Old School

This one is old school, but I figured since everyone was back to school this month, I could legitimately post it.  That and I am procrastinating.  I have an audit at work on Thursday and I don't quite feel the pressure yet. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?  That's my motto.

A cousin got married a little while ago - back in 2009!  OMG, time flies! - and I co-hosted the bridal shower along with her two sisters. She answered her calling to be a teacher.  And she loves it.  So, we figured we'd throw her a school themed shower.  So fun. 

The color scheme was chalkboard black, chalk white, and Granny Smith Apple green - aka chartreuse. Humor me here.  I wanted to do a modern take on the teacher-apple concept so instead of a red apple we went with green. 

The envelopes were black to resemble a chalkboard. I addressed them in my best old school penmanship using a white pen.  I remember when I was in elementary, penmanship was actually my worst subject.  I would get marks against me because I wouldn't slant enough.  Or I slanted too much. Annoying.  The ironic thing?  Now, I get soooooo many comments about my handwriting.  Ha.  Take that, Mrs. Denniston!!!! 

The invitations were file folders much like a teacher might assign a student to take home. I couldn't resist adding a black label on the front to write A + P, her and her (now) husband's first initials. 

The invitation was inside the mini file folder.   I designed it so that it looked like a loose sheet of paper filed away.  For the RSVP, I added "remember to do your homework by the due date" at the bottom of the invitation.   

I've seen my nephews' take home folders from school many times, so I knew there was always some sort of spreadsheet that teachers include to show the students - and parents - what their homework assignment was.  Usually it is handwritten by the student.  So, I included "homework" for each guest to RSVP and gave all the information they would need to RSVP as well as the registry information.  I then paper clipped it to the file folder to prevent anyone from losing their homework.  :) 

Here is a full shot of the invitation.  I started out writing each guests name on the file folder tab to personalize it a bit more, but I didn't like how I wrote some names so I left it off for the majority of the invites. 

Andrea's sister's took pics, so you'll have to trust me when I say the shower was really cute.  We made a ton of decorations.  I had to throw in a penant banner, of course.  We played charades - an aunty favorite in our family - with wedding words.  Then, we surprised the guests with a true or false "pop quiz" about weddings. 

Andrea has her students do an "All About Me" posterboard so they can all get to know each other, so her sister created an "All About Me" for Andrea with pictures of Andrea growing up.  She can now use it in her classroom for her students to get to know more about her!

You know I couldn't leave out the classic old school lunch bags. These held the favors, which were personalized for each guest.

Inside the bags we included goodies like erasures and pencil sharpeners as well as these pencils which I had custom made to say A + P = 12.19.09, their wedding date. 

The shower was a big hit and so much fun.  It was a good mix of friends and family so we partied for a good 6 hours.  It was probably the most fun I've ever had putting a shower together.  My girl cousins are pretty awesome, so the planning process was just about as much fun as the shower itself.  I can't wait for the next one....

I like big books....

I love books and I love a cute bookmark.  I started a tradition with our book club back in 2007 when I brought back bookmarks from the Sydney Opera House for all my book club friends.  Since then, everyone has brought us bookmarks from all of their travels.  So, I've got a really cute collection of bookmarks from India, China, Turkey and even Marfa, Texas.  Since my book club was celebrating it's 6th anniversary, Anita and I wanted to do something small for everyone.  If you remember the totes we made for our 5th anniversary, you'll know Anita is a magician with the silkscreen.  Recently, she dug into her magic hat and pulled out a pretty awesome idea for our 6th anniversary gifts.

I saw a t-shirt online that I wanted to steal the quote from so I basically threatened to hold my breath until Anita came up with an idea on how to incorporate it in our gifts.  It's a good thing she's so crafty because I wouldn't have lasted long, but we'll just keep that between us.

She came up with the idea to make to make some button pins, but that didn't pan out because it required us to buy or rent a machine.  She then discovered that you can make fabric buttons with just a simple cover button kit and refills available at Hancock Fabrics. And suddenly all of my dreams were fulfilled.  Making fabric buttons has sort of been a dream of mine for a while now.  I have weird dreams, I know.  Then, I was stumped as to what we would do with these fabric buttons and she came up with the ingenious idea of a book band.  And that, my friends, is how the bookband was born.  

