Dear Cpt Skeptical–think about this before you say no

I want to turn my dining room into a crafting workshop/office space.

Tatertots & Jello, a website I am very attracted to for it’s awesome projects and how it uses a large size font with a white background (maybe I should try a larger font for like – a week?), is showing off some cream of the crop work spaces that at home bloggers and crafter use. Ya, I use my floor and a broken coffee table. Quit showing off already. But also if you want to come over to my house, that’s okay too.

All photo sourced from Tatertots & Jello

To give my handsome fellow some credit, for Christmas this year he did give me this wonderful chest of drawers to hold all my crafting supplies in - and on - and around.

My crafting HQ. Covered with tea dyed coffee filters, mod podge, a sponge brush and faux fleurs with a broach on top. More permanent decor includes a laughing buddha lamp, and 5 heritage volumns of some of Shakespeare's works, originals with the hand painted illustrations inside, printed for His Majesty in the early 1920's. Completed with a little stool to sit on and surrounded by the beginnings of 8 of my centre pieces.

Our Save The Dates :)

Thank rod. There are a few wedding planning moments that I kept thinking about when we first got engaged. They were moments that would signify the wedding was TOUT SUIT, right around the corner. It also felt like those were so far away – won’t it be fun and exciting when they finally get here?? I still have a few more saved up in my brain but to me, they are milestones.

Our Save The Dates are not one of those milestones, but I thought this was an appropriate time to tell that story because regardless, they are a milestone. In case you don’t want to read the rest of the article, here is the summation via photographs.

Our Save The Dates were done by The Social Page, a beautiful, cozy and casual stationary shop on the corner of 8th Avenue and 10 Street in Calgary. I can not say enough wonderful things about Kim, Carmela and Kathy – they were so sweet and kind. Even to the point where when I had actually forgotten what I had ordered for STD’s, Carmela took the time to call me and describe the paper texture to me over the phone. I appreciated Kim’s approach to helping us decide on what stationary to use and what to pick. She was so informative and honest, telling us what is appropriate as per style’s of stationary, what is done traditionally and what we could get away with.

What was important to us about the STD’s was that they reflect a little bit of our personality (hence the TGIF) as well as speak to the venue, which is the Cochrane Ranche House in Cochrane, Alberta, a historic ranche house overlooking the rolling foothills.* So we wanted them to be light hearted and reflect our venue = Mission Accomplished. Thank rod.

A close up of the text we used, which was a huge part of the deliberation for us. I didn’t want anything too western-y, The Cpt definitely wanted something rustic. Happy compromise.

 

A close up of the paper we used. The front of the invite was a cream with an opalescence to it. The backing was a texture taupe and that paper has almost turned into a part of my inspiration board. The creams and the dusty roses – I RURVE THEM.

 

We choose the twine as the embellishment on our STD because it speaks to a lot of – well, us. I’m a crafter and there’s twine everywhere in our house. It gives the stationary a bit more of a gender neutral feel (although I also believe that the paper and the font does that too, and I am pretty sure The Cpt is not lying when he says he thinks so too) and finally, it speaks to the heritage aspect of our venue.

As well, we decided to include a photo of ourselves in the envelope. Never one to do things simply, I decided that I wanted to print it on fabric to give it a special rustic feel. Instructions here.

But here is how they turned out. I couldn’t be happier and shockingly, The Cpt keeps reiterating how much he likes the affect. Um – put a big W in the Alix Column.

 

* may I also just say that I was at an event rental company the other day, picking out some linens for an MCSC event, and the gal who works there and I , we got to chatting. She, not even knowing I was engaged, much less getting married, said that the Cochrane Ranche House was by far the best venue in and around Calgary and the most desired. I could have kissed her. French kissed her. Squishy-ishy-ishy-face. Then my colleague told her that’s where I was getting married and we all had small moment of triumph.

Eff Bomb Crafting: Our fabric STD photos

That’s right. I’m crazy. But I also love crafting which is the perfect recipe for amazing disaster when it comes to weddings.

For our STD’s, we wanted to include a photograph from our engagement session, but I also wanted it to be more than a postcard, more than a glossy. I wanted it to be neat and memorable and reflect my crafty style, our personalities, and the overall theme of our wedding.

Enter: printing on fabric through your home printer. That’s right. It’s more than possible – apparently people have been doing it for years and I just clued in. It’s a very simple process. This turned to this!

