Teeny Tiny Idea #2

So, it's not a full craft idea, but it's just a little idea to make your crafting life a little easier. It's a Teeny Tiny Idea. I am going to feature these every once and a while, but most of all, I am interested in your comments and suggestions. Please share with me what is working for you!

It should be fairly obvious at this point that I really love storage ideas. Much of crafting is about accumulating old and reclaimed items for project ideas, as well as organizing tools and supplies. My house is far from perfectly organized, but I find that I am way more efficient and have more time for creative stuff when I have easy solutions for organizing and storing. Plus, I am still in awe of good design and storage products... ;)

Being that our house is nearly 100 years old, there are few closets and the rooms are rather small. I have been running back and forth from the bathroom to the spare bedroom each morning to style my hair and put on makeup and frankly, it was becoming a real pain in the behind. I wanted to go back to old days in our old spacious apartment where everything was right there in the bedroom ready to go.

There isn't much room to spare in our bedroom, but there was a four-foot-wide wall behind the closet door that wasn't spoken for. There was really no room for another piece of furniture and I still needed to be able to open and close the closet door. So, this is what we came up with...

On the wall, I mounted a decorative mirror, then a glass shelf from the bathroom department at Ikea. The glass shelf sticks out no more than four inches from the wall so that it doesn't interfere with the opening of the door. I repurposed a pewter-look toothbrush holder into a stand for makeup brushes.

As far as storage, I mounted a pair of bars, also from Ikea and hung baskets and buckets from them. I also purchased a few extra S-hooks in case I want to change the arrangement later on.

Admittedly, I had been a little lazy with makeup lately. Now that all of my colors and products are easily accessible, I have been putting more thought (and much less time) into putting on makeup and feeling more confident and put together each day. I had been rummaging through makeup bags and running back and forth between rooms and, let me tell you, this is much easier!

Materials

mirror / ekne by ikea - $14.99

glass shelf / baren by ikea - $12.99

rails / bygel by ikea - $2.99 ea.

wire baskets / bygel by ikea - $2.99 ea.

toothbrush holder / lillhomen by ikea - $8.99

buckets / fintorp by ikea - $6.99 ea.

A Birthday Fit for a Metalhead

Every year, we usually throw a birthday party for my husband. Sure, he's almost 30, but our birthdays are really close together (28 days to be exact) and my birthday gets slightly-maybe-just-a-little-bit overshadowed (it's December 25). It's a nice reason to get everyone together and celebrate just for fun.

There are plenty of party supplies out there for guys, as long as they are into golf, NASCAR, or your basic party themes, but when your guest of honor is a metalhead and cares nothing for the traditional "guy stuff," you have to get creative.

This year, we threw a big metal-themed party. I made a variety of pizzas with both traditional and non-traditional toppings, as well as some special home-recipe wings and desserts. Each item was named for one of his favorite albums, with a little punny twist. I printed them off with the name, a picture of the album cover and a quick description of the food. Then, I simply glued the slips to pieces of skull-and-cross-bone cardstock and added a "festive" ribbon.

Here are some of the food labels I created:

Mercyful Fate's Come, Come to the Sabbath became Come, Come to the Salad

Opeth's My Arms, Your Hearse became My Arms, Your Veggies

Megadeth's Peace Sells, But Who's Buying? became Pepperoni Sells, But Who's Buying?

Pantera's Far Beyond Driven became Far Beyond Kielbasa

 Symphony X's Divine Wings of Tragedy kept its name for our grilled wings

Iced Earth's Burnt Offerings kept its name for our Jamaican jerk blackened chicken pizza

Sure, the names were goofy, but they sure got a lot of chuckles and photos from our metal-savvy guests.

Our desserts also got metal-derived names, but I also decorated them with some thrash-worthy flair. Back around Halloween time, I picked up some skull sugar candies and bone candy sprinkles and stashed them away for the party (after checking the expiration date, of course). The "Primal Concrete Fudge" brownie cupcakes got skulls and a few bone sprinkles on each. For our non-metalhead readers, Pantera also has a song called "Primal Concrete Sledge" for which the cupcakes were named.

My husband loves him some red velvet, and he also loves Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance. My "Screaming for Velvet" cupcakes each got a healthy topper of homemade cream cheese icing and a real guitar pick.

Crafting and party-planning is all about themes and our little metal fete proves that you can make a theme out of just about anything!

Beach Memory Jar

I recently visited Long Beach Island, NJ with my family and I wanted to preserve some of these memories in an interesting and different way. Being that we do not go to the beach very often, my first impulse was to bring home some sand and go looking for shells. I turned my photos into a mini-album and decided to make a memory jar to keep the album, shells and sand and display them.

