Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a happy holiday yesterday and got everything they wished for! Recently Dave and I attended an "Ugly Christmas Sweater Party". We looked at several different Goodwill's and Salvation Army's, and even a few thrift stores, but couldn't find any ugly sweaters. They must have gone fast. We in turn made our own (and by we, I mean me hahaha).

I appliquéd a green tree onto some red sweatshirts, we bought a strand of battery operated twinkling lights at Target and strung them trough the shirt, dded some puff paint and jingle bells and fun pom-poms and voila! Light up Christmas sweaters!

They were a huge hit at the party! Maybe next year I'll get some of these onto my Etsy store!!!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Gift Wrapping Galore!

I saw a pin on pinterest for a fun way to wrap gifts that makes it look like they were wrapped in a chalkboard. The link took you to a blog of a paper company. They wanted you to buy their paper. I looked at staples and found comparative paper in the teaching supplies section, it was like a smaller version of a giant role of butcher paper.

Here is how my packages turned out:

This way to wrap gifts could work for any holiday or event!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Paracord Items

I have been super busy lately trying to get Christmas gifts put together and made so it has been hard to post what I've been doing. I have been making quite a few paracord bracelets for people though. I made a watch band for my cousin over Thanksgiving and one for Dave.

My cousin's watch:

To close the watch band I used a lanyard knot. I found a great video tutorial on how to make it here. It took a couple of scrap pieces for me to get the handle of where its supposed to be placed though.

Dave's:

Dave's closes with a parachute clasp. Both are made with a square knot but I've seen them done with a fishtail braid too. Mine took about 6-7 feet of cord of each bracelet. You never know when it might come in handy!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Bean Bag Chairs!

Sorry for the late update for the past 2 weeks I was one the set of the new season of Dallas. I'm just an extra but I made a ton of connections and met some really awesome people, who knows it might lead to  bigger and better roles!! On set I've been knitting and I have an awesome project I've almost finished (Post coming soon)! Other than that I finished a pretty cool set of bean bag/foof chairs for Dave and his family!

I found an update on them here. She had the basic pattern shape on there so if you are good with making your own patterns and figuring out sizes you could probably just do that. I on the other hand am fairly new to pattern making of the top of my head and what I've done so far is super basic so I went to the original author's site and bought the pattern. The pattern was only $8.00 and came with a ton of helpful insights. I wish I had bought the pattern before I bought all my fabric and notions, Dave thought he might be able to figure out the pattern on his own since it was symmetrical. Thankfully I bought 4 yards of fabric of all my pieces but my zipper was a bit small (and we ended up ripping a seam when we tried to stuff it) but we made it work.

Like the author said you could go as cheap of expensive as you want with these. We bought more expensive fabric but we used an old pair of foof chairs for the stuffing (We even have a bit left over I might make another for my game room!). Our are filled with foam pieces instead of the stuffing the author used.

These are the most popular chairs to sit in, haha. We made the large size chairs and that sits an adult comfortably, just not as enveloped as the kids in the tutorial pictures haha. Overall they were a huge success! I will warn you, they are a bit time heavy it took me about a day to make one (I made an insert and the cover).

Until next time, happy crafting!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! I had made sooooo many costumes for other people that I didn't get a chance to make one for myself. Not saying that I really wanted to make one for myself (I couldn't really think of an idea and was just going to go with my Lara Croft costume that I love). Instead I wore the female Robin hood costume that I made 2 years ago but got sick and couldn't wear. I must say though I wore it much better this year hahaha.

Dave went as Nathan Drake from the Uncharted video game series. You might recognize the gun holsters I made for him earlier this year!

I have quite a few more projects on the table and I can't wait to get started on them! Until next time, happy crafting!

R2D2 Trashcan!

Dave and I were browsing Pinterest the other day and we came across an ETSY listing for a R2D2 trashcan. It looked simple enough so we decided to try and make our own. At first we thought about painting on the designs but then there was the mess of sealing the paint so it didn't chip, and that the original can looked like the shapes were stickers or something. We finally decided on self adhesive vinyl, just seemed easier! We found the trashcan at the Container Store for $5 and the vinyl was at Hobby Lobby (10 feet for $7.99 but it was half off when I went!)

Here is what it looked like after the first night...

The final product!

I have a crap ton of vinyl left over so if any one wants one then let me know!

Also this weekend a friend confessed that they are a fan of my blog and it really really made my day! I felt so good about stuff haha. I really created this blog just for myself but it was really cool to hear someone else reads my blog besides myself and Dave.

ABC party!

So first off happy Labor Day!! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, mine didn't have enough crafting hahaha. It did have a lot of organizing. I started to move into my new crafting space/office. It's very exciting!

I did have the pleasure of making Anything-But-Clothes costumes for Dave and me for a party on Saturday! Dave had the most awesome idea to make our costumes out of play money (I was thinking of making them out of different color trash bags, his idea proved to be much better).

I made the clothes out of a black garbage bag first and then we taped fake money from Dollar Tree. Over all they cost us a total of like $4.00! The hard part was the crotch in the shorts. It took a lot of tape and garbage bag haha. We taped the dollars like roof tiles right on to the bag!

Other people at the party had duct tape outfits and another couple had costumes made out of paper bags.

Until next time, happy crafting!

Craft Night!!!

So the other day Dave and I had a craft night... Well a craft 30 minutes before going back to play Borderlands... and we made hemp bracelets!

I had to teach Dave how to make a square knot. He wasn't that bad at it!

The start of the bracelet I made for him and some of the eclectic beads I've collected though the years.

The finished product! This one I made for Dave.

A closeup of the beads.

He was still working on his (maybe only half done) by the time I finished the one I made. :)

The finished product that he made me! He kept saying how the one I made was so much better but I just told him I had more practice. It was really cool to be able to craft with him! Until next time, happy crafting!

Long Overdue Update

I'm seeing a pattern with my updates. I get really upbeat about projects at the beginning of the month and then by the end of the month I have a whole bunch of half finished projects and only 2 blog posts hahaha.

Recently though, I have been sick and have been catching up on life but here is an update on what I have been up to recently! One thing I finished a while ago but forgot to post was a blanket for my friend Dave. He was always complaining that he couldn't ever fit under any blankets because he was too tall (6 foot 4) so I took that as a challenge to make him on what he could use while having both his head and his feet covered! Here is the end result:

Yes that is my colorful bedroom... I like color...

Also recently Dave and I joined one of his classmates at grad school and her boyfriend for a glass blowing class. It was a ton of fun! Who would've thought stepping out of the studio into the 90-something heat of the afternoon would've felt cool to us?? But yet it did! It was a ton of fun! Dave made a vase while the rest of us made bowls. His friend, Molly's, design was soooooo cool! It came out looking like a cherry tree just about to blossom, so pretty! Here is my bowl:

Well once I finish my current projects I will keep you guys updated! Also I have a tutorial in the works that is super fun! Until then happy crafting!

Wednesday Spotlight

This Wednesday Spotlight are gun holsters I made out of vinyl upholstery.

They are modeled by my friend Dave! These holsters were made to be part of a Nathan Drake costume for a convention. Hopefully in the near future I can get a picture of him in the full regalia!

Also I made this head band for my sister today!

We had the ribbon laying around from when we all rode RAGBRAI (which is a week long bike ride across the state of Iowa) and she had always wanted it made into a head band so I delivered!

Until next time... Happy Crafting!