April 2011 - Crap I've Made

Picking some new winners!

April 30, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 9 Comments

We’ve had A LOT of unclaimed prizes as of late and I’d like to wrap this stuff up. So, if I don’t hear from you by Tuesday, I’m picking again!

The new Shabby Apple winner is:

#42, aka Jenalyn and Mike!

The new Imaginisce winner is:

#181, aka Kathy!

The new Crystal B winner is:

#127, aka Linsey!

And the Woombie winner is:

#130, aka KandA!

Shoot me an email to [email protected] ASAP to claim your prizes! Remember, I’m drawing again if I haven’t heard from you by Tuesday!

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Snap!: The Conference

April 28, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 15 Comments

So, here’s your announcement:

I am not pregnant.

I am, however, involved in a whole bunch of awesome coming your way next April.

Check out the Snap! conference site for more info as it becomes available. We’re still under construction, but there was no way we could keep this under wraps one more second!

I’m going to strongly suggest that you go check out the AWESOME women involved.

You can also follow along with Snap! on Facebook and Snap! on Twitter.

And now I’m going to plead for some help:

Part of the idea behind Snap! is that we’re all better together…as part of a community. And, because of that, we want to DO something together during the conference to make a difference.

Do you know of an organization that could use our help?

Email me at [email protected] with the info.

See you at Snap!

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Blah Blah Blah

April 28, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 13 Comments

We packed up the old van and drove to Nebraska last week.

Yes, on purpose.

Some of us are better travelers than others.

Apparently he prefers 15 hour car rides to trips to the bounce house place.

Before we left, I got a new camera, and I’m pretty sure I want to marry it. I’ve taken approximately one bajillion pictures already. Most of them are super awesome, like this shot in the dark gym at an elementary school orchestra concert:

or this shot in a Walmart parking lot:

This picture?

ISO 3200.

My old camera maxed out at like 1200.

Random subject change alert!

My kids’ school does an egg drop every year. Basically, your kid makes some sort of container to protect a raw egg and then the custodian gets up on the roof and throws it off. If the egg breaks, they get a piece of candy for participating. If the egg doesn’t break, they get a (slightly bigger) piece of candy for participating.

There are no restrictions or guidelines that I’m aware of. For example, one year Macy embedded her egg in a box filled with Jell-o. I put BC in charge of Keller’s entry this year.

What in the crap is that???

I’m pretty sure that egg is NEVER coming out, broken or not.

I’ve got an announcement coming up a little later today. I’ll be back.

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Pressing Words

April 27, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 9 Comments

This weekend (late Saturday night when all of you are out doing something way more fun than reading my blog and/or sleeping), Crap I’ve Made will be moving from Blogger to WordPress.

www.crapivemade.com will still be the place to find me and everything should transfer over smoothly, but I just wanted to warn you all in advance.

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Spiffy Scissors

April 26, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 90 Comments

Cindy over at Skip to My Lou asked me to participated in her Teacher Appreciation series. I adore Cindy, so of course I said yes. Then I realized something:

I’ve never actually appreciated a teacher. I mean, I’ve appreciated a teacher, I just haven’t ever done anything about it. Who sucks? (Hint: me)

Here’s my quick, easy, and inexpensive idea!

Spiffy Scissors

Supplies:

Scissors (all of mine came from Dollar Tree)
Patterned paper
E6000
Sandpaper or a nail file
Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

I picked papers that coordinated with the scissor handles.

Cut out pieces of paper the size of the scissor blades. They don’t need to be exact, but the closer the better.

Use some E6000 to adhere the paper to the scissor blades.

Be sure to get the E6000 all the way to the edges. Trust me on this.

Using a nail file or some sandpaper, sand off the excess paper. Sand down (i.e. towards the metal).

See how much nicer that looks?

Move to a “safe” surface (I used a junky old IKEA cutting board) and apply an even thin layer of Dimensional Magic to one of the scissor blades. (Dimensional Magic is a little bit fickle. Be sure to read all the tips and tricks over on Mod Podge Rocks before you start to make your experience a successful one!)

Let it dry for at least 3 hours and then flip it over to do the other blade.

The Dimensional Magic dries clear.

I had a happy little accident when I discovered that disposable icing bags were a perfect fit for the scissors.

I tied them with some ribbon and tags (I used the print & cut option on my Silhouette), but you can make them however you want.

And I solemnly swear that I will publicly thank teachers for the rest of my life. Starting next year. Winking smile

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Winners, Imaginisce and Crystal B

April 25, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 1 Comment

The winner of the i-Rock set from Imaginisce is…

#59, aka Annette A, who said:

I am a blog follower…..

The winner of the fabulous Char necklace from Crystal B is…

#66, aka Stephanie, who said:

Ooh! I love the Feuilles et des Fleurs earrings.

Shoot me an email to [email protected] ASAP to claim your prizes!

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Giveaway: Woombie

April 25, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made

Hey there! How was your weekend? We’ve had a fabulous couple of days with family and I don’t think any of us are quite ready to go back to reality.

I’ll be posting the Crystal B and Imaginisce winners later today.

I’ll also be guest posting over at Skip to My Lou later today as part of Cindy’s Teacher Appreciation series. My post isn’t up yet, so I can’t link you, but I promise to post the project here tomorrow as well.

