DIY Modern Mobile

 

 

This post is cross-posted from Parker Haus Grows.

When I began to look at mobiles for our nursery  I was pretty discouraged with how expensive modern mobile options were.  This modern felt ball mobile was listed for $80 and I couldn’t help but think that I could make my own for less.  I was right, my supplies came to approximately $30. (less if you can purchase the individual felt balls- I had to purchase in bulk to get the colors/sizes that I wanted). When I finally took the time to sit down and put the mobile together it was surprisingly easy.

Supplies:

• (8-10) 1 cm felt balls in desired colors- I did 2 each of red, aqua, green, and grey 
• (8-10) 1.5 cm felt balls in desired colors- I did 2 each of red, aqua, green, and grey
• (8-10) 2 cm felt balls in desired colors- I did 2 each of red, aqua, green, and grey
• (8-10) 3 cm felt balls in desired colors- I did 2 each of red, aqua, green, and grey
• Small beads either in clear or colors that match your felt balls
• Clear thread
• Needle
• Scissors
• Wee Gallery Mobile frame
• Optional- photos or card stock shapes to hang from center clips.

Before I started I removed the hanging clips from the frames (except for two clips in the center) using small pliers.

1. Thread a length of thread through the needle and tied the ends together making a double strand.  Thread the needle through a bead and secure it by passing the needle through the end of the double thread and then pass it through the bead from bottom to top  
2. Thread a 3 cm ball
3. Then thread another bead on the needle and passed the needle through the bead again from bottom to top (creating a loop around the bead)
4. Thread a 2 cm ball
5. Repeat the process with a 1.5 cm ball and a 1 cm ball
6. Arrange the beads and balls on the strand as depicted below
7. Attach the strand to the wire frame with a square knot
8. Repeat for each loop on the frame

I am quite pleased with the result! Hopefully Blobby is as captivated with the mobile as his/her mommy is!

Christmas Odds and Ends

Last year we didn’t decorate the house for Christmas and it made me sad. We were traveling to Indiana for Christmas and it didn’t seem to make sense to get the decorations out and up. I won’t make that mistake again. I think there is something about having visual reminders as we prepare for Christmas and the birth of Christ.

We decided against getting a tree this year. We fear Hugo would topple the tree within a matter of minutes. No need to tempt a mischievous kitten. Without the tree which usually is the focal point of our decorations I had to get creative, and a little crafty.

Top left: I wrapped the our canvas like presents and attached a giant bow. Christmas cards are displayed with clothes pins on red ribbon.

Top right: The fireplace mantle became the focal point this year. I love the huge wreath that we found at Hobby Lobby. I have some lights to add to it but haven’t gotten that far yet.

Bottom left: I painted Cardboard letters to spell NOEL between festive family candle sticks.

Bottom right: Our advent wreath would get more use if we actually ate at home. Cooking fail!

Top left: I saw this trick on Pinterst, use a curtain rod suspended between two stocking holders to minimize the “clutter” on your mantle. 2 stocking holders vs 4 the traditional way.

Top right: We couldn’t go without a tree entirely. I crafted this one using a painted wood base, styrofoam cone, lots of leaf shapes cut from cardstock, and whole lot of mod podge. I needed something for the top and this never used cat toy fit the bill.

Bottom left: This gnome candle holder was my favorite growing up. I can’t help but smile every time I see him.

Bottom right: I dressed up the a milk glass vase with some silk flowers and red and gold “berries” My grandma always had nutcrackers on the mantle. This was one of hers.

It isn’t a lot but its enough holiday decor to get me in the Christmas spirit.

Silhouette Project Roundup

As I fire up my Silhouette Machine to make a card for a wedding next weekend, I can’t help but share some of the fun projects I’ve been crafting this summer.

{Thank you cards for Dr King & VCA staff for Cassanova’s care}

We were so moved by the Dr and Staff who cared for Cassanova. The least that I could do was to make hand-make thank you cards to express our gratitude.   I used the sketch pens to draw the kitty and address the envelopes- I may never hand write an envelope again!  I also cheated and used the sketch pen to write the notes- so much better than my messy handwriting!

