create

Made these plant stakes out of hangers and metal countertop sample chips that I bought at Artscraps.

*Shrinky Dink magnets for filing slots
*My sister’s veil! A shimmery tulle trimmed with sheer shimmery ribbon. I was nervous but I did it! It was much easier than I thought. An Etsy idea is brewing now.

I made a gift box for my BF’s parents. For Xmas we are going to take them to tour a house owned by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and then out to lunch. So what I did was to consult my book of papercrafting ideas, then decide on a style of box. Then I designed an “invitation” and printed it out. I tested it on scrap paper and made the necessary adjustments so that the invitation would appear in the bottom of the box, and an image inside the lid. Then I laid it out on my self healing mat and marked off the measurements for assembling it into a box. I cut it with my cutter, and assembled. Decorated it with repurposed cord and a card BF had around. Cute!!

I made these magnetized origami boxes to help make it easier to have a place to put all of the little corporate donation-thingies that we use at school (Box Tops for Education, Campbells, etc.). Before I would just throw them in the garbage because it was too much effort to keep track of them. Now, I can cut/rip them out and put them in the little box on the fridge. (Lilyfairy, the black and white one is for you if you want to contribute!!) If I can find more strong magnets I will put them inside, but the ones I have right now are wussy and so they will have to go on the outside. Still cute, though.

I like dreaming up stuff and making it. My most recent project was to help my BF organize all the drill bits he got from his dad. So, he got this scummy baggie all full of these random bits. I sorted them all out, and then started to think of how to organize them. I came up with this organizer. I learned a few things from this project:

1. Not as many places sell vinyl as you might think.
2. To sew vinyl, you need to put paper over where you are going to sew or the vinyl sticks to the machine foot.
3. My boyfriend has a grommet kit. What are the chances?
4. Grommets are easy, but you don’t want to pound too many times to set it because you can cut through the fabric with the grommet itself.
5. Drill bits weigh a lot when you put dozens together.

I also decided that rather than writing the sizes directly on the organizer, I would make a tiny pocket for labels along the bottom edge of each pocket. This was good, because I had to mix up the order of the sizes a little in order to fit some of the numerous bits in bigger pockets. Since the sizes were written on little slips of paper in these mini pockets, this was not a big deal.

This whole project was made from secondhand materials, too, so I’m proud of that. I bought nothing new for it. It took me three hours to make it, but if I did it again it would go faster.

Now my dear BF will never need to buy a drill bit again (or at least not for a while), because he has them all in one spot and has at least one of each size.