mad in crafts

Mad Men Premiere Party

2012-02-24T07:32:00.001-05:00

Are you going through Don Draper withdrawal? I have been re-watching all four past seasons on Mad Men on Netflix, just to get my fix!

We Mad Men lovers don’t have long to wait though. One month from tomorrow (March 25th), the show will make its long-awaited return to AMC. If you are thinking of breaking out your accordion and throwing a soiree to celebrate a return to Sterling Cooper Draper Price, these online invitations are a perfect fit!

Cocktail Olive from Evite

Retro Cocktail from Evite

Both of these invitations from Evite would make marvelous invitations for a Mad Men premiere screening. Mix up batches of authentic 1960s cocktails (martinis, manhattans, Tom Collins, etc.) and let your guests serve themselves throughout the night!

Retro Dinner from Evite

If you are willing to put more effort into hosting, make a night of it with a retro dinner party. Serve your favorite recipes or dust off your Jell-O mold and prepare some vintage ‘60s recipes.

Retro TV from Evite

If you have a busy schedule, just invite friends over for the premiere itself. The show starts at 9 EST, so be sure to begin your party early enough that all your guests can find seats before the opening credits roll.

from Punchbowl

For a party invitation complete with a digital envelope (classy, no?), pick out a design from Punchbowl. You can customize the fonts, colors, and envelope liner paper to match your Mad Men theme.

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You are ALL cordially invited to a Mad Men party HERE on Mad in Crafts!

From March 11th until the 25th, I will be running a Mad for Mad Men series here on the blog. Each day there will be a new Mad Men inspired tutorial from one of your favorite bloggers. If you aren’t already subscribing to my RSS feed, do it now! You won’t want to miss one day of this swell series!

Giant Magnolia Wreath

2012-02-22T08:02:00.001-05:00

I know it is a month away, but I am starting to get Spring on the brain already. With all the rain and above-freezing temps we have had this Winter, it is hard not to think about the trees beginning to bud and flowers starting to sprout.

When I saw silk magnolia stems at Dollar Tree, I grabbed up a few to make a flowery wreath for our front door. However, the wreath form I had at home (also from DT) was larger than I normally use and needed larger scale flowers to fill it.

To make giant magnolias, I pulled the heads off of a few of the flowers and took the petals apart from the leaves and center.

I used my trusty hot glue gun to glue some of the spare petals to the back of the flowers I left whole, adding more until I was pleased with the size and shape.

You can see the difference in size between the original blossom on the left and my giant magnolia.

If you stop at this point, and add a safety pin to the back of the bloom, you have a feminine brooch to add to your Easter outfit or to give on Mother’s Day!

Don’t be fooled by my “fancy” clothes, I put this cardigan on just to take the photo. I am totally still wearing sweatpants, you just can’t see them!

At first I was only going to cover a portion of the wreath with flowers and leave the twisting wreath form exposed. It looked too lopsided to me, so I went back to DT for more magnolia stems.

The finished wreath is elegant and simple. I could dress it up more with a bow or by hanging an initial in the center of the wreath, but I think I will leave it as it is.

What do you think?

CRAFTSY Deal of the Day

2012-02-20T09:56:00.001-05:00

Craftsy is the fastest growing online community for Crafters - with over 500,000 monthly unique visitors, having just launched in May 2011. This rapid growth results from two primary offerings which Craftsy users love:

Terrific online classes from amazing instructors for beginning, intermediate and advanced quilters, knitters, crocheters, sewists, jewelry makers, and other crafters.
Astonishingly good deals on crafting supplies: organic yarn, lovely fabrics and fat quarters from top designers, high quality needles, etc...

The Craftsy Block of the Month is a completely free, year-long online class instructed by expert quilter, Amy Gibson. There are 12 installments, each one posted on the first day of every month. The first 10 months/installments teach our students two new exciting blocks (brand new designs or funky spins on traditional blocks). The last two months are dedicated to finishing the quilt. At the end of the class, our students will have full-size and one-of-a-kind quilts. Like all of our classes, students can view it whenever it’s convenient for them, and can watch them however many times they’d like. It’s filmed in high-definition, and it’s fully interactive---students can ask Amy questions as they go.

Full disclosure HERE.

Mad Skills Party #91

2012-02-19T23:12:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 91st Mad Skills Link Party!

If you have participated in a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party in the past, you have probably gotten one of my emails. I like to highlight a few of my favorite submissions each week, and email is a great way to do it!

Sign up for the email by clicking HERE or using the form in the pink rectangle on my sidebar.

If you are linking up today, you might be featured in this week’s newsletter!

