Craft Dump 2/28/13

I am not good at blogging, let's be honest.  But there may be something in the fact that I'm making things rather than blogging.  Maybe?

Here's what I've been up to lately:

I was invited to a baby shower, so I made a bath caddy with a cushion for your knees.  It doesn't sound like much, but those pregnant ladies raved about it.  I felt pretty special.  Although I didn't get a final product picture which was pretty stupid.

I'm in the process of making a t-shirt quilt with my band t-shirts.  Fabric is expensive, though, so it's a work in progress.

This is a scarf I made.  I like the pattern, I think it kind of reminds me of peacock feathers.

 It's hard to take pictures of yourself modeling scarves.  I think this works, but I also think it looks stupid.

This is a bobble blanket I'm making for my sister.  Super awesome.

My beautiful new (old) sewing machine from my grandma.  So so gorgeous.

That's all for now, but if you want patterns, instructions, whatever, let me know :)

Crafty Catch Up

Oh, you guys.  I'm a bad blogger.  I don't update, ever.
But, in my defense, I did get my masters degree in Toxicology, so it's not like I've been sitting around doing nothing.
I've actually been out crafting myself!
I'm seriously trying to hand make as many Christmas presents this year, because I am broke.  So here's just sort of a montage of things that I've made.

 This was a sheet that I picked up at Arc, and I cut it into one long strip so that it would act as yarn.  I had this grand idea to make a cat cave a la this adorable one here.  However, as I can't read foreign languages because I'm an uncultured swine, I flew by the seat of my pants and apparently used the wrong fabric.  Here's how it turned out:

 Flat pancake sad sack is how it turned out.  But the kitten has worked out just fine.

Next I wanted to make a wreath because they're all over Pinterest, and this one is adorable.

So here's my version:

Yep, that's our engagement photo in the middle, because I was out of frames and wanted to hang it.  So I strung a piece of yarn in the middle of the wreath, and glued the photo to an alligator clip.  I like it, but my sister wasn't thrilled.  I hope to make more and then have a whole wall of wreath frames.

 Next project was to make some coasters out of the forty thousand corks I had.

Gather materials: corks, felt, cutting utensils, coffee, phone.  In the end the sharp kitchen scissors to the left of the screen turned out to be the best cutting implement.

 I cut the corks in half long ways so that they would lie flat on the felt.  I also laid them out in a brick pattern.  I used Tacky Glue, but I'm not happy with the result because it will become a mess when condensation hits it.  So I'm looking for a different glue and I might get a clear spray paint seal...haven't decided yet.

 Trim the overhanging ends and ta-da! Cork coasters.

Some cute headbands I crocheted for a fundraiser.  They were based off of the pattern I found here, but I made a couple modifications based on type of yarn and hook size.

Finally, I had a crafty afternoon with the fiance, and we made some cinnamon dough Christmas ornaments based on the recipe from this blog. I have to admit, I was kind of skeptical that just applesauce and cinnamon would make a dough, but it totally did, and it smells lovely!  I added some Tacky glue to the mix so they're not edible, but I think they'll last a little longer.  Maybe.

But you mix a cup of cinnamon with a cup of applesauce to get a doughy consistency, and then keep adding cinnamon until you're happy with it. 

 Roll it out, using more cinnamon to keep things from sticking.  Sorry that's a terrible picture.

We had a Fleur de Lis cookie cutter, so we made a couple of those, and then used glasses to cut some circles out.  We got a little obnoxious as pet parents and made the kitties contribute paw prints for cuteness.  We also stamped the cut outs with buttons, plant leaves, basically whatever we could find that would be cute.

 Put in the oven at 200 degrees F for at least an hour and a half.  We kept ours in closer to 2 hours.  Your house will smell like Christmas!

The finished product are some very cute ornaments.  It's not a great picture, but you get the idea.  It was super easy and I'm very satisfied with how well it worked.

I will try to update more often, because I make stuff all the time.  But I might have to wait until after Christmas since some things are gifts...
If you want any of these instructions, let me know!

Pinterest Done-It #2: Ugly Filing Cabinet

You've seen them before.  They're the ugly, metal, two-drawer cabinets that you store pointless pieces of paper in (read: billing statements from 2008 because I'm too lazy to shred them.)  I have one.  In my living room because it would just depress me if it were in the bedroom.
I looked at it one day, while suppressing a bolus of vomit, and decided that this was it's last day of being butt ugly.  I knew what I wanted to do with it, not necessarily from an actual Pinterest pin, but more from Mod Podge + scrapbooking paper inspiration.

Of course I find a pin to this site like two days after I did mine.  But it looks quite nice, regardless.  (Or irregardless, if you're a cray-cray.)

Also, I didn't get a before picture, but you really don't need to be depressed by it's droll appearance.

So I found this fancy cut-out looking paper at the JoAnne (which is my second home, by the way.)  It was $1.99 per sheet, but also on sale for $0.85 per.  Oh yeah!

I used glossy Mod-Podge because I think it looks fancy.

All I did was put tons of Mod-Podge on there and then use a box cutter to cut the overhanging bits.  The part where I had to cut a strip to cover that inch of exposed drawer was tough, but I took my time (rare during craft time) and made it look nice.

This was the end result.

It looks fabulous, no?  Maybe not fabulous, but definitely not as sickly looking.

Mod-Podge is a gift from the gods.

Pinterest Done-It #1: Magazine Coasters

So as I promised, here is a completed crafty craft that I picked up on Pinterest.  The original link goes here.

