I'm guilty of impulse buying when at bookstores. Usually it's okay because I end up loving the novel I somehow end up coming home with. But every once in awhile, the book turns out to be greatly disappointing. Those books end up in my "to be resold or donated" pile.

I've always wanted to make one of those books with a secret compartment. I decided that one of these books would be perfect for that! I also wanted to decorate the book in some way and I eventually decided to turn it into a giant lego block. Here's how that turned out:



I covered the book with blue card stock. I also painted the inside and uncovered outer sections (the areas not covered by the book cover) with blue acrylic paint. I then used the blue card stock to "legofy" the book. Here's a close up of one of the lego block...um, knobs? Not sure what it's called.



And here is the secret compartment.



It wasn't too difficult cutting up the book to create the compartment. I used a very sharp exacto knife and slowly cut out the pages. The knife was able to cut through about 20 pages at a time. There is probably a better way to do it, but that was the sharpest tool I had on hand. After cutting out the compartment, I applied modge podge to seal the pages and to glue the pages together so that the book was more like a box that opens up. I really like how it turned out!

Thanks for looking! 

I wanted to craft something for my coworker in the lab that I work in. Given that our lab focuses on Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis research, I just had to include an angry, inflamed intestine somehow! So I decided to refurbish a bowl by sewing a cover representing an angry, hungry candy...wait for it...wait for it....bow[e]l! Bowl. Bowel. Get it?



I made the intestinal villi out of angry red fabric. As you can see, I embroidered the words "hungry" and "bow[e]l" onto the outside rim.



I embroidered the outside of each of the villi as well to draw some emphasis to them. The bottom of the bowl is covered with white felt with the following message: "colonize me with candy." Because I want candy in my bowl...and bowel. Heh heh.



And naturally, I just had to include some bacteria colonizing the lumen and attached to the villi. After all, it is an angry inflamed intestine!



The bacteria were made with silver rings and beading wire. I stitched the bacteria onto the red fabric to attach them onto the villi or to the white piece of felt.



Thanks for looking!

For Christmas this year, I made everyone the following handmade cards. I really wanted to keep it simple but also wanted to take advantage of all the awesome scrapbooking paper stashed away in my crafting closet. So this is is the design I came up with.

Front of the card: I cut out Christmas tree and star shapes from scrapbooking paper and glued that on. I also cut the same shapes within the card itself.



Close-up of the Christmas tree card: Through the Christmas tree-shaped hole in the card, you can see the paper glued to the inside of the card.



The inside of the card: I made a folder with scrapbooking paper, the same paper that peaks through the Christmas tree or star hole on the front of the card. I also designed a little something to go inside the folder where I wrote my message of holiday cheer to each recipient.



Here's a photo of the piece of paper that went in the folder:



Thanks for looking! And Happy New Year all!

Whenever I'm deciding on what earrings to wear, I have to hunt for a pair amidst a tangled disaster. This is especially the case for me since I mostly wear earrings of the dangling variety. I have seen those mesh-like earring holders at places like Target and what not, but I wanted to make my own. I came up with the idea of framing one of those needlepoint canvases in a classy frame and hanging my earrings off of that. Here is the result:



Close up of the hanging earrings:



This worked really well! It's not difficult to take the earrings in and out of the holes. I kept the frame on my dresser, but alternatively, you could also hang the frame on the wall. The best part is that this also serves as awesome room decor!

One of my good friends is getting married this July and I am one of the bridesmaids. I with one of the other girls in the bridal party decided to make some kind of accessory to go with our purple dresses. We ended up making brooches with accents of the wedding color scheme (green, purple and peach) using flower petals and pearls. After sewing the petals and pearls in place, here's what I came up with:





Thanks for looking!

I made a Scooby Doo box for the Crayola Swap to house the all the crayons I remelted. I found a fun image of Scooby Doo in one of those coloring book websites and traced that onto some black paper. I then colored him with color pencils and glued that onto the lid. I covered the sides of the lid with strips of the same black paper and painted the rest of the box with blue acrylic. Finally I applied sealant to the entire box and lid to give it that finished, shiny look.

Here's the result!

The finished box:


The finished lid:



Thanks for looking!

This is my first time trying out this stencil technique using freezer paper and fabric paint. I was really, really nervous as I was peeling the paper after the paint had dried, paranoid that paint had seeped under the paper or that it would immediately peel off. But instead, crisp lines were all I found and I was blown away! I wasn't sure this would work and now that it did, I want to stencil everything! It's my new favorite hobby!

Anyways, here is the shirt I stenciled, incorporating two things I love very much: coffee and puns!



And a close up of the design:



Thanks for looking!

I was just in a photo swap and I wanted to present my photos to my partner in a creative way. I thought about buying one of those brag books and covering it with pretty scrap booking paper. Then I saw the following tutorial for making a mini booklet with a little pocket in the back cover and I thought that would be neat for putting a CD with digital copies of the photos.

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/03/make-booklet-with-pocket.html

Here are the results...enjoy!

Front of book.


Back cover.


Inside back cover with pocket.


Thanks for looking!

I decided I wanted to make a frame using fun fabrics for one of my swap partners. I stumbled upon the following as I was hunting around for some inspiration:

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/04/fabric-frame-tutorial.html

I did something similar, wrapping various fabrics around a wooden frame. I didn't want unfinished ends of fabric to fray once around the frame, so I bent the ends of each fabric strip lengthwise to create a fake hem as I was gluing the fabric. It actually created this really neat look, adding both texture and a regular pattern of shadows around the frame. I really liked how it turned out and I hope my partner did as well!

The frame fits quite nicely with the color scheme in my living room....totally by accident!


Close ups of the frame and the fabric used:







Thanks for looking!




 

It was my friend's birthday over the weekend and we both absolutely love Almond Joys. We are also science geeks so I decided I would make her a science-themed box and fill it with Almond Joys. I got the idea after reading this:

http://alittlehut.blogspot.com/2009/05/school-days-gift-boxes.html


I made my own template in illustrator and printed that out on card stock. I decided to make little positive and negative charges on either side of the opening flaps to show them coming together when the box is closed...I was a little worried it wouldn't seem that obvious, but she got it!

Anyways so here are the photos of the box:







Thank you for looking!