Last Week of School - Wednesday

Hooray!  The favors for the last day of school are done!  Each of the grandkids made 24 which gives them 3 or 4 extras (for the teacher, principal, bus driver or yard duty teacher).  Here's a picture of all the Candy Airplanes...and the grandkids. 

Skyler, Trinity, Sonny

Cap Card/Candy Airplane Favor

Favor Back

This is a fun project, but if you are doing it with 2 or more young children you will need lots of patience.  Putting labels and stickers on everything was fun for them.  None of the grandkids wanted help with the stickers.  They even enjoyed threading the rubber bands through the Life Savers.  The part they did not enjoy was getting the gum through the rubber band loops.  I heard many signs and lots of frustrated little voices asking 'Grandma, can you please help me with this?'  After awhile I would let them thread the rubber bands, then hand it to me, I would put the gum in, then they would put the candy roll in.  We had a little assembly line going.  It worked for us.

And the final cost for everything was only $36.00 for 72 favors (fifty cents each!).  The grandkids had to make 1 extra Candy Airplane for themselves - which they promptly took apart and ate!

Now, I've got to get back to work.  Not only is the laundry calling my name, but I've got over 50 decal listings to put up on eBay, several fused glass decal themes to finish before the batch can be sent to the printers, floors to mop, bill to pay . . . the list never ends.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals                  Crafty Family

Last Week of School - Tuesday

 The twins are so excited.  Their Kindergarten class is going on a field trip to Mudgy and Millie's in Coeur d'Alene today.  It's a walking trail based on the book Mudgy and Millie about a moose and a mouse.  When all three grandkids get home from school day, their project for the day will be Smartie Airplanes to go with the Graduation Hat Cards they did yesterday as gifts for all their classmates on the last day of school.  I found this one on line for Valentine's Day.

 

Rubber Bands  $1.99 at Office Depot; probably less expensive at Wal-Mart.  We'll get 2 packs to make sure we have plenty.

Any gum with foil wrappers works great; however, the gum my son brought home does not have foil wrappers, so instead of putting a wrap around the gum with the foil wrapper showing as shown on the Valentine Airplane, we'll cover the entire piece of gum.  The gum was very flimsy and kept bending when the grandkids tried to put the airplanes together, so I cut strips of card stock 2 3/4" X 3/4" and had the kids set them on the gum before they wrapped the gum with the paper.

We bought this huge 41 ounce bag of Life Savers at Wal-Mart.     The bag has over 200 pieces in it, individually wrapped.  Yes, they have to be unwrapped to use them for the wheels of the airplane.  Sonny cut one end off each wrapper and Skyler dumped the mints out of the wrappers into a bowl.  There were only 3 broken mints in the bag.  We ate them.

Smarties are inexpensive.  We got an extra bag for the kids to enjoy!








I printed the words Congrats Smartie! several times using a word document, the font is Arial as the letter were the closest I could find to the letters the grandkids learned in school.  I used size 18.  You could write them on pieces of paper if you want, but I don't have that much time to spare.  I folded the paper so the grandkids would have cutting lines.





To assemble the Airplanes, thread the rubber band through the hole in two Life Savers.  I had the grandkids put their pinky finger through one loop of the rubber band, put a stick of gum in the loop on the other side of the Life Savers, then take the rubber band off their finger and over the other end of the gum.  Next, they inserted the roll of Smartie's under the gum and above the Life Savers.  They added small stickers for a finished look.


Too much fun and totally worth every minute!  Tomorrow they grandkids will put the Graduation Hat Cards and the Candy Airplane in clear poly bags, tie them with ribbons and be ready for the last day of school!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals                 Crafty Family

From THIS to THAT with Adobe Photoshop

I like to play.  When I can play at work, I'm happy.  This morning, I'm taking a bit of time before the grandkids get up to work/play.  I'm working on the Victorian theme for the next fused glass decal printing.  I found this cute little girl standing on a chair from VintageFeedsacks.  It looks like the little girl is reprimanding someone or something.