I figured that this would be a good starting point because, hey, who could screw up folding magaizine pages and gluing?
This site also had a tutorial on making a crucifix to hang on your wall, but I'm pretty sure the house would go up in flames if I did that.  Just saying.
These coasters were actually really easy to make, if a little messy, namely dried glue covering your fingers, but they definitely kept me occupied for an afternoon.
Started with a plain old magazine, mine was a Cosmopolitan.  Because I'm a hip young woman, you know.  You take a page out, and cut it into fourths length-wise (4 long strips as opposed to short stubby ones).  The page that I'm using in the pictures is definitely for lube.  Oh Cosmo.

Fold down the middle length-wise again.  This crease will be your folding guide.

 Fold the outside edges inward toward the middle.

 Repeat.

 Make into a long, skinny strip.

 Roll and glue, glue and roll.  (This is where it got messy).  I used Tacky Glue.

 

Mod Podge for stability.  And awesomeness.  I used Mod Podge gloss, because A) that's all I have and B) it looks snazzy.

 

And look at that!  A coaster!
Now, mine does not look like the original poster's, but it's probably because I don't have a bone folder.  Sorry that I don't have that lying around.  But I did have fingernails!  I think they look pretty interesting and they are solid!

There you have it.  Pinterest Done-It numero uno.  It went surprisingly well, so I'm encouraged!
Laura

Changes Are A-Coming

Hello to all who read this (ie you two people),

Changes are coming.  Since I started this blog, I've striven to find a purpose or theme for it to follow, and I think I finally found something.  Everyone knows about Pinterest, and if you don't, you live in a hole with no internet.  Well I have a pretty extensive craft board, and because I get extremely bored on my days off, I do things.  Crafty things.  So I'm making this blog essentially my completion list of crafts that I have pinned.  Because Pinterest doesn't have a "Done It" button.  Which it should totally have.  Anyways, stay tuned for things that I have done.  Possibly I'll include instructions on how I did it, or at least the website where I got the idea.  In case if you want to do it too.

Talk to you soon!
Laura

There's a Special Place....

...in Hell for You.

Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the large amount of time I haven't posted.  I am a busy bee (aren't we all) and blogging, for some reason, requires a huge amount of energy.  So you can thank my professor for posting a broken slideshow for this chance to write a new blog post. 
When I started this blog, I told myself it wouldn't be one of those where I would just bitch about things that annoy me.  But sometimes I feel like the things I go through are pretty funny, and that those of you reading can relate.  So this post today is for the people who do profoundly annoying things and their (hopefully) eventual destination in the afterlife.

1. People who don't check their blind spot before changing lanes.

• Please view this Allstate commercial as a visual representation.

      Is it so hard to check?  I don't think so.  All it takes is a little head turn to make sure your gargantuan Escalade doesn't run over the little Smart Car in the next lane.  But in reality, there are around 840,000 side to side accidents with 300 fatalities per year in the United States because some lazy ass just decided to come on over.  Thank god I have really super awesome insurance, because I'm sure out of those 840,000 accidents some fool doesn't.  And in interest of fairness, I just recently purchased a Honda Element, a definite size up from my Toyota Camry.  And while it's a little harder to check the blind spot, yes, because it's much larger, I make a point of doing it because A) I don't want to kill anyone, and B) I am too poor to fix someone's car if I bonk into it.  Check your blind spots, people.  One little head turn could save you thousands.  Idiots.

2.  Mouth breathers.

 

To be categorized with the squealy nose breathers and the leg jigglers.  Mostly I encounter this in a classroom setting.  Mouth breathers either have some noxious disease that has plugged their sinuses like a drain in the equine science major dorm bathroom (hahaha sorry, horse girls), or they just never learned that their nose has special holes made for breathing.  The result is that they end up always leaning toward you and doing their best impression of Darth Vader right in your face.  And, because they don't keep their mouth closed, it's dry, and a great place for smelly gingivitis bacteria to party.  (On a funny side note, there is a band called Mouthbreather, and they totally have a myspace.)  If you're a mouth breather, for goodness sake find some nasal decongestant, get that deviated septum fixed, and stop breathing on me, I'm trying to take notes.

3.  Professors that want you to know "everything" for the exam.

This may stem from the fact that I had the worst exam of my life the other day, but professors can be divided into two categories: ones that are one your side and ones that want you to fail due to some underlying power dynamic.  The second type are the ones I want to talk about.  My professor for that horrible exam held a review session for the exam on Thursday that Tuesday afternoon.  As of Tuesday afternoon, he hadn't even written the exam.  So essentially, we couldn't even focus on certain topics because he "didn't know" what would be on the exam.  And of course when the exam rolled around, two of the questions (out of four questions total) were on a concept that we studied for half a lecture (about 40 minutes) out of 10 hour-and-fifteen-minute lectures.  The most irritating answer a professor can give to the question "What should we study for the exam?" is "Everything."  Sorry, dude, not gonna happen.

I always thought that a professor's job was to teach you things and help you do well on the exams.  But there are some wingnuts out there that feel like their subject is the stuff of Nobel prizes, and if you don't know every insignificant detail, you don't know jack, and thus should fail.  Those teachers are not teachers.  They're buttheads.  Also, you've had 4 days to grade the exams, why aren't you finished yet?!

4.  Over-Explainers.

This may be a more personal vendetta, but as a scientifically-oriented person, I value answers that are to-the-point and not drenched in unnecessary explanation.  My new manager is one of these people and naturally being new, I have made a couple mistakes.  What gets me fuming is that rather than just pointing out the mistake, she walks me through the reasoning why it's done that way, the history of the development of that particular method, how people feel about it etc.  What could be a thirty second conversation has been dragged out into a 5 minute long thing.

This post will be continued, because there are many more people who belong here.  Stay tuned!