new cat behavior

Recently my family and I picked up some Japanese take-out. They sent home our miso soup in a six pack carrier (way to reduce/reuse guys!).



After dinner I got to thinking that I could just cover it with some pretty paper and make something useful out of it. So I did just that.

I started by taping the carrier so it wouldn't fold up, then cut out a piece of paper big enough to wrap around the carrier, leaving a little extra at the top and bottom edge. Then I broke out my trusty Paper Mod Podge and, using a foam brush, glued the paper to the carrier.



Then I folded the edges over at the top and bottom. I cut out two pieces of paper for the handle area, gluing one at a time and folding them through the middle to the other side.



I also covered all the raw edges on the top and sides of the handle with paper. I held up a piece of cardstock to where I wanted it to cover the handle and traced the shape. Then I cut out the handle and traced a second piece (one for each side).



I measured the height, width and depth of the inside sections, cut out pieces of cardstock, and scored them (by running the cutting blade very lightly over the cardstock) to make them easier to fold accurately.



I glued on the cardstock pieces for the handle then inserted the rectangular pieces into the carrier (in a triangular shape to make them easier to get in), opened them out and glued the sides together.





I ended up with this:



From trash to treasure! I seriously love it.

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

 Monday -  Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party  --  Tuesday -  Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show --  Wednesday -  Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday --  Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday -  Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday -  Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle --  Saturday - Saturday Spotlight --  Sunday -  The DIY Showoff Project  Parade --  Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

On a recent trip to the library my son ran around collecting books.  One of the books he came up with was "The Star Wars Craft Book" by Bonnie Burton.  Perfect!  He loves Star Wars and I love crafting (I like Star Wars, too, I'm just not super intensely crazy about it like he is).

There are lots of fun craft projects and directions in it.  Just take a look at some of these:

Finger puppets

Ha ha, it's giant body pillow!

Wouldn't this make an awesome Christmas present?

It's a bird house.. hehehe

How cute is this?!

One project we chose to do together is making finger puppets with felt. (Thankfully I had all the materials in my stash!)

We gathered our supplies (ignore the large embroidery thread, I just ended up using regular sewing thread) and got started.



First I traced the basic finger puppet body template from the book. Then I used that as the basis for drawing the helmet and cape (there wasn't a template for those).



After cutting out the templates I outlined them on black felt using a white marking pencil (found in the notions departments of a fabric store), and cut out the pieces. You will need two body pieces, two helmet pieces and one cape.



I bent a pipe cleaner to fit the arms (slightly shorter) and hot glued it in place.



Then I sewed up the edges, leaving the bottom open.



I put just a little bit of stuffing inside the head and the cape was sewn on just at the shoulders.


I glued the helmet pieces in place and sewed around the outer edges, again leaving the bottom open. Then I cut out tiny pieces of felt for his front "control panel" (haha, I don't know what to call it!), the mouth piece of his helmet, his eyes (since we didn't have tiny black buttons) and glued them in place. This is where tweezers come in handy.



For the light saber (I only had white and green pipe cleaners, so my son chose white for Darth Vader) I cut a small rectangle of gray felt, hot glued the pipe cleaner to one end, rolled it up and hot glued the other end closed, then glued it to Darth Vader's "hand".



And here he is in all his dark glory.



We also made a Yoda finger puppet as the book had a template specific for it, although I actually had to alter the robe template because it didn't fit right over the body. It seems as though the people who made the book weren't too careful about testing the templates! And the scale was funky because the Yoda puppet was bigger than the Darth Vader puppet. Oh well.

But anyway, the kids loved them and they had a lot of fun playing with them and putting on a puppet show for me. Time well spent.



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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Several months back I went on a little thrifting spree and picked up lots of little things to refinish/repurpose.  One of those things was a cracked little metal jewelry box with a broken lid (for $1.00).  I think I remember having one just like it when I was a little girl.  I quickly fell in love with the tiny Queen Anne style legs and swirly flourishes on the sides.





I didn't care for the lid, and it was half dented anyway. Luckily it was broken clean off with no jagged edges, so I just discarded it.



At first I was thinking of painting the box and using it as a dish to store quarters for laundry. (Might as well have something that makes you happy every time you reach for more, and more, and more quarters to do laundry, right?) Then I had a different idea.