For the Mad Skills party, as usual you can link up a post, old or new, to share with other readers. The only rule for the party is that the post MUST BE A TUTORIAL. The tutorial can be written, pictorial, or a combination of the two, but it should be a project or a process that another crafter would be able to replicate. Any Mad Skill level, from novice to advanced, is welcome!

There is a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party button that can be found by clicking on the Buttons tab on the new menu bar. Please add to your blog post or update your party pages!

Also, make sure to tell your bloggy friends about this party so we can get as many great entries as possible! You have until midnight (EST) on Thursday to enter your projects!

By participating in this party, you are agreeing to allow me to feature your project in my weekly Mad Skills newsletter. Each feature will include a link back to your project, a photo from the tutorial, and a brief explanation of why I loved your project.

I do this because I want to make sure your hard work is rewarded. If you are not comfortable with this promotion, please do not link up your project.

DIY Fire & Ice Lanterns

2012-02-17T07:24:00.003-05:00

The old becomes new: A new variation on the outdoor lantern.

We have had an unusually warm winter in Michigan this year, and while the temps have been nice, I have had to hold off on this project idea until we got a cold snap. We finally got some snow and cold earlier this week, so I was able to try out this fun winter project.

I had pinned a product called Globe Ice Lantern Kits a few months back recognizing that I could DIY them at home. Originally priced at nearly $30 for a kit that makes 6 lanterns, I think they are very reasonable for a small batch. If you are making several (say, for a special event or to light a walkway), you can make 3 of these DIY versions for only $2 worth of supplies from the dollar store.

To make DIY Fire & Ice Lanterns, you will need:

a package of 3 punch balloons from the dollar store

a package of 3 LED tea lights from the dollar store

bowls

small cylinder (shot glass, pop bottle, etc.)

water

freezer or below-freezing outdoor temps

You are getting a glimpse of my less-than-sparkling kitchen sink in this post. Be kind in your judgments.

First, stretch the opening of one punch balloon over your faucet. The punch balloons are thicker than normal party balloons, so they can take quite a bit of stretching and snapping.

Turn on the faucet and let the water pressure fill the balloon to your desired size. My lanterns were about 6-8 inches in diameter.

Pinch off the opening of the balloon and wrap the attached rubber band around the neck of the balloon (like a ponytail) to temporarily tie it off. This will take a little finesse. The water in the balloon won’t want to stay in there, so it will try to spout back at you. I may possibly know from experience.

If you were to freeze the balloon as it is, you could make a lovely ice orb. If you want to be able to insert a light inside the ice lantern, you need to create a notch for it in the candle.

Stretch the opening of the balloon neck over whatever cylinder you choose to use. Just make sure the diameter of the cylinder is slightly larger than your candle.

Once the cylinder is fully plugging the opening of the balloon, you can remove the rubber band. Little by little, work the neck of the balloon over the cylinder until a few inches of the cylinder are submerged in the water.

Place the balloon in a bowl that is roughly the size and shape of the filled balloon. For two of my lanterns, I used a bowl that was too small, which resulted in more egg-shaped lanterns than perfect spheres.

Place the bowl in a freezer or in a snow bank for 12-24 hours.

I brought in my first lantern after 12 hours. I poured hot water into the cylinder to loosen it from the ice.

One quick slice with a knife and the balloon peels away from the ice. Carefully remove the ice lantern from the bowl. Because this lantern only froze for 12 hours, the shell of ice was thin and the center was not frozen. The water inside the shell will need to be emptied into the sink to avoid a mess. Again, I might possibly know from experience.

Place an LED tea light onto your table and set the lantern carefully over it. If you choose to use a real candle instead of a tea light, you will need to create a “chimney” at the top of the lantern, either by drilling or melting, to allow oxygen into the lantern. Also, the lantern will obviously melt more quickly with real fire inside.

The thin shell of the lantern allows a lot of light to shine through the ice, but it is quite fragile.

You can see that I damaged the top of the lantern on the left while moving it outside. The lantern on the right was allowed to freeze for 24 hours and is much thicker, more opaque, and stronger.

As an experiment, I added some blue food coloring to the water on the final lantern as I filled it. The result was pretty cool. When making these again, I might try other add-ins, like glitter or flower petals.

If you use food coloring in a lantern, realize that the dyed water will melt onto whatever surface on which you have place the lantern; and food coloring stains. A placemat or lipped tray would catch the drips.

I think these lanterns would be lovely lighting the pathway up to your home over the holidays.

You could also use them as inexpensive centerpieces at a winter wedding. Place the lantern in a wide, shallow bowl and surround it with evergreen clippings or fresh flowers. The slowly melting ice would provide water for the cut flowers and greenery.

You didn’t think I would make it through an entire post about Fire & Ice without bringing up the Frost poem, did you?

