Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a great New Year. 

Made this stuffed felt ornament at a little stitch shop in Austin, TX. They had pre-printed felt designs that we were able to adorn with hand sewn sequins. I took my grandmother with me, to do a little family crafting. 

I think it looks like a mexican-flag. Loved this one the most, especially with the heart sequin where Austin would be. 

Hope everyone has fun creating this holiday season, and to all a good night. 

Color Palette Creation

I saw this photo on Pinterest, originally Pastel Roses by fantazyme on DeviantArt. It gave me a chance to create my own color palette. I used several sites to get together just the right colors from the image. Most that I used would not give me that warm sage color in the upper right corner. So I put two different links together and was given more than enough to assemble the best colors out of all the choices.

I started with CSS Drive - Image to Color Palette creator, this gave me all of the choices. Then I narrowed down the most prevalent with Color Palette generator by DeGraeve.com. With a little PicMonkey Collage magic you have what you see before you. 

Wedding theme colors anyone? 

Also did one with this image, which try as I might I can't find any source information about... sorry.

Writing Process Pencil Chart

A teacher friend of mine saw a Writing Process Pencil Chart on Pinterest and asked if I would be able to make one for her classroom. 

Any chance to craft is good enough for me. I wanted to make it as much like a real pencil as possible. So off to Michael's I went...found some great supplies:

   - Veneer Craft Sheet
   - Black "Graphite" Craft Paper
   - Yellow Card Stock (poster size)
   - Silver Foil Craft Paper (with lines)
   - Red Foam Sheet (adhesive backed)
   - Label Templates
   - Black and White Striped Paper (Martha Stewart - Elegant Witch Collection)
   - Permanent Double Sided Tape, Scissors, etc...

I started out by stretching the templates to elongate them. I found a great free font online (My Own Topher). Nice format, big and readable. Put them together for a streamlined look. Although I thought the Free Write section just screamed for a start burst! 

The labels for each of the processes was printed out and I cut out the black and white paper just a tad larger in the same shape, that gives it a border to stand out from the all yellow back ground. 

I decided that cutting the poster paper to and 11' width, to match the width of all the other standard paper, would be easier than cutting down every other sheet. 

The sparkly lined foil paper, wood veneer sheet, graphite-esqe craft paper tip, foam "rubber eraser". Everything was all "pencil-y" and ready to be laminated. I didn't know how the foam sheet would react in the laminator, so I left it off and cut/attached a template in it's stead, so she could adhere it to the base later. 

Now put it all together and what have you got? An great looking writing process chart ready for her class room! (if I do say so myself :))

Easy Social Media Button Tutorial

I stumbled upon this little post the other day from Something Swanky about a simple way of creating your own social media buttons for your blog. With simple instructions and screen shots I was on my way in no time.

Instead of using the silhouettes that she suggested I downloaded the SocialCo font from Fontfabric (there are tons of free fonts here too). This allowed me to skip the "addition of a shape" step, and kept all the circles the same size. But play around with it and find the look you like. 

I would also suggest that you get all the URLs (websites) all gathered up before you get started so that all you have to do is cut and paste into the Image Mapper, rather than finding them all while your doing it. 

So go take a look. Let me know what you think...and let me see your results. Post your site address in the comments! Enjoy :)

Mural Mural on the Wall

I took on a big task recently. Painting a friend of a friends nursery for their upcoming baby girl. Really excited about the project, I put all my resources together, dusted off the cobwebs of my mind and put on my thinking cap. We were able to get together and work on some ideas. Ribbon, fabric samples, other murals she'd seen. Mom to be even had a look-book. Pregnancy can be so cute. We started off on the beachy theme.

This was the first idea I came up with, we were going with dots and tropical flowers, something uber-girly. 

Pardon the blurry iPhone photos.

A couple more embellishments and we really had a theme going, until inspiration hit...she wanted preppy/beachy. Here's what we came up with.

 Everything has to start somewhere, with crisp lines and just the right amount of tropical flourishes, we had a template. Now to the fun part, taking it from paper to product. Results... Let me know what you think! 

*Be prepared for some bold color choices*

Ta-Dah! After two weekends of hard work, measuring, painting and "fluffing". We had one cute nursery, one happy mommy-to-be, and one tuckered painter. But it was all worth it.

Mutant Strawberry!

Today I visited Whole Foods for a quick trip to pick up some of the essentials. While washing up my strawberries I came across this guy!

Holy humongous batman! Almost the size of my whole palm!

I just had to compare it to the average sized strawberry out of my basket. Organic and all, this guy takes the cake,  measuring out at almost the length of a business card. 

I was almost too attached to eat him...almost! Yum. I guess the bigger the better. :)

Have you seen bigger? Let me know in the comments section. Give me a link to a picture if you've got them.

Strike-A-Match Jar

Have you been looking for a classier, fresher way to transport your matches? I saw a similar tutorial floating around from the Burlap Bag, using sandpaper for the lid...it looked great, in theory. After testing it out I noticed that about 75% of the matches I tried to strike were not lighting, the sandpaper was just rubbing off the activator. Boo. So I've come up with an alternative, and you can use either Strike Anywhere or Strike-on-the-Box matches. Enjoy.

Using a mason jar gives it that cute look, also very practical for refills, and taking outdoors.

I started off by tracing the opening onto heavy cardstock, this will make the match striking surface more durable to pressure. You can use any cardboard you like - a cereal box would probably have worked just as well. Cut out the circle,  but don't cut out the hole quite yet. 

As for the sandpaper conundrum, my theory was - if it ain't broke, don't fix it -  Cutting the striking strips off the sides of the box work just as well as any old sandpaper, perhaps even better. Recycle! Align the strips on the circle. This is the part where it's ok to fudge a little, the jar rim will cover most of the curved edges so just get the straight edges of the strips lined up as best you can.   

Once you have all your pieces, use spray adhesive or double sided tape to attach your trimmed strips to the cardstock/cardboard circle. Use an X-acto or craft knife to cut out a small square about 1-2mm from the edge (1/4in). Make sure your rim doesn't cover it all up. 

Now fill your jar and screw your lid on tight, get ready for some summer BBQ fun.  The lid should last for a whole box of matches, if not grab a new one and refill.  The tops are easily changeable so your jar should last you a life time. 

Just in case you wanted to see it in action...here's my first attempt at making a GIF. Next time I'm just sticking with video.