Teeny tiny book

I "stumbledupon" a tutorial to make tiny books late last night and couldn't come up with a reason not to try it this afternoon.

I used a hamburger helper box and a bunch of scrapbook paper I had on hand. I didn't want to waste anything till I knew I could make it look ok.

After the first attempt I think I'll use modge podge instead of hot glue...the hot glue beads make it look lumpy in spots. Probably my bad for going so quickly.

I craft with reckless abandon!!

I'm definitely going to try it again.

Modified Camel Chew Thingy

Exciting news! I stumbled upon super grab bags of crafty junk for cheap on recent thrift store runs. It has me wanting to never step foot in JoAnn's again. Ugh.

But I digress. I got this camel tin in one bag and decided to dress it up.

Once the background paper was in I fiddled around with a few additions. As soon as I laid out the Newcastle bottle caps it looked like a robot. I ran with it, having just been laugh-attacked by Bender from hours of Futurama.

She looks raggedy-annesque, but that's thanks to another bagged item: fuzzy yarn!

The bow is from a pair of shoes Izzy chewed because she hates when I leave the house. And I love her for that. We call her "Busy" when she's like that.

A tiny wall plaque

Destin and I were coming back from my nephews third birthday party when I spotted the Grand Opening of a thrift store! My lucky day! They had these grab bags that you couldn't entirely see through and they were super cheap. I found one with crafty looking materials and scored a few stitching frames among tons of other treasures. I was pleased :)

It also came with that lovely paper you see, it's a rich paper and the darker parts are a raised soft texture. I knew I wanted to use the two together for a quick project.

What really inspired me to bring it all together was a random "I want to stamp some leather" moment. I chose the quote mainly because it was short and sweet. With another random whim I brushed the top with some cherry red India ink. After that was done a light bulb went off! "That will go perfect with my new, red, fancy paper!"

I hot glued some beads from and old, broken necklace I scored from my sister, added a few brads to the corner and one of those dragon tears on the top.

For such a fast project, I like it :)

First ATCs

I went to my first Artist Trading Card, or ATC site and started working on the "Critters with Big Eyes" project. I wanted to get them all done before I entered the swap, just because I know how I can get when I make a commitment to something. My word puts too much pressure on me, and I tend not to follow through.  It's terrible, but I'm working on it.

Anyway, I picked this swap because it sounded like a good beginner one. How hard are critters? The host wanted it to be two dimensional, which made it simple. No embellishments to worry about, just draw a cute, tiny picture.

I put them all on some of my homemade paper (that comes from the old menus at work) and colored the background with India inks, and sharpies.

I like the way they turned out. The dog is my favorite because it's a cartoon of my dog, Izzy. The cat and frog are shapes I got off of my Cricut Sweethearts cartridge, I just added faces and color. I guess I can only turn out two images before I get bored of coming up with original ideas ;)

All in all, I think this will be a fun endeavor. It's like being back in school, and I find it easier to begin a project when there is a motivation behind it. And after seeing the other cards...I'm going to try harder next time...

My first crafting challenge entry

I have recently plunged into the online craft world. Looking at blogs, perusing contests, and buying a bunch of crafting materials on Amazon! I am filled with anticipation, it's a lot to take in. With the inspiration of one blog in particular, "Oops I Craft My Pants," which I will credit when I find the best way to go about doing so, I have started making my own journals. I'm proud of the work I have done so far, but I'm also excited to do much, much more.

This notebook fits into the parameters of the August challenge at the Unique Crafters Challenge Blog. It's all about using sparkle.

I made this notebook in a few days and it was going to have peacock feathers all over the front. I changed it because I didn't want to waste that many feathers on one project, hah!

I like to do as much as I can by hand, or by found or recycled items. The front and back covers, for instance are from a box that held something electronic of my boyfriend, Destin's. I turned them sideways so I could take advantage of the cut out for a finger grab. I covered it with two sheets of this nice green tissue paper. I probably should have done three layers. Luckily you can only see the barcode if you look close enough ;)

I drew the elephant with permanent marker and cut it out of brown cardstock, I got the template for the elephant from a gift tag I got at World Market. And when I think about elephants I can't help but relate my note taking to their known ability of storing memories. Thus the elephant notebook is born!

Sparkly both with the grass and the rhinestones. I figured a lovingly adorned eastern elephant would only walk on sparkling grass under sparkling clouds. The clouds being the lacy ribbon that I dyed just a touch with some watered down India ink. Then I added a bit of Kansas City with the top of a Boulevard Smokestack Series cork and a watch piece for the time-telling sun.

Blamo!