Linked to:

The Bandwagon

2012-02-15T07:48:00.002-05:00

Trends can be cool. Certain motifs and techniques become fads for a reason. They appeal to the masses; they make people happy. The trick is knowing where to draw the line.

A while back Crafterminds issued a challenge to create a project that incorporated as many current craft trends as possible. The challenge was to lock any sense of restraint in the closet and let loose on the latest obsessions of the craft world. Today, Crafterminds is hosting a link party for anyone who created a crazy trend project. Or for anyone who is morbidly curious to see the results.

1. Elegant wide stripes via The Nester
2. Subtle chevron via The Tile Shop
3. Minimal ombre via Anthropologie
4. Lovely yellow and grey via AriannaBelle
5. Tasteful “Keep Calm” via Etsy

I was able to cram five trends into my project: 1) A grey and yellow color scheme, 2) ombre, 3) chevron, 4) thick stripes, and 5) the ubiquitous “Keep Calm and Carry On” slogan and all its variations.

Behold the Yell-ey-omb-ron-stripe! Now with Keep Calm slogans!

It’s a hot mess, isn’t it? I find it so interesting that the combination of too many trendy ideas, even those meant to make you feel happy and calm, has the polar opposite effect. The cumulative effect of so many trends attacking your sensibilities is startling and unsettling.

I think there is a lesson to be learned here. Trends are fun for a reason, but it is always wise to use them in moderation. Not only are they going to eventually be outdated, too much trendiness can take a room from chic to trashy in a heartbeat.

If you want your own personal reminder to use trends judiciously, I have made this image into a printable. Print some off and make them into pennant bunting or cut them into little mustaches you can hold on sticks in front of your face.

Or buck the urge to follow trends and create something completely unique. Because there is nothing cooler than originality.

Mad Skills Party #90

2012-02-13T07:37:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the 90th Mad Skills Link Party!

If you have participated in a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party in the past, you have probably gotten one of my emails. I like to highlight a few of my favorite submissions each week, and email is a great way to do it!
Sign up for the email by clicking HERE or using the form in the pink rectangle on my sidebar.
If you are linking up today, you might be featured in this week’s newsletter!

There is a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party button that can be found by clicking on the Buttons tab on the new menu bar. Please add to your blog post or update your party pages!

Also, make sure to tell your bloggy friends about this party so we can get as many great entries as possible! You have until midnight (EST) on Thursday to enter your projects!

By participating in this party, you are agreeing to allow me to feature your project in my weekly Mad Skills newsletter. Each feature will include a link back to your project, a photo from the tutorial, and a brief explanation of why I loved your project.

I do this because I want to make sure your hard work is rewarded. If you are not comfortable with this promotion, please do not link up your project.

Sherwin-Williams Coupon

2012-02-10T09:12:00.001-05:00

If you follow my Pinterest boards, you have seen me going crazy with my new Color Inspiration board. I have been finding color palettes on sites like Décor Hacks and Design Seeds and then finding the coordinating paint colors using Sherwin Williams Chip It! tool.

Original image via Tumblr

All you have to do to use the tool is to plug the URL of any image (find the image’s URL by right clicking on it and choosing “Copy Image URL”) into the dialog box and hit enter! The tool will automatically match the colors in the image to paint colors from Sherwin-Williams’ line.

Sherwin-Williams has no idea I am promoting their Chip It! tool. I just thought it was such a fun site, I wanted to share it with you lovely readers.

If you find a Sherwin-Williams paint color you like, make sure you print off this 25% off coupon to save some money.

Guilt-Free Valentine’s Cupcakes

2012-02-08T08:09:00.001-05:00

The old becomes new again: Give a traditional Valentine’s Day treat a lower calorie makeover.

I am not really much for Valentine’s Day. I think it’s because I resent the idea that gamble chocolates are a once-a-year treat. I say spin the roulette wheel and bring home a box whenever your little heart desires!

This cupcake recipe isn’t mine; I think it may originally be a Weight Watchers creation. I wanted to try these cupcakes out, with a V-Day twist, to make sure I had something yummy to snack on without giving myself a guilt-trip or getting a mouthful of maple nougat!

To make Guilt-Free Valentine’s Day Cupcakes, you will need:

strawberry cake mix

diet lemon-lime pop

light Cool Whip

To make the cupcakes you simply add one box of cake mix to a large bowl. Any flavor works, but we picked strawberry cake mix for a nice Valentine’s Day color.

Add in 12 ounces of diet pop. Again, any variety of diet pop will work, so experiment with flavor combinations!

After mixing, the batter will have a light, whipped consistency. Dole out the batter into your cupcake pan, and follow the directions on the cake mix box for temperature and bake time.

