thiscraftygirl

Creativity

30 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

by thiscraftygirl in Uncategorized Tags: baking, cricut, nails, vinyl

Well, it was non-existent for a while. After bouts of the stomach flu and pneumonia (me), and various ear infections and colds (the husband and kids), there was no time for anything extra. I was just fighting to get through each day. Lately I have been sort of creative with a few different media.

Here is a vinyl creation I made with my Cricut for my daughter’s karate studio grand opening:

This is a cake I made for her 7th birthday party:

I used a cake mix and pre-made buttercream frosting (the horror!) and used these molds to make the white chocolate accents. The party theme was Wii and Ninja. I have no idea how I managed to tie them together. The ninja images were all from Lettering Delights. They are a fantastic site if you need clipart, SVG files, fonts, printables, etc. It’s addictive, so watch out! I’m an affiliate here so click below and get some freebies and we both win. Or if you want, just go visit www.letteringdelights.com

Lastly, I’ve been into nail art after discovering a couple of very talented bloggers (seriously, go check this girl out-she’s amazing). Mostly I use my seven-year-old as a Guinea pig. I seem to change up my polish every few days since I am once-again plagued with insomnia.

Paper beads

19 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment

by thiscraftygirl in Uncategorized Tags: beads, Jewelry, mod podge, paper

I’m on a paper bead kick-it’s easy and cheap and doesn’t require a lot of tools. I happened to have a Klutz books kit that I got for about a dollar and really only bought it for the little paper roller tool in it.

I cannabalized a necklace that I inherited from my late mother in law and added the heart with wings charm, and strung it all on a stretchy cord. Fun!

Oh Target, how I love you…

16 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment

by thiscraftygirl in Uncategorized Tags: clutch, placemat, purse, sewing, target

A Target placemat (on clearance…holla!) became a linen clutch for my vacation!

Happy {unoriginal} Valentines!

06 Feb 2012 1 Comment

by thiscraftygirl in Uncategorized Tags: cards, paper, star wars, valentines

So…I’ve been crafting a lot more lately but haven’t come up with anything original. This is where Pinterest comes in. If you don’t know what Pinterest is, well…you’re better off not knowing. Unless you don’t have a job…or kids…and a money tree in your backyard…and you don’t need to sleep. Ever.

Pinterest is addictive. Imagine flipping through a bunch of magazines and dog-earing the pages of ideas you really like. That’s what Pinterest is-just grabbing ideas and photos and tutorials off a site with other crazed Pinners. I have been known to pin for hours on end!

And just so you don’t think I’m the only one sucked in by the craze, check out this YouTube video.

Shit Stay at Home Moms Say

So I totally stole this idea from a fellow Pinner of making Star Wars themes Valentines for DD6′s class. She hates girly things and recently got into into Star Wars, so this is perfect.

In case you couldn’t tell, that’s a glow stick stuck through a slit in the card. Now I just have to figure out how to get them to school without her snapping and activating all of them!

What are you doing for your kids’ valentines?

Project Life Freebie

25 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

by thiscraftygirl in Uncategorized Tags: digital scrapbooking, PL2012, Project Life

Here is a 3×4 (horizontal) card for Project Life. Download it here!

(My watermark will not show up in the downloaded version)

This is my first time linking up a digital freebie so forgive me if it’s not working at first.

Project Life

27 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment

by thiscraftygirl in Uncategorized Tags: PL2012, Project Life, scrapbook

In 2011 my favorite local scrapbook store closed, effectively squashing any plans I had to scrap kid-free. It was so lovely-I would go on a Friday night with a close friend of mine and we would eat dinner there, and socialize, and scrapbook for a few hours without worry about getting interrupted in the middle by a dirty diaper, a sibling tussle, or having to hang out with our husbands.

(Just kidding-I love hanging out with my husband)

In 2012 I am making a small weekly goal and a larger goal that doesn’t have a time limit.

I’m going to take one picture every day. Sounds easy, right? I normally do it anyway, with my iPhone. With the other photo-capturing devices I own, I think it should be pretty easy. (Nikon DSLR, Canon point-n-shoot, iMac…)

A few things I am allowing myself:

My photos don’t have to be beautiful. Project Life albums are all about capturing the mundane, every day details about our lives. It could be a pic of the car thermometer on a particularly cold morning. Or a snapshot of the baby sleeping. Or my daily cup of coffee.
My photos don’t have to be printed every week. With the EXIF data in each picture, I don’t have to worry about dates since it’ll be saved and can be sorted with iPhoto.
I am allowed an off week here and there! Those weeks I will use FB updates to remember what I was doing that week.
I will not make myself crazy or stressed out doing this. It’s supposed to be fun!

I ordered the Clementine Project Life kit from Becky Higgins’ site. I’m waiting on a few page inserts to arrive but other than that I am good to go!

Pretty up your Facebook Timeline

22 Dec 2011 1 Comment

by thiscraftygirl in Uncategorized Tags: cover, digiscrap, digital scrapbooking, Facebook, timeline, tutorial

I am a digital scrapbooker. I have lots of digital papers, elements, etc. stored on my hard drive (I’m a digital hoarder. It’s a problem. I’m working on it).

I thought the natural thing to do would be to make my Facebook cover pretty with them. (If you are new to Timeline, check it out here) I’ll show you how.

1. First, open a new project in Photoshop Elements (you can do this in any image editing program)

2. Then add your elements, photos, etc. I used ones from the free kit at Persnickety Prints.

Image courtesy of Persnickety Prints

3. Save the file, then open your FB profile page. On the lower right corner of your timeline cover photo, hover your cursor and the pull down menu will appear that says “Change Photo. Select “Upload Photo”.

4. Sit back and smile smugly while your friends are impressed.

I hope to do more digi-scrapping this coming year. Share some of your pages here please!

Handmade

21 Dec 2011 1 Comment

by thiscraftygirl in Uncategorized Tags: mold, soap, Xmas

For a crafty bitch like myself, I sure have fallen off the crafting wagon this year in terms of gifts. Amazon is my best friend, as evidenced by the harried UPS delivery men that grace my door every day, sometimes twice. This is one of only a few projects I have created. I bought all the supplies at A.C. Moore and made them last night while the kids ate dinner.

The whole project cost less than 20 bucks and will end of making about 6 bars of soap. I bought goats milk soap, shimmer powder, molds, and stamps. From my stash at home, I used lemon sage essential oils to scent it and food coloring for color.