Category Archives: other crafts

Part of my day in Toronto.

Had some fun this week wandering about Toronto.  I’m going to have to make time to do this again really soon!  There was way to much to see and I ran out of time for all the fun things I wanted to accomplish.  In Kensington Market we stumbled upon Funky Junky, an awesome vintage store full of fantastic stuff.  I was camera-less but snapped some photos with my iphone.

A collection of vintage cameras and accessories.  Beside them was an ancient Singer sewing machine, the old weighs-a-ton black model with the fancy gold writing.  Yeah, that’s my description.

Suitcases and other travel worthy things.  Super cool stuff.  The white one was really cool but when we opened it there was a blow dryer inside!  Beside them you can see the collection of phones.  Around the corner from those was a big box with Gem’s Roadster in it!  Complete with FM radio in the trunk.  There was also a stack of old video games, including Intellivision!  We had that.  I remember my mom bought it on some financing plan it was so expensive when it first came out.  Of course Atari took off and poor little Intellivision was left in the dust.

Here’s some random kitchen stuff.  It was easy to lose track of time in there with so many fun things to look at!  The best part is it will be even more fun to make sure to pop back in every time I’m downtowm and see all the new treasures.  Definitely taking my camera next time.

Jazzing up boring white address labels.

I’ve been doing a lot of shipping lately with the sales in my shop and after a few handwritten return address labels I thought I’d get a bit inventive.  Plus it saves space on the package.  So I printed some return address labels on Avery label paper.  Then I gathered some other paper materials to stick them on to.  I started with an old atlas.

Then I grabbed some other things to reuse like Nate’s recent art work and some flyers from the newspaper.

It was super easy I just peeled off the sticky label and placed it on the backing paper so it would have a neat border.  Then I cut around it leaving a bit of the backing paper showing.  Other things I thought would make really neat backing papers are wallpaper scraps, paint chips and old stamps, sadly I didn’t have any of those lying around.

I used packing tape to just go over the whole label when adhering it to the packaging, I wanted to make sure they stayed on as some are going far, far away.  Glue, a tape runner or a Xyron would work too.

Girly Handmade Beginnings pants this time!

I was so happy to get to pick out some fun and girl-ish stuff to make for the lovely baby Samantha.  I also got fancy and appliqued some t-shirts to go with the reversible pants.  Needed a nice thoughtful gift and a break from being a pillow factory.

You can’t really see but there are little brown, pink and white birds on the first pants.  I added some brown with white polka dot fabric to the inside to make rolling up the pant legs more fun.  On the second pair of pants I actually cut the leg shorter and added that bank of green apple fabric so when she grows bigger and can’t roll up the pant legs they’ll still look like they have a fun contrasting cuff.

Now I just have to get her counting book all done! :)

Mid New Year’s resolution!

Here I was earlier this month worried about what cake I could make my hubby for his birthday to top the over 150 000 hits the image of his cake got last year! All I had to do was make a pillow apparently. So I pledge to end up posting something fun to the wonderful internet each year that will get oodles and oodles of hits.

I’ve accomplished my mission for 2010. Now I’ll just make fun stuff for the rest of this year and worry about 2011 in January. Here’s my latest creation. It makes me giggle.

Oh I’m not sure I’ll have a Friday find. I’ve been caught off guard this week and haven’t really had time to think/search the web.

Need a pin cushion?

I sure don’t!

Thanks to LA‘s tutorial way back when and an addiction that seems to have returned (probably due to a growing pile of fun scraps) I’ve created a few pin cushions. I think I’ll need to go around in September when I’m back at work and find out who sews or crafts and start giving them away!

Friday Find – JewelzyBug Designs GIVEAWAY!!

As if playing around on etsy isn’t dangerous enough already, the other day while poking around I clicked ‘shop local’ and stumbled onto some pretty neat stuff. My favourite was JewlezyBug so I’m sharing her first! Julie has created some really cute characters and uses some interesting materials. She paints on rocks to make neat pendants and uses pages from old books and phone books as the canvases for her whimsical paintings!