Now, my math skills aren’t the greatest, but I estimate each cupcake contains roughly 100 calories unfrosted, and about 120 with the light Cool Whip topping. A cupcake prepared the regular way would cost you about 140 calories (without frosting).

(I got 21 cupcakes from one batch of batter prepared with just the diet pop. If you find an error in my math, please let me know!)

As you can see the cupcakes did rise up nicely. I was concerned that not following the packaged directions would result in flat or spongy cupcakes, but that wasn’t the case at all!

The texture was similar to any other cupcake baked from a box mix. Light, moist and very flavorful. Not bad at all for roughly the same calories as a can of regular pop.

If you are willing to splurge on a (very) few extra calories, pop a couple of conversation hearts on top for decoration. Or a gamble chocolate if you are feeling dangerous.

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Mad Skills Party #89

2012-02-05T23:23:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 89th Mad Skills Link Party!

If you have participated in a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party in the past, you have probably gotten one of my emails. I like to highlight a few of my favorite submissions each week, and email is a great way to do it!

Sign up for the email by clicking HERE or using the form in the pink rectangle on my sidebar.

If you are linking up today, you might be featured in this week’s newsletter!

There is a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party button that can be found by clicking on the Buttons tab on the new menu bar. Please add to your blog post or update your party pages!

Also, make sure to tell your bloggy friends about this party so we can get as many great entries as possible! You have until midnight (EST) on Thursday to enter your projects!

By participating in this party, you are agreeing to allow me to feature your project in my weekly Mad Skills newsletter. Each feature will include a link back to your project, a photo from the tutorial, and a brief explanation of why I loved your project.

I do this because I want to make sure your hard work is rewarded. If you are not comfortable with this promotion, please do not link up your project.

Decorative Typography Spheres: Punctuation

2012-02-03T07:48:00.003-05:00

The old becomes new: Classic typographic elements become modern décor accents.

I unleashed my grammar geek on this project, and it makes me so happy! I am a bit late on the typographic decorative sphere train; Pier 1 carries these ceramic ABC 123 spheres… but they are $2 a piece! This entire project will cost you just over $2 total.

To make decorative typography spheres, punctuation-style, you will need:

2 packages of ping pong balls from the dollar store

alphabet stickers (containing punctuation marks) from the dollar store

Mod Podge

paint brush

The tutorial for this project is kind of ridiculously simple. I just stuck the punctuation stickers on to the ping pong balls, and then Mod Podged over them. Tricky, right?

Once the ping pong balls dried, I put them in the thrifted pickling jar I found at Goodwill a few years back and added them to the display on my $1 Snowflake Table Runner. I love that even the rarely-used punctuation marks (I use you, semi colon!) were turned into modern décor.

I have a lot of typography going on in the house right now. Our entry way has both the surname art that my cousin made for us a few Christmases ago and some framed typography-centric black and white images.

My mom spotted these great printing press letter art cards at IKEA. I framed them in matching black frames on white cardstock.

My Picture Perfect Mantle has a few typographic touches too with a wooden H that I wrapped in white sparkly yarn and my made over Key Storage Card Catalog.

Normally I would have my Typographic Art Globe out on its upcycled pedestal as well, but the support arc is waiting in my craft room to be super glued. More of my projects are casualties of a rambunctious preschooler than I would like to admit.

Where do you use typography in your home?

Super Bowl Party Round-Up

2012-02-01T07:36:00.001-05:00

I love Super Bowl parties. It doesn’t matter to me if I have a dog in the fight or not. If there are friends, food, and funny commercials, I am a happy girl.

I have rounded up a few ideas that I have made in the past or am considering making for our Super Bowl get-together this year.

Beer Dip

This dip is incredibly dangerous for me. I have to physically move it as far away from me as possible, or I compulsively eat it until it is gone. I love it so.

If you are worried about serving a beer dip to minors, there is only 1/3 of a cup of beer in the whole batch but you could also substitute non-alcoholic beer as well.

Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls

This recipe is on my menu for this year’s bash. More ranch, more cheddar, but this time with a side of bacon. Yes, please.

Pampered Chef Chicken Enchilada Ring

I have always had pretty good success with Pampered Chef recipes, so I think this Enchilada Ring would be a winner. Rings like this are nice because guests can serve themselves as large of a portion as they would like.

Now, hold onto your Division Championship hats, sports fans, because things are about to get crazy.

Beer Cheese Cupcakes with Bacon Cheddar Cream Cheese Frosting

Yes, you read that correctly. I made these babies two Super Bowls ago and they were a HUGE hit. You have to get your mind around the idea of a slightly savory cupcake, and then you are ready to enjoy all the deliciousness these ingenious cupcakes have to offer.

Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes

If you are feeling especially brave, you could try out this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes. That is an honest to goodness chicken wing on top of that cupcake. With bleu cheese frosting. I’m serious.

The recipe inventor suggests serving these as an appetizer, so as not to completely confuse your guests.

If you do try these, PLEASE let me know how they turned out!

4 Ingredient Margaritas

Beer is the drink of choice for most Super Bowl parties, but I suggesting mixing it up with these 4-ingredient Margaritas. They are impossibly easy and delicious, and one of the four ingredients IS beer after all.

Super Bowl Ad Bingo

Turn those bank-breaking Super Bowl ads into a fun competition! Visit that link for several printable bingo cards to fill out during the breaks in the game.

Super Bowl Game Bingo

If you are trying to get your guests more invested in the game (especially if their favorite team didn’t make it this year), these printable bingo cards feature dozens of events that occur during a typical Super Bowl. Pick up a few party favors at the dollar store to hand out to the winners and watch the competition heat up!

If you don’t have any team colors to wear, you can make some quick freezer paper stencils and create shirts, towels, you name it! I used this Online Stencil Maker to make these two logos which you can download and print off.

Enjoy the big game!

Mad Skills Party #88

2012-01-30T07:47:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 88th Mad Skills Link Party!

If you have participated in a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party in the past, you have probably gotten one of my emails. I like to highlight a few of my favorite submissions each week, and email is a great way to do it!

Sign up for the email by clicking HERE or using the form in the pink rectangle on my sidebar.

If you are linking up today, you might be featured in this week’s newsletter!

There is a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party button that can be found by clicking on the Buttons tab on the new menu bar. Please add to your blog post or update your party pages!

Also, make sure to tell your bloggy friends about this party so we can get as many great entries as possible! You have until midnight (EST) on Thursday to enter your projects!

By participating in this party, you are agreeing to allow me to feature your project in my weekly Mad Skills newsletter. Each feature will include a link back to your project, a photo from the tutorial, and a brief explanation of why I loved your project.

I do this because I want to make sure your hard work is rewarded. If you are not comfortable with this promotion, please do not link up your project.

Pantry Progress

2012-01-27T07:46:00.001-05:00

Warning: This is not a glamorous post. If you are looking for glamour, maybe go check out some of the past weeks’ awards show dresses.

My word for 2012 is PROGRESS, and this week I made some progress on the mind-numbingly chaotic closets in my home. While my 4-year-old was at preschool, I tackled the pantry.

Our pantry isn’t in our kitchen, it is in our downstairs hallway. It provides good storage space, but, since it is so centrally-located in the main living area of our home, it also became a dumping ground for anything that was left lying around.

Whenever my son had a toy taken away from him for misuse (moms of boys, you know how often that happens), it went in the toy graveyard at the top of the pantry. And then I would forget about them.

Our non-perishable foods were jammed onto the shelves in whatever way would allow the door to close. The paper products that I bought for birthday parties and other get-togethers were literally spilling out onto the floor when I opened the pantry door.

And, then there were the plastic grocery bags.

Why? Why are there so many?

Something had to be done. I pulled out my IKEA step stool and began unloading.

Even if your closets aren’t as dire as mine was, there is still a good reason to reorganize. You might discover that you are a battery and/or light bulb hoarder! I didn’t know that I was until this morning. I am pretty sure we have batteries in every letter of the alphabet.

Since these items were randomly chucked into this pantry, I had no idea how many we actually had, so I just kept buying more. Shameful. Well, in five years when my current florescent bulbs finally die, I have plenty of backups.

A few trips back and forth to the kitchen, and the pantry was empty. Isn’t it lovely?

I pulled ALL of these non-food items from the pantry. Is it any wonder things kept falling on my head in there?

Here is the rest of the haul, minus several pieces of junk/toys/garbage that I threw in the trash where they belonged.

And here it is, reorganized and happy.

The food is all on eye-level now, so it is easier to take a quick survey of what we have and what we need.

I bought the green bins from the Dollar Spot at Target, but Dollar Tree also has bins to choose from. They will keep the non-perishables corralled into like groups, and I can slide one out at a time to look for a specific item.

I weeded out the excess battery packaging and separated the batteries into food storage bags according to size. All the bags then got combined into a larger zipper bag left from a set of twin sheets or something. I always save those bags because they are useful all over the house.

I dug up an empty baby wipes container and shoved in a good amount of plastic grocery bags. The container keeps them from falling all over the pantry, and I can easily pull one out at a time. Plus, Pooh and Piglet are cute.

Now each shelf has a specific function. Plastic bags shall not mix with glassware; food will not fraternize with paper plates.

Now, this is not one of the glamorous pantries that you see in home design magazines with decanted pasta and vintage chalkboard labels. But it is progress.