 

We decided to silkscreen the quote onto some fabric I have in my stash.  I designed the button with the quote and Anita worked her magic with the screen and got it ready for us. You can see the quote here.... "I like big books and I cannot lie."  In case you don't get it, it is a play on Sir Mix-a-lot's song "Baby Got Back."  Cracks. Me. Up.  Needless to say, I had this song in my head for a few weeks.....

 

We originally went with a yellow paint on linen so this pic is from our first couple of trials.  It didn't show up well on the fabric - and linen is not the best fabric to use when silkscreening such a small surface area because the weave is so large - so we ended up going with black ink and another fabric.  It actually looked better that way anyway. 

We cut up all the quotes according to the size specified on the cover button.  Our buttons were going to be 1 1/2", so it was maybe an additional 3/4" of fabric that is required to wrap around the button. 

Our first good button!!!   The kit was easy to use and push the back onto on the front but the "refills" aren't.  We had to coax them with a couple of taps of a hammer.  One thing: The "refills" aren't refills.  They don't require the kit.  I want to write Hancock a letter to tell them to get familiar with what they are selling but I'll let it go this time since the box on the "refills" say 'no extra tools required'. 

Our pile of buttons!!!!  We took those and strung 3/8" elastic thru the back and sewed the edges together to create a loop.  Then, we burned the edges to ensure they wouldn't fray. 

Our book bands!!  This is them in action on my Kindle.  Trust me.  The irony was not lost on us.....

 

And here they are all wrapped up!!  Our fellow book club members loved them.  We figure this will be the beginning of our bookband empire.  :)

September Obsessions

Hello, Friends!  Sorry I've been neglecting you.  Work has been really busy.  Every year I have the same audit and every year I let it bite me in the butt.  In my defense, I usually delay the audit for a couple of months, but this time I decided to get it over with. And I am paying for it now.  Anyway, enough work talk.  Because that is just boring.

My September Obsessions will be short.  I haven't had time to obsess over much so I am kind of in an obsession slump.  But here we go....

{image via Lifetime}

Project Runway.   This is a yearly obsession for me.  I've been watching Project Runway since Season 3 after having caught a marathon of seasons 1 and 2.  As soon as PR is over for the year, I honestly feel a void in my week....until it returns. Love Nina. Love Heidi. Love Tim.  His "Make it Work" is something I tell myself probably twice a day.  Love Michael Kors.  Sometimes I have to rewind the DVR because I'm laughing so hard at his comments, I can't hear what happened next..  Some of my MK favs......

• “Next thing you know, it’s big button earrings and you’re on ‘The Facts of Life.’”
• “She looks like a Pole dancer in Dubai.”
• “She looks like an Amish Cocktail Waitress.”
• “She looks like a transvestite flamenco dancer at a funeral.”

Oh, MK.  You make me laugh.  My favorite designer this season?  Anya. 

{image via Helen Musselwhite}

Helen Musselwhite.  Totally inspired by her work.  There isn't much else to say other than she's kind of my idol.  Every time I look at her work, it makes me happy. 




Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson's Relator.  I love everything about this song.  I heard it the other day on my iPod. I'd forgotten I bought it.  Love when I rediscover a song on my iPod.

Pop Goes the World

Remember that song?  I'm sure some of you are going to say no because you were born the year it came out, but it was my jam back in the day. And I've been singing it for the last couple of weeks while working on this next project. 

You may remember Priti.  She created the amazing dessert table at the shower I co-hosted.  She's co-hosting a baby shower for her sister and she will be putting her mad skillz to work again to create another amazing menu.  She asked me for help with the invitations since she couldn't really find anything she liked, so I came up with a concept and crossed my fingers that it worked.  And luckily it did. 

The colors?  Mint green, light blue, and brown. The theme?  She's About to Pop!  Love this theme.  I'd filed a few ideas away for friends already so I had a few directions I knew I could go.  For this project, I stuck with bubbles because, well, bubbles are cute and they pop and they remind me of polka dots - which I kind of have a thing for. 

{image via Iman Sadhegi}

I love when bubbles look like they are glued together in multiples and look like they are attached to each other, so I used that as my inspiration. 

