project 8 of 25/HAND AND FOOT PRINT ART FOR FATHER'S DAY

This project was a really fun one. After taking a pretty significant break (yet again) from blogging and crafting in order to travel and enjoy my life, I was excited to get creative again. This project was fun and checked three different boxes for me: do something fun with Henry, fulfill one of my 25 projects, and make a father's day gift for Henry's grandpas. It couldn't have been simpler. I dipped his hands and feet in non-toxic acrylic paint, then pressed a print onto a flat canvas board. 

 It took a little under an hour to do the whole project, which is long, considering how simple it was. I had to strip Henry down to his disposable drawers, then for some reason I wanted to do each hand and foot print different colors, so I had to walk back and forth to the sink and rinse him off after each paint dip.

I was surprised by how still Henry kept his hands and feet when I pressed them to the canvas. I guess I sort of expected him to thrash and get paint everywhere since he's a busy little boy. For the most part, the prints are really good, but a little messy, particularly on the hands. I'm happy it was a little messy. It shows how he is, how he moves and wiggles. It's realy. Henry got a little uncomfortable toward the end, but quickly recovered. We ended up with a fun, super easy, and child-interactive project that the grandpas will love! 

This is Project 7 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

View Project 1

View Project 2

View Project 3

View Project 4

View Project 5

View Project 6

View Project 7

project 7 of 25/RECYCLED MAGAZINE PAPER VASE

I had meant to post a 25 projects post every other week all year long, with one extra week. But I got really behind on blogging and some personal goals when I stumbled across a prayed-for job, and put all my time into work and taking care of my family and home, and then we were out of town, first to Utah and then to Palm Springs. Whew! 

Finally, I was able to catch my breath and jump back on the blogging train (though I'm a few cars back from where I had hoped to be). So here is number 7, probably the easiest little craft you could ever do: recycled magazine paper vase. A long time ago, I had wanted to make a sculpture (or bowl or vase) out of recycled paper spirals a la this pin on Pinterest. I had started a bunch of various sized spirals and made a bowl, but it was too flimsy and heavy at the same time. It wasn't strong enough to hold it's own weight, and it drooped and started to fall apart. 

I bagged the spirals thinking I'd come up with another crafty use for them, and lo! 25 projects came around and started eating up all my craft supplies and getting stuff done that I had been meaning to do for years! I used one of the big spirals as a base, and had originally intended it to be solid, stacked spirals on top of one another. A few hours into trying to size the spirals to gradually expand, I decided that would take way too long and use too much paper and glue, so I abandoned it and started climbing in a single layer. The end result is an actual vase, hollow and functional (obviously you can't put water in it, though.) 

War story of 25 projects. While I was still on the "stacked spirals" idea, I burned my finger really badly with the hot glue. It took my breath away for the rest of the night, and almost totally turned me off to the project entirely. That's partly why I decided I hated the method I was using and had to go another way. And I'm glad I did. My finger ended up blistering (I've never had a burn that blistered before), and I would have risked more burns by doing it the other way. Always be careful with hot glue! is the point.

This is Project 7 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

View Project 1

View Project 2

View Project 3

View Project 4

View Project 5

View Project 6

HOMEMADE BABY FOOD

I'm by no means an all-natural mother. Buying all organic food simply isn't cost-effective for me, I give my kid candy and soda in tiny amounts, and I sometimes forget to put sunscreen on him. On every level, I think I'm pretty much the same as every other mom, trying her best and sometimes coming short. But when Henry was born, there were a couple of things I knew I wanted to do that were a little on the "attachment parenting" end of the spectrum. Breastfeed as long as it was mutually wanted, make baby food when I could, and wear him until my back couldn't take it anymore. Turns out, that last one was pretty short-lived. He got too big after about four or five months, and now he's nearly the size of a one-year-old. We're still nursing, and I'm loving it.

As far as making homemade babyfood, I always have at least one kind in stock. Two if I'm Holly Homemaker, which I'm usually not. For all the women who think the idea of making baby food is overwhelming and time-consuming, it's not. The key to making it easy on yourself is to cook it in large amounts, then freeze it in portions. I buy produce at Costco in bulk, then cook it in a large pasta pot. I bought these freezable plastic containers that have been great for dividing and freezing the baby food.

I steam or boil peeled and evenly sized carrots, sweet potatoes, or pears until they pierce easily with a fork. If I'm doing sweet potatoes, I make four or five at a time, and if it's carrots, I do about five pounds at a time. With pears, I wait until they're good and ripe. I only end up cooking what we don't eat on our own, so only two or three pears at a time. I peel and core them, and boil them for about ten minutes.Then I puree them either in the blender or with my immersion blender. All three of them (carrots, sweet potatoes, and pears) go well with a good dash of cinnamon blended right in. You can even combine them to mix flavors.

