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2012

Lazy Bracelets

Wednesday, October 17, 2012 0

I am so bad at blogging. Here are some bracelets I made last night. Maybe I'll post a tutorial? They're really easy although I haven't figured out a nice way to finish the hemp ones, as you'll see.



Katie Eats Lunch

Thursday, August 9, 2012 Category : 0

There is nothing I hate more than making my lunch every day. This week I have been making this wrap. It is super easy and tasty.

I start off with a whole grain tortilla. I then spread a thin layer of light cream cheese on it.


Next comes the turkey...


And the spinach and onions...


And I like topping it off with a little bit of barbecue sauce!


Now just roll that bad boy up! To keep mine tight until lunchtime I wrap mine tightly in cling wrap, although it is sometimes a trick getting it OUT of the wrap. There are a bunch of ways you can change this. I imagine corn and tomatoes would be quite good in there as well, but you can only shove so much food into a wrap.


An exercise in patience

Thursday, July 26, 2012 0

I do not know how to embroider. Starting a post like that is a good sign, right?

I do not know how to embroider, so I thought I'd try anyway. There are a few things I want for Jak's walls and I know I wanted some sugar skull patterns in the mix so I figured I'd attempt to do a little embroidery.

It turned out alright.



At one point in time, I did accidentally stab the needle all the way to my knuckle. That was quite painful.

It's quite small, just barely 3.5". I didn't want to start out too large. It looks cute hanging on the wall with my random assortment of things I have. Now if only I could find more things I want for Jak's room.

Ow.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012 0

So last night I started getting a really sharp pain in my right wrist that was so bad it kept me up until 4am and I didn't go in to work today. I'm in a weird transitional spot in my life where I don't have health insurance so I tried to get into the free clinic and they weren't taking walk-ins and it was just a big pile of poop. My wrist still kind of hurts, but I'm going to go to work tomorrow.

So long story short I haven't touched a craft item all day. But here is a picture of a couple stickers that I got at Hobby Lobby Tuesday night. 


Our Hobby Lobby is currently being renovated so the aisles are all screwed up and I had my boyfriend's 2-year-old son with me so I didn't get much because I was trying to get out. I got these stickers, a sheet of dinosaur stickers (that Jak picked out) and a couple packs of earring findings.

So I think this week I will be showing the quilt I've just started working on. Be aware that I am a TOTAL amateur. I do stuff wrong, I know this. But what I do works for me. That is the only thing I have planned for now. I'm still getting used to taking instructional pictures.

Well that's about all for tonight. Hopefully I have wrist improvement over night. Thanks for stopping by!



My first tutorial!

Monday, July 16, 2012 Category : , , , , 0

So I figure I might as well SHOW you how to make something instead of just showing you already completed projects. Earrings are unbelievably easy and are a nice relaxing thing to work on, so I'm going to attempt to show you step by step how to make them.

First, you will need the following items:

2 flat pins, 2 earring hooks, 2 beads, and then three different pliers. A flat nose, a rounded nose and a nippers. I just got a pack of all three at Hobby Lobby. They are the miniature size and they work just fine. Using a coupon they can actually be pretty cheap.




String your bead onto on of the pins.


Grip the pin with the flat pliers like so and make a slight bend, which you can see in the second picture below.



Now take the round nose pliers and grip ABOVE the bend. Carefully wrap the pin around the nose, creating a loop. You can turn the pliers as you work, you can see I'm holding them in a slightly different position in the two pictures. It just takes some getting used to and finding a method that works for you.



Now string your earring hook on.


This is the part I really struggled with when I first started. Grip both loops (the loop you created and the earring hook loop) in the flat nose pliers. Using your fingers, wrap the tail of the loop around the straight part of the pin under the loop. You should make it 2-3 times around. 

Do not get discouraged if you feel it is not as tight as it should be. These are pretty cheap so if you need to, just take the nippers and cut the pin off and start again. Be patient and take your time.



Now clip the remainder of the tail off. It will leave a sharp little nubbin. (Nubbin is obviously the technical term. I am a crafting fool. I don't know the technical terms for anything.)



You can take the flat nose pliers and kind of squeeze the spiral where the sharp nubbin is to kind of tuck it into the rest of the spiral.


And you have one done!


Repeat the process and you have two earrings ready to go!


I know these two are pretty drastically different, but I DID make one of them with my tripod sitting in front of my face. Also, I am not in any way a professional so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I can only give you advice on how I do things. They are not perfect. If you have any questions you can always e-mail me at katieshelby89 (at) gmail (dot) com  and I will try to help you out. If it would be easier, I could try doing a video tutorial.

Thanks for looking!

Never back down!

Sunday, July 15, 2012 Category : , , 0

Browsing around on Pinterest, these looked like a good idea.


I had also recently seen a pin to make your own Mod Podge. So now I'm going to describe to you what happened.

I started by mixing up my mod podge. The instructions said 50% glue and 50% water. 


Well there must be some other magical ingredient because mine was so liquidy that when I tried to brush it on, it just ran everywhere.

But I didn't let that stop me. Oh no. I shook the glitter all over that bad boy, pulled off the tape and let it sit there to dry. After about 15 minutes, I tried applying another layer ON TOP of the glitter to sort of seal everything in. This was when I realized things were going poorly.

As I was brushing, I was just smooshing the glitter all over the place. I decided to scrap it, because it was just not working out for me. Time for a better solution.

I found an old friend. A trusted ally.


This bottle must have been sitting there for a while, because it didn't want to come out of the bottle. It also REALLY didn't want to be spread with a paintbrush, but that's what I had so that's what I did. Then I shook some more glitter and pulled off the tape. This is what I'm left with.


...The mod podge mess needs to be cleaned up. And I need to find a sealing idea. But other than that, things might be okay. Because they really couldn't have gone worse.

I know, I know

Tuesday, July 10, 2012 0

I am aware that this is not a thing to make a habit of. I switched shops. I was rethinking things and pros and cons and whatnot and I decided to switch from Bonanza to Etsy. Etsy is just more accessible and well-known. I'm slowly re-adding items to Etsy.


In the meantime, here is a picture of a pair of earrings I made today. My camera died right after I took three pictures, because of course I did not charge my battery.



crazy train

Friday, July 6, 2012 Category : , , 0

First off, I am bad at blogs. I acknowledge this. Moving on!

I've never been one of those people that gets ready for Christmas months in advance. But it seems like there's just tons of Christmas stuff on Pinterest already! It's hard to NOT do a craft you like when you know you have all the supplies ready. So behold. Ornaments.

Yes. Already.





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