Friday Finds: Learn to Crochet

Happy Friday everyone!

Today's find is an awesome tutorial I found on Pinterest. Vanessa of the Do You Mind if I Knit blog created the best crochet how-to I've ever seen.

Photo courtesy of Do You Mind If I Knit.

I'm going to make a definite goal for this summer...this girl is learning to crochet!

–Cassandra

Rainy Day Crafts

Pinterest has opened up a whole new world of crafting for people. Just get lost in the vortex for an hour or so and the next thing you know, your project list will be a mile long. This is true for recipes too, make no mistake.

Company Y has a space they use for community events, the most popular and well-attended of which are "Pinterest Parties". These get-togethers invite you (and often your kids) to come and make some awesome crafty thing that was discovered on Pinterest. The next one scheduled is a Make Your Own Kaliedascope day. I'll probably be going - for work, of course.

Last weekend, two friends of mine got together and had a crafty afternoon. I fell in love with both of the projects they did and immediately put them on my list of rainy day crafts. When I started questioning their techniques, I discovered that both the projects had been discovered on Pinterest. Go figure! :)

So, I asked permission to "steal" their idea and post them here. Of course, since they "stole" the ideas from Pinterest, they were perfectly fine with me sharing them with the world.

Item #1: Fun with bleach pens

Clorox makes these awesome little pens full of bleach which are meant, ostensibly, to allow you to clean and disinfect grout and other small spaces. But put it in a crafters hand and suddenly it becomes the magic wand of design.

My friend used a Pinterest tutorial to awesome effect when she did a "protest" t-shirt using this craft.

1. Size your text, pick a font, and print out
2. Tape it down on freezer paper the way you want it to appear on the shirt
3. Cut out the stencil with an Xacto-knife
4. Lay on shirt where you want the design to be
5. Put cardboard inside shirt underneath stencil
6. Fill in stencil with bleach pen
7. Let sit for 10-30 minutes
8. Rinse, wash, and dry

  The finished project = AWESOME

Item #2: "Paint" Your Own Mug

According to my friend's tweet, this is how it's done: "Mug. Sharpie. Draw. Bake at 400 for an hour. Done."

So, I made her tell me more and this is what I learned:

1. Any permanent Sharpie, any color
2. Hand wash (unless you want to experiment and maybe have to re-do the drawing)
3. Find an image you like, scale it to the right size (using your computer), print it, and then cut it out to make a stencil.  I learned this after I commented on how perfect her State of Wisconsin drawing was. LOL
4. Of course, the heart is free-hand.
5. Any "bleeding" of the ink can be cleaned up with a Q-Tip and some nail polish remover BEFORE you bake it.

I don't know if I can explain how much I'm drawn #rimshot to doing this. I'm so sick of my current dinnerware that I'm inspired to make myself a whole new set! Of course, finding the time and the right design might prove impossible. Maybe I'll just stick to doing a mug or two. :)  Most of the Pinterest versions of this I found advocated for a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes and then let the mug sit in the oven to cool. I'm not sure it makes that much of a difference but I'm sure there will be testing in my future. :)

Hope you enjoy these Pinterest (and friend) finds. I think they're perfect, easy to do, rainy day crafts. I can't wait until I have a free day to work on a few for myself.

- Alex

Friday Finds: Another Time Suck.

So... you thought Pinterest was bad? Obviously, you've never visted Retronaut.co.

The only saving grace to the Retronaut time-suck is that new content is added at a much slower rate so you don't feel quite as compelled to spend multiple hours each day lost in the site. However, on first viewing, at least, expect to lose some seriously time here.

For me, it all started with this series of photos:

Broken out primarily by decade, the site provides an amazing glimpse into our (mostly US) past. I've always been fascinated by the evolution of culture so this site is an absolute treasure trove for me.

One of Cassandra's favorite entries is this one:

‘While preparing for his role as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, De Niro obtained a cab driver’s license, and when on break would pick up a cab and drive around New York for a couple of weeks’

So go. Get lost in the past. And don't expect to come up for air for a quite a while.

I'm sorry and you're welcome.

- Alex