Silhouette earrings and necklace

So I finally got around to making the silhouette jewlery I was hoping to make. I love these longer earwires, the tiles dangle and move well, and it looks great!  I actually made two different sizes of images for the earrings. What do you like better?  First is the small full images at the bottom of the glass tile.

Can I just say, taking a picture of your ear's is HARD!  I've got to teach someone around here HOW to take a picture so I can make this look nicer!  Or I guess let someone else wear them for a photo!  But you can see the length and get an idea this way!

And next is the larger image but only half the face.  What do you think?  Since I have 4 kids, not two, I actually put images of the boys on the back side.  And with my super short hair you can actually SEE the back!

Next up, the necklace. I'm still looking for the perfect spacer beads for in between, since I have so many kids.  Obviously this works great with 1 or two kids, even three.  Four is probably pushing it, but heck, why not!  I love it!  I can't wait to wear them tomorrow!  These are actually made with glass tiles that are scrabble size.  Much better than my first attempt with the 1 inch square!   Not to big, not to small, with a teeny tiny ball chain!

For the backs of these I actually just put their initials.  I know you can't really see them with the bail, but I didn't want a color, since they might flip over and I want to be able to wear them with everything, and plain white seemed silly.  So an initial was a good choice.  Of course I maybe should have made them smaller and put them lower!  Oh well, next time!

See?  They could really use some spacers...   Anyway, I'm adding these to my Etsy store and they'd make GREAT mother's day gifts!!!  You could also put the pendant on a charm bracelet, or like my grandma wears a charm NECKLACE (actually she has like 5 now...)

For a tutorial on how to create the silhouettes yourself go to this tutorial I did a few months ago HERE






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ANOTHER mess!

So Little S turned 3 on Friday!  She doesn't know yet though!  We're doing her party on Saturday, so we'll treat that as her real birthday too.  We're also moving around some stuff downstairs.  My sister in law is moving upstairs so we have more room downstairs since we'll be staying longer so I'm moving my "office" out of the corner of the living room into the actual office!  AND it all has to be done before the party so there is room for all the 3 year olds!  And during today's shower this is what I found!  She opened 2 glass jars of my beads and spilled them EVERYWHERE!

There were beads from the bathroom to the back door and through 3 rooms and a hall.  But the beads weren't the biggest mess.  THAT was the spilled Mod Podge all over the wall, table, scripture case, self healing mat, storage box, carpet, poster board etc...

It looks crazy blue on this black case with the flash!  Funny... I made the mistake of trying to clean it up.  I should have just waited until it was dry and peeled it up!  I did have to toss some stuff, but not everything, and I was able to clean most stuff.  The cut mat is looking rough though.  It's wiped off, but there is a sheen in certain area's and it's a bit tacky? in some areas.

Flashback Friday- 2nd birthday party

I totally forgot I hadn't filled this out before I set it to automatically update. Anyway. This was my oldest 2nd birthday. Way before I began making cakes. It was her first real party with friends, and that makes it my first real birthday party too! Since my mom, sister and niece were visiting we actually threw this party the month before her birthday, just after Easter, so I picked a spring theme. It was the perfect weather, April in AZ, and we had a great time. An egg hunt, food, a few other games and just a short 1 hour gathering. It really wasn't much, but I was still newish to the area and wanted to get to know the other mom's.

Co cupcakes with green coconut grass and peeps.

Chow mein nests, with chocolate eggs

And jell-o eggs with bunny marshmallows in them.  I used plastic eggs, and it was a major problem.  I now have the jello molds and we still like to make these every year.  This year our holiday boxes are all in storage, but next year.  The kids like to pick what they want to put in the center to surprise the other family members.  It's fun!  The main part of this 2 year old party (most of the guest were even younger) my daughter and neice helped us out with the decorating by putting out all the eggs for us!  It was short, sweet, easy and fun!

Kiss the pig

A few weeks ago I got a call from the librarian at B's school, Spectrum Acadamy. I thought it was about B reading too much, or not returning books maybe. But it was about George!?! She, the Librarian, wanted to encourage the kids to sell book at the book fair, so when B told her about George it gave her an idea.  She wanted to use George as part of her incentiveprogram.  She asked if she could advertise that if the kids sold 300 books that Miss Jamie, the Principle, would have a "date" with George and have to kiss him at the end.  I said sure!  Well the kids did it (sold enough books), and they LOVED the idea of the pig.  She said she was shocked at how EXCITED everyone was.  In fact when I got to the school they have fliers and pig stuff all over!  So cute.  Monday was the big day and my daughter told me about this video tonight!  So here is the (very long and needs to be edited, but I didn't film it) video! (yes, that's me holding George)

