Days Go By

I just completed my most recent craft from Al! She had written recently about creating a perpetual calendar for herself, and she sent the ingredients off to me for my own. She did all the heavy lifting for me...counting out the pages and sticking little post-it notes in where I needed to start months and leave pages blank. Much easier for me and I got to concentrate on the aesthetics, instead!

I started off with this handsome journal.



I think I may go back and mod podge a decorative paper over the cover. But, I want to knock out a few other things first and make sure I've got mod podge skeelz before I take them to the calendar. It is supposed to be perpetual, after all.

Then, I designed header pages for each of the months. I started out by hand, but didn't like the direction I was taking. Rather than embellish out the page and try to steer around to the right direction, I decided to reverse course entirely and design the pages on the computer.

Take 1.

I used some gorgeous, graphic drop caps but ended up outside of the usage limits set by their designer and am therefore leaving those out of the pictures.

Ah, that's better.

Here's a glimpse of all the months.



The last step was to go back through and start adding in the dates I want to remember.



I'm color coding (because I always color code when given the opportunity). I made myself this handy little key that I tucked up front and will add to if I think of other important date categories. Any suggestions?



I'm really happy with the way this turned out! I love having this perpetual calendar and I love having an impetus to reach out and gather dates that I've wanted to know but never got around to finding out.

And now I'm heading down to the post office to get Al's next project in the mail!

Days Go By

Stars

Latest team picture:

(click through to see full size on Flickr)

Jen's very lovely and bright and light and ethereal yellow star is on the left, Al's shadowy and dark and glowing star is on the right.

Stars

New

Al on the left and Jen's new patch of reclaimed garden on the right.

New

Slow Growing Candles

Alicia sent me my latest project when I still lived in America.  Which would mean we're talking about March.  Which would mean I'm a crap craft blog partner.  But, on to the new news.

Al sent me some adorable teacups, a ceramic watering can, microwaveable soy wax, wicks, french vanilla scent and a link to design*sponge's teacup candle tutorial.  I had been eyeing this very project myself, and was stoked to have all the materials at hand and get started!

I hotglued the wicks to the candleholders. 



I need a new glue gun.  Mine is cute and pink but it's a little ridiculous to require a transformer to power a three inch long glue melter.

I melted the soy wax in the microwave, then allowed it to cool down to 140° to add the fragrance in.





I probably could have filled the watering can a little more, but I wasn't entirely confident the laws of physics would stay on my side and the hot wax wouldn't come bubbling out of the pouring spout.

All in all, this was a fun and very easy project and I'm thrilled with my three new candles! I almost always have a candle going in the kitchen and often one in the living room, as well. I'm looking forward to coming up with new vessels and scents and burning the midnight oil. Heh heh.





Look forward to a new Team Awesome Photo tomorrow!

Slow Growing Candles

New Feature!

Team Awesome is adding a new sporadic feature to the mix.  Team Awesome Photos!  We've been talking about doing this for a while, but waited for Jen to move across the ocean and get settled and become happily unemployed before we started up.  The idea is we'll come up with a word - a theme or adjective- and each put up a photo based on that word.  The word I picked to kick it off is PURPLE.


Jen is spending a weekend in France with her family, so she sent me her picture to edit and put together.  The idea is that which ever one of us comes up with the word will also create the diptych and post it.


So here's the first one!

Jen's photo of French jam is on the left, My photo of purple flowers from my yard is on the right.
(click thru to Flickr for a larger photo)

New Feature!

Butterflies and Birds in Golden Cages!

Jen sent me this fun little craft a few weeks back.  I got a box full of paper, pastel brads, a hole punch and paper lids along with the directions and some other goodies.  The directions were printed from the Brides Cafe's post on DIY Bird Cage Lanterns.  I knew I'd need to pick up some string, so it sat for a few days before I tried it out.

When I went to Michael's to pick up string, I found some cute and inexpensive birds and butterflies and went ahead and picked them up to put in the cages.  I intend to hang these from the ceiling in my daughter's room around some paper globe lanterns that are already hanging.  So I did another tweak from the directions, which was to cover the entire bottom of the cage with paper also, since we'd be able to see the bottom. (I'm not sure why this wasn't done in the original anyway, since the directions call for ice cream pint lids?)

The first day I sat down to do this craft I realized the double sided tape was not working for me and I really needed to use some plain white glue, which I didn't have, and I still worked on it and just ended up frustrating myself.  I finally put it away and went back to this craft after I bought regular glue, and it was so much easier.  My dad used to say, "Any job is easy with the right tools" and I am pretty sure he's right.

So here's how the birdcages (and butterfly cages) came out:

I think they're just adorable!  So here are the tweaks that I made:
-I didn't use paper bird cutouts and went with cheap bird and butterflies from the craft store instead.
-I covered the entire bottom of the cages with paper so they would look pretty from underneath.
-I used the hole punch and punched holes in the lids and connected the "bars" of the cage with brads, too.  I think it looks cuter that way, and it feels way sturdier.  (I only figured that out on the last two.) It's also important to punch holes in the lid before you cover it with paper.  Then as you cover the lid, mark the holes on the outside before you fold the paper in.  Once you fold the paper in, you can push the brads through.  Trying to punch through the extra paper and the lid was super difficult.
-I used glue (and brads) instead of double-sided tape.

My daughter really thought these were cool. And I liked this craft a whole lot, too.


After these crafts were done a few days, the cages held together with double sided tape started to fall, but the cages with the brads are still sitting up tall just like they should.

Butterflies and Birds in Golden Cages!

Four Crafts Down and I Made A Wordle!

Check out Wordle.com to make one for your blog:

Four Crafts Down and I Made A Wordle!