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Some Simple Sign and Twine

April 22, 2014 By Jessica Leave a Comment

When we moved into our apartment, some two years ago, I immediately knew that I wanted to house my baking ingredients in clear mason-like  jars and put them on display on the kitchen counter. What I realized later was the many ways I could label these jars. I first came upon this idea on Pinterest:

 

Unfortunately, while the process was by no means hard, it did require buying certain materials that I was just too lazy to go out and find. I wanted something even easier! Some months later, I stumbled upon this:

 

While the oak tags weren’t used here to decorate kitchen jars, I loved the simple, yet rustic combination of brown paper and twine. I knew I could easily convert this style for my purposes, and fortunately, Tyler loved the idea as well. Together, we gathered our supplies by making a quick trip to Michael’s:

photo 3
black ink, brown paper tags, baker’s twine, alphabet stamps, scissors

We already owned scissors, but all of the other materials were really easy to find and totally affordable. I don’t have the exact numbers anymore, but I’m fairly certain I spent no more than $15, if that.

As you can imagine, the actual creative process was also quite easy:

  1. Press your stamps into the ink and then firmly press down each letter to spell the desired phrase.*
  2. Wait about thirty seconds for the ink to dry, and then cute your twine to the desired length.
  3. Wrap the twine once (or twice) around the neck of the jar and then fit the string through the “back” of your tag.
  4. Tie string into a simple knot or bow.
  5. Take a step back and admire your handy work!

*Don’t worry about perfectly aligning your letters. The imperfect nature of the ink and the slightly wobbly alignment help to enhance the “charm” factor.

In a few short minutes your jars will transform:

photo 5  photo 4

photo 1

Valentine’s Day Laser Show

February 14, 2014 By Tyler Leave a Comment

In her post on crafting turkey cards, you may remember Jessica mentioning that our school had acquired a laser cutter. Never one to turn down access to lasers, I have been working on a few projects that involve annihilating different materials with amplified light.

The laser cutter works as an ultra-precise cutting machine (accurate to 1/1000 of an inch). You put your material (paper, wood, cardboard, etc.) into the machine and use a vector image file to tell the laser where and how to cut. Then a rig moves the laser all around burning a hole through the material in the places you have indicated. The laser can also etch the surface of thicker materials.

You may have seen an an instagram of my face in January:

It may be hard to see in the photo, but that face is actually a clock. The third graders were learning about reading time from an analog clock, and the 3rd grade teachers decided that it would be awesome if they all designed their own laser cut clock. I knew how to use the laser cutter, so I made this example to inspire them!

The instagram is actually a good example of what the laser cutter can do. That clock face (HA!) is made of 1/4 thick alderwood. The darker areas of the face are examples of the etching feature and the perimeter of the clock shows how detailed it can be.

After getting that first project under my belt, my brain began racing with TONS of ideas for things to make. I perused Pinterest and other sites for ideas for some things I could make. For example, I love this idea for greeting cards and this doily-like paper invitation. I have a number of different projects in the works, but the one I want to share is a card I made for Jessica.

As you know (hopefully!), today is Valentine’s Day. With Jessica’s birthday only a few days around the corner and some big trips on the horizon, we are keeping things simple this year. Jessica made me this piece of V-Day art two years ago, so I decided to get crafty this year.

My inspiration was this card I found on Pinterest:

Family members, do not panic! I searched for laser cut cards. It just happens to be a wedding card.

I loved how the diagonal cut added depth to the card, and with access to a laser cutter, I knew I could make the intricate and detailed cuts. The next step was to create a template for the card in my vector-editing program: Adobe Illustrator. Here is my template:

Card

When the laser cutter receives this template it burns along the black lines. Since I was going to trifold the card, this meant I had to figure out where to place the text so when I folded it, everything lined up. This wasn’t too complicated, but I did do a lot of staring off into space (with a stupid look on my face) while trying to fold the paper in my mind.

With the template created, the next step was to head to Michaels to pick up some two-sided paper. Unfortunately Michaels had recently gotten rid of their double-sided paper collection, but I was able to find some in a Martha Stewart Valentine’s Day themed paper pack.

After work the next day, I spent about 2 hours making different drafts of the card at different sizes on different papers until I had one I liked. I did start one minor fire, but if you want to make on omelet, you’ve got to set something on fire with a laser (or whatever that saying is). Here is the final result:

IMG_5129

IMG_5119

IMG_5118

I am really happy with the way it came out. I had the laser power set too high on some earlier drafts and the paper charred on the edge too much, but once I lowered the power from 10% to 5%, it made really clean cuts.

One thing I forgot (and seem to always forget) is that I need to use stencil-style fonts. If you look at the O’s, E’s, A’s, and other letters with a cutout in the middle, there is nothing filled in. When the laser cutter cuts the outline of these letters, the whole letter (including the inner cutout) falls out. I will be sure to fix that in future projects.

Check back soon for more laser cutting crafting.

IMG_5122

Jessica also made me a homemade card! Here are the cards together.

Valentine’s Day DIY

February 4, 2014 By Jessica Leave a Comment

Since Tyler and I have been together, I’ve never really been into Valentine’s Day. This is most likely because my birthday is five days later (feel free to send presents!) and I am REALLY into my birthday. Fortunately for Tyler though, I recognize that it would simply be unfair/crazy to expect TWO special days in one week.

Additionally, I don’t think it’s healthy to assign one day of the year as THE DAY to celebrate those you love. Someone, I forget who, once pointed out to me that we should be celebrating on a regular basis, and since then, I’ve tried to adopt and live that philosophy. I do my best to let Tyler know how much I care about him as frequently as possible.

I also believe that expensive gifts don’t equal love and therefore are not necessary. As a result, Tyler and I don’t spend a lot of money on each other for this holiday. We usually go out to dinner to one of our local favorites and exchange small ($30 or less) gifts.

Two years ago,  I decided it would be fun to make something for Tyler instead of buying it. I had saved several movie tickets from the beginning of our relationship, and used those to create a piece of art.

I bought a $10 Ikea frame, placed four pairs of ticket stubs on a pretty piece of matting. Then, I wrote a little description for each set, connecting each movie to a particular moment in our relationship. For example, underneath our tickets from “Black Swan” I wrote, “I knew if we could get through this, we can get through anything.” (If you haven’t seen the movie…it is disturbing.)

While I haven’t necessary done DIY every year, I am definitely itching to do something crafty again this year. Consequently, I’ve been pouring through Pinterest for inspiration. Here are some of my favorites:

Picture Puzzle

    Scratch Tickets

“Places We’ve Been Together” Art

Heart Tote Bag

Cards using Household Items 

Unfortunately, not all the ones that I’ve found are “Tyler friendly”, but many of these will work for someone special in your life – children, colleagues, friends, and other family members.  You can find links to all of these projects on my Pinterest page under “Creativity” or “The Gift of Giving”, but you’ll have to wait and see what I end up doing!

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