{Baptism Card and Envelope}

We were so blessed to witness the Baptism of my former Co-worker’s little boy the one who’s baby shower I threw last year.  We had never been to a Greek Orthodox baptism before. It was a rich cultural and spiritual experience and we had a blast.  I love this swing card design, it is already in heavy rotation. I used the sketch pen again to embellish the card and envelope.

{First Birthday Card and Envelope}

I was dying to make this circus tent card and the first birthday of a friend’s son was the perfect excuse.  I would have never been able to make the envelope for this card on my old Silhouette Machine- this baby took up the whole 12×12 Cameo mat area. And yes… I used the sketch pens to embellish the envelope.  My name is Amy and I am addicted to sketch pens.

{Cotton Anniversary- Canvas Grocery Bag}

Ok a little break from cards.  I used the fabric interfacing to cut out embellishments for the grocery bag I gave Matt for our anniversary. Yes you read that right- my cotton gift to him was a grocery bag.  Last fall we lost one of our two canvas grocery bags.  You would have thought the earth stopped spinning. Matt is not a fan of the recycled non-woven fabric bags and we couldn’t find anymore of the canvas ones.  I found a great quality bag on Amazon and hid it from him. Using scrap fabric I used silhouette fabric interfacing and the silhouette machine to cut out veggie shapes and ironed them to the bag- sometime here soon I need to sew them down but I’m kind scared of sewing through such thick canvas… tips appreciated! He was so excited when he opened this part of his gift.

{Bridal Shower Gift Card Box, Fabric Flower, and Card}

My SIL, Mom and I were unable to attend the bridal shower for the aforementioned wedding. We all went in on a gift card and I decided to pretty it up a bit.  I used the fabric interfacing to make a fabric flower pin and these gift card boxes are my favorite! The swing card makes another appearance, and all the designs were sketched with sketch pens.

{Rock Star Themed Envelope, Card, Favor Boxes, and Cupcake Toppers}

Finally, we threw a surprise going away party at work for our summer intern- also named Amy.  I shamelessly used this as another opportunity to craft. I’m not even going to mention the sketch pens. We had a joke all summer about what a “rock star” Amy was on our project and decided to carry that over to the going away party.  My favorite feature had to be the star cutout boxes for people to take leftover cupcakes home… or the rockstar cupcake toppers… I can’t decide.

I can’t think of the last store-bought card I gave.  I love designing and crafting cards for special occasions like these and with practice I think the quality of my cards is going up.  I better get working on that wedding card!

I always wonder if people appreciate a hand-made card… Do you like to receive hand crafted cards or would you prefer someone just go to Hallmark?

Silhouette Spotlight: Last Minute Cards

First a quick Cassanova update:  The little guy stayed at the vet for 3 days/nights.  He came home Wednesday evening.  The diagnosis: A gastrointestinal infection caused him to stop eating and he became anorexic.  We are assist-feeding him through a syringe.  Wednesday night he was happy to be home. He even ate the wet food off my hands instead of having to be force-fed.  He since seems to be doing better but is pretty much pissed off at us all the time. (wouldn’t you be too? He doesn’t feel well and we shove food/pills down his throat).  He has also at times eaten a little bit of dry food on his own but not much and not frequently.    We still have a way to go. Thank you for all of your prayers thus far, praying for a full recovery.

A couple of months ago I upgraded my beloved Original Silhouette machine to the new Cameo Silhouette Machine because I was interested in the wider cutting space (12″).  I’ve had so much fun with my new Cameo I decided to do a periodic feature Silhouette Spotlight. 

Today Matt and I are attending a BBQ Birthday party for a friend also named Matt.  We don’t usually buy gifts for adult birthdays but I always like to bring a card- and for the past year or so I’ve opted to make the cards myself rather than buy them. I recently finally used the Silhouette’s sketch pens and I am hooked.  I could never address an envelope as well as I can sketch with the Silhouette. Seriously love this!

