Merry and Bright

One week of school left.

One week until we fly to France.

One last bunch of Christmas gifts to wrap.

Remember these little babies?

 I made a heap of chocolates at the time, knowing full well Mr Frog would change his mind about not giving gifts to the teachers in his office at the last minute.

As it turns out, the teachers in Mr Frogs office, teach Japanese. So, having also studied Japanese at school (for six years!) I was a little inspired.

Today we practice the Japanese art of Furoshiki.

First, pop your choccies in a little plastic bag and seal.

 Next, cut a rough square out of your chosen fabric. Mine are about 15x15cm, but it'll depend on the size of your pressie. Place the packet on top of the wrong side of fabric. I put it at the opposite angle so I didn't need to use too much fabric, and so it would look a bit neater.

 Take two opposite corners and tie a knot.

 Then take the remaining corners and tie another knot. If you have enough fabric, tie another knot to secure. I was being frugal.
 

 Voila! Or should I say dozo.

  I had exactly four plain chocolates left, so I made this up, just because.
 A bit of Kikki K twine, some Washi Tape (did you know it's Japanese?) from Kaisercraft, and that is a very cute little parcel.

That's it from me for the year. I mean it this time.

I hope the holiday period is just fabulous,

Merry and Bright,

and keeping praying my Christmas is WHITE!

MC

Pressed Metal, The Not Quite Tutorial

Remember these box/shelf thingy's?

My Wedding Expo display

I thought they looked great at the wedding expo. Black and white, bold, simple. Mr Frog/Mr I-Always-Have-A -Bloody-Opinion thought they looked too modern. "Your style is "Vintage"" he said.
Damn.
He's right.
Although it did look great, something a little more vintage would look even better.
But what? For awhile, I was thinking black and white damask scrapbooking paper. Easy Peasy.
But then I remembered something I saw on Bloody Pinterest.
Pressed Metal.
I adore pressed metal. I dream of having a Silver Pressed Metal splash back in my kitchen.
I didn't actually go to the original source. It seemed pretty simple. And it was.

Simple, yet I think, incredibly effective.

First, cut your cardboard to size. I used a random piece of cardboard and stole the giant box of un-opened Cornflakes. (Remember, Already had = Free)

Then I marked out my pattern. You know me, I kept it simple. This is a little less fancy than I imagine in my dream kitchen.

I then went to town with the hot glue. If you're doing this with kids, you could probably use P.V.A glue, it'll just take longer to dry. So scratch that, and just let the kids design while you take command of the glue gun. (There's gotta be some perks to being the grown up).
Be careful not to make the glue to high/thick. It'll tear the foil.

Next, lay the foil shiny side down and put your cardboard glue side down. Fold over the edge of the foil, carefully, and tape down.

 Flip it over and gently rub your hands over the foil.

 Then go over again with more attention to detail.

 Now remember when I said gently and try not to make the glue too thick...? This is why. The foil won't like it. And neither will you.

 Nevermind. Pretend it didn't happen and continue with the next two pieces.

 It's about this time I heard a little voice in my head saying " It doesn't look as good as you thought huh?".
Doubting bitch. I Ignored her and carried on.

It looked promising. I had such high hopes.

Hmm. Not quite how I imagined. I stared for a bit. Maybe it'll look better with a bag in there?

 Maybe up close?

Hmmmm.
Maybe with the black bags instead. Yes, that's it.

 I couldn't work out why it didn't look like I thought it would. The first piece I did was awesome. I even posted it on Facebook. (So it must be true).
Then Mr Frog chimed in.
In his "I'm trying not to sound like the critical pain in the arse you think I am" voice, he said "Do you like it babe?". I paused for a second too long and he continued with "It just looks like foil".

GAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

He is a critical pain in the arse, but when he's right, he's right.

Now it just looks like a conspiracy theorist has gotten a little fancy with the foil on the windows.

Sometimes, things don't work out the way you think/hope/wildly assume they will. And part of the "fun" of being a crafty minx is working out how to fix things when they don't quite work out fail completely.

I went back to plan B. well, plan A really.
And I got to go to Kaisercraft. So, that's a win.

 A black damask acetate (After Five Collection,  Champagne), on white paper.

Simple, black and white, bold, Vintage.

And I didn't swear once.

What have you stuffed up and then fixed lately?

MC

A Pretty Bathroom, Eventually.

The bathroom has become the first finished room of the house.

