Posts Tagged ‘free’

Birthday Banner Tutorial

April 27th, 2009
6 Comments

In my attempt to decorate for our family parties for Penelope’s birthday, I wanted to make a cute birthday sign. I’ve seen so many parties decorated with bunting and I’ve truly fallen in love. I’ve been on a paper sewing kick and I had a bunch of fun yellow and grey wallpaper that was screaming to be used.

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I’m really happy with the final product, I can’t bear to take it down. I think the whole project took me just under an hour to make. It helped that my mom had a cricut so I didn’t have to cut out the letters by hand.

Make your own birthday bunting with IS•LY’s easy tutorial! Click here to download.

Simple Glass Etching Tutorial

March 31st, 2009
43 Comments

I know there are loads of tutorials around the internets showcasing etching glass, but thought I’d add my own point of view on the matter.

I’ve had this large glass serving platter for 6 months or so, and don’t really have much motivation to use it, mostly because it’s plain and boring. Now it’s a little more exciting, but in an oh-so-subtle way. Glass etching is also very practical for marking your glass serving ware for pot-lucks and parties. You’re less likely to end up sans dishes when they have your name on them.

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Click here for the FREE printable glass etching tutorial! or read below for the step-by-step instructions.

Glass Etching Tutorial

Supplies:

  • Roll of Contact Paper
  • Glassware
  • Junk Brush
  • Bonefolder or credit card
  • X-Acto Knife
  • Pencil
  • Armour Etch Acid
  • RUBBER GLOVES!!!!

Clean your glassware and dry thoroughly. Apply contact paper to the outside of the glass. Smooth out bubbles with a bonefolder or credit card.

With a pencil or sharpie marker, make your marks. *If you don’t want to hand draw the image, print out the desired design on regular paper and tape image onto contact paper.

With an X-acto knife or scalpal, cut and remove contact paper for etching.

In a well ventilated room, generously apply armour etch acid with a junk brush. Wait 10-20 minutes for acid to etch the glass.

If you’ve applied a load of etching acid, you can scoop the excess back into the bottle for later. Rinse and wash glass, brush and your hands thoroughly with soap. Remove contact paper, dry and enjoy.

Many thanks to How About Orange and Apartment Therapy for featuring this tutorial!

To print out a template of the above design, click here.

French Poem Lithograph

March 27th, 2009
76 Comments

This week has been a whirlwind of a week. We’re in the middle of preparing for an 800 mile move on Saturday and I’ve spent a glorious week blogging at Black Eiffel (Rachel is one of my heroes). I’ve got to celebrate that I’ve not had any major emotional breakdowns (only minor ones), and you! Thanks for stopping by!

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The poem in the background is Le Pont Mirabeau by Guillaume Appollinaire (a poem I had to memorize in junior high for a state french fair), and it’s insanely beautiful to hear. I made this litho print back in my college days, when Chris and I were only dating. It’s always hanging above or near our bed.

 

Will you be my Valentine?

February 12th, 2009
17 Comments

Christopher is banned from my blog from today until Valentines, mostly because I’m too excited about his Valentine to wait. So if you read this, DON’T talk to Chris about it. He already knows too much.

I got this genius idea from a friend [although, she didn’t know it] who signed off an email with “the Tiddly Winkels”. It reminded me how much I love the nearly skill-less, almost pointless game of Tiddlywinks. I’m sure there’s skill involved, I just don’t have any. I got to thinking; revamping my old Tiddlywinks game would be PERFECT. The box was missing, no instructions, just the winks, mats and pot were left. I made the box, added an additional area for winks to land [the handhold, lobsters*, footsies and hugs areas], cut out [and embroidered a little heart] pink mats and made it all lovey-dovey.

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Here’s the genius of the game: you can make it whatever you want! You hit the winks into the pot to get points, add up the points for a kiss, lobsters, whatever. And, the scorecard I made, is fill in the blank, so at the beginning of each game the players can decide what action would occur at what points. Sweet? or Saucy? I have yet to play the game with Chris, so I don’t know how well it’ll work. I’ll report back as soon as I find out. You know what else I did? I made a free downloadable PDF for anyone else who wants to play this imaginative, couple’s game. Download HERE.

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I think it all turned out pretty nicely. I just entered it into a Craftzine V-day contest, so wish me luck!! By the way, did you hear Craft will no longer be in print? Bummer. At least they’ll keep the website going [unlike domino :( Blerg ].

*Lobsters are what Chris and I call backrubs. Don’t ask me why, but we like it that way.

*ALSO, I thought I was being all cute with a little tag saying “will you be my tiddlywink?” I just went on urbandictionary and looked up the term tiddlywink. LAME. LAME. LAME. I probably shouldn’t have entered those photos on the contest page. BLAST you awful slang!! Why do you have to ruin ALL of my fun?!? BLERG. I guess I’m going to have to re-shoot the box tomorrow, minus the inuendo.

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