Miss-take free

So as you may or may not remember, I unsuccessfully tried to visit the Missoni Pop Up Shop during FNO. While I am nowhere near a die hard fashionista, I am more of an interested bystander. I think it would be nice to have something cute from this collection, but it isn't a MUST for me. Anyway, my BFF Melinda's birthday just went around the corner, and I was racking my brain and my craft stash for card ideas when it hit me....I need to do a Missoni inspired card.

With my trusty computer, cricut, and sure cuts a lot, and paper stash, I was good to go. I settled on the sine wave curve (ya know, from math class?) and used that as my foundation. I also knew I had to include the iconic designer's M from their logo, and coupled with the fact that it is for Melinda, it was too perfect to pass up.

I cut out my envelope using a template from Judikins, and as fate would have it, the pattern is herringbone, which is very Missoni-like. I reused an envelope when I made this new one, and for the 'body' of the card, I repurposed a file folder. :)

I haven't sent this off yet, so please don't tell the birthday girl!! I know I can trust you!!

An EXTREME closeup of the envelope:

now the card....

and now....both!

Fix a flat

So, no trip to visit my NY family is ever complete without some major crafting. This trip was no exception. While shopping at Costco, I noticed these huge 4'x4' squares of plain, unprinted cardboard placed between the layers of the diaper boxes and such. )The kind of cardboard that cereal boxes are made out of.) And since it was Costco, packaging is a free for all. We picked up 2 with a loose idea of tracing my nieces for a life sized paper doll.

Once we explained the plan to my nieces, they were totally on board. on cardboard, that is! But really, they were troopers and held perfectly still as we traced their outlines and patiently waited as I cut their 'flat' versions out.

Next, we raided the scrap fabric bag to come up with the perfect outfits for them to 'wear' which turned out supercute, if I do say so myself. Thank goodness for hot glue and it's super stickability! My mom came up with the great idea of running a hand basted stitch to make the skirt ruffle, made it even more lifelike!

Thuriffic Thursday

Thuriffic Thursday



So...a couple of weeks ago, I was on vacation in NYC and was able to attend the taping for the Anderson show! The show hadn't started airing yet, but those full page ads in the magazines had nothing on me, I wasn't going to miss a chance to see one of my FAVs, Anderson Cooper. Of course the topic of the show wasn't revealed to us, so we were genuinely suprised when the main guest was another one of my favs Kathy Griffin! It was pretty awesome, even if we were most likely the shortest 3 audience members sitting in the last row behind tall people. That is what dvr's are for, people. AC was just like you (or I) had imagined him to be, really personable, taking questions/comments during the downtime; and explaining the basics of the production process of a big time talk show. :) As if being in the audience for what turned out to be the second episode wasn't enough, we also received a CD to the broadway musical 'how to succeed in business w.o trying' and 2 tix to the wax museum. The silver fox of CNN was made by the madame tussaud people. Alas, I didn't have time to go to the museum that week, which is just as well since I would have been most interested in seeing his wax alter ego there, and it didn't make a debut until the following week. ah. tv magic. Unfortunately, unlike my Martha audience experience, they were more vigilant about the no camera policy and I didn't get a chance to take any pictures inside the studio. :/

Here's what his studio overlooks, Columbus Circle...

Anyway, later on that night, my sister and I hit FNO (Fashion Night Out 2011) we thought we would check out the pop-up Target/Missoni store. We walzed/cabbled it over leisurely around 8pm only to find that the line was literally around the block. It was so long, we couldn't see the end of it! The next day, the paper said it was 400 people long, and some people had been waiting online (that is the way new yorkers talk) since noon for the 6pm opening. Well, even people who live under a rock (or on the east side in a deluxe apartment in the sky, like my sister) knew what a zoo the Missoni Shop created, and the rest is history. We hit H&M which had a live dj and Zara which also had one who had packed up before we got there.

I'm with the (book)band

Happy September!!


On this, the first day of September, and a day closer to the end of this blistering hot Texas summer and drought (hopefully) I come bearing tidings of a new collaboration/invention to share!!

So, picture it, our bookclub is celebrating our 6th anniversary and Selina and I know that we have to do something to top last year’s awesome (if I do say so myself) 5th anniversary bags. So this time, we thought small, kept the elements of silk screening on cloth, and took it to the next level, because that is just the kind of crazy craft-inistas that we are.

Selina came up with the tag line…which is so good that I can’t waste it here—yet. And we brainstormed on a way to incorporate it into our project. Originally, we thought a button badge type thing, but the hardware for a good set was too far out of our price range. Then we moved on to buttons, (called cover buttons) like the cloth covered kind that you can use for diy projects. I didn't even know these existed!! The idea was to (make the silkscreen first) then silkscreen  the quote onto the cloth, then cover the button…then to thread a length of elastic through to make a loop and sew together. Viola, a headband for your book to mark pages! Ingeniously (not) called a bookband!

Some tips to remember...
When silk screening, we found that the tighter the weave, the better
and for the cover buttons, a less stretchy fabric works better as well, your print won't be crooked.

Of course, none of this came together easily, we like to try things out the hard way first just to make sure we aren't missing anything...as evidenced in the pix with the rejects...
Last night was the party and they were a hit. yay!!

my screen...so proud of it. the 4th time was a charm this time.

We tried it with yellow ink, but it wasn't as readable as the black..

the tools of the trade

the finished product

All wrapped up and ready to go..

And don't miss Selina's post on our craft!!!