Quill You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

I've been focusing the majority of my time on getting my Etsy shop open (sneak preview above), so I’ve neglected my blog terribly.  Luckily (or unfortunately), three of the four crafts I undertook from Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts book did not exactly impress me, so I don’t feel too guilty.

With it being Valentine’s Day, I thought I would share with you the quill card that I made for my husband.  It’s my own take on one of Martha’s crafts – a quilled heart shape.

My husband and I are going on ten years of being together – five of them as husband and wife.  I decided to make ten quilled hearts in gradually larger sizes signifying how my love for him has grown over the years.  Under each heart, I noted the year and then I glued them on a white card with debossed hearts on them. 

The only supplies I needed were:

• Card stock
• Rotary paper cutter
• Quilling tool

You make the hearts by using either quilling paper or if you’re cheap like me, making your own with a rotary cutter.  I made each strip 3/8” wide (totally arbitrary) and then folded it in half and rolled the paper towards the fold using the quilling tool.  To make smaller hearts, I cut off more and more from the length of the paper strip.

Here are nine of the ten hearts.  

I was originally going to do one heart per Valentine’s Day that we’d been together, but after I attached the hearts to the card and started writing down the years, I miscalculated.  Of course I did.  Hence, TEN hearts and making it more about the years we’ve been together.  Nothing like a good, creative story, right?

Here is the card that I already had on hand, but really any card would work (besides, you can't really see the debossed hearts, can you?)

I glued down the hearts with Elmer’s glue (put a little on the back of the heart and then hold it in place until it’s dry enough to keep its shape). Next, I took a colored pencil and shaded over the debossed hearts and took a fine point black pen and wrote down the years we have been together.  Note, don’t be stupid like me and miscalculate.

I love it when things turn out:

My other three projects involved creating flowers out of paper.  The first one I undertook was supposed to be a rose using the quilling technique – it sounded so elegant in her book, “Quilled-Rose Nosegay.”  What a joke.  A hideous, ugly rose that I immediately tossed in the trash after the obligatory photo.

Same supplies as the card (paper, rotary cutter and quilling tool).  The technique was different and not at all comprehensible.  I still don’t know if I did it correctly because Martha’s instructions were so inadequately described.  Here’s a link – let me know if you can figure it out, and if so, send me a picture if it looks better than this horrid thing.

The other two involved tissue paper.  The supplies:

• Tissue Paper
• Floral wire
• Floral tape
• 1” Styrofoam ball (for rolled petal flower)
• Scissors

To make the “Curly Petal Flower,” you cut a strip of tissue paper to 16-by-3 ½ inches.  Make 2-inch wide accordion folds by first folding the paper behind the strip, then folding the paper in front of it (am I mistaken, or is this not the definition of accordion folds? Someone help me out here).  Make 3-inch deep snips in the tissue paper to create fringe, then wrap the unfringed end around floral wire.  Secure the paper to the stem with floral tape and then use that tape to wrap the wire.  Lastly, run the scissors blade along the pieces to create fringe, and fluff.

Accordion folded and "fringed"

Wrapped with floral tape

Curled and fluffed

I take that back.  Do none of the above and don’t waste your time.

But wait!  There’s more!  RIP Billy Mays.

For the “Rolled Petal Flower” project, you cut the same sized strip as the Curly Petal one above (or decide that it’s a totally stupid number and make your own size).  Make 2-inch accordion folds with the same inane instructions as above and then trim and notch one end through all of the layers (see my picture below). Insert wire into the Styrofoam ball, and place the ball toward the bottom of the strip of tissue paper.  Roll the tissue around the ball and twist at the bottom.  Remove the ball with tweezers (or if you’re frustrated like me, just stick your fat hand in there and grab it), and wrap floral tape around the bottom of the flower and stem.  Finally, throw it away because you’d be embarrassed to give it to anyone.  Thanks Martha.

Accordion fold 

Trimmed and notched per Martha's instructions

S'more.  Oops, no that's a ball with wire going through it

Pre-roll 

Post-roll with floral tape

Here's another sneak peek of one of the items I'll be selling on Etsy (note, everything is handmade by me - letters included) :)

That's a Wrap!