This apron shaped card with utensils is one of my favorite ones for Dads or men in general.    I actually used the same shape with different patterns and colors for my Father and Father-in-law cards this year.  What is it about men and their grills?

The card shape cost $0.99  from the Silhouette Online Store and I’ve used it 3 times already… not too shabby.  You can cut the shapes out of colored card-stock or patterned scrapbook paper but I am lazy and use the print and cut feature on the Silhouette. The “Happy Birthday” phrase was also $0.99 and I have used it in multiple cards.  I had already purchased the gingham and stripe printable patterns from the online store for $0.79 each and have used them on other projects already.  I am a huge fan of the printable patterns because it means I can cut everything out of one sheet of white cardstock.

The only things that were new purchases were the candles sketch ($0.99) and the sketch letters (four sets at $0.99 each).  I didn’t need to purchase the sketch letters because I could have used the sketch pen with any fonts loaded on my computer but I really liked the look of these and knew I would use them a lot in the future.

There you have it! A last-minute personal birthday card in less than 15 minutes.  My Matt (not to be confused with birthday Matt) and I decided that this year will be a Hallmark free year- I’ve already crafted birthday cards for all of our nieces/nephews, mothers day cards, and fathers day cards.  Can’t wait to find more excuses to craft some last-minute cards!

I’m relatively new to the craft of card making.  Are there any other card makers out there? Any favorite tips, tricks, or tools you can share?

Homemade Valentine 2012

I know, I know, Valentines was over a week ago.  The shamrocks and leprechauns have replaced the heart-shaped candy boxes in the stores but Matt and I just got around to our annual Valentine’s Card crafting on Sunday. Matt’s birthday is just a couple of days after Valentine’s day so last week was quite busy.  On Valentine’s day itself we split a heart-shaped pizza (awe romantic!) at the bar where our romanced first blossomed and we celebrated a little more on Saturday with pizza at Serious Pie followed by the Seattle Rock Orchestra’s tribute to MUSE.  ’Twas awesome.

We set aside Sunday to do a little crafting and continued our annual tradition of making cards for each other.  This year, we both made Zelda themed cards- we’re kinda enamored with that game now.

Amy to Matt

I wanted to go big this year.  I actually started working on my Valentine earlier in the week.  My vision was to create a paper-craft Hook Beetle (from the Skyward Sward) and sew a stuffed felt heart for the Hook Beetle to hold on to.  Unfortunately the paper-craft got the best of me and this is as far as I got in the assemblage of the beetle.  I just couldn’t get the legs to go together right.

I scaled back greatly, dusted off the trusty Silhouette Machine and made this fancy cut out card.

I slipped a square of parchment paper under the lace cutout so Matt couldn’t peak at the design.  The lace corners are held together in the center by a small heart sticker.  On the right is a cute heart cutout box I whipped up to hold the second part of his card.

Inside the card was a Hook Beetle carrying a heart container. The text (Ancient Hylian BTW) reads “You caught my heart”.  Inside the box I placed a Lego heart photo frame that I made for him.  Instead of a photo of me I used an image of a heart container with “You fill my hearts up” written below.  Matt is going to swap that out for a photo of me for his work desk.

Matt to Amy

Matt made me a Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword board game styled card.   I started with Link at the bottom of the page, moving counter-clockwise.

Each stop (Gorron, Treasure Chest, Robot, Treasure Chest, Treasure Chest) had a corresponding card with a message.  He had me flip over the treasure chests to see my prize. For example the first treasure chest said “You blow me away” and on the flip side was the bellows. . The robot said “Pretty impressive… for a human. Happy Valentine’s Day”   The second treasure chest said “A Gold rupee! You feel like a celebrity” and the final treasure chest said “You re-fill my heart”.

And because we are freakishly on the same wave length he also got me a little Lego gift.  This small Lego box looks like a wrapped package with a heart on top. Adorable. It is the perfect size to hold my wedding rings.

