Clothing my inner 13 year old

Who's excited for New Moon? I am, I am!

T-shirt night was a success. I churned out two t-shirts because you can never have enough of Edward right? And my friend Carrie made a *gasp* Team Jacob shirt.

We used the freezer paper method which involved some setup time cutting out letters and shapes but I think the results are much better and more lasting than an iron on. Cheaper too actually. Those iron-on things are pricey and I'm really cheap. Give me some freezer paper and a $1.49 bottle of fabric paint and I'm good to go!

Here's the one with my Edward silhouette. In hindsight I should have done him in white as the shirt is a little too dark for him to really stand out. It still looks fab though! I'm thinking I'll put him on a pillowcase next - I'm sure my husband will appreciate that.

I found a full body silhouette of Edward online and put it on this comfy green shirt. It turned out really cool and this shirt won the job of being my official New Moon movie night shirt!

"I know you don't sleep Edward, but you must be weary. Please, feel free to rest your head on my bosom!"

Ah, so juvenile, and yet so fun!

Embracing my inner 13 year old

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I’m a Twilighter. I know, it’s so incredibly juvenile, and trust me, I had no intention of ever becoming a Twilight fan. I went quite some time refusing to have anything to do with it. I mocked it, I turned my nose up at it and then I finally broke down and rented out the movie just to see what the fuss was about and . . . the acting was completely horrid and the storyline seemed less than stellar.

However, there was Robert Pattinson's incredibly square jaw to consider (I may have watched the rental more than once to study the beauty of that man’s face) and I figured there had to be more to the storyline that possibly just didn’t translate to the movie. So I borrowed the books from a friend and the rest is history.

So here I am, along with my other twenty and thirty-something friends anticipating the upcoming New Moon movie like a bunch of giddy schoolgirls. We decided we needed a physical marker of our obsession and what better thing than Twilight t-shirts!

Now, we might be pathetic grown women obsessing over fictional characters and actors who make the cover of Teen People, but we’re not so pathetic that we want to be seen in our nearest Hot Topic picking out generic Twilight shirts.

So since we’ve all got a crafty streak we’ve decided to make our own t-shirts. We’ve got big plans and since we’re not actually constructing them until next week I can’t show you the finished products. However, I wanted to share something I have planned for my shirt in case anyone else out there has a similar Edward fascination.

I give you the Edward silhouette.

Silhouette’s are big nowadays and I’ll admit that along with fictional vampires they are another one of my current obsessions. So I decided to do one of Edward (R. Patz).

I think it’s fitting since Edward is an immortal romantic type of guy and silhouettes invoke that old fashioned romantic feel. And I’m hoping it will be a cool sophisticated design for my T. I’ll show you the finished product next week and you can make your own judgment.

I created it by combing the web for some profile shots of Robert and tracing the outline of his chiseled features. I used this photo for his face and then had to find another one for the hair and meld them together, but I thought it came out pretty well.

I’m going to paint him on my T using the freezer paper method. I got to thinking that he’d be great on other things as well like on a pillowcase, or at the end of a simple scarf, or if you’re really obsessed you could frame him and put him on your wall, use him to make invitations to the Twilight party you throw when New Moon comes out on video – whatever! I just couldn’t keep him for myself.

So feel free to right click on the picture(s) above and save it to your files to do with as you will. All I ask is that if you use him that you share what you made. I’d love to see it! Shoot me an email (pinandpaper@q.com) or whatever.

A Glitter Public Service Announcement

I’m always looking for fun easy craft stuff to do with my kids and since I work full time and have a lot of other stuff going on in my life, I’ve often found Martha Stewart’s little pre-packaged craft projects are just the thing.

So when I saw this glitter butterfly card kit the other day in the clearance bin I went for it. I mean I knew glitter was a slightly dangerous option with the age of my children but I felt I could keep it contained.
I think you all know how this story is going to end but indulge me anyway.

Right off the bat my two year old grabs the open glitter container and while I’m trying to show her how to gently shake it over her butterfly she resists my help and tries to jerk her hand out of mine, therein dousing her brother and half of the kitchen table in the finest most proliferate glitter imaginable. Do you see it - do you see how teeny tiny that stuff is?

The next few seconds were a sparkly blur in my mind but I may have lost my normal calm motherly demeanor for just a moment and possibly yelled at her because the next thing I know she’s sobbing and running off to her room while I’m dusting her brother off with a broom. So I’m shouting soothing statements that hopefully she can hear over the sound of her own sobbing while simultaneously trying to corral the glitter into a manageable pile.

