Rings on her fingers (no bells on her toes...)

So last night ---late last night...I should have been snoring soundly---I was flitting about the blogosphere when I found this little chunk of fabulousness.

photo (and rings!) by Michelle Stolz, Aisle 3

'Chelle over at Aisle 3 made some gorgeous, fabric and button business-card rings.  She used Fabric Stick--an iron on printable stabilizer---with some scrap fabric and buttons to create an adorable freebie to give out at shows and events.

I mulled this one over for awhile, loving the idea but not keen to lay out the dinero for Fabric Stick, and wanting to tie the whole thing in with my "brand."  Just after I fell asleep---best thinking time for me!---I realized I could probably make a spin-off of' Chelle's goodies with what I already had on hand.  (Hurrah for the skinflint upcycler in me!) I managed to quell my enthusiasm for 6 hours---no small task, that---and woke up ready to cut up brown bags and dictionaries.  Long story short, it took forever to get my printer to behave, but I'm pleased as punch with the results.

And inside...

And the take-ee will have a lasting reminder of my shop---my own little ad specialties on the cheap...and green!

Very, very, happy!

Tutorial Time: Dictionary Sacrifice Rosettes

I'm a little in love with the rosettes I use to top my origami gift boxes.  They come from the humblest of beginnings, but end up looking pretty sharp smart when all's said and done.  Wanna make one ---or sixty-three, like me?

First, gather your materials:

• paper grocery bag
• cut-up-able dictionary page (or other contrasting paper)
• glue stick
• glue gun and glue
• selection of vintage buttons
• paper cutter (or ruler and scissors)

Next, cut your bag crosswise into 1.5" strips.  This is a whole heck of a lot easier if you have a paper cutter, but if you're the type of person who can measure and cut straight, then have at it.

 

Now go ahead and cut your contrasting paper (in this case, some dictionary pages) into 1" strips.

Great.  Now grab one of your strips of grocery bag and snip it on one of the folds, so you have a looooong strip instead of a loop.

Get your gluestick and slather it on the  the back of one of your contrast strips.  Get the edges.  And the ends.  (If you're working, say, on your dining room table or some other surface you don't want fully stickified, it helps to put down a piece of parchment paper to act as a glue-catcher.  Not that I'd know, or anything.)

Okay, now we're getting to the good stuff.  Center your sticky contrast paper on your paper bag strip. (From here on out, we'll refer to your paper bag strip as a PBS because I'm too lazy to type it out anymore, 'kay?)  Repeat this step until your entire PBS has been adorned with sticky contrast paper strips.  (You guessed it: they'll be known as CPS from this moment forward.  Way to keep up with me.)  Burnish the paper with your fingernail or a giftcard to make sure you've got a nice seal.

Important question:  Did you go to kindergarten?  (If not, go find someone who did.  I don't want you trying this next step on your own if you haven't got the necessary skill set.)  Remember those fans you made in kindergarten, then, where you folded the paper back and forth to make a zig-zag?  Reach back in your memory and hang on to that experience.  We're going to do just that with our PBS/CPS combo.  Ready? Fold.

Keep folding till you've got at least 12 peaks on your strip.  Like this, see?

Now comes the fun part. Use your gluestick to adhere the first and last tabs together, like so:

(Sorry about the iffy picture quality there.  I was holding the camera in my teeth.)  Okay, we need to let that seal firm up for a few minutes, so this is a good time to take a coffee break, or check your email or something.  But before you do that, plug in your glue gun and choose a pretty button to use for the center of your flower.  We're that close.

All righty, then...you back?  Good.  Your tabs should be well and truly stuck together (that's a technical term, you know...) and your glue gun should be hot and ready to go.  So here's the tricky bit.  You need to transform your zig-zaggity circle into a flower.  This is something of an origami move.  Here's what it should look like to begin with:

Then like this...

And finally, like this:

All set?  Go for your glue gun (careful--that's hot!) and squirt a drop of glue down to the bottom of the rosette.  Then hold the whole shebang together for a few seconds til the glue sets up.

Now squirt in another dollop of glue toward the top of your rosette.  If you're using a button with a shank, stick it into the glue while it's still molten.  If not, push the center together again and let it set up, then put a blob of glue on the back of your flat button and stick it on the center of the rosette.  Easy-peasy, right?  You're done!

Enjoy!

Not interested in making your own?  Skipped Kindergarten and stymied by zig-zag folding?  Have no fear---these guys will be in my shop on the morrow...

