Jul 28th, 2010

Before and After- Mailbox Spiffer-Upper

Our house was born one hundred and ten years ago with cuteness infused into its soul.  It lived hapilly adorable for 59 years before something horrible happened.  I’m talking about The Sixties.  A lot of the cuteness got replaced with flimsy wood paneling.  Then The Seventies, The Eighties, and the ugliest parts of The Nineties happened and a little more cuteness got replaced with side-opening aluminum windows, florescent box lighting, and cloudy-day-colored vinyl siding.  So we’ve got a lot of re-cutification to do!  Some ugly bits I can live with temporarily.  Like the carpet . . . we’re just gonna have to deal with that one for a while.  But the sad, sad porch and it’s even sadder mailbox had to be put right asap.  The poor mailman has had to see that every single day for who knows how long.   Read on for a How-To at the end of the post!

Ooh-la-la so official and fancy!

BEFORE- Dusty, lidless, crooked, and cheap looking- blegh!

How did I do it?  Although it took me a while to figure out the best way to get the lid to attach, this project actually cost me $0!!!  Pretty fancy for zero bucks, huh? I used materials that I just had laying around, but you could certainly purchase everything you need for under $15- minus the mailbox.

1.)  Remove all ugly bits from your mailbox.  The fleur-de-lis just popped right off with a knife.  Measure the widest part of the mailbox and cut molding(s) to size.  I used baseboard molding that had fallen off, plus added some cute scalloped molding left over from another project.

2.) Paint your molding, and spray paint the mail box if necessary.

3.) Embellish the front of your mailbox using wood bits (from Michaels) and E6000 glue.  I happened to have some vintage 3D sign letters laying around, which I spray painted black.

4.) Attach a small brass hinge to the back of the mailbox lid. Double check that it will open in the right direction. Then attach the rest of the hinge directly to the inside of the back of the mailbox.  Hang your mailbox and voila- postal cuteness!

There are 2 Comments | Posted under Craft, Uncategorized

Jul 23rd, 2010

Strawberry Fever!

What do you think about this little lovely, huh?  I promised you something crafty and here it is!

Or how about these little lovelies?

Now for sale in your favorite notions shop.

No comments yet | Posted under Craft, The Goods

May 24th, 2010

Baz Biz Maker Faire 2010- Success!!

I have to just start out by saying that this was a mind boggling weekend!  I was totally overwhelmed by the blog-reader and frequent-customer LOVE I received!!  Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who came by to say hello!!  It was heartwarming and very welcome.

And guess what else- I am the proud recipient of a Craftzine Editor’s Choice Award!!!!  Squeee! Jump up and down and spin in a circle and Squee with me!!!  Okay, now that I’ve set my bangs back in place and smoothed out my skirt let me get respectable for a moment and share the best details with you.

I know, I know, you want pictures.  Well I’ll whet your appetite a bit and share a few here.  But you can find a bunch more on my newborn Flickr page!

We got a very lucky spot and were able to create an intimate, yet roomy booth!  7 foot tall shutters, a real chair rail, and some spiffy new fixtures were just the thing to create a little architectural flair!

It was really fantastic to explore all of my fellow crafties’ booths- I swear everyone’s booth was bigger and better than last year!  Everyone had such fantastic displays and merchandising.  Keep your peepers on Crafty Scout for a post on Baz Biz merchandising this week!  Here are some of my favorites:

Pollyanna Cowgirl‘s faaaahbulous ChaCha rings.


What do you think happens when you pick up Bird Mafia‘s receiver and put it to your ear?  I’m not telling- you’ll have to try it yourself!

I am IN LOVE.  Thank you, Silvi, of The Poetry Store for blowing my mind.  More on this insanely beautiful hybrid art in another post.

In short, although Eric got food poisoning, this weekend was really, really incredible and made me happy to be a crafty spirit.  Ups and downs be damned, I love making stuff and I love people who make stuff!

No comments yet | Posted under Confessions of a Full-time Crafter, Craft, Events, Out & About

May 19th, 2010

Custom Buttons- Yes, Please!

