Charlie the Crab Gets a New Home

We found "Charlie" on our trip to Hobbit Beach in Florence, Oregon back in July.  (You know how it is.  You go to the beach.  You pick up things that are so cool that you just can't live without them, like 36 rocks, 78 shells, a piece of driftwood, and a crab.  You have no idea what you're going to do with them, but you still MUST have them...so you take them home.) 

 

Charlie has been patiently living on our counter for the past month and a half.

 

I found this shadow box frame at the thrift store. (This is the same thrift store that I found a pink Joan Rivers trench coat on the day she died.  Though I really wanted to, I did not buy the coat because I already have two coats and I couldn't justify buying another one when I'm not working ....Hmmm...Yet somehow I can justify buying a shadow box frame. Well, what can I say. Charlie needed a home.) 

Back to the crafting:

 

The shadow box frame was perfect, except that it was ugly. I chose one of the pictures that I took of Hobbit Beach and printed two identical black and white copies.  I used a whole lot of cheapo gluestick to adhere those babies to a piece of cardboard and a picture mat. I set the cardboard piece aside while I tackled the mat.  Using a utility knife, I cut the picture away from the hole in the mat.  Does that make sense?  The hole is already in the mat so that it frames a picture, but since I had covered up the hole with my black and white copy of Hobbit Beach, I needed to cut the middle of the copy away so that the middle was open again.  Basically, what I did was cover up the ugliness of that reddish and gory dark green. (OK, back in the day, I was one of those people that adored burgundy and green, but not so much any more.)

 

Now pop that mat back into the frame.

 

Next, I put a little hot glue on the edge of Charlie's shell and attached him to the picture on the cardboard. Since it's a shadow box, it was all set up with the 1-inch thickness for Charlie to fit. Plus, that 1 inch gives a really cool effect to the picture. 

 

 

Charlie is feeling like he never left home as he is once again lounging on Hobbit Beach...right where we found him!

Disclaimer:   Don't worry. No animals were harmed in making this. Charlie was long gone from his shell before we ever found him at the beach.

 

Happy Crafting!

 

Carol

Lion Art

 

Create your own lion art! It's fun, super easy, and a great project for both adults and kids alike.

What you'll need:

• Blank Paper
• Yellow, Orange, and Red Watercolor Paint
• Eyedropper (Optional) or Paintbrush (Optional)
• Drinking Straw(s)
• Black Marker, Crayon, or Colored Pencil
• Air!

What you need to do:

1. Take the eyedropper, paintbrush, or straw and blot some paint on the paper in a circle. Make sure there is enough paint on the paper so that the paint will spread easily.

2. Use the straw to blow the blotted paint out towards the edges of the paper. You may have to blow pretty hard to get this to work! But if you're getting dizzy, add some more paint to the page and try blowing again.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with different colors (or even the same color if you want) until you're satisfied with your lion's mane.

4. Draw a face on your lion in the blank white space inside the mane and voila! Your lion art is complete!

Upcycled Jean Skirts

 

 

For being a 19-year old girl, Sarah sure is hard on jeans.  She is forever ripping them and in the oddest places on the legs.  

Anyway, we ended up with 3 pair of jeans at one time that could not be worn as pants any longer.  So...they've all been given a second life in the form of skirts!

I had never sewn a jean skirt before so I used the wonderful tutorial by Judi Harris located here.

First order of business (my favorite part), picking pretty fabrics.  Actually, since they were going to be Sarah's skirts and she's SUPER particular, she did the picking of the fabrics for these.  Some fabrics came from The Fabric Depot and the Mills End Store in Portland and some from our fabric stash.

Next, whack off the legs.  That sounds brutal, but it had to be done.  teeheehee

Here is the back of the first skirt.  Floor length using three-tiers of Cloud 9 fabrics.  After making this first one, I was hooked and had to make two more.

 



SKIRT #1

 

SKIRT #2:  We found some beautiful gray eyelet, but Oh My! was it ever expensive.  TOO expensive for this lady that's for sure.  Everywhere I searched, I found that not only was gray eyelet in short supply, but it all cost way more than I was willing to spend.

After securely fastening my thinking cap, I wondered if I had any eyelet in my fabric stash.

SCORE!  I had a big piece.
BUMMER!  It's white.

Rit Dye to the rescue.  Luckily, one of Sarah's all time favorite things to do is dye fabric.  She set to work and came up with this lovely shade of gray.

Now, let's not forget that eyelet has holes in it and this fabric is going to be used to make a skirt.  Not too high on the modesty scale.  We are going to have to line this baby.

Sarah chose for to use a funky pair of red jeans for this skirt, and she decided that the lining needed to match.  Huh?  Sarah is NOT a matchy-matchy girl.  As a matter of fact, she HATES matchy-matchy anything.  She totally threw me a curve ball on this one. 

Back to the fabric stash to look for the right shade of red.  No such luck!  Trusty Rit Dye to the rescue again.

SKIRT #2

 

 

SKIRT #3:  Sarah picked some absolutely gorgeous fabrics from the Mills End Store.  LOVE these fabrics.  I did different sized tiers this time so that the floral could take center-stage, just as it should, because it's FAB-U-LOUS!  The picture does NOT due this one justice at all.

 

SKIRT #3

 

So, that was my first experience sewing upcycled jean skirts and I think it was a success.  Sarah gets complements every time she wears one so that's good in my book.

 

 

Happy Creating!

 

~Carol



 





Trail Mix for the Road

 

Here is our first creation - Super easy snack for our upcoming road trip. (Actually, Sarah wasn't really onboard with this one, but she enjoyed the end results.)

You basically pick whatever you want to include, throw it in a Ziploc bag, close it up, shake to mix, and enjoy.

From the picture, you can see the we chose generic rice chex, multi-grain Cheerios, pretzels, cashews, and M&M's.

You could really include anything that you would like that is bite-size, can be eaten with your fingers and doesn't melt (unless of course you live in Alaska). Try some Goldfish crackers, raisins, dried fruit, gummy bears, whatever makes your taste buds happy.

I wanted to go all fancy and make them spicy with a coating, but Sarah was having none of that. She didn't even want me to put in the M&M's. Crazy girl! (In all honesty, if we had been going on a road trip to the desert, I would have left the M&M's out because they can get questionable in the melting department when it's over about 85 degrees out.)

I told you this creating-thing was easy!

~Carol

Sarah and I create.  We create...A...LOT! 
We have successes.  We have fun.  We have failures.  We learn. 

CREATE is just a word, but so many people are afraid of it, in all of it's forms:  create, creative, creation, creating, created...  You get what I mean, right?  But, really what's there to be afraid of?  It's JUST a word!

http://www.merriam-webster.com

cre·ate

verb \krē-ˈāt, ˈkrē-ˌ\

: to make or produce (something) : to cause (something new) to exist
: to cause (a particular situation) to exist

: to produce (something new, such as a work of art) by using your talents and imagination

SEE?!?!  It really is just a word.

And contrary to the meaning that you may have convinced yourself to believe, no place in the definition of create does it say perfect.

We were all creative in our own way.  Some create a lot, some a little.  Some create art, some music, some write, and still others create great food.  Some create with cameras, some create by making people smile.  Each of us create memories from the time we are born.  And, ALL of us create messes at times.  (Usually, that is the most fun kind of creating.)

So, put your perfectionism expectations aside and get creating.