it's 2015 already?

i thought i'd pop in and say happy new year before it's too late!
my holidays were busy and festive, and bffbf and i rang in the new year at disneyland.  it was my first visit there ever, and i was surprised to find just how much i LOVE the place.   i will most definitely need to pay it another visit, and soon!

here is a glimpse at the nye countdown and fireworks display.  it was such a fun night.

i also wanted to share the only handmade gift i made for christmas this past year.  my mom requested that i make her a hand towel that she can tie to her oven handle.  she had been using the same one for probably at least a decade, and it was time for a replacement.  

i made her new (more modern looking) hand towel with some white terry cloth, marimekko fabric, and lime grosgrain ribbon that i had in my craft cabinet.   the construction was very simple.  you can't tell from the image, but i made each side a double layer of terry cloth for extra absorbancy.

unfortunately, i didn't take many pictures so i'm not writing a full tutorial on this one, but it would be pretty easy to replicate just from the ones i'm posting.    

here is the final product--oddly, this may possibly be the very first gift i've ever given my mother that she actually liked!

how were your holidays?

washi tape address labels

if i had my way, everything i could ever need or want would exist on amazon, so i would never have to leave my place to run errands again.  my hatred for errands is far greater than my love for crafts, and because of this, i have had a gift card from michael's waiting, unused, for over 6 months.  but over the weekend, i had a sudden desire to procure some supplies/tools, and out i went.  gift card utterly depleted (+more), i came home armed with some new toys.   

one of my new tools is a xyron 1.5 inch sticker maker, which i bought without really having a need for it, until i was almost home.  as i pulled into the garage, the words 'washi tape address labels' mysteriously popped in my head.  

i used to design and print out my own address labels on label sheets, but since i've been out of labels and my new printer has terrible terrible color output, i've been without since moving to san diego.  
  
with the image of what these washi tape address labels might look like burning in my brain, i had to make some, like immediately.

my trial run is pictured.  the addresses are printed in grey, on a regular sheet of paper, spaced out in rows and columns.  i trimmed off the excess with my trusty paper cutter, and eyeballing it, stuck on washi tape (that i recently purchased at daiso), as you see below.   i then trimmed again.  i'm a big fan of the city themed washi tape. so cute. 

enter the xyron sticker maker... and i had labels.  i love how simple the sticker maker is.  all you do is put the paper in one end, and pull it out through the other side.  i'm sort of surprised i never bought one before, especially since making stickers was a childhood fantasy of mine. i already want the 2.5" and 5" xyron machines!  

i'm looking forward to making some more real address labels using this method, especially with my recent washi tape purchases.  i don't send out a whole lot of mail these days, so it's nice that i can make small quantities this way with supplies that can also be used for other purposes.    

paper flowers

these days i seem to make crafting a pretty low priority.  i always seem to be busy doing something else, mostly just the everyday ho-hum tasks of life with fun and relaxation splattered in wherever possible.

but one recent afternoon, i found myself playing around with the silhouette studio (software) with no particular agenda.  after a few minutes of fiddling with basic shapes and the welding feature, i created simple flower petal and stamen shapes, and went on to mass produce a bunch of paper flowers in vibrant colors.  

the text weight paper i used from paper source was quite perfect for this purpose.

my machine wigged out a couple times, and didn't always make very clean cuts on my petals and even destroyed some sheets of paper entirely-- possibly because of the dulling blade or the no-longer tacky mat... or both.

that was  a tad frustrating.  luckily i could hide most of the poorly cut edges within the layers.

once all the petals and stamens (did you know that the plural for 'stamen' can also be 'stamina'? strange, no? i thought so.) were cut, i curled the edges up before gluing them together layer by layer with a glue stick.

so simple! all i needed was paper, a glue stick... and a personal cutting machine.  *wink*

i chose to take these to work to decorate my cubicle, and stuck a couple on my monitor, and the rest all over my back wall.

it's no wonder that my colleagues think i'm like, five years old.  it probably doesn't help that i wear clothes with safari animals on them and they overheard me singing the 'yummy yummy' song while i was eating lunch the other day.        

i think these flowers would also be fun in garland form, hanging straight down from the ceiling.  perhaps with some leaves (my original plan with these was to make leaves, but i got lazy).  oh, and as gift toppers.

daiso haul: washi tape

this past weekend bffbf and i decided to do some exploring in socal, and drove up to huntington beach for a short excursion.   it was a beautiful day.

this excursion was most likely a loosely veiled excuse to stop in irvine, not once, but twice, to get our fill of taiwanese food.  the taiwanese food in irvine is infinitely better than it is in san diego, and we enjoyed some quality beef noodle soup, hot pot, and a variety of taiwanese breads, tea and coffee drinks.

we also stopped by daiso, the japanese 1.50 store, and brought home an armful of random things, including a few rolls of washi tape.  

i really don't know why i stopped at four.   there were at least 10 patterns.  i should have bought them all.

now i must go find something to tape.  like, immediately.