Prepping the Sand and Shells
A wise friend told me that it was a good idea to soak shells in a mild bleach solution to sanitize them before displaying them. Given that I would also be displaying them and the sand with an album, I wanted to make sure that there weren't any creepy-crawlies that might decay the paper.

As soon as I got home, I mixed up a mild bleach solution in a bucket and soaked the sand and shells for a few hours. (I'm sure this was overkill, but I was busy doing other things at the time!) The shells air-dried on a few paper towels within minutes, but goshdarnit did the sand give me a hard time! Even after an overnight stay in a cookie tray, the sand was still wet, so I ended up putting it in the oven on the lowest setting (about 175 degrees) for about an hour, checking frequently.

Finally after the "sand setbacks," I arranged the sand and a few shells in a glass terrarium purchased from a local craft store. I also picked up some plastic starfish from the same store. Real ones tend to fall apart and the idea of a dead body in there kinda grossed me out...

Creating the Mini-Album
Using a homemade chipboard album with some metal binding rings, I made a quick mini-album of my photos. When working with such small pages, it is often a good idea to get your images developed as wallets (or 2ups as my store calls them). This way, there are two of each image on a sheet of 4x6 photo paper. The pictures are smaller and fit better, plus you have two of each image to play with!

Since I was creating such a small album, I just bought a mat pad and some stickers from a beach-themed collection and got started. (That's one great thing about mini-albums; you don't need a whole stack!)

Decorating the Lid
I had some tiny corked glass bottles from a craft fair a few summers back, so I decided to write a little "message in a bottle" and hang it from the lid handle. I also used one of the found shells that happened to have a hole in it most likely from a snail invader. Finally, I made a tag with the date and tied each to the handle with hemp.

When tying each object, I wanted them to be tightly attached, but able to dangle. To achieve this, I tied a knot in the string about an inch from the object, then tied the rest of the string tightly around the lid.

Last, but certainly not least...
I placed the mini-album into the sand and displayed the jar proudly in my craft room!

Materials
jar / anchor hocking glass terrarium from michael's
shells / found shells from jersey shore
starfish / nautical fun collection from michael's
paper and embellishments / tim coffey travel collection for k & company

Tumbled Tile Coasters

This craft idea is super-easy and makes a really great gift for a new homeowner. If you already have stamps like the scrappers and crafters I know, this will usually cost you no more than $15.

Stamping
Choose a few stamps and carefully plan them to make sure that they fit on the tile. This works best with clear acrylic stamps so that you can see through the block to the tile surface. It's doable with wood-backed stamps, but a little more difficult.

It is absolutely essential that you use a permanent solvent ink like Staz-On. Other inks will bleed through the stone then smear and run when the coaster gets wet. I used Timber Brown, but most colors show up beautifully on the tiles.

The tiles are generally sold by the square foot which means that they will typically come in packages of nine. This makes for two sets of coasters and one tester tile. Carefully inspect the tiles first because some will have large pits and holes that make for bad stamping. Unfortunately, my set came with three of these really "hole-y" tiles. Use these tiles for test stamping and sealing. Another tip: very ornate and detailed stamps will not work well since the tile is never completely flat and the porous nature of the stone makes for some mild blurring of edges.

When you stamp, make sure that the stamper is thoroughly coated with ink (remember, this is a very porous surface and it will draw the ink right in!) and make sure to press down really hard and even rock and wiggle the stamp for full coverage. Leave the ink to dry for at least twenty minutes after application.

Sealing
The Staz-On ink is permanent, but I sealed mine for some added wear. I used matte finish Mod Podge and applied a very thin coat. I brushed on the tiny amount shown below, then quickly dabbed it with a dry foam brush to take off any excess and to make sure that the seal didn't show any brushstrokes.

Take care not to fill in the natural pits and holes with Mod Podge as this will make for a very artificial-looking seal, not to mention globs of goo in the stone.

After drying, the stones should retain their natural appearance as stone without too much gloss or extra sealant.

Finally, I placed self-adhesive cork circles to the four corners of each coaster to avoid scratching the table surface. All told, this nifty gift took less than an hour to create!

Materials
tiles / tumbled travertine from home depot
stamps / assorted from joann fabrics brand
ink / staz-on - timber brown
sealant / mod podge matte finish

Teeny Tiny Idea #1

So, it's not a full craft idea, but it's just a little idea to make your crafting life a little easier. It's a Teeny Tiny Idea. I am going to feature these every once and a while, but most of all, I am interested in your comments and suggestions. Please share with me what is working for you!


I was very fortunate to acquire a wire paper rack recently from a scrapbooking store nearby that was relocating and getting rid of some fixtures. I immediately started the happy task of sorting my papers and I quickly realized that I wanted a method for labeling the themed sections.

I do not keep too much paper at a given time because I always buy it with the intent of using it in the near future. With this in mind, I wanted my labeling system to easily change with the addition of new papers and the use of old ones.

