Shopthis last week has been a doozy. and whenever i’m in the whirlwind of daily life, i find myself reaching out to the crafty side of my brain for inspiration and ways to just get through the day-to-day. this week brought a little boy that was under the weather, an overnight to atlanta, a very long plane ride home and at the end of the week, a much needed day off (making a four-day weekend!) the sweetest part: the day off (and a napping little boy) gave me a little time to focus back on the wall hanging project i’ve been plugging away at.
it’s coming along. i’m about three-quarters of the way through the “grassy grass grass” poem, and i can say that this project has required planning, use of some unconventional household tools (um, can you say tweezers?) and has caused some tense shoulders. but i’m loving it.
a couple of tips i’ve come across:
1. when working with the cricut (especially when cutting very small, intricate shapes), an x-acto knife and a cutting mat are must-haves. (i usually just use my cricut cutting mat.) sometimes the pieces don’t get completely cut all of the way through, so to prevent the pieces from ripping the x-acto has become a very good friend to me. (just be sure to always keep it away from little hands…)
2. paying attention to spacing of the letters is key. even today when working on the piece, i was getting nervous about being able to fit the whole poem on my canvas. again, the pre-plan layout i did is a huge help.
3. tweezers are key. so many of the pieces are tiny or skinny or very fine, so tweezers are a huge help when it comes to placing the letters or images with glue on the canvas.
4. be willing to modify the design as you go along.
5. a straight-edge was a huge help too. on the last line (“windy wind wind”), i used an italics font and the straight-edge was a life saver to make sure the letters were going on straight.
i’m still really loving how this is coming along. i even went so far as to take it into our little guy’s room tonight to see where it’s permanent home will be. (and, you might have noticed there are a couple of glue spots on my canvas. this was the result of not using the tweezers to place my letters, and dropping one, glue-side down, on the canvas. eek!)
besides the wall hanging project, i also finally managed to get the rest of the thank-yous out for the little guy’s birthday (late, i know. but i realized i underestimated people’s love for noah and didn’t buy enough envelopes for the thank you cards i was making. so another trip to paper source was required.) sticking along with the mickey mouse theme, i got the small, simple 4 bar note cards with the 4 bar envelopes, all in paper source red. i adorned each with a mickey mouse sticky brad (very cool to have received from a friend) and then customized with noah’s personalized stamp (again, from my crafting guru and friend). they turned out really nice and were super-simple to make…and were a perfect thank you card to come from a two-year-old. so, there’s a little bit of a couple of projects here. i have more and more ideas circling around for upcoming projects, so stay tuned. finally, i do just have to share one of the more offbeat creative things from this week. it’s a little something i picked up in one of my favorite books, “just let me lie down” by kristin van ogtrop, the managing editor of real simple magazine. in her book, she talked about purposely carrying one of her son’s legos in her purse at all times – not to have in the case her son needed some entertaining, but it gave her something to see throughout the day and served as a happy reminder about what really matters in life. so, right before i got out of my car at the airport on tuesday morning, i slipped one of noah’s toys into my bag. here’s the friend who was my stowaway in atlanta (pictured on the nightstand in my hotel room):
here’s to crazy stowaways and craftiness,
ashley