I designed the invite in my Silhouette to fit an A7 envelope and used the print and cut feature. Once they were printed, I cut 6 different sized circles.

I had to make 60 invitations, so I cut 360 circles in total.  Don't they look cute all stacked together like that?  Then, I invited my friend Mandy over for a night of hard labor crafts and we glued them together by layering them.

Essentially, each bubble contains information on the shower. And, while you can't exactly tell in the pictures, the invite is just the bubbles themselves.  The brown background is just cardstock so you don't see my ugly craft table. :) Cute, huh?

I couldn't resist using a pop up dot to make the word "POP" pop off the invitation.  Not sure how many people will catch that, but I thought it was a pretty darn cute idea myself. 

But, I didn't want the envelopes to feel lonely.  I love a hand addressed envelope, but I have to admit I am a sucker for labels.  When making invitations, I am always torn between hand addressing the envelopes or using some cute labels.  When there are a lot of invitations to send, I think labels are an awesome option so that one isn't stuck hand writing 60 invitations.   

So, I printed out labels in the same fonts I used on the invite.  Not pictured is the return address label on the back.  I made it green.  The labels were a splurge, but I imagined that when guests received their invites, they'd see the envelopes and know something really cute was inside.  :)  Because there is. 

I'm not going to lie.  These invites took me a long time to make.  Without Mandy's help, I would probably still be putting them together.  But once they were finished I was literally about to pop with pride.  Love them. 

August Obsessions

I'm baaaaack!!  I wish I could say I've been busy in my craft room, but I really just took a break from crafting.  And blogging.  And life.  But, all work and no crafting makes Pintobean a very sad girl, so I did manage to fit in one project. I will be posting about that shortly. But until then, on to my August Obsessions. 

I have basically been vegging out in front of the TV lately or reading (on my Kindle!!), so this month is a short post.  But, here it is....

{image via Amazon}

Sew Wild by Alisa Burke.  I stumbled across Alisa Burke's blog and became an instant fan. She does some pretty amazing things.  But, what I was most in awe of how she creates her own fabric with paint.  How pimp is that???  I am totally obsessed.  She is offering a class right now ($10 off this week!).  Sooo tempted.   

Alexander's A Million Years.  Love, love, love.  I can't say much else.

That's it!  I have another post coming soon.  Promise.  :)

Pin-wrist

Does Pinterest overwhelm you?  It does me.  Anyway, I've been walking around aimlessly in my craft room with lots of ideas but no motivation to make anything because I know I will have to clean it all up.  That is what happens when I clean my craft room.  I don't want to mess it up. So, this next project is something I like to do because it makes me feel like I am making something but cleaning up at the same time.  Pincushions.

These slip over your finger or your wrist.  Cute, eh?  My grandma used to make these all the time only I didn't appreciate them until I actually started sewing.  And I didn't appreciate the scrap busting aspect either.  Or the upcycling aspect.  My grandma always says that the best crafters use what they have.  So when I make these, I like to pretend I am the most awesome crafter around.  Feel free to do the same.      

All you need is:

1. A glue gun.
2. Plastic caps.  For the finger pincushion, use a soda or water bottle cap.  For wrist pincushions, I use caps from the Simply Orange Juice bottles, but any larger caps will work. Am I the only one in love with the Simply Orange Juice packaging?  Yes?  Oh.    
3. Elastic.  I used a 3/8" width, but use what you have. You will need enough to wrap around your finger or wrist plus a couple of inches.  
4. Fabric scraps.  Start with a piece about 2" larger in diameter than your cap. You can trim it down if you feel like that is too much fabric.
5. Trim scraps.  Enough to wrap around your cap.  
6. Fiber fill.  I actually got mine from an item I ordered on the internet.  The seller used this as packing material.  Trust me when I say I am a pack rat.  I will bite my tongue here and not say how ridiculous using fiber fill for packing material is because it has proved very handy in my pursuits to be the most awesome crafter around.  I think my grandma would use cotton balls for hers when she didn't have fiber fill.  That grandma sure is a smart one, isn't she? 
7. A needle and thread.  I forgot to put this in the picture, so just humor me and pretend it's there.  I thought my picture was too cute not to share. 

