Mariko's Craft Adventures!

NEW WEBSITE!!!

2010-01-23T11:29:00.001-08:00

This morning I was looking at my craft blog, and I was just SO OVER IT. The layout, the color scheme, the fact that I put 'adventure' in every blog title... It just all seemed so constrained, and boring, and BLAH. So Brant set me up with an actual website! No more blogger for me! It's a fresh start, and I am PUMPED! So please continue to follow me at (drumroll please)...

www.craftymariko.com

And definitely check out the new look--I love it! Thank you all for reading my posts, I really appreciate it!

Birthday Present Adventures!

2010-01-17T17:15:00.001-08:00

Well, 2010 is well underway! I haven't been able to get much crafting done in the new year, unfortunately. Next week is the last week of the semester at school, so I have been really busy lesson planning and grading papers. But I did squeeze in one quick project for a friend's birthday present.

One of my friends is getting his Masters degree to teach Math (yay!) and so I thought this would be a fitting present. Maybe it will reside in his future classroom someday!

I got the idea for this clock several years ago when I was looking for funky English decorations for my own first classroom. I can't remember where I saw it, but the idea stuck with me.

I love all the different equations, it'll definitely make you think!

So, I have a non-craft related confession to make. I am obsessed with swimsuits. But not just swimsuits in general--vintage style swimsuits. And for the longest time it was ridiculously hard to find vintage style swimsuits! So I was absolutely thrilled to see amazingly adorable swimsuits at Anthropologie! Here are some of my faves...

The polka dot one is just divine. But the black one is SUPER cute!

I just love this green bikini top. And the high waisted bottoms? Amazing. Adorable. I love them all!

*sigh* Now if I only had $200 to spend on a swimsuit...

Dinosaur Prom Dress Adventures!

2010-01-02T14:02:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010 everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year--I most certainly did! As I have mentioned in this blog before, my friends and I love to throw themed parties. And for us, New Year's Eve is yet another opportunity to throw a really great party! And I have to say, this year's party was AWESOME! Our theme was "Dinosaur Prom", a theme we first came up with in high school. It was so neat to see everyones interpretations of the theme, and I thought I would share mine with you here!

For my Dinosaur Prom outfit I wanted to combine the two ideas. So first I needed a Prom dress. I'd already donated all of my high school prom dresses, so I went to Goodwill to see if I could find anything. And there, for only $5, was this beauty:

It was perfect! I was hoping to find a green floor length dress, and this one was cute as well!

I loved all the rhinestones on the front!

I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that it had an open back, but since the dress was a few sizes too big for me, it was extremely convenient. Instead of having to take the dress apart and alter it, I simply had to shorten the criss-crossing straps that ran across the back of the dress. Worked like a charm!

So now that I had my Prom dress, I had to somehow make it a Dinosaur Prom dress. I had two different ideas for how to do this: add spikes down the back, and add a huge frilled collar around the neck. I was hoping to be a cross between a stegosaurus, and a dilophosaurus (the spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park).

For the stegosaurus part of my dress I made these spikes out of stiff felt. Each spike was made out of two pieces of felt with the top halves attached. I then folded the very bottom of the spikes over so that there was about an inch long tab, which I then glued to each other and then attached to the dress.

This helped give the spikes a little bit of dimension. I cut off the front of the dress to just above my knees so that it would give the effect of my dress having a tail! I loved how it turned out!

Now, for the dilophosaurus part of the dress I recalled a tutorial for a ruffled neck piece that I read in one of the blogs I follow. I used this tutorial to make a long black and dark green ruffled neck piece. But unfortunately it wasn't giving me the dilophosaurus effect that I had hoped for. But then I remembered that my dress came with a shawl. I then ruffled up the shawl, and it was the perfect length to go around the neck of my dress. And it helped give the other ruffle layers the "oomph" that I wanted.

I loved how the collar looked when I attached it to the dress. It was just how I had pictured it in my mind! I had some extra length of the black and green ruffled fabric, so I decided to sew it onto the front of the dress that I had shortened to get the tail effect.

So here is the finished dress, from the front:

And from the back:

I also made a bunch of dinosaur hairpieces for the party, including this stegosaurus one:

This was the most involved costume that I've made yet. And also the first time that I had a vision in my mind of what I wanted my costume to look like, and the end result actually looked like it! I was SO happy with how it turned out, and everyone at the party loved it!

And finally, here is a picture of my wonderful husband and I re-enacting that fateful scene from Jurassic Park with the dilophosaurus and Dennis Nedry (my husband's costume)

Crafty Adventure Presents!

2009-12-30T22:25:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post about some of the awesome crafty presents I got this Christmas! I am really excited about all of them!

My little sister is teaching English (the language) in S. Korea for a year, so she brought me back some awesome presents. Included in these awesome presents were three rolls of hand-pressed paper that are just GORGEOUS. I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet, but it is definitely going to be something special. And she also remembered to bring me back all kinds of fun plastic bags! They are so neat.

Also pictured above are two crafty books that I received. One of my cousins gave me the Origami Jewelry book, and it is just full of really cute ideas. She has done a lot of origami herself, so it was really neat to receive this book from her. Another cousin gave me the Embellishing book, which is also full of some amazing ideas. She even told me that she had really wanted to photocopy some of the pages before she gave me the book! I can't wait to start crafting with ideas from these books!

My Grandmother knows that I love to craft, and she loves all the things that I make. So I received a big heavy present from her with a gift tag that read "To Mariko, who loves to make things. Love, Grandma." And in this big heavy present was this box of amazing crafty bits!

Now, this picture really doesn't do this amazing collection justice, because I haven't fully unpacked it yet. There is another layer of bags beneath the ones that you see, and there is just an amazing assortment of stuff in them! I've found TONS of beads, broken necklaces, brooches, watches, earrings, shells, confetti... You name it, it's probably in there. Apparently my Grandma found a huge bag of all this stuff in a thrift store! How cool is that??? I'm always looking for big bags of random stuff, but I have never found one even CLOSE to this amazing. I am sooo excited to go through everything and become inspired. She already sorted through a lot of the stuff and categorized them into little bags, which will help a lot.

I definitely had a wonderful Christmas with lots of family, and lots of fun crafty presents! But now I have to focus on New Year's Eve, which has really snuck up on me. I mentioned before that this year's New Year's Eve theme is "Dinosaur Prom". Here's a little preview of what that means...

Intrigued? I hope so! I'll be posting about it soon!!!

