32 Guest Post: Lish from Imprintalish

I'm crazy excited to post Lish's tutorial today because it's such a cool project... when we were talking about this exchange, I wasn't sure what kind of project I was hoping she'd offer or I'd suggest, but I immediately announced that this was my favorite of her projects (obviously I played it real coy there...) because this is just one of those things that I would LOVE to have if I had a house or a place to put it... I think it makes her son's room look like a modern art museum! And I have to say that I owe Lish a HUGE thank you for her persistence in getting this post together because she was going to write up another project, but because she's not Martha Stewart (or one of her 700 staff members/magic elves), it didn't quite work as planned, but she still managed to get this together in about ten seconds! So, without further ado, here's Lish!

Hi everyone! Isn't Mel just the sweetest most craftiest person you've meet!? If you read her Crafty Interview yesturday you got to know a little about me and my blog Imprintalish, where I post mostly about life, photography, crafts and of course my kids! You can also find my shop over at Etsy and I host a fun photo link up called Frivolous Fridays. I would love for you to stop by and say hi sometime! Below, you will find some of my other creations...

Today I will be sharing with you my favorite project, which was for my son's 'big boy room'. So roll up your sleeves and join me for a super messy, super fun DIY!
       What you'll need: A medium sized beach ball- I found one at Walmart for $3.95 Base to sit the ball on- I used a small bowl Vaseline Ball of Yarn Large bowl 2 bottles of white glue 1 cup of corn starch 1/2 cup of water Lots of newspaper Clear spray paint/adhesive 1. Put down lots of newspaper or a tarp-it gets very messy! Set the ball on top of a small bowl. I used this as a guideline for the opening where the light bulb would hang. Coat the ball in Vaseline so the yarn doesn't stick to the ball.   2. Mix together the glue, water and cornstarch in a large bowl. I originally made half the recipe and then had to make more halfway through. You may have to alter the recipe depending on the size of ball and how much yarn you want to use. I doubled the original recipie. Just make sure the mixture is on the thicker side. 

3. Coat the yarn in the glue mixture. Only add a bit at a time or you will end up with huge knots! Of if you have someone nearby to help-ask them to hold the ball of yarn as you pull it through the mixture.  4. I started with wrapping yarn around the bottom of the ball/top of bowl and then went up and down from there. I just wrapped and moved the yarn around until it looked right. Because I ended up with so many knots, I actually had to cut the yarn and start again. I just made sure to secure all the ends by wrapping the end underneath other pieces of yarn. 5. Set the ball aside for 24 hours. Then prick the ball with pins. I poked about 4 or 5 holes and waited for it to deflate. Remove the ball through the opening at the bottom.  6.Hang the ball outside and spray with clear spray paint. Again, step back and admire your magnificent handywork!   7. To hang from ceiling fan, I removed the original light casing and tied 3 pieces of wire to the screws that held in the light. I attached the wires to the yarn light and voila! Again, step back and admire your magnificent handiwork!
 Hope you enjoyed my little project! A big thank you to Mel for having me guest post here today! I had so much fun! 

Isn't this AH-MAZING!?! I just love it! Be sure to check out Lish's awesome blog, Imprintalish, for more gorgeous projects! She's super-sweet and one of the most organized bloggers I've ever had the pleasure of talking to and "working with"! Thanks so much for sharing this with us, Lish!

0 Crafty Interview with Lish of Imprintalish

I have such an exciting treat for you guys this week - Lish from Imprintalish answered the crafty interview questions AND is sharing a super-fun tutorial tomorrow! Today you get the interview with Lish (pronounced like it sounds, with the "I" sound, NOT the "ee") and come back tomorrow for the tutorial!

When and how did you start being crafty?

I can't even remember, I think I was born crafty!! LOL! I have always been pretty artistic and it just kind of grew from there. I think I am more crafty now that I have my own house.

When did you start blogging about your craftiness and why?

