Crafty Fusion

Wedding garters: Fancy schmancy and dinofied!

2011-08-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

One of my really good friends Lindsay got married last weekend in a absolutely beautiful ceremony in Brocton, NY. We met as undergrads at RIT and both went through the whole switching from art to science together...and that was a bonding experience! Anyways Lindsay gave me the honor of sewing her wedding garters - both the whimsical one to be thrown at the ceremony and the fancy one for her to

A is for Any Occasion Greeting Cards - A stretch, yes I know!

2011-08-10T07:00:00.002-04:00

And now for the last item of the Spell your name swap. Drum roll please! For the last "A" in Barbara, I made any occasion greeting cards. I really wanted to make a set of blank greeting cards. So I tried really hard to make that one work! Anyways here they are! The cards feature cupcakes...because who doesn't smile at the thought of cupcakes?! Thanks for

R is for rainbow earrings

2011-08-08T17:39:00.003-04:00

Alright, to continue with crafted goodies made for the Spell your name swap, I made some rainbow-colored earrings for that last "R" in Barbara. Here they are! Enjoy your week! :)

A is for Altered Notebook - Altered with a pun of course!

2011-08-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

So far, for the Spell your Name swap I participated in recently, I have shown you what I crafted (and bought in one case) for B-A-R-B. Now onto the second A, where I made an altered notebook. My swap partner had a crafted something with the pun "keep calm and carry yarn" on her wish list. Being a pun aficionado myself, I jumped at that opportunity! Here's how it turned out:

B is for Bookmark: Embroidered corner bookmarks

2011-08-04T07:00:00.012-04:00

To continue with the stream of crafted items I made especially for the Spell Your Name swap hosted by Craftster, here are some corner bookmarks I made for the second B in Barbara. These are super quick to put together, require little paper (great for those scraps that are useless for anything else) and make great mailable gifts! So how do you make some? First of all,

R is for Rugs: Mug rugs

2011-08-03T07:00:00.007-04:00

Okay, so here it is! First project completed with my new sewing machine that I got....well, let's just say too long ago. Anyways I decided to use the Spell Your Name craft swap as an opportunity to try my hand (and machine) on my first sewing project completed on my own. So what did I end up making?? Drum roll please....a set of six mug rugs! As you can see, I also included some

A is for Artwork: One tree, four seasons

2011-08-02T20:58:00.007-04:00

This past month (July), I've been happily working on a very involved swap hosted by Craftster...the Spell Your Name swap. The premise is to craft an item that begins with each letter of your partner's name. I thought that sounded super fun so I immediately signed up for the swap. My partner's name is Barbara...so I ended up crafting six items beginning in A's, R's and a B and sending a bundle of

A couple of "punny" cards

2011-07-20T22:30:00.000-04:00

Alright, so to make up for not posting for 1 month, I am posting some of my latest greeting cards. First I'll start with the punniest. Tee hee! Anyways, a good friend and co-worker is leaving my lab for a teaching job. What better way to wish her luck in the next chapter of her life than with this gutsy farewell card! (Sorry I couldn't resist.) Next, I am very very very belatedly

Peanut butter s'more stuffed brownies

2011-07-19T07:40:00.000-04:00

It's summer. It's the season for campfires and some good ol' traditional s'mores. So when I came across this recipe for s'more stuffed brownies, I was immediately sold. But I felt like something was missing in this decadent dessert to drive it over the top. That's right, peanut butter. My two loves in the world are peanut butter and chocolate and I just felt like this dessert needed some peanut

Roasted vegetables pasta salad

2011-06-26T19:33:00.000-04:00

I decided to be productive this evening and cook lunch for the week, something I always mean to do but it almost never pans out (no pun intended!). I tried out one of the pasta salad recipes from a recipe book I purchased for a steal when the Borders in my area was closing down (sadly) - a pasta salad featuring oven roasted eggplant, zucchini, peppers, goat cheese (the recipe originally calls for

Shelves made out of books and an indoor garden

2011-06-25T19:54:00.002-04:00

First of all, I'm happy to be back again after a short hiatus. I had a busy two weeks in lab and also moved apartments recently. But now I'm settled both into my new place and into my summer work schedule. So I can focus on crafting for the new apartment! :) Anyways, awhile back, I upcycled a novel I was not very fond of into this lego-shaped storage box. Well, I have upcycled some more books

Miniature art swap

2011-06-12T12:36:00.001-04:00

I recently completed a Craftster swap where we had to create 10 inchies and one art trading card (ATC) according to the themes our partners gave us. For this swap, we were arranged into groups of four. In case you're not familiar with inchies or ATCs: Inchies are works of art created within 1 inch by 1 inch squares; ATCs are works of art the size of playing cards that are, as the name suggests,