Christmas Present Adventures, Part 4

2009-12-29T18:46:00.000-08:00

Here is my second post on my handmade Christmas presents! Yesterday I posted about the paper crafts that I made, and today I am going to share the food items that I made!

First, the actual edible food items. I made goody bags filled with candied cranberries and peppermint bark. I got the recipe for the candied cranberries from the website Elizabeth's Edible Experience. They turned out great! Delicious, easy to make, and very pretty. My husband loooved them! I got the peppermint bark recipe from one of my friends, on her blog Domestic Goddess Adventures! Her blog is incredible, if you haven't already, go check it out! I made both milk chocolate and dark chocolate peppermint bark, and it was sooo delicious. And again, easy to make and very pretty!

The next item was a food related item, but not exactly edible. I made personalized wine charms out of recycled bottle caps.

(The ones pictured were for an Aunt who is a rockhound). I was very happy with how they turned out, and again they are made of all UPcycled materials!

I thought that I would also share how I decided to package my collection of presents. I really wanted to get away from wrapping paper, or gift bags, and use something either recycled or reusable. I chose to use these super cute woven baskets!

Here you can see the outside of the present, with my recycled gift tags.

And here is what the inside looked like. I just kind of nestled everything in, and it turned out great! I was happy to be able to use a reusable product for my wrapping!

Well, that ends my Christmas present crafting. Tomorrow I want to share some of the awesome crafty presents that I myself received! I am super excited about them all!

And I have also been working on our Dinosaur Prom themed New Year's Eve party. I am in charge of the picture area, so I've been working on that. And I've been working on my Dinosaur Prom dress! I'll post lots of pics from the party!

Christmas Present Adventures, Part 3

2009-12-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

Now that my husband and I are finished celebrating our 4 days of Christmas celebrations, I can finally post about what I made for presents! I gave away gift baskets filled with upcycled handmade goodies, and today I am going to cover the paper gifts!

As I hinted in an earlier post, I covered a LOT of pencils in security envelope linings. I am seriously in love with the patterns that are used, and I have to say I really like how they look wrapped around pencils!

Now, to go with the pencils I also made magnetic paper pads. Since my goal was to make everything out of recycled materials as much as possible, these paper pads were no exception!

The idea actually came about when there was a mistake made with one of my photocopy orders at school. I was left with a whole stack of colored paper, printed on one side. So I simply photocopied lines on the other side and cut them up! I used leftover invitations from my wedding for the backing, and used some magnetic strips that I had stashed away.

I bound the pages together using clear Silicone, and it worked great! The pages are held together well, but also tear away really easily. The overall effect was very cute, and I was very pleased with how they turned out.

And then finally, I gave out lots of paper star ornaments!

My house has been filled with these stars for months now, I had so much fun folding them! And they looked just darling hanging in a tree.

Tomorrow I will share the food related pieces that I made! I hope that everyone had a wonderful time with the Holidays, and are looking forward to a Happy New Year!

Christmas Present Adventures, Part 2

2009-12-24T13:57:00.001-08:00

This morning I literally woke up at 4am, with this craft project buzzing around in my brain. I have been wanted to craft something personal for my Mom and my Grandma for Christmas, and this was the perfect solution!

I took two wooden frames and covered them in pages from a dictionary. I chose words specific for my Mom and Grandma such as 'love', 'family', 'tradition', and so on.

I also included a few pictures from the dictionary on my Grandma's frame (the larger one).

I love how they turned out! I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier! Now I'm off to print off some pictures to put in these frames, wrap them up, and I am all set for Christmas!

Christmas Present Adventures, Part 1

2009-12-23T13:10:00.001-08:00

I have been busy busy busy lately putting together my Christmas presents for everyone. But I am so excited about some of these presents that I couldn't wait until after Christmas to blog about them! So here is a little preview of a few things that I have been working on:

These are the gift tags that I made for the presents. I had a beautiful 2009 Calendar that I wanted to use somehow, and then I thought I would cut out cute little bird shapes from the pages! I'm going to write on the wings to mark who the presents are for.

Now, the first actual present that I'm going to share with you is something that I made for the sons of my two cousins. Each are about 4 years old.

I got the idea for this present from the awesome blog Collecting the Moments...One by One that I subscribe to. I thought it would be great for Noah and Lucas!

One thing that I did add to the project was crafting a box for the boys to store their chalk! I found these wooden hinged boxes at Michaels and painted them. I also found the wood letters at Michaels, and thought it would be a cute way to personalize them!

When you open the chalk box, you can see the little eraser that I made for each of the boys. I simply folded over some felt scraps that I had and sewed some lines to create texture for easier erasing. It works great! I glued a little piece of velcro in the lid so that the eraser would stay in place. I love it!

That's all for now, I don't want to ruin any surprises for people who read this blog! But here's a little taste of what's to come...

Adventures in 1920s Costume Making!

2009-12-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I attended a 1920s themed Murder Mystery party! This was something that my group of friends has wanted to do for a long time, and it was SO much fun! My character was "Madame MeMe", and I owned several nightclubs with my husband. My character information instructed me to dress 'flashy yet classy', so I did my best to sew a costume that fit that description. I was on a very limited time schedule, so I wasn't able to do quite as much as I would like. But I was still pleased with how it turned out!

The skirt is made of a super soft, furry fabric that looked really neat next to the shimmery red fabric. I used the leftover furry fabric as a stole, which added to the 'classy' aspect. The drop-waist dress was really easy to make--I basically used a t-shirt of mine as a pattern!

It was a really fun and quick costume, and a fantastic party! My next sewing project is going to be a little bit more intricate, so wish me luck! It's for a New Year's Eve party, so I'll be blogging about it soon!

Adventures in Earring Reconstruction!

2009-12-02T20:33:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last updated! I promise that I have been very busy with little craft projects, but I'm keeping them a secret until after Christmas :) However, there was one project that I was inspired to make last night and I just had to share with the rest of you!

I call this post 'earring reconstruction' but really I should name it earring DEstruction! My inspiration came about last night as I was going through my overly crowded jewelry box. I have never really sorted through my jewelry box, and I have so many earrings that I never wear anymore. As I was gathering up these earrings, I started to think about how I could tear them apart to make new earrings. Then, for some reason, I was reminded about these paper beads that I played with this past summer. So I decided to combine the two! I was so excited to try this that I put off my big stack of grading and just dived right in!

I created these paper beads out of various colors of paper, and then created the individual earrings out of the beads and the bits and pieces from the earrings I tore apart. I looove how these turned out, so much better than I originally imagined! I will definitely be giving these out as Christmas presents, so if you get one--act surprised!

