Scribbles & Bits

Make Your Own Luck: Felt Fortune Cookies

I'll be honest, I don't know what spurred me on to suddenly be obsessed with the idea of making fortune cookies out of felt.  Something must have made me think this was a good idea.  Thankfully, I'm not wrong.  These are adorable and, almost more importantly, easy.  And they are so simple to customize that you will never run out of reasons to whip some up!  

Dictionaries, Rubber Stamps, & Gift Tags

If I sat down and defined last year's personal craft trend for myself, I would easily have said "Garlands!"  I made so many garlands!  I loved them!  I was obsessed with them!  I made them in every size!

While my love for them hasn't died, I do feel a new craft trend coming on for this year.  Tags.  Ok, can you really call it a trend when I can only link back to one tag project (for this year, at any rate.  I did make these cuties last year)?  I think it's safe to say yes because I already love them and I already want to make more and my mind is already full of other ideas! 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's talk about these!

My Word of the Year & My Present To You

On top of all the other resolutions, I thought it would be a good idea to throw in one more approach to 2017.  I've noticed a trend of people picking their word of the year.  It would be the thought that gets them centered, keeps them focused,  gives them the motivation when they just aren't feeling ready to face the tasks of the day.  I ignored this idea for quite a while.  I told myself I didn't need one more thing to keep track of, but I also felt that I would not be able to select a word that would be powerful enough to do me any good.  After all, it's a lot of pressure to put on one verbal talisman: keep my life in check and on track for a year, through every time I'm flagging, every time I'm stressed, every time I'm lost.  Is there one word that would do all that for me?

Tag! You're It!

Ever since the Victorian Slide Bracelet of Tragedy, many of those buttons have been sitting in a small pouch, taunting and tempting me.  I've definitely wanted to use them for something, but I wasn't quite sure what until I was noodling around yet again with the idea of making a stationery box.  I'd always known that in addition to an assortment of cards, envelopes, and paper, I would want gift tags to also be available.  I'd already found a tag template in my stash that I felt would be perfect, but I wasn't sure what I actually wanted them to look like.  Until Melvin the Magpie whispered, "Shiny.  You want them to be shiny."

Saving For an Adventure

You see that (kind of sad) gigantic crayon there?  That has been the home of all my loose change for about the last 20 years.  It's about two feet tall and, when it was originally purchased, had school supplies in it.  In college, it was the pizza/laundry/Raising Cane's fund for my roommates and I.  After college, I decided every time it filled up, I would roll the coins and go on an adventure. 

Resolution Check In

So the new year has started and you are armed with an idea of how you want your life to look now.  But wait: are you struggling a little to get started?  Well here!  Let me help you out!

Just Stash January 2017

It's back, guys!  Combined with every other personal challenge and resolution that I'm taking on for this year, I'm starting it with my old standby, Just Stash January.  If this is the first time you've ever encountered this, read on for the rules (and my usual invite to pay along).

Just Stash January 2016 In Review

Today marks the end of January and of course marks the end of the Just Stash January Challenge.  I would say this was a very successful venture!

This awesome collage shows all the things I made (some links go to the same entry), not including printables, even though they were technically made without me having to purchase anything and therefore fit the parameters of Just Stash January.

Feasting On Scraps: Another Watercolor Banner

There are times you see something and a moment of inspiration hits you and you wonder how you managed to not think of that before.  How was that not part of the original plan?  This is just such a moment.  I was making this banner and I reached the critical step of trimming away either side to make the individual flag come to a point.

 

To refresh your memory

When I looked down at the pile of scraps left behind, they looked something like this:

The Aggressively Pink Watercolor Garland

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day, as I suspect most people have.  When I was a kid, it was decorating paper bags and having a party at school and sweets galore.  It was getting a card from EVERYONE (ok, we were required to, but it was still fun).  It was cute hearts and stuffed animals from my family, and the belief that when I got older it would be all romance and sweet nothings.

Ah the innocence of a child and the crushing disillusionment of teenage and adult life.

I'm sure my story is no different than most.  We've all been single/with someone who thought it was too commercial/dumped by our 4th gay boyfriend on the big day, so no need to rehash.  Let's just all raise a glass and toast that we're SOOOOOOO over it and SOOOOO mature now and it totally doesn't matter.

Except it kind of does.  I really like all the pink and red and hearts and chocolate and OH MY GOD!  IS THAT A MOUSE WITH A HEART FOR A NOSE?  Yes!  Please!  Thank you!  So as much as I try to be all mature and cool and not into it, I still fall down that rabbit hole every time.  Besides, I have an active craft blog now, so I'm legally required to write posts and make crafts for holidays I would potentially celebrate or they take away my license to carry a concealed glue gun and menacing thugs start standing outside Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and even the craft aisle of Target.  Can't have that!  Besides, I already did one craft project for Valentine's Day.  What's one more?  And, as so many of my crafts have this month, this one is totally brought on by "wanting to further explore the limits of how far I can push certain materials and techniques."  Sorry, I was just listening to a modern dancer trying to describe her creative process.  The formality must have rubbed off.  The real answer: still kind of obsessed with watercolor and still VERY into pennants and garland.