Roasted vegetables with feta

2011-06-10T22:39:00.000-04:00

I decided to stick to something really simple for this week's recipe - an assortment of oven roasted veggies on top of some left over pasta. I followed the basic recipe outlined here at Good Cheap Eats. I used eggplant, red bell peppers and kidney beans along with some olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, oregano and feta cheese. The best part is that you can throw in whatever fresh

Tortellini skewers

2011-05-29T19:34:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I went picnicking and canoeing, got my first tan of the season, went swimming...basically had an excellent time doing summery things! :) Anyways, for the picnic, I decided change up the tortellini skewers I usually make after coming across this recipe for antipasto skewers at A Pretty Life in the Suburbs. I don't remember where the original tortellini skewer recipe came from since I

Craft it forward: Secret storage in a giant lego

2011-05-26T06:43:00.001-04:00

I have completed and sent off creation #2 of the "craft it forward" series - a book with a hidden storage compartment (always wanted to do that!) turned giant lego block. After carving a secret compartment in the book, I applied modge podge all over the book to both glue the pages together and to seal the pages. I then glued on blue card stock over the book cover and painted the

New recipe: Oatmeal shortbread cookies

2011-05-22T21:37:00.003-04:00

I sadly haven't had too much time to try out new recipes this week. So for this week's new recipe, I just baked some oatmeal shortbread cookies for a birthday party. They turned out delicious! I altered this recipe from All Recipes with the following modifications: 3 cups old fashioned oats 1 cup flour 1 cup packed brown sugar 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 egg, beaten 1 tsp

Birthday wishes to a stellar partner in crime...solving

2011-05-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to share another greeting card I designed for a friend's birthday...who I call Sherlock. In case you're wondering, I'm Dr. Watson or Doc. Neither of us remember how this inside joke all started...at least I don't!

A literary cookie jar...literally!

2011-05-14T09:53:00.007-04:00

I eat a lot of oatmeal. I also tend to collect the empty oatmeal containers to store art supplies and to use as a potential craft supply. I finally decided to alter one of the many empty oatmeal containers I have collected and turn it into a cookie jar filled with cookies for a friend's birthday. I modge podged torn pages from a book that I did not care for (I can't even

Thank you, Mom!

2011-05-08T08:43:00.008-04:00

Linked up at: Nifty thrifty things I <3 nap time

New recipe: Broccoli, tomato and tortellini toss

2011-05-06T07:09:00.000-04:00

What did I have for dinner last night you ask? A little bit of broccoli, a little bit of diced tomatoes and a little bit of tortellini tossed together with a dash of garlic, salt, pepper, basil, some red wine vinegar and some olive oil of course! The recipe for this delicious pasta toss can be found here at the Eat At Home blog. I highly recommend it for a quick dinner to toss together!

Wheat grass in paper boxes

2011-05-04T07:00:00.001-04:00

I've been seeing a ton of blog posts lately about growing wheat grass. I think it looks really pretty, it looks super easy to grow and it's so versatile that you can grow it in anything from mugs to egg cartons. So I thought what about origami boxes? I made three origami boxes using thick scrapbooking paper. I lined the bottom of the boxes with cork board to reinforce them for

Craft it forward: Hungry bowel candy bowl

2011-05-03T08:00:00.004-04:00

Today I'd like to share the first of the five "craft it forward" creations for a post doc in my lab, Julia. Given that we both work in a lab that focuses on Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis research, I just had to include an angry intestine somehow! So after creating this angry intestine pencil holder, I decided to go in a completely different direction and make an angry, hungry candy...

New recipe: Wilted spinach salad with sausage

2011-05-01T08:00:00.005-04:00

To continue with the productive week in trying out new recipes (and using up my giant bag of spinach), I decided to try out this recipe for wilted spinach salad with sausage and white beans from Eat Drink and Be Merry. The only alteration I made was to add olives instead of tomatoes because anything with feta cheese and olives makes me happy! :) Happy Sunday! Linked up at: Nifty

An infectious birthday wish

2011-04-29T09:51:00.009-04:00

Got some more biology geekery to share with you all...a birthday card for a microbiologist! The card features a gorgeous E. coli specimen modeling for all those Gram negative bacteria out there and three lovely Lactobacilli representing all the Gram positives. Of course, the card is not complete without a microbiology pun! Hope this all made you smile

My first bake of a cake!

