Craft Night - Christmas Ornaments

 

Life has been a blur lately. I got caught up in Christmas craziness, got sick and there some other crazy stuff going on in life. As a result I forgot to post this about my latest craft night!

In the holiday spirit, we made Christmas ornaments!!! They were simple to make and did require that many materials. I cut out some shapes from old cereal boxes and added some mod podge and some Christmas themed scrapbook paper.

I was glad to see all the folks who came out. Some fabulous ornaments were made and it was all in all a fun time.

 

Even though it is a bit past Christmas, here is how you can make your own ornaments! After all it's only 12 months till next Christmas.

Materials & Tools

• Cardboard (cereal boxes work great!)
• Christmas themed scrapbooking paper
• Ribbon
• Mod Podge
• Foam brushes
• Scissors
• Hole puncher

Instructions

• Determine the size and shape of your ornament. I used Picmonkey.com to find some really nice shapes and I formatted them to the size I wanted.
• Trace your shapes on cardboard and cut them out
• Go through all of you christmasy paper and figure out what you would like to put on your ornament. Be sure to make them double sided for twice the Christmas magic!
• Once your design is figured out begin putting them together with Mod Podge. I recommend doing this step in layers alternated between mod podge and paper.
• After your ornament is assembled, use your hole puncher to make a hole towards the top of your ornament
• Take some ribbon and tie it around your ornament. Place that baby on the tree!

 

Thankful Napkins

Day of the Doctor is over, so let me squeeze in some Thanksgiving themed stuff here! A few weeks ago was another Craft Night at Crazy Beans. We celebrated by decorating some napkins. I ordered the napkins from Save-on-Crafts and we painted them with some acrylic. To make them look really snazzy I made a bunch of stencils (with my trusty silhouette cameo) for all of our crafterinos to use. The stencil's varied from some birdies, leaves, 'give thanks' text and because it is no-shave november, I made a few mustaches.

Everyone had a lot of fun. I met some new people and enticed them with crafty wonderness! One guy just came in for coffee and looked around with a look on his face that said, "what the heck is going on in this coffee house?" And he left with a fabulous napkin. My friend Matt got a little creative and he made his own sayings. I'm proud of my friend Joe. He is not a big crafts person but he wanted to make one for his grandma so he soldiered on!

Would you like to make your own lovely napkin? Here is how! 

Materials & Tools

• Burlap napkin
• Acrylic paint
• Stencils (optional)  
• Foam brushes 
• Cardboard 
• Iron

Instructions

• Prepare the stencils and paint. Figure out what your design will be and what colors you want to use
• Before you begin painting, place a piece of cardboard underneath the napkin (this helps prevent paint from getting all over your table) 
• Place a stencil down and paint over your stencil gently! Then lift up the stencil. Repeat this step until you are satisfied with how your napkin looks! 
• The next day, after your napkin is completely dry, iron it a little bit. This heat sets the paint and really helps melt it into the fabric. 

Craft Night: Mason Jar Lanterns

Before I talk about Crafty Night, I just wanted to share that I was featured on the blog, What a Nerd Girl Says. Go check it out!

My favorite time of the month is Craft Night! This time around I wanted to get in the Fall spirit so we made some festive lanterns and I also got in on some pumpkin chocolate latte!

It was another fun time and I was super glad to see a lot of library came out to support me! Michelle and Anthony also came out and made some fantastic lanterns. Tim also really got into it and is really proud of his under the sea themed lantern.

Towards the end of the night there were a batch of new people discovering craft night! I always get excited meeting new people.

If you missed out on craft night and want to make a lantern of your own, here is how to do it!


Materials & Tools

• Mason Jar
• Mod Podge
• Tissue paper 
• Foam brush 
• Candle (either tea light or votive) 

Instructions

• Cut out pieces of tissue paper. Use what ever color scheme and go nuts! 
• Add a base coat of mod podge 
• Attach your tissue paper any way you would like
• Once your jar is covered to how much you like, add another coat of mod podge
• Once it dries, stick your candle in there and watch it an illuminated wonderland

Hello world. The past few days have started to feel like Fall. The a/c has been off, I’ve switched to wearing long pants and I’m looking forward to cooking with butternut squash! (its one of my fall favs) I have been working a lot and I have been keeping myself busy with other fun things.

In July made my Mother-in-law a custom bag. She loved it so much, she asked for another one. I went to work and decided this would be sort of a ‘guinea pig’ bag. I played with the dimensions a bit and changed the placement of the handles. I even successfully made a recessed zipper! I’d been having trying to perfect it for quite a while. I love how this bag came out! I made a pattern of this design and I’m going to start rolling some more out (because Christmas is right around the corner)

In other crafting news, I was switching around stuff in our kitchen. We got our mail organizer, cork board and now a magnet board (because our fridge is not magnetic!) However I took away our dry erase board because I wasn’t sure where to put it. After posting my Dry Erase wall calendar… I had a crazy idea: What if I cut out a shape and stuck it on the fridge? I used my trusty silhouette machine and cut out this fancy little number. So far so good.

I’ve been in a bit of a reading funk lately. I have my Game of Thrones audio book to keep me going while I’m in the Craft Dungeon, however I also need something to read read. I tried a few different books and stopped in the first chapter. Nothing was really capturing my attention. Then I came across this book called Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. It sounded like an ok premiss. Two very different kids meet on the bus and their relationship slowly builds into something more. I didn’t expect to like this as much as I do! I’m all about my Sci-fi fantasy and shy away from realistic fiction. The narrative jumps between Eleanor and Park and you get to see how they fall in love from both perspectives. It also takes place in 1986 so its littered with references to the Smiths and even Doctor Who!

