Recipe Box

I haven't been able to craft for a week because the in-laws were in town to meet Audrey, and today I felt withdrawal setting in. So, I whipped up this little recipe box.

By 'whipped up' I mean 'spent all day sitting on the floor (oh, my back is mad at me) cutting and gluing things between holding a fussing Audrey who kept demanding to be held.' But, you know, same thing. Before, we were using a notecard box that was, and I'm not kidding about this, ugly. So I cut up a flat rate box (since they're free) and folded and glued it together, then wrapped the outside and lined the inside with scrapbooking paper. I added the ribbon and the letters on the front, then put in the cards.

I really like how the flower on the front turned out. All I did was glue the ribbon to the box, then wrap the excess (about four inches) around a few times, gluing as I went.

When I thought I was done, I realized it wasn't decorated enough for me, and the separator cards were plain and kind of beat up. I used some card stock (I have far too much of it on hand), buttons and ribbon to fancy them up a bit.

It was a simple project, and I think I'll make another for my mom for Christmas. When I do I'll take pictures as I go, which I forgot to do this time (typical). I'm sure it would be a quick project too, assuming you don't have a clingy baby crying at you all day. Not that I mind...

She's worth it.

Capture Your Dreams

During my daily Stumble, I found this. I thought this was such a cute idea, I just had to make one of my own. I haven't mastered the art of getting Audrey to take naps on her own, so in order to get my fussy little girl to sleep, I have to hold her. So I took advantage of the time I spent confined to my chair today and (with the help of my husband in the hanging-and-fetching-stuff department) made us a wall of dreams.

Below the butterflies is the jungle gym we built for our cats.

When we complete an item, we'll write the date on the back and put it in here.

Hung with a bit of jewelry wire.

A dream of mine. ;)

I really like how it turned out, and I'm excited to achieve the things we've been talking about for years. Here's our (short) list, as it stands right now.

1. Make it to the headwaters of Caribou Creek.
2. Put in hardwood floors.
3. Stay at the ice hotel.
4. Visit Teotihuacan.
5. Pay off all our credit card debt.
6. Lose ten pounds (I put up five of these, so I can feel good about completing small goals instead of staring at "lose fifty pounds" for years.).
7. Buy an Argo.
8. Drive the Dalton Highway.
9. Visit Lofoten, Norway.
10. Have another baby.
11. Visit Stonehenge and some English castles.
12. Stay at the underwater hotel.
13. Get professional family pictures.
14. Visit Antarctica.
15. Stay at the tree house hotel.
16. Buy a camper.
17. Visit all fifty states.
18. Create a savings for Audrey.
19. Stay at the airplane hotel.
20. Make a living doing what I love.
21. Look good in a bikini.
22. Go on a tropical vacation.
23. Stay at the viking hotel.
24. Take Audrey to Disneyworld.
25. Get to the top of Sheep Mountain.

Jazz it up!

A few summers ago, my husband and I decided to check out some garage sales. We weren't looking for anything specific, but when we saw a tall table with two chairs for $60, we had to have it. We'd been toying with the idea of a set like it for some time, and it worked out perfectly for our small house. Since it was just the two of us at the time, we didn't want anything bigger.

The chairs were in great shape, but the wood on the table needed some love. There was a large scratch on the top, and a good amount of some kind of lotion spilled on the bottom. When we got it home, we sanded it down until the scratch was gone and stained it a few shades darker. Then we applied a pretty thick layer of resin to seal it. That's all we did at first, and the fabric of the chairs has always bothered me. It was bland and attracted a lot of cat hair (but what doesn't?)

This past weekend I finally got tired of just looking at it and decided to do something about it. I had some fabric left over from the throw pillows I made to go on my recliner, so I figured I'd use the excess and create a kind of extended theme. This is probably the easiest, most idiot-proof project I've ever done, so a step-by-step 'how-to' seems unnecessary. Basically, I took the seats off, cut the fabric to size, and stapled it on. Then I put the seats back on. Easy as it was, I realized I should have done it sooner.

 

Original fabric on the right

Throw pillow made a while back

Finished

The set

So Tacky

Today I went on a date with tacky glue. I've met tacky glue before, and I wasn't impressed. It just didn't suit the project we worked on together. I thought it would only be fair to give it another chance, and I had a project in mind (in fact, I've been daydreaming about this project since I cleaned out our storage closet downstairs on Monday.) All said and done, Mr. Tacky did the job well, and I see us developing a relationship in the future. 

The idea I've been dwelling on had to do with an old wooden crate my husband had lying around. I'd uncovered it in the storage closet and suddenly a billion possibilities started screaming at me from all directions. Tempting as it was to stop cleaning and dive right in to the old crate's makeover, I managed to be a big girl and stay focused on the task at hand. I set the crate aside. 

Tuesday, I was yet again faced with grown-up duties (blah) and again had no opportunity to pursue my daydream. But today was the day! I would not be deterred. Now, I have a bad habit of forgetting to take pictures as I go, so unfortunately all I have is the finished product to show. The good news is this is a simple (seriously simple) project, so it doesn't take a lot of specifics to see how it was done. 

First, I had to sand off the name of my husband's business, which was painted on in black. That was the hardest (read: most time consuming) part. Next, I painted it white with acrylic paint (I had it on hand, and when possible I try to craft on the cheap.) Then, I cut some decorative card stock I found in my craft closet into two inch squares and affixed the squares to the bottom inside of the crate using tacky glue. I mentioned I wasn't sure it'd work, but it did really well. It dried fast and held great. I cut some smaller pieces of the card stock to finish the pattern and glued them on too. 

I made a glue/water mixture and sponged it over the card stock after it was all glued in, hoping to prevent the card stock from peeling off.. Here, I made a mistake and let the card stock get too wet. It started to bubble up a bit and the corners of the squares folded back. My solution was to use some fashion cork board pins I had in the craft closet to pin the corners down. I think it looks really nice, and served the purpose well. I'd been looking for somewhere to use those pins, anyway. 

Next, I created a couple paper flowers using the card stock and more tacky glue. I like that the glue stayed malleable long enough to place the petals on the top flower, then dried firm. I used another cork board pin as the center of the flower. I cut some of the flower shapes out of the card stock and glued them on as well. 

The final step was to hang it. I attached a picture frame hanger to the back of the crate, and hung it in the bathroom for a cheery storage solution. I really like how it turned out, and I can't wait to do another for our other bathroom.

 

I hope you enjoyed this, my first entry in what I hope becomes an interesting craft blog. Tomorrow I'll do a write up on some older craft projects I've done!