Fake Wedding Surprise : The Most Epic Work Prank

I work with some pretty fantastic people.  The type of people that I gladly hang out with outside of work; one such person is June*.  Keep in mind during this whole post that this is not the first prank that we've played on her... 

So June went away for a week to Las Vegas and somehow managed to miss her flight.   Her coworker Julienne* and their supervisor Flynn* had a long email chain going about how June wasn't going to come back because she ran off and got hitched - she was in Vegas, after all.  And she DID send Julienne a photo of a chapel!

Julienne told me of all of this and requested a small banner and a photoshopped image of June and her groom - and ELVIS!  We thought June was coming back the following day, so this whole thing started off very small.

We ended up having the full week to continue, and this whole prank quickly turned into sooo much more.  It was mostly Julienne and myself, but Flynn definitely had a hand in this too.  Before we knew it, there were balloons, streamers, flowers, a Congrats card, gift-wrapped [empty] boxes, Jordan Almond party favors, Champagne, AND A CAKE!! 

No joke.  It was pretty insane. 

And the more we did, the more we were terrified that June was going to be upset - or that people were going to think that she actually got married.  She did not!

June returned Friday and it was well received - the cake and champagne definitely helped. 

And what do you think of that cake!?  That was made by yours truly.  I invested in a small cake pan from Michael's and some gold food spray paint.  The bottom tier was vanilla and the top was strawberry.  Most people didn't believe that it was even real at first!  

We were all under the agreement that this was the most epic, original office prank we had ever seen.  And it was really cheap!!  All of the balloons, streamers, flowers, tablecloths, picture frames, cake platter, and cups were all from Dollar Tree.  The only significant items were the Champagne and Cake. 

Julienne and I joke that we need to start a 'Fake Wedding Planning' company and we'll call it 'Go Big or Go Home.' 

*All names have been changed to protect their identity and privacy.

Make It Monday : Laminate Tile Desk Cover

Good morning, it's Monday - which means it's time for another Make It Monday!!
I'm on a roll - 3 of them in a row!

In a never-ending attempt to organize my office, my massive desk has been at the very heart of every re-organization that my office has gone through. It's technically two IKEA Linnmon table tops put together to make one giant kaiju of a desk (yes, I said kaiju - ie. giant monster - and yes, I saw Pacific Rim). Put together like this, the desk measures 78" x 48"...ish. (78¾" x 47¼")

When we moved >cough< last March >cough<, the desks did not make it to the new apartment in one piece. Someone's foot when through the top of one of the desks, and said person decided to try to hide it. There were also a ton of other scuffs and scratches in the same table top - the other table made it safely. After settling in, I filled the gap with expanding foam and painted the top black.

Unfortunately, it was VERY noticeable. Both from the uneven-ness of the top as well as the paint. I tried covering the whole thing with contact paper, but that didn't work out well - both because of the material and the seams. But I knew I wanted to cover the desk with something...

So when I saw Erin from How to Nest for Less cover her craft table with laminate flooring, a light bulb went off in my head. I didn't want anything dark though. My office doesn't get a whole lot of natural light, and that giant black desk sucks all the light out of the room as it is...

I went to Home Depot, looked around a bit, priced out some stuff... and waited. My cheapest option was going to be $30, and we've had other things going on, so it was going to have to wait longer.

Until, one day while grocery shopping at Aldi, I passed by the clearance rack and saw a couple of boxes of laminate tile. Most were dark... and then there was this beauty!

Take a look at that price! Yes, that says 75 CENTS - now THAT is in my price range! Haha

I did a quick count to make sure all of the tiles were in there, and this bad boy came home with me... and then proceeded to sit in the trunk of my car for over a month. Until last weekend, when I decided to get my butt in gear and get moving on the revamp!

I did have to cut down the tiles to fit, and I wanted to make sure there was still a seam where the two desks meet, so when they have to come apart, it doesn't destroy the tiles. But that wasn't so bad.

sorry it's so dark - the sun went away by the time I finished. 

Once I was done, I set my computer up (that I haven't touched in forever)! Now, everytime I walk in my office I smile! It looks wonderful!!

This was just part 1 in my office revamp, and this past weekend, I worked hours on organizing and cleaning. So more pictures will come as I progress!

Thanks for visiting!

Make It Monday: Gold & Glitter Shoes

It's been a little over a month since my mother told me she needed my thrifty/crafty talents. I was given a task : find a pair of shoes that were gold and covered in gold glitter. Trying to find out what type of shoe she wanted was like pulling teeth, and I kept finding loads of sparkly shoes on my various trips to the 2 big thrift stores by me...

...but they were either a) the wrong color, b) not the right size, or c) had a super high and skinny heel.

Then I found these pale tan babies. I sent off a photo to my mom and told her that I could paint them and cover them in glitter. For $5 - it was about to go down!

I started by covering the heals in painters tape and filling the inside with newspaper. I pulled out my trusty gold spray paint (that I used here on a tiki jar and a stegosaurus).

