Retail is SO Boring

I went out a little while ago to try to find a picture album for Rosie's first baby pictures. Unless you want something severely overdecorated and ridiculous or something sadly bare, there is nothing out there for you. Frustrating, to say the least. Some of these people who decorate these things need to just edit themselves. Edit, people! So this is what we ended up getting.

This was the lesser of several evils but still horribly boring, right? It's a nice color so I can work with that. I thought to myself, "Self, you can add a pretty ribbon. That would be one small step for you and yet one giant leap for this horribly banal photo album.". Then I got to thinking, "Self, you could be really clever and connect it to her baby announcements that you still need to blog.". Good ideas all, Self. I'll try it.

I added 2 strips of cardstock; 1 patterned leftover from her baby announcements and 1 plain white; and I added a wide satin ribbon with a bow. So you see, retail doesn't HAVE to be boring. It just is. It is up to us as creative, wonderful crafting people to make life exciting sometimes. And it doesn't always take a lot of supplies, money or work. I was able to use supplies I already had (so this upgrade was essentially free) and about 10 minutes to make a completely new photo album. And this one has come leaps and bounds from the original.

So go out and be creative! I challenge you to accept the inevitable drab that comes from mass producing items and make it your own. I'd love to see what you can do!

Easiest Craft Ever - Olympic Edition

Yes, I realize the Olympics have been over for a little while now, but I haven't been able to shake Viktoria Komova's cute little button earrings. She is definitely a great gymnast, but those earrings! I love them. :) Hence, I decided to make some for myself. As mentioned, this is seriously the easiest craft ever.

You will need 3 things:

1) Buttons
2) Earring posts (I got mine at Joann's for $1.49)
3) Jewelry adhesive (I used Aileen's Jewelry & Metal Glue)

Then all you do is adhere the buttons to the earring post tops. If you're using Aileen's Jewelry & Metal Glue, don't lay the earrings button-top-down to dry. I did that the first time I made them, and the glue fumes deposited some kind of white powder on the button faces. It did NOT look pretty, but I was able to get it off by running the button faces under very hot water and brushing them with a bristle brush. Any leftover residue I removed with a toothpick. Just make sure the glue is dry before you do this. The second time I made button earrings, I laid them on their sides so the button faces were pointing out, and I didn't end up with white powder on them. The glue is quick-drying enough that you can lay the drying earrings on their sides without messing up the adhesive contact.

I did get a little obsessive, and, before I knew it, I had 8 pairs of button earings.

This is seriously the easiest craft ever and will put your ears in style with the lovely Viktoria Komova! Have fun and Happy Crafting!

Wrapping with Yarn

Now that our little girl is here, I can FINALLY reveal some of the artwork I'd been working on for her. If any of you had been following my pinterest account, I had become a bit obsessed with wrapped yarn letters. There's so much you can do with them as far as certain looks and styles, and they're a very unique addition to your decor.

After much trial and error (unfortunately, it's inevitable), I finally came up with something I liked. I started out by pulling a couple bobbins out of the skein of yarn I bought for the occasion. It was easier to wrap the letter with a more reasonably sized yarn ball. When I was searching for help with this project, I was surprised by the lack of instruction I found. They pretty much said keep practicing until you get something you like. Here are some of the techniques I found worked very well with this project. You will have to practice a lot to get the effect you like, though. Sorry for that.

I got my wooden letter at Joann's for maybe a couple dollars, and I've got yarn all over the house so that wasn't hard. Some other things you'll want are a hot glue gun and some assorted clamps to hold wrapped sections in place. First, I cut several small pieces of yarn to wrap around the end caps of the letter.

You'll be wrapping the yarn around the stalks of the letter so this will help cover those hard-to-wrap ends. Use the glue gun to tack these pieces of yarn in place. After way too much practicing, I finally figured I would try to wrap the letter in the way that it is written. I made a diagram I used to keep this in mind.

This is how I draw my Rs, and I found it worked very well as a guideline for wrapping the yarn around my letter. Of course, I also had to choose one of the hardest letters in the alphabet, but that just figures. From here, I just wrapped each letter stalk as indicated in my diagram, being sure to wrap about twice as much yarn very carefully (the yarn will tend to stack up on itself if you wrap it too much) where stalks met. Then you can use your glue gun to tack in place any yarn strands that are moving on you. I did all my tacking on the back of the letter because if will seep through the yarn and make it very hard and unpleasant-looking.

I also used some of my clamps to hold in place yarn sections as I was working on other pieces of the letter. You'll also see in this picture that you will be wrapping over the end caps you wrapped at the very beginning. I was actually able to wrap pretty far over the end caps by using my glue gun to tack yarn sections.

So, after much frustration, I was finally left with a project of which I was extremely proud. I wasn't able to reveal it before Miss Rosie came because we were keeping her name a secret, and this is for her bedroom door. Joey has a J on his, too, but I used paper to decoupage his. Also very fun and easy. :)

Of course, I also had to knit her a little rose that I attached to her letter. So now Miss Rosetta has her very own wrapped yarn letter for her door, and I am still trying to think of other projects where I can make wrapped yarn letters. It's really fun and pretty addictive. Good luck and happy crafting!

