2011 - Page 7 of 24 - Crap I've Made

Spider Web Doily Pillow

September 13, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 48 Comments

I was at the dollar store a few weeks ago and picked up some doilies. (I’m obsessed, even have a work in progress Pinterest board.) I had no specific plans for them, until Macy walked in after school and said “Hey! Those look like spider webs!”

I stitched from the center to each doily point and then continued on to the edges of my pillow front piece.

Once the doily was stitched in place, I took some spider rings (also from the dollar store) and cut off the ring part. I tacked them onto the pillow by sewing around the 2 middle legs on each side, like this,

only with actual thread instead of yellow bars. Those suckers are on there GOOD and I’m certain they’ll stay put.

Since I already had the orange fabric (IKEA clearance) and the pillow form, this project cost me about $1.25.

Not bad, right?

Do you have Halloween décor out yet?

Have you nailed down costume ideas?

Linking to: Today’s Creative Blog

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Filed Under: fabric, Halloween, home decor, sewing

Giveaway: My Only Sunshine Design

September 12, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made

First, I never got a response from the winner of the Vinyl Crafts giveaway. The new winner is Anne. If your name is Anne, check your email and respond ASAP.

The winner of the Riley Blake fabric bundle is Sha. If your name is Sha, check your email and respond ASAP.

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

I’d like to introduce you to Crap I’ve Made’s newest sponsor: Kelly from My Only Sunshine Design.

Do you want to add a little sunshine to your next gift?

My Only Sunshine Design offers high quality personalized gifts. And, they LOVE custom orders…contact them if you don’t see exactly what you’re looking for.

They have everything from engraved jewelry to personalized aprons for adults and kids.

Kelly posts her promotions and customer images over on the My Only Sunshine Design blog. Be sure to check there for deals before placing an order!

My Only Sunshine Design is giving one lucky Crap I’ve Made reader their choice of personalized Ultimate Carry All.

(You don’t have to get the pink one…check out the link above for more color options!)

How perfect would that be for hauling blankets, water bottles, snacks to the sideline at football? (Can you tell how my weekend was spent? Again.) Or what about to carry your farmer’s market purchases?

TO ENTER:

Click on over to My Only Sunshine Design. Have a look around. Come back and leave a comment ON THIS POST (not on Facebook or in response to your email subscription) saying what your favorite item is that Kelly offers.

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES:

Leave a comment saying which Ultimate Carry All you’d pick.

Like My Only Sunshine Design on Facebook. Leave a comment saying that you did.

Subscribe to the My Only Sunshine Design blog. Leave a comment saying that you did.

Giveaway runs through at least Friday night at 10pm MST (but I’ll be in Minnesota until Sunday so you might be able to sneak in entries for a little longer).

Ready? Go!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Family Motto: Fix Your Mistakes

September 8, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 23 Comments

We sat down a few weeks ago, before school started, to come up with a theme for this school year. After much deliberation, we settled on:

FIX YOUR MISTAKES

We want to focus this year on doing our best, even when it’s hard, and not giving up. Mistakes are OK, we just want to learn from them.

I asked the delightful Miss Ellie G from Less Cake More Frosting if she’d be so kind as to make me up a printable to display.

I hung it over our stuff storage near the garage door. (For more about my stuff storage, go here.) It’ll be the last thing we see as we’re rushing out to the car in the mornings.

Does your family have a motto?

What is it?

Do you change it yearly?

Is it displayed in your home?

Do you want your own copy of “FIX YOUR MISTAKES”? It’s your lucky day!

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And one more…

September 7, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 14 Comments

And do you know what else today is?

Happy anniversary, BC. 15 years. Yikes.

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Lifestyle Crafts: New Holiday Releases!

September 6, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 7 Comments

Today is the day that Lifestyle Crafts releases their new holiday dies (code “CRAP” gets you 20% off). I was fortunate enough to get to try out some of the Halloween line.

Because I’m a giant sucker for the letterpress, I HAD to use that, too. The damask printing plate is quite possibly my favorite thing on Earth. You’ve seen it before on my Easter mantel. I used violet in place of yellow this time and instead of Spring…

DSC_0008-1

you get Halloween.

The bat is one of the new die releases. It comes with perforated fold lines to make it 3-dimensional. I left mine flat, since I wanted to be able to slip them into envelopes.

(Envelope printed using the spooked printing plates)

And since I was busy pressing and cutting, I decided to make some Halloween art for my bookshelves.

The background papers are letterpressed. (You can press regular old cardstock, it just doesn’t get the cool indentations that the fancy paper gives you.) The text is also letterpressed. The witch and the ghosts are part of the holiday release. Cute, right?

***Lifestyle Crafts provided me with some of their new holiday dies. I purchased the letterpress plates on my own.***

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Filed Under: Halloween, letterpress, paper

Giveaway: Riley Blake Fat Quarter Bundle

September 5, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made

First up, I haven’t heard back from the Vinyl Crafts giveaway winner. If your name is Sarah, check your email! If your name is not Sarah, pray she doesn’t respond and we’ll draw again tomorrow. Open-mouthed smile

I hope you’re all enjoying your holiday weekend! We spent our Saturday like this

and then Macy and I saw Mary Poppins. And yesterday evening I had the chance to catch up with some old friends from high school (thanks Michelle for having us). Today we’ve got big plans to clean out closets and the playroom. Woo.

In order to make your Labor Day a little more exciting than that, I’ve got a giveaway for you. And, it’s the best kind of giveaway…FABRIC.

Riley Blake Designs has provided a fat quarter bundle from their Indian Summer line!

A couple of my personal favorites from that line:

(Can you tell I love polka dots?)

