I am working on a huge birthday post (it was a really great day), but I wanted to fit in this thing-a-day post first:
I worked on these two scrapbook pages yesterday, which was my birthday and the 10th day of the thing-a-day challenge. They are for the scrapbook I do with my sister-in-law, Chelsea, and I have been meaning to complete them for a long time. (The Christmas page is for 2008!) I figured I could make some time for fun crafting on my birthday and I am glad I did.
Travis got me this mini, instant Polaroid printer for my birthday (which is tomorrow). And I have been playing around with it today. I think that counts as a creative endeavor for thing-a-day. That little photo of Crusher (stuck to my computer with a heart sticker) is an example of the prints it produces. They actually have sticky backs on each of the prints, but I just wasn’t committed enough to peel off the back of the print to stick on my computer forever. It is a pretty fun little printer! The photos print out in less than a minute. You can even send photos directly from your cell phone. I need to keep playing around with it! (Sorry for the burned out photo – I had to use flash.)
Since I am doing a little birthday gift preview, check out this amazing La Mer treasure trove sent to me by my parents! I feel so spoiled! …and that was only a part of the gift package they sent! Stay tuned for more birthday details tomorrow.
So… I missed my thing-a-day yesterday. To be honest, I was having a bad day. I was trying to work on Swap-bot, but I came down with a bad case of cabin fever. Plus, the Superbowl really gets on my nerves. Finally, Travis broke down and took my out to dinner at Miriam, an Israeli restaurant near our apartment. It was wonderful. The place was empty and I had seafood risotto. A great start to my birthday week!
For day 8 of thing-a-day, I made this matchbox for my February Love Matchbox Swap. Today is the last day to send your swap package, so I cut it a little close to the deadline. I was going to send one of the previous matchboxes I had made for Etsy Craft Night, but I decided I wanted to make something new for my partner. She likes bright and bold colors. I hope she likes her package!
Already done with my thing-a-day creation for today! I had been planning to make downloadable Swap-bot Valentines this year and I am so happy that I actually made the time to do it. I designed two cute Valentine cards – one with Ernie, the Swap-bot logo/mascot, and one with Crusher – and a little matching envelope. The PDF file is totally free and you simply download it, print it out on card stock, cut out your Valentines, and give them to your friends!
Download the Swap-bot Valentines PDF here.
There are some basic instructions on the PDF, but assembly is really easy. Cut just inside the black lines, then score and fold the envelope on the grey lines. Fold in the shorter sides of the envelope, then the bottom. You can glue these parts together. Slip your Valentine card inside the envelope, fold down the top, seal it, and give it to someone you love!
I hope that some of our Swap-bot users enjoy them. Crusher was so excited about the cards that he already started handing his out!
I made cookies today. Another food for my thing-a-day. They are chocolate chip-style with a combo of MnMs and swirled white and dark chocolate chips. They were made with whole wheat flour in an attempt to be a little bit healthier. I hope they hold us over during the snowpocalypse that is supposed to hit tonight!
Today’s “new creative thing” is this healthy salad that I made for dinner. It is Bob Greene’s Black Eyed Pea Salad with Turkey Bacon recipe from today’s Oprah show. It was extremely tasty considering that it is part of a “managing diabetes” diet. The whole Oprah Show was about diabetes, and even though I don’t usually watch, I tuned in today. My grandfather had diabetes and I am just generally scared of it. I should be more concerned about heart disease – and I am- but it doesn’t hurt to have even more motivation to eat healthy. The salad consisted of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, black eyed peas, turkey bacon, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar. Bob Green (Oprah’s health guru) was touting apple cider vinegar as some sort of miracle liquid that decrease the glycemic index of any food it is paired with. …but I guess it wouldn’t taste good on donuts.
Well, I have done it. I have dived into the world of Artist Trading Cards. I have always wanted to start making ATCs, but I always imagined painting them with acrylic paints… and I never wanted to get out all of my painting supplies, so I never signed up for any ATC swaps. Finally, I just decided to go for it when hollandcox decided to host the Inaugural Craft Social ATC Swap in honor of the first Craft Social tweet-up. I am glad that I signed up, not only because I had a great time at the tweet-up*, but also because I can count this ATC as today’s creative thing-a-day!
I didn’t end up using any paint on my ATC. Instead I used paper, pen, ribbon, and glue. It definitely looks like my style. I didn’t really mean for it to, but I guess you can’t escape your creativity personality. The sparkly gems make it a bit 3D. I had a lot of fun making it and hope that my swap partner enjoys it… hopefully she doesn’t mind pink!
*btw: a “tweet-up” is sort of like a meeting on Twitter
Quick post today: For my thing-a-day today, I am counting the graphics I made for Craft Critique (the one above is an example). But, I also wrote a nice write-up of last night’s Craft Night on the Swap-bot blog and I put together this photo matchbox tutorial on the Etsy blog. It was a busy day!
Above is the matchbox I made at tonight’s Etsy Craft Night. Even though it is a bit boring, I am counting it as my creative thing for today.
I had a great time hosting the Craft NIght tonight. We had about 30-40 people attend during the four-hour event and everyone made amazing matchboxes. It was laid back and fun. Everyone was really nice and creative. (It was all ladies, except for when Travis showed up to help me clean up.) People even ate the chocolate pretzels I brought and said they were good! I also did a virtual demo via video online, which I think went well. It isn’t saved for future viewing, so I guess I’ll never know. I’ll just keep on thinking I did great. ha!
Overall, it was a successful event and a bunch of us went out for pizza at Grimaldi’s afterward. Yum! (That is me with Etsy’s Community Manager and Organizer of the Craft Night’s, Julie, after we had cleaned up the Etsy Labs.)
I went a little crazy and signed up for a big blog challenge for next month: Thing-a-Day 2010. The rules are simple, you create one new thing per day in the month of February and post about it on your blog and the group Thing-a-Day blog. It is supposed to be an exercise in creativity and I think it is geared toward artists, but I am going to be really lenient with myself when it comes to what counts as a new creation. I am going to count home-cooked meals, Swap-bot graphics, crafts for swaps, and hopefully also some “real” art as my new daily creations. So, check back each day this month to see what I am creating! Better yet, go sign up for Thing-a-Day yourself and join in on the fun!
If Thing-a-Day started today, I would have posted about these chocolate-covered pretzels that I made for Etsy Labs Craft Night tomorrow.