More Halloween Costume Adventures!

2009-11-03T17:47:00.000-08:00

I know I just crafted about some of the fun crafty costumes I saw on Halloween, but I keep seeing blog posts on amazing costumes and I just HAD to share a few with you!

I absolutely loved "Where the Wild Things Are" as a kid. So I was super excited to see these amaaazing costumes from the Craft Magazine blog!

I mean, they are just incredible!

I thought this "low resolution" costume, also from the Craft Magazine blog, was awesome!

I found this "Big Head" costume on Gizmodo. It was my husband's personal fave!

Definitely click on the link so that you can read about how he made this costume. Simply amazing!

All of these awesome costumes are inspiring me to go all out for next year. I've got a year to come up with something totally awesome and craft-tastic!

Halloween Costume Adventures!

2009-11-01T16:55:00.001-08:00

Hopefully everyone out there had a fantastic and fun Halloween--I know I sure did! I thought I would blog about some awesome crafty Halloween costumes that I saw and helped with yesterday. The first one was my friend Jessica, from Sweet Athena:

She dressed up as the Bee Girl from the Blind Melon music video for their song "No Rain". Here's the original Bee Girl, in case you don't know what I'm talking about:

Didn't she do a great job crafting her costume??? I loved it!

Next is my other friend Jessica, who went as the Easter Bunny:

She made her ears and belly out of felt, and I made her a cute pom pom tail!

And now here's my costume! I decided to go as a kind of Mash-Up of different Lady Gaga songs. For her song "Just Dance" I wore a tutu dress and sparkly ballet slippers. For "Poker Face" I attached a poker hand to my sunglasses. For "Love Game" I created a 'disco stick' out of a Christmas Ornament. I also wore my camera around my neck for "Paparazzi". It was a fun costume to put together and I really like how it turned out!

Here I am with my wonderful husband, who came as Mrs. Doubtfire!

I can't believe that it's November already! I've got to get back to work making Christmas presents!

Crafty Present Adventures!

2009-10-25T14:40:00.001-07:00

I gave my friend her crafty present yesterday, so I can finally blog about it here! Remember the Facebook gifts that I blogged about in August? Well, it turns out that I forgot about someone! I felt so bad that I kinda went overboard with this crafty gift. Once I started making fun crafty things I couldn't stop! So here are all the different parts to her present:

First I covered some colored pencils in dictionary pages that had their different colors on them.

This was my first time trying this, and I love how they turned out!

I also covered some more pencils in security envelope liners. I love how they look. I definitely want to continue making these!

I was going to stop there, but then I decided to make a pad of paper to go with the pencils. I took some pages from an old daily calendar and tried a new way of making a pad of paper. This pad will allow each of the pages to rip away quickly and easily!

For the back of the pad I used some cardboard from the packaging for my husband's Kindle. The letters were done in a gloss coating, so they only show up in the light. I love how it looks!

Again, I was going to stop there, but then I got another fun idea. The last time that this friend was over to my house she commented on how my paper butterflies would look really cute as hairpieces. So I decided to do just that!

I like how you can see the word "Introduction" going through this butterfly

And the butterfly with the feathers and netting looked great in her hair!

So this would have been a logical place to stop, right? But then I wanted to make some kind of bag to put everything into. So I went through my fabric scraps and found part of one of my husband's old shirts that I had previously used to make a skirt out of.

I used the existing buttons as the closure for the bag, and then re-stitched the pocket to the front of the bag.

The pocket was just perfect to put the pencils in!

I had so much fun putting together all of these little crafty gifts! Sometimes having a reason to craft is the best way to get inspiration. Right now I'm going to focus on putting together Christmas presents, which I probably won't blog about here until after they have been received. But I'm sure I'll have enough side crafty projects to keep this blog updated between now and January!

Paper Star Extreme Adventures!

2009-10-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately that when I find time to get some crafting done I can't find the time to blog about it! This last weekend I folded up a ton of these origami stars--I can't stop!

There are dozens of them around our house, it's fabulous! Right now I'm working on a crafty present for a friend, which I will reveal after they have received it. I'm pretty excited about it!

Adventures in Blog Features!

2009-10-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like being featured in someone else's blog to make you realize how long it has been since you have posted! Today my wonderful friends over at Sweet Athena featured me on their craft blog, which made me all warm and fuzzy inside. You should definitely go check out their blog, they make amazing jewelry, headpieces, and even cheese!

Now that the school year is fully underway I find myself having less and less time for crafting. But with the Holiday season just around the corner I am going to have to get myself in gear soon! So here are a few projects that I did recently in what little spare time I had:

I love this little flower that I made out of book pages! It's very similar to this hairpiece that I made earlier, but with a slightly different shape. I can't wait to wear it in my hair!

On a whim I decided to make this strand of butterflies to put in my classroom. I made them out of book pages as well, and really like how they turned out!

Very simple, but very cute.

And this picture is just to prove that yes, I do wear my creations out in public! I recently wore one of my paper flower hairclips to a family bbq, and my family members loved it! Here I am chatting it up with my amazing Grandma, who is a major fan of all my crafting adventures :)

And finally, a little teaser. I am currently working on crafting together a Halloween costume. I don't want to reveal what it is just yet, but it will incorporate what you see in the picture above...

Homecoming Week Adventures!

2009-09-27T14:32:00.000-07:00

Whew! Homecoming Week is over! My life can now return to normal. It was an insanely busy week, but everything went really well--including my Homecoming Week costumes! Since I am the Leadership teacher and Activities Coordinator I always participate in the dress-up days, and my students really enjoy it. I thought I would share a few outfits with you here from last week. I didn't take a picture on Future Career day when I dressed up like a ballerina, or on Orange and Black day (school colors), but here are the other three days:

This was from "Would you still be my friend if I looked like this?" day. The night before I rummaged through my closet and just grabbed all of the randomest things I could find. I don't even remember when I got the sequined parrot purse--middle school maybe? And the vest is definitely from high school jazz band! The students loved my crazy outfit, and especially my hair!

I used got2b glued for the very first time, and I have to say it is amaaazing! My hair was rock solid all day long, yet it washed out really easily in the shower. I can't wait to use that stuff again!

This outfit was for Nerd Day. The glasses were the 3-D glasses we got when we went to see Coraline, and worked perfectly once I popped out the lenses. The rest of the stuff is just random pieces from my closet yet again. I thought my students would really make fun of me for my Star Trek t-shirt (it says 'live long and prosper' with a cute cartoon Spock on it) but they actually really liked it. I had a couple students ask me where I got it, and when I told them it was from the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas they said "awesome!"