If you're going to The Windy City...

...be sure not to leave your camera on the kitchen counter.  Especially if you were planning to blog about your trip.  Because, really, who wants to hear about your trip to The Museum of Science and Industry and your fabulous lunch at Malibu Pizza if they can't see pictures of your kids terrifying museum employees and waitresses alike?  Your readers will want to see visual evidence of The Tuna Melt That Could Feed a Nation, and the damage you did to it in just one sitting.  They'll want to eyeball the whole brood as they bounce, pinball-esque, from exhibit to exhibit, and of that same cast of characters conked out in the car on the trip home.  Sorry, folks.  I dropped the ball.

Luckily, I do have photo documentation of  how I whiled away the ride to and from Chi-town.  

I made enough headpins for 30 sets of Dictionary Sacrifice Earrings.  

(And four camera-shy origami boxes.)

 

I made scads of infinity links.  Which means there's probably another button necklace (or six) in my immediate future.  

And I made oodles of heart bookmarks.  

Note to self:  Just because you like the way steel wire shines up in the tumbler doesn't mean you should put 20-some-odd wire curlicues in there together.  Because you'll end up with something like this:

Which will give you something to do on the way to the doctor's office (I love being a passenger---I accomplish so much when I'm not driving!) while you take ALL SIX KIDS to the pediatrician for their camp physicals. 

Which is how I spent my afternoon, thank you very much.  

All six of them.  The doctor thanked me when we left.  

For leaving, I think.  He was mildly traumatized.

Yeah, me too.

My Creative Space: Lint (and Stuff)

Overheard on my lap only moments ago:

Akiva:  Shani, if you come and help me with the laundry, I'll let you play with this.....(pregnant pause)...lint!

He then produced a fist sized wad of dryer lint and offered it to his bewildered sister.  I swear.

(She didn't take the bait, in case you were wondering, and he continued about his laundering unescorted.)

In other news:

The Huz has returned from his five-day hospital stint.  The kids had as much fun visiting him as they would on any field trip.

Look what's heading into the shop tonight:

I have been tumbling the same batch of glass for a week, with very little change.  Sure, the edges are nice and smooth, but there's been none of that "frosty sea-glass" effect I was aiming for.  I'll set out in pursuit of some better grit---did I really just say "better grit?"---tomorrow, and we'll see if that helps any.  Meanwhile, I was playing around with some nice, thick annealed steel wire this afternoon and ended up with this bracelet:

And I really loved it.  But then, I got to thinking.  And I chucked that puppy in the tumbler with a couple pounds of stainless steel shot, and looky here!

Shiny!  I have to confess, I've been playing with it all evening.  The kids are starting to think I'm strange.  So as soon as I get some decent pictures, into the shop it goes.  It needs a name, though...any ideas?

Also, it rained today.

So  I figured I'd hit you with a couple of gratuitous kid-with-umbrella shots.

And speaking of gratuitous:

That would be the 2 year old.  Clutching her security-Glee-booklet.

 Check out more spaces at Kirsty's.

It's a wrap.

Three orders into my Etsy career means that there have been three packages to create this week, and here's what I've come up with:

Upcycled origami box with dictionary "ribbon" and vintage button accent.

Equally upcycled pillowbox with vintage sheet music/vintage button "ribbon."

Variation on the origami box theme with curling dictionary "ribbon."  ( I promise you, it's all the same half-trashed dictionary that I rescued from the thrift shop years ago...I wouldn't just go about randomly---get it? randomly?--- hacking up reference books...)

Instead of cotton inside, I used a piece of felted green wool to cushion the goods.  Which design do you like best?   And does anyone have any idea where I can get pre-loved bubble wrap and small shipping boxes?  It goes against my eco-sensibilities (and my frugal ones, too) to buy new ones when there must be someplace out there that's recycling---or worse: throwing out---just the supplies I need.  

Happy Sunday...

My Creative Space: Etsy!

It's done.  For all of you who've been listening to me whine and moan about the rigors of Etsy-shop-creation, here is the fruit of our labor!  My teeny little shop, always greener, opened its virtual doors very quietly last week, and made its first sale while its keyboard-ravaged proprietress slumbered last night.  (Thanks, Nic!)

I hope your creative space has been as exhilarating as mine has this week...

(And on a more humble note, check out my gap-toothed daughter!)

Button, button, who's got the button?

In case you were wondering what became of (some of) the nifty vintage buttons in yesterday's photo...