Day 365-The Last Hurrah! Craft Crown for the Craft Queen

I can't believe it... it still doesn't seem real, I don't know whether to laugh or cry, I couldn't sleep last night, so many thoughts of the year past and the new year to come racing thru my mind. 

I wasn't sure what to put up for my final craft, I would love to show you all my wedding dress as this is certainly my most extravagant creation to date... but alas I cannot, it would spoil the surprise of the big day (in 28 short sleeps to come). 

So my thoughts returned to a fitting final Hurrah! I decided that this "Craft Queen" really deserves a "Craft Crown"... so here goes...  

My initial sketch is slightly wanting...

 I know what your thinking... this is going to end up like a hungry jacks happy meal crown (but have faith my craft friends! I am going to pull this off!)

 Returning to the "industrial strength" craft I decided to use some left over high gloss furniture paint and 3 layers of cardboard.

 bring on the useful box/boxes

 Voila

 the miniature cards are from one of the mini match-box collections from day 361 

 with all the hairspray and varnish on the shoes from yesterday's project and the furniture paint from today's I better hope nobody lights a sparkler or cigarette near my outfit otherwise my outfit may become a live firecracker!

 

This is not goodbye forever, just for now. This Craft Queen needs a well deserved "craft sabbatical" 

although I will certainly be kept busy with wedding prep all of january! and I promise to update the blog to share with you all my wedding dress extravaganza design post wedding date.

for now...

Craft out

xxoo

Day 364-The icing on the cake and the glitter on my shoes!

wow! what a great day, it started with a sleep in, a coffee, and a group email to remind friends, family and blog fans to check out tomorrow's Melbourne Age newspaper for an article about "365 days of craft".

About 20 seconds after I hit send another friend messaged me on Facebook to congratulate me on the article in TODAY'S paper, what?, my dressing gown was quickly discarded for some type of outer wear and I was out the door. First stop the milk bar at the end of our street where I was met by "sorry no more paper's", what?, next stop newsagent at the local shop's. I jumped out of the car and was stuck behind a senior lady shuffling into the newsagent with her walking frame (I had visions of me having to fight her for the last paper...) luckily she was shuffling in eager for a pack of "winnie blues" and I purchased the last 4 copies of "The Age", everybody was happy.

For those of you who have not read the said article see the link below and a snapshot of the "full page article" (thanks Liza power from the age its the icing on the cake and the glitter on my shoes... speaking of glitter on shoes, today's craft creation follows below).

http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/homestyle/give-us-this-day-our-daily-thread-20111229-1pdtz.html

second last craft to go... (not for life, just for this year)

cover an old pair of shoes with PVA glue (I say old pair or op shop pair because no amount of scrubbing is going to bring these babies back if you don't like the finished product)

 sprinkle with glitter

Note to self; glitter is a bitch! I personally haven't used glitter since like... pre-school, and I am pretty sure I wasn't cleaning up afterwards at the time, but seriously, like a drag queen dancing to a kylie song it was outta control. 

 I decided to use red glitter on the bow, so waited for the silver layer to dry slightly before attempting the bow. I covered the surrounding area with paper before adding more PVA and sprinkling with red glitter.

 see how there is all that "excess" glitter on the paper surrounding the bow below? don't try "blowing" it away as I did, covering the floor, all surrounding wedding projects from last night and my face.

 sparkle fan dan go!

now how to stop all the glitter from continually falling off the shoes?

 first step I tried hair spray (it didn't seem to help) so next stop "industrial strength"

I am pretty sure that the "Cabot's-oil based clear polyurethane- for all interior woodwork and veneers" was not initially intended for glitter shoe projects... but its all I had.

VOILA!

"eat your heart out dorethy"

(wow this post is finished by 7.30pm! had I not had to work everyday this year my posts could have been done by this time everyday... instead the midnight photoshoot's have left me with some "designer bags" (under my eyes) of which I doubt are reversible...)

craft out

xxoo

Day 363-wedding prep

Tonight's craft was extremely practical and timely with the count down to my wedding (only 30 days away!!)

Table numbers, place names and bonbonniere's...

 I decided to combine the place name's and bonbonniere's into one by gifting a "prop stick"with each guests name attached.
First I drew up these little flags on illustrator and added the names.

 next I cut each out with a stanley knife (all 85 of them!!)

 and then folded them in half

 finally attaching them with the glue gun...

 here are just a few of the bonbonniere/ place name's complete, these will sit flat on the centre of each plate (and I thought would act as a good ice breaker for people sitting on the same table who may not know each other as they make for great photos ops)

I used the bird graphic from my "tea towel invite" from day 325 on the table number cards

all this teamed with the table centre pieces from day 327 (and its all starting to get very "matchy matchy")

All I need now is some bunting flags to top off the ultimate in "wedding craft chic"

craft out!!

xxoo

P.S. holy shamizzle only 2 freaking craftastic days to go! I thought it was never going to bloody end!!!

HA HA HA

Day 362-Naughty or Nice

Today I am making a belated christmas present for my lovely friend and neighbour Sarah.

I had this idea to make a "naughty/nice" pillow case, where one side has devil horns positioned where your head lays and the other side has a halo and wings (depending on your mood, you can choose your side to sleep on).

I printed these images below using the digital printer

(I sized them up to fit a real sized head in the centre)

I decided to make this a "european" sized pillow case and add frills around the edge of each

of the printed squares

 ready for testing...

 oh so angelic...

oh so evil...

one more present finished, one more day of craft complete... time for sleep

craft out

xxoo

Day 361-match box masterpiece!!