Previously I mentioned my sister-in-law’s studly British boyfriend and how he took an interest in my Peaches McGee projects (at least he feigned interest, he could just be an incredible actor... Either way, he's cute and nice, so I don't care). 


Of course, I was the lucky gal who pulled his name in the family’s Secret Santa exchange, so I decided to call upon Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts book. 

She has a craft called "Punched Flower Card and Wrapping" and it looked pretty cool… basically a glorified way of wrapping a present along with a matching card. 

For the card, I needed two contrasting, but complementary colored cards.  I chose to use a brown folded card and a tan colored note card – but you could use two folded cards in different colors.  

I downloaded the template from Martha’s website (and you can too here).  I then used Adobe to copy the image and enlarged it a little bit in Publisher.  Finally, I printed it out on regular copy paper and got to work.

I took an X-Acto knife and placed the template over the note card and used a self-healing cutting mat (why don't they make those for humans?).  


Quick interruption -  it wouldn't be a Peaches McGee project without also admitting that I was stupid and used a somewhat dull blade, so actually ruined the freaking template AND the note card and had to start at square one.  

A dull blade makes Reid an unhappy girl

Tip… 

USE A SHARP BLADE.

With that said, once I had the template cut out, I gently lifted up the “leaves” so that it gave it a three-dimensional look.  

But it looked dull and boring, so I ventured outside of Martha's instructions and decided to use my new metal letter-press set (as seen in this project).  I selected his initials (E O S) and punched those onto the card and then took a black pen and retraced the letters in order to call some attention to it.  Finally, to assemble the card, I took some adhesive dots (or you can just use glue), and put it on four corners of the floral tan note card and fastened it to the brown folded one. 

Letter-press set

Finished card

For the coordinated wrapped present, I first wrapped the box with some simple Kraft-like paper with stars on it.  Then, to make the flower, I printed out the template again, but this time I enlarged it quite a bit so that it would make a statement on the box.  The next steps are the same as for the card…

1. Print template out
2.  Use SHARP knife to trace around template onto coordinated paper (I selected a striped Kraft-like paper I purchased from IKEA years ago)
3.  Gently lift up the petals to give it some dimension

I wanted it to look like one of those “bands” they place around a box at Nordstrom, so I folded up about 2” on either side of the flower and then taped it to the box.  My wrapping paper didn't make it fully around, so I taped it so that just the top and sides were covered.  

Coordinated wrapping paper

Wrapped box

Showing the "band" on which I created the flower

Finished product

I loved the finished project, but it was way more time-consuming than I think is necessary for something that is typically torn apart and thrown away.  However, studly British man did save the card, so that may just change my mind as to whether I do it again or not :)

Merry Craftsmas

In addition to my Martha Stewart journey that I’m on, I like to keep myself busy with many other crafts.  This season may be the busiest (stressful) of the year, so why not tackle a few projects?

First up… the toilet paper roll ornament.  Yep.  You read that right… you use a toilet paper roll to make an ornament.  Trust me on this one, by most people’s reactions, they couldn’t tell what the original product was.

You’ll see a ton of them out there on the blogosphere, but here’s the gist of the project.

1. Collect toilet paper rolls and try to explain to others that you do not need to be submitted to TLC’s Hoarders show because of a toilet paper obsession
2. Spray paint toilet paper rolls desired color (I chose gold to match my Chevron wrapping paper)
3. Flatten TP rolls.  Preferably after the paint dries (hello gold fingers)
4. Cut the toilet paper rolls every ½ inch using sharp scissors
5. Use a hot glue gun and attach each section piece by piece until you have five sections that resembles a star
6. Curse yourself for not realizing that the inside is noticeably NOT spray painted, and still looks like cardboard
7. Drink a glass of wine and relax because it didn't cost you anything

Yep - those be toilet paper rolls!

Second… the ornament wreath.  Nothing too original here, but I liked how it turned out, so decided to share it with you.