This is the jpg of the photo	This is how the photo turned out on the fabric

Here goes:

Tools

• 2 – 3 metres of fabric. I choose a medium weight linen with a loose weave, to give it more texture. It cost me $3 a metre and I bought 3 metres. Cha-ching.
• A printer, preferably not your work printer. Either you have it on hand or take a leap and buy one. We bought our printer at Best Buy for $70. Please – splurge, especially if you are at the stage where you think you might be doing more crafty wedding printing. Ours is a colour printer, but a black and white will suffice if you are just doing a b&w image.
• Extra carton of printer ink – because there is nothing more irritating that being RIGHT in the middle of something and having to go to the store. On hand or $30
• Thicker, heavier weight cardstock. Basic printer paper is 20lb paper – the paper I used looks like it is a 40 or 50lb. On hand or $10 for 100+ sheets.
• Spray adhesive, like Elmers spray glue – it’s can be messy and sticky but you want to make that you have a light weight adhesive that’s transparent so this is your best bet. On hand or roughly $6
• Newspaper to spread underneath the fabric while you glue. On hand or in your neighbour’s recycling. Get digging.
• Scissors. On hand or $2 at a fabric store. You want reasonably good fabric ones – not the pro ones but ones that are sharp and you haven’t been opening DVD’s cases with.

Total Cost: On hand – About $30. If you have to buy the printer, then you’re looking at closer to $150.

Total Time Commitment: Varies on the number of photos you’re printing. It took me about 45 mins to spray, stick and cut out of the paper from the fabric and then another two hours of watching the printer so the paper wouldn’t get jammy jammed. If you were doing like two sheets, under 30 minutes.

Step 1: Spread our your newspapers and lay about a metre of your fabric on top of it. Lay out your pieces of paper on top of the fabric, with 1 – 2 inches in between pieces of paper.

Step 2: With your first piece of paper, hold the spray glue about 4 inches out from it and lightly coat it with glue*. Flip the paper upside down, with the adhesive side now facing the fabric, firmly press it down. Iron it down with your hands a few times to really get it to stick. It doesn’t matter if it’s straight or not – well it didn’t matter to me but it could matter to you.

*Whatever you do, don’t lay all the paper out, spray a coat of glue over all of them and then flip them all at once afterwards. The Cpt and I did a smaller secondary batch where we tried that method and it ended up that the fabric was so gluey, we could barely cut the paper out. As well, it got the inside of the printer all sticky and I had to run plain paper through it a few times to clean it out.

Step 3: Do this for all your sheets of paper and if you want, put something heavier on them to make them really stick, like a phonebook or your old year book. I did not do this and I had no problems with mine but maybe you are a rather anal crafter.

Step 4: Let these dry for about an hour. I bet you could honestly get away with only waiting 20 minutes but I let it dry for an hour because I didn’t know otherwise.

Step 5: Cut the sheets of paper out from the fabric and get as close as you can to the edge as you can so it’s the same dimensions as the paper would be. You don’t need any loose threads ruining your (work) printer.

Step 6: Prep your photograph on your computer. I used my Number 1 favourite photo editing software, Picnic – I picked a photo, picked a font that matched our invites and then I added a Vingette effect, to make it darker around the edges. I had a fear that the text wouldn’t show up as well if I didn’t do the vingette. Then I touched up a few things and then set four copies of the image to a page, so I would get four copies of the photo per fabric sheet. You could do that in a word document but now a days, a lot of printer software, you can do it right in the print options.

The Cpt does me a solid and spent an evening cutting out the photos.

Step 7: So this is not a stick the paper in and go cook dinner. I manually fed each piece of paper into the printer because I was afraid it would get all bojangled up if I didn’t. We printed colour copies, which took a little longer, but it wasn’t all bad. The total printing time came to 2 hours, and while I fed paper through the printer, The Cpt cut the photos out, which gave them a cute and quirky home made kind of feel. So in total, the craft took about two hours.

This is the jpg of the photo	This is how the photo turned out on the fabric
This is a close up of the photo – you can really see the texture	This is the photo from far away, as in what it will look like when people it on their fridge.

I think they turned out great – I am thrilled with them!! Super fun, easy and great texture. I would do this type of thing for menus, invitations, maybe a poem that I wanted to frame and DEFINETELY for any baby or kids memorabilia. For those of us who can’t embroider (yet), this is a great way to get that vibe.
MWUAH!

Trips to take, la di da

My father sent me this link from the NYTimes about a really neat looking exhibit at the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Garden in Washington State which (who knew) is where fabulous lives. The exhibit is all about Marjorie Merriweather Post (the Post cereal heiress) and her three daughters, who collectively (between the four of them) were married 16 times. Heck yes. Um – as if that isn’t the dream. Incredibly wealthy, young, gorgeous, famous and planning a wedding about once every 5 years. Fun x ten.

So the exhibit is a showcase of their wedding fashions and attire throughout the ages – wedding dresses, bridal party attire, hats, lace, shoes, it really looks like a fun collection of photographs to check out. Apparently the building itself is a sight to be seen, according to the NYTimes it is a “Georgian-style estate”, which according to thefreedictionary.com translates to “… squares of uniform, symmetrical brick London townhouses, their facades employing Classical pilasters, pedimented doors and windows, and graceful moldings.” So my future home - ish.

