mamamusings: crafts

things i'm doing instead of blogging

• responding to the slew of last-minute messages from students panicked about exams and projects* grading final exams and projects
• restarting the afghan for Lila Rose, because I didn’t like the yarn I was using and the way it wouldn’t lie flat
• dealing with the chaos of kids home all day because of February break
• reading and reviewing grant proposals for a meeting later this week
• catching up on Battlestar Galactica episodes that were on the verge of being deleted from our list of recordings
• leveling my troll priest in WoW—I expect she’ll be 70 by the end of this week

I don’t expect blogging to resume with any regularity until grading, proposal reviewing, and leveling are all finished.

making moo tins

I bought a bag of plain slide-top tins, which are a perfect fit for 20 Moo minicards. Then I tried a number of approaches to decorating them, with this one winning out.

I printed out the image from the Moo cards on an inkjet printer, then cut it out to fit the lid of the tin. I used some no-primer metal paint to prepare the tin surface, then used spray mount artist's adhesive to place the printed image on the top. (It might have worked without the paint, but I didn't want to chance it.)

After the adhesive set, I sprayed the lid with a digital photo protectant, so that the inkjet ink wouldn't run or smudge.

Now that it's dry, it's perfect. Just enough texture on the top to make it easy to slide the top open. And no need to guess what's inside. :)

bitten by the crafting bug

When the weather gets colder, my thoughts tend to turn to my stash of yarn. I love doing crochet projects in cold weather—particularly afghans, which keep my lap warm while I work!

I’ve finished three afghans this fall already—two for baby gifts, and one whose destination cannot yet be revealed on the blog. I’ve also started making long, thin, super-soft scarves—one for me, one for Erin, one for Alex, and yarn-a-plenty for making more for gifts. They only take about an hour, so they’re a great TV-watching activity.

With a two week break ahead of me, I’m starting to think about more ambitious crafting projects. I think Alex and I will be getting some ceramic paint this week to do custom mugs (we did this years ago when the boys were really little, and the mugs turned out beautifully). I need to figure out where to buy the cheapest possible “blank” mugs to work with.

And I’m also about to order a bunch of these metal tins, which are the perfect size for Moo MiniCards. I’m going to place a new order of cards to use as gifts, and I want to decorate the tops of the tins using some kind of decoupage technique

I’ve also fallen in love with the Etsy web site, where I’ve found some wonderful, unique items to give as gifts to some of the people I know who are most impossible to shop for—and gotten some great ideas for things I’d like to make myself, too.