To set the mood, I put on my Snuggie, tuned into ‘In Treatment’ on my iPad (thanks Brookelee for the HBO to Go!), and had a glass of wine ready (no craft is complete without this). I used a glue gun to attach each ornament onto a floral foam wreath that I purchased from JoAnn’s.  The first ornaments were the largest ones and I spaced them out evenly – kind of.  Then, I filled in the gaps with the smaller ones.  It took a ton of ornaments, probably close to 40?  I then used tacks to attach a ribbon to the back and hung it up in my craft room where it still hangs.  Here it is:

Next project… handmade salted caramels.  Peaches McGee and I were invited to a cookie decorating party at my friend Shelby’s place.  It felt so good to be included because it was with her innermost circle of friends.  That, and how nice is it to have a space other than yours where your not-quite-two-year-old can decorate cookies?!

The recipe I used was from; you guessed it, Pinterest – Microwave Caramels.  The only change I made was to sprinkle some coarse sea salt on top while it was still cooling.

In order to make it a "real" gift, I wrapped the caramels in waxed paper, placed them in a cellophane gift bag that I had on hand from my wedding, and then made personalized gift tags using my new metal punch set.  I made one for each attendee... 

For another hostess gift, and one for a friend who gave me a yummy reed diffuser, I made some more salted caramels, but decided I wanted to do something with the lavender I had on hand.  So, I settled upon sachets - as much for the look of them as for the smell.  

I used some quilt fabric that my lovely Aunt Penny gave me, and cut 4" x 4" squares using a rotary cutter and mat.

Then, I used a zigzag stitch on my sewing machine, and about 1/2 inch from the edges, I sewed a square, leaving a 3/4 inch opening on one side.

Getting the lavender in the opening proved to be the most difficult step; instead of using a funnel (the lavender kept getting stuck), I just rolled up a piece of paper and stuffed it in the hole and poured the lavender in.  

Next, I did a zigzag stitch over the opening and tried to match up the beginning and end with the other zigzag stitch.  To complete it, I used pinking shears to trim off the excess.  

In order to make the presentation a little fancier, I tied the sachets together with a pretty bow and then put them in a cellophane bag and made a gift tag with the word “breathe” embossed on it.  I placed the salted caramels in a separate bag (wasn’t too sure how good lavender-scented caramels would taste) and made a gift tag with the word “eat” embossed on it.

Lavender sachets

Bundled sachets 

Caramel bag on the left ("eat") and lavender sachet bag on right ("breathe")

Yet another endeavor was some personalized ornaments.  I first made salt-dough ornaments and before I baked them, I pressed Peaches McGee's thumb into a few so that I could use the imprint to make Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer with acrylic paint and my paintbrush.  I also made craft clay (which looks WAY better than the salt dough), and took an imprint of my thumb.  Why did I use my thumb?  Not sure.  


Here’s a link to the clay dough recipe and for salt dough this is what I used:

• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 cups flour
• Mix all ingredients, then roll the dough out and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes 
• Place in an oven set to 250 for about two hours (or when hard all the way through).

I admit that I got the Rudolph inspiration from this pin on Pinterest, but I am pleased to say that the salt dough thumbprint impression was all MINE.  Mine.  Mine.  Mine.  Oops, Peaches McGee got a hold of my keyboard again. 

Okay, last but not least, I tackled two of Martha’s projects from her Encyclopedia of Crafts book. 

The first was Snowflake Ornaments… She includes in her book two templates (which you can also conveniently find right here), and you enlarge them as you please and print on card stock. 

You then take a craft knife and cut out each little hole (I gave up after about five cuts, and used a pair of sharp, tiny scissors to do the job).

Next, you coat one side with white craft glue and per her directions, sprinkle it with fine glitter.  I need to confess though, that I tried to use dollar store glitter at first. 

Lesson learned… shell out the $5 for a small bottle of Martha’s glitter. 

After it dries, paint it again with glue and use glass-shard glitter.  Or don't.  Personally, I didn't know what that was and had no plans on finding out, so I didn't bother. 