The Perfect Pillow

In the recent very long search to find the perfect back support pillow for Baby 2.0's new green glider, of course, we found nothing we liked. I'm sure you've noticed this happens a lot. I did, however, find the perfect fabric at Hancock Fabrics. So I went for it! This is probably one of the easiest projects you will ever take on if you ever need a nice decorative (or fully functional) pillow for a certain space.

It goes along with our color scheme perfectly (grey, blue, lime green and pink), and we were able to get just the right size pillow form. So I did get the pillow form, I got a yard of this gorgeous fabric (in case I wanted to make other things with it), some 7/8" wide black satin ribbon and a couple buttons for the envelope closure at the back of the pillow. Easy peasy.

I cut the fabric to fit the form so the finished size was exactly the size of the pillow, in this case 12" x 16". The hardest part was definitely working that satin ribbon around the edges. I wanted something to break up the front and the back of the pillow, but I have never done piping or anything like that. I took the cheater's way out, and I folded the satin ribbon in half and sewed it right to the pillow cover. It was a bit tricky, but I LOVE the way it turned out.

Adding the buttonholes, and consequently the buttons, was the finishing touch on this lovely addition to the nursery. I chose some giant buttons so they were more of the design of the pillow as opposed to just being functional. They look good, too. :)

And voila! You have a beautiful personalized back support (or decorative, if that's your thing) pillow that you have created yourself. Not to mention it took all of a couple hours to finish this project. I love quick projects! Happy Crafting!

Cornering the Market on Cheap Artwork

Apparently, I've gotten really picky in my home decor as I can't seem to find anything out there in this large mass-produced world that I like. I see things on etsy all the time that I like, but then it comes down to how much do I want to spend. I'm not necessarily saying I'm cheap, but, sometimes, those sellers are asking a LOT.

I recently found a saying I really like, and I couldn't find it just the way I wanted it. So I made my own. It didn't take any time at all as I was able to use an open source image editing program (GIMP 2) that's pert near Photoshop and some clip art. I also utilized one of my other favorite tools, 1001freefonts.com. I use this font website ALL THE TIME. They have the greatest typefaces, and the one I chose for this project was Sybil Green. I got the funky frame at Hobby Lobby for $7 since they were on sale for 50% off.

I put this in our kitchen since it's (our kitchen) severely lacking in personality. It has these weird soffits that hold these frames really well. I made these prints to fit in a 5" x 7" frame and printed them on high quality cardstock.

After putting this one up, there's another empty weird soffit right across the way from it. So I had to come up with another cute little saying. We drink a LOT of tea in our house, and it's kind of a religion so I came up with, "I Love You More than Tea" and added some cute clip art to go along with that.

I used all the same tools to make this one, the frames were still on sale at Hobby Lobby, and I'm sure it took a grand total of about 20 minutes in front of my computer to make these. And they're very personal to our family. If you see a cute little saying you like somewhere, don't be afraid to make your very own typographic artwork. Happy Crafting!

DIY: Trendy Baby Decor

I'm going to apologize for this "tutorial" right now. Yes, I'm implying it's not really a tutorial. It's more like half of one. I wasn't entirely sure this was going to work out when I started it, but, as it turns out, I really liked the end result.

I think we've all seen those beautiful chandelier butterfly mobiles that are pretty popular right now. They're all over etsy, pottery barn has one and you can find them on amazon. The only problem with these is 1) they're usually between $50 and $80 and 2) butterflies are really your only decorative option. Enter... the brain trust...

Trendy Chandelier Mobiles: a la Rayna

Supplies:
colored papers for die cutting
die cutting method (cricut, punch, freestyle with scissors, etc.)
ruler
metal ring (I used 10" diameter)
.5mm stretch magic beading string
18 gauge wire
wire cutters / curlers
coordinating ribbon for wrapping exposed metal wire and ring
* I used 1/4" for the smaller inside wire
* I used 3/8" for the larger outer ring
scissors
various adhesives
*I used glue dots for adhere birds to stretch string
*I used scotch tape to wrap loose ends of stretch string around exposed wire and ring
*I used Aleene's Jewelry & Metal Glue for adhering wire to ring and ribbon to wire / ring
various clamps for holding wrapped ribbon when your hands start to cramp

I first had to strategize how I was going to lay out my mobile. This probably took the longest amount of time for me as it was a LOT of trial and error. I designed it as an outer metal ring with a 4-point inner crossbar. In the end, I ended up with these specs where the red dots represent where I tied each chandelier string:

• 1 middle string: 24" long
• 4 strings radiating out at 21" long
• 4 strings radiating out at 15" long
• 16 strings along outer ring at 12" long

With the spacing I chose and the die cut sizes (birds: 2", clouds: 2-1/2"), the individual string specs worked out like this:

• 24" string: 6 die cuts (2 clouds, 4 birds)
• 21" strings: 4 die cuts (1 cloud, 3 birds)
• 15" strings: 3 die cuts (1 cloud, 2 birds)
• 12" strings: 2 die cut birds 

Phew. Now that that's over... 