Just for Baz Biz Maker Faire this Saturday and Sunday- a truly special experience awaits you!

That’s right- sift through my personal stash of heavenly vintage, and new fabrics to have your very own buttons made while you wait- like keys, only better!  You can also bring your own fabric scraps and we will be more than happy to make buttons from that too!  NUM!!!

Find me (and my buttons) at BOOTH # 43, in the center aisle, near the West entrance to Cypress Hall.  See you there!


No comments yet | Posted under Craft, Events, Out & About, The Goods

May 17th, 2010

Sweet Bias Tape Monogram- a NO SEW Tutorial!

In the midst of a flurry of show prep I got a request from a lovely reader for a bias tape project to do in a group setting.  So I decided to kill two birds with one stone (I like the phrase, “snuggle two puppies with one hand” better), and make myself a monogram for the booth!  Follow along for a super simple, skill free,  NO SEW bias tape tutorial!

Here’s what you need to do this project:

* scrap fabric: (9″ x 12″)

* bias tape: 1 – 2 yards

* card stock

* spray adhesive ( I like Aleene’s )

* tacky glue (again, I like Aleene’s)

* Access to a computer and a printer (or just the skills of an artist!)

STEP 1. Iron your fabric scrap.  For an extra stiff letter, apply mid weight iron-on interfacing to the back of the fabric ( I like Pellon 880).

STEP 2. Go into your word processing program and create your letter big enough to fill a sheet of paper.  A block font works best ( I used Arial with a 1000 font size).  Next, flip the letter horizontally.  Your letter should now be backwards. Change the font color to a light gray to avoid using up ink! Before you print, make sure your printer settings are at “borderless” so that you don’t accidentally cut off anything. Print onto your card stock

STEP 3. Apply spray adhesive to the back of the card stock.  Apply the adhesive side of the card stock to the wrong side of the fabric.  The best way to to do this is to lay fabric right side down on a clean surface and then lay the gluey card stock directly on top of that.  Press and let dry.  The backward letter should now be facing up.

STEP 4.  Once the glue is dry, cut out your letter.

STEP 5.  Now apply bias tape, using binder clips or paper clips to hold the bias tape in place.  Don’t push the paper clips too far down, or they’ll be a pain in the butt to pull out.   Once you’ve paper clipped everything, you can start to glue the bias tape down, using small, even amounts of glue, close to the edge of the bias tape.  First glue the front of the letter, then the back.  You can replace the paper clips in corners to help retain shape while the glue dries.

And voila!  An adorable wall letter!  Add a loop of ribbon for quick wall hanging, or frame for elegant artwork!


There are 3 Comments | Posted under Craft

May 7th, 2010

A Patchwork Canopy!

I haven’t posted any just-plain-crafty- posts in a while, so I thought I’d share this lovely object with you all.  You know I’m not into useless craftiness, so when I realized that we desperately needed a canopy for our XOXO II party I thought I’d go all out.  I finally felt like I was ready to cut up my glorious collection of vintage fabrics- the ones I buy from my favorite source, even though I know darn well that they are not for bias tape.  Anyhow, I sewed a total of 34 panels, each with 2 channels, and ran yarn through the channels.  Then I attached them at either end to patio posts and tied little supports between each row. It’s such a bohemian-adorable idea that it’s still hanging even though our party was over a week ago!

It made great shade, by the way!

There is 1 Comment | Posted under Confessions of a Full-time Crafter, Craft

Apr 23rd, 2010

Hint, Hint- Hooray! Bias Tape Knowledge for All!

After crafting many-a-bias tape tutorial I’ve realized that it would be quite handy to put all of my hints and tips in one place.  So I’ll be adding bunches of how-to tidbits in my Tutorials section which you can find  in the Categories box over there ==========> and down a little bit

The first post is dedicated to the the basics of my favorite method of attaching bias tape, which also happens to be the simplest one: The Taco Method.

So cheers to the inauguration of  Hints and Tips!

No comments yet | Posted under Craft, Notes