For this post, I am making a wrist pincushion.  A pin-wrist, if I can be witty.  To make these, glue the edge of your elastic to the inside of your cap forming a loop.   I add some glue to the outside of the cap as well, just to make the elastic more secure.  The top of the cap is what will rest on your finger or wrist. And make sure you make a curry just before starting this project.  It will make your nails look awesome for pictures. 

Start with a small chunk of fiber fill and begin basting your fabric along the edge. As you baste, pull on your thread to make the edges start to gather.  This is will start the shape of the cushion.  As you form the cushion, keep adding fiber fill. You want it to look full, so add plenty of it. If you have too much fabric, you can trim here. It will basically look like a mushroom top.  When you are satisfied with it, knot and trim your thread.

When you complete your mushroom top, apply glue to the inside rim of your cap and place your cushion inside.  You may have to manipulate it a bit to squeeze it all in there.  This is a make-it-work moment. 

Once your cushion is secure, then glue your trim all the way around your cap, making sure conceal your cap.  I fold in the end slightly so I don't see a raw edge, but it is not necessary.

Slip it on your wrist - or finger - and marvel at how crafty you are. And then feel good about yourself that you got rid of some scraps and upcycled something cute - I really do love the Simply Orange packaging - into something cuter.

July Obsessions

So, does anyone know where the year went??  How is it already July??

It is pretty much one week since Sharmee's wedding and I think I'm almost recovered.  I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.  Once I do that, I think I will be fully recovered.  Mr. Bean has been studying for an exam he has to take for the last three weeks, so between my wedding crafting duties and his studying we've pretty much been roomies the last few weeks instead of Mr. and Mrs. Bean.  But, Mr. Bean's exam is today and I know he'll do well.  And I am making some pulled spicy pork for tonight because Billy Bean is in town!!  Woot!  If there is one thing I have learned about being a Bean it's that you must have pork on hand at all times.  So, I am looking forward cooking tonight for two of the most important men in my life.

Now, on it my obsessions....

The Beatles.  I am a Beatles fanatic.  My freshman year in college, my friend and I kept her 6 CD disc changer filled with Beatles.  Six CD disc changers were pimp back then and my friend brought hers to college which made me pretty pimp by default.  She owned pretty much every Beatles album ever made, so we basically jammed to the Beatles our entire freshman year.  She had an awesome Bose system, so we'd have to turn it down really low so that we wouldn't bother our neighbors, but by second semester that didn't keep our neighbors from yelling from the other side of the wall "CAN YOU LISTEN TO ANYTHING ELSE BESIDES THE BEATLES?"   We'd add in some Jagged Little Pill for posterity's sake, but we kept The Beatles in for the most part. For Christmas last year, Mr. Bean bought me a wifi internet radio.  Probably the best gift anyone could give me.  It connects to my Pandora account and I can stream music from all over the world.  There is one station I found that is entirely Beatles music.  And I dig.  "Come Together" is one of my favorites.  It makes me wanna move.  It makes me wanna clean.  It makes me wanna craft.

{image via Amazon}

Rhinestones.  Is this a surprise?  I am crazy for rhinestones lately.  In the last few weeks, I've developed quite a repertoire of rhinestones in my craft room.  And me likey. 

{image via Chick-fil-a}

Chick-fil-A's Deluxe Spicy Chicken Sandwich.  I've kept this secret for a while.  But now my spicy chicken sandwich pride must not be contained.  This sandwich pretty  much fulfills all of my chicken sandwich desires.  And it is actually spicy. 

{image via Paper Source}

Smash Books.  OK, so apparently I am not the only one obsessed with these Smash Books.  Every where I looked they were sold out.  These.Are.So.Cute.  The concept is not new, but just goes to show what great marketing can do. Check out the awesome video they put together.  Marketing at it's best, I tell you.  Ever since I saw the video, I've been on a hunt to own one.  I am not a scrapbooker per se.  I call myself a well intentioned scrapper.  I am notorious for keeping little pieces of papers and magazine clippings and notes with the intention to use them on a scrap page but when it comes down to sitting down and scrapping, I don't know where to begin.  But these books make me feel less intimidated and make me want to smash some stuff in them while singing the cute Minnutes song. 

That's all I've got!  I hope everyone has a happy and safe fourth of July!