I’m gonna make this one quick and easy to enter:

LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS POST. You can tell me how funny I am. You can tell me you wish I’d stop blogging. You can tell me a joke. You can tell me your shoe size….whatever! Just leave a comment on this post (on the blog, not on Facebook or in response to your email subscription).

Extra entries, if you’re feeling frisky:

1 – Head on over and “Like” Riley Blake Designs on Facebook. Come back and leave a comment on this post saying that you did. A little love on their wall never hurt anybody either.

2 – Go browse around the Riley Blake fabric selection and tell me which line is your favorite (in a comment on this post…don’t call me, I’m busy cleaning the playroom Winking smile ).

3 – Leave a link in a comment to a project you’ve made using Riley Blake fabrics.

Giveaway closes Friday night at 10pm MST.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Spider Web Plate – Martha Stewart Glitter Paint

September 2, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 43 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked if I’d be interested in checking out the new Martha Stewart Crafts Decorative Paint Line, brought to you exclusively by Plaid Crafts. And, because I’m smarter than I look, I said YES.

And shortly after that a box containing all of this (crappy cell phone picture alert)

showed up at my door.

Delightful, right???

You can find the entire line exclusively at Michael’s stores in the US and Canada starting NOW!

So, why do we need another line of craft paints? Because this is the big daddy of all craft paint lines! It works on all crafting surfaces including wood, metal, glass, ceramic, terra-cotta and fabric. It is indoor/outdoor safe and dishwasher-safe on glass. And, there are 160 paint colors in five finishes (Satin, High Gloss, Glitter, Pearl, Metallic). All come in 2 oz. bottles and are non-toxic!

And the tools? AMAZING. The attachments all screw directly on to your paint bottle and come with a separate bottle for cleaning. That spongy roller thing? Genius. Let’s get on with my project…

Disclaimer: Because I adore Martha’s glitter (totally have the variety pack), I went straight for the glitter paints. The glitter paint is not “paint” like you’re thinking. It’s kind of clear with glitter suspended in it. I found this paint is best used with the Fine Top Tips attachments or as an accent as opposed to being brushed on your entire project.

Supplies:

Plate
Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Glitter Acrylic Paint (I used Obsidian)
Martha Stewart Crafts Fine Top Tips (pictured below)

The tips come in 3 different sizes. The large size is the one recommended for the glitter paint. They appear pretty close to the same size, so look carefully before you put one on.

They screw directly onto your paint bottle…fabulous, right?

Mark a point on your plate for the center of the web. I wanted mine off center.

Take your squeeze bottle and draw a line from that point to the edge of your plate.

Do the same thing 9 more times or so.

Now fill in the cross webs (that’s totally a technical term).

And a couple more rows of those…

Now set it aside and let it dry. It will darken up as it dries.

I cut off the ring part of a spider ring and stuck that on the plate as well.

You’ll be seeing more of Martha’s paints ‘round these parts for sure. Maybe even next week. Winking smile

Full post disclosure here.

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Filed Under: Halloween, paint, review

Tomato Lutece

September 1, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 14 Comments

(Confession: I have no idea what “lutece” means. We’ve call these “Grandma Mary Tomatoes” as long as I can remember. What else do we call them? DELICIOUS!)

Do you have a gazillion tomatoes from your garden? Did you pick up more tomatoes than you should have at the farmers market? This recipe is a family favorite for those super sweet vine ripened tomatoes.

8 firm ripe tomatoes
1/4 c chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 c oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
2 tsp prepared mustard

Wedge tomatoes into about six pieces. Combine remaining ingredients in small jar; cover. Shake well. Pour over tomatoes. Cover lightly; let stand at room temperature at least 20 minutes before serving. (Grandma Mary says: I like to sprinkle the parsley over after pouring sauce over tomatoes.) Keeps for use the next day.

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Filed Under: recipes

The Waffle Iron That Changed My Life

August 31, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 22 Comments

Have I mentioned that I have THE BEST friends on Earth?

Because I do.

And, a few weeks ago, one of them sent me a waffle iron. Not just any waffle iron, THIS waffle iron.

(Image from Cuisinart)

I KNOW, right??? (She was thanking me for something that really didn’t require thanking for.)

Things I love, in no particular order:

It makes 6 waffles at once. I have a lot of hungry kids around here and I’m sure the hunger level is only going to get worse when they’re all teenagers.

See that nice slopey non-grooved bottom? It cleans up like a DREAM.

It cooks really, really quickly. You know how with some other waffle irons you get so bored waiting for the waffles to cook that you go do something else and forget you’re making waffles and then they’re burned? No? That’s just me? Embarrassed smile No time for that with this baby, which brings me to my next point…

There’s a cute little beeping noise when your waffles are done. There’s no guessing or peeking and ending up with half cooked waffles stuck to both sides of the plates (not that I’ve ever done that Winking smile ).

The waffles were WAY fluffier and WAY crispier, using the same old recipe (mix) I always do.

So, that’s how a waffle iron changed my life.

***Cuisinart has no idea I love their waffle iron, I just do.***

And why am I talking about food so much this week? No idea, but I’ve got another recipe for you tomorrow involving tomatoes. See you then?

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

August 30, 2011 By Char @ Crap I've Made 19 Comments

I’m sure you can find healthier and fancier options out there, but the quick/easy factor of this version makes it one of our favorite Sunday night treat recipes!

Cookies:

2 pkg devils food cake mix
1 1/2 cup shortening
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Combine ingredients. Roll into 1 inch balls. Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Filling:

1 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
Beat together until smooth.
I like to pipe the filling with a big star tip so that it looks fancy when it smooshes out.

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Filed Under: recipes