Repeat the process on the other side and hang the ornament from the ceiling.  

They were entirely too time-intensive and unimpressive for me to do that, so they’re still sitting on my craft room floor which is likely where they will stay until they head into the garbage.

Crappy picture - crappy product

The second was Glittered Candles.  I used three taper candles that I already had on hand, sprayed them with Super 77 (strong spray adhesive) and then sprinkled them with good ol' Martha's $5 fine glitter.   

Supplies

They looked beautiful, even if they didn’t photograph well!  I placed them at the center of my table for Christmas dinner and I’ll be damned if no one said ONE WORD ABOUT THEM.  They either didn’t turn out as well as I had thought, or people just assumed I bought them?  I can only hope for the latter.

Finally, I had to include a picture of a man who I wanted to give a piece of my mind to, but didn't.  I was in the express lane (12 items or less) at Fred Meyer with a sick Peaches McGee on Christmas Eve, and he had over 50 items???  The nerve.

The belt is full, and look at what he still has in his cart!

Chevron Take Me Away

I finally like something that I did!  Woo hoo!

The Chevron pattern is all the rage right now (as if I have to tell you).  But just in case you’ve been living under a rock, or never knew what it was called, here it is:

I love it!  I love the simplicity, and it’s so classic, so I decided that I wanted to “make” my own Christmas wrapping paper.  I first got the idea after reading the ‘Creative Ideas” magazine from Lowe’s… they suggested purchasing contractor’s paper and then decorating it with a holiday theme.  The paper is awesome because you get a ton of it on a roll, and the entire things costs about $10.

I had some gold metallic spray paint and an idea popped into my head… I would just spray paint a Chevron pattern onto the paper!

I tinkered around with several ideas on how to “make” the zigzag pattern, but settled upon using a metal bracket.  I traced around it on a cardboard box and then cut it out.  Finally, I placed it on the contractor’s paper and spray-painted around it.  Here it is…

Completed Chevron pattern

Supplies... contractor's paper, metallic gold spray paint, zigzag pattern from cardboard

Wrapped present with a toilet paper roll star ornament

The experience was gratifying because I wound up with something that I really like; however, I'm pretty sure I killed off thousands of brain cells when I chose to use an entire can of spray paint in a small, enclosed room.  Oops.

Oh, and one downfall... regular wrapping tape won't work, it's not strong enough.  Instead, I used packing tape.  Not as pretty, but well worth it!

Check The Turkey – She’s Done!

Who’s the Turkey?  That’s me!  I’m done.  Seriously.  I’m just about to give up on Martha because the crafts get more ridiculous by the day! 

With Thanksgiving approaching, I wanted to do some special decorations since we would be hosting ten adults and two children (Peaches McGee included of course!) for dinner.  I completed a paper ribbon loop wreath which I’ll discuss below.  I was then going to do a pine cone craft from "Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts: An A-to-Z Guide with Detailed Instructions and Endless Inspiration," but I didn't find enough “good” pine cones (I thought I lived in the Evergreen State for God’s sake), so I had to refer to “Martha Stewart’s Handmade Holiday Crafts.” 

My sister-in-law and her hunky boyfriend were in town for the holiday and were at my house when I was flipping through the book.  Hunky boyfriend peeked over my shoulder and asked me if I was going to make the turkey pom-poms.  Trying to embody the relaxed, crafty lady that I aspire to be, I said, “Sure! That looks great.”  After all, they looked super cute, and of course I could make ten within a day and a half.

Gulp.

Holy God… I haven’t stayed up as late as I did the night before Thanksgiving since pre-Peaches McGee. 

I thought about putting together a tutorial on making them, but I urge, no DEMAND that you, “DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS PROJECT.”  They are cute, but they are ridiculously tedious to make and if you would like to make more than one, well then you’re in trouble.  I took some shortcuts just so that I was able to complete them before Christmas.  Besides, true to Martha Stewart fashion, you don’t even need to buy a book in order to get the instructions, you can just click ‘here’.  