Source

It’s an exhibit I would lurve to see – but for now, I am hoping I will be able to buy a set of postcards from the online shop. I sound like somebody’s crazy spinster neighbor. Here is a video of their upcoming exhibit that has a selection of the photographs!

Untitled from Hillwood Museum on Vimeo.

Eff Bomb Crafting: Broach bouquets made easier. Still not easy though.

I just wrote this entire post and then LiveWriter deleted it for me. THANKS MICROSOFT.

Lucky for you this is a pretty straight forward craft so I can muster the strength past the irritation to re-write it, although I can’t remember some of my sassy jokes I put in the first one so. Sorry.

Broach bouquets are not my mine kind of craft. I did a bunch of research on them for my upcoming Calgary Bride post and it lead me to this conclusion – they are expensive and time consuming and if I really wanted one, I would buy one. What I did come across however was a hybrid of a fresh bouquet of flowers and a few broaches scattered within it, giving you the same feel of the project but far less pricey and time consuming. 

So here is a quick and easy post on how to go half and half on a the broach bouquet, giving you some sparkle and shine and a little something extra while you walk down the aisle or whatever you want to do it with. It actually could make a really nice gift for a hostess or something. And oh look, another craft that really barely warrants an entire step – by – step explanation. Enjoy!

Tools:

• Broach or pendent of your choice (I got my cheapie at Ardene, it’s a pendent from the 2 for $10 necklace colleciton)
• Floral pick (a stick with pre-attached to the end, found at flower supply stores or Michaels)
• Faux fleurs or fresh bouquet (treat yourself! )

Time Needed:

• 5 – 10 minutes per broach.

Step 1 With your broach and your floral pick, weave the wire around the limbs of the broach that are closest to the centre. I threaded the wire through, then went back and looped around the floral pick and then went back up two or three times, to give it a nice sturdy stem.

Step 2 * In the first post I did, there was a third step but I can’t seem to find the need for it here. Using the floral pick, take your bouquet and find a nice spot for your broach to sit. Gently pick nudge the pick into the bouquet voila! Ces’t fini! You can do one broach or maybe 4 or 5, depending on the size of your bouquet.

Birthday crafts–the best best bestest kinds of crafts :)

The weeks just fly by for me. For you too? Der. What’s that saying  - the days are long and the years are short. True true but what’s truest is that I lately have been managing to live my goal of having16 useable hours in every day and leave myself 8 for sleeping. It’s the perfect balance, especially since the yoga studio across the street just opened up in time for my birthday. Yesssss.

So this past week was amazing and lovely and I got some REALLY amazing crafty gifts that I’d like to share with you and hopefully, they can push you farther along your crafting journey.

• From my dear friend Leah – one of my bmizzo’s –  gave me this book called PS – I made this. There are a few reasons I love this book, one being that the book is based on the blog and the blog is great. I love it’s simplicity – maybe my next blog will be in a style similar to that. It’s a fashion based crafting blog, kind of a schemey how can I make it happen (I was born with the word schemey under my left ear lob, no joke). I am crafty on the crafts but it would GREAT to get crafty in the fashion. The other reason I love it is because um I say stuff like “PS I made/invented/already copyrighted/have-gone-through-an-entire-business-cycle-and-liquidated-my-stock this...” (Writing that reminds me of this Kristen Wig character Penelope on SNL)

• Speaking of crafty fashion, my CRAZY talented friend Deitra made me this amazing clock out of a vintage book – so inspired! I love it because the proud mama part of me likes to think that maybe Deitra was inspired by one of my crafts and took it one.step.FURTHER! I have no doubt that this little baby has been cookin in D’s kitchen for a while, but she knows me too well by giving me this.  The book goes so well with our home decor, which is a calculated mish-mash of modern ikea with vintage, slightly broken accents and accessories and glitter stuck between the floorboards. You can just picture it, can’t you?

• My wonderful friend Bethy May gave me this little diddy – my very own name plate! ha ha ha you have no idea how happy that makes me – I love the thought and the humour behind it and it’s something I will treasure for a very long time. Because even though I don’t take myself too seriously, it’s more that I don’t take life too seriously. I am passionate about my blog and I am proud of it – no matter how silly it is. She gave it to me in this great bag her friend Mel made – so great. The most fun part about the name plate? I just move it around with me wherever I sit and so The Cpt knows – always knows – who he’s marrying.

• Last but not least – this is a gift that is going to keep on giving for 365 days! Jamma Ramma Bo Bamma, my MoH, gave me this amazing book called  The Crafter’s Devotional, its 365 steps to releasing your inner creative spirit. Although I feel like lots of me is extremely open and creative, I think I need to take my creative ideas more seriously. And this is just a great tool to help me embrace where my mind wanders.

