My apologies once more..

I know, I know... I've been absent for too long again... With work and the cats and some personal issues that need to be worked out I haven't had the time to do a lot of crafting... However, since the holidays are coming up, I have started a few more crafting projects... I'm afraid I can't show them to you yet (the recipients might intercept them), but I promise I'll show them to you soon! All I can say is that it involves some mod podge, yarn and paper... I'll post them as soon as I can...

Love,

Crazy crafter...

I'm back

Now I know I've been absent for some time now due to a move and a new school year etc, but as you can see, I have returned... First of all I think it's important that I introduce you to the newest inhabitants of our apartment. I give you: Gizmo and Jynx...

Little Gizmo...

And the fabulous Jynx...

Sharing strange dreams while sleeping in the bathroom...

or a couch pillow (please don't mind the mess)...

Or my lap (please don't mind the way I look)...

Now, besides having adopted two adorable little kittens, I have been busy as well. I had to attend a baby shower and a wedding, hence new creative pressies. For the baby shower of little Lex I decided to try my painting capabilities and although it still needs a lot of work, I think the end result was ok.

Step 1: paint the background

Step 2: Add some vertical lines and some dots to emphasise the name

Step 3: Paint the name in the middle et voilà...

The end result

Not perfect, but I kind of like it...

So we come to the wedding present. A few months ago I was pinning away on pinterest and I stumbled across the cutest wedding present...

So when we got the invitation, I decided to go digging and asking whether anyone knew their first dance. Unfortunately, no one did and we ended up calling the happy couple telling them that we need it for a present. Luckily the new misses didn't hesitate to give us the title: Thank you for loving my... And on we went. I went to a craft store to buy some thicker off-white and red paper, searched the internet for the lyrics, printed the lyrics on a page, put their initials on the red paper and we were ready to begin.

After I had printed all that I used my heart-shaped embossing tool to cut out their initials in little hearts and then I drew a tree onto the page with the lyrics.

And then we started cutting...

The cut-out tree

The next task was to place everything onto the paper and then mod podge it down...

And I must say that I really like the end result...

 I hop you do as well... So that's it for now, I promise I'll try to come back soon with more creative goodies...

Love,
Crazy Crafter

Birthdays (and presents) all around

I know I've been absent for a while, but going on holiday, trying to pack everything so I can move and starting a new school year takes up a lot of my time. Anyway, I decided to show you some of the things that were exchanged over the summer... First of all, a gift that my best friend (Zjizjipke) surprised me with a few months ago.

I just love all of the pink accents... And, of course, the fact that she personally made it for me. And I must say, as the first purse she's ever sewn on that machine of hers, it looks pretty good...

So, the deadline I had to cope with during the summer holidays was Zjizjipke's birthday (which takes place 2 weeks before my own birthday). For her birthday I had some great ideas, and the most important one was her name in mod podged letters. But since I'd never used mod podge before, I decided to try it out on the first letter of my name first...

After this seemed to work out pretty well (I'm happy with the result anyway), I decided to start on her letters. I collected all of my scrapbook papers and began with the selection process of the right patterns. Afterwards I took my paper maché letters, mod podge, the craft knife and the embellishments currently in my possession and started on her letters. And this is the result...

I'm glad to say Zjizjipke loved the result (and so did I). Other than that I gave her a carton box filled with items such as movie tickets, scratch cards, fabric mod podge, some washi tape, an issue of Mollie Makes (her favourite crafts magazine) and the book Sewn Spaces (filled with beautiful projects waiting for the right crafter)... Let's say that Zjizjipke was a happy birthday girl...

Now, besides these birthday presents I also created a little present for the baby shower of a little boy named Warre...

For this one I bought me a cheap frame in Hema, I removed the glass and mod podged the blue and white polka dot paper right onto the back. Afterwards I painted the wooden letters yellow and after they dried I mod podged some colourful striped paper onto them. Then I searched the internet for a cute car and plain shape, I cut them out and mod podged them to the frame as well. And voila, the end result (Warre's mom was very happy).

So, after all of this creating on my side, we come to my birthday, the day on which I received some gorgeous gifts myself. First of all my boyfriend showed up with these gorgeous flowers...

He also gave me the puss in boots dvd (love) and a book on crocheting scary monsters and such (he is a horror fan, and at times so am I). The we come to the presents that my BFF (and her mother) have provided for me. I got Amy Butler's book style stitches, the infamous mod podge rocks (yay), a book on quilling (I've been wanting to try it for some time, but just didn't know where to start) and some scrapbook paper. Other than that my BFF also gave me a remodelled jar filled with yarn scraps and washi tape (double yay: check out the butterflied lid and the doily she mod podged on the side... Love)...

And... Then there was still her pride and joy, the best present she ever made me... My own little creator book... She mod podged my name on it, along with a butterfly (in case you hadn't noticed yet, my favourite animal, though my current goal in life is to find the perfect little kitten to take home), flowered hearts and a doily.

A view from the side... Still awefully pretty...

And from the back...

And what do we find when we look inside: a gorgeous bookmark...

And a page explaining to me what the book is for: To create, to be a creator... So this is my little book in which I'm going to write all of my inspirations and creations...

