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.