Lost and Found

I tell you. When you tackle a heap such as the heap that overwhelmed my basement workroom for so many moons, you unearth some good stuff...

See the yarn basket above? The Boy and I made it together, oh, probably about 4 years ago now. I dug it out during the recent clean-up. Still going strong, eh? I think I'll use it to store zippers.

I also happened upon this little fellow below. An inuksuk stamp designed by The Boy, and used to make homemade invitations for his birthday a couple years ago. We carved it out of a foam meat tray. It made the sweetest invites. I can't believe I still have it...

And of course, there's the obligatory unfinished toilet paper roll craft. This one's been patiently waiting its turn in one of my numerous piles for... um... ever? I've brought it down to the workroom now where it stares at me incessantly. Maybe the crushing guilt will actually move me to complete it... One can only hope... I'll give you one guess as to what it might be.

And best of all, the newly-rescued "Giraffe with a Fork" mini-painting by my sweet daughter Dia! I love this quirky little painting. I could swear I had carefully stowed it in a safe and known-to-only-me location (under the printer) while it awaited framing. But when I went to retrieve it... gasp and double-gasp... it was gone! And it stayed gone for months despite my many searches. Needless to say, I was ecstatic but befuddled when I found it in a completely random spot (under the scanner) during the purge. I'm becoming convinced that the house centipedes moved it. I really wish they'd stop touching my stuff.

I can hardly wait for the next clean-up, almost. You never can tell what lovely lost treasures lie about...

♥M

Making Cork Stamps

If you're in the habit of collecting things like I am, you likely have a bunch of wine corks taking up residence in the cookie jar just begging to be put to some kinda use. Ya do, don't ya? Well guess what, I know just the thing. Cork letter stamps. These are useful and cute, they lend gobs of personality to cards, gift wrap, artwork, blogposts... and best of all, with a few simple tools and materials, they are pretty easy to make.

Here's what you'll need:

• many corks
• craft foam (Note: You'll be using craft foam to create the letter part of the stamps. Because this project requires only tiny pieces of foam, this is the perfect opportunity to use up any odds and ends you have kicking around.)
• small, fine-tipped scissors (I found a pair in my Christmas stocking... Thank you Santa!)
• foam craft glue (I used Aleene's FunCraft Foam Glue. It's good stuff. Other glues might work too but I suggest testing them out first. Foam can be tricky where adhesion is concerned.)
• pencil
• small handsaw
• sandpaper

Step 1. Prepare your cork. Start by cutting off the skewered end of the cork with a small handsaw.
Step 2. Then, with a piece of sandpaper, smooth down the freshly cut cork surface and round off the edge. This is to be your glueing surface.

Step 3. (Not shown) Quickly wash your cork in water to remove any dust. Allow cork to dry.

Step 4. Using a pencil, lightly draw your letter onto the foam. Before cutting it out, compare the size of the letter with the cork surface to be sure the letter will fit the cork. Try to make your letter as large as possible. This will prevent the edges of the cork leaving unpretty ink marks all over your precious paper or fabric.

Step 5. Cut around the outline of the letter with a fine-tipped pair of scissors.

Step 6. Dab a thin layer of foam craft glue (I suggest Aleene's FunCraft Foam Glue) to the FRONT of the letter (You need to glue it on backwards for your stamped letter to have the correct orientation.)

Step 7. Stick the gluey letter onto the freshly cut surface of your cork. Allow everything to dry.

And yep, you have letterage!

Now... make the rest of the alphabet, numbers, punctuation (I totally missed the punctuation boat...), symbols, invent whole brand-new fonts if you like man! Jiminy Cricket, the sky's the limit, eh?

I asked the Boy to write out his alphabet and numbers...

And I made him his very own set of stamps in BoyFont. You may or may not have seen the BoyFont in action on Tuesday over HERE.

Then o'course I had to make my very own font. Stands to reason. Look how different our fonts are. Isn't that swell?

Oh the fun I'll be having with these, just you wait. Boisy, I'm going to be playing!

Okay. So the cookie jar is empty... Who around here's gonna make me some cookies? Anyone?... Hello?...

♥M