I pulled out the E6000 (for the first time ever, can you believe it?), glued the crack and clamped it in place overnight. Painted and sealed it, then made a little densely-packed pillow (made with a fat quarter and poly fil) to stuff inside.

Voila! I have a fancy new pincushion! (For a total cost of $2.50)

Not much evidence of the crack!

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties!



Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

My cousin's daughter was getting married and I knew I wanted to make something.  Usually I'm a stickler about keeping to the registry (since there's a good reason those things exist!) but I wanted to give them a little something interesting and unique.  Besides, by the time I got around to ordering a gift I realized it wouldn't arrive in time for the wedding.  Oops! 

So I turned to my newly-discovered provider of ideas wonderful, unique and fabulous -- Pinterest.  I did a quick search for "wedding gift" and ran across lots of great ideas.  Including this one:


I thought it was rather adorable and knowing the happy couple is very fun-loving I decided it would be perfect.

So I headed on down to my local Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up some plain white pillowcases.  ... I was blown away by the prices!  Holy cow!  Who pays $60 for two pillowcases?!  Yeah, so they're 750 thread count, so what?  I just need something basic.  The most basic they had was 200 thread count for $15.  I still think that's a bit much.  Unless, of course, they are sewn in the USA with fair wages and decent working conditions... which I doubt.  (But that's a rant for a different time and place)  I picked them up anyway because I didn't have time to go anywhere else.

I pre-washed them so it wouldn't cause any problems if it shrank after painting.  I'm not sure if that step was necessary, but I've seen far too many things bunch up in strange ways because they were not pre-shrunk.


Using a water-erasable marker (found in the sewing notions department of a fabric/craft store) I drew a cloud and circle shapes. If you don't get it right the first time, just redraw until you do.



If you want to you can erase the lines you won't use prior to painting, but you MUST be sure it is completely dry before painting. I'll show you what happens if you don't later.

I used this textile paint:



Using a foam brush (to better achieve a sharp edge) I painted around my outline.



At one point I messed up and smeared some of the paint. So I tried wiping it off with a damp cloth. It worked well enough that I could just paint over the worst part of it, so I did. BUT I didn't let it dry completely beforehand, so when I painted over it the paint bled.

Noooooo!

So if you need to correct mistakes or erase guide lines, make sure it is totally, completely, 100% dry before you continue painting! Unless you want the paint to bleed... which could be cool, too, depending on what kind of effect you're going for.

So even though it was a little bit of a fail (including the fact I think I should have placed the circles a little lower to have them point to the cloud in a different place), but I still like the idea and thought it turned out pretty well. At least it was only intended to be a stand-in gift until I sent them something from their registry.



P.S. Did you know Amazon has wedding registry now? Man! I wish they had that when I got married!




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I'll be linking up to the wonderful parties listed below!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

A while back I picked up some vintage books to have on hand for various projects. One of them had an eagle and crest debossed on the front cover which I immediately thought would make a great Independence Day decoration. Well, seeing as how it's only four days away I figured I should actually finish it and put it on display!

After ripping off the cover I brushed white paint over the top of the design and wiped the excess off trying to keep some of the paint in the grooves of the design.



I thought it looked okay, but I wanted red in there, too. So I painted red, let that dry, then painted white over the top again.



I found a frame (in my stash) that was, thankfully, just the right size. Laying the glass on the book cover I traced it, then used a heavy-duty metal ruler and a Stanley knife to cut it to size.



For the frame I painted it with white craft paint first, then blue to make sure I would get a bright color. (By the way it was a major pain trying to get the paint deep down into all those crevices around the "carved" designs on the frame.)



Then I mixed up some light blue paint, dabbed a paper towel in it, and lightly brushed it over the top of the flourishes, corners and edges.



After that I put the two together and got this--







This may be the extent of my patriotic decor this year, we'll see.

P.S. Why is it that spell check thinks bazillion is a word, but not debossed. Look it up spell checker people!


I'll be linking up to these wonderful blog parties!

Remodelaholic Friday -- The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Flaunt it Friday -- Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Frugal Friday -- Seven Thrity Three -- Weekend Wander -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Transformation Thursday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Create and Share -- Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Thrilling Thursday -- Fun with Food Friday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Show Me What Ya Got -- A Crafty Soiree -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Catch as Catch Can -- Craftastic Monday -- Friday Flair -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Creative Bloggers Party -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- I Heart Naptime