2011-04-28T21:42:00.005-04:00

Up to now, I have never made a cake. I have stuck with cookies, muffins and cupcakes because, well, making a cake from scratch seems daunting. But I decided to take advantage of a co-worker's birthday for taking a tiny step closer to making a real cake by baking this Oatmeal Chocolate Cake over at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. The directions were very much like making a brownie, but with ingredients

New recipe: Baked tilapia with spinach and mushrooms

2011-04-27T21:29:00.002-04:00

I'm on a cooking roll this week! Anyways, I still had half a bag of spinach to consume before it expires, so I've been scouting the blogosphere for some good recipes incorporating fresh spinach. This recipe at Moore Babies for baked tilapia and veggies appealed to my mood earlier today, so I decided to go for it. The recipe calls for spinach and tomato, the latter of which I did

New recipe: Spinach, sausage and mushroom pasta toss

2011-04-26T20:23:00.003-04:00

I've been eying this recipe from Family, Stamping and Food for a different take on a pasta toss. I decided to deviate a little from the recipe, using some leftover veggies and sausage I had on hand. I started off by sauteing red onion, spicy Italian sausage, mushrooms, black olives, garlic powder, oregano and basil together. I then added some pasta sauce I had on hand and some

New recipe: Greek-style crockpot egg casserole

2011-04-24T14:11:00.004-04:00

Did you know that you can use your crockpot to make a breakfast casserole? I sure didn't! So when I came across this recipe at Finding Joy in My Kitchen for a breakfast casserole including french bread, eggs, sausage, veggies and cheese, I was really intrigued. I decided it would be a good pick for an Easter brunch potluck! I'm lactose intolerant. So whenever a recipe calls for copious amounts

Planning my life in style

2011-04-17T21:29:00.005-04:00

See this binder? I decided to turn it into my own personally designed planner that incorporates among other things, the grad school, crafty and food lover aspects of my life. That way I can actually keep track of everything I want to (and I suppose have to) do. So far, I have only designed the individual pages and the dividers for each section. So look for a future post when I

New recipe: Greek-style baked salmon

2011-04-13T20:17:00.002-04:00

One of my friends pointed out that this is becoming a food blog and it's so true! It's all because of: a) my new year's resolution to try and cook a new dish once a week (I think I'm doing pretty well! :D ) and, b) because of my qualifying exams for my PhD, which has sadly left me with little to no time for crafting. But a girl's got to eat! Anyways, today for lunch I decided to prepare this

New recipe: An assortment of afternoon tea sandwiches

2011-04-11T18:00:00.014-04:00

For Christmas, my mom gave me this super awesome tea set. Black and red. Sleek, simple design. I swear the tea set was made for me...perfect to the t! Heh heh. Anyways since then, I've been dying to throw a tea party and I finally had an opportunity this past weekend. What was on the menu? An assortment of mini sandwiches of course! Sandwich #1: Curry chicken sandwich with some

New recipe: Pumpkin seed pate

2011-04-09T06:09:00.007-04:00

My sister sent me this interesting recipe for pumpkin seed pate. She's visiting for the weekend and so we decided to try it out with a few alterations. We made the pate using pumpkin seeds, water, olive oil, parsley, chili powder, salt, garlic powder and lemon juice. The verdict? Yum! The pate went wonderfully in a wrap filled with spinach leaves, feta, olives and turkey. This is

New recipe: Grecian rice salad

2011-04-03T19:47:00.003-04:00

I've been trying to cook several lunches for the week (and failing most weeks!) so that I don't have to settle for pb&js every single day. Somehow I managed to successfully plan ahead this time around and prepared Grecian rice salad for most of the week. I am especially excited since I have two of my favorite ingredients in the world, feta cheese and olives, to look forward to!

New recipe: Baked jerk chicken

2011-03-30T20:56:00.000-04:00

What did I have for dinner tonight? Some oven-baked jerk chicken. It was simple to throw together and delicious! Add some eggplant, zucchini and toast, and you have one satisfying meal! :)

Celebrating spring with coconut almond truffles!

2011-03-27T14:00:00.011-04:00

This past week has been gorgeous with mild weather and sunny skies. It definitely has gotten me excited for the coming spring and summer months. To help celebrate the change of seasons, I decided to make some spring-themed boxes to present these coconut almond chocolate truffles by Everybody likes Sandwiches I made for a friend's birthday. These truffles are basically bite-sized Almond Joys...yum

Angry intestine pencil holder

2011-03-26T19:48:00.007-04:00

At work, my pens and pencils lay strewn across my desk and that has aggravated me to no end. I had a spare container I was going to bring in to house all my writing utensils until I came up with a brilliant idea. I decided I would decorate the pencil holder in the theme of my research...an angry inflamed intestine covered with the creepy E. coli strains prevalent in Crohn's disease. Once that

New recipe: Chicken bread salad

2011-03-24T14:57:00.002-04:00

This past Monday was french bread day. So to celebrate, I made this salad featuring broiled french bread two days later. Yes, I know, a little late with the celebration. Anyways it turned out really good and was perfectly light and refreshing for a warm, 70-degrees evening!