They dried overnight and the following evening, I started putting glue on the shoes and covering them with glitter. I only did one shoe at first cause I wasn't sure how the glitter was going to hold up - and it was late in the evening, which is why the lighting is pretty terrible in some of these (apologies!)

We weren't really concerned with how well they were going to hold out - they were for a fundraiser dance and that would be the last time she ever wore them. I still didn't want glitter to go EVERYWHERE, so I clear coated them before packing them in a shoe box (that took up half of my suitcase).

We landed in New York and got out to my Mom's... and I was impressed with how well they held up to being tossed around.

These were a huge success and I look forward to painting more shoes in the future!!

Make it Monday : Paint it Gold!

Gold spray paint is officially one of my new favorite things! I picked up some gold spray paint at Home Depot yesterday and immediately got to spraying this little Stegosaurus when I got home. All I need now is a Parasaurolophus to keep my little stego company! I can't wait until my office renovation is complete - cause I know exactly where these guys are going!

And because only spray painting one random object is just no fun, I scoured my office for something else to paint. Low and behold - this tiki jar that I got at Goodwill back in August. I loved it as soon as I saw it, knew the color was no good, but he was exactly what I needed to keep my knitting needles all together. Enter the spray paint...



And he's a whole new tiki! And I love him! Doesn't he look great with the stego? And a few little flowers?

Here's what they looked like before:


And after:

Camera Ups & Downs

So this past weekend, as touched on slightly in the Sunday sum up, I spent a majority of my time working on stuff for the shop (which I will share updates on later this week). Since I borrowed the camera from work to get good product photos, I also decided to snap a few pictures of my surroundings. Not only do I love when bloggers post "photos of details," but it was also great practice with the new fancy camera. I want one so bad! (It's the Canon 4Ti with a EF-S 18-55mm lens and a EW-60C lens hood.)


It was definitely a cold weekend, but full of sunshine!



Getting my craft on - making lots and lots of charms!


No post here is complete without a picture of either Shai, Ivy or Snow.



On top of that, I was doing research into getting my own camera. I most certainly don't have the money for it now - so I went a different route. People at work mentioned something along the lines of just using my iPhone for photos... so I went and invested in Photojojo's lens wallet set. (link) It comes with their 3 magnet-clip-on lenses (a fisheye, a wide angle/macro, and a telephoto x2), as well as a case/tripod/giant telephoto x12 lens. I'm already in love!!

I ended up retaking a lot of the product photos with my phone and new lenses!

DIY Cross-Stitch Dollar Store Mat

Today I discovered a contest on Dollar Store Crafts sponsored by The Dollar Tree that I just had to enter. (contest can be found here) It envolves making fun crafts with things you find in the dollar store in under 30 minutes.

I couldn't NOT make something. Sadly, the contest was going to end in a matter of hours by the time I saw it.

When I got home, I got right to work and have had nothing but problems with Photoshop while trying to format my images. Gadget's computer is dying... Bad times. But the project is done, as is the tutorial image.



I'm going to try to explain what I did here...

0 // Gather your materials. My mat, masking tape, and paint brushes are all from the dollar store. (The paint was in Walmart clearance - also a dollar and the other materials I already had.) In later photos, you'll see a plate that I use for paint - even that's from the dollar store.

1 // Make your design. First and foremost, you'll need to figure out what your design will be and what it's scale will be on the finished mat. I chose a heart because Valentine's Day is right around the corner! My mat was 14.5" by 26.5" and my "squares" ended up being 2 inches.

2 // Measure and lay down tape. With my math, there was a 6.25" border on the left & right, and a 1.25" border on the top & bottom. I used masking tape to block off the outer borders so I could make marks and find my 2 in squares. I made marks on the top piece of tape.

3 // Place all boundary tape. I did this so I knew where my 2in boxes were going to be fitting in.

4 // Make measurement marks on all pieces of tape. I made made marks on the top piece and both side pieces of tape - every 2 inches. On an additional piece of tape, I made matching marks. This piece will be moved downwards as we go forward.

5 // Start drawing. With a red paint pen, I made large Xs within each 2in 'square'.

6 // Move the tape down to continue. As I finished each row, I moved the last piece of tape downwards 2 inches and continued until I had marked out my complete design.

7 // Prepare to paint.Once the design was in place, I poured out some acrylic paint. I ended up using about 4 times what you see here.

8 // Start painting. I went over each of the sketched Xs with acrylic paint and dabbed the paint into the carpet. The carpet was higher pile than I would have liked, so it was a little difficult getting the paint in there...
Don't worry so much about the Xs not being perfect - it definitely adds character.

9 // Continue painting until all your Xs are done.

10 // Once all the Xs are painted in, remove the tape and VOILA! Acrylic dries really fast and is waterproof, but let it dry for an hour or two just to be safe.



My total time for completing this project - about 25 minutes. For about $5 - $6 if you count the plate for paint!

I hope you enjoy, and I'd love to see and pictures if you attempt one yourself.