When I started my blog, the thought didn't even come into my mind to blog about my crafts. My blog was focused on enjoying the small things in life, mainly my life with kids. It wasn't until I started exploring other people's blogs (I am now addicted!) that I realized it would be a great outlet for my creatively!

What's your favorite project (of everything you've made)

There is a huge painting over our fireplace that I did. I love that piece! I also really love the yarn light that is in my son’s room.

What's your favorite crafty material or medium?

Anything to do with paint! Felt is pretty cool too!

What's the biggest challenge you face(d) in blogging?

Having time to do it!

When you don't feel particularly crafty, what do you do to find inspiration?

I wish I could surf the net all day!!!I find inspiration on blogs and Pinterest which is becoming one of my all time favorite sites. Etsy is a good place to go too, but then I end up spending money!

How do you organize your craft supplies?

Organize?! You should see my nice glass door cabinet that I stash my supplies into!! HA! At least most of it is in decorative boxes!

How do you organize (remember, find) tutorials and posts online that you like?

I use Pinterest and I also save them to a file on my computer.

What's your best tip for new bloggers?

Mmm...that's a hard one, cause I still think of myself as a new blogger...does anyone have any tips for me?! I guess I would say to stay true to yourself. Don't try to be something online that you aren't in real life.

What are some things you're loving right now (crafty or not)?

I am loving doilies, burnt orange & turquois and yellow & grey color combinations, photography, and I am obssessed with fall things, twigs, pumpkins, mums, leaves...and of course Etsy...it's not too early to start Christmas shopping, is it?!

What question do you wish I asked (and please answer it)?!

I have no idea...I thought all your questions were fabulous!

Thanks for answering the crafty questions, Lish! Remember to come back tomorrow to see her tutorial - it's a project I cannot wait to do (as soon as I can figure out where it could go in my little apartment)! : )

43 Halloween Wreath

I wanted to make a Halloween wreath, but wasn't thrilled with any of my options. And I ate the candy corn that I was going to use to make a wreath. Twice. So favorite boyfriend went with me to the Dollar Tree to help me pick out some inspiration and then I made this little wreath that I kind of love... it's pretty different from anything else I've made and it's a little more masculine (as much as a yarn wreath can be anyways) and it only cost me $4 (not counting the yarn and straw wreath form and miscellaneous little things I already had)!

There aren't a ton of pictures of the process, but it's mostly making little things and gluing them on, so nothing too difficult!

• Wreath form/base (mine was straw, still in the plastic)
• Orange yarn
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Dollar Store add ons
• Ribbon (to hold up your wreath)
• Solid ribbon (to paint on)
• Scissors
• Felt
• Needle and embroidery thread
• Straight pins
• Flower template from Make It and Love It here
• Fabric/puff paint
• Lighter/candle

First, I gathered up all of my supplies, including my Dollar Tree gems! (I forgot to take this pic until after the next step... a theme for this post somehow...)

Then, I wrapped my straw wreath form in orange yarn. The skeletons were a garland and so I wrapped them around about half of the wreath. I even glued an extra skeleton to the inside of the wreath so it looked like he was laying inside of it. I glued them down in a couple of places just so they would stay put.

Then I took the ribbon I was going to use to hang the wreath and threaded that through the wreath, made a pretty bow, and attached that before moving on to the next step! I also glued the big glow-in-the-dark spider to the web so it wouldn't fall off!

Then I glued the spiderweb to the back of the wreath. It wasn't sticking all that well, so I cut a few pieces of yarn and threaded them through the back to sort of tie the spiderweb on there.

I realized I didn't really have enough Dollar Store stuff so I thought I'd make some flowers out of black felt... sort of a dead flowers, creepy vibe. And I had been making flowers using the amazing template and tutorial from Ashley at Make It and Love it. Not the use she had in mind for these little flowers, but I guess I used some creative license there... anyways, I cut out of a bunch of the hydrangea flowers (the second ones on the template) from my felt, using her template (cut out the flower shape from the paper, secure to felt with a straight pin, and cut out the felt flower) and then sewed them to the wreath itself (or the yarn part).