1.) I first made my inner crossbar with the 18 gauge wire and adhering it to itself with  the jewelry and metal glue. Be careful with this stuff. I almost bonded my fingers together about a million times. But it works some serious magic with the wire and the ribbon. I wrapped the outer ends of the crossbar around the outer ring with the wire curlers and also used the glue to adhere these 4 points in place.

2.) Using the specs listed above, I then attached all the die cuts to the chandelier strings and then attached the chandelier strings to the crossbar and outer ring with the stretch beading string.

3.) I used the scotch tape to wrap all the stretch beading string loose ends from the chandelier strings around the inner crossbar wires and outer ring.

4.) After all the loose ends are taken care of, wrap the inner crossbar wire with the thinner wire. I fastened the ends of the ribbon to the wire with the jewelry & metal glue. Pure magic. Just don't glue your fingers together. This step serves to hide all the loose ends of the stretch beading string so you don't have those ends hanging out and looking gross.

 
5.) I then used the thicker ribbon to wrap the outer ring. I used more technique for this one as it will be more easily viewed.

6.) I then tied 4 20" pieces of stretch beading string to each junction of the inner crossbar and the outer ring by which I could hang the mobile. In doing this, I ended up with loose ends again so I used a cool 4-point wrap technique to hide the ends and also add some decorative flair to these junction points. And I used lots of jewelry and metal glue!

7.) After all that, you just have to gather your 4 hanging strings and be very careful about making sure they're all level so your mobile isn't hanging all weird and crooked. Unless, of course, you want it that way. :) Hang it, and you have a perfectly beautiful (and cheap) trendy baby mobile with the die cuts of your choice!

I will admit that I had a lot of these supplies to begin with, but the beauty of this project is that you can really make it with whatever you have on hand. I ended up making it myself for less than $15. It's much more personal, fitting her room perfectly, and I got to choose the colors and shapes I wanted. I also wanted those clouds in there, and I couldn't find any that were just the way I wanted. Again, I'm picky like that. Know any babies coming your way? This would be a really fun and very personal shower gift for that new little bundle. Happy Crafting!

El Cheapo Artwork a la Rayna

As we are nearing the arrival of our second baby, we're trying our best to get her room ready and prepared just the way we want it. I'm not going to say I'm picky, I just have an idea of what I want, and that's usually what I want. I don't like to compromise a whole lot on that front if I don't have to. Artwork for her room has been a bit of a challenge in that regard so I decided to take it into my own hands. Enter: Rayna's Craft Tutorial #2.

El Cheapo Artwork a la Rayna

Supplies:
plywood backing for the corresponding paper size (3/8" thickness at least)
brayer
decoupage glue
foam brushes
cutting mat
artwork hanging hardware (I used the sawtooth hangers)
craft knife
pencil
hammer
desired scrapbook papers for artwork

1.) Make sure your plywood backing is the same size as the paper you're going to work with. If it isn't, cut the plywood backing to size. Note: I bought my plywood backing at Michael's where I was able to use a 40% off coupon and get 12" x 12" for the same size as my scrapbooking paper.

2.) If you wish, you can turn your paper right side down and lay the plywood backing on top of it so you can trace the outline of where you want it glued. I just kind of winged it, which also worked.

3.) Brush on a generous amount of glue onto the side of the plywood backing where you'll be gluing your scrapbook paper. This is the point at which you have to work pretty quickly...

4.) Lay your scrapbook paper on top of your gluey plywood board, get it in position as QUICKLY as possible, and then use the brayer to flatten it out and get out any air bubbles that may have appeared when you laid it down. Again, WORKING QUICKLY.

5.) When you're happy with the appearance of your artwork at this point (this is pretty much how it will look when you're done so keep that in mind), you can flip over the entire piece of artwork and lay it right side down on top of your cutting mat. If necessary, use your craft knife to trim the paper so it's flush with the sides of the plywood board.

6.) At this point, I ran my fingers around all 4 corners smoothing down cuts and wiping away excess glue. Then, I attached my hardware. I recommend getting a plywood board with at least a 3/8" thickness because that allows the nails to be pounded in without going through your artwork in the front. That would be bad. You can also get this kind of hardware (and several other different kinds of hanging hardware) at Michael's and use a coupon!

7.) Turn your artwork back around so the right side is facing upward, and, if desired, brush on another generous layer of the decoupage glue to kind of set and seal the paper artwork. It also adds a really cool vintage patina so it looks like you've had it forever. :) Make sure you get the glue around the edges of the paper so it won't start to peel up in the future. Also make sure to remove any excess glue.

Voila! Now you are done and can hang your lovely artwork anywhere in your house. People will wonder where you bought that beautiful piece!

I did two of them for our baby room and completely beat the price of anything we saw in the stores. We had seen some beautiful artwork at Target, but we didn't really want to pay $15 each for a set of 3.
This is what we did instead:
*plywood backing $2.50 (with coupon) (x2)
*scrapbooking paper $0.69 (x2)
*2 foam brushes  $1.99

And I already had everything else so I spent $8.37 for 2 very personalized pieces of artwork. I'm so proud of myself. So head on over to your local craft/scrapbooking store and go nuts. Happy Crafting!