Homemade Clip it Up

I have tons and tons of stickers and embelishments.  They are scattered all over in boxes and bins.  It's so hard for me to remember what I have and more often than not I will buy something only to realize (after my project today) that I already had this or that.  Well no more.  As I was blog hopping a couple of weeks ago, I came across a youtube video of a home made clip it up.  I watched the video and thought to myself, I can do this...no knives involved this time.  She said you needed a canopy blank kit, lock nuts and a rod (Lowe's).  You also needed 2 lampshades, but be careful.  You need to get lampshades that are all one piece.  You will see what I mean in the pictures.  Anyway, so off to Lowe's we go.  My DH was so into this project with me.  He likes to build things.  The guy in the lamp department was a bit surprised when I told him what I was building...he must have thought I was nuts.  The rod we got in the lamp department didn't fit and of the lock nuts.  Well, in the same department as the lock nuts there were also some rods.  Not as pretty as the ones in the lamp department, but after I get all my stuff hung up you won't see it anyway.  LOL  We then went to a couple of thrift stores and I found the lampshades for $2 a piece.  After getting home I was going to build my clip it up.  DH decided he would help.  Well in the video she built one for on a desk, but my lampshades were a bit huge...I just so go overboard when I make things.  We decided to hang it from the ceiling.  It's pretty cool.  I will say I was glad DH helped cuz those lock nuts were a pain to put on.  Anyway, here are the pictures. 

Canapy blank kit

Lamp shade

Clip it up hanging from the ceiling.  See what I mean about making sure lampshade is all one piece.  You need to insert the rod through the lampshades and use the lock nuts to keep them in place so that the lampshades can turn on their own. 

Filled with stickers and embellishments

and more stickers and embellishments. 

So now you are probably wondering how I hung them?  Well a while ago on one of my thrift store shopping trips I came across a package of a thousand christmas ornaments hangers for $.50.  Anyway, most of my embellishments and stickers are in packages from the store and they all have these neat holes punched in them.  I just hooked the hanger to the package and hooked the other side to the lampshade and viola.  If the package didn't have a hole I made one.  So there is my homemade clip it up.  Total cost?

1. Canopy Blank kit         $4.98
2. Rod                             $1.97
3. 4 lock nuts .14             $  .56
4. 2 lamp shades              $4.00
5. ornament hooks           $  .50

           total cost                   $12.01

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial today and I will see you next time.  I think I should create something now that I have all my embellishments and stickers sorted.  Hmmmm....what to make? 

As always, have a great day and god bless.

Homemade markers for my Cricut

Hi there,

ok, most of you know I am a pretty frugal crafter.  If I can make it for cheap, I will.  I know, cheap isn't always better, but in this economy I guess I don't need the best.  Yesterday I showed you my inkpad holder for $2.  Today I am going to show you my homemade cricut markers.  I did purchase a pack of the black and brown ones a long time ago.  I must have had some extra money cuz I can't even use my michaels or hobby lobby coupon on cricut products.  Anyway, I did like them, but $15 plus for 4 markers is a bit steep for me.  Then came along the Cri-kits.  I think they are also very awesome. Still way too expensive for me at $30.  Well as I blog hopped, I saw someone taking those ittie bittie markers and putting those soft pencils grips around them and claiming they fit in the housing for your cutter.  Another site I saw she took fat short markers and took a lighter to them and melted down the plastic so they fit into the housing also.  All very cool ideas.  I read you could buy those markers at Staples and also Walmart, but I have had no luck finding them.  I was at the Dollar Tree buying the foam core for the previous project the other day, and found some tiny gel pens.  They looked cute and I got 6 of them for $1.  I had these in mind for another project I am doing so I picked them up.  Then I stopped at Michaels on the way home and found these little, skinny markers.  Wow, really?  They were $2.99 for a package of 10.  They are made by Creatology Art Supplies and come in red, green, baby blue, dark blue, orange, purple, pink, rust, yellow and black.  As I am writing this and looking at the package I see that they are double sided.  Fine tip and wide.  LOL  I was kinda wondering why they were double sided, but didn't really read the package.  Too funny.  Guess I gotta make another tutorial on the wide side and see how that works.  Anyway, back to my tutorial.  I brought them home and I didn't have any of these pencil grips.  Really?  With school age kids there were none to be found.  So, I adjusted again.  I had bought a roll of painters tape a long time ago because I read that you could use it like transfer paper for your vinyl.  Well, guess what?  Either I bought the wrong stuff or it just really doesn't work.  So I cut off a few strips and measured against my blade housing and taped around the markers until I thought they were fat enough.  Now came the hard part.  How far do the markers go into the blade housing?  I took a plain white piece of paper and layed it on my mat and using SCAL I wrote out a word and then proceeded to cut.  When I figured out the right depth, I took a sharpie and marked the painter's tape above the housing and viola.  My homemade cricut markers.  Now, I must say, they aren't as crisp as the cricut markers but maybe after I try the wide line that might be a different story.  I will let you know once I've tried it.  I truly am happy with the outcome though.  Not everything always needs to be so clean and crisp.  I then took one of those gels pens and tried the same thing and that worked soooo much better.  A very clean line.  I love it.  Here are a few pictures to kinda show you how they look.  I didn't write out the entire word in every color.  I just wanted to make sure that they depth was correct.  I will make a project and show you the results then.  I will also try the wide line and see if there is a difference.