So I have decided to follow the book and try and finish the 365 tasks. Part of me wants to start a new blog series with this within THIS blog. But baby also knows that after le wedding is over, The Coffee Filter Bride will have run her course.

What do you think? Should I start another blog dedicated to The Crafter’s Devotional with a dash of Happiness Project? TELL ME what to do peas and carrots.

Crafts to end all crafts

A mutant … alpaca?? I guess it’s actually a Siamese Llama Glama – made from paper. Look at the legs – I fuggin LOVE IT. Paper shreds, the ears are paper machier but it looks suspuciously more like a previously sculpted llama that had a siamese brother added  on the one side. Note the legs how there is space between the paper, which COULD mean they are just strips covering something else. Um, I would be that lazy with the legs after what we probably HOURS of gluing paper shreds. Like, HOURS.

This little gem and probably many others, can be found at Paxton Gate, a curiousity shop for kids in San Francisco, California. Thanks, Boing Boing!

Photo Credit: Boing Boing

Stop Motion Animation STD: You just shut the front door

How ADORABLE is this!? We used to make stop motion movies in university. Well, by “we” I mean my roommate/maid of honour and I would watch as my then-boyfriend and all his friends would come over at like 1130 at night with their Lego pieces and re-create Lord of the Rings or the Legend of Zelda or something. No joke. One time they tried to get us to play too – but we gave our character a name they didn’t like (it had a swear word in it) and they kicked us out.

This is adorable and I think I’m going to make one with The Cpt. Just for kicks and giggle and lurve.

Lurve is in the Air: Our ESession

BAM – can you believe it? We’re 6 months away from le wedding. Grab on the holy shiz handle because The Cpt is driving and he’s starting to speed. Hehe.

To see more of our ESession, here is the blog post our photographer Mark featured our photos on! Yay!

Eff Bomb Crafting: Mod Podgified Shoesies that I’m not forcing my Bridesmaids to wear

It’s obvious I troll the crafting and wedding blogs, looking for challenges. I don’t craft particularly because I need this stuff – I craft for the challenge. One day, when The Cpt is rich and I don’t have to work, I am going to take carpentry and wood working classes so I can learn to build bigger projects. It’s that mix of being creative, industrious and thrifty – that’s what I like about crafting.

In a post I will share at a later date, I have been struggling lately with BMizzo shoes. It’s a tough choice and so I have been scrounging the interweb for ideas. When I saw someone do a post about Mod Podging shoes with paper from vintage novels (Olivia Renn - you are a genius!), I thought it was a fantastic idea that I hadn’t tried yet. Keen for the challenge, I happen to have an old pair of black plastic Payless pumps from my university days just dying to be used for something aside from cluttering up my closet. Please – open toed Mary Janes? I have no idea when I would have worn these again.

Although I promise not to make my bridesmaids wear Mod Podged shoes, don’t you think it would be fun? What would you Modge them with?

I used the Instagram app on my iPhone to take the vintage inspired photos. 

This is what they started out as.

And this is how they ended up.

Tools:- old pair of shoesies (on hand) - plenty of paper in the pattern that you like (on hand ? Don’t spend more than $5) - Mod Podge, preferably Outdoor Mod Podge (roughly $10) - applicator (sponge brush or regular brush) (on hand, but if not, 50 cents) - clips or clothes pins (on hand or 50/$1 at the Dollar Store) Total Cost: Under $20

Step 1: Pick the material you want to cover the shoesies with. I picked paper from an antiquated book that I torn off the cover and used for another craft. Cut the paper up in squares and triangles.

Step 2: Cover a section of your shoe with Mod Podge, paste the strips to the shoe and cover with a coat of Mod Podge.

Step 3: There will be some finicky pieces that don’t want to paste down, do take a clip or a clothes pin and secure it down for a few seconds.

Step 4: Cover the entire shoe and let it dry overnight. The next day, cover it again with a coat of Outdoor Mod Podge, which will waterproof it kind of.

Optional: Making the decorative bows

Step 1: Cut a few skinny, long strips from the same paper. Put a touch of glue at one end of the strip and make a loop, ensuring the two ends are glue flat against each other. Make four loops (or as many as you want, whatever).

Step 2: Glue those loops together at the base.

Step 3: Take the bow you just made and apply a liberal amount of glue on the back, in the shape of an ‘X’. Attach it to the heel of the shoe and clip it or pin it in place so it dries sturdy.

Step 4: Repeat the steps above to create a mini-version for the front of shoe, just using smaller strips.

Step 5: Let the entire bad boy dry overnight. Love the post? Join my CFB FuBooko Group for some part time sass, der.

Where I’ll wear them, who the eff knows. But they were fun to make!!