And here is the completed Harry Potter look for Celebrity Look Alike day. Most of my students immediately recognized me as a Harry Potter character (a lot thought I was Cho Chang), but some thought I was a super hero or something. One teacher thought I was Judge Judy :(

It's a huge relief to have Homecoming Week over with, but I really do love doing it every year. Can't wait for next year and for more fun dress up days!!!

Wedding Adventures!

2009-09-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended an amazing wedding of one of my friends from high school. I had so much fun! I also got the chance to wear one of my hairpieces that I made all the way back in June. You may recall me posting about a fun-filled day where I picked cherries and made fun hairpieces with my friend Lindsey. Well, this is the same hairpiece, except that I removed it from the headband and put it on a hairclip instead. With my new haircut the headband was a big overpowering, but the hairclip worked great!

I think it really helped fancy up my hair for the wedding, especially since it is pretty much impossible to style my new haircut. I really like how it turned out!

My friend Jessica was a bridesmaid in the wedding and made a really cool hairpiece of her own! Last month we went shopping at a couple vintage stores and found this great brooch, that looked just gorgeous in her hair!

Tomorrow is the first day of Homecoming Week, so stay tuned for some posts about the various costumes I'll be wearing!

Adventures in Costume Making!

2009-09-17T18:39:00.001-07:00

Wow, sorry that I seemed to have dropped off the planet for a while there. The beginning of a new school year is an insanely busy time, especially with Homecoming so early this year! As the Activities Director at my school I get to plan the whole shebang, so I have been extremely busy. At least this is my second year doing it so I have a much better idea of what I'm doing! But unfortunately, when you pair Homecoming preparations with teaching all of my other classes it doesn't leave much time for crafting. So imagine my excitement when I decided to combine Homecoming and Crafting together!

During Homecoming Week there is a different dress-up theme for each day. One of these days happens to be celebrity look-alike day, which really had me stumped. I don't think I look like any particular celebrity, and I don't really have any favorite celebrities that I would want to be. I thought long and hard about it, and in the end decided that I should go with what I know. And I know that I looove Harry Potter! So much so that my bachelorette party was Harry Potter themed! And while I couldn't exactly wear that outfit to school, I could use one part of it--the cape!

But after putting on the cape I decided that the tie looked just a little bit too teeny tiny for what I wanted. I mean, you couldn't really fight off Dementors with that thing. So I decided to sew my own!

Now this outfit can take on a whole posse of Dementors! (Especially with my super-awesome wand pen, also from the bachelorette party) I am so super stoked about how it turned out! I raided my craft closet and found scraps of fabric in the perfect colors for Gryffindor. I then sewed strips together for the stripes and cut out a basic tie shape. The "tie" part at the top is the leftover bits which I just kinda folded into the proper shape. Looks pretty convincing, huh?

As you can kinda see here, the crimson fabric has a nice shimmer to it which just adds a bit of "pizzaz" to the ensemble. I love it! I'll post pictures of the full costume when I wear it to school!

Gift Giveaway Adventures!

2009-08-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I did this chain-type thing on Facebook where you offer to make gifts for the first 5 people who respond to your note. They then have to post the same offer, and so on and so on. I realized the other day that I still hadn't made good on my promise to make gifts for the people who responded! You have a year (I think), but I figured I should get it done now before the school year starts. So far I have made gifts for two of the people who responded...

The first gift that I decided to make was a set of magnets for a friend of mine who lives in Colorado. A brief explanation of the magnets: she was once described as 'refreshingly blunt' by my sister, which is just an awesome description of her. She is going to school in Colorado for her Masters in English Lit, but is from Oregon. More specifically--Tillamook! And Tillamook High School's mascot is the Cheesemakers! I hope she likes them!

The second gift was for a friend in Portland. He's an amazing artist and graphic designer, so I decided to make some cool pencils and a pencil pouch. I made the pouch out of fused plastic bags, but didn't have any zippers so ended up making it a drawstring pouch. It actually turned out much better than I thought it would!

I covered the pencils with the patterns from inside security envelopes. He and I are both kind of obsessed with the patterns on the inside of security envelopes, so I think it was a very fitting gift. I love how they turned out, and even better--he loved it!

Hair Adventures, Part Trois!

2009-08-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

I am slowly getting addicted to making hairclips! There are just so many possibilities, and you know how much I love 'upcycling'! I made this latest hairclip out of a green paint chip I snagged from Home Depot and a page out of a book that has seen the end of its days. (I took the book from one of the teacher's 'trash piles' on that infamous last day of school. It was completely falling apart, ripped, etc. but is great for little craft projects!)

The buttons I already had in my collection, so it was simply a matter of mixing and matching until I found the combination I liked best! I love how it turned out!!!

I have found that making these different hairpieces has really helped me overcome my initial misgivings about my haircut. Instead of viewing my hair with a mixture of dread and disappointment, I now look at it with excitement! It has been extremely fun to play with, and especially to accessorize!

More Hair Adventures!

2009-08-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

This morning I couldn't wait to continue crafting up some cute hairpieces! I decided to make a smaller version of the paper flowers that I made last week. I really liked how those turned out, but they were too big to put in my hair. So here it is!

I really like how it looks when clipped into my hair!

I can already tell that I am going to have a LOT of fun accessorizing my new haircut!

New Haircut Adventures...

2009-08-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

I just got a new haircut, and it is realllly short! With this new haircut I've been playing around with fun hair accessories. I made these two headbands in mere minutes, and the decorations can easily be taken off!

I found these super cute flowers on sale at Michaels. And the best part? They are actually pins!

So I just 'pinned' them to the headbands! The teeth on the headbands prevents the flowers from moving around, so it works perfectly!

I love the way they look in my new haircut! I can't wait to play around with other hair accessories!

Card Adventures!

2009-08-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine had a bridal shower yesterday, so I decided to make her a card to go along with her gift:

I used words from a dictionary, which I guess has become my 'trademark' thing. I chose words like Love, Marriage, Husband, Wife, etc. The bride-to-be really liked it!

The day before the bridal shower another friend of mine came over to encourage me to work in my yard. I managed to entice her with my craft room instead, and she made a card for the shower as well! I will choose crafting over yardwork any day!

I think that her card turned out beautifully! And she was so proud of herself!

Adventures in Pant Alterations!

