I’m fairly new to the contact paper world.  In fact, I bought a roll of super cool stainless steel looking contact paper and had it sitting in my closet for months before I knew what to do with it.  I know, it’s shameful.  But after hours of online window shopping one day, it dawned on me.  This stuff can make anything look like a million bucks!  My first project:  classic clear vases.  Although they’re pretty on their own, with the help of some sticky paper, it now looks modern, fresh, and well…expensive.  Here’s what you need:

A rotary cutter or scissors, a ruler, an X-Acto Knife, maker or pencil (not pictured), and of course, contact paper and the vase

Measure the area you want to be covered.  I only wanted the bottom half of my vase to be covered, so I measured up to half of it and cut.  I decided a on a cool river rock pattern because the design is simple, modern, and cutting it out would be easy.  Then, carefully stick your new design to the vase being careful not to make too many bubbles or creases.  If you run across a bubble, with your X-Acto knife, just pierce a tiny hole and flatten.

Tada!  Enjoy a fresh new vase with minimal cost!  Ah, I ♥ crafting.

Pom Pom Flowers Tutorial by Domestifluff

I love Dandelions.  They’re probably the daintiest weed sprouting on your lawn and just the thought of them reminds me of my childhood–I honestly believed that if you made a wish on them it would come true.  But, I like many humans suffer from allergies, so it’s not always fun to play with them.  You can still get the look and it’ll last longer with this project from Domestifluff.com.  (By the way, how cute is the name of that website?)  These can make some great home decor accents, gift toppers, and much more!  Best part, no allergies.  Unless you’re allergic to yarn, wire, or creativity.

Remember that infinity inspired scarf I started working on last week?  Well, it’s done.  No, it didn’t take me an entire week to finish it.  More like a total of 6-7 hours.  I just took very long breaks in between.  Breaks that lasted days.  So, as I approached the end of my ball of Simply Soft black yarn, I decided to give it a test run and see how much more I needed to go.  I was surprised to find that I actually liked the scarf very short and after I attached a few buttons, my infinity scarf turned into more of a cowl scarf.  It’s all good.  I’m also going to call it the t-shirt transformer because my plain outfit looked a lot more put together after I threw on my new scarf adorned with awesomely cool gold buttons I found in our luxurious design studio (aka our garage).

Sometimes I steer away from crochet magazines because their patterns are often… tacky.  I’m sorry but they are.  I might be the color combinations, the pattern itself, or the photographs with the perfectly coiffed models and plastic smiles.  But Crochet Today (I’ve discovered) is a great magazine for young crochet addicts like myself.  There are lots of cute patterns and the colors are inspiring.  Sergio just bought me their latest issue that features over 30 projects and as they advertise, they are very quick and easy.  I can’t wait to get started.

But that’s not what I’m writing this post about.  No, this post is about the free pattern advertisement on the back cover of the issue.  A crocheted “Snuggle Blanket”.  I’m not a huge fan of this, although I’m sure it’s extremely warm, I just can’t get over the concept of a blanket with sleeves.  I’m sorry.  I like my blankets rectangular and without a pre-designated space for my arms. What really made me laugh was that they have this pattern for everyone in your family….

The traditional Snuggle Blanket Sizes.  Adult and Kids.

For Baby/Old Person in recliner look-alike.

And don’t forget Barbie.

The baby in the green snuggle blanket does look incredibly comfortable though…  I may start to change my mind.

Amy, the awesome writer of Mod Podge Rocks, not only has a website with tons of project ideas featuring the popular medium but she’s also hosting another giveaway.  This time, she has six–count ‘em, SIX, copies of Rosie O’Donnell’s Crafty U.  All you need to do is follow her blog or twitter (do both and you get 2 entries!) and winners will be picked at random next Friday.  See the post for more information.

And if you don’t like Rosie, you should enter anyway because 1) you won’t regret visiting Amy’s blog and 2) it’s a free book.  What do you have to lose?

The all pearl version.

A few months back my sister’s friend got married and commissioned us to make her a silk flower with jewel encrusted center.  When my sister and I heard about the project, we got straight to it and headed to downtown.  We literally spent over 2 hours drooling over Swarovski crystals and the variety of shapes and colors and then another hour deciding which ones to get.  We finally decided on about 4 different shades of blue and grey and a string of real-ly pretty pearls.  :)  (Come on, I would never hot glue real pearls to a silk flower!)

For our friend’s wedding, we used an alligator clip she provided for us, but my search for some metal combs was still going on as I felt it would sit on a head the best.  Finally, I found these combs at Joann’s yesterday (go figure, the place I’m at every hour on the hour had them) and for only $1.49 each!  That’s probably over priced, but I couldn’t find them anywhere else, so I’m happy with that price for now.

Anyway, I just sewed it on and here it is.  (After I had take take off the comb and sew it on again because I positioned the comb backwards–I really should take more time to figure out how things need to go.)

Here it is on the right way.  *phew!*

These will be up on my store, New Society, when I get a free moment and some decent pictures of them.  I can’t wait for you to see the crystal versions!

I didn’t know what to write about today until I logged in and saw that I had 91 comments!  (Which is crazy considering I only had 30 about 24 hours ago)  Naturally, I got excited, so when I opened them to see what they said, I was disappointed to find that it was ALL spam.  And a new breed of it too!  At least I haven’t seen/experienced spam like this.  They took the exact words of real human readers that commented on my posts and used that to fool me in the beginning but I got suspicious when it would end in offering to sell me vicodin.  Needless to say, I’m back to a healthy 30 or so comments on my blog.  Thank you real people out there.

That’s right.  I just did a blog entry about blogging.

I won’t even check when the last post I made was because I’ll be overcome with the feeling of disappointment.  I’ve been incredibly busy (hoping to see my products in stores and at a fair…just waiting for some answers this week–keep your fingers crossed for me please!).  But I haven’t forgotten about you all.  And I came back to my blog with 31 total comments!  I’m feeling the love here.  *Warm fuzzy feelings*

Here’s my newest crochet project.  An “Infinity Scarf” which I found in Lucky magazine… and well, on the necks of everyone here in sunny California.  If you look good, then who cares what the weather is right?

DKNY’s Infinity Scarf $145

I don’t have $145 designated to my accessories budget, so I’m going to stick with about $10 worth of yarn and my crochet hook to get this job done.  I’m using the “Iris Stitch” (which I got out of my favorite Crochet book The Crochet Bible) for two reasons #1 it’s pretty and #2 it’s so fast!  I’ve crocheted for a total of 3 hours and I already have a 12.5″ wide x 21″ long piece!  I’m not exactly sure how long I’d like it to be, as with all my other scarves I’ve made, I try it out throughout the process to see what I like.  Here’s how it’s coming along so far:

About 3 hours into it, and I can already see the end.  My kind of project.

A few weeks ago, I went to my friend’s daughter’s 1st birthday party.  I wasn’t sure what to give a 1-year-old–clothes seem too generic and everything in stores just wasn’t interesting.  So, I went through my collection of Janie XY toys and decided to give her something that wasn’t even posted up on my site yet–Wilbur:  El Gigante edition.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the actual toy (yet) but I did find this on Facebook today!  Her wonderful auntie drew a picture of him for her drawing class.  :)  I’m so honored to be the inspiration of some art.  Keep on craftin’!