 I decided to solve the mystery.  I opened the file in Adobe Photoshop and enlarged the canvas to make room for the mystery guest.  I moved the girl and the chair to the right with cut and paste.  I opened my file of Captive Decals 5" X 7" Rodents and Reptiles and copied a mouse that would be cute in the picture.  Normally, I do not think mice are cute.  I then pasted him on the floor next to the chair.

Unfortunately, it looks like the little girl is looking beyond the mouse.  I did not want to put him further away from the chair as the finished decal would have too much blank area.  So, I outlined the girl from the waste up, opened a new Adobe Photoshop file, pasted her upper body in the new file, rotated her 30 degrees clockwise, then copied and pasted her back into the original file.  I had to do a bit of fill in on her lower arm and a gap at her waist, but the results were worth it.

Mystery solved just in the nick of time as Skyler woke up; which means his twin brother and older sister will be waking up soon.  And they will be asking for pancakes.  I've got pancake shapes of a butterfly, rubber duck and Mickey Mouse.  The grandkids love 'em.  Gotta go.  Hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals            Crafty Family

Next 18 Fused Glass Decal Themes

Each time I have a printing done of fused glass decals I arrange 18 themes to be printed on a 24" X 35" sheet which is then cut into 5" X 7" cards.  I think I've got my next 18 themes decided.  Believe me, it was not easy to narrow it down from the hundreds of ideas I've received from customers, family and friends.  (Please, keep the ideas coming!)  They are:  Art Deco, Birds, Butterflies (traditional), Cats, Celestial, Dogs, Dragonflies (traditional), Fairies/Sprites/Mermaids, Halloween, Irreverent (naughty things like 'the bird' and swear words), People, Skulls, Southwestern, Sports, Universal Symbols (hazardous, infinity), Tribal Art, Victorian and Zodiac.  Each theme usually has at least 12 different designs.  So, 12 designs X 18 themes is 216 new designs for fused glass art.  Wanna see a sneak preview?  Here ya go:

Victorian

Halloween

Art Deco

People

The themes and/or designs might (and probably will) change a bit before they are actually sent to the printer as my mind is always racing with ideas and designs that need to be tweaked.  Sometimes I wake up in the morning exhausted because I have designed decals in my sleep all night long!  If you've got an idea for something you would like to see designed, let me know and I'll give it a whirl!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals                 Crafty Family

T G I F ! ! !

Thank God It's Friday!

Can you hear my sign of relief?  Every Friday Trinity, Sonny and Skyler get picked up after school by their other grandma (Nana) to spend the night.  Nana brings them back Saturday afternoon.  This gives me 24 hours of peace and quiet.  Time to catch up on blogging!






I'm celebrating this Friday with anyone who reads this blog and purchases something from my eBay store dream77catcher, my Artfire studio Captive Illusions or off my website Captive Decals with free shipping.  Yes, FREE SHIPPING.  Quantity doesn't matter.  Weight doesn't matter.  Fused Glass Decals, Ceramic Decals, Sewing Patterns, whatever miscellaneous items I might have up for sale...it doesn't matter.  If you mention this blog when checking out or in an email when you've finished shopping, I'll adjust your invoice to reflect FREE SHIPPING!

Time to get the grandkids up and off to school.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
              
   Captive Illusions            Captive Embroidery
    Captive Decals                  Crafty Family

Jewelry Box Make Over

Project of the day – Jewelry Box Make Over

Trinity is 6 years old. She is already a consummate collector…of anything and everything. She thinks everything is good for something and someday she will find a use for it. While she is visiting her maternal grandparents today, her paternal grandma (me, Grandma Cat) will hopefully be turning a broken down, unattractive chipboard sewing or jewelry box (that Trinity found and had to have) into something special.