There you have it, our Zelda Valentine’s day crafting continues with a Lego twist this year.

Do you and your SO have any geeky traditions?

Christmas Paper Crafting II

So… I showed you my handmade tags and such before Christmas. Unfortunately I couldn’t show you some cool wrapping that I did because posting about it before hand would have spoiled the surprise. Such is the hazard you encounter when your family reads your blog.   So now that the gifts are all unwrapped I think its safe to share some creative packaging.

Matt drew my SIL’s name in the family draw. We were worried about the gift (a personalized necklace) getting to us in time so we had it shipped to my MIL House. This tin was the perfect solution for a gift that we would be wrapping at the last-minute. The tin had a design on the cover so I covered it up with this airmail style label (the same one I used on my nephew’s gift) and a North Pole stamp.

I drew my BIL Mike in the name draw. On his wish list he had 2 saw horses from Lowes.  Obviously those weren’t going to fit in my carry-on luggage so I purchased a gift card to cover the cost.  I didn’t want to just hand him an envelope and I wanted to have a little fun with it so I cut out images of three french hens, two saw horses, and a partridge in a pear tree.

The box is from a Proactive shipment (those boxes are so handy). I covered the outside of the box in wrapping paper and printed the words to my slightly adjusted 12 days of  Christmas song to help cover up the Proactive logo. I also made a Ho, Ho, Ho (or oH, oH, oH depending how you look at it) gift card holder and stuck his gift card inside.

I love any idea to make a gift card less “gift card-y”.  What is your favorite “disguise the gift card” trick?

Random Things I’m Loving

Every once in a while you need a good brain dump.  My cell phone camera was full of photos and my brain was full of ideas.  Here is a random dozen:

1. The new configuration of Phoenix International Speedway (Me at the races in November)

2. The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword.  I am so addicted!

3. Ruffled tank from Macy’s (on clearance!) and seeing the rewards of weight loss.

4. WoodWick Holly and Spruce candle. We don’t have a tree but we have fresh tree smell!  I am loving the wood wick which crackles as it burns.

5. New to us vintage table-cloth from Matt’s Grandma.  It fits our table, and our style perfectly!

6. Pill organizer with removable containers.  I was recently diagnosed with Hypothyroid.  In addition to my thyroid medications I am taking a whole slew of vitamins and minerals to support proper Thyroid function.  Fun times.  Matt and I share these containers for our daily vitamins, I get the yellow AM slots and he takes the blue PM slots. Its perfect when traveling, I just throw the individual days that we will be gone into our luggage.

7. Can-Can Cabaret, Seattle’s amazing Cabaret venue and show. Seriously a must visit in Seattle.

8. Yee-Haw Pickles! I love pickles (L-O-V-E!) and when I found out that my high school friend and his wife were behind Yee-Haw Pickle Company I had to try them. YUM! They are only available in Park City UT grocery stores  which means I have to order online and have them shipped (which is on the expensive side).  I am carefully rationing my pickle supply- these are damn good dills.

9.  We love sparkling water!  This is an average Costco run which should last us 3 weeks.  4 cases of Talking Rain lightly flavored sparkling water & 3 cases of Cascade Ice flavored spring water.  I so need to win  the Soda Stream that Big Apple Nosh is giving away!

10. Mittens in the shape of Wii Mii hands.  I knit these adorable mittens for Mr Russell. I die they are so cute! ( Miitens pattern from Knitty)

11: Bee Ornament Exchange.  Every year the Weddingbee Blogger Bee’s exchange ornaments/items via secret santa.  This year I had fellow Seattle Bee, Mrs Frog.  I didn’t make the cute frog (purchased from Etsy Seller Eggspressions) but I did knit the mini Bee and made the honeycomb ornament.  I can’t wait to get my ornament in the mail!

12. Our new doormat. It greets you with “Come in” on your way in and on your way out it urges you to “go away”. It makes me smile every time I use the front door.

There you go, a whole bunch of randomness that I love, December edition.  What randomness are you excited about these days?