Tonight the match-box masterpiece is finally complete!!
I started this project back on Day 344, our next door neighbours gave us a matchbox collection that one of their parents had collected over the years and thought we may have a crafty use for it...

I sorted thru the collection choosing the best designs, shapes and colours and arranged them onto a blank white background (that was cut to fit inside this box frame)

 Attaching each one neatly and in straight lines was a challenge! I purchased a few packets of pre cut double sided foam squares for the job. 

My fiancee Andee actually assisted in getting the lines straight by attaching some pieces of string to the frame (like guide ropes) to help.

 the foam squares also lift each box off the base slightly, which adds to the depth of the picture and each little match box casts its own shadow

I love the final result! what an awesome talking point

and what a great way to display a treasured collection of goods (rather than sitting shoved in the back of a cupboard getting old and dusty).

Do you have any collections at home you could turn into artworks?

craft out

xxoo

Day 360-Christmas Ham!

I normally wouldn't put cooking on the blog as a "craft"

 but my christmas ham is the exception to the rule!

This coming from a girl who RARELY ever cooks! 

Its not that I can't cook (in fact I am quite good at it) I just (A) think it is a massive chore and can't be bothered and (B) have an amazing fiancee who enjoys cooking, is an amazing cook and tends to not let me in the kitchen (Hallelujah!) bar this one event... The christmas ham below...

Start with a leg of ham (from the butcher or supermarket) these ham's are already cooked, so essentially what we are doing is marinating it and "double" baking it

 first step is to peel the skin off (but you must keep the layer of fat on) you can use a knife to get this started, but best to then use your hands and slowly rub the fat as you peel the skin back (I know sounds disgusting! but well worth the end result!)

 once the skin is removed you need to score the fat with a sharp knife, the distance between cuts need to be quite wide (approx 5cm)

 next step, using whole dried cloves position these in the centre of each square

 now add your pineapple, evenly spaced with the cloves at the centre of each

use tooth picks to hold these in place for the cooking process

 right the ham is ready, next step the marinade...

I tend to throw the ingredients roughly together based on the size of the ham

-1 cup of brown sugar

-1 cup of honey

-pineapple juice left over from 2 tins of sliced pineapple

-dijorn mustard (3 heaped teaspoons)

heat all these ingredients in a saucepan (do not bring to the boil, just lightly simmer for a few minutes)

you will notice the mustard will separate (see the saucepan below) it doesn't look the best, but it is fine.

 pre-heat the oven to 200degrees, baste the ham with the marinade every 15-20 minutes
I tend to like the outside slightly overcooked/caramelised, so I tend to continue basting the ham and turning the tray around for about 2 hours.

 Voila! christmas ham complete!! 

It also leaves the whole house smelling amazing (and our bellies feeling very full!)

We tend to end up eating ham for the next week or so, using it in various meals such as 

quiche, omelette, sandwiches, pasta carbonara or pea and ham soup.

To keep the ham fresh during this time the trick is to use a "HAMBAG" if you do not have a specific "hambag" then a plain pillowcase (that you do not want to use again as a pillowcase) will do the trick.

You need to soak the pillow case in a bowl of cold water with 2 teaspoons of white vinegar.

You then place the ham inside the hambag (inside the fridge). You will need to re-soak the ham bag in water and vinegar every 2 days to keep the ham fresh.

Craft out

xxoo

Day 359-Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas friends and fans! 

I can't believe the year is nearly over! 

Just 6 short days to go to reach the 365 days of craft goal.

I have to say it has certainly been a challenging year! I feel I have learnt alot (I wouldn't do it again)

 but I do feel very proud to have almost made it! This certainly won't be the end of my crafty journey, you will definitely hear and see more from me in the year/years to come, but a well deserved break from the daily slog is very very much anticipated! With my wedding just 4 weeks away I will be super busy organising table decorations, music, dresses, shoes...no rest for the crafty just yet 

("Bring on the honeymoon I say!")

Today's craft...

Handmade christmas name tags

Craft out

xxoo

Day 358-christmas eve is here!

Today has been super duper hot weather here in Melbourne!! No white christmas for us Aussies!

Andee and I spent the day wrapping pressies, eating, crafting, eating (yep andee even helped me with some craft today).

The craft for today... I finally finished making this doll that I started earlier in the year, my mother in law was in love with it and asked if she could have it and its taken me until christmas to finish the hand sewing (lets face it I have been kinda busy! he he) so no guesses for what is going in her christmas stocking!

 MERRY CRAFTMAS!!

Craft out

xxoo

Day 357-Giant heads

I still have lots of MDF left over from making the bedhead, so tonight I decided to make some "giant MR and MRS" heads and turn them into blackboards...

I started by sketching the shapes in chalk...

 I was much better at the female head sketch, I actually got andee to help me with the male head sketch

(and then stuck a hat on him because he looked like an android)

 next to the power tools! I love using power tools!!! very empowering!

 then base coat

 Tomorrow I will paint that blackboard paint (that is enough for one night, plus there is 2 craft items here, so I figure i can split it over two days).  These really are giant heads, see my feet below...

I thought they might look cool over our bedhead? perhaps we can write each other messages of LOVE...or HATE (the latter rarely happens luckily!!)

its 9pm here and we are off to the shopping centre for some last minute "late night christmas shopping"

we have managed to avoid it for this long (and most of my pressies and handmade OF COURSE!)

but there are always a few little bits and pieces left to get.

craft out

xxoo