crafts | kimberly ah

Jan 03 2013

Christmas, crafty adventures, holidays, Merry & Bright, snail mail

My Holiday Cards Were Ridden With Guilt

I do believe all of our holiday cards for 2012 have been mailed…finally. A few stragglers are making their way through the mail right now, hopefully to arrive as New Year greetings!

I’ve been making my own Christmas cards for years now…they always start as an elaborate project, then, by the time I sit down to do them, they morph into something simple. It’s harder now because December is my busiest time (with work and holiday hullabaloo) so if I don’t get them done early, they don’t happen in a fantastic way. But it’s hard to get into the mood and find inspiration for your Christmas cards during the dog days of summer… In 2010, I met up with my friend Holly in November and we worked on our Christmas cards together….crafting in that hotel room in the Dells was one of my favorite memories that year! And my cards were simple, yet nice and I lined each and every envelope…sigh…those were the days…

Our cards this year were simple enough. I used a CHEERS stamp (from here) and washi tapes on some 4-bar cards (from here). I like making things, but I detest making the same ol’ thing over and over and over and over again… To alleviate boredom, I used a few different colors of cards and envelopes and mixed in different styles of washi tape (and some Martha Stewart tapes leftover from last year).

I really do think this might be my last year making the holiday cards…it’s just not fun anymore and I think my results show it. At this point in my life, I would rather focus on writing a nice note in each card than making each card. When I sat down to do my cards a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to write more, but the urgency of getting-things-done took over and I just went through the motions. I hate going through the motions…especially when it comes to my letter-writing friends and favorite family members. But I will hopefully alleviate my letter-writing guilt by staying on top of my mail in 2013 (a hint to my favorite 2013 resolution).

So I’m curious…do you write letters with each of your holiday cards? Do you expect letters?

Tagged Christmas, crafts, holidays, mail art, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Dec 10 2012

2 Comments

crafty adventures, handmade=happiness, homemaking

new business card stamp!

I’ve been wanting new business cards since I changed blogs last spring. I didn’t need them…it’s not like I have a business or anything…but I wanted a little something to stick in letters (and Christmas cards) to spread the word about the ol’ blog and my new-ish cell phone number (I’ve hidden the last few digits). I thought a stamp would be fun because I can change up the inks and the paper with my mood (which changes often, though grey always seems to be in season around here).

In my months (I don’t take decisions lightly) of scouring the internet for options, I was happy to find Ampersandity again. I love Cathie Hong’s work and we have an address stamp done in her calligraphy. (I actually won it, and she uses it on her site as an example stamp.) I love the blend of her calligraphy and the sans serif typeface and I love the dots…the dots pretty much sealed the deal for me. I’ve already purchased some peacock, paper bag and gravel business cards to get me started.

Fun times will be happening tonight while I stamp up some business cards and Christmas cards (because that stamp just arrived, too!) Never mind the fact that the house is a mess and the Christmas decorations are still strewn about…paper projects are priorities!

Tagged crafts, diy, homemaking, rubber stamp, snail mail

Nov 23 2012

5 Comments

celebrations, holidays, Thanksgiving, Trader Joe's, what's for dinner

This was my Thanksgiving…

Another Thanksgiving is behind us…it’s all a little sad for both Naoto and me–we love hosting a party, even a small one of my parents and our friend, Santron. Even though the guest list was small, the food was plentiful! We had all of the classics: the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing (we make this one every year–it’s Naoto’s signature dish!), green bean casserole (I caved for the classic, although we used the Trader Joe’s stuff and it was much lighter than the Campbells version!), fresh veggies (courtesy of Santron), Hawaiian rolls (courtesy of my mom) and Kathy’s grandma’s cranberry sauce…I made it on Wednesday and I am a cranberry sauce convert…the cognac makes it delectable!

For dessert, my mom made a Twinkie cake, in honor of the “late, great” snack.

The table was half planned, and half happy accident. On Wednesday night I cut a long sheet of kraft paper and made a table runner. I used my fancy gold paint to draw feathers and polka dots. My mom brought up some pheasant feathers (from my dad’s “feather collection”) that I used with my glittery votives to fill out the center of the table. I forgot to buy flowers so my mom mentioned my jade plant (purchased this summer at Trader Joes) as an option. It’s in a copper pot, so it was kind of perfect. (Well, probably not perfect for Sandra Lee, Queen of the Tablescape, but perfect for us.) I finished off the table with a tiny turkey, a gift from my parents earlier this fall.