2009-08-03T18:08:00.000-07:00

Today through Wednesday I am attending an education conference with several people from my school district, including my Principal and Superintendent. I have never attended this conference before, so I wasn't quite sure what the dress protocol was. It's still summer so I didn't want to show up in slacks, but I also didn't want to dress too casual. And it's still fairly warm out so I wanted to be comfortable, but I also didn't want to wear shorts in front of my bosses! I ransacked my closet to try and find something appropriate, but was left empty handed. It was then that I remembered a pair of pants that I had stashed away because they were given to me by a relative and were far too long on me. I raced to my craft room and found them in the closet, patiently waiting to be hemmed to a proper length. Here you can see just how long they are on me:

I then proceeded to hem these pants--but as capris!

It took less than 5 minutes and I ended up with the perfect pair of pants to wear to my conference! Summery, yet not too casual. They worked out great! Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to wear for the other two days...

Paper Folding Adventures!

2009-08-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

Today has been one of those wonderful, lazy days where you actually feel accomplished by the end of it. Sure, all I did was sit on the couch and watch episodes of some of my favorite shows (True Blood and Pushing Daisies), but I also made some cute paper flowers! I really like how they turned out, and I'm trying to think of ways to utilize them. I'm thinking hairpieces, but since they are made out of paper they would only be suitable for dry weather.

I made the flowers out of folded book pages. I really enjoy origami and other such paper crafting, but have been preoccupied with sewing lately. So it was really nice to sit down and let my fingers have some folding fun!

The Skirt Adventures Continue!

2009-08-01T13:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I created a new version of the simple elastic waist skirt I love so much. Let's call it Skirt version 2.0 shall we? This new version was inspired by this skirt from Anthropologie:

The one thing I didn't like about my skirts before version 2.0 was that the elastic waist wasn't the prettiest thing to look at. That's why I liked this skirt from Anthropologie so much! With the cute sash you can tuck in a tank top it looks great. So I decided to make one myself, using one of my husband's old dress shirts. Unfortunately the dress shirt didn't have enough fabric to make both the skirt and the sash, so I decided to alternate panels of the shirt fabric and some extra scrap fabric that I had laying around. I was pretty pleased with the end result:

I apologize for the poor picture. I forgot to take a picture of the skirt before we went out with friends last night, and this was the only pic from that night which showed the entire skirt. But here it is! What do you think?

Summer Adventures

2009-07-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that it is almost the end of July already! School starts again at the end of August, so I am running out of summer vacation. Lately I have been busy with camping trips and going away parties, so I haven't posted here as much. Sorry! But here is a picture of a recent craft project that I put together:

I made it for my friend Andy--the handsome guy on the right. He's leaving for Law School this week, about halfway across the country. Our group of friends have known each other as early as preschool, so we have a lot of memories. I thought a great way to allow Andy to take these memories with him to school would be to create him a photo collage. But just a photo collage in a frame seemed a little too "girly"--so I made it into a magnetic board that he can use to put up notes, messages, pics, etc.! I printed out a TON of pictures, cut them out, and arranged them into the collage you see. The only thing that I did to make it magnetic was to buy a 12x12 piece of metal to put in my 12x12 picture frame! I also made Andy eight of my dictionary magnets with various nicknames or important words. He like it a lot, and I loooved making it. Printing out all those pictures really took me on a trip down memory lane...

I'm going to miss you Andy!!! Good luck in law school!

Party Pictures!

2009-07-13T14:48:00.001-07:00

This past weekend B and I threw a Housewarming Party! Lots of friends and family came over, and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Here are some pictures of some yummy foods that we made:

I made ice cream cone cupcakes that were a big hit. The vanilla frosted ones were carrot cake, and the chocolate frosted ones were confetti. Delicious! And much easier to eat than normal cupcakes since you had the ice cream cone to hold on to!

More of my homemade crackers. Yet another big hit!

This is B's amazing salad. Watermelon, feta cheese, and mint. I know it sounds weird, but trust me it is DELICIOUS!

I am now off for 6 days of fun with family and friends! First it's Ashland with my mom and Grandma, then camping with friends. I am so excited!!!

Late Night Crafting Adventures!

2009-07-13T14:29:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had a crafting idea late at night, and just couldn't sleep until you'd tried it? That exact thing happened to me the other night. I had just come across a box of picture frames while unpacking the garage--nothing too exciting, but it stuck in my mind nonetheless. And then just as I was getting ready for bed I was struck with an amazing craft idea--turn them into customized dry erase boards! My mind started racing with the different possible backgrounds... They couldn't be too dark, or the dry erase markers wouldn't show up. But I didn't want just solid backgrounds either. Hmmmmm. And that's when it hit me: fabric!!! At this point I just had to give up any hope of falling asleep and rushed to my craft room.

I found these leftover fabrics from a quilted pincushion that I made for a Secret Easter Bunny gift exchange. I liked how they coordinated together, and they would be the perfect background for my dry erase boards! The Adventure was underway!

I then took three of these picture frames and wrapped the backs in the fabric above. It was THAT easy!

Then I nailed some picture hooks on the wall, and I was done!

The glass of the picture frames works really well as an erasable surface for dry erase markers. I love having them in my craft room where I can quickly jot down crafting ideas, shopping lists, or amazing raps that my friends come up with!

More Cracker Adventures!

2009-07-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Today I made two different batches of crackers using variations on the cracker recipe I used earlier this week. They were super delicious! And the recipe is so simple!

First you mix all your dry ingredients--flour, salt, and whatever extras you want for flavor. I chose cracked pepper and garlic powder for my first batch, and garlic salt and shredded cheddar cheese for my second batch!

Mix in your wet ingredients--olive oil and water. Then knead your dough until you have a cute little ball.

Then you roll out your dough and cut it into cute shapes.

Then simply bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees and you've got delicious crackers! These are the finished cheddar crackers, my husband's new favorite. The possibilities with flavors are endless, I am so excited to continue to adapt this recipe.

Tomorrow I embark on a cupcake making adventure! Wish me luck!

Adventures in Cracker Baking!

2009-07-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

B and I are throwing a little party this weekend so I have been focused more on baking recently than crafting. I made some crackers yesterday that turned out beautifully! I was extremely pleased with them and am going to make some more tomorrow to have at the party!

They were crispy and flavorful, and extremely easy to make. I'll have to take more pictures tomorrow as I make more batches. I will also be making cupcakes in all shapes and sizes, so stay tuned!

4th of July Adventures!

2009-07-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July weekend--I know I did! B and I went up to Gig Harbor with a bunch of friends for the weekend. The weather was beautiful, the food was delicious, the fireworks were slightly terrifying, and the friends were amazing as always. Just an amazing weekend overall! Before we left on our 4th of July adventure, I did hem up the skirt I made from a men's dress shirt:

Before I had just used the shirt's original hem, but it was very obvious that it was from a shirt.