Christmas Paper Crafting

Christmas is coming and gifts wrapped in pretty packages are arriving under the tree. Well, not really under our tree- we don’t have one this year but that is a story for another day.  But this is the season of pretty packages.  I love wrapping gifts and DIYing  pretty packages.  My aesthetic is pretty simple and I try hard to work with the materials I already have on hand.  This year (with the help of my silhouette machine) I used bakers twine, card-stock, stamps, and wrapping paper left over from last year to create pretty packages.

My raw materials.  Bakers twine in green, cardstock in grey, green, red, and gold.

Gift cards deserve pretty packages too!  I printed a peppermint stripe on the tabbed gift card holder and cut out a library envelope in red.  Names were stamped on tags in green ink and tied up with twine.

In stead of adding depth of a package with a bow what about adding dimension with the tag?  The tag doesn’t have to be flat!  Aren’t these 3-D tags adorable?

I prefer to design and print my tags (with the silhouette machine), so much prettier than my handwriting.  On the right are kraft paper gingerbread ornaments.  We have to ship many of our gifts and I liked that these ornaments are comprised of two flat circles.  I placed them flat in the box with instructions for assembly. Instant ornament!

Ok, about that tree.   It’s been making me a wee bit sad that our house doesn’t “feel” like the holidays. After all my tags were done I decided to craft us a tiny tree.  Two pieces of green card-stock, a sheet of kraft paper, a dowel, and a sparkly poof make a pretty cute tree if I do say so my self.

How do you use everyday items to make your packages pretty?

Silhouette shapes used in this post:

• christmas light tag 3d by Loni Harris
• christmas tree tag 3d by Loni Harris
• bell tag 3d by Loni Harris
• star tag 3d by Loni Harris
• 3d christmas ornament-gingerbread boy by Alaa’ K
• 3d christmas ornament-gingerbread girl by Alaa’ K
• library pocket & gift card holder by Lori Whitlock
• peppermint stripe pattern by Lori Whitlock
• 3-d christmas tree by Lori Whitlock

Sending Gifts by Owl Post

My nephew’s (the Boy) birthday is rapidly approaching but it was a post by Geek in Heels way back in July that inspired his gift. As a side note, I’ve purchased no less than 3 or 4 kick a$$ gifts this year after seeing said item on Geek in Heels. Girl, I think I owe you some sort of commission or something.

The Trio Take Flight by Ben Zhu available at gallerynucleus.com

The Boy loves Harry Potter and I thought that this Ben Zhu print would be great for his bedroom.  I ordered the print and stashed it away until this week.  Last year my SIL threw an epic Harry Potter birthday party for him, complete with butter beer, golden snitches, and chocolate frogs.  Admittedly last year would have been the perfect year for this gift but whatever, he (and his sister) are still very much HP fans.

I framed the print and got ready to pack it up for shipment.  Now, what is the proper way to send such a gift? By Owl Post of course!

Instead of wrapping paper I used Kraft paper and twine to wrap the framed photo.

I used my Silhouette Machine to print and cut the “hogwarts crest” by Harry Potter  (available for download from Silhouette) and to design an Owl Post stamp.  The Owl Post stamp uses the “stamp frame” by Loni Harris and “animal owls print and cut” by Samantha Walker. All design elements are available for download (for Silhouette owners) from the Silhouette Online Store.

The address label is “echo park journaling block” by Echo Park.  The birthday card is made from a basic “card” design by silhouette using the print and cut “hedwig with spread wings” by Harry Potter.

It didn’t take long to design, print,and cut all the embellishments using the Silhouette Machine. I think it’s a fun way to add a little something special to The Boy’s birthday gift.

I boxed it all up and added a large Hogwart’s crest to the shipping box and a Fragile (that must be Italian!) label.  The silhouette machine is usually associated with scrapbooking.  I don’t scrapbook, but this is a perfect example of what I use my Silhouette for: paper crafts, cards, and creative gift embellishments.

What is your favorite gift wrapping embellishment?