recycle your magazines, two times!

i flip through magazines as a hobby. i study them. cut out of them. paste pictures into journals. and quite frequently i try to figure out a craft i can do with them before i send them to their final destination, the recycle bin. i've used pictures to decoupage coffee tins, tv trays, magnets, and a toothbrush holder. i've cut out cool pictures and framed them for art. with the magazines that don't have cool ideas and pictures, i cut out big sections of color, which i then decoupage into framed art.

by far the magazine craft that was the most involved was the greeting card... very specific to the recipient. it's not as easy to be creative when i'm not my own target audience. i tore out a magazine page and cut it in half length-wise for the base. i'm not sure what made me think scotch tape would be the best thing to put this craft together, but it seemed to work ok. might choose something less noticeable next time. i think the pictures are from the three different ones that i made but they're sort of hard to tell apart.

is there a minty green phase in my future???

i submit that it's a definite possibility. this lovely green, "mint sprint", called my name at the kroger down the street this evening. i'm certain that the true name of this color is "vespa green". check with me next time sally hansen.

you know, vespa green

about a week ago i purchased an old bedside table and magazine rack at an estate sale. neither were particularly attractive but thanks to the $5 price tag, i went ahead and purchased both and immediately began trying to think where, in our rather small apartment, would i put these two new gems. after moving them around a bit and getting friends to weigh in on the decision, the pair ended up ousting the blue, refinished goodwill-drop-off-site table from the hall, and relegating it to an inferior position in the bedroom. in such a prominent position at the end of the only hall in the house, i knew the redoing of these two pieces couldn't wait. i sanded, primed and and repaired the table, spray painted the magazine rack and headed off to sherwin williams to pick out the perfect color for the new table.

i googled the color first: i tried "70's green", too olive-y, "60's green", too yellow-y, and then i tried "50's green" and it was too... well, just right. when i went to the paint store i tried to describe this green to the paint pro, but he looked at me, puzzled, when i explained that it was "vespa green". didn't seem to help. if only he had let me use his internet machine, i could have shown him this picture:

whatever my description, i think the paint pro got it just about right. here's the finished product! (next time i'll post before pictures so you can see my actual finds, pre sweat and hard work)

learning to sew

after the first summer session ended, i found myself in full-blast craft mode. i picked up a sewing machine from my parents' house, the slinger slant needle 404, and when my mom was staying a few nights with us, she taught me a few things on the machine. thank goodness the instruction manual was still in one of the drawers because when she left i had a little trouble remembering all the steps. my first project, a yellow pillow with the letter "b" on it, did not go well. after a frustrating first hour of trying to shove the material through the machine, uneven stitches and countless knots on the back side of the fabric, i looked back through the manual and realized i didn't have the presser foot down. resulted in a very artsy letter "b".

since the artsy "b" i've made several other pillows, put in three or four zippers, purchased a new machine off craigslist and perfected (well, improved) my pillow-making skills by sewing some pillows for friends; friends who don't mind a curvy seam and a few obvious slip-ups. hopefully soon i'll tackle other sewing projects, a dress perhaps, or a set of napkins :)

easy-to-make bird magnets

thanks to the nifty bird template at paperseed.com http://thepaperseed.com/?cat=35 i now have some cute bird magnets to decorate our mail bin.

the suggestion at paperseed.com is to cut out the same birds in felt. i traced the birds onto posterboard then cut small pieces of color from magazine pages and decoupaged each of the birds. you could also cut the birds out of decorative paper, newspaper, fabric, etc. then cover each of the birds and hot glue a magnet to the back when you're done.

blue pyrex

new blue bowls! $0.50 a piece at an estate sale. take that antique stores! :)

a kraft kollage

evidence that there are many craft posts on their way! this is a collage of most of the crafts that soon will have their very own individual post.

A shift in theme!

with the marathon complete, the focus of this blog has now obviously changed. from now on i'll be posting about my latest craft endeavors, or should i say kraft with a "k". when driving through small towns (i'm sure big towns have it too) have you ever found yourself amazed by the blast of creativity when you see "c" words on signs spelled with a "k"? i know i have. cool is so much cooler when spelled with a "k", and cars, well, a little bit fancier when transformed into "kar". and let us not forget, the even more clever, "k" to substitute "qu", as in kwik. this is not only kool, but also a real time saver. who wants to use two letters when one will do the trick?! ("kw" for "qu" minus the "c" from "ck" -- yep, definitely a time saver).
thus, to honor these clever members of society, i've retitled the blog with a couple of these cute "k-for-c" words; you know, keep the kreative energy flowing. i'll be posting, hopefully more often than before, pics of my craft endeavors.

happy krafting!