So I decided to hem up the bottom of the skirt so that it was even all around. Since the sides of a men's dress shirt are hemmed higher than the front and back I had to hem it up quite a few inches. I was afraid that would make the skirt too short, but I actually like the length!

This was such an easy project, I will definitely have to do it again!

Adventures in Shirt Refashioning!

2009-07-03T16:04:00.000-07:00

I was recently looking at Urban Outfitters online and came across this skirt:

My mind immediately went to a pile of men's shirts in my craft room. When we moved I had my husband toss out all the shirts that he doesn't wear anymore, and of course I couldn't just get rid of them. I am a terrible hoarder--everything has crafting potential in my eyes! So today I decided to try to turn a men's shirt into a skirt. I'm not quite sold on the finished product, I don't know if this is something that I would wear out in public:

What do you think? Is it too obviously the bottom half of a men's shirt? I might try sewing a straight hem on the bottom instead of using the existing hem. Any feedback would be most helpful!

More Adventures in Skirt Modification!

2009-06-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Today I went back and redid yet another skirt! I'm finding that as I make more and more of these fun skirts I am finding new ways to 'upgrade' them, which is pretty darn exciting. This is a two layered skirt that I made a few weeks ago along with my 'Twitter' skirt. As you can see, it's okay--but not fantastic.

I felt like it was too long, and with the two layers of fabric it was a little heavy on the elastic waistband. I did really love the bright print of the main fabric though, so I decided to forgo the second layer of red...

The result--two thumbs up! I used a little bit of the red fabric to add pockets, my new favorite addition to my skirts!

I love it! I think I will wear this skirt out tomorrow for a double date! So fun!

Adventures in Hairpiece Making!

2009-06-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening one of my best friends came over to pick some cherries from our trees and to do a little crafting with me! The cherries are still going strong, as you can see below, and made for a delicious orange cherry chicken dinner! (Special thanks to my amazing hubby for cooking us dinner and doing the dishes!)

After dinner we dove right into making some cute vintage style hairpieces. We had been talking about doing this for weeks, so it was so much fun to bust out the glue guns and actually make something! These are two pieces that Lindsey made, and I absolutely adore:

She has such an eye for combining different fabrics, flowers, textures, etc. to make amazing creations. So beautiful!

I made two pieces as well, but only took pics of one. The first was a super simple little red white and blue hairclip that I plan to wear for the 4th of July. The other was this simple headband:

I think I will wear it to an upcoming wedding! Lindsey suggested that I extend the black netting a little more to add some drama. I will definitely have to try that!

Adventures in Pocketland!

2009-06-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

Remember that first skirt I made? The extremely gathered one with the jersey knit waistband? Well, I ended up taking it completely apart and starting over again. There were several things that I did not like about the skirt. Since I chose a very lightweight fabric I had to use two layers of it, and that created a huge bulge of gathered fabric at the base of the jersey waistband. And that bulge was not attractive. I'm sure that if there wasn't so much fabric at the waistband then it would have worked much better. And the skirt was so extremely gathered that it was a little too poofy. Normally I'm all about poofy, but this was just a bit too much.

I still absolutely adore the fabric, so I decided to start completely over! I made a skirt in the same style as my other ones, but this time I decided to try adding pockets! I absolutely adore skirts with pockets, and wanted to try it for myself. I found this tutorial from The Owls Are Not What They Seem to be extremely helpful. And here is the finished product!

I absolutely love it!!! So excited to wear this out in public, the pockets turned out beautifully, and I cannot wait to add them to all of my skirts!

Help! I'm addicted to sewing skirts!

2009-06-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

It's true. My name is Mariko, and I am a skirt sewing addict. Right now as I am typing this entry there is someone here to install cable in our new house. So I figure, what better way to get my mind off the fact that this man is about to punch holes through the walls of my pretty little house than sew some skirts! I have just made three different skirts, and I am in looove with them all! The third I will keep shrouded in secrecy because I made it as a birthday present for a friend. Until they receive it I won't post about it here. But the other two were made just for me!

I absolutely adore the fabric for this skirt! Isn't it the cutest? It reminds me of some of the cute Orla Kiely items that were in Target this Spring. I cannot wait to wear it out in public!

And I made this skirt out of a jersey knit fabric that is the softest thing imaginable. It is so comfy, I never want to take it off!

I am really enjoying sewing these skirts! And my husband is quite impressed with me as well, which is always nice :)

On another topic, I have to share this website that I am newly obsessed with-- The Uniform Project. It follows one woman as she wears the same dress every day for a year as an exercise in sustainable fashion. She wears it a little differently every day, and it is absolutely fantastic. So beautiful and creative! And if you want to donate money, all the proceeds go towards the Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots organization that helps provide uniforms and school funding for children in the slums of India. Check it out!

Aha, I hear the sounds of television! This must mean we are hooked up and ready to go! I believe I have some So You Think You Can Dance episodes to catch up on...

More Skirt Adventures!

2009-06-20T11:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I continued my adventures in skirt sewing and created two new skirts!

I love how they turned out!

Aren't the fabrics fun? I have been hanging onto these for about a year now, waiting for the perfect project to come along. One of my friends refers to the skirt on the right as my 'Twitter skirt"!

And here I am ready to go to a wedding rehearsal in my new skirt! I really enjoyed the fact that I made a skirt in the morning and then wore it all day long! I got so many compliments on it, it was fantastic.

My next skirt adventure? Adding pockets! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

My First Skirt Adventure!

2009-06-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

I made my first skirt this morning! I used a tutorial from Altered Cloth, and I really like how it turned out! It is super comfy since I used a jersey knit fabric for the waist. This also means I didn't have to deal with zippers or exact measurements! Yay! Here are some pics:

Clearly I haven't hemmed the skirt yet, but here it is! I think it will be perfect for the warm summer months ahead and I cannot wait to wear it. I have a wedding rehearsal tomorrow that may just be the perfect opportunity to debut my new creation!

I have always enjoyed sewing, I just haven't taken on many big projects such as clothing before. But as I was making this skirt I was constantly reminded of my Grandmother. She was the Queen of Sewing and made absolutely everything. My sister and I had many a matching outfit sewn by her when we were little. I am actually currently using my Gradmother's old Bernina sewing machine, which brings back fond memories. The fabric that I used for my skirt and some buttons that I recently found really reminded me of her:

It's something about the texture of the fabric and the color and style of the buttons that just seem to capture the essence of my Grandmother and her sewing room. As I am taking on more and more sewing projects I am really enjoying all of the happy memories I have of my Grandmother and her sewing room. I hope that I can make her proud!

