Kindle Cover

I’ve had a Kindle fire for about a year now, and it has come to my attention that jamming it into my purse is probably not the best way to keep it working forever.

There are all these leather iPhone cases that you can just slip your phone into, so I decided to make something similar for my Kindle.

I had this yellow faux leather that I bought ages ago for some abandoned project or another and some hot pink cotton fabric I decided to use as the liner.

I cut the faux leather top into the shape I wanted and sewed the top seam (with hot pink thread) to the pink fabric.

Then, I sewed around the edges and stuffed my Kindle fire inside.

Yup. Really confused.

Chain Headband

One of the most complimented accessories that I wear is this simple chain headband that I made years ago. It is SO simple and everyone should have one.

All you need are a thin piece of chain and a piece of elastic. These are probably some staples that you already have in your jewelry making box.

Thread your elastic through both ends of the gold chain and then tie the elastic into a knot. The lengths of your chain and your elastic will vary depending on how big your head is.

Put it on and look really cute and fancy.

Sometimes I think that having a confusing love life makes me more creative.

Bookish-Covered Box or A Study in How to Hide Your Cords

I’m probably the messiest person I know, but I needed to hide all the cords from my wireless router etc. I got these awesome heavy-duty cardboard boxes that we used at work to collect cans at work for Harvest for Hunger.

I cut out the handles so that I could put the cords through it. It still looks totally normal once the lid is on.

I covered the box in encyclopedia pages, like I cover everything. I feel like encyclopedia paper is like makeup for me. I use it to hide imperfections in all my crafts.

So here is the box in action! Looks inconspicuous, right?

BUT WHEN YOU OPEN IT! You see a mess. This is kind of indicative of how all people are. We are all messy but we try to hide it.

But now I’m getting deep.

Cardboard Tardis

I tried to portmanteau “Cardboard Tardis” and came up with “Cardboardis” or “Tardboardis”, both of which sound incredibly dumb.

My blogger friend Amanda had a surprise birthday party that she threw for herself (jk, you can’t throw a surprise party for yourself…or can you?) and my first thought was “I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO MAKE FOR HER” because she shares my same creepy obsession with Doctor Who. Sci-fi geeks are just ever so easy to get prezzies for.

I had been wanting to make a recycled Tardis box ever since I thought of the idea. I used cardboard boxes that were in the recycle bin at work (that were used to package light bulbs!) to make the box-frame.

I cut the lids of the boxes and create a little insert so that the lid of the Tardis would have something to hang on to. Like love handles. Hehe.

I mixed up a batch of darkish blue paint and painted the box blue.

Then I added some super-special details. Like words. Basically I’m speechless right now so I don’t know what to say.

 

Yay. Trust me. I’m the Doctor.

Melted Crayons and such

I am sure that everyone has seen the Pinterest-viral craft of gluing crayons to a canvas and then melting them to get some pretty wax streaks. Well, I have jumped on the crayonwagon and also tried this craft out. Crafter Emily invited me and other members of craft club over to her house for a BYOCanvas crayon melting party.

We set up shop in her garage, where she had a plethora of crayons waiting for us. In this picture, Jessica is on the left, Anita is on the right, and Emily’s canvas of mostly blues and green is in the middle. I secretly think she invited us over to get rid of the rest of the crayons she acquired in her quest for blues and greens.

Here is Ali, blurrily heat gunning her project. She has taped off a stencil of a couple under an umbrella but I don’t have a finished project picture. I also don’t think Ali has a finished project.

Emily, Ali, and Anita watched as the crayons melted along the canvas.

Completed Projects: Ali, Anita, and Emily&Nathan.

And as for me? (You’ll see, SLAM YOUR BODY DOWN AND WIND IT ALL AROUND) I decided to do something for my parents, since their house is like a fridge (they hang up my artwork EVERYWHERE). Since their kitchen and living room is varying shades of pink (ranging from carnation pink to deep maroon), I collected the pinks and reds and glued them diagonally on both ends.

Then I heat gunned them. When I took it to Michigan, I put it in the car the night before and the 90+ degree heat (Fahrenheit, of course) caused the crayons to melt even more. This is it hanging up in my parents house. There used to be a v. large framed photo here from my Senior Year homecoming by myself so that my parents and brother could pretend I still ate dinner with them every night once I moved out. I thought that was creepy so I gave them this instead.

Thanks to Emily for hosting this and making a gorgeous assembly of bread and jams for us to nosh on!

I now have a large plethora of crayons since Emily and Jessica no longer wanted theirs. Ideas???

Covered Metallic Boxes

Metallics are SO in right now. Or they were very recently. Whatever, I’m a busy girl. I can’t keep up with trends. I saw these lovely metallic boxes on Design*Sponge like a month ago and kept it unread in my Google reader until today, when I decided to emulate them.

So lazy. So hot. If I had been born with balls, I would not have them anymore because I would have sweated them off.

I stole this gorgeous wrapping paper from a bridal shower that I helped plan recently, and the entire party thought I was a weirdo. I’M A HOARDER ARTS AND CRAFTS ARRRGH!

Also I’m addicted to Payless so I have lots and lots of extra shoeboxes. And what are shoeboxes good for, if not storage? (Answer: holding shoes.)

