We had another birthday and with it, another gift card to be properly presented. This time I didn’t totally laze out and did a tiny bit of inking on the white star…not much, because I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to play around too much. I just needed the star to show up against the inside of the white card.
I really think it turned out cute.
My favorite gym instructor is going on maternity leave and I just had to give her something since she’s the reason I actually go to the gym. I just wanted to give her something small as a token of my appreciation so that, hopefully, the love all of her loyal followers show her now will mean she’ll want to come back after her baby is born.)
So I started keeping a lookout for cute baby gifts on Pinterest (because there’s no reason to go out and search for it, when I know it will come to me.) And there it was…these cute little lollipops made from baby washcloths and baby spoons.
You should totally go here to get the original tutorial.
OK, so I bought a pack of 6 washcloths (to make 3 lollipops), a pack of baby spoons (the kind I liked with the long handles came in a set of 6). Then, what to put it in…what about a cute little bucket from the dollar section at Target? And how about a couple of little bath poufs because I need some filler and they are 2 for $1 and some cellophane bags to wrap the lollipops in…
So here are my lollipops:
But they wouldn’t stand up in my little bucket nicely, so I made some pouffy flowers with the bath poufs taped to the three extra spoons and I shoved one stemless pouf into the bottom of the bucket. The whole bouquet ended up being more pouffy than lollipoppy, but I think it looks cute.
I added a little matching ribbon to the bucket…
and made a cute tag to top it off…
Best of all, she loved it!
Here’s a project that consumed my life a number of years ago…these super cute butterfly magnets. The wings are made from polymer clay canes. Not the complicated kinds with lots of reducing. These are the super easy twist kinds. Roll three or four colors into snakes and twist them together. Fold in half, twist again. Fold in half, twist again. Lather, rinse, repeat…but stop before all of your colors are blended into one color. Roll into a nice log and slice. Each slice will be different. If you take the back of one slice and the front of the next slice, you get mirror images like the sets of wings on my butterflies.
I absolutely love the way this orange one turned out.
This purple one is my favorite. I spent hours blending the perfect purple and working on a cane. Then I realized the twisty cane method gets you similar results at a fraction of the time...
Pretty in pink. It matched the beads perfectly.
This one was made from a botched project that I smooshed into a cane.
Same botched cane, this one is dusted in PearlEx and has gold-toned antennae.
I discovered these little gems through my own trolling of the interwebs and knew I had to make some of my own. I stamped onto shrink plastic—I used Shrinky Dink Ruff-N-Ready. Then colored with Sharpies and colored pencils. Popped them in the oven and when they were all soft, wrapped them around something round. When I was satisfied with the shape, I coated the inside with Future Floor Wax, but you can use whatever sealant you want. I keep my Future in an aquapen for easy application and it just happened to still have a bit of gold PearlEx on the brush so that’s how the one on the left got the gold sheen. You should probably do multiple coats of sealant to protect your design. Watch out when washing your hands or using hand cleaner—both have left me with a Sharpie ring on my finger. The good news is that you just need a little more hand cleaner to rub the color right off your skin.
Here is the tutorial from PlanetJune I used to make my Shrinky Dink rings. Just a quick note about the instructions. It took me forever to figure out what size of material I needed to get mine the right size. I suggest making a Shrinky Dink ruler guide. Cut a strip of the plastic, mark every 1/4″, and pop in the oven. Be sure to cut strips from both sides—the long side and the short side because they don’t shrink proportionally. Wrap a strip of paper around your finger to get your ring size. Then measure against your ruler. You should be able to determine how big your strip needs to be before shrinking.
Another note: the tutorial says to wait a couple of seconds after they come out of the oven so you don’t burn yourself. I found if I waited, they cooled before I could wrap them into a circle. So I dealt with the tiny blisters on my fingers and wrapped them as soon as I could. I had way less than 10 seconds to get them molded.
And remember, these are slightly fragile. The swirly one in the center is my second one and my Tinkerbell ring has a crack in it. Both were victims of too much fiddling while wearing them.
In my world, you can never have too many magnets. I will put magnets on anything. But don’t give me those cheapy, weak magnets that won’t hold up one piece of paper. I need the super heavy-duty ones. The ones that are so strong they are hard to separate. The ones that will slide across the table trying to attach themselves to each other. Of course, you have to dress up said magnets. (At the very least, they need a handle so you can peel them off your fridge.)
I was so inspired seeing these glittered clothespins on Pinterest, that I went out and bought glitter to make my own magnetic glitter clothespins.
So some clothespins, magnets, a bit of glue and a bunch of glitter later, here are my glitter clothespin magnets. I especially love the two colored ones.
So, my son was invited to a birthday party and I, being the quintessential procrastinator, bought a gift card the day before, but I didn’t have a card or gift card holder. Time to pull out some scrapbook paper. I thought, “hmmm…maybe I’ll try some of those cool card techniques I keep pinning on Pinterest.” I wanted to do some nice inking around the edges, but I’m kinda lazy (and since it was for an 8-year-old I didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary). So here’s what she got:
Cute striped paper. I cut out the sun with my handy-dandy exacto (yes, a lot of work for the lazy crafter) and raised it with foam tape.
The inside features a sun pocket to hold the gift card. I wanted to do more to the inside and the outside, but yeah, I’m lazy.
So for Dad’s birthday, I needed a fun, easy, cheap gift since the stuff he really wants isn’t available yet or not my area of expertise to buy. Thanks to my new addiction Pinterest, I found this little gem.
So I loaded up the kids and headed out to the drug store. They didn’t have everything to make our version, so we had to make two more stops. All in all, I thought it turned out super cute. I wish my handwriting was a little neater and my lines were straighter, but I had to fit more candy on my card…so that’s my excuse.
No. This isn’t the same birdbath. The second grade teacher loved this Gala project so much, she tried to outbid everyone else. She lost. She wanted to have me make another one just for her and was willing to pay her highest bid price. But there was no way I was going to accept more money for it than the cost of the supplies (about $50).
Instead of having her pay of any of it, we asked parents if they’d like to contribute so it could be a present from the whole class. She was so touched when I delivered it to her classroom. She was still expecting to pay for it. She had no idea that the class had paid for it.
This one is actually better than the first one. The insides are engineered better and the kids’ fingerprints turned out better. And this one didn’t end up with a hairline crack…
Click on the pictures for closeups.
This project dates back to 2010. (It’s been up on this blog since then, but when I updated this website I lost this post.)
For my 2nd grader’s class project for the school’s annual fundraising gala, I made a beautiful birdbath from terra cotta pots. The top is a large saucer featuring a mosaic wave pattern with 2 colors of glass and glass marbles around edge. I turned the kids’ thumbprints into flowers, lady bugs, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, crickets and caterpillars. All the kids’ names are next to their thumbprints. It took me many hours to finish, but it brought in over $200 for the school.
Click on the images to get a better view.
Pinterest
Pinterest