Category Archives: Crafts

Planning to Plan a Wedding

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I simply can’t believe that I’ve been engaged for almost a month and half now. Time flies. I don’t have much to show for my wedding planning progress. In fact, only this week have I actually seriously looked into churches and reception locations. The fact that I made five wedding-related phone calls today makes today the most productive  day I’ve had thus far.

While the actual planning is coming along slowly, I have made serious progress on something equally important: my wedding planner.

Anyone who has talked to me in the past week or so has probably heard about my wedding planner. I’m ridiculously excited about it! I wanted something pretty to keep all my wedding ideas and plans together in one place. I wanted it to double as a keepsake, something that I could look back on and see everything that went into my perfect day.

I had originally planned on simply buying a wedding planning binder. I went to Barnes & Noble and flipped through every binder they had to offer, but none of them clicked. I didn’t love them. They were packed full of page upon page of information, tips and ideas, which might have been useful, but to me they were just words. I wanted pictures and I wanted the ideas that filled the binder to be my own. Feeling a little defeated, I walked out empty handed.

But then, I walked into Paper Source. *

Paper Source is a craft/paper store chain that sells all the things I love: pretty things, sparkly things and craft supplies. The flagship, two-story location just happens to be within walking distance from my new apartment. (Fate!) The second I walked in, my problem was solved: I was going to make my own wedding planner.

Three shopping trips and wedding craft workshop later, I was finally armed with the supplies to get started. I picked up a binder, some sheet protectors and some dividers from Walgreens, and I was in business!

I started making my binder a few days ago and I’m absolutely in love with it! I didn’t really have a plan, but just kept adding things that were white and girly. A little lace here, a little sparkler there. I dont want to share too many photos, because it’s not done yet, but here’s a little teaser. Finding Paper Source is a big deal for me. You might have noticed by my lack of craft posts recently, and I think I’ve just been short on inspiration and supplies. I haven’t been this excited about a craft project in a really long time! With a craft store within my reach and lots of DIY wedding projects ahead, I have a very good feeling things will be moving full-steam ahead.

Happy crafting!

 

*Please note: Paper Source did NOT pay me to write this. (In fact, I paid them with my repeated and uncontrollable craft binges.)

Going for knIT!

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I knew there had to be a pun in that title somewhere, but I obviously couldn’t find it and that’s the best I could do.

I have a new goal. I am going to learn how to knit!

As you might recall from my Crafty Apples post and several posts after that, I already know how to crochet. I learned to crochet when I was in the middle of moving from Champaign to Chicago and was going to be spending a lot of time in the car and wanted a hobby. I had heard that knitting was harder than crocheting, which was why I opted for the single hook craft instead of the double needles. I ran a quick google search, watched one video and next thing I knew, I had a scarf.

I still love to crochet, and I know I haven’t even come close to mastering it, but I’ve moved on to a new phase of yarn crafting: knitting.

Why? Well …

My friend asked me if I could knit a blanket for her sister. I was pretty ambitious and thought, I could totally learn! I later found a similar pattern and realized that I would need knitting needles longer than I am tall to complete that project. I was probably more disappointed than she was. Then she asked if I could manage a chunky scarf. I knew I could manage to pull that off. So I went to Hobby Lobby, picked out some bright red yarn and grabbed a pair of knitting needles, picking the size randomly from an entire wall full of them.

I learned to crochet in the car, so I figured I could learn to knit on the train. So while I was on the train to Springfield, I typed “How to Knit” into YouTube and I was on my way. Or so I thought. I had to watch almost 10 different videos and read four website tutorials before I could figure out the basic knit stitch! I was so frustrated! However, I finally figured it out. By the time I got to Springfield, I had this: (!!!)

Once I actually figured out the stitch, it really was not that hard. So maybe I was watching the wrong videos. (Can anyone suggest any good knitting tutorials?) I learned to cast on, knit stitch and purl stitch. Casting on is how you get the yard on the needle to begin your work, knit stitch is the basic stitch and purl stitch is essentially a backwards knit stitch. I learned that knitting patterns are made by different repetitions and patterns of purl and knit stitches.

I figured I’d start small. I found a beginner knit scarf pattern to start with. I want to get the hang of this stuff before I commit to making something for someone else to wear in public. (Which let’s be honest, might not be for a while.) I’m going to make this scarf as my first knit project and see how it goes. This is how far I’ve gotten:

I know it’s not much, but I just wanted to share it with you. I haven’t been crafting enough lately, so I’m trying to get back in the swing of it. I wanted to be sure I keep blogging about crafts, even if I’m not quite finishing them. Maybe you can help keep me motivated! Does anyone else out there knit? Any suggestions? Websites to check out?

XO

 

Crop It

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I went through a phase in high school when I kept buying jeans that were too big and not realizing it until it was too late to return them. Just one of the many dumb things I did between the ages of 14 and 18. One of the last remnants from this era is a pair of over-priced, over-rated and overly long Abercrombie jeans in 4 short. I was swimming in them at the time. I specifically remember wearing these pants to school without a belt one day and not being able to play the clarinet in marching band because I had to use one hand to keep my pants from literally falling off. (Did I mention I was really cool in high school?) The glory days.

Anyway, these pants went to college with me, I still thought Abercrombie was really cool, and they quickly became my going out jeans. As a result, these pants got paired with some unfortunate black heels one too many times and ended up looking like this:

I hadn’t worn these pants since I moved out of the dorms. I found them the other day and put them on, and surprisingly, they fit like dream! At 23, it is very exciting to put on a pair of jeans from high school and have them still fit. They still had a notch taken out of the bottom, but I knew just how to fix that: crop ‘em. So I did.

I know this is not really a profound craft project, but it’s handy and everyone should know how to do it.

Step 1: Put on your old denim and fold up the pant leg to mark the length you’d like your carpis to be. Gently take them off, careful to not move the fold.

Step 2: Cut off a majority of the extra fabric, leaving just more than you would like to use to make the “cuff.”

Step 3: Fold back the excess fabric to make a cuff that hides any of the cut hem.

Step 4: Use a light thread and stitch a hem about 1/4″ from the top of the cuff.

And you’re done! Now your pants are carpis! I have to stitch these by hand, so it’s going to take me a little bit, but I will add a photo of the final product ASAP!

Collage Frame Remodel

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My mom is on this kick where she’s trying to get me to take my things out of my house in Rochester and into my apartment in Chicago. Which means that every time I go home, I come back with more stuff (that I should probably just throw away to be honest). Over Easter, I brought back my high school journals, some pretty coffee cups and a couple picture frames. The picture frames I’m pretty sure I bought at a garage sale when I was five. One of them though was this collage frame with really great stock photos for 1973. I  grabbed it because I thought I could do something with.

So I popped the cardboard collage part out of the glass and gathered all the craft supplies I could.

I started by tracing the cutouts onto several pieces of colored construction paper. Then I added glitter, rhinestones, lace, yarn and ribbons to brighten it up a bit. I wanted to use the Mod Podge to add some words and photos, but I couldn’t get it open so I just decided to skip it. This is how it turned out.

It looked at lot cooler in my head. It kind of just looks like a third-graders art project. But it’s bight and colorful and so much better than it started! I’m going to stick some photos in there and hang it up anyway.