I covered the box with the metallic wrapping paper. It took less time than I expected, but more time than wrapping an actual gift. Because real crafters use glue, not tape. I’m totally kidding, real crafters do what they want. FEMINISM!

Two boxes! Step one: You cut a hole in the box.

But don’t ever Step Two: You put your junk in that box. BECAUSE THAT’S YUCKY.

Map Notebook

I had coffee last Saturday with my friend Anjalee, who is going to dental school in Boston soon. With her moving so far away, I was coaxing her to make a to-do list of everything she needed to do before she left. She whipped out her notebook, and I was instantly smitten. It was love at first sight. Of course, I’m not one to spend $16 on another notebook since I own about 300 already, so I was all, “LET ME MAKE THIS, NOT ONLY WILL I BE ABLE TO BE MORE ORGANIZED, I CAN ALSO DO A CRAFT INSTEAD OF ORGANIZE MY APARTMENT.” I’ll bet you can see the irony.

I started with this tiny notebook that I got from somewhere that one time. It is probably 4 inches by 2.5 inches, but really, who can tell? I can’t. I also used a map of “Northwestern States” according to AAA. But it ranged from Wisconsin to Washington. I do not consider Wisconsin a Northwestern State, but who am I to argue with AAA? (Seriously, Wisconsin??)

 

I unwound the spiral and then I glued the map to the front and back of the notebook cover. I also covered the spiral holes. <Fun Fact>If you google notebook, you get mostly computers. I was trying to figure out standard sizes for these notebooks but I got a bunch of websites trying to sell me a Mac. I’ve had this laptop since ‘06 and it still is SO FAST. I’m keeping it until it dies. </Fun Fact>

I poked four holes in the top of the top of teh notebook for the attachment method I’ll describe next. Also, if you’re ever planning on getting lost in the Black River Falls area in Wisconsin, you should just bookmark this blogpost for future reference because this picture will be very helpful.

I attached everything together by putting embroidery thread through hte holes and tying some knots. They’re probably easily breakable, though. Bella Swan Anastasia Steele would be like, “These knots suck! Edward Cullen Christian Grey is sooo much better at tying them.”

Then, I painted the bottom of the front gold because I was stupid and I didn’t measure twice, cut once. The bottom of the notebook had the index letters and they looked uncute. So I covered them. The gold only looks ok.

Wow! For once, my to-do list is empty! Probably because I haven’t started using this notebook for its intended purpose. I’ll probably cover more notebooks with maps because they’re just SO CUTE and who knows when you’ll need a map of Forks, WA?

Guacapeas!

My mom was telling me about how she made guacamole with peas once, and I was all like, “Ew that’s nast” but then I decided to try it anyway.

Ingredients:
1 Avocado, peeled and seeded
1/2 16 oz. bag of peas
1 clove garlic
Lime, Salt, Pepper to taste

Process:
Blend that shit up.

It actually tastes fabulous. And now you can make more guacamole with less avocados! Because buying avocados is terrifying. Sometimes they end up with the brown stringy bits inside but you are all, “I FELT it and it FELT fine” but really, can you ever know? This recipe works especially well if you only have one good avocado and have to throw the other one away (which happens to me often). Also the guacapeas doesn’t turn super brown the next day. And PROTEIN!!!!

Tea-bagging but not politically or dirtily

I’m a bridesmaid for my friend Stephanie’s wedding at the end of this month (it’s so close!) and so this past weekend, I (along with Steph’s sister Justine) threw a local bridal shower for Stephanie.

Stephanie loves the royal wedding so the theme of the party ended up being “A Very Royal Bridal Shower” and was held at Phoenix Coffee downtown. I designed these super awesome invitations myself. And by designed, I mean I stole the image from the internet and typed “Keep Calm and Bridal Shower” on them.

For the party favors, Justine and I decided to gift tea bags to our guests. I volunteered to make the gift bags because I am really good at it. I could should you examples but apparently I have not blogged about them ever and I know this because I just went through all my blog posts to see if I ever have. Sigh.

The gift bags I usually make are out of maps and in the traditional rectangular bottom paper bag style. Well, as you know, I hate tradition (because it’s often sexist/racist etc) so I decided to go with a non-traditional style bag. I had a flash of inspiration 2 days before the party (luckily I had procrastinated and had made 0 bags thus far, which I think what Frank Partnoy’s new book is about). I would make tea-bag shaped gift bags!

I painted two large British flags on two large pieces of paper. Very crudely, I might add. Not entirely sure what the ratio is of white to blue to red. You can tell what it is, though, so that’s a plus. The being able to tell what it is goes away later.

 

Then I chopped up the flag into approximately 15”x6” pieces and folded the short ends into triangles. Then I put a line of glue on the edge of the paper and folded it together. Yeah, this is the part where you can’t tell what it is anymore. At least I know what it is. That’s something.

Then, once the glue had dried (it was definitely dry as the party was 2 days later), we stuffed the bags with approximately 10 tea bags. To finish it off, the ends were folded over and a piece of string was stapled to the bag. The other end was stapled to a piece of paper that said, “Thank you!” (Not out loud though.)

The gift table was adorned with the tea bags and some adorable Keep Calm and Carry On notebooks.

Keep Calm and Bridal Shower!