Here are a couple pictures of the turkeys in action...

Now that I’ve gone over that project, let’s move on to something I found on Pinterest (that site is so addicting!).

I pinned it during my whole wreath obsession (I’m not exaggerating when I say that I have more than ten that I want to create at some point).  I had all the supplies on hand and I wanted to make something “festive” for the Thanksgiving holiday. 

After completing it, I unfortunately removed it from the board, so I no longer have it for reference.  However, I tweaked the instructions, so I’ll just give you my own tutorial…

Supplies:

• 7 different coordinating patterns of 12” x 12” scrapbook paper (2 of each pattern for a total of 14 sheets)
• Foam wreath
• Package of dressmaker pins
• Ribbon for hanging (I used two different colors, one yard a piece and then cut those in half for a total of 4 pieces)

Directions:

7 different patterns of paper that I chose

Foam wreath - I got this one at the dollar store (hooray!)

First row of paper ribbon loops (view from the front), plus the hammer I used to  push in the dressmaker pins (in middle of wreath)

First row of paper ribbon loops (view from the backside)

Completed Project

1. Cut each piece of paper into 1” x 4” strips (I used a paper cutter to make it a little easier)
2. Sort them into the pattern you would like them to appear on the wreath
3. Fold each one in half and then fasten it to the wreath with a dressmaker pin
4. Move in a circle around the wreath, overlapping each piece
5. Continue until the wreath is covered
6. Attach the ribbon to the back of the wreath using the dressmaker pins and tie a bow. 
   
   
   
   This would be an easy project to do for all of the seasons!

Leaf Me Alone

Financial Investment: $ ($1 - 5)

Emotional Investment: J It’s all good

Worth the Investment: - Don’t bother!

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I decided to take on a Martha Stewart craft which called for leaves. Lord knows that we have enough of them in the Northwest; especially after a windy day!  So, I enlisted the help of Peaches and my niece Julia and set out to collect some cool leaves at my dad’s house.  I focused mostly on the Japanese maple leaves because I love the reddish color and the shape is just too cool.

Japanese maple on the bottom.  Cool, right?

I dried them using an ancient method… I placed several leaves between two pieces of newspaper and then put them in the middle of a super duper heavy old-fashioned dictionary. 

Big ol' dictionary!

After about a week, I figured they were probably dry, so I set out for the next step and selected the window in which to make this God-awful curtain.  I chose one based on how often I look out of it – right above the kitchen sink.  Now, a smart person would’ve thought, “Hmmm, this might be difficult because it’s hard to get to.  You practically have to sit in the sink in order to access it properly.” 

My view when I'm washing dishes which seems like 90% of my day

I measured the window and calculated that I would need 24 pressed leaves – 2 for each window pane.  (Side note: Martha writes in her instructions that you’ll need two per pane, but in her picture example, there are SIX.  Huh?)

I cut out 48 pieces of wax paper using my rotary mat, quilter’s ruler and an X-acto knife.  I placed a leaf in the middle of two pieces, and then placed that wax/leaf sandwich in between two pieces of Kraft paper.  I set my iron to a low temperature and ironed away which left me with what Martha so eloquently refers to as a leaf "swatch."

The Kraft paper after being saturated by the waxed paper

After repeating the process 24 times, I proceeded to the next step – laying out the pattern I wanted.  I placed them on the dining room table and didn’t use a mathematical equation or anything, but I changed things around until it felt “right.”  Whatever that means.

The next to last step was to sew the swatches.  I chose a normal sewing needle and some basic white thread and sewed them together.  That was the most time consuming aspect and after sewing 12 of them together, I decided to cut my losses and quit the whole thing.  I did half a window… that’s enough for me!

I begrudgingly took my hot mess of leaf “swatches” and sat in the kitchen sink to hang it up (with some good old-fashioned translucent tape). 

I hate that I wasted time making something that looks like I pulled it out of some sort of memory box that my mom kept with all my grade school projects. 

It hung above the sink for all of about an hour before I ripped it down.