I sent her a message on etsy and she seems really fun and agreed to do a GIVEAWAY!!!!! Soooo free stuff to someone who’s in need of cuteness! Julie is willing to giveaway one of her prints, see them all here in her flickr pool, just leave a comment here telling us which one is your fav (they’re numbered 1-90). I like this little guy.

I asked her a little bit about herself and she sent this little blurb, thanks for sharing!

“I have always doodled and painted for as long as I can remember. I am drawn to bright colours and happy motifs that catch the eye and make you smile. I like my art to make you feel good and brighten your day. I use old books and phone books as my back drops because they visually stimulate the eye and provide texture to the art. I feel my art is a reflection of my inner child just wanting to play. I take inspiration from colour, from my day, nature, from the people in the my life and from my furbabies (4 cats and 1 dog: Jewels (hence the name!)”

She also has a blog where she shares her new creations, fun crafts and her cute animals. I love these ribbon curtains she made.

I’ll do some magical random winner picking Sunday night and announce Monday morning! Ohhh the suspense, I’d better set my iphone alarm . . .

Craft swap fun!

So I worked really really hard to get all of my pincushions done, even worked on them while the hairdresser and make up lady were getting us ready for the wedding last Saturday. I’m being inpatient and sharing now.

The swap is run by Amanda. I headed out last Monday with my box squished with 16 pincushions to mail them far, far away to Colorado. The nice man at the post office had icky news. To get the package to her before the weekend it was going to cost just under $60. Technically it was due to her on Wednesday! I could use the 5 day option for $25. It was a sad, sad day.

Luckily Amanda took pity on me, and some other people facing similar problems and extended the deadline nto the end of the month! Now I can send my cute little goodies for less than a zillion dollars. AND I’ll get a nice and fun box full of 16 camp themed goodies in the mail! It’s going to be so fun.

Friday Find – household tip, trapping pesky fruit flies

I won’t say this tip absolutely gets rid of them but it sure helps knock the population down a bit!

I was very industrious outside yesterday with the wonderful help of my friend Joanna.  Now my backyard looks so neat and tidy, better than it’s looked in the 3 years since we moved here!! It’s hard to do things with 2 little ones underfoot. Joanna did more work than me since I had to keep getting drinks/snacks/stopping quarrels . . . but the end result was great. Before and afters soon.

Today is a rainy gray day so we’re staying in and relaxing after a busy week. However, with that comes the horrible summer-keeping-a-compost-bin-on-the-counter problem of fruit flies. So I made some little traps.

That trap was near my compost bin for a about a week.  I suppose you could be diligent and free the little fellows outside.  I apologize for the fruit flies that were harmed in the making of this post.

How will I top last year’s got-over-150,000 hits-XKCD cake?

Last year I made this cake for my darling husband.

I just stole it from here.  I also doodled other little bits of the comics that I knew he liked, adding my own little geeky joke to the bottom right corner.

Hubby was absolutely thrilled! He instantly posted it on Reddit, and the world (well of geeks) started to notice. It got a bunch of  comments on Reddit, ended up on Digg as well. The image got over 150 000 hits!   Waaaay more attention than I thought, I was just baking my honey a cake he’d like.

His birthday is quickly approaching and I have nooooooo idea how I can compete with last year’s cake :(

Kool Aid jammer beach bag fun!

Someone at work mentioned she had attempted to sew juice pouches and kept breaking needles.  I happily offered to make her the bag she couldn’t make herself.  So I sat down to construct a bag and liked it so much I made myself one too!

It’s absolutely ginormous and can hold everything you need to head to the beach/park/swimming.  I’ve carried mine back and forth to work, swimming with the kids and yes, to the beach!  It’s great for things that are wet, like your water bottle that gets all condensation-y, or your wet swim stuff.  I used black nylon for the straps and I made them really big, I bought about a  metre/yard and just cut it in half to make 2 straps.