Speaking of romance, this past week marked 3 years married to this guy! I had to work the actual night of our anniversary, but he took me out for bbq lunch and he gave me flowers, he knows the quickest way to my heart. On Saturday we went out for a super nice dinner at the Riverhead Project. We normally don't do such swanky restaurants because I'm super cheapo. However, this is the only time I demand high end swank! This place was really nice and very modern. It is a converted bank and the vault is available to be rented out for private parities (that's pretty awesome). It didn't feel like a typical Long Island restaurant. We had fried olives, scallops and duck. My tastebuds were in heaven! Afterwards we walked over to the aquarium to say hi to our seal friends. They are seriously my dog but sea dwelling.

I'm gearing up for another craft night tomorrow. This time around we are making mason jar lanterns! It should be another fun time. If you are a local Long Islander, come on down! We start at 7:00!

Till next time.... 

Mini Canvas Art - Craft Night

This past monday night was another fantastic evening of coffee and crafts at Crazy Beans. As always it was a fun night with my regular crew and craft night newbies.

This time around we made mini wall art! It was a fun craft in miniature. Some of my crafty crew liked painting on the blank canvas. Some of the best pictures of the night included a city scape (with Bat signal!) and a beach scene. One of the newbies was really creative and used a straw to blow on the paint to create some interesting texture. I was particularly proud of my friend Joe. He's not a very crafty person compares being artistic to household chores. However he stuck it out and painted a beautiful masterpiece.

Some of the folks who attended, were having some trouble with inspiration. To help those guys I had printed out some stencils for them to use. There were some wonderful results from this technique. Including some fantastic mustaches.





If you want to make your own mini wall art here is how....

Materials & Tools

• Mini canvas
• Paint 
• Brushes 
• Paper towels (incase you make a mess) 
• Tape or stencils (optional) 

Instructions 

• Gather your supplies 
• Think of a design 
• Get painting! 
• If you are using stencils
• Paint a base coat, let dry for a few minutes 
• Place stencils on the canvas 
• Paint your second coat in a contrasting color 

Tips 

• Glue a magnet to the back of it and BOOM - instant fridge magnet! 

Chalkboards - Craft Night

Last night was my monthly rendition of craft night at Crazy Beans. This time I was having trouble finding something that would work. There is a certain certeria for craft night, it has to look great with out being too complicated, supplies can't costs too much (otherwise i'd go broke!) and I try my best to make the craft gender neutral. I was discussing my little issue with one of my crafting confidants, Noelle. She makes some pretty amazing stuff and we've been meeting up for some crafternoons. Noelle sent me a link to a Beautiful Mess (one of my favorite blogs) and their tutorial for chalkboard paint. I looked and the tools and supplies and thought it would be perfect!

I gathered all of my supplies and needed to make a sample. I decided to make my sample a present for Callie, the owner and number one barrista extraordinare. There are always events going on at the Beans. She writes them all in sharpie on pieces of paper then tapes it to the counter. I thought maybe she needs something a little bigger and a bit more snazzy. I found some wood in the garage and decided to make her a chalk board weekly calendar. I used my trusty silhouette and printed out the letters and painted over it. It came out amazing I must say.

If you want to make your own chalkboards, then go on over to A Beautiful Mess for the complete tutorial. I used a different paint/grout ratio, however you get the same results, chalkboard perfection!

 

Washer Bracelets (Craft Night)

So last night was another super fabulous craft night at Crazy Beans!!!! This time around we made washer bracelets. It was a great night of crafts as well as music because it was also vynil night. Here is how it went!

It was an interesting crowd, because there were a few people there for crafts a few for the music and some for both. The vynil night worked out because Tim usually misses it and he was not super excited to make bracelets, he thought they were too girlie. However lots of guys got into it! My friend Noah was determined to make some serious braided bracelets. Billy (the cook) was excited to make one and he said he was going to impress me with his skills. He credits summer camp for his expert bracelet making talent.

I was excited to see all my lady friends come out. Caitie came for the first time! She's always at school when it happens so I was glad she was able to come out. I also saw some of my regular craft folk and some new ones. It was lots of fun and I love doing craft nights!

If you would like to make your own snazzy braceletes here is how we made ours!

Materials & Tools

• Cord (a few different colors) 
• Washers
• Crimps 
• Scissors 
• Pliers 

Instructions

• Measure your wrist. If you want to do some serious braiding cut a 3x the size of your wrist. 
• Cut your pieces of cord. 
• Fold cord in half, then feed the loop through the center of the washer and pull the ends of the cord through the loop and pull 
• Repeat on the other side of the washer

• If you want to get fancy start doing some braiding! 
• Measure where your want your closure to be 
• Tie a not on one end and attach the crimp 

• On the other end make a loop (this will attach to the hook on the crimp, and this is how you can take the bracelet on and off) 

• TA DA! you have a fab new bracelet! 

Foam Stamps - Tutorial!

So I had another craft night at ye olde Crazy Beans. This time around we made some stamps using our imagination and some foam.


It's a simple little craft, however the hardest part is thinking of a design! Some folks made some really great stamps! I was excited to meet some other whovians so some really awesome doctor who stamps were created.







Materials & Tools:

• Scrap paper 
• Tracing paper
• Pencil 
• Foam shape 
• Wood shape 
• Ink pad
• Paper do decorate! 

Instructions:

• Break out the scrap paper and think of a design. It could be anything! A saying, a shape or even a silly little doodle. Go nuts! I made a purdy leaf. 
• Once you have a design idea settled then lay over the tracing paper and trace! 

• Flip over the tracing paper (with your design on it) than lay it on top of your foam shape. Trace yet again! This time you trace the imprint will be on the foam to make for stamp-y greatness. 

• Glue your foam shape to the piece of wood. (If you used adhesive foam just stick it to your piece of wood)

• Take your stamp and ink it and begin decorating frenzy!