Make It Good with Ariane's Crafts

A wonderful Wednesday to you!

I am thrilled to be doing another Make It Good Challenge today. Do you know how much I love these little one-on-one challenges? There's just something about them: the forcible garbage recycling, the white-knuckle intensity of one crafter versus another, the perpetual passing of the torch, the rules as set by your previous victim who, obviously, is stickin' it to you. It's good times, eh? Find out more about "making it good" by clicking the button below.

The opposition today comes in the guise of my little sister, Ariane, who blogs over at Ariane's Crafts! I'd been thinking of inviting her to "make it good" for a little while. I figured a smattering of recycling rivalry between two sly sisters couldn't hurt. I wasn't sure she'd accept because she's a quilter after all. She has made entire quilts by hand. Like, every-single-stitch-hand-stitched-with-only-a-needle-and-thread by hand. Amazing? YES! She's such a talented girl with potential far beyond the quilt. So I thought, what the heck, it doesn't hurt to ask, right? Lucky for me, she said yes! Woo wee! And because the challenge culminates in a gift exchange, the timing couldn't be more perfect. You see, we're both March babies. So after the challenge, we swap gifts, and that takes care of that for another year. It's almost like I planned it that way or something, hee hee.

Now here is today's challenge as set by the effervescent Mich L in L.A., my previous opponent.

The Challenge Material: Paper- or foil-based liquid containers (no glass or plastic)

The Challenge Rule: Make something inspired by the human hand.

So your job now is to check out what Ariane made, check out what I made, and you're good to go. No winners, no losers, just shiny happy people holding hands, that's right.

Let's see what's what, shall we?

TO SEE WHAT ARIANE MADE {CLICK HERE}

TO SEE WHAT MICHELE MADE {KEEP READING}

Well, I chose a milk carton as the basic ingredient for my craft. I also threw in a generous amount of cereal box, a ke-niggle of ripened tissue paper, a wee bit of construction paper, a scrap of fabric, a twinkling of metallic paint, a pinch of the Podge, and a sliver of silver thread for good measure.

I threw it all together, mashed the lot of it up, and out came this. It is a HAND-bag.

Or a HAND-basket.

The HAND-le is two bits of cereal box sandwiched together and attached with nuts and bolts.

Ain't it HAND-some? The innards are lined with a scrap of cotton from my woefully neglected fabric stash.

It is embellished with a waving pink HAND-plant, some cereal box rivets attached with silver string, and finished in metallic paint.

Can you HAND-le it?

Happy birthday to you little sister! Enjoy your new HAND-bag, and use it in the best of health!

Now off I go to visit my rival's wondrous work. Are you coming with? It's not far... Oh, here it is right here! How HAND-y, tee-hee...

Your work here is done. Have yourself a great day, and I'll see you imminently!

P.S. For interest's sake here is a previous milk carton tote I made.

P.S.S. I'll be linking here!

Tutorial - Handmade Wooden Buttons Stash-Bust

Don't know if you know, but it is September and I've joined a group of crazy craft bloggers in a quest to "bust some stash". I know it sounds violent and conjures up images of hairy-faced goons going at it in dark alleys. But I assure you, it is quite peaceful and good.

It is called Stashbusting September and it is being run by the lovely Robin over at The T-Shirt Diaries. The goal is to craft using stuff we already own. In other words: NO shopping for new craft supplies. NO thrifting. NO getting other people to buy stuff for us. NO combination or permutation of craft purchase for the WHOLE of September on pain of death (okay I made that "death" part up). But you get the picture.

And seriously, it is ridiculous how much of a delicious piece of cake this is going to be. I laugh in the face of this challenge. Hee hee hee. And that is because I have SO MUCH CRAFT STUFF! I have been hoarding things since 1968 in preparation for this very moment. Scads, gobs, reams, hillocks, heaps, piles, oodles, stacks and yes, plenty o' stuff with which to make glorious crafts. No problem. Easy peasy. BRING IT ON BABY!!!!!!!!!!!

Shall I begin?...

First up: Handmade Wooden Buttons!

Break out your electric miter saw AND an old dowel from that closet you ripped out and re-did last year.

Cut the dowel up into small 1/4 inch discs. I cut out a whole whack of them. See?

Take the power sander and sand down all those little discs nice and smooth. Don't sand off your hands. You will need those later.

Also, wear a skirt while doing this so the neighbours can titter at you from their driveway.

Clamp a disc.

With a small bit, drill 2 tiny holes through your disc.