So... These were the birthday presies from July and August 2012. I hope you liked them, I know I do... Hopefully I'll see you again soon...

Hugs and Kisses,

Crazy Crafter xxx

A trip to Holland and another finished project...

I know, it's been ages again... Since it's my aging day I decided it was time I posted something again... I promise you I have been busy and I've got about a thousand things in my head that I would like to try out, but unfortunately I don't seem to find the time to complete all of them (even during the holidays). Last week, for instance, my BFF zjizjipke and I decided to expand our knowledge on the Netherlands (well, if finding a few interesting shops and a nice beach to lie on qualify as expanding knowledge)... The loot was once again superb (well I think so anyway). We made a little trip to Tilburg first where we went to visit the local fabric market. Unfortunately my favourite fabric guy wasn't there, so I didn't buy any. And then we took a trip (read: we crossed the street) to Pipoos, a hobbycrafter paradise... I think I let myself go just a little bit...

I know it doesn't look like much, but trust me, my bank account is still trying to recover... So after this short morning stop it was back in the car and on to Vlissingen, a nice coast town in Zeeland. After enjoying a nice lunch and some time on the beach (resulting in sand everywhere) we decided to visit the local shops as well. The good thing is that we never just stick to the main shopping street, but that we also decide to check out the side streets which resulted in a fantastic find: a cute little shop filled with beads and other lovely things. I think I went a bit crazy in that store as well...

These will definitely come in handy in the future projects... And what do I find when I get home... A recently ordered book which I discovered by accident while I was shopping for Zjizjipke's birthday. I loved the book so much I just had to have it myself...

I'm going to have a lot of fun with this book... Which brings me to something else I enjoyed making for a friend of mine. I had been searching the internet for a while on how to make your own chalkboard paint and I was ready to get my hands dirty when I got to the store and discovered that it would cost me less to buy the ready-to-use chalkboard paint than if I bought all of the ingredients to make it myself. Result: I bought me a small bucket of chalkboard paint (dark grey), I went to another store to buy a dinner plate and some coffee cups and I was ready to get started. The idea was to turn the dinner plate into a message board, and the cups just had to have a few different shapes on it, just for the fun of it. So I started out with some tape to make beautiful shapes and figures on the cups, and to make the message square on the plate. Then I started my painting (and making a mess of everything)...

I used a porcelain paint marker to write the message above (I did this before I started with the chalkboard paint, of course). Now the idea was to let it rest and dry outside and then to take off the tape. But, then the little voices in my head (I think there's two right now) started arguing whether taking the tape off then might damage the painted surface. Maybe it would be better to take it off while the paint was still wet... And little old me decided to listen to the doubter and takes off the tape, which resulted in tiny little splashes right around the edge of the painted surface. I loved this result a lot more than I ever would have loved the straight lines that could have been created...

I just love the erratic lines... Now all I have to do is wrap the presents and give it to the lucky birthday girl... Now I have made a few other items as well using mod podge and other crafty goodies, but I think I'll save them for another day... As always, I love to see you again soon...

Love, Crazy Crafter xxx

My apologies...

First of all I would like to apologise for being absent for so long... It's been a hectic month and a half (with final classes, exams, corrections and deliberations) and I'm afraid the busy days aren't over yet... After all my mother, brother, sister and myself have all decided to move within the next 4 months, resulting in big messes everywhere with overstuffed boxes and unpacked items in pretty much every room of the house (and of my brother's and sister's house)... So lots of work to do, but I'm also glad I'm able to show you something else I've been working.

Recently I've finished a project for a good friend of mine who's decided it was time to leave the parentals and move into her own little piece of heaven. So, as one of the housewarming gifts I decided to cross stitch something she could hang on her wall. Thanks to pinterest I had my little "keep calm and..." phase and as a teacher I just loved the "keep calm and pretend this is on the lesson plan" one. Classes can be a bit chaotic at times and sometimes you might forget your books or something else you had planned on using, so the key is always to remain calm and act like it was supposed to happen... Works like a charm... Most of the time. Anyway, turns out that my friend is a teacher too, so I decided that she should definitely be in the know to this little teacher's secret... And voila... The result (framed and all) as I will be presenting it to her in a few days/weeks/when I see her again...

A few months ago I started making my flowery granny pillow. After making all of the little squares and connecting them all into a nice little square I was left with only one thing to do: create the back of the pillow. Unfortunately, my skills on the sewing machine are not that advanced yet, I needed the help of mommy dearest and this week she finally found some time to help me finish the pillow...

The beginning... Some little flowery squares...

Starting to put them together...

Finished putting them together...

Now all that's left is dealing with the spaghetti...

Spaghetti solved!!!

A little close-up of the flowers...

The finished result

And the backside. I bought this cute fabric in Ikea and couldn't resist combining it with the flowers

And a close-up of the end result...

Now I'm not going to post the pattern for you since I had some help in that department. Just go to http://rosehip.typepad.com/rose_hip_blog/2008/11/index.html and start crocheting... Good luck and I hope to see some of your results in the future ;-)

Love,

Crazy Crafter...