All we needed was something for a funny spot on the wall, in between the shower and the doorway. I contemplated going the French "Le Bain" (or la, I never know!) route, but it just didn't really fit with how the room had already evolved (without a fight). We'd gone the textured, natural look and it was soothing and clean, and pretty, without being "girly". I'd already made this Tissue box cover so it was only natural to continue in that vain. Another trip to Kaisercraft where I spent my $20 loyalty gift card on random scrap pads and some very specific papers. The Basecoat range was perfect for my project. It features great colours and texture up the wazoo. Once I'd chosen my papers and bought my canvas, I was ready to go.

I started by mixing some white paint with PVA glue and painted the edges of my canvas. I don't really know what I was hoping to achieve by doing this, maybe a bit of texture, or the opposite? Anyhoo, it didn't make too much difference, so we were all good. Then it was a case of working out how exactly I wanted to use my papers.
 I was really expanding on what I did in Tadpole's room, but I didn't think squares were going to cut it, plus my canvas was 51x51cm, too tricky to do even squares. I considered some kooky patterns, but in the end, I went with my usual style; Simple. Stripes it was. After a few practice line ups I was ready to get gluing.

Never glue things in a hurry.

 You end up making a mistake (gluing whole sheets down instead of cutting one) and having to pull it all off while it's still kinda wet. You end up with a lumpy mess on your canvas that needs to be sanded back. Of course you'll have to wait days to do this because you have a Tadpole.

Anyhoo. We start again, and this time, even though I was pretty fast at it ( but in a fun I can't wait to finish this kinda way) I did a pretty good job.

But something was missing. It kinda faded into the wall a bit.

It needed something more. So, I painted the edge of the canvas (again) with brown paint, carefully matching the browns already in the papers. The PVA from my first attempt actually made the texture of the canvas stand out more, and considering this thing was all about texture, I rolled with it.

 Now see that bit on the far left? That's what happens when you stop paying attention and cut the paper the wrong size. I still need to go back and glue it down better, but you can't tell once it's on the wall.

See how the bottom is curved? That's what happens when you buy your canvas from Dollar King. Whatever. Mr Frog turned it up the other way and you can't tell.

This little section of the bathroom was the inspiration for the canvas.

The finished bathroom, before Mt Frog flipped the canvas, and complete with his P.j's hanging on the door. He's not impressed that I left them there to take the photo.

Pffft. I'm keeping it real.

This post wasn't sponsored by Kaisercraft. But Kaisercraft.... Call me.

MC

All wrapped up

I love birthdays. I love xmas. I love random, made up reasons for gift giving.
I just love giving presents., especially when a) I've managed to find the "perfect" present, and b) I'm able to wrap said gift in something fabulous. A well wrapped gift adds to the sense of occasion about the whole affair. Sometimes, I get too excited and get it wrong, sometimes I try too hard.

Sometimes, I get it right.

 

Clearly, I love a theme.

It all started with the card. Silly me forgot to take pics, due to the screaming tadpole I had in the background. I also made a mistake ("Happy Birthay"), which was rectified somewhat by just cutting the mistake away. (Nobody will ever know)

Take one paper bag from my favourite store. (To see why, head here) If I love anything more than gift wrapping it's making something plain, pretty. Cut two pieces of coordinating (or not) scrap booking paper big enough to cover up the advertising. Glue.

Then add gifts, top with slightly bunched tissue paper, and accessorise with matching ribbons.

Voila, there you have it. A colour themed gift.

For AMAZING gift wrapping ideas, head over to my idol, Rebecca. She rocks.

MC

A Family Tree

So I mentioned a little while ago that Mr Frog spotted an MDF tree in Kaisercraft and suddenly felt that we needed one. I wasn't overly excited, or motivated, but a craft project is a craft project and so I went at it.
It started with a tree, and some paint....

I painted the front cream, and the edges dark brown. Easier said than done!

Then I tore up a sheet of scrapbook paper and stuck the pieces over the majority of the limbs and leaves.

Glued, but scrappy...

I then sanded the edges of the over hanging paper, with a nail file; much easier than an actual piece of sand paper.

All sanded and pretty... but the torn edges were white...so...

using a bit of sponge and some cream paint, I dabbed all over the white bits.

Mr Frog wanted Owls, but the ones we bought didn't go with my colour scheme. So I glued some paper onto a cardboard box rescued from the recycling bin...

and cut out little owl shapes.

Some black and white pics of our families (minus a couple that I haven't printed yet)

And voila, Our Family Tree.

Now, Mr Frog will probably have some helpful "suggestions" to make it better... but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

MC