My best friend and I were running low on cash, so we made our boyfriends scrapbooks for Christmas. Mostly outta materials we already had. Cardstock, construction paper, and markers. Its not a 'real' scrapbook, but it does the job. I'm pretty happy with it turned out with the materials we had. (Go figure, my dad bought all new scrapbooking papers for Christmas ) Here are some of my favorites:


The cover


The inside cover


All the flaps unfold. "You always surprise me"


"You give the best hugs" and "Your kisses make me giddy"
I also included little tinier gifts for him to open as we read through it together. This one happened to be hershey's kisses.


"You always want to pay"
Tickets from some of the movies we've been to. I would've included more, but they wouldn't fit!


"You love me from 170 miles away"
We've been together for more then a year, but recently he went away to college.
But we haven't grown apart, and we've survived his first semester. (:


"You like to cuddle" (Gift 5 was a teddy bear) and "You have the cutest smile"


"I can be super silly around you" Gift 4 was silly string. I was right, I regretted it. I got creamed about 5 seconds after opening.


"You let me look at the fishies in walmart"
I think the fish I designed are cute(:
Except the last one, he's demented.





Oh, and he was crying by page 3. (But don't tell him I said so. )

I started with a little painted wood wall hanging that I got at the thrift store for a quarter, and after a couple of layers of chalkboard paint, I present to you this:




And there was a nice little hook on the back already, so I can easily hang it on the wall.


And this was what I started with. If I could go back and change something about this project, I would've sanded down the original picture first. It was textured (especially the dots in the background), and that made the paint go on pretty weird.

Over all, a pretty simple project. Not really anything to special, but it's practical.

So I've made one other scarf besides this one. Despite the fact that it's not perfect, I'm pretty proud because it's come a long way. Pretty much my attempt of practicing increasing and decreasing. I used this pattern: http://knitting.about.com/od/scarfpatterns/p/slant_scarf.htm




The length of my scarf is the same as my arm span.




The only thing I didn't like was that the different techniques of increasing/decreasing caused them to slant at a different rates. And the decreasing is REALLY sloppy. But I'm pretty sure that's just because I'm new to this.


I also made this little wristcuff to use up the extra yarn. I doubt I'll ever wear it, but it was quick and easy, and I still have a little yarn left.

I got this awesome yarn from Walmart http://www.caron.com/color_cards/cc_sseco.html quite awhile ago. (Sadly, I went to restock the other day, and they don't carry it anymore.)

And I made a cozy for my cellphone. It was super easy and fun.
I pretty much used this pattern: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/Chronicle/excerpt/0811835332-e3.html but I had to adjust a little for size.








I also made a hole the same way I did the buttonhole for my headphones, as my phone doubles as an MP3 player, because I'm too cheap to buy an ipod.

Anyway, I know it's nothing special. But it was a great first venture out of the world of scarf making.

So, one of my very close friends lost dad unexpectedly this week. And it's been really hard on her, because they were super close. So a few of my friends and I decided we're going to do lots of fun things with her this summer, to try and get her feeling better. And I know from my experiance (not nearly as bad as hers) that crafting can be VERY therepudic. We've already thought of the four of us making a scrapbook together. But we'd love some other projects that we could do over the course of the summer. They can be long, or short. As long as they're fun!

So I was going though garbage bags of clothing that Ive had in my closet for crafting, and I was taking out all the tshirts, and setting them aside for a tshirt quilt.  I have a few though, that are too ratty to use for the quilt. Like..falling apart ratty. But theres too many memories behind them to throw them up or cut them up for rags. Any suggestions on ways to give them new life??

So, yesterday, my best friend and I went shopping. (Trying to spend our Christmas money) And she's like "Wouldnt it be awesome if I could find a pair of underwear with the word "Rawr" on them. (Rawr is an inside joke between her and her boyfriend. So I had an idea..I could stencil that word on it for her. So we picked out a few pairs we liked, and when we got home we did a few more too.







(Dylan is her boyfriend's name)




(and Kyle is my boyfriend's name)

So for art we got to work with glass. We made some necklaces..and then we made these trivets. Mine are tiny..because..well I dont know why..I just liked the tinier ones better. I'm making them into candle plate thingies. I guess I could use them as coasters too. They'll probably go as Christmas presents to someone.

In art, we're working with glass. This is what I've made so far. (I have more, but they arent fired yet.)
I also got injured while making these. I cut my finger on glassYou can see a bandaid on my finger in one of the pictures..which makes it kinda hard to type. I also breathed in some of the burnable paper you stick in between the glass and the shelf. Which isnt good. My eyes are swollen, and my fingers went numb last night. I think it was worth it though. Sorry about the crappy pictures.

The three together:


This one is my favorite:


Circleish one(you can see my bandaid):


This one looks like a smily face kinda:


And a candle holder or coaster or something to that effect(the glue got messed up because it wasnt completely dry when i picked it up):

So this is my first stiched journal. I like the way it turned out.


I used wrapping paper and construction paper for the cover. Its not that wavy in real life.




I glued down the endpapers before I attached the covers, So I made pockets on the inside of the covers








Enjoy