Don't take a shower when you have kids

I love my kids. The only thing I have missed since having kids is a daily shower. Maybe it's just my kids, but today I proved again that showers and kids are a bad idea. My older two were at school so it was only the younger two at home. Of course the youngest, S, is the MOST destructive of the 4 kids.  For some reason ages 3 to 4 1/2 is the most difficult for me.  Mostly because of the destructive nature at that age.  They've been the most expensive ages of all for us.  Flooding, drawing on walls, destroying clothes, books, floors, carpet, furniture etc..  These 18 months are the reason we won't pay for our kids college. We've already done our part.  ANYWAY.  Showers and kids.  So this morning when I got out of a shower (at most 10 mins) this is what I found:

That is Mayonnaise.  Yup, an entire brand new jar.  And that's not all.  We have a food storage room in the basement that is SUPPOSED to be locked 24/7.  Apparently someone (no one has claimed it yet) left it opened and S got into it.  Not only was there Mayo all over the desk but the chair, floor, shelf and even the Pig!   Also a box of brownie mix opened and poured out, and an entire skein of yarn unwound and wrapped all over the entire downstairs.  Like Parent trap!  I was also keeping the stuff I'd finished for the party in that room.  GONE!  All the paper I got to cover the walls for the party destroyed and the picture frames I just finished painted strewn all over and scratched, you get the idea.  The 4 year old?  He just spilled some Lego's, nothing in comparison!
This is a prime example of why we call our kids D.A.'s at this age.  My folks started it when my baby sister was young and my kids have inherited the title, each in their own time.  It stands for: Destroying Angel!  They can Destroy the house worse than a hurricane (I should know, we had a tree go through the roof during Hurricane Ike in Houston), but they are still sweet, adorable, Angelic beings at the same time.  So our D.A.'s!  This is the same child who did THIS.  Point proven!  Anyway.  I guess I'll have to take showers at night or wake up earlier...  HA, wake up earlier, good one.  Have I mentioned I'm practically a vampire?  I'm beyond night owl, night it is.  

Better late than never... Our Eggs!

We tried a few different tecniques trying to come up with something easy enough for the kids, with lots of fun and different options.  We tried stickers that you take off, they got all wet and gummy and were difficult to get off.  We tried rubber bands, but they kept slipping off the eggs.  We tried glue that you could rub off when dry, didn't come off... So when looking around various drawers for inspiration we found this green tape.

It was great!  The kids could all use it easily, we could do all kinds of different looks, and it was fun!  Since we were out of town all last week (spring break, meeting my new nephew!) we didn't get to our eggs until Easter itself.  It was a fun afternoon activity and I'm glad we didn't miss out!

Question?

So I have this blog that I just started in January, I have a cake/food blog that I started back in 2007, AND I have a private personal blog with all the fun stuff about my kids and day to day life.  That's a lot of blogs.  When I started looking around at craft blogs I decided to start a new blog and keep my crafts and food's separate.  But now I'm questioning that decision.

Background:  My husband is supposed to be starting a PHD program in the fall, but we're worried about funds.  So I've been trying to build up my cake business as well as an etsy store to try to support our family over the next 5 years until he's done and has a job somewhere.  But it's not working and it looks like I might have to go get a "real" job in addition to parenting our 4 asperger children.

Posting on both blogs, trying to get followers for both, and working on selling stuff on Etsy as well as my wedding/birthday cakes is actually lots of fun.  But when I'm crafting my food blog is suffering, when I'm cooking my crafts are suffering.  SOOOOOOO  the whole point of this point.  Do you think it's better to have the food and crafts separate, or would it be okay to merge the two blogs and have crafts and food/cakes, on the same blog?

Edited to add: any suggestions for a name if I put them together?  Stick with Corner Crafts, or Bittersweet Cake shop or mix the two to be Bittersweet Craft Shop ORRRR  Something totally new???

Silhouette jewelry

I was thinking that personalized silhouette jewelry so I've been playing around and trying different options.  The glass tile was too large to hang multiple images.  But the resin style still isn't dry after 3 days!  And it was super messy.  So what size/style do you like?  I'll get the supplies and start selling them once I know.  Don't mind the wet spots in the images.  I guess I didn't seal the images very well before I poured the resin on.  I learned quite a few things that will help next time.  But before I did a bunch more I wanted some opinions better than my husbands.  So the glass tile (but smaller, any suggestions?) or on wood, or in the bevel?  Also square, rectangle, round or maybe oval?  I was thinking the glass tile in the scrabble tile size (third one down) but do  you think it's still too large?  I made a full set (second row) to see what it would look like with all 4 of my kids, but they were still too big.

Socks!