2012 Crafty Goodness

Through the course of October - December, I was actually pretty crafty. I got a lot of random, small projects done. Below are some instagram photos:

In preparation for my galaxy-print dress, I painted an old clutch. I really love how it turned out.

I painted a thrifted pair of boots.

I altered a bunch of clothes.
(For some reason, I didn't take before and after of most of them...)

Made my own laundry detergent (which is AWESOME).

I crocheted... a lot!

And tried tons of awesome new recipes!
(I won't post pictures - there were just so many.)

And I actually did some painting. I wish I had gotten more painting done - I was doing these for a book in preparation for a con... but I gave up the week before the con, cause there was going to be NO way they'd be printed and shipped to me in time. I'm still working on them though, cause I still want to make the book. And... I like mermaids! >shrug<

Stay tuned for painting previews...

Crafty : Galaxy Print Test Gifs

So I found some scrap black fabric that I could start doing my own tests for the galaxy print dress.

I posted a couple pictures on twitter, I'll get those posted here soon. I have a bunch of pictures and I'll get them all formatted and added in a bit. Right now everything's in the wash so the bleach doesn't keep eating into the fabric.

For now, enjoy some gifs I made with Jittergram on my new iPhone.



Fun times!

Galaxy Print Inspiration

Incoming!! Galaxy print is all over the place right now, made famous by one, Christopher Kane.



And tons of wonderful craftsters are taking it upon themselves to recreate this new fashion trend in various ways. I've seen nail art, shoe art, shirts, dresses, skirts, even tights!

Well, I've had this wonderful black dress that I've been holding onto because it somehow got two bleach spots on it... considering I don't use bleach for anything, it really upset me and I want to know where it came from!!

I had plans to bleach it and redye it another color perhaps... but now I think I'm going to do a galaxy print. And not because of the fad either. I love astronomy, always have. I kicked butt in my Astronomy class in high school.

So I looked around and saw different people's techniques on this to see which outcome I like most and which I would go with... and I've gathered the best ones to share with you all.



A // Galaxy Handbag and Heels by Kristen of Studs and Pearls.
Now hers is mostly glue and glitter, which won't work for my dress, but I love the swirling colors.

B // Galaxy Skirt by Sammi Jackson.
I love the finished look! I like the idea of using a sponge technique.

C // Galaxy Print Tees by Gwen of This Fashion is Mine.
Gathering the fabric in a spiral is a really great idea.

D // Galaxy Jeans by Noémie of The Sun was High.
This fellow astronomy lover has the most realistic version of a DIY Galaxy print I've seen. And I love the look of the black cuff at the bottom.

E // Galaxy Dress by Stacie of Stars for Streetlights
This is actually a very similar dress to the one I'll be doing. I love her big bursts of white. She also has tutorials on a Galaxy Shirt and Galaxy Scarf.

F // Galaxy Tee by Amanda via Ashley's blog, Wise Rabbit Says
She does the swirling method as well, and the idea to dilute the bleach has been noted.

These girls are all my inspiration. And soon, I'll start working on the dress!

New Earring Holder

I completed this last month after my poor Earring Lantern became too full to hold anymore earrings. I'd been looking into large earring holders to buy, or for inspiration to build one of my own.

I went into the Thrift Store and was fortunate to find these two wall-hanging dvd shelves. This is exactly what I needed to see. For $2 a piece, I couldn't say no - no earring holder I could buy would come close to that price.

I spray painted them white and hung it up - simple!



I ventured into the same Thrift Store a few weeks ago and found a third one that matched exactly... but I didn't get it. These two are getting kinda full as it is... I don't think I need a third - just for it to be empty and tempting me to buy or make new earrings!

Only problem right now... is coming up with a place for my studs. For now, they're still hanging out on the Lantern.

Craft Exchange Completion!

I finished my half of the Craftaholic Annonymous Gift Exchange and sent it off to Regina today. You'll recall from yesterday that I mentioned that I made her a pincushion and a custom sketchbook.

Here are some final shots of the package:

First up is the handmade, handpainted sketchbook:


Second, is the handmade mason jar pincusion:

I also drew all over the package, but can't find the picture I took.
Hope you like it Regina!

In case anyone asks - I designed the cover art using a tablet in Photoshop [see the design sketch here] and then free handed the design on the cover with a pencil.  Then painted over it with acrylic paint with regular paintbrushes.

Craft Exchange WIP

I wanted to wait until I sent out the package before I posted stuff on this - 

I signed up for Craftaholic Annonymous' Craft Exchange because I wanted to do some crafting - for someone other than myself. I've been working on it off and on for the month.

She had told me that she liked to sew, so I knew immediately that I wanted to make her some sort of pincushion. But I knew that's not all I wanted to make her. So I decided to share my love of doodling and make her a completely custom sketchbook.

Here are some of the initial sketches I had while I was brain storming...


Here is the final design I came up for the sketchbook:


And a work in progress shot: [apologies, I'd have more - but the photos came out TERRIBLE]


You'll also recognize that the fabric is from a thrifty find a few weeks ago.

I'll post the final product tomorrow!