I just covered about a fourth of the wreath with those.

I tried out the other kinds of flowers Ashley shows you how to make - two of those first kind of flowers and then one of the last type of flowers. This is that first type...

I hot glued rather than sewed that one, so I actually balled up some black felt and glued it to the middle of that flower so it looked a little better. I'm not sure whether I really recommend putting the non-hydrangea flowers on there, but I like them enough that I won't try to cut them off!

Then, I glued one of my black spiders onto the wreath... I intended to glue the other one on there too, but I just couldn't figure out where... so now it's on the floor where the dogs occasionally see it and run away from it. But here's where the first one is... right in front of the skeleton laying inside the bottom of the wreath.

I also glued the black crow to the top. He had some wires on his feet, but I wanted to make sure he wouldn't fly off there (haha!), so he got the hot glue treatment too...

I was going to stop at that point, but decided it was too creepy and weird... not fun enough, I guess! So I grabbed two long strips of solid ribbon and some orange fabric/puff paint I had and painted "Happy" on one and "Halloween" on the other.

After that paint dried, I cut little "V" shapes into the ends of the ribbon, sealed it with a lighter, and glued the extra ribbon behind the text so that it looked like a fancy little ribbon...

That's the first one all done. I finished the second one and glued them over one of the skeletons like this...

And ta da!

Hang it up and admire your new, super-cheap, creepy, but fun Halloween decor! (I think it took me less than 2 hours, not counting the yarn wrapping, which happened in so many little increments, I have no idea how long it took...)

I'll be linking up to some of my favorite conferences!

And some special Halloween conferences!




      

1 New Blog Tour!

I realized recently that the tabs or pages on the blog are a little confusing because I've tried to give them all a "science-y" flair. Since I try to make sure that everything is easy to find, I decided to put together a little blog tour. Mostly it's for people new to the blog who haven't already explored everything, but you might still want to check it out... after all, I think it's pretty (and pretty awesome)!

The tour is now the second page on the menubar and there will be a link to it on the new little welcome message above the blog entries from now on... And here's the bulk of the content so you can tell me what you think!

The second choice on the menubar, after "Home", is The Scientist... if you want to know about me (Mel, the crafty scientist!) and the fur babies (Max and Bella), you can visit this page for information. Think of it as an "About Me" page!

The next choice is Conferences. Since you're in my little science-y world, this is what I call link parties! You can visit this page for a giant list of the link parties I try to visit each week.

The Past Research page is like a visual library of all the other awesome content on the blog... you'll find polaroids that link to all the tutorials I've put up here, as well as picture and text links to each post in a series - like all the posts I've done where I've photographed my adventures, all the recipes I've shared, the pretty palettes I've loved, etc. These lists are more than just a search by tag - they are labeled so that you can go directly to the dark blues palette post or the baby chicks post... because who wants to search when you know what you want?!

These are some of the kinds of posts you'll find...

 

  

  

I'm a list-maker. I love to make lists of everything. All the time. For any reason at all. I'd say the Future Research is a pretty good example of that - it's a list of the projects I really, really want to do! (And a few I've crossed off, but hadn't turned into tutorials yet...)

I couldn't really think of anything science-y to name the Featured page, but this is a big list of places I've been featured - all the fancy buttons - with links back to the location of the actual features on other blogs!

The Sources page has buttons from some of my most favorite blogs, my main sources of inspiration, if you will!

The Peers page is a source of more inspiration... but this big list of buttons is only for those people who display a crafty scientist button! If you display a crafty scientist button, let me know and I'll add your button here! This page also contains the "official" crafty scientist link party. So, if you have a craft blog and you're a scientist, please add your button to this link party (it never ends)!

The PR and Advertising page has details about advertising here on the blog and my disclosure statement. So if you want to do a button swap or giveaway, visit this page to find out how!

If you want to get on the peers page or get a shiny new button like the one below, you can grab a button (and the code) from the Badges page... it's supposed to be like the buttons and tags you get at a conference, thus it's badges!