However, this glitter is so super fine that when I try to slide if off the table and into the waiting dustpan it literally oozes into every minor wood grain of my table creating an uncanny gold leaf effect. It’s also on the floor of course and when I try to sweep it up it pools in the grout lines.

So I sweep up as much as I can, the youngest returns to the table and we proceed with the craft because why not. I mean at this point we’re already sparkling like overly sequined showgirls on the Vegas strip.

They each complete their butterfly and I send them directly to the tub. This is when I discover the trail of glitter that followed my 2 yr. old during her tantrum; a shining, sparkling trail throughout my entire house. It’s on the floor, the rug, the couches the walls. It’s like Tinkerbell spontaneously combusted in the middle of a stiff breeze.

So while the kids are in the tub I break out the Dyson and use every attachment that baby came with to eradicate the glitter on the various surfaces of my house. I got most of it but this is glitter we’re talking about here – the herpes of the crafting world. That’s what my friend always calls it, because once you get glitter you can’t get rid of it, and it pops up randomly for the rest of your life. And sure enough when I woke up the next morning after thoroughly showering and looked in the mirror, there was a tiny fleck of glitter under my right eye.

And that’s just the beginning. I see tiny sparkly flecks still in the carpet. I’m confident that glitter particles will be cropping up randomly until I die. I had to tell my husband that he’d been exposed, it was embarrassing and degrading.

So let this little story be a lesson to you folks. Don’t make the same mistakes I made. Don’t make yourself susceptible to the insidious infections disease that is – glitter. The only way to be 100% safe is through abstinence!

Little Big Time

Recently something very exciting happened concerning my little craft shop. I didn’t write about it as it unfolded, mostly because I was afraid I was really going to screw it up and I didn’t want to build it up on here only to be embarrassed about how bad I sucked.

However, now that it has come and gone and I didn’t make a complete fool of myself, I can share it with you. It started with an e-mail from a local TV producer. She had recently joined Etsy and was impressed with the site and the stuff on it. She did a Shop Local search and out of all the fabulously talented crafters in my city, she chose me to approach about doing a spot on their Saturday morning newscast.

I was completely flattered and completely nervous but I went for it and I appeared on the local morning news on Oct. 24 for approximately 3 minutes. If I could add up the amount of time I spent preparing, stressing, shopping and blubbering about that 3 minutes it would be an astronomical number.

In the end I ended up with a new outfit, a little more self confidence, a mother who enjoys asking people if they saw her daughter on TV and a tiny amount of free local marketing. I’d say it was a win-win situation.

Their focus was on Etsy as a way to earn extra money. I was able to bring some items to showcase and I was told they would put my web address up at the end but they just showed the generic Etsy address which was a disappointment, but I’m not complaining.

Here’s the interview if anyone is interested. I recorded this from my DVR last night and quite frankly it took this long to build up the nerve to watch it. I don’t think anybody enjoys watching themselves on TV and especially someone like me who avoids any reflective surface as a general rule. However, at some point you’ve got to embrace yourself as you are.

Fall busy body - and a giveaway

I always seem to be more productive in the fall. I don't know if it's the invigorating chilly winds or the fact that we're forced inside more often, but I'm taking advantage and churning out some new items for the shop.
I recently listed some scarves in the shop. A special thanks to my friend Jessica for being my model. She's really much cuter than any woman has a right to be.

Also I find that I'm overrun with these recycled envelopes. I make them out of the pages of the kids' Highlights magazines. The artwork is really colorful and fun and it just breaks my heart to chuck their old magazines into the recycle bin when they start piling up around the house.

So I started out making them just for my own use but when my stack reached the 10 inch mark I figured it might be time to try and spread them around a bit. I've put some up for sale and I'd like to give some away.

Smack an address label on them and you can send them via snail mail. They're also great to house handmade cards, or to hold a special note.

This set of 6 is up for the taking. Just leave a comment on this post and I'll pick a random winner on Sat. Oct. 24th. Make sure your comment includes a way for me to contact you in case you're the lucky winner.

And stay tuned. I should have even more new stuff listed hopefully by the end of this week, and some other exciting news to share.

UPDATE 10/25/09: The winner of the envelope giveaway is Iiona! Thanks!

Black Spray Paint Halloween

Things are going a little more smoothly around my place lately. My cold is gone, the laptop is back and functional (with no lost data!) and things are running so smoothly that the kids and I found some time to do some Halloween decorating.

So I whipped out the black spray paint and we went to town.