Altered puzzle piece swap

2011-03-17T19:59:00.014-04:00

I just finished yet another swap on Craftster. The theme this time was to buy a puzzle and send two pieces each to four different partners. We all assigned a theme to our puzzle and each of our partners had to alter the puzzle pieces accordingly. The idea is that upon return of the altered pieces, the end result will be a collage of different craft and art styles. Pretty neat, right? I thought so

New recipe: Sichuan green beans with chicken

2011-03-16T20:43:00.001-04:00

After eating pb&j sandwiches practically every night for dinner last week, I'm happy to be cooking some warm meals again. Not that I don't love peanut butter...but I almost nearly had peanut butter and bread included in every meal. It was quite sad. Anyways, I did cook up some lemon ginger chicken from the Eat.Drink.and Be Merry blog. It paired well with some sauteed veggies and toast and I had

New recipe: Zucchini with thyme

2011-03-02T21:03:00.001-05:00

I bought some fresh zucchini with the intention of making ratatouille, but failed to find the time to look for some fresh eggplant. I had to use the zucchini before it spoiled and took this opportunity to look for some new zucchini-based recipes. I ended up picking this delicious sounding zucchini with thyme recipe. I never thought to saute zucchini in butter AND olive oil...that together with

Sackboy is a Tarheel

2011-02-20T21:46:00.001-05:00

To continue on with Sackboy accessories (original crochet post here; UNC graduate Sackboy here), another pertinent request was a Carolina basketball jersey before the season is over. So here he is, Sackboy as a Tarheel! I embroidered all the detailing of the jersey...the number 23, the "North Carolina" lettering, and the argyle pattern down the sides. Let's just say it took a

New recipe: Chicken with Dijon sauce

2011-02-19T20:21:00.001-05:00

This week I cooked up this simple recipe for chicken with a creamy Dijon sauce. It went perfectly with couscous and some sauteed peppers. I also drizzled some of the Dijon sauce over the couscous.

Celebrating the Oscars

2011-02-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

I'm a fan of red carpet Oscars parties. It's a great excuse to get all dressed up and it's fun to fill out ballots predicting who will win what. The best parts though in my opinion are a) planning the party and b) crafting for the party! Like these invitations for a birthday party/Oscars party! Here's the front of the postcard-style invite: Here's the back of the card:

Some more Valentine's Day crafting

2011-02-14T15:12:00.003-05:00

First of all, Happy Valentine's Day! Anyways, I'd like to share a couple more crafts I made in celebration of the holiday. On Saturday, I had a craft-together with a good friend of mine. We made cobweb valentines following Martha Stewart's tutorial over here. I made a bow out of pink embroidery thread with some simple instructions...pull! When you pull the thread

New recipe: Champagne cupcakes

2011-02-13T17:50:00.014-05:00

For this week's recipe, I made some champagne cupcakes for Valentine's Day. They turned out amazing! The only thing about this recipe I didn't like was the consistency of the frosting. It tasted good and champagny, but it was a bit watery. I'd add less champagne to the frosting mixture if you try making these cupcakes. Granted I may have added more than I realized. Pouring champagne into a

Will you be my DNA base pair?

2011-02-13T17:45:00.003-05:00

I admit it. I love nerdy jokes. And so, by default, I also love nerdy Valentines. I've spent more time then I care to admit these last couple of days chuckling to myself while browsing through the plethora of nerdy Valentines out there. And naturally, I felt compelled to add my own dorky contribution to the world! So this is for all you biologists out there! Front of card:

Sackboy is a UNC graduate

2011-02-13T00:27:00.005-05:00

A couple months ago, I crocheted Sackboy for my boyfriend and included some coupons for some Sackboy accessories. Well they were cashed in within a couple days (no joke!) and one of his requests was a UNC-Chapel Hill cap and gown. I used Carolina blue felt to sew together the cap and gown. I also had some blue fringe and used that for the tassel. I wrapped some beading wire

Etsy Share the Love 2011

2011-02-09T20:26:00.004-05:00

Etsy just held this great event, Share the Love 2011, where craft-lovers all over the country made or bought Valentine's Day cards for senior citizens in New York City. The valentines will be delivered on the 14th together with hot meals courtesy of Citymeals on Wheels. So I took this wonderful opportunity to not only do what I love to do, but to also hopefully deliver some smiles to the faces of

Mixed media cards

2011-02-07T21:43:00.007-05:00

Alright, so here are the last couple cards I made for the Crafted Notecard swap hosted on Craftster! For the first card, I wanted to use this one random button I found within my sewing supplies that I thought was really visually interesting. I embroidered the background behind the button to create some contrasting texture and designed the rest of the card digitally.

