Official Pinter*Mel Project #10 - Fun with Vintage Scrabble Tiles

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.....
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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

Official Pinter*Mel Project FAIL #2 OR How my intended bowl is now an awesome coaster.

I had a plan to make little bowls for Christmas present presentation this year. I thought a cute little bowl with an owl stamped into the bottom would have been a nice way to hold the homemade beauty goodies I plan on giving out as presents. This was the plan...it's a good thing I'm flexible, and willing to improvise. 

The Inspiration: DIY Lace Bowl

So my first mistake was buying Sculpey Original, not that there's anything wrong with the product, it just was the wrong version of this product for this particular project.

You see, most of the DIY air-dry clay recipes call for 3 cups of white glue. I don't know if any of you have purchased white glue lately, but buying enough to get 3 cups worth isn't exactly cheap. Also, making this stuff is kinda labour-intensive. I wanted to see if I could make this pretty quickly to gauge if it was going to sink or swim for Christmas presents. 

Yay! Sculpey! (and an owl stamp) 

I cut about a quarter of the whole slab off. 

And then proceeded to knead the ever-loving sh*t out of it. 

Then I grabbed my trusty rolling pin and rolled it out...but not too thin; bowl thin. 

Once I got it evened out, I grabbed one of my smaller bowls as a template. 

Then using a butter knife and the spatchula thingy from this post, I cut it out. 

I evened out the edges a bit, and then pressed my adorable owl stamp into the middle of the future bowl.

Then I gently pressed the circle-owl into the upright bowl I used as the template. 

Remember how back at the beginning of the post I indicated that this was the wrong Sculpey product for this project, this became apparent to me at this stage. In order for this product to dry it has to go in the oven, it can't just air dry in the bowl. I needed an air-dry version of this Sculpey product.  SO I FRANTICALLY looked around my house for a like-sized bowl I could repress my circle-owl into and then put in the oven. 

Alas, it was not to be. 

So I did my best to form the edges while my over preheated to 275F. 

While my bowl-fail/coaster-win was baking, I decided to use the left-over scraps to make some ornaments for Christmas. 

In the oven you go! 

Once my bowl-fail/coaster-win had cooled down enough, I threw on some paint. 

And then I threw a layer of Mod Podge Outdoor over top to seal it. 

[Pro Tip: Skip this step. It made my coaster sticky, and now my mug sticks to it. Very annoying.]

Yay! Coaster-win!!!

Moral of the story - buy a clay product that will air dry, OR don't be a lazy ass like me and make your own air-dry stuff. 

Cheers, 

-Melissa

Handmade Harvest - November 3rd & 4th - Almonte Old Town Hall

This weekend past I had the awesome opportunity to do some social media work for Handmade Harvest. 

For those of you who have never experienced a Handmade Harvest, it is emphatically the best craft show in the Ottawa Valley Region. This particular show had over 80 vendors spread out over two days, with over 2000 shoppers perusing and purchasing! 

To get a sense of just how insanely busy it was over the weekend here's the two days condensed into a 45 second video thanks to timelapse technology! 

Also! Apparently the Almonte Bank of Montreal stocked their ATM with $85K on Friday night, and by Sunday it was empty! Jinkies! That's a lot of handmade stuff being purchased! 


Want to know when events are happening, or when calls for vendors go out? You can 'like' Handmade Harvest on Facebook, and you can also follow them on Twitter, which will provide get up to the moment information, and the play-by-play at shows! Also, make sure you're on their mailing list so if you aren't on social media a lot you don't miss any important information.

Here's a link to all the photos I took (and then subsequently tweeted) over the course of the weekend. So many awesome vendors; so many terrifically awesome people! 


I can't wait to live-tweet the next Handmade Harvest (which is rumoured to be happening on December 1st in Carleton Place)! 


Cheers, 

- Melissa

Official Pinter*Mel Project #9: Linen Refresher Spray

I'll admit, for YEARS I used Febreeze liberally around my house. Not unlike Sriracha, I put that sh*t on EVERYTHING. Then a wise friend pointed out that Febreeze is chocked full of nasty chemicals, and that I was only covering up stink with said nasty chemicals, and not getting rid of them. 

So at that point I phased out the Febreeze, and started just washing anything that smelled a little funky. I mean, usually something smells a bit off because there's bacteria lodged in there somewhere, and no amount of "anti-bacterial" Febreeze is going to get that out. 

Anyways, fast forward to this year, I share a bed with a dude and two dogs EVERY NIGHT. They all kinda stink (but not me, never), however washing the sheets EVERY SINGLE DAY is just not feasible...we don't own that many sets. So I started looking online for a simple fabric/linen refresher spray that I could make at home; and I was pleasantly surprised with all the super easy, and super basic recipes out there. 

I used this one from Casa Sugar. 

I grabbed a few 2oz bottles from the dollar store, and instead of vodka I used witch hazel in one bottle, and rubbing alcohol in the other in order to compare. 

I pared down the recipe to fit with my 2oz bottle, mixed it all together, poured it in, and then let it sit for 48 hours to set. 

My observations are that the witch hazel disperses the essential oil a little more effectively than the rubbing alcohol, however as long as you give the spray bottle a shake before you spray it's no big deal. 

Spray liberally! 

Cheers, 

-Melissa

Whimseybox #1: Pinter*Mel's First Whimseybox Adventure

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