My quick and easy solution for now was to create labeled clothespins for my sections. I wrote on the clothespins (and later created stickers on my label maker when reusing the pins) and clipped them on the rack. This way, as my paper stock changes over time, I am never dismantling an overly complex or permanent labeling system.

After placing all of my clothespins, I noticed another perk of this filing system: it's draft-proof. As you can see in the above image, my crafting desk is right next to our back door. When it's open (or even when the ceiling fan is on), it can get pretty drafty and paper started blowing all over. The clothespins kept the papers from flying out of their respective slots on the rack!

The Autumn Banner That Started it All...

This is pretty much where it all started...

A few years ago, I became interested in scrapbooking through a family friend. I had always enjoyed crafting, but hadn't created much due to the rigor of AP art curricula, college life, graduate school and my first few years of teaching. I had a feeling the scrapbooking would appeal to my sense of designing and memory-keeping as well as my deep and undying love for paper, pens and stickers.

As I became more of a serious scrapbooker, I started subscriptions to Creating Keepsakes magazine and the now defunct Scrapbooks, Etc magazine, the former being sadly inferior in my opinion. In perusing these magazines, I saw not only great ideas for pages and layouts, but party themes and handicrafts from scrapbooking supplies. To say that this revelation opened up a can of worms is an understatement.

This was right around the time that my friends were buzzing about a new site called Pinterest on which they were pinning and sharing all sorts of DIY and craft ideas. I was also getting more and more into blogging while simultaneously building a level of comfort in my teaching position and thus, more free time.

Then, as they say, the rest is history and a crafter was born.

I set up a crafting area in our then new home and never looked back. My first creation was this banner for our autumn decor. I have included pictures and directions for the banner, as well as some images of other non-homemade decor schemes just so you can see how we pieced it all together. Happy crafting!

Autumn Bunting Banner

To create the bunting triangles, I took 12" x 12" brown kraft paper and cut it in half into six-inch strips. On one long side of the strips, I measured and marked four-inch intervals. On the opposite side, I measure and marked four-inch intervals again, but this time beginning at a two-inch indent (exactly in the middle of the interval on the other side). I connected the marks with pencil lines using a ruler.

Each six-inch strip will make five triangles, so for this banner, I only needed one sheet of kraft paper. Carefully cut out each of the triangles.

Each triangle in the banner was also covered with seasonal paper. I chose a few designs and repeated the triangle-making process to create an equal number of paper coverings. In order to show a small border of kraft like I did in the final product, glue the paper onto the kraft after sliding the paper just slightly upward leaving a margin of kraft. If you like the effect, you can ink the edges of the bunting and the paper.

Though each triangle varied in the pattern of paper applied over the kraft, I wanted a unified look under the letters, so I used a circle punch to cut discs for under each letter in matching brown paper.

Again, I chose to use the same muted green color for all of the letters, so I loaded one sheet into my Cricut and cut out the letters a, u, t, u, m, and n in the Lyrical Letters font. I then ran the letters through my mini-Xyron and adhered them to another sheet of kraft. You can use glue or roller adhesive, but for complex shapes with lots of little parts and openings like letters, I prefer the Xyron.

Once the letters were attached to the kraft, I carefully cut around them to make the brown border around each letter using microtip scissors. Finally, I ran the brown discs through a paper crimper for texture, stuck the letters on with Zots, then stuck the discs onto the bunting triangles.

At this point, you have a perfectly usable and respectable banner than you can tie together with hemp string like in the image. If you are crazy like me, however, and like to push your patience to the absolute brink, you can also make some paper leaves...

To create the paper leaves, I used Close to My Heart's Nature's Vein acrylic stamps rolled in two colors of ink. I stamped the color silhouette stamps onto brown kraft paper, then overlayed the vein stamp in brown. Again with the microtip scissors, carefully cut around the outline of the leaf shape leaving a tiny border of kraft around the edge. I used one large or two small leaves per bunting triangle.

On each end, I created a pumpkin and an apple just by cutting out shapes, layering the paper and inking the edges for dimension. I also had a few paper acorns laying around, so I stuck them onto a few of the triangles, as well.

When I adhered the leaves, I covered the stems and rough edge with two buttons, tied together with a strand of hemp, then stuck on with a Zot. Finally, punch holes in the corners of each triangle, pop in a color-coordinated eyelet to protect the hole from ripping and tie them together with hemp or raffia. Voila!

Below are some pictures of the rest of our autumn decor:

Materials List

kraft paper and autumn patterned paper / oriental trading fall paper kit, kraft paper pack

stamps and hemp / close to my heart - nature's vein (available through representative only) 

buttons / oriental trading craft button assortment

cricut tools / lyrical letters cartridge

eyelets / making memories multipack