Works For Me Wednesday ~ Fancy-Schmancy Art

We love Saxton Freymann's carved food illustrations and thought his mini wall calendar would be perfect art to hang in the kitchen.



We finally found these cheap frames from IKEA to fit the square calendar pages (only a little trimming was required). The great part is that there are mini wall calendars available for just about every subject imaginable, from kittens to Impressionist art. What an easy and inexpensive way to get great art into your home! For larger prints, just scoop up a regular-sized calendar — they can even be secondhand!



I'd just like to point out how much you should appreciate my "keeping it real" with ya'll and showing my human side and all that. No staging here, folks — that's pure, unadulterated everyday mess you're seeing! :) Don't say I never gave you anything special.


This post originally appeared on my family blog and is reprinted with permission.

More Library Craft Pics

Here are those pics I promised of the Scrabble tile pendants we made at the library. My cutouts are from "Mod Floral Pink" scrapbook paper by Vera Bradley. Once I realized that the bails would be glued on (and thus, render the pendants non-reversible), I used blank tiles for my second and third pendants. 'Cause I'm anal like that.


What a horrid photo. You can tell I'm not my husband.


You can see where I tried to add more Aleene's Paper Glaze after I realized it hadn't reached the bottom. I didn't bother with a close-up of the third tile, which became a disaster after I leaned over it carefully, checking for bubbles to pop, and dropped the straight pin flat in the middle of the semi-congealed Paper Glaze. Yeah, you can't fix something like that. At least when I wear it as a pendant, no one will be close enough to notice. (Or as I tell my clients, "If someone is that close, they don't care what it looks like.")


Here's the one "lettered" tile I used. Did you happen to notice my Lego-decimated manicure? Yes, I thought you might've.



This post originally appeared on my family blog and is reprinted with permission.

Library Craft, Etc.

Even though we're already using cloth diapers and wipes, we're looking for more ways to save money (and inadvertently go green in the process — bonus). I started using a crystal deodorant yesterday, and we're going to stop using disposable paper towels and napkins in favor of more dishtowels and cloth napkins (16 for $2.97 at Salvation Army). I really, really want to try soap nuts, too.

If you have a baby, you need to get Magic Stick, period. Go. Buy it. Wow. No, I'm serious — go.

I found this site recently, which has a LOT of printables (including coloring books). Yay!

As promised, here are the library crafts we made on Saturday. The pop can pull-tab bracelets are made just like these, only with fabric strips (folded like binding tape) instead of leather. One lady there made it long enough for a belt, and another did a headband with a flower! I think I might try spray painting the tabs and using ribbon instead of fabric, next time. My mom made hers like the ones on that site, with all the tabs "facing" the same direction; I did one-up-one-down instead, and it made a scalloped edge (cool). We sewed snaps on as closures and covered the snap top with a button. Trés chic, non?





The other craft was cutting out (Vera Bradley) scrapbook paper pieces, ModPodging them onto Scrabble tiles, and supergluing silver Aanraku bails on the back to make pendants. We also topped them with Aleene's Paper Glaze, to give them a snazzy "glass" finish. The bails covered up part of the back, so I used blank tiles for mine. I must get Paper Glaze! Wow. No pics yet, because the glaze is still milky-translucent.



This post originally appeared on my family blog and is reprinted with permission.