Henry loves it and it's really cost effective. But let me clarify: I still buy baby foods that I can't make myself, or don't want to make. For example, Henry needs a little... assistance in the poop department sometimes, so I buy prunes because I wouldn't even know where to start with making them. Give homemade baby food a try, and if you find any food is especially easy to make, let me know!

project 6 of 25/BOOKSHELVES

Oh, this bookshelf. It has given me grief for almost three years, ever since we moved in. The biggest problem in the whole house, of course, was the kitchen, which we remodeled this summer, so now there are a handful of smaller projects I've been itching to fix. This bookshelf was a monstrosity from the seventies, and it was at the top of my list. The geometric division of the shelves made it really hard to store books efficiently (especially that stupid skinny part). So I cleared all the books out, stacked them on my kitchen table, and set to work to remove it from the wall.

I ran into a snag immediately (isn't that how these things go?). There were six screws, all different from each other, and they had been painted over at least twice, which means the grooves were totally filled and stuck. I tried drilling them out, I tried scraping at the paint to loosen them, and I even tried the rubber band trick to remove them. They were totally stripped and not going anywhere. I asked Conrad what he thought, and he suggested either cutting the tops off the screws (didn't know how to do it/didn't have the tools), or hammering them down and risk ruining the wall. I was stumped for about 30 minutes, then figured that since all the stuff done to the house before we moved in was done really shotty, I could probably just pull the shelf right off the wall. And I did.

After that feat of strength, I discovered that the screws had left huge holes in the wall, and the bookshelf was almost just floating there that whole time. I patched the holes, and while it was drying, I dug through my stash of leftover paint from various projects. I went with a dark grey that I had gotten a sample of a while ago, and since I was just doing this one wall, the little sample ended up being the perfect amount. I wanted a little accent, but not too bright. Then I painted the small adjacent wall with my leftover light grey.

I bought some white tracks, brackets, and shelves at Home Depot (they'll cut the shelves to the right size for you). A quick wipe down and some book stacking later, I had some completed shelves! It was actually a relatively simple (and inexpensive) project, and I think it looks so much more open than the old wall-mounted bookshelf. The straight, uninterrupted shelves are way more efficient - I couldn't have fit everything on the old one. An added bonus of the wall tracks is that you can adjust the height of each shelf whenever you want. I love the way it looks!

This is Project 6 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

View Project 1

View Project 2

View Project 3

View Project 4

View Project 5

project 4 of 25/STRING ART INITIAL

If you search for string art on Pinterest, you'll get tons of cool, elaborate pins using string and nails. Most of them are really colorful and complicated. I loved the idea of doing something like string art for one of my 25 projects, but wanted to do something more simple and kind of rustic, so I decided to do a simple F for Frame on a plain piece of stained wood. I posted a picture of it in yesterday's post on the clock wall.

First I sketched out an F using the old January page from my large desk calendar where I plan out all my blog posts. I tested a Times type font first (as you may be able to see below the block letter), then decided on a more plain look. I did it freehand, then I used a ruler to make the lines straight, and used a sharpie to outline. 

I bought a pine plank from Home Depot and had them cut it in half (they'll do this for free), so I walked out with two slabs, each the perfect size for this project. I figured I could make one for myself, and if it turned out well, I could make one for a wedding present or something, or figure out another way to use it. I took the slab outside and sanded it on all sides, particularly all the corners and edges where it might splinter. Then I stained it. At first, I thought I'd only need to stain the front, but quickly realized that the pine was too light and it would show when it was finished, so I stained all of it, including the back. It took only about two hours before it was dry enough to handle. 

I cut out the F and centered it onto the board, just eyeballing it until it looked right. I taped it in place so it wouldn't move while I hammered the nails in, and got to work. 

I used over a hundred nails, hammering them about half an inch apart all the way around, and leaving them sticking out about half an inch. Then I tied some craft string to one nail and started twisting it around the nails until it looked right. 

It's too heavy to hang from a wall, but I honestly really like the look of it leaning. For now it's on my kitchen cart, but I don't think it's going to stay there. 

I love the way it turned out! It was so easy and really cheap, no more than about $30 for all the materials, including the second plank. 

I'm linking this project to Remodelaholic's link party and Tip Junkie.