Origami-adorned greeting cards

2011-02-06T08:54:00.009-05:00

Inspired by this post at Zakka Life on making origami hearts as lollipop wrappers, I decided to make some greeting cards featuring origami for the Craftster crafted notecards swap. For the first card, I came across this awesome pattern for braided paper origami (scroll down to get to the pattern). I thought it would be perfect to add to the front of a greeting card. Well things were looking

Some blooming greeting cards

2011-02-04T17:53:00.005-05:00

Hello all! Here's some more of the crafted notecards I made for the Craftster swap I mentioned earlier. This time the theme is floral. These are some simple prints I designed digitally in color schemes requested by my swap partners: Here's another of my embroidered cards. The flower was created digitally and the texture you see was made by scraping an exacto knife on the petals.

I heart you sew!

2011-02-01T21:00:00.005-05:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I just completed a crafted notecard swap over at Craftster. Here are some more cards I created for the swap...this time Valentine's Day themed! My first card features some kitty love: The heart pattern was created digitally and the black cat and paw prints were drawn on marker paper using a good ol' sharpie. The other three cards

When there's a quill, there's a way

2011-01-31T22:36:00.005-05:00

After being on my to-do list forever, I have finally taken the time to teach myself how to quill. If you've never heard of quilling, check out the All Things Paper blog for some absolutely gorgeous examples! There are also some very helpful tutorials to help you get started if you'd like to learn as well. I decided to try to make this flower as the focus of my first quilled card. This is how it

Week 4: German Peruvian fusion

2011-01-30T20:26:00.015-05:00

Okay, so I had a guest cook prepare this week's recipe...my mom! I suppose I could have made something as well, but I'll take her cooking over mine any day! My mom rummaged through my pantry, fridge and freezer, cooking together this chicken and vegetable saute with aji, a Peruvian spice. Think Peruvian curry or chipotle...you get the idea. And now for the bit of German flavor:

Hearty origami

2011-01-30T09:27:00.000-05:00

Over at the Forty Weeks blog, there was this great post on various ways to make origami hearts. I decided to try my hand with making one of the hearts to adorn an envelope with a birthday message for a friend. It was super easy to make...and I'm not the greatest at origami! Those directions for folding here and there just confound me sometimes!

Week 3: Whole wheat greek pasta salad

2011-01-23T14:53:00.006-05:00

This week's recipe from Pinch My Salt is a whole wheat Greek orzo salad. I just made one change, using whole wheat rotini instead of orzo pasta since I have boxes of the stuff in my pantry. Anyways, the salad turned out delicious and was super easy to toss together! An inviting forkful of the salad: The salad looks so pretty with all the different colors! And my golden rule that

Birthday invites and framed resolutions

2011-01-22T23:38:00.002-05:00

Both a friend of mine and I have birthdays coming up so we decided to do a combined celebration. She thought it would be fun to email everyone invitations and I immediately jumped at that opportunity. Here's what I came up with! On a completely different note, I have finally framed my New Year's Resolutions and placed them in a visible spot on my desk. I really love the effect of

Craft it forward recipients

2011-01-20T08:58:00.001-05:00

Thank you everyone for commenting on this post. I'm very excited about crafting something this year for the following: Mike, Merrilee, Julia, Shawna and Lola!

Craft it forward

2011-01-19T08:50:00.002-05:00

I came across this fabulous idea over at the Mad About Pink blog. So, as it says, first five to comment will get something handmade by me! :) Please either leave me your email address in the post or email me your info if you're one of the first five. Thanks! Note: The clever title "Craft it forward" was borrowed from one of the comments over at Mad About Pink. Wish I was clever

Week 2 recipe: Following the pasta formula

2011-01-15T21:56:00.002-05:00

So I admit I kind of cheated for this week's new recipe. I had a lot of leftover ingredients and thought a pasta toss of some sort was in order. I was inspired by this post over at Good Life Eats. I didn't follow the recipe exactly (actually, not at all) but I did follow her 3-2-1 pasta formula. So that sort of counts as a new recipe! Anyways, I sauteed together some Italian sausage (check on

Deoxyrainbow nucleic acid

2011-01-12T07:28:00.004-05:00

I was packing up some cookies for a friend the other day and, on a whim, I decided to make a quick little note for him. He also works in a lab on the same floor as me, so featuring DNA just seemed fitting. Anyways here's a snapshot of this quick doodle!I used colored pencil and a ball point pen on an index card.

Week 1 recipe: Sauteed chickpeas with sausage and spinach

2011-01-09T13:49:00.001-05:00

Yes, I decided to be ambitious this week!Anyways, for the next recipe, I decided to cook up some sauteed chickpeas with Italian sausage and spinach. This recipe was adapted from a post over at Everyone Loves Sandwiches, a great cooking blog you should check out!Here's a bowl of this delicious recipe sprinkled with some Parmesan cheese.A glass of merlot and some oat nut bread went perfectly with

These cards have been punned!