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

2009-06-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Or in this case--one art teacher's discarded encyclopedia set is another crafter's treasure! I am a high school English teacher by day, and just recently I discovered an amazing ritual that takes place in the halls of the school. At the end of every school year the teachers all go through their books and materials and discard the things they don't want/need anymore. These items go into the hall with brightly colored sticky notes prominently displaying "DISCARD" on them. Most of these items I didn't give a second glance to, but then I spied these beauties:

A complete encyclopedia set, still in good condition! The art teacher of all people was discarding these, and so I pounced on them. After lugging several boxfuls of these books into my car and then into my new craft room I have them proudly displayed on my shelves. Just think of the crafting possibilities! I am giddy with excitement and anticipation! I also scored about a dozen dictionaries that were really in bad shape:

Even though they may look a little rough around the edges, the insides are still in great shape for crafting! I seriously cannot believe how many books I got for free! And they were just going to sit in a landfill anyways, so I feel like I am giving them a much better home and a possible beautiful reincarnation!

Today my friend Lindsey and I went on a few adventures in Portland, where I bought some fun fabrics to make a skirt with. I am going to attempt to make the skirt this week--wish me luck! This is the biggest sewing project I have attempted, and I am a little intimidated by it. I will post updates as soon as I am finished!

Bachelorette Party Adventures!

2009-06-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

I found my card reader tonight while unpacking, hooray! So here are some pics from the bachelorette party I threw this past weekend:

I made chocolate dipped marshmallows because the bride-to-be loooves anything with chocolate and marshmallows in it! Her wedding colors are purple and teal, hence the colored sprinkles.

I also made the bride-to-be a customized tank top to wear! She loved it!

Here she is all decked out and ready for a fun night! (The wedding is somewhat Disney themed, so we tried to incorporate Disney into her bachelorette party as well)

Some of the bachelorette party guests wearing their customized crowns! While the bride got super cool Mickey wedding ears, the other guests wore pink sparkly crowns that we customized with different messages and other decorations.

And here are some of the sleep masks I made! The one in front is the brides special mask with the two colors in stripes--the rest were just solid colors on the front and back. The elastic was silver sequins, which was super fun. The front was sparkly silky fabric and the back was velvet, which was super soft on your eyes. They worked great!

The party was a blast to put together, and a super fun night as well!

Summer Vacation!

2009-06-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I am now officially at the beginning of my summer vacation! Thursday was the last day of work, and today is the first chance I have gotten to just take a breathe and relax for a minute. I even managed to make it through the 1,000+ items on my Google Reader! Even though Friday was my first official day off summer vacay, it was spent madly running about preparing for a Bachelorette party I co-hosted on Saturday. I had sooo much fun putting everything together, and the party was a blast! The night ended with a sleepover, so I sewed sleep masks for all the guests in the bride's wedding colors. They turned out great, I was very excited. I also made cute chocolate dipped marshmallows that were a huge hit. I took pictures of all of these things, but since we are still in the process of moving into our new house my memory card reader is in a box somewhere waiting to be discovered... Once I find it I will post pics!

Now that it is really summer vacation I am ridiculously excited to have time for some crafting! My summer to-do list consists of the following items:

-Unpack my new house

-Read

-Craft

-Spend tons of time with friends/family

So far I am well on my way to checking off the first item from my list. The fact that the sleepover part of the bachelorette party was at my new house really helped that process along. As for reading, I have a delicious stack of books just waiting for me. I am so excited. And for crafting--I already broke in my new craft room with all of the sleep masks I made and I cannot wait to make more fun projects! I will make sure to keep everyone posted now that I have a few months of leisure time ahead of me!

Adventures in Home Renovation!!!

2009-05-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry my posts have been so infrequent lately. Sadly, I haven't had much time for crafting lately. But there are only 10 days of school left, and then my schedule includes a lot more free time! Plus, I have lots of projects planned, most of which have to do with an upcoming Bachelorette party that I'm throwing for a friend! So stay tuned!

For now I wanted to share some pictures from my recent foray into wallpaper removal! My husband and I just bought our first house (!) and love everything about it...except the wallpaper in the master bedroom and bathroom. Here is what it looked like:

And here is my amazing wallpaper removal crew!

We worked hard and had a great time! And we got it ALL removed! I was so impressed, we worked really hard. But we had a lot of fun!

Now the next project is painting! So much fun!!!

Adventures in Table Renovation!

2009-04-22T20:17:00.001-07:00

As Brant and I get ready to move into our new house, we've been trying to re-use as many materials as possible. We got an old dining room table from my parents a while ago, and it was in bad need of refurbishing. The wood was looking old, wasn't our style at all, and had some damage in spots. We stripped the wood and then painted the entire table black. We really love how it turned out!

I was really excited about our little home improvement project, as you can tell...

(You can see the 'before' of the table in the background)

The finished project! Now it's something we would want to actually use in our house! Instead of throwing out this table and spending hundreds on a new one, we were able to renovate it for about $16!!! Now that's what I call a successful craft project!

Scarf Adventures!

2009-04-22T20:12:00.001-07:00

Here is another craft that I created recently!

It was a super-easy jersey knit scarf. I wanted something casual and lightweight for the warmer months ahead, and I love how it turned out!

Crafty Catch-Up...

2009-04-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry that I haven't written in so long. School has kept me really busy lately, and so has BUYING A HOUSE! Yep, we have bought our first house!!! We will move in at the end of May, and cannot wait. The house is great, and one of my favorite features---I will have a craft room! That's right, a room of my own that I can dedicate to crafty things, not just a little corner of our living room. I am sooo excited!

But back to craft projects. Remember the gift exchange I mentioned? It was a Secret Easter Bunny thing at the school, where you are assigned another staff member to get fun things for. I got the Home-Ec teacher, so of course I had to make her fun crafty things!

The gift on the left is an apple pincushion that I made. I know that the Home-Ec teacher likes quilts, so I sewed together strips of coordinating fabric and then turned it into an apple! I really like how it turned out, and the teacher loved it. Another gift that I made her was one of my fused plastic bags filled with easter eggs. She really liked the concept of fusing plastic garbage bags and loved the gift!

Tight Adventures!