button covered everything

we now have these hippo and alligator magnets alongside my kiwi bird magnets holding up all our other wedding invitations, baby announcements, greeting cards, and other random items on the fridge.  i originally entertained the idea of making a large number of these, but quickly realized the linen fibers were too thick for these button covers, and as a result I wound up with many frayed edges and some very sore thumbs.

since i already had dug out a bunch of fabric and button cover supplies, i went ahead and made these ridiculously large paper clips as well.   i once again went with my kiwi bird parade fabric  (since a single bird fits so nicely on these buttons) and some marimekko fabric.  

then i decided to make a set of thumbtacks with some of my linen hedgehog fabric that also proved very difficult to use-- plus a bunch of other japanese fabric quarters that my mom bought for me many years ago.

although i technically don't really need them, i brought a tin of these to the office and randomly stuck them into my cubicle walls.  i also keep a few of the paper clips on my desk for good measure. 

whatever makes the work day better, right?

paper heart garlands

i'm not particularly attached to the romantic connotations attached to valentine's day, but i am fond of the excess of pink + red, hearts, and chocolate.     

i made a couple paper heart garlands this weekend to festive-fy (not a word you say? it is now) my cube at work. the image above doesn't portray the colors that accurately, but you get the idea.  the other strand is in the front part of my cube.  

i cut out a bunch of hearts in various sizes (and some circles) with my silhouette and sewed them together using pink and white thread.  i really love meshing paper crafting and sewing.

i'm starting to notice that my current silhouette mat is already losing it's stickiness, and my blade is getting dull. they really don't last very long!

do you ever decorate your office space?

valentine's day cards revisited

valentine's will be upon us in about a week, so i thought i'd re-post a couple card ideas from last year, in case you were feeling crafty or desperate for a freebie.

follow my tutorial here to make these stitched felt heart flat notecards.

and check out my post here regarding the free printable card below, and download it here.

silhouette cameo made felt coasters (ways to rid yourself of 30 yards of felt #8??)

the most attractive feature of the silhouette cameo is its' ability to cut multiple media types.   if you happen to be a regular reader, it is probably unsurprising to you that i've been most curious to try cutting felt with the machine.  while the company does not claim the ability to do so, they encourage users to experiment.   

and while blogs all over will tell you that the silhouette doesn't do a perfect job, it does do a decent one.  i was able to produce these coasters with only a few annoying complications.  

my coaster design is based on a little sketch i once made years ago, and it was relatively easy to conjure up using the silhouette software.  my love affair with felt coasters began when i discovered verso design years ago.  my last attempt with hand-cut and sewn ones left me wanting, so i was pleased when these came out as i imagined.   

lessons learned:  

1. using the double cut feature is essential. the blade needs to be set at 10, material thickness set at 33 and the speed at 1.  

2. steam-a-seam 2 works, particularly useful in this case when i was planning on fusing multiple layers of felt together anyway (i have 3 layers here-- two solid round ones under the flower pattern).  however, make sure you fuse the felt well to the steam-a-seam 2 before placing it on your cutting mat. i noticed that otherwise it can be really difficult to peel the piece off without destroying it and leaving the sticky residue stuck to the mat.  if you're planning on cutting a lot of felt, you will need a lot of time. and patience.  

i thought i had taken more pictures of the process but apparently i didn't... so pretend this picture is more relevant than it actually is. 

if you aren't familiar, steam-a-seam 2 is a fusible web. it comes in sheets with paper backing on each side.  you remove one side of the paper backing, iron it onto the felt/fabric, and then remove the other side -- and that's the side that goes face down on the cutting mat.   if you're fusing felt, be wary of the low melting point, and always have a piece of cotton fabric between the felt and iron so the felt doesn't wind up stuck all over the metal.  

i didn't properly test cutting with regular interfacing fused onto the felt since it wasn't useful for this project-- but i'll probably test it out in the future.  

3. perfect cuts will be rare if impossible.  i had to do a lot snipping with scissors on my own.  see how the top corner of the flower isn't cut that cleanly?

if you can believe it, i'm actually running low on some of my favorite felt colors (remember this post?). i'm rather tempted to go buy more...

silhouette cameo project 1: thank you cards

i set up my silhouette almost immediately after receiving it.  i was very anxious, as you can imagine, to test it out.  after some preliminary test cuts using the included designs (the machine comes with 50 free), it was enough to tide me over until i was able to hit paper source for some proper paper.  

i was happy to discover the included silhouette design software actually has a lot of nifty features and is pretty easy to use.  i was also pleased to find out that all my computer fonts are usable in the program, and i happily produced my "first" project: thank you cards.

marimekko christmas stockings

when bffbf announced that he wanted christmas stockings this year, my mind immediately began whirling. 