Gathering Materials

Check my scrap drawers, bins and boxes and found a wonderful piece of purple satiny silky fabric (purchased long ago, have no idea what it actually is) with black flocked flowers. Trinity has seen this fabric before and I know that she loved it. I’m sure I have a bit of black velvet somewhere to line the inside of the box. While hunting for fabric, I also found a bit of black fringe that I might be able to use,. Grabbed my box of glue and fray check, scissors, and I’ll add whatever I have to run and find as the need arises to the list.

Time to Begin

It’s almost 9 am on a Saturday morning. First, I’ll carefully take the box apart. I used a small screwdriver ( yup, already had to find something not on the list…a screwdriver), and gently pried off the hinges so they could be cleaned, painted black, and used again.



After pulling them out I see that I will need a pair of pliers to straighten out the points so the box can be put back together. Once all the hardware is off, I’m left with 3 separate pieces to the box…the top, the bottom and the inside ‘drawer’. It took 8 minutes to find the screwdriver and take all the hardware off. Not too bad.

Covering the Box with Fabric

Couldn't find the velvet, though I know it is here somewhere. My only excuse is that we moved from California to Idaho 6 weeks ago and haven’t exactly gotten everything in its place yet. I did find some black polished cotton that will work for the lining. I started with the ‘drawer’ since it was smallest and would either be the easiest because it was small, or the hardest because it was small. Either way, I would get it out of the way first and be happy it was done. I cut a rectangle ½” larger than the ‘drawer’. Then glued the fabric inside the ‘drawer’ using a flat craft paintbrush to spread Elmer’s white glue over the inside surface .

For the outside of the drawer I cut 1 rectangle 1 ½” larger than the drawer, then glued the fabric to the outside, over the edge of the box making sure the fabric ended slightly over the black lining. I used paperclips to hold everything in place while the glue dries. If you’ve got clothespins handy they will work just as well. After everything dried, I took off the paperclips andI used fray check along the edge of the fabric to prevent stray threads later that Trinity or her boys, as she calls her twin brothers, could pull thus ripping everything apart. The box bottom was done pretty much the same as the ‘drawer’, just had to adjust the measurements as the bottom was bigger than the ‘drawer’.

Okay, now for the top. To give it a little bit of ‘wow’ factor (I hope), I cut two layers of quilt batting slightly smaller than the top and glued them in place, one on top of the other, and then covered as the bottom and ‘drawer’. I glued the bit of black fringe that Trinity liked around the top and held it all in place with straight pins until it dried completely which took about an hour.

Putting the Box Back Together

I painted two coats of black model paint onto all the hardware pieces after scrubbing them with steel wool to make sure they were clean and give the model paint a grip-able surface. Put the hinges on the back, hooked the drawer back on the inside rivets and put the front clasp back on. Done deal.

Until next time, Happy Crafting

Grandma Cat

Crayon Roll Up

Crayon Roll Ups are a sensational boutique or craft fair seller. Everyone loves to buy things for their kids. Crayon Roll Ups are great stocking stuffers, Easter basket fill ins, birthday party favors.

You've seen them, you've probably even made one or two. But have you had a child use them? What happens when the crayon gets small or breaks? Your child can't get the crayon out of the tall pockets! Our roll ups are made with short pockets and a strip of elastic above the pockets. This way even broken or short crayons are easily accessible. The elastic loop on one end flips over the roll up, holding the crayons inside. No ties, snaps or buttons. This is the best crayon roll up ever. The design is copyrighted and patent pending. You can make as many roll ups to sell as you like using our pattern, but selling our pattern or imitating our kit and selling it would be copyright infringement.

All you need is 1 fat quarter, 1 yard of trim, 3/4 yard of elastic, matching thread, a sewing machine, and a bit of time.

Click here to view full project detials

Crayon Roll Up Kit $7.95 each
Kit complete with template, instructions, fabric, elastic, your color choice of rick rack, and one box of 24 Crayola Crayons (thread not included)

Rick Rack Color

Blue Green Red Yellow Orange Purple Pink Blue