This is Project 4 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

View Project 1

View Project 2

View Project 3

LAST YEAR'S PROJECTS

In light of this year's 25 projects challenge, I thought I'd do a little round-up of last year's projects! Despite being sick for the first few months of the year, hugely pregnant for another part, and adjusting to life with a newborn/recovering from surgery for the last part, I was able to get about 12 projects done. Some of them are big, like furniture renovation and kitchen remodeling, and some are small, like journaling and little paint projects.

Here's a list of the projects I completed in 2013: 

DIY Apothecary Jars (2-in-1 with apothecary jars and layered candle)

Paper Pendant

Paper Leaf Painting

White Walls

Nautical Jute Projects (2-in-1 with vase and lamp)

Wooden Desk Renovation (my personal favorite)

Baby Book Smash Book (really popular on Pinterest)

Art Journaling

Kitchen Demo

Kitchen and Living Reno

Gold Dip

Chalkboard Cheese Tray

project 3 of 25/BE MINE BRAILLE VALENTINES CARDS

My mom is vision-impaired. So much so that she hasn't been able to drive for fifteen years, and even stopped reading and had to learn Braille a couple years ago. She's almost completely blind. While I was brainstorming what to get my mom for her birthday, I knew typed or hand-written cards were out. If I wanted to send her a card, it had to be Braille. And that got me thinking about different methods for spelling something out in Braille. And then I realized I wouldn't be able to mail her something in time (and also I don't have a Brailler), so I'd just call her, but I was onto something with this Braille thing. What could I do with it? Valentines day cards! The message would have to be brief like "I love you" or "Be mine," lest the card have more holes than paper.

I liked "Be mine," so I punched the words out onto a simple piece of cardstock with a hole-puncher and stuck a heart on it in the spirit of Saint Valentine. I rather love how it turned out! It's an easy DIY - just look up the Braille alphabet and grab your hole-puncher and you can spell anything.

On the inside of the card, I wrote "My heart sees love that my eyes cannot." You could also write something to the effect of "Love is blind."

I'm going to try to make some cards with my mom's actual Brailler (you know, with the bumps?) and list them for sale in the shop. They probably won't be Valentine's Day themed since it may take me some time to get it all finished, but I'm excited to see what I come up with! Meanwhile, if you're interested in other paper ephemera, check out my mini books for sale now! Limited availability, so hurry!

This is Project 3 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

View Project 1

View Project 2

project 2 of 25/SILHOUETTES FOR THE GALLERY WALL

This was a project that came to mind a loooong time ago - before I was even pregnant. I had wanted to do some silhouettes of myself and Conrad and hang them somewhere. I couldn't figure out the easiest way to do it, though, so it sat in that file cabinet in my brain where stuff like "buy an apartment complex" and "become a millionaire" sit. It's the "I'll get to it later" file. Skip to a couple years later, this last Christmas, in fact. Conrad got me a Wacom tablet which has been the saving grace of my online life (and much of my creative life, too). It's a pad with a stylos that you can draw/write with and it will be like you're drawing onto the computer directly. It's WAY easier than using a program like Photoshop or Illustrator (I considered adding "learn Photoshop once and for all" to my list of professional goals for the new year, but decided against it because I like not murdering everyone). It's about as simple and intuitive as MS Paint, but with more realistic and artistic end-results (looks less Paint-y, I guess). You have a lot more control with the stylos than you do with a mouse or [cringe] a track pad. If you're like me and cry every time you open Photoshop or Illustrator, get one of these tablets. The Small Tablet costs about five times less than the advanced Photoshop programs, so there's that, too.  

To make the silhouettes, I took profile pictures of all three of us and uploaded them onto my computer. Using the software Artrage with my Wacom tablet, I traced the images and saved them. From there, I just printed the traced images (so easy, and uses way less ink than printing the image and tracing it by hand), cut them out, then traced them with pencil onto black cardstock. I cut those out, and mounted them with tape to white paper, then framed it (I contemplated framing each face separately but decided on a single 11x17 frame like this one) and hung it on our gallery wall. 

This is Project 2 in my 25 Projects challenge. I am attempting to complete 25 projects this year. Contact me if you are interested in sponsoring one of the projects or featuring an item on the blog Craft supplies, handmade items, and home decor are encouraged.

View Project 1

This was not a sponsored post, but links throughout are affiliate links. One more word about Wacom tablets. I've not only used it to redesign my blog and do creative projects, I have also used it professionally. Conrad has started a few separate online services, and I've created some images for those websites (if I still haven't convinced you to get one, call it a business expense and write it off!).  I highly recommend a tablet over trying to use a track pad or even a mouse to create images on the computer. Click any of the Wacom tablet links to explore more.