2011-01-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

I love puns. And what better way to spread the joy by designing greeting cards featuring puns to send to people?! My point exactly!Anyways here's a greeting card featuring a steamy pun about tea......and here's another featuring a weightless pun about anti-gravity.Here are the cards printed out and ready to be sent.Thanks for looking! And hopefully, a part of that groan you let out included some

New recipe for week 1...check!

2011-01-04T22:05:00.008-05:00

So to kick off my goal to try a new recipe each week, I decided to start with these delicious sounding cookies - chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies. The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is my absolutely favorite type of dessert. It's the best comfort food ever!Anyways here's the peanut butter surprise in the process of being wrapped up in some chocolaty goodiness:First batch out

Happy 2011!

2010-12-31T15:37:00.004-05:00

Over the past couple weeks, I have come up with three goals for the coming new year. I think they are fun, hopefully not overly ambitious and definitely a reminder to take care of myself in this hectic life. I made a quick visual reminder of my goals in Illustrator that I plan on printing out and hanging at my desk. Hopefully that will motivate me during those rough weeks!Happy new year! I wish

Featured on Craftster!

2010-12-30T20:56:00.002-05:00

I was just browsing through the various topics on Craftster.org. One of my favorite sections is the Home Sweet Home section because I always find inspiration for DYI projects and ideas for decorating my apartment. I was looking through the December 2010 inspirations and saw a picture frame that look oddly familiar...something I had posted ages ago and made for a swap! I was so excited I just had

Christmas memories

2010-12-30T10:02:00.008-05:00

I know this last Christmas post is a bit late. I was in Germany this past week so I didn't have a chance to post anything.Anyways, I decided to make my mom something festive for her Christmas present. Inspired by this idea at MarthaStewart.com, I decided to make some magnetic Christmas clips to hold photos of my sister and I...perfect for decking out the fridge!Here's a close-up of the pipe

Sackboy

2010-12-20T12:00:00.007-05:00

My boyfriend introduced me to My Big Little Planet, this really cute PS3 game with crafty graphics. It's the best way I can explain it, but you could see how I might love it! Anyways, with much encouragement from my boyfriend, the inspiration for my second crochet project came from this game. I crocheted the main character Sackboy as part of his Christmas gift. I didn't even have to hunt around

Trips and travels: California

2010-12-17T16:05:00.018-05:00

I'm in California for the week visiting some close friends and escaping the frigid temperatures that have overtaken the east coast. I'll be posting some more of my holiday crafting projects next week when I get back. But for now, I'm just going to share some moments of my vacation so far.The marina at Redondo Beach...I wish this was the view outside my apartment!I miss the ocean.Sea lions have it

A thank you note

2010-12-14T09:00:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous, I've been wanting to make a collection of greeting cards. Here's my latest addition to the collection...Thank you cards!

Winter comforts: spiced hot chocolate on a snowy day

2010-12-11T16:05:00.005-05:00

Okay, it's really not snowing here in North Carolina (although it did snow here last Saturday much to my surprise!). I was wrapping a gift for my Secret Santa for tomorrow's Christmas brunch (super excited about some eggs, coffee cake, pancakes, mimosas and gluhwein!) when I felt the need to adorn the package with something cute and festive. I've been stalking Martha Stewart's website for the

Holiday Greetings

2010-12-08T15:04:00.007-05:00

Happy December everyone!Anyways here is my design for this year's holiday cards. I decided to go minimalist and combine my love for scrapbooking paper and Adobe Illustrator.Here's the two designs for the front of the cards:A close-up of the festive Christmas tree silhouettes:Here's the inside of the cards. I made folders out of scrapbook paper, which is perfect for giving gift cards or, let's say

A bold pause (from reading)

2010-11-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving!Anyways, I've seen these corner bookmarks on many crafting blogs and websites. I think they are a really neat alternative to your run-of-the-mill rectangular bookmarks. Also I feel like the corner bookmarks won't fall out of a marked page as easily. It's nice to not have to spend 5 minutes shuffling through a book, finding where you left off when all you want to

New prints

2010-11-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest greeting card I have designed in Adobe Illustrator. My goal is to make a collection of holiday specific and generic greeting cards.I've also for the first time printed some of the recipe cards I've created for Edible Temptations. I was really excited how nice the prints came out that I couldn't resist taking a photo of those as well! Here it is:

Stamped with love

2010-11-21T11:39:00.006-05:00

I was wrapping a gift for a friend last night with the usual layers of white tracing paper (I have rolls and rolls of the stuff from past interior design classes). It occurred to me as I was going through the practiced motions that I could use this cute stamp I got in a recent craft swap to decorate the paper. So I stamped on the swirl pattern after brushing on paint onto the stamp and instantly