2009-04-06T20:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I haven't posted in so long, I have been really busy lately and haven't had much time for crafting! Even when I had a week off for Spring Break, most of my time was spent getting stuff ready for school. Such is the life of a teacher, I guess! But this past weekend I did a fun and super easy project with some friends! We took some plain white tights and added some pretty mauve dye. You can see the before (silly picture) and after below:

We tried to create a gradient effect, which isn't very obvious in the picture. But I like how they turned out!

I recently signed up for a kind of gift exchange, so I'll be busy crafting up some fun gifts for friends! I'll keep you posted!

Beware the Ides of March!

2009-03-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Whew, I survived the Junior/Senior Prom! All of my decorations looked GREAT--but unfortunately we forgot our camera. I am still kicking myself over that! Because of all the Prom craziness I haven't had time to do any other craft projects, but I did want to share my birthday present re-do. Remember the craftastrophe I wrote about earlier, where my birthday package to my friend Jason was totally destroyed in transit? Well, here are the new magnets I made for him:

We call him Jason the Giant, he loves to wrestle, and his other dog is a Pug/Chihuahua mix and looks a lot like the picture. He really enjoyed them, so everything turned out well!

When Jason got his belated replacement birthday present, I also got a great present from his partner Gerry! Gerry gave me some envelopes with amazing security patterns.

Thanks Gerry, I love them!!!

Mega Crafting Adventure Weekend!

2009-03-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was a crafting machine! The Junior/Senior Prom is this coming Saturday, and I was given $100 to create 10 centerpieces. So...this meant that I had to make everything! Here are some pictures of my crazy weekend:

Can you guess what the theme is yet? I'm really happy with how everything turned out. I cut out a gazillion mask shapes, painted them silver or gold, then added feathers, sequins, and glitter! And finally, I glued them onto wire because they will be poking out of vase arrangements. I'll post some pictures of the finished centerpieces and from the actual dance this weekend!

March Adventures!

2009-03-02T19:04:00.001-08:00

Sorry that I haven't blogged recently, but work has been extra insane the past week or so. I managed to sneak in the time tonight to get a few pics posted:
I hadn't posted any pics of my little crafty corner, so here they are! This area came about after we hosted a Super Bowl party, and so rearranged our furniture. Once the party was over, my husband came up with the GENIUS idea of creating a little craft area for me in the corner of our living room! I love it, and it is so much better than spreading my craft stuff all over the couch and coffee table!

These are some pictures of a few scrabble tile pendants I made! I am so proud of them, and will be selling these and similar items in my Etsy shop sometime soon (hopefully!)

Can you believe it's March already??? Where did February go?!

Down the Rabbit Hole...

2009-02-22T20:39:00.001-08:00

I wanted to share a cute little pendant that I made this weekend:

I got the picture of the White Rabbit from a daily calendar I was given as a Christmas present. I love how it turned out! I've been thinking about opening an Etsy shop to sell pendants like the one above, if I can ever find the time...

Craftastrophe!

2009-02-20T19:18:00.001-08:00

Last night I learned of a terrible craftastrophe that occurred. My friend Jason just had a birthday, so I mailed him a little package. It included a birthday card and these magnets:

But then the craftastrophe occurred. When the package arrived at Jason's house it was torn in half and the magnets were gone! So he never received my gift... I am so disappointed! I was really excited about these magnets--one has Jason on it, the other Hunter, and then a labrador retriever on the third. (Jason's dog is a labrador retriever and he's named Hunter). So now I'll have to make him a new birthday present. I can't believe he didn't get his magnets!

Paper Jewelry Adventures

2009-02-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

These are some paper beads that I've been making, and turning into necklaces!

I really like how they turned out, and I love how the different color combinations look! I've also made beads out of magazine pages, which have a cool look as well!

Happy President's Day!

2009-02-15T22:50:00.000-08:00

Happy President's Day!!! I am thoroughly enjoying my day off by getting a lot of schoolwork done, and a bit of crafting! A few of my friends have birthdays coming up, so I've been busy creating some fun presents for them:

Above is a birthday card I made for a friend. I cut the letters out of dictionary pages, and each letter has a word on it that starts with that letter and has to do with celebrating a birthday, like Happy or Party.

I also made my friend a coffee cozy out of felt! She owns a coffee shop, so I thought she would enjoy it.

Yesterday I went and saw 'Coraline' in 3-D, and absolutely loved it! I had to keep reminding myself that it was stop animation and not computer animation, it looked SO good. Here I am wearing my awesome 3-D glasses:

The movie was amazing, I really loved it. And the fact that it was made in Portland by amazing craftsters just made it that much cooler!

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Or un-Valentines day for those of you who find the holiday fairly ridiculous. Personally, I think Valentines day is uber-commercialized and pretty silly, but it is also a fun excuse to send cute cards to your friends! These are the Valentines day cards I sent out this year:

I went for a more tongue-in-cheek Valentine instead of super mushy. I really like how they turned out!

Today Brant and I are having a cozy, lazy day at home! Then tomorrow we're going to see Coraline in 3-D, and I am sooooooo excited! I have read and heard so much about all the amazing craftiness that went into the movie, I cannot wait to have seen it with my own eyes!

More Dictionary Adventures!

2009-02-12T21:33:00.000-08:00

Today I created a fun little card using an old dictionary!

Each letter is cut out from the corresponding dictionary page...

And in an un-craft related bit of news, I have gotten some amazing 'Mariko' gifts recently! Today Brant gave me the book below, The Secrets of Mariko! And the necklace charm dangling there was a recent gift from my Grandma, and is a kokeshi doll named 'Mariko'! I have never seen my name in so many places! I love it!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln...

2009-02-11T20:19:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Abraham Lincoln's birthday! He would be 200 years old, so it will be quite the special day. One of my best friends is a huuuge fan of Abe, so I made her a little birthday card:

She also loves dots, so I cut out a silhouette of Abe and then placed in some dot fabric I had leftover from a previous craft. I then took the cutout and put it on the back!

I hope she enjoys it!

Crafting Catch-Up

2009-02-11T19:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some recent crafts that I've been working on...

Origami cranes made from the pages of a dictionary

Bottle cap magnets using images from a dictionary

Necklace pendant, also made from a dictionary

An origami flower ball made from magazine pages

Adventures in Blogging!

2009-02-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

Hello all!
This blog will be a place for me to post pics about my various craft projects. I've always loved crafting, but didn't do much while in college. I have since returned to my love, and it has been a blast! My favorite thing is to upcycle--recycle materials in a cool new crafty way. I also love crafting with paper, particularly by folding it. So enjoy, and I hope to be updating this blog frequently!