These are the markers (double sided for fine and wide point) who knew.  LOL

Here is a picture showing some of the wording.  See how a line is drawn from one sections to another?  That got fixed after adjusting the blade depth.

Here is a closeup of the gel pen.  LOVE IT.

Well another frugal idea I got from blog hopping.  All in all 9 markers (cuz the 10th one was black and I already own black and brown cricut markers) 1 gel pen plus some painters tape cost me around .33 cents a piece.  Not bad huh?

Hope you enjoyed todays post and see you next time. 

As always, have a great day and god bless.

Ink pad Holder for $2 - Vinyl Mug

Hello all -

Last week I came across as awesome item using foam core.  I have a small craft room in my house and try to use any space I can.  I had been using a couple rubbermaid bins to store my inkpads which made it impossible to really see what I really had.  I was bloghopping and saw this and couldn't wait to build it. So I ran to the Dollar Tree (my second favorite store next to Big Lots.  That's another story in itself.) and bought 2 pieces of foam core for $1 a piece, downloaded the pdf file and proceeded to cut out my patterns.  A small family joke - I am not allowed to use knives. Ha ha. My DH, who by the way is very handy with knives, offered to cut it out for me.  I then took all my pieces and built my ink pad holder.  It turned out awesome.  I was a bit apprehensive of how strong it would be, but to my surprise it is absolutely sturdy.  I had filled it and then had to move it.  I was a bit scared, but it really is sturdy.  You can visit Rebel Inker and download her pdf file.  All she asks is to please not use this pdf file to make and resell.  I don't know why my picture turned out so blurry, but here is is.

I am going to alter the pattern a bit and make some more of these and store more of my stuff.  Hopefully next week I can show you another storage project.  I am so excited.  You will have to come back to find out what it is, but I can say it uses old lamp shades.  Stay tuned for further details.

Onto my next project.  As you all know, I had to go home for a couple of days to attend to a family matter.  My dad was in the army and he was a paratrooper.  Which gave me an idea.  I had wanted to make him something since I am always making something for my mom.  It's just so hard to make something for him.  Anyway, I had made a set of wings in Inkscape and then turned it into a scut file for my sure-cuts alot program.  I cut it out in silver vinyl along with his name and Off to the Dollar Tree again and bought a travel mug.  I really like the way it turned out, but my dad REALLY liked the way it turned out. Here is the picture.  If you would like the .scut file, please leave a comment and I will email it to you. 

 

So, I hope you liked my weekly Thursday project and hope to see you next week.

As always, have a wonderful week and god bless.

Out of town

I was out of town for a few days to take care of a family matter and
was not able to post on Thursday. Maybe I can get something uploaded
this weekend, but I will be back with something exciting next week.

While I was gone though I did win something over at
http://kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com. She had an awesome tutorial on
how to make utee/leaves and butterflies. They are so awesome. Check
out her blog. Infact, today she has a wonderful FREE svg/doodle file.
So much fun.

See you next week, if not sooner.

Chez Benefit

One of our friends has recently been diagnosed with cancer.  If you would like to stay up-to-date with his progress you can go to Caring Bridge and follow him there.  All the prayers and well wishes are appreciated.  Anyway, on with my craft project.  I wanted to make something "Special" for them.  They are having a benefit for him so first off I have donated a "diaper cake" ($75.00 value) to the benefit.  Then I made him a frame for his family to write on, a candle, and a journal for his friends and others to write well wishes and such in.  I think it will be neat to read this journal after he fights this thing and sees who his friends are.

The glass is vinyled with a clock and the words "Make the Moments Count" with his nickname as the header.  The Family is to write on the glass itself with a permanent marker and then it gets hung on the wall or set on a table.The candle is vinyled with the words "Believe in Miracles" and adorned with tan flowers.  The Journal is also vinyled with his "nickname"

Another day, another project.  Hope you all enjoyed.

Harli's Wedding

Okay, so for my first real article I am posting it for my daughter.  On June 26th, 2010 our only daughter got married.  It was an outdoor wedding in Colorado Springs, CO.  I have been waiting for the professional pictures to arrive, but as of yet they have not.  Therefore, I decided to put up just a few of the ones that I do have.  I am anxious to work on her wedding scrapbook, but until I have them from the photographer I can not do so.

Daddy and Harli

Family

Siblings

So proud

I hope you've enjoyed a non-crafty post and I hope to see you next Thursday. 

Have a blessed week.

Welcome

I have been having trouble with my old blog so I thought I'd try to create a new one.  Please be patient with this new system.  I will try to have a new update weekly on Thursdays.  If you were a follower on my old blog, please follow me here now.