Baby steps towards perfection.

DIY Faux Bois Mirrors

2012-01-25T09:16:00.001-05:00

The old becomes new: Refreshing a traditional décor piece, a hung mirror, by adding a trendy faux bois pattern using a modern technique.

I created these mirrors for the Hardware Challenge for Season 9 of So You Think You’re Crafty. They didn’t quite gather enough votes to push me into the finale, but I think they are a lovely addition to our living room.

We have had an empty spot over our couch since we moved in. I didn’t want to hang anything too visually “heavy” there because our curtained windows already take up a lot of visual space. I thought a quartet of mirrors would be cool in that spot since they would mimic the shape of the windows.

I wanted to add a pattern to the mirrors so that they weren’t so stark and cold-looking. I decided to apply a faux bois (fake wood) pattern for a few reasons: 1) I love it SO much, 2) it matches nicely with the other botanical elements in my living room, and 3) it is very simple to do!

To make faux mirrors, you will need:

mirror (s)

painter’s tape or contact paper

exacto knife

permanent marker

Martha Stewart Glass Etch medium

foam brush

3M frame strips

Please forgive my weird/yucky pictures in this tutorial. Taking picture of mirrors is hard!

If you are using multiple mirrors like I did, set them up in the configuration you will use when you mount them on the wall. Even if you plan to leave space between them when they are hung, do not leave any gaps now.

You can tell this is an old project by the autumn leaves on my kitchen chandelier!

You can see in this picture that I had completely done one mirror tile from start to finish as a test tile to make sure this project worked!

To make a single-use stencil for your mirrors, first tape off the mirrors with painter’s tape or cover them with contact paper. Then draw a simple wood grain pattern on them using a thick-tipped permanent marker. I used an online image of a faux bois pattern as a visual guide and then freehanded it.

NOTE: If you have a cutting machine, you may be able to cut a faux bois pattern out of vinyl or contact paper, instead of using painter’s tape. In that case, skip down a few pictures to learn how to achieve the frosted glass effect.

Next, use an exacto knife to trace both sides of each line. You don’t need to be perfectly precise with your tracing, so it doesn’t take all that much time. Then peel each line of faux bois pattern off.

After all the lines are removed it will look something like this.

I prefer to use Martha Stewart’s Frost Etching Effect medium to traditional etching solution. This is not caustic at all, and if you make a mistake, you have a bit of time where you can wash it off with water and try again. For the same final look as etching solution, this is much more forgiving!

Apply a liberal layer of the frost etching medium over the entire mirror.

When you peel all off the tape, your etched faux bois pattern will be revealed.

Here is the whole set after the etching medium had dried. You can just barely see my right hand and part of my camera at the bottom there. Mirrors are so hard to photograph!!!

Instead of the headache of positioning a million mirror brackets, I hung these mirror tiles with heavy-duty 3M strips. I followed the directions carefully and the mirrors are still hanging after several months; no mirrors crashing to the floor yet -- knock on faux wood!

I love the contrast of the sleek, frameless mirrors and the nature-inspired faux bois pattern. With this technique, you can easily replace the faux bois for animal print, stripes, chevron, whatever design you like best!

The mirrors have a lovely custom-made look to them. Plus, they are useful for checking to see if I have any food in my teeth on my way out the door!

Linked to:

Mad Skills Party #87

2012-01-22T21:50:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 87th Mad Skills Link Party!

If you have participated in a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party in the past, you have probably gotten one of my emails. I like to highlight a few of my favorite submissions each week, and email is a great way to do it!

Sign up for the email by clicking HERE or using the form in the pink rectangle on my sidebar.

If you are linking up today, you might be featured in this week’s newsletter!

There is a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party button that can be found by clicking on the Buttons tab on the new menu bar. Please add to your blog post or update your party pages!

Also, make sure to tell your bloggy friends about this party so we can get as many great entries as possible! You have until midnight (EST) on Thursday to enter your projects!

By participating in this party, you are agreeing to allow me to feature your project in my weekly Mad Skills newsletter. Each feature will include a link back to your project, a photo from the tutorial, and a brief explanation of why I loved your project.

I do this because I want to make sure your hard work is rewarded. If you are not comfortable with this promotion, please do not link up your project.

Rustic Winter Wreath

2012-01-19T07:31:00.001-05:00

The old becomes new: Elements from two past projects are combined to make a new front door wreath.

I am really liking my new rustic winter wreath, tongue twister that it is. Using only items from my stash, I made and hung it in less than 10 minutes!

First, I removed the yo-yo flowers from my Easy Summer Wreath which left me with a rustic-looking, twine-wrapped dollar store wreath form.