Voila! Button! Repeat this hole drilling process for all your discs.

Now you could leave it at that. That would do nicely.

But I wanted some fancy buttons so I took a sheet of paper and created several designs.

I scanned my finished designs into the computer. I brought them into Photoshop, copy/pasted the designs to my heart's delight, and made a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet full of button designs. So pretty.

The next part I did not photograph.

To make a transfer of button designs:

To make a transfer of my designs, I used freezer paper and white tissue paper. I ironed a piece of white tissue paper to the shiny side of the freezer paper. No steam. I cut this combined paper to exactly 8 1/2 x 11 and put it in my printer. I printed off the designs on the tissue paper side. I carefully separated the freezer paper from the white tissue paper and put aside the freezer paper. The white tissue paper is a transfer of designs that when Mod Podged onto my buttons will dry clear; only the design will be visible. (This process is inspired by this post of Sarah's at Dolls and Daydreams. Thanks Sarah!).

So I took my white tissue paper transfer, and some other colourful tissue papers and cut out several circles slightly smaller than the size of my buttons.

I took out the Mod Podge, and a little paint brush.

With the paintbrush, I applied some Mod Podge to the button surface and placed my little tissue paper transfer onto the button. And applied more Mod Podge on top of the transfer.

I allowed it to dry (mostly) and then traced the design with an indelible marker.

And then painted it with liquid acrylic paint! The fun part. I did this with some of my buttons.

Onto other buttons, I simply Mod Podged the pretty circles of tissue paper that I had cut out earlier.

And here are the many buttons I made! Yippee!

Have a superb stash-busting day!

P.S. Linkin' here.

Milk It

"Surely you know me.

I'm the one who said it could be done.

The one you come to,

Always come to,

Every single day.

Who picks you up.

And cools you off.

And sends you on your way.

Thank you very much,

Milk."

Lyrics from a Canadian television milk advertisement jingle (circa 1980) that I've - for some cockamamy reason - committed to memory.

Tote made from a milk carton, tissue paper, bits of plastic, a used chopstick, a paper clip, an old dowel, and a length of lace.

Have a great great day!

P.S. Linking here.

Series 1 - Part 8: THE FEAST OF THE FLOWER: Confetti

Series 1: The Feast of the Flower continues today!

Part 8 is definitely where we are at.

Here is the link to Part 6 and 7 of the series.

From there you can see other parts by making your way through the little links.

I undertook this 10-part series to force myself to work with different materials and possibly, to learn more about my crafty self.

What I found out is this.

A 10-part series is MADNESS!!!

Next time I do a series, it'll be a 3-part series, maybe.

Maybe a 4-part series.

Perhaps a 2-part series is best.

Not 10.

Say no to 10.

NO.

Today's flowers were made using confetti as a major element, plus some tissue paper and regular old paper.

Have yourself a fantastic weekend!

Snow in Summer: Toilet Roll Snowflakes

It has been a hot one, this summer, hasn't it? Soaring temperatures. Humidity levels comparable to a rain forest. I don't know about you, but I could handle a break from it all. What we need, to be truthful, is a few flakes of the white stuff. Just to take the edge off... A wee little snowfall, hee hee! That would definitely do the trick!

Here's what I'm doing...

Tutorial: Toilet Roll Snowflakes

Getting out my toilet paper rolls...

Flattening them out and marking them up...

And cutting them up into rings! So satisfying. I'm starting to cool off already!

Then I'm cutting up several little strips of box board to the same length as the circumference of my toilet paper roll rings...

And making some of these happy zigzaggy folded strips!..

I'm fitting one of the happy zigzaggy folded strips inside one toilet paper roll ring which makes one of these! And then I'm doing that again, many times...

Until I get this!

And then I paint them all white! It takes some effort... but I'm happy to do it!

Because once they are all white, I am placing them like this, gluing them all together on a sheet of tissue paper and creating something that looks vaguely familiar...

And finally, I'm letting all that glue dry, trimming off the excess tissue paper and getting what?

YES!!! I do believe it IS snowing! Well, what do you know... Sometimes wishes do come true.

Look at you now! You're as cool as a cucumber!

That was the plan. :)

Have a great day!

P.S. I'm linking to: Sew Can Do, C.R.A.F.T., Making the World Cuter, Keeping it Simple, Olga's Home and Garden Blog (Handmade Monday), Today's Creative Blog, Lucky Star Lane, Night Owl Crafting, Someday Crafts, The T-Shirt Diaries, A Few of My Favorite Things and The Shabby Nest!