I started making these socks a few years ago for my daughter, nieces and baby shower gifts.  I can usually finish a pair while watching a show or movie.  Most of mine are packed up since my "baby" is turning 3 next month.  But she LOVED these, and so did everyone else.

These were my top 3 favorites: personalized socks.

Red (my favorite color to dress my kids in, easy to find them when we go out)

And Rainbow!  Anyway, I've added these socks to my Etsy store.
And the reason I still have some out?  My "baby" loves to wear them on her hands!

My husband is going back to school to get his PHD so I get to be the breadwinner for the next 6 years! I'm trying to find some great items to sell than I enjoy making.  One idea is to sell food grade silicone molds, like my Lego one (except I can't do Lego's because they are copyrighted).  What do you think?

Silhouette Canvas's #65- silhouette art of my kids

I've been looking for a fun Silhouette project for some time.  I have another idea, using an old window, but I don't have an old window.  Maybe next time...  But a few weeks ago I was at Michaels getting some supplies for my Mom's birthday present and I ran across 4 8x10 canvas's for quite cheap.  But what kind of medium to paint with?  I found some thick acrylic creating a textured paint.  Perfect!

So this is how I started.  I took pictures of each kid in front of the window and bright sunshine (with no flash of course).  My third (a boy) was by FAR the most difficult to get a shot of.  But after 83 shots I ended up with 4 decent ones.  Then I used photoshop bridge to create this image:  (Here are my settings if you wanted to know:clarity: 100, vibrance: -100, saturation: -100, blacks: 100, exposure .35, tonal curve: point- strong contrast, sharping: 150, radius: 0, Detail: 0 and masking: 100).

Then I used Photoshop to cut what I did'nt need.  I used the quick selection tool to select everything but the silhouette.  Then I cropped each image to 8x10, trying to make them all as even and similar in size as possible.

Here is the final image I used.

I printed off this image and using my Xyron I turned it into a sticker.  I also took my pen and did a bit of "fixing".  I fixed the curls on her forehead that got lost in the editing, I also drew where I wanted to make the  bottom pretty.  And finally I added eyelashes, because let's face it silhouettes just don't look quite right without them.

Then comes the cutting.  I found my small sharp craft scissors.  If only I had them for the Bathroom mirror project!  Remember which way to cut.  Since I wanted mine to be a stencil I didn't care what the inside looked liked.  So I started in the middle and cut away.  I was careful not to cut too much, you can always cut more if you need to.  If your cutting out a silhouette planning on USING the middle remember to start cutting on the outside.

Once I was happy with the stencil I took my "sticker" of the backing and stuck it to the canvas.  I pressed along the edges, but not TOO hard because I didn't want to bend the canvas.  Mostly just using my nail and a bit of pressure, to create the best possible seal.

Then I grabbed a brush and started painting!  Once the paper get's wet with the paint it starts to ripple, so start in the middle, getting it as thick as you want it, without touching the edges.  Then quickly brush the edges, working outside in, and peel off the stencil!  Be sure to peel from the top down, better to have the top details sharp and sometimes the last bit you peel off can be a bit messy.

I had a few spots where the paint spread a little past the crisp lines I wanted so with a smaller brush I fixed those and voila!  Finished!  Just the look I wanted!  Thick with brush strokes, glossy with nice sharp edges.

here are all four done, my children are girl (8 1/2), boy (7), boy (4 1/2), girl (2 1/2), which works out perfectly for this set up!

And finally hanging up.  this is in the narrow hall between the bedrooms and bathroom, so I couldn't get a much better angle than this shot, but it looks great.  I only wish the walls were a prettier color.  I think when we move out I'll end up re-carpeting and repainting the basement as a "thanks for letting us live here and ruin your walls and carpet" gift for my in-laws!  I should have just painted when we moved in, this sickly yellow is pretty difficult to look at day in and day out.   Although not as bad as the 4 wall wood paneling in our bedroom!!!  I'll have to get pictures of that room next time!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday. When I was visiting last week I noticed that my sister had given her a family picture with hand prints on the mat. SO cute. So when I got home I thought it would make a great gift, so I totally copied it!  I went out and found a frame at DI and repainted it.  It took forever because for some reason, I think it's the cold weather, the paint was curdling (best way to describe it).  I sanded it down between each layer, and ended up painting it 4 times (one red, 3 black).  Then I sanded down the edges for a rough look with a bit of the red showing through.  It still wasn't perfect but I was pleased with it in the end.

For the hand prints we tried both paint and a stamp pad out on some scrap paper.  We went with the paint in the end.  It was a more true black.  Although my 2 1/2 year old moved her pinky so it looks like she has 6 fingers!  We even got George's (our pet pig) hoof print on the mat.  So now Mom has 2 out of 3 (Chelsea, your turn!).  Happy Birthday Mom!