Then I dug out the Glittery Resin Snowflakes I made last summer using Envirotex Lite resin. The snowflakes already had hanging ribbon built-in, so attaching them to the wreath was a breeze.

I found some lace trim in my stash and used straight pins to attach it to the foam wreath in a sort of diagonal swag. Then I used more straight pins to pin the snowflakes in place. I hung it from the door hanger and that was all it took!

It is amazing how a bright summer wreath and some modern-looking resin ornaments can combine to make this feminine, textural wreath. Don’t be afraid to look at décor items you already have and reinvent them into something new!

Uncensored

2012-01-18T09:04:00.001-05:00

Some of you may be wondering why there is a big black censored bar over the MiC header this morning. Today many websites are blacking out or otherwise participating in a protest against the SOPA and PIPA bills that have been introduced to Congress.

If you are unfamiliar with these bills, this video gives an accessible overview of the bills and their consequences.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Mad in Crafts would likely be affected if these bills become law. If I am even suspected of having links that infringe on copyrighted material OR if I am found not to be “doing enough” to prevent copyright infringement, the blog could be shut down, or worse.

Do I think the internet will come crashing down if these bills go through? Probably not. But I am generally not a fan of giving the government more intrusive power, especially when it comes to my First Amendment rights. Online piracy is a problem that needs to be dealt with, but these bills are not the answer.

If you would like to contact your representative in regards to the SOPA/PIPA bills, American Censorship has a simple form to send a message urging him or her to vote against the bills.

MiC’s Word of 2012

2012-01-17T07:40:00.001-05:00

For those of you who know me in real life, this revelation might not come as much of a shock. If I can’t do something completely and well right away, I get frustrated and stop trying. Sometimes I am so determined to get a project done just how I want it that I set limitations on myself to motivate me: no dinner till it’s right or no sleep till it’s done.

I have a feeling these quirks account for my failed attempts at several crafting mediums (crochet, needlepoint, stamping, scrapbooking, etc.) and the fact that several complicated projects I have wanted to try have never even been started.

This year I am going to try to embrace the baby step, which is why I chose the word PROGRESS as my 2012 Word of the Year. Isn’t it just like an English teacher to chose a word that serves as both a noun and a verb to do an end run around the one-word rule?

This year I will strive to progress in my skills sets and make progress on my to-do list. Here are some of the places I want to make progress this year:

I want to turn “I don’t know how to sew” into “I can sew straight lines.”

“My closets are unholy messes” will become “I can find what I really need without serious head injury.”

I want to replace “I have done NO decorating in the master bedroom” with “I hung something on the wall in master bedroom today.”

“I have never had my work published” can change to “I will research publishing contacts.”

“The manual settings on my camera terrify me” should become “Now I know what that P stands for.”

Some of this progress might lead to more progress and some of it might stall out immediately. Sometimes making progress will mean settling for not-quite-right or only halfway finished. And that will be hard for me.

But I don’t want to let not being able to get it exactly right keep me from not being able to get it started.

Linking to The Lettered Cottage.

Mad Skills Party #86

2012-01-16T08:14:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 86th Mad Skills Link Party!

If you have participated in a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party in the past, you have probably gotten one of my emails. I like to highlight a few of my favorite submissions each week, and email is a great way to do it!

Sign up for the email by clicking HERE or using the form in the pink rectangle on my sidebar.

If you are linking up today, you might be featured in this week’s newsletter!

There is a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party button that can be found by clicking on the Buttons tab on the new menu bar. Please add to your blog post or update your party pages!

Also, make sure to tell your bloggy friends about this party so we can get as many great entries as possible! You have until midnight (EST) on Thursday to enter your projects!

By participating in this party, you are agreeing to allow me to feature your project in my weekly Mad Skills newsletter. Each feature will include a link back to your project, a photo from the tutorial, and a brief explanation of why I loved your project.

I do this because I want to make sure your hard work is rewarded. If you are not comfortable with this promotion, please do not link up your project.

A Picture Perfect Mantle

2012-01-12T07:31:00.000-05:00

The old becomes new: An old Polaroid camera and carrying case get a new life as sentimental living room décor.

After packing away my Christmas decorations, I enjoyed the tidiness of empty table tops and shelves for one whole day before I got back to decorating. I left a few snowflakes hanging around the house as a nod to the season, but I stepped away from the winter theme everywhere else.

My mom let me take my grandfather’s 1960s Polaroid camera when we found it as we sorted through items for her last garage sale.

For all I know, the camera may still work. The case held extra flash bulbs and unused film. Yes, kiddos, cameras used to require FILM. Look it up.

I decided to set up my “mantle” using the camera and the case as the main focus.

I could get all poetic on you and tell you that the clock symbolizes both the dawn of a new year and the relentless passage of time, whilst the vintage camera serves as a stark reminder to capture and preserve memories before they pass. And also there were some pears.

