Crafternoon: Sharpie Mugs

In early December, a few friends came over and we explored the world of sharpied mugs that we have seen all over the world of Pinterest.

We had mugs, plates, ceramic tiles, regular sharpies, oil-based sharpies and lots of designs to execute and put to the test.

After cleaning our dishware we went to designing and then into the oven where we baked things at 400 degrees for a half hour.

Results? A Mixed bag.  Regular sharpie colors changed under heat. Red oil-based sharpie turned purple…

Advice? Stick to black, gold and silver oil-based markers. Hand wash after done. And seal with an acrylic clear spray.

I lucked out - black, oil-based sharpies on white ceramics with a clear spray - see below.

thank goodness for instagram and iPhones these days...

NWM 2012

A month weeks ago, I made a trip to SF to visit family, as it's our annual girls get together for the Nike Women's Half Marathon. My Aunt is a rockstar and has walked it all 9 years, thus she is a Legacy and ALWAYS gets in to the race (it's a lottery).

I've been lucky to be able to participate the last 5 years and again this year. Typically I run or run/walk the race depending on training and having a partner in crim. This year had me worried as I was 32 weeks pregnant and spent my time training in the flat, Arizona heat. The SF Hills are hard enough without being pregnant! I wore a huge belly band to help support the load, which I was skeptical about and it gave me a muffin top, but man, did that thing work!!

Training was a good challenge and kept me moving for the past few months. This year I made t-shirts for our group, which was a lot of fun and hope to continue for years to come! We all got a lot of great commentary along the route from those reading our shirts... which for me was something I really enjoyed. To do this race with all women, at 32 weeks pregnant and to hear all their words of encouragement was very empowering.



Saturday at the Expo

At the starting line!

Our Shirts

A hundred feet from the finish line. So glad these ladies were with me!!



DONE

DIY - Crib Bumpers

The current controversial issue with doctors and moms... crib bumpers. After making the decision that I wanted crib bumpers, I searched the good old www and found that I could make my own, pretty easily. The fabric store sells foam bumper batting precut, and this brand even comes with some simple directions...

NU-Foam Bumper Pad Batting

Instead of making custom ties and fiddling with thin strips of fabric, I opted to use some grosgrain ribbon instead (you could go with silk ribbon, a pattern, the options are endless!). I'm not a good one on showing all the steps, and thankfully this is pretty straight forward afterall. It's essentially 6 rectangles, following the directions provided with the foam, and pinning ribbon into place.

Here's what they turned out to look like. I chose a muted chevron pattern for the "outside" and a solid matching pink for the "inside" - that way they could always be reversible!

The tricky part was making sure that for the "long" sides of the crib (which is two bumpers) I had the chrevon stripes aligning, so the two pieces would be consistent visually. I have yet to bring these to Portland, get the crib there, and put it all together... keep your fingers crossed!

The other hard part was sewing the batting into the bumper. I quizzed the ladies at the fabric store and those who had made them before, had sewed in the batting (vs. leave an open pleat or zipper to remove the batting in the future) and said that it was machine washable and had no issues with putting it through the wash. In order to sew these in... the entire bottom turned into a hidden (or ladder) stitch... time consuming, but good practice.

Pre Ladder Stitch



Post Ladder Stitch

DIY - Baby Blankets

If I haven't mentioned this before... I'm a sucker for cute fabrics. It's hard for me to see one, have it be on sale... and not get the urget to purchase a yard or two - without a plan. Guess what happened the other weekend?  I purchased a few different cutesy cotton fabrics while I was shopping for the crib bumper fabric... and came home with these... plus 2 yards of grey minky fabric that was on clearance.

There are also a few swatches that I had ordered from Spoonflower.com when I was originally trying to pick out crib bumper material. PS: have you ever visited this website? It's the "etsy" of fabric stores! Endless possibilities!

What do you do with minky fabric? Quilt I guess... I really didn't have a plan for any of this - so off to google I go... searching baby blanket ideas, and came across this cute one from Noodles & Milk.

Super cute, and seemed to be a size I could manage as this would be my first quilting experiment. I'd say it went pretty well. I was intimidated by the minky fabric as it has lots of give... but it was easier than I had imagined - phew!

I ended up making three - two for me and one as a gift (gift one is not shown)... to keep it a secret until delivered!

What do you think?

Crafting: Soldering Charms

My Mother-In-Law Rocks.

Period.

I'm so thankful that we have similar interests and get along well. She signed us up for a soldering charm class here in Arizona and it was a lot of fun! I have all these ideas going through my head now on how to use a lot of broken, antique jewelry that my mom has from her side of the family.
Being my first time working with soldering equipment, I didn't do bad, but I also wasn't a natural. I hear that nobody is though, and you must practice your technique. Go figure! We classified our pieces as "Rustic" & "Primitive"...

Step One: Wrap Object(s) in Copper Tape

Finished Products... the pencil was tough!

Crafting: Jewelry Box Revamp

It would be logical to take a before picture - but I got a little too happy with the can of spray paint. This is my childhood jewelry box that my mom brought to me... straight "brown" wood with tacky gold glass, a mirror and pink interior. I guess you could say it had "good bones"
Materials Purchased: High Gloss Paint/ Primer ($8.99)
Materials on Hand: Jewelry Box, Scrapbook Paper

Disclaimer: this photo makes me cringe because we have minimal natural light and I struggle to get photos of anything inside the apartment that aren't washed out by my limited toolbox of supplemental lighting.

I matched the scrapbook paper to the pink velvet that lines the bottom of the chest and the drawer below. The hardware could use some TLC, that I may/ may not do. Verdict is still out. I kept the glass out and am toying with the idea of a screen material instead that could double as additional earring storage.

Crafting: Ornaments

Ornaments in February? Yup! This was a project I had ready to do in December in time for the Holiday's... but time escaped me. So now I'm ready for the this year!

I've wanted to incorporate more black and white family photos into our Holiday decor and was inspired by a picture ornament that Joe's mom gave to us a few years ago.

I found these frames at Goodwill about a year ago (I've been scheming it for that long) for a price that couldn't be passed up. $1.99 for 15 frames. Cha-ching!

Material Purchased: Frames ($1.99), Red Silk Ribbon ($.50)
Materials On Hand: Photos, Cardstock

This might be my all time favorite family photo of my Dad

Ornaments with Inspiration Ornament (far right)

Wedding Craftings

The hubs and I have been happily married for three years now, and right after the wedding we jumped straight into house projects and living out of boxes. Only now that we're abroad and away from the house have I finally made it to "small" projects such as a wedding album and framing wedding photos!

One project has been to create a few shadow boxes of wedding items incorporating old, broken antique jewelry from my grandmother's jewelry box. Most of the jewelry includes clip-on earrings and broken strands of costume pearls that I was saving and looking for something to do with.

Here's the works in progress.

The project includes scrapbook pages, jewelry and sentimental items from the wedding (corks, accessories, notes) to place in the shadow boxes upon collection, the next trip home... I'll do the unveiling of the completed project.

small projects, continued

catching up by doing the "easy stuff" like small crafty type projects i can knock out in one sitting. tonight's activities included sewing some pillows from the extra fabric from the curtains i made, while i had the sewing machine out for other projects.




another recent project included the two framed images above the bed. they're blueprints from my grandfather when he was in the Navy. i was so excited to find them in a box... and happily framed 2 of them for our bedroom.

Bathroom

it is heaven... take a peek!

my sewing skills put to work on a bathroom curtain

step into our shower, it has water pressure!

an overall view of the finished project

the marble legde perfectly notched for the shower glass

this plant may be replaced with an orchid

if i ever remember to pick one up!