Here's a photo of a table-top I created senior year of high school (2002) to take to college with me the next fall:



Yes, I still have it and I still use it.  I made my loft to match, but that is LOOOOONNNG gone. 

Since I always keep my ticket stubs, letters, etc. from my boyfriends in a box (that eventually inevitably gets torched or destroyed in a fun way), I decided to make a box to hold the stuff.

I had an assignment for my color class, and I decided that it would be funny to make a "stalker" or "shrine" box.  Being a graphic designer, originally this was going to be packaging (which was more appropriate for my class...but I still got an A), but I came up with this instead:

front of box

I tinted photos of us (mostly the boy) in photoshop, hand-colored them using prismacolors, modge-podged and painted them along with notes and trinkets from him onto and in the box.  He is a musician, so lyrics from songs he wrote about me are used throughout.


front side where the opening is




sides: kind of a flipbook of him playing bass when we used to be in a band together a few years back


bottom (this is smooth--I did the flower illustrations with prismacolor on trace)






inside of the box (minus most of the crap in it)

And this is his craft project that I found in the box (valentines or Christmas..?) :

I had planned on making "famous graphic designer" coasters using the designwork of Chip Kidd, Neville Brody, April Greiman, David Carson, and some more of my design heroes, but I found this pack of paper I bought from basicgrey a long time ago, and that I hadn't used because I loved it SOOOO much that I was afraid I'd use it up (who knew?).  That, and I originally was going to use corkboard to mount them on, but a trip to Hobby Lobby changed my mind.

I found these readymade wooden circle thingers-- for 50 cents a piece-- at Hobby Lobby, some green metallic paint, modge podge (which I actually was needing in the first place), and some antiquing medium.  I cut out some circles (with much pain because I didn't want to ruin the paper!), and went to town. 

There are 2 sides to these coasters, and I have a set of 4 right now.  I might make another set of four and send to my mom or somebody who would like them as much as I do. 



small side


large side


closeup of the cutest one





These bad boys haven't been put to use yet because I like them better than the cheap wood I made them to protect.  I'm going to clear-coat them when the humidity dies down here (Iowa humidity...ick)

I LOVE Halloween.  And if anybody's seen "Mean Girls," I go by their standards--with a twist.  In "Mean Girls," for those who haven't seen it, Lindsay Lohan's character explains, "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it."

ANYWAY, I don't randomly take a normal costume and make it slutty (ie. wearing mouse ears with lingerie), I dress up as a "slutty," "promiscuous," or "sexually avant garde" celebrity, and go to town.

2 years ago I was Courtney Love:


(and my friend was Slash--for my Rockstar Birthday Party)
Not exactly a "crafty" costume

Anyway, last year I wanted to top the hickey-laden, track-mark covered, unshowered, drunken wench (somebody tried to pull my hair off b/c they thought it was a wig).  Our Halloween Party theme was "80s" (how original..)...and I thought who better than the Material Girl? 

Here are pix of the costume top(it's hanging up in my living room b/c I love it and decided it should be displayed):



Here are pix of me wearing the costume (read: I'm a one-bottle-Lily, so these are kind of scary!): 




(the last one I was dancing to a Michael Jackson song I think)

Anyway, sorry for the blurry pix in the costume...I obviously didn't take them 

This is one of my most recent crafting projects (working 60 hours a week as a graphic designer kind of kills any other crafting/design energy...lol)

I found this cute little ESprit--for those of you who grew up in the late 80s/early 90s, there's a brand plug for ya--jumper at a local good will about 2 years ago.  I loved the fabric to death, and it fit like a glove--but I'm about 5 feet tall, and look like a 14 year old...so this jumper didn't really do me justice, no matter how much I loved the fabric and tried to make it work.  (I tried it over jeans, with a cardigan, with slacks under it...etc).  Anyway, I wish I had before pix, but think:  early 90s-- schoolgirl jumper.


Anyway... one day this summer I pulled out the jumper and decided it was time.

SO I made a purse out of the bottom half of the jumper dress--the top half is safely stored away wanting to make a re-appearance as a vest (most likely).

Here is what I came up with--it's a rather small bag:

Here is the front of the bag.  The 3 buttons are the original buttons from the jumper (the hearts are sideways because I wanted to use the original seams and closures)


This is the inside of the bag (after I cleaned out my crap)


This is the back of the bag.  I am considering doing a couple of things: 
1) I might add some embroidery (one color though) 

or

2) I might use fabric markers to color in a few of the hearts (randomly, and probably just one color)

Anyway, I finally got around to photographing stuff, so here's the first of many crafting projects.    Enjoy!