But, the truth is that I just think my grandpa’s old camera is really cool and the case is super stylish. And I needed something to put on top of the case, and the pears are just what I grabbed from my stash.

I added a few more decorative items around the room that have a sort of shabby, vintage feel to them. And this makes me feel very conflicted.

Normally “shabby” and “vintage” are decorating buzz words like make my nose wrinkle. But I am actually kind of liking the way things look.

Before you know it, I will be covering the back of my couch with doilies and painting everything Heirloom White.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. :)

Quick $1 Snowflake Table Runner

2012-01-08T23:03:00.001-05:00

Christmas is over, and the tree is down. One of the ways I make sure that I can enjoy some of my decorations for a while after Christmas (and not have to stress about taking them down right away) is to incorporate several generic Winter-themed decorations in with my full-on Christmas décor.

This year’s abundance of snowflakes and candy canes made for decorations that I will be able to leave up for a few months yet. If you are looking for quick, easy, and inexpensive transitional decorations, this table runner fits the bill!

To make a dollar store snowflake table runner, you will need:

a package of 6 foam snowflakes from Dollar Tree

stapler

staples

All I did to make this small runner was to lay the snowflakes out in a design I liked and that fit my small side table. Then, I stapled the snowflakes together wherever they touched. 1-2-3, and I had a wintery table runner.

If you were making a runner for a dining room table, you could either use two packages of snowflakes (for a whopping cost of $2) or make a single line of flakes running the length of the table.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that you are richly blessed in the new year!

Mad Skills Party #85

2012-01-08T22:16:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 85th Mad Skills Link Party!

If you have participated in a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party in the past, you have probably gotten one of my emails. I like to highlight a few of my favorite submissions each week, and email is a great way to do it!

Sign up for the email by clicking HERE or using the form in the pink rectangle on my sidebar.

If you are linking up today, you might be featured in this week’s newsletter!

There is a Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party button that can be found by clicking on the Buttons tab on the new menu bar. Please add to your blog post or update your party pages!

Also, make sure to tell your bloggy friends about this party so we can get as many great entries as possible! You have until midnight (EST) on Thursday to enter your projects!

By participating in this party, you are agreeing to allow me to feature your project in my weekly Mad Skills newsletter. Each feature will include a link back to your project, a photo from the tutorial, and a brief explanation of why I loved your project.

I do this because I want to make sure your hard work is rewarded. If you are not comfortable with this promotion, please do not link up your project.

On Break

2012-01-02T18:48:00.001-05:00

You have probably noticed that there is no Mad Skills party this week. Don’t fear! I am taking a little blogging break to relax and recover from the holidays (and clean my house – ugh).

Regular posts, including the Mad Skills Tutorial Link Party, will return next week Monday. Have a great week!

Painted Mug Gifts

2011-12-29T08:27:00.001-05:00

I did a lot more handmade gifts this year than I have in the past. Since my son is four now, he is a great helper with little projects which made for some special, sentimental gifts.

With some inexpensive mugs and Martha Stewart’s new craft paints we made a few varieties of mug gifts for family and friends. These are the same paints Plaid sent me to try and that I used for my Baker’s Rack Revamp and my Snarky Christmas Canisters (disclosure HERE). I use these paints all the time!

Since the new Martha paints from Plaid are top-rack dishwasher safe, these are actually usable mugs. The directions say to first wipe the surface of the dishware with rubbing alcohol and then to let the paint cure for a few weeks before using. No baking or heat-setting necessary!

We used the same technique that we used for the Finger Painted Lyric Art on the mugs we made for my parents. My son calls my parents “Guy” and “Gi,” so I applied those names on the mugs with dollar store wall decal letters. Then I let my son go to town on the mugs with the paints. The MS paints are also non-toxic, so they are safe for little ones to use.

After he was finished I peeled the wall decals off to reveal the names in the negative space! I should have peeled the stickers off a bit sooner. The paint had already begun to dry, so some of the paint peeled off around the edges. Live and learn.

He also painted a mug for his preschool teacher. Her whole name wouldn’t fit on the mug, so he just painted freestyle. We packaged the mug up with some chocolates and instant Starbucks coffee (which is the best instant I have ever had – and nobody’s paying me to say that!).

While he was busy painting those mugs, I made up a special mug for my cousin’s husband Mathew (yes, only one “t”). He is a mustache-enthusiast, so I painted him a “Matstache” mug. Silly, and fairly simple.

I made versions of these Christmas ornaments for the ladies in family and packaged them up with some easy t-shirt circle scarves. I completely forgot to take pictures of any of them though. Oops.

Are you a handmade gift maker or a store-bought gift giver?