*************************

Have any of you ever been cursed blessed with a kid that screamed for, oh, the first 18 months of his life?

I have. This one:

In fact, the only time he quit screaming was when he was strapped to my body like this:

That worked out OK most of the time, except when I needed to do stuff. You know, stuff like “sit down”, “drive a car”, or maybe even “sleep at night”.

Now I obviously don’t know, but I wonder if something like the Woombie would have helped…

Woombie was started a few years ago by Karen Barski. Karen’s an RN, but also a mom who had a kid who wouldn’t sleep. She says:

We needed to keep our daughter Bella safe and comfortable. Getting up every 2 hours during the night can be draining for not only mom, but everyone in the house- both emotionally and physically. I sought after different products that would work for the baby and myself on a few different levels. First, to swaddle the baby for her safety and comfort, to both prevent her from scratching herself and also prevent the Startle Reflex. It needed to be comfortable and to stay put! Velcro almost always detaches as baby stretches during the night, and blankets unravel and may overheat baby, or end up over the baby’s face contributing to SIDS. I needed something that would stay intact and snug, but at the same time, allow the baby to stretch out if she needed to, where the fabric would then automatically re-conform to a snug cocoon-like or peanut shape afterwards. After searching every store and website for a product that would “stay put”, on went my creative hat. I sewed and sewed until Bella was “contained” with a gentleness. No “arms pinned to the side swaddle”, a stretchy but effective peanut, which was ergonomical to her shoulder, waist and hip curves.

And so, the Woombie was born.

The original Woombie

Karen’s original idea has been expanded to include several more options, like the convertible Woombie. This allows you to leave baby’s arms free.

Do you need baby’s legs free instead so you can buckle him into a swing? Check out the Leggies Woombie.

There’s a convertible Leggies option as well.

So, what’s in it for you?

First of all, the nice folks at Woombie are offering ALL of you 10% off using code “SweetDreams” through May 5th.

Second of all, Woombie is giving one luck Crap I’ve Made reader their very own Woombie Donut (a $70 value!).

The donut comes in 3 colors and is great for newborns as well as babies up to 36 months.

TO ENTER:

Head on over to Woombie. Have a look around. Come back and leave a comment ON THIS POST saying what your favorite Woombie product is.

Want some more entries?

Like Woombie on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment on this post saying that you did.

Leave a comment telling me the craziest thing you’ve ever done in an attempt to get your baby to sleep.

Giveaway runs through Saturday April 30th whenever I roll out of bed and shut down the comments. Open-mouthed smile

YOU MUST LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY! ALL COMMENTS MUST BE ON THE BLOG, NOT ON FACEBOOK OR IN REPLY TO YOUR EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION!

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Happy Easter

April 24, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 14 Comments

I hope it was fabulous, however you chose to celebrate.

(And no I didn’t have another kid, I just borrowed one to dress in matchy clothes.)

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Three

April 22, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 16 Comments

This guy turned 3 yesterday.

We went to TWO train museums to celebrate.

Pretty sure it was the best day of his life.

I don’t think it was the best day of this guy’s life, though:

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Sparkly Mustaches, aka the April Silhouette Promo

April 21, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 13 Comments

Silhouette sent me their rhinestone kit to try out this month.

I have to admit that I was not quite sure what to do with rhinestones because

a) I had never worked with them before.

and

b) There are mostly boys ‘round these parts.

Here’s the low down on how the Silhouette works with rhinestones:

You use the CD that comes in the kit or buy a design from the online store. DO NOT resize the design. I went with a mustache on account of the fact that Macy is OBSESSED with them right now. The picture directions that come with the kit are fabulous. Or, there’s an instructional video you can watch here. After you’ve cut your design, you peel it off and stick it to a backer board.

Then you dump out your appropriately sized (more on that in a minute) rhinestones and brush them over the holes.

This is how much of the design was filled in after I got done brushing.

Then, you use the handy dandy pick up tool to place the rest of them. The tool looks like this:

Once the design is completely filled in you put some special transfer tape on it

and then apply it to your garment.

WAY easy and I was impressed with how well the rhinestones adhered.

I was not impressed with the fact that my 10 year old has such a demanding social life that she had to take a call whilst I was trying to take an action shot.

So, about the rhinestone sizing…when you buy the design, it tells you what size stones to use. However, you probably won’t remember what size that was when you actually go to use it. I went back to the online store and located my design to find out. If any of you know of a better way to figure that out, please let me know!

And, I’m going to show you what I did to keep straight what size my rhinestones are once they’re open. I cut out the part of the bag topper that had the size on it and then just stuck it in the bag.

Smarter than your average bear, right?

Want the details on this month’s promo?

$229 gets you: A Silhouette SD, the rhinestone starter kit, 3 additional packs of rhinestones, and 1 Pick Me Up tool. This is a savings of about $125. GO HERE to add the bundle to your cart. The price will go down to $229 once you use the promo code “CRAP”

Or, if you already have a machine, all rhinestone products are 30% off.

The promo runs April 21st through the 26th.

And may I suggest you tell your husband you NEED a Silhouette for Mother’s Day? Winking smile