I LOVE CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS!!!

i have a sad childhood story that i won't bother boring you with, but the consequence of this trauma has been an unhealthy obsession with stockings and the tiny surprises inside.

in previous years i made felt stockings to gift, sell, and use, but i failed to move them to san diego with me.  so i got busy and extracted my three file boxes of fabric from the armoire.  after many minutes of obsessing, i found myself with a large pile of fabric, paired by type and style.

after some consideration, i reluctantly put back a couple before presenting the options to bffbf.  clearly, i could not be left to make such an important decision alone.

i had many non-traditional color schemes and patterns in the mix, and i hoped in vain that he would favor those.  but, as i suspected, bffbf voted for the traditional red and green, and with some negotiation, chose two marimekko patterns (i personally was rooting for gray and orange).

it's a good thing that i've been saving remnants of red on red marimekko samovaari fabric for you know, like, 5 years.  the marimekko karmiini fabric also wound up being quite fitting in stocking form.

here they are, hung by our white tinsel tree.  are stockings part of your christmas tradition?  what does yours look like? would it be crazy if i made different stockings every year?

dritz plier kit review

i frequently find myself attaching snaps to my craft projects.  even with practice, i found the old fashioned method of using a hammer and a spool a thread a little too unreliable results wise.  so then i turned to this plastic contraption, which i quickly realized wasn't better at all... and in fact was possibly worse.

one day i was at joann's clutching a 50% off coupon with nothing to buy until i stumbled upon this plier kit.  at half off,  i decided it would be interesting to give it a try.  the tool also can double as an eyelet attacher, and it came with a handful of eyelets and snaps.

that was over a year ago.  

the other day i decided it'd be wise to get a head start on christmas gifts, so i made a couple baby bibs and tested out the plier applicator... jaw... thing. 

doesn't it look like some sort of robot dinosaur? 

the directions from dritz are on the back of the package, and as usual i found the instructions rather lack luster.   i figured out that the rubber pieces included in the kit were supposed to go over the metal pieces  as you see above.  the idea is simple enough-- each snap is comprised of 4 pieces, and the tool is used to clamp together each half of the snap (so 2 + 2).  

i immediately liked how the rubber kept the pieces from moving around, so they'd be perfectly aligned. this can be a little trickier when done the most basic way with a spool of thread and hammer.

however, when i squeezed the clamp together, i realized the fundamental flaw with the applicator--the pressure is difficult to make even on all sides, so you run the risk of one side of the pieces not being fully attached to each other.  i wound up doing some extra hammering to secure them tightly.  i tested a handful of these snaps, and the results were unimpressive- about half were ruined.  

overall, i was pretty unimpressed. i may give it a couple more tries in the future or just go back to the most basic method.

kiwi bird magnets

as part of my transition back into the crafting world, i recently ordered a bunch of cover button supplies for some fun and easy projects.  a few years ago, i made quite a killing at craft fairs making button  badge ids and magnets. they also made/make great gifts.

as i went through my boxes of fabric, i realized the graphics on my kiwi bird parade fabric were the ideal size to fit over two button sizes.  i decided to start with magnets, as the number of baby announcements keep growing on our fridge ,and i've had to be very strategic with magnet placement.

i'm hoping that i'll find the time to make some more soon, since i expect the fridge to be littered with christmas cards in a month's plus time!

getting back into it?

over the last few years, i've noticed that my craft productivity is directly correlated with my stress level.   the more stressed out i am, the less creative i am.  for the first time in months and months, i felt the urge to sew and to complete some pending household projects.   i finally unpacked my serger, plugged in my sewing machine, and sewed a throw pillow for the couch.

it's a strange feeling to do an activity so familiar after such a long stretch a time.  i half expected to completely botch up my very basic project.  but aside from the usual issues with threading my serger, turns out sewing is sort of like riding a bicycle.

sample flor tile mini table runner

as you can see in my previous post, my new bedroom comes with hideous red stained concrete floors.  we wanted to rid ourselves of any traces of the red, and explored our options with flor tiles, so we ordered a bunch of samples.  

but what to do with the samples after we made a decision?  it seemed like such a waste to throw them away.

i lined four of them up on our new ikea ps 2012 dining room table (which, btw, is a great little table) to act as a mini table runner.  these particular flor tiles are made out of felt, which work very well as coasters/trivets.  

a perfect way to repurpose these samples! 

the mini runner is also a preview of our living room color palette.  the red you see on the wall also has to go.  soon.

washi tape accordion notecard

i've been busy getting sick, working, traveling for a wedding, working, and getting sick again.  yes, i said working.

so busy that once again crafting has fallen to the wayside.   the most i've been able to squeeze in is a quick washi tape accordion notecard.

all i needed was a sheet of cardstock, washi tape, and my corner punch (mine is from making memories), and five minutes.  i cut the cardstock into four notecards with my paper cutter, and put aside one since i only really wanted to make a trifold... is a trifold too small to be called and accordion?

placing two pieces next to each other flush, i ran a piece of washi tape centering it on the seam (i just eyeballed it), flipped it over and did the back seam.  i repeated this step for the last notecard, and also lined the very ends with more washi tape.  i trimmed the excess washi tape from the edges.

i then folded the notecard in half (so that it's just two layers, not all three), and used my corner punch to round out the edges.  i had to push pretty hard because it was so thick, but my trusty punch made it through cleanly.

as you can probably tell, i was so pressed for time that i didn't even bother pulling out my nicer camera and just documented the process haphazardly with my phone.  

the next couple of months will be equally busy but i'll try to be better!  what have you been busy with lately?