Corky coasters

2010-11-07T00:13:00.013-04:00

Making coasters for my living room has been on my to do list for quite awhile now. Not only was yesterday a cold and dreary day, my car was still at the shop and so I was stranded in my apartment. In other words, I had a perfect crafting day ahead of me!I've been wanting to make coasters out of tile squares as I have seen in several blogs. Unfortunately though, I didn't have any tiles laying

Happy Halloween - part 2

2010-11-01T08:13:00.001-04:00

I've been wanting to learn how to crochet for quite awhile now. I bought this awesome book by Christen Haden called Creepy Cute Crochet with patterns for creating crochet zombies, ninjas, knights, and my personal favorite, the grim reaper. I decided to give myself the goal of both learning how to crochet and creating this adorable reaper by Halloween. I'm happy to announce that I have

Happy Halloween - part 1

2010-10-28T21:14:00.012-04:00

A group of friends of mine have started hosting monthly dinners just as way to catch up and have an occasional enjoyable, and in some cases, real meal. I claimed October, wanting to prepare a Halloween/autumn themed dinner. I swear I started researching and planning what I was going to make in early September!One thing I knew I had to do was some sort of Halloween cupcakes. I spent a lot of time

Jewelry Trunk Show Swap

2010-10-20T07:00:00.001-04:00

During September, I participated in yet another Craftster swap where I had to create 10 pieces of jewelry and a box to contain said jewelry. My friend Sarah (from DreamInStitches.com) also signed up for the same swap. We were joking how it would be really funny if we were randomly paired up together. And, yup, you guessed it, we were partnered up.So here are photos of the 5 necklace and earrings

Congrats Aly!

2010-10-17T23:00:00.003-04:00

I just attended one of my friend's wedding this past Saturday. In addition to buying her and the lucky man a gift off their wedding registry, I decided to make them a homemade card. This is what I scrapped together:Another view of the card:P.S. I used scrapbooking paper to create this card.

E. colicious Petri Dishes

2010-10-14T19:51:00.011-04:00

I absolutely love nerdy-themed baked goods. I came across these awesome creations when browsing the Not So Humble Pie blog. I work in a microbiology lab and wanted to make these agar plate cookies with bacteria inoculated to single colonies for everyone in lab to enjoy.First I had to find a good sugar cookie recipe. I tried this one I found at Allrecipes.com. Here's some in-progress shots prior

She sells sea shells...and earrings

2010-09-15T22:14:00.001-04:00

One of my friend's birthdays just passed and I made her this framed earring holder. She has started making a lot of her own gorgeous jewelry pieces. I thought she was probably a lot like me and has a collected a jumbled mess of earrings. Therefore I figured an earring holder would be useful for her! Here's how it turned out: Close up view of the frame: I

More boxes

2010-08-30T22:16:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to share these boxes I made to house some teas I gifted away. They are a quick way to use up some of that scrap booking paper while making a pretty gift!

Crafted supplies for the crafty

2010-08-22T22:05:00.006-04:00

I came across this really cute tutorial on how to make a needle book out of felt. Luckily my swap partner for Craftster is a sewer, so that gave me the perfect opportunity to try it out!As you can see, I just changed up the stitching that constitutes the binding to try and create an interesting pattern. I used embroidery thread so that it stands out easily.My swap partner also knits and crochets,

Summer beading

2010-08-20T04:49:00.008-04:00

I just wanted to share the latest creations from my jewelry making binge this summer.Here's a cute pink and white necklace and bracelet set:A similar blue necklace and bracelet set:Matching barrettes for each of the above sets:And finally, a necklace and earring set inspired by the orange and brown color families:

Miniature clipboards

2010-08-17T16:17:00.004-04:00

I was browsing through AC Moore when I came across these adorable wooden mini clipboards. I decided I had to get them and use them for the Once You Pop swap I mentioned previously. At first I was just messing around with paint to decorate them. Then I decided to use some of the stacks and stacks of scrapbooking paper I have stowed away and came up with these cute little creations.I'm totally

BBQ Time!

2010-08-15T10:15:00.004-04:00

I have just completed the Once You Pop swap organized by Craftster. The objective of the swap was to create summer-themed goodies that all fit inside a Pringles can. I thought it was a really cute idea!Anyways one of the items I made for this swap included a BBQ meal planner/shopping list notepad to be posted on a fridge. I designed the pages in Illustrator as you can see here:Here's how the

No more tangled necklaces and earrings!