I sprayed a styrofoam egg carton black and then we cut it up and used it for the bodies of some pretty cute/scary spiders. These were lots of fun. The kids decorated them with a little paint of their own, and we added the pipe cleaner legs and of course the googly eyes. We had a lot of fun with the eyes. I think my favorite is the cyclops spider. I threaded some string through the top and we hung them around the house.


Then we located a sufficiently spooky branch from the backyard, painted it black, draped it with fake spiderwebs and stuck a couple black crows from the dollar store on it.

Granted, it might be a little spookier without the speakers behind it, but let's face it, life without surround sound would be even scarier - or at least my husband would think so.

So we were all set for Halloween and then . . . it snowed.

Thankfully it only stayed around for a couple hours.

I've had better weeks

So I'm not one to complain, okay actually I am one to complain. It ranks about number 3 on my list of "Favorite Things To Do In My Spare Time", right after 1. crafting and 2. cussing. Seriously, there are few things more gratifying than being able to utter a tirade of profanity and since I can usually cuss while complaining (at least when the kids are not around) it's like a two for one special! The best thing is child free craft nights with the gals because then I can do all three, craft-cuss-complain, at the same time, and that . . . well, that is when all is right with the world.

I'm glad I got that out in the open. I mean I try to keep things professional on here since I'm promoting my craft business and all, but I'm not one to deceive my followers and customers. I'm a complainer and a cusser and darn proud of it. (see how I didn't cuss there - I'm still professional, sort of)

Now that you're aware - let me commence the complaining. First there was the cold. It started as they all do, with just a slight soreness of the throat and BAM, next thing you know I'm pouring salt water in my nostrils with a device that looks like the little teapot from hell.
I'm not kidding people. My friend swears by this Nettie pot thing that you fill with salt water and pour through one nostril and the water comes out the other nostril (I'm not going to include a picture of it in action in case anyone is eating or has recently eaten before reading this post - google it if you're interested) and I was so desperate for the use of my nasal passages that I gave it a try and let me just say that I'm still waking up with nightmares of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, holding me down and pouring salty tea up my nose.

I couldn't get my head at the right angle or something and instead of the water flowing freely into one nasal passage and out the other, it proceeded directly down my throat. So not only was I still unable to breath through my nose, but I was also literally drowning myself.

Then the next week my laptop up and dies. Yep, just completely dies. No warning, no gasping of breath, no hardrive palpitations - I didn't even have the opportunity to give it a Bayer or perform keyboard compressions. It's still at the repair place and we've yet to receive the diagnostic report on what's wrong with it.

The worst part is that I'm terrible at backing up my files. There are three months worth of photos that have not been backed up on disc on that computer. All of my image files for my Halloween tags and Retro gift tags are on there. I'm literally having a nervous breakdown about whether or not they'll be salvageable from the carcass of that laptop.

I haven't seen Ewan McGregor in a kilt for a week and a half people! (he was my desktop wallpaper - imagine this picture below tiled across the screen! Ten kilted Ewan's giving me that look - and now I'm working on the ancient dinosaur PC with a Bob the Builder wallpaper staring back at me - sigh)

And things have not been getting better, they've been getting worse. Today I merrily went to the post office to ship off an item that I had sold and was lambasted with a shipping price almost triple of what I had expected. It cost me as much to ship the item as I had earned in selling it.

Normally I estimate my shipping expenses by researching similar items on Etsy from other sellers. Not only does this give me a good idea of what actual shipping costs will be, but it also keeps me competitive with other sellers. Unfortunately in this instance it didn't work. According to my not so friendly postal worker, my item was too heavy for first class shipping and therefore was bumped into a higher price range.

I didn't weigh the item ahead of time so I can't say for sure what it weighed but it certainly didn't seem very heavy to me. It was a book, a vintage baby book/album and I shipped it in a 10 x 14 padded envelope. I've purchased books online, much heavier books than this one and I've never had to pay that much for shipping. One of my friends belongs to a book sharing club and ships books quite often and has never paid more than $3 to ship a book. This one cost me almost $8 to send off.

So what am I doing wrong? Did I not notice that the postal employee placed her 2 quart slurpee on the scale along with my package? Does everyone else who is shipping items like these for $3 have some sort of a trick that I'm unaware of?

I'll be the first to admit my ignorance of postal rates and regulations. After all I've got precious little spare time and what I do have is obviously spent crafting, cussing and complaining. I haven't made researching postal rates a high priority, though after today it has moved up on my list.

I was hoping though that some of you might have some suggestions/tips/tricks for me. What are your shipping strategies? Flat rate boxes and envelopes? Shipping in bulk? Excess cleavage? If you sell things online how do you calculate your shipping costs?

Help me out here people.