First and foremost, I'm sorry I've been kinda out of the craft blogging loop for the past couple weeks, BUT.....
WAIT FOR IT.....
.
.
.
.
.
.
I GOT ENGAGED!!!
So now all that creepy wedding pinning I do on Pinterest can be for real!!! Yay!!! So expect this blog to take a DIY Wedding turn come January 2013.
Anyways, back to the craft at hand.
The Inspiration: Scrabble Tile Family Signs
First thing I did was hit up eBay for a killer deal on 500 vintage Scrabble tiles. Bonus; they were from Quebec, so a) I didn't wait 2+ weeks for them, and b) I didn't get hosed by US shipping.
Then once I picked out all the tiles for the Scrabble tile family signs (which was more painstaking that you think, Y's are few and far between and extremely popular in pretty much all names), I moseyed over to my local purveyor of shadow boxes and emptied their stock (and for the record, they're still out).
Then I laid out the Scrabble tiles on the matting and centre them as much as possible so it doesn't look lopsided.
Once satisfied with placement, I used Mod Podge Matte to affix the tiles to the matting.
While waiting for the tiles to finish drying, I Windexed the crap out of the glass.
Then popped the matting back into the shadow box and voila!
But wait, there's all that blank space in the bottom right-hand corner, something needs to go there...something both my fiancé and I love....
LEGO!!!
I used Glue Dots and Mod Podge Outdoor to get these Minifigs to stay put.
Yay!!! Much better.
My parents came up to Ottawa the day after we got engaged, so I decided to make them a Christmas ornament.
First I dug out the letters. J, also difficult to find!
Then I glued them to a piece of card stock using Mod Podge Matte.
After they were completely dry I cut them out using plain ole scissors, and my razor to get in the edges.
I used a piece of ribbon for the ornament hanger. Cut a piece long enough to fit around a tree branch, glued it down in a criss-cross on the back of the ornament.
Then to secure the ornament hanger I cut out another piece of card stock and stuck it to the back of the ribbon and ornament; making a ribbon sammich.
Trimmed off the excess using my razor.
And there you have it! An adorable, personalized, Christmas ornament!
For all you crafty types who are looking for something ridiculously simple, yet awesome, to do with your children for Christmas presents this year, THIS IS IT. Seriously, paper, glue, Scrabble tiles, and some ribbon. That's it. You are only limited by your imagination!
Have you used Scrabble tiles, or any other game tiles or computer keys to make something personalized? If so, please share in the comments below, I'd LOVE to hear about your projects!
Cheers,
-Melissa
There's this rad company in the called Whimseybox, (you may remember my blog post about founder Alicia DiRago) which will send you a box each month filled with items you'll need to complete an awesome DIY craft.
I had the pleasure of receiving my very first box at the beginning of October. It's packaging was absolutely splendid.
And the box itself is a VERY useful storage container for this project and the rest of my stamps.
The craft this month: Hand-carved Stamps. Within the box there were a set of instructions, a piece of rubber, ink, 5 cards and envelopes, a spatchula thingy, and a very nice carving gouge.
First order of business was to find a design that wasn't too intricate so I could actually manage to carve it out of the rubber. Having never used a carving gouge before I was skeptical I could pull this off.
I decided to go with my tried and true toilet paper roll flower, which I've done before here and here.
Firstly I traced the rubber block on a piece of paper.
Then I placed the centre of my flower using my trusty hole-punch and a paint sample.
Then I started tracing (must be with pencil!) the petals with a piece of folded toilet paper roll.
Then you have to go back over all the lines with your pencil so they're really dark - this will help the design to transfer onto the rubber.
Then cut it out.
Place design-side down on the rubber and "burnish"...which after looking up I learned meant "hold down and rub vigorously". So yeah, do that.
When you remove the piece of paper, the design should now be transferred onto your piece of rubber!
Now here comes the difficult part; and it was only difficult because I had never used one of these gouge tools before. It reminded my of my first foray into using a razor to cut out intricate design.
Start carving out all the negative space; so anything you don't want ink to get on.
Yeah, things got pretty messy
[Pro Tip: Clean up the mess before you get into the ink. You don't want chunks.]
Take a spare piece of cardboard or a paper plate, the ink (provided), and the spatchula thingy (provided) and distribute an even layer of ink on the surface the size of your stamp.
Grab a couple spare pieces of paper to test on. Put your carved stamp design-side down into the ink, press firmly everywhere so make sure that the ink is distributed evenly and that any air bubbles get lost.
I used the spatchula to apply ink to any areas on the stamp that may have gotten missed.
Then test!
Press down EVERYWHERE!!!
Meh, could be better. I tried a few more times; trying to perfect the paint-to-stamp ratio until I felt comfortable enough to make a card with the cards provided!
Before:
After:
Yay!!! It worked! There were only a couple air bubbles/areas where I didn't press down hard enough, but overall I like the look, although I think I used too much ink.
Once it dried enough, the this ink does dry pretty quickly, I took one of my pre-fab stamps and made sure everyone knew this was my handy work.
Tada!!!
I just have to decide who to send it to!
This was a super fun project, and I can't wait to get my second Whimseybox in the mail in early November.
If Whimseybox is something that appeals to you I highly recommend signing up! AND, they just dropped their monthly box price back down to $15! These supplies would cost you at LEAST that much at Michael's or Deserres, and you don't get a kick ass box at the end to store all your stuff in! DO IT!!!
Happy Crafting!
Cheers,
-Melissa
So on Monday I lovingly wrapped my 6 canvases in bubble wrap, placed them carefully inside a Canada Post bubble mailer, addressed it, then sealed it up.
Then I saw the envelope containing the submission form and my business cards laying on the table, because I forgot to put it in the package. There was no way that thing was going to be re-opened, whatever glue they put on these mailers could be used to hold aircraft together. So I ended up taping the envelope to the backside of the mailer.
Anywho, here are the pictures!
Here they are all finished:
BERBLE WRERP!!!
I made some "business cards" out of paint samples to hold me over until my actual profesh cards arrive.
All wrapped up!
In ya go!
Addressed and ready to roll.
I'll be heading down to Kingston for the Six Squared Gala on Friday, November 16th. Can't wait to see all the other wonderful submissions!
Cheers,
Melissa