2010-07-26T18:06:00.012-04:00

Recently, when I visited my friend Sarah (you can view her blog here), I saw hanging in her bedroom an ingenious but gorgeous way to organize necklaces. I decided immediately that I would follow suite when I got home. She had covered cork boards with fun fabrics and hung them on the wall. Then she added some push pins from which she hung her necklaces. No more spending hours trying to detangle a

Quick decorating tip - magnetic frame

2010-07-25T13:57:00.008-04:00

I was recently in the process of trying to decorate my kitchen by adding some bright greens to detract attention away from the horrific cabinetry. I live in an apartment so there's really nothing I can do about it other than cringe for a couple seconds and move on with my life. But I wanted to try to make the kitchen look a little bit more inviting.In order to do this, I had a fun time shopping

Happy Hammock Day!

2010-07-22T00:00:00.005-04:00

And finally, I bring you the last of the series of odd holidays in July. That's right, Hammock Day! For this holiday, I decided to transform what used to be a cherry wood picture frame into what you see below. I painted the frame white and decorated it with materials that reminded me of a hammock.A close up of the frame:As usual, thanks for looking!

Happy Chocolate Day!

2010-07-07T00:00:00.006-04:00

To continue with the odd holidays in July from a week or so ago, I bring you Chocolate Day! I made a matchbox with some fun, striped paper I had lying around and created the "Happy Chocolate Day" design as you can see here.Here's a close up of the design work:Naturally, the matchbox was filled with chocolate!

Tie Dye Party

2010-06-30T15:01:00.005-04:00

Last Sunday, one of my friends hosted a fun tie dye party. I decided to dye a white shirt to use for jogging so I can really stand out! Or just for sleeping works as well! Anyways, I was pretty excited since I haven't tie dyed anything since probably some random summer camp in 5th or 6th grade. Here is how my t-shirt came out:And here's a close up of the resulting pattern:

Go Germany!

2010-06-27T00:00:00.004-04:00

I've had World Cup fever these past couple weeks cheering my team on (Go Germany!). On the days that Germany plays, I make sure to either wear my Germany soccer jersey or rock out the red, yellow and black. Needless to say on the morning I was going to go with the latter option, I realized there was absolutely nothing yellow in my wardrobe. So while watching the game that morning (bright and

Jewelry for the summer season

2010-06-25T20:29:00.008-04:00

One of my close friends is getting married next weekend and so I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to make some more jewelry! I had bought these cool looking beads awhile back so I really wanted to use them. I went with a layered look for the necklace and came up with this result......and I had some leftover beads to make some matching earrings!

Happy Blueberry Month!

2010-06-24T20:52:00.004-04:00

jI just finished participating in a fun swap on Craftster commemorating those odd ball holidays that occur during the month of July. I'll be posting my odd creations on the actual date of each holiday with the exception of this first entry: Blueberry Month!To celebrate, I made these earrings with blueberry-colored beads inspired by this beading project.

Edible Temptations: Inside the kitchen of the Id and the Ego

2010-04-30T21:01:00.002-04:00

I am excited to announce the launch of Edible Temptations: Inside the kitchen of the Id and the Ego!This mouthful of a project is a baking/photography/graphic design collaboration with my good friend Merrilee. She is the author of this wonderful photography blog as well as an avid baker. I can personally attest to the latter since I have been lucky enough to try many of her delicious desserts! As

Painting patterns

2010-03-21T22:36:00.010-04:00

One of my friends commissioned me to do a painting for a sad, empty section of wall in her bedroom. Her color scheme mostly incorporated browns, muted greens and earthy tones, all of which happen to be colors I love. Who am I kidding, I love basically all colors! Anyways, I decided to attempt to paint a pattern, which was a challenge to say the least. Painting circles with a brush with my hands

A brooch to remember

2010-03-19T08:00:00.008-04:00

One of my friends is getting married in July and I'm in the wedding party. So as both a fun crafting activity and a chance to create some accessories for the bridesmaid dresses, I and one of the other bridesmaids decided to make some brooches. Here is my creation below:One little tidbit. When we were buying supplies at Michael's trying to look for potential fabrics for the base of the brooch, we

Tea-filled matchboxes

2010-01-20T19:26:00.016-05:00

For the holidays, I bought a variety of teas from Germany for several of my friends. I love the selection of really intriguing flavors I can find there, including fig-date-apple tea and vanilla-hibiscus-orange white tea. Doesn't that just sound delicious?!Anyways I wanted to present the teas in a pretty and creative manner. So I decided to make some matchboxes. I obtained the templates for the

Holiday Greetings Part 2

2009-12-29T12:00:00.021-05:00

Merry belated Christmas everyone! I haven't had the chance until now to post the rest of my holiday season crafting creations since I am currently in Germany. But here are some more!Here's another holiday card I made with Adobe Illustrator:A close up of the card:I also made this bookmark that began as further experimentation with paper embroidery. Inspired by this project I saw with woven yarn