For the place cards, I used acorns from this Paper Source garland kit (not available again until next fall). I was in a neutral & metallic mood apparently…

The meal ended with a table viewing of Psy and MC Hammer singing at this year’s American Music Awards…clearly it will be a meal I never forget.

Tagged celebrations, crafts, decorating, diy, food, holidays, memories, parents, Thanksgiving, Trader Joe's, twinkie cake

Nov 16 2012

thanksgiving invitations 2012

They don’t look like they looked in my head. They were much more layered and complicated and perfect in there. But, they also didn’t have fancy gold artist ink on them…or feathers…those were happy surprises. Oh, and I am not a designer. At all. But, even though professionally created invitations might look more perfect, I enjoy creating something with my hands and with paper. Even though things didn’t work out as they did in my dreams, I am still happy I took the time to create something tangible and special for my guests. For me, this is what the holidays are all about.

Because our printer is broken (and my other printer–a.k.a. Naoto–is on vacation this week), I knew I was going to have to either rubber stamp or use my beloved cursive typewriter for the word part. The typewriter won. And even though the message is subtle (or hard to read without your glasses!) I think the cursive text is pretty. (Besides, typewriters are totally trendy right now, so I’m in style by accident!)

So, I typed my message on my (cheap, but lovely) 140 pound watercolor paper. It felt more luxurious than my other white paper choices, and it fit through the typewriter just fine. Then I taped on two strips of gold striped washi tape, lining up the stripes so it looks like one wide strip of tape. Then I cut out my practice feather (on Paper Source aubergine) and I sewed it right on top of the washi tape stripe. The sewing was a huge pain. I jammed up my machine no less than ten times (and I only sewed three tiny things)! I was able to fix it each time (yay for patience and the owners manual!) but I wasn’t able to determine the source of the problem…it might have been the two layers of paper together, since my first paper sewing adventure only involved one layer of watercolor paper.

Every year, I try to include a quote on our invitations. This year’s quote is from Henry Ward Beecher, “Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.”

I mailed them out on Tuesday, so hopefully they will arrive at their destinations soon.

(One more picture! This Instagram shows the shimmery gold!)

Tagged celebrations, crafts, diy, holidays, snail mail, Thanksgiving

Nov 13 2012

7 Comments

crafty adventures

Obsessed…

I realized I should probably wait to show you the Thanksgiving invitation until it actually makes its way out into the world. So, give John-the-Mailman a couple of days to make that happen.

(But I also warn you…the invitations are not very exciting…and they tried my patience like crazy.)

However, in the course of thinking about our Thanksgiving invitations and Christmas cards, I found a new & interesting ink. It is Winsor & Newton’s Metallic Gold Drawing Ink. I only found it by accident while I was looking for (and not finding) gold sumi ink at Blick. I love the little old fashioned box, but I was mostly intrigued by the words on the box: a non water-resistant ink made from bronze suspended in a gum solution. If sparkly gold particles suspended in liquid doesn’t sound like fun, I don’t know what does. When I opened the bottle last night and started stirring, I could see the tiny gold sparkles swimming around in the bottle. A splash of ink flew out while I was stirring and even the splash was gorgeous as the bits of gold settled into the paper. It was love at first stir for me!

I am completely incapable when it comes to calligraphy. But this ink makes me want to try again. Ahhh, to pen my own invitations with this golden ink…. (Someday, maybe…) Until then, I will paint in gold. I used a thin watercolor brush to paint branches and feathers and I attempted to write “thanks” with the brush (big fail). I painted on Paper Source’s aubergine (because I was using it for the Thanksgiving invitations) and some lovely (and cheap) 140 pound watercolor paper. The gold flecks are more apparent on the watercolor paper, but I think both papers show off the ink well. (And none of my pictures capture the beauty of the ink.)

Once I make up with my sewing machine (oh, did it ever give me problems on those invitations!), I have another idea for a garland. But it might take me awhile to get the nerve up to sew again.

Tagged crafts

Nov 12 2012

onto Thanksgiving planning

When one party closes, another opens.

That’s how I feel about November. Naoto & I have been hosting Thanksgiving since we got married. And, for the record, Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. We love hosting, we love menu planning and cooking. Naoto does all of the hard stuff–the cooking and the bathroom cleaning. I do all of the fun stuff–the invitations, the table setting, the decorations (and the rest of the cleaning…but that’s not fun). When we first started hosting, Thanksgiving was a large party. We had several friends who would join Naoto and me along with my parents for a feast. For the past few years, it’s only been my parents and a friend or two. No matter how many people we have, I always like to create a pretty table and some special invitations.

Today I am working on my Thanksgiving invitations…a little late, I know. Thanksgiving is creeping up on me this year! Naoto is on “stay-cation” this week, so we can get a lot of our party planning and menu ideas worked out. But, number one on our list is getting the spare room back in order and ready for guests. (And this will be no fun at all…moving furniture, clearing out a desk for donation, finding a place for hundreds of homeless office supplies…)

Hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow with our finished Thanksgiving invitation. It’s going to be an interesting one since our printer is still broken…but at least I have rubber stamps and a typewriter, right?

The picture above was taken last year. But I’m sure Presley napping on my to-do list will happen again this year.

Tagged celebrations, crafts, holidays, Thanksgiving

Nov 09 2012

1 Comment

crafty adventures, snail mail, washi weekend

washi weekend

Over the summer, I entered a giveaway on the Short Small Sweet Blog. Ru was lucky enough to attend an MT workshop with Hello Sandwich (who is seriously my craft idol) and she was giving away some treats from her day including MT tapes and the MT Textbook that shows plenty of washi tape ideas. Well, I won and my package from Ru arrived this week!

I love the tag Ru created and I am thrilled to add the brightly striped, super-skinny tape to my collection along with the other two Limited Edition tapes (one is graphic flowers, the other is people in traditional clothes from around the world). For those of you who are new to washi tape, MT tapes are the cream of the crop–they are the original washi tapes, made in Japan and are the highest quality tapes. I have a huge MT collection (thanks to my sweet sister-in-law and our trip to dozens of stationery stores in Japan last year) and I also have other decorative paper tapes (made by Target, scrapbooking companies, crafting companies, etc) and there is a difference. Not to say the other tapes are bad, but they just don’t always perform to the level of the MT tapes. (Naoto calls me a washi tape snob…he’s probably right.)

Thank you, Ru, for the amazing mail! I will be crafting the afternoon away!

Tagged crafts, MT tape, snail mail, washi tape

Nov 05 2012

2 Comments

celebrations, crafty adventures, Election Party

The Weekend Was Spent With Glitter

It took all weekend, but these guys are ready for their Election Party debut tomorrow night. Okay, it didn’t really take all weekend, but I worked on them throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, and I even added a little more glue and a few more dashes of glitter this morning, so it feels like it took all weekend. (And for the record, glittering these guys is pretty much all I did this weekend as far as Election Party prep goes.)

I used this Martha Stewart tutorial for the idea. I used bookbinding glue (because it is my “craft glue”) and Martha’s “red corundum” and “azurite” glitter (from a 24 pack). And. in spite of the fact that the elephant and the donkey are pretty big, I feel like my vials of glitter are still full. It’s like magic…but it’s also a little annoying because now I feel like I’m never going to use up all this glitter!

Last winter, I glittered a family of tiny deer. By the time I finished two of the three, I was over the project. And, to be honest, that’s how I felt about these guys…I just wanted them to be done. I think waiting for the glue to dry and going back to fill in the bald spots kills my momentum and crafty spirit. But, as always, I’m glad I suffered through in the name of our 2012 Election Party. I think they look fun and flashy.

And I’m even sitting here right now thinking about all of the plastic toy turkeys that could be glittered for Thanksgiving…

Tagged celebrations, crafts, election

Nov 04 2012

9 Comments

celebrations, crafty adventures, Election Party, little red toolbox

My Little Red Toolbox | Sakura Quickie Glue Pen

The Little Red Toolbox is back! And, with another pen (not on purpose)! But this one is not full