Make Stuff

First off, I want to thank everyone who took the time to leave me a nice comment or to email me after my pity party the other day. Things have been sucking, but they got really bad after itchy dog's $240 visit to the vet this month and that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. We've got a plan, and some help, so I just need to be patient and trust that things will work out in the end.

Part of the way I've been coping with everything is to just make stuff. I need to be creative - it's what keeps me sane. Especially when I'm only sleeping a few hours a night. I need something to keep me busy! Luckily, after years and years of working in creative jobs, and just as many years of building up a quite sizeable "stash" of various crafting supplies, I have very little need to actually go out and buy anything to make stuff. Let's hear it for hoarding, folks!

Of course, I already posted the baby pants, and the ruffle tee shirt, and the necklaces that I made. Here are a few things I've done in the past few days.

Remember my gratitude album? I made a few more of those blank books, and I'm thinking of listing them in my Etsy shop. The first one is a random collection of different page styles, all done in shades of green and brown. I found this nifty denim pocket in my stuff and thought it worked perfectly for the cover. I think it is Making Memories from like a million years ago, but it's still cute.

I purposefully did not number the pages in order to make the book more versatile for the end user. You could do the weekly gratitude album like I did (it has 53 pages), or you could do a photo a week for a year (a popular twist on Project 365), or you could use it as an art journal, or you could use it to hold inspiration - really, it's up to you. There are lined pages for writing, wooden laminate tags, and paint chips to keep things interesting. The covers are chipboard to make them a bit more sturdy and I tied lots of coordinating ribbons around the book rings that hold it together.

The second book has a bit more of a theme to it. I used a stack of papers that I found mixed in with my cardstock. Who knows why they were there, but they were, so I used them. Since they all coordinated, matching was a no-brainer.

The style of pages repeats through this book, with a few lined pages for writing scattered throughout. Again, the covers are chipboard and it's held together using book rings tied with coordinating ribbons. There's a big, goofy flower on the cover to pull the whole look together. This book also has 53 pages. (that's counting them front and back)

Near the end of the second book, I totally ran out of adhesive for my ATG dispenser, which is LAME. I found an ancient box of Dotto and used that to finish the project, but man - I can't believe I ever liked that stuff! It stinks compared to my ATG!!! Time to move on to a new project!

If you look around on Etsy and Flickr, you can find a LOT of felt play food. I've also seen it at Pottery Barn Kids. It's super cute, great for dramatic play, won't hurt if thrown at you like wooden food, safer than metal, and without the chemicals of plastic. Plus, it's CUTE, y'all! I made a felt piece of sushi for my friend a few months ago, so this week I made one for the baby. It's ebi nigiri!

I know that those folks at PeTA like to say that food shouldn't have a face, but in this case, I beg to differ. It's very kawaii, right?

When I was done with that, I started on this:

It's a felt iPhone! You have got to love the irony of such a low-tech version of a very high tech item. I love how this came out. It ended up being a little bit smaller than my actual phone by the time it was all done. I spent all day yesterday embroidering those little app icons by hand. I just sort of eyeballed them, which is why they're a bit uneven and the ones near the top are bigger than the ones on the bottom. I sat with my phone and the box of embroidery floss to get the colors to match, because I'm crazy like that. You can see the power button and the earpiece on there. I saw a knit one somewhere online, and figured felt would be a bit easier to manage.

Here are the apps I added:

Top row: Google, Camera (I forgot the blue dot in the center and didn't realize until I was all done -oops), Calendar, Photos

2nd row: YouTube, Facebook, Maps, TweetDeck

3rd row: Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings

4th row: iTunes, Text Messages, App Store

5th row: Phone, Mail, Safari, iPod

Here's the back. Of course I had to do the back! When I put "pays great attention to detail" on job applications, I'm not exaggerating.

Yes, I have issues. But you knew that already, right?

So now I'm trying to decide what to make next. I'm a little burned out on the sewing by hand, as you can probably imagine. Payday was yesterday, so maybe I can swing one TEENSY roll of adhesive. There's this calendar I've been wanting to make for my kitchen for some time now...