to convert it into something else rather than start over from scratch. By making your brain work with what you have, rather than giving yourself a clean slate every time, you not only curb your procrastination and reduce the time wasted, but you might stimulate more creativeness in the process by turning something you’d have ordinarily considered junk into something beautiful.

Other ways that you can keep a project going, and prevent yourself from procrastinating on it are:

• gather all the tools and supplies you need ahead of time so you don’t have to keep getting up to get things
• divide your project into pieces and give yourself a deadline for each piece
• tell a friend or family member of your goal and ask them to gently inquire how you’re doing with your plan to complete or reach it.

From the results of yesterday’s challenge (see here, here or here), it’s clear that by choosing a theme (such a Halloween), and an item such as a card, you can still come up with a number of very different interpretations, depending on the person creating. That is what makes it so fun: imaginations can still run wild. For someone like me, who finds having too many choices overwhelming, a starting point is a definite help.

How is the second challenge coming along for you? This challenge will be harder I suspect, because for those who celebrate Christmas, Christmas means so many different things: winter activities, hot drinks and a roaring fire, loud family get togethers, with lots of food and laughter. Perhaps Christmas is a more contemplative time, where thoughts of goodwill towards others and peace on earth fill your mind. If you are Christian, Christmas may cause you to think deeply about the special birth that is celebrated during that time. Whatever your interpretation of Christmas time, I hope you enjoy the challenge of trying to capture it in your card. You may find that Christmas means too many different things to you that you have to make a couple of different cards to showcase these things. Don’t hesitate–go for it!

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While I was at the local dollar store a couple of days ago, I came across the following which I may or may not use for challenge number two (details here):

There were also Christmas stocking brads but they were green and I felt I had enough of that colour already. If they had been red I would have grabbed them for sure.

As you may recall from a couple of days ago, I need help in the department of adhesives. Who should come to my rescue but the lovely Sherry of Sage and Thyme. (You should go visit her, she’s great. If you can read her blog and your heart doesn’t feel lighter, then you may need to make sure you still have a heart–I mean that in the nicest way, mind you).

Sherry happened to have the July/August issue of a magazine I had never heard of, Cloth Paper Scissors (the table of contents for this issue is here), on hand, and was kind enough to share some of the things she learned from an article on how to make things stick.

Now I don’t want to stop you from getting what seems to be a very interesting magazine, so please don’t hesitate to go and subscribe and read up on all sorts of other things. However, adhesives is the name of this game, and here’s what Sherry was able to get for us:

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Speaking of Martha Stewart, I have some inside scoop: apparently Michaels is now able to mark her products down! If you remember, when Michaels first started carrying her stuff, the one caveat was that this merchandise never went on sale and the handy coupons included in Michaels flyers did not apply to Martha Stewart merchandise. Being an avid coupon clipper and collector (any and all friends who lived within a 15km radius were required to surrender their coupons to me every week), this was devastating news.
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I’m still excited about my latest dollar store finds (I know, I gushed about my finds yesterday).

Today will be more of the same, along with my own ideas of how to use them. If you have a cooler idea, send them over!

Yes, it’s more paper. Yes, I have more paper than I will probably ever use and have taken to using the back of some as notepaper and scrap paper (only the not-so-pretty ones!), just so I can justify buying even more paper. The problem with paper is you never have quite the one you need when you need it, so as a precautionary measure you end up going out and buying as much paper as you can with the hope of avoiding this problem. It doesn’t work.

The top sheet is baby themed. My best friend has plans to start practicing this babymaking business so I may have a reason to use it soon! My three favourite prints from the stash are:

These sheets are only 5 x 5 inches so they can either be cut up for cards, or used to make a mini scrapbook. Alternatively, if they are perfect squares, I could make some origami figures or boxes with them.

Last but not least, I found these alphabet medallions. They are large enough that I wouldn’t want to use them to spell out any names but it would be great for initials. The handy hole in the top allows it to be strung and displayed as part of a charm if needed. String one on before beginning a scoubi keyring to personalize it a bit.

The lesson here is: you don’t need to buy all of your crafting stash from high-end craft stores. Sometimes a well stocked dollar store is just what you need to get started.

I’m not feeling remotely creative, but I can’t stop buying crafting materials. So, to buy myself some more time before actually making something with them, I’m going to show it all off. I’ll show a few today and a few tomorrow and if any brilliant ideas for using them come to mind, do share!

I could not resist these alphabet buttons. They are adhesive, which is a bonus-no need to fumble around with glue or those handy tiny adhesive squares. I see myself using these buttons on a card or in a scrapbook. I’m not a big fan of bumpy things like that in a scrapbook because they can sometimes damage (create indents in) photos that you have on the facing page. These buttons come in quite a few colours and would look cute on a baby themed card (in pink or blue).

If these clips don’t scream “scrapbook”, then I’m not a crafting slacker. Again, I don’t see them inside the book, but on the outside. I think they’d look especially cute on a miniscrapbook, perhaps holding a sheet of paper or a photo that depicts the title or theme of the book. These clips are pretty small and come in some other colours too: a bold pink and blue, but also in more pastel colours.

I saved the best news for last: I found these items at the dollar store! I wasn’t kidding when I said that the dollar store is becoming the new “it” place to buy crafting supplies. Sure, some things are tacky and cheap looking but as reader Sherry said, “Even things that aren’t “good” quality can be made to look expensive depending on what you do.”