pause button, take 2?

This week was pure insanity. I felt like I wasn't home at all, and I really wasn't. On Wednesday, I zoned in on helping Dad with his surgery stuff. When I got home that night, my bf had put up a tree (yay!) so I focused that night and the next night on decorating it.

So, this whole 25 projects thing is starting to lose its focus. BUT there may be a meteorological finger that will unpress the pause button. The roads, I've heard, are super icy in town and on the way to Fargo today... freezing rain, etc., so I will probably be unable to go north to celebrate my honey's birthday party. He and I both have winter birthdays, and this isn't the first time we've had to postpone a yummy dinner together. He might not mind = last night, the bar was probably nuts-o because it was NDSU's fall graduation AND a big football game. I bet he's not even awake right now either. AND he leaves to ice-fish with some friends tomorrow anyhow...

So, in a wee bit I may be back on here TODAY with more crafts I've created. If not, have a lovely Saturday blog-readers.

pause button.

Okay. So, due to a storm on Sunday, I left for a conference on Saturday... said conference (TIES in Minneapolis) ends tomorrow. I might be able to get to crafting Wed evening, so maybe I'll try to double-up from here on out?

project #6: unlisted = wrapping.

Last night, I didn't start a new project. Instead, I had to wrap up previous projects because I need to get these gifts to my parents ... they're delivering a gift to my grandparents in the cities (Mpls/St.Paul), and they're sending a big package to AZ for my mom's mom. I'm just using old book pages as wrapping, with red accents and hemp yarn as ribbon.

However, I did use something different for the To&From tags. I bought, awhile back, a bag of blank invites (secondhand store) that were red and green in color. There was one package that was a bit different than the others = it had a red checkered pattern on it. So, I cut out the squares and used a hole punch. Those became my tags. Yeah. Simple, and that way I used the invites for something neat, too, and I didn't have to chuck them into a box ... never to be seen again. Ooooooh.

This weekend, beyond playing with my niece a wee bit on Saturday & packing/leaving for the cities on Sunday, I'd like to finish my wrapping and maybe finish the snowman ball ornaments project as well as burning the CDs for my friends. I'd like to be able to come home from the conference on Tuesday and hand out some Christmas cards, etc., on campus Wednesday morning...

I should try to get that paper ball necklace all completed, too. I'd like to wear that soon.

Oh, sidenote: I brought those green plaid stars (on a string) to campus to put on our office door. I ended up finding red paper to make MORE stars out of. And we even had someone comment on how cool they were. Yay!

project #5: unlisted but Christmas related.

I'm going to watch Law & Order SVU while making these. They are stars, so it's Christmas-related. I think I'll make some with this weird printed paper I have (came in a pack), and I'll make some similar to what the picture shows - with dictionary paper.

I think they'll look neat hanging from string around our office... wish I had red paper, but I think the green plaid is festive!

project #4: unlisted.

Okay, so I was a busy bee yesterday and didn't get around to creating a project from my original 25 List...

However, I did have to create and wrap a gift for a special person who attended her last meeting with us (Diversity Council) yesterday. I made a multi-colored beaded bracelet for her & a multi-colored button Christmas tree (similar to the others I've made, but with more varieties of green, etc. to emphasize the diversity of it all...).

The wrapping was a recycled Lia Sophia jewelry box covered in that dark green canvas/burlap that I used on the weird wreath Monday. Everyone thought it was a cute little gift, so if they weren't trying to make me feel cool, I may be onto something with all this damn crafting!

project #3: the "harder" wreath.

While at the secondhand store today, I wanted to find a donut shaped anything to make a wreath with. And then I spotted this pan for $.79 (that's my cat Sushi wondering what the hell I'm doing & you can also see how messy the floor of my office is... oh well!). 

In the box are mason jars that don't have tops = I'm thinking they'd be great storage for my buttons and beads, etc. Yay! And so damn cheap!

The AFTER picture. I added some dark green canvas material that was cut into strips (and secured in the back with wire). This scrap material was at the secondhand store for $1, and I knew that it would allow me to sew into it with a large needle & thick hemp string.

So, after attaching the canvas material, I wrapped some sparkly string (I have had it for awhile - maybe I used it to wrap gifts once upon a time?) around one area... and starting sewing buttons. I love odd numbers, so I went with five = two red, two green, and one big brown one to add that cabin/rustic look sort of.

Lastly, I used thicker hemp string at the top so it can hang from our door.

Another Project in Progress:

I made these paper balls from newspaper a LONG time ago... like maybe the first summer we were in the house (2011), and I hadn't used them for much. So, over the weekend, I finally drilled holes into them (and accidentally into my bf's workbench in the garage) and painted them white.

I used glitter glue on the bottom three (big ones) and just glittered the rest now... I plan to make it into a really funky necklace. They are large beads, but not as heavy as they look.

In this image you can't see the box to the left which contains MORE beads of this kind, but smaller. They will be painted, eventually, and made into the little snowman dude pictured here above the necklace. Yeah.

I am trying to do too much, but it's so fun to be creative.

project #3: the "easy" wreath.

This is the easy way to make a holiday wreath.

I found the fake stick wreaths at Target in the $1. I bought three because I like odd numbers of things.

The garland was leftover from some decorations I had at my campus office, and the red string is actually t-shirt "yarn." If you chop up a tee (from the armpits down) into 1" strips (especially if the shirt doesn't have a seem on the sides), then tug on the loop you've created, you'll end up with t-shirt yarn.

I have a lot of it and told myself to wear it like a scarf. I still haven't after months of having made the stuff. For some reason, I like the grey t-shirt yarn scarf the best, so whatever...

I looped the garland around the fake twigs; it stuck on its own which was cool - both pieces are coarse in nature. Bonus! Then I cut a loop of t-shirt yarn and made a bow. 

Last step: Put all three outside around our garage lights. So pretty... and they cost me about... gee... under $5 a piece I bet.

happy birthday!

I am about to head off of campus for the day, but I wanted to remind myself that I think a wreath project is up my alley this evening... I have many IDEAS for one (or more).

In the meantime, it's my dad's birthday! Happy 59th Old Fart!

project #2: 3 items!

I actually made this button wreath before my 25 Day Challenge, but I wanted to share it here. It's so adorable, and I think I may keep it for myself... it basically used up the last of my red buttons (still have some green ones left for buttons on cards, etc.).

Since yesterday's CD holder was a little pathetic design-wise, I decided to take a piece of dark jean material and add the image of an angel from some store-bought garland. My sewing-machine-skills are not top-notch yet, but I'm getting there. Practice makes perfect.

A side project I decided to finally finalize today was to mod podge a wine bottle, so I could it as a bracelet holder (saw this idea on Pinterest, of course!, yet my sister said, "Why not use it as an air freshener, too, and put potpourri in it? Genius!). The moose paper was made by our Copy Center; I sent them a document that had a small moose image duplicated on it. They then just printed off a bunch of pages for me on TAN paper. Yeah. I think each sheet was TEN CENTS or something crazy like that. I used this paper to cover our outlets, too, in the house instead of buy white ones (because the outlets the last owners left us were of the off-white variety).

Did you know that mod podge is basically glue and water? Yes, someone posted on Pinterest a DIY recipe for the stuff, and that's what it is. Crazy, right? Those people are making a lot of money off of lazy people.

In fact, that may be a side thing I've learned in becoming more "craft-sy" or more of a DIYer = If you want to save money, just start rethinking objects. My sister & I went shopping at little vintage shop yesterday in town, and at one point she said, "I could MAKE this," pointing to some stuffed Christmas tree that had a post on the inside of it to make it stand up, "But I know I won't."

A woman who we didn't know even smiled & nodded when my sister proclaimed that.

So, I guess this Christmas - since who knows where I'll be with this craft obsession next Christmas - I will be giving more of my time and thoughts to all this.

Side Project Idea:

When I went to our basement to get my mod podge and the moose paper, I found these paper beads I made using newspaper (again, it was all about watering down crumpled newspaper strips and adding glue to get them into a ball shape).

project #1: CD holder

Alrighty then...
so, it's not glamorous, but it serves the purpose of protecting the Christmas CD. And it's a great way to recycle jeans (I may use other funky fabrics if I need to create more); I also already had, on hand, the little red, green, and white beads. I think a person could also write, in marker, on this sort of material for added color. I thought, too, of sewing scrap fabric on the one side in the shape of a Christmas tree, so, like I said, it's not a glamorous version, but it's a simple project.

As a bonus, the CD inside was made on my iMac - I found the album, an independent batch of artists, here. In fact, the whole site is pretty awesome for finding new artists and giving gifts of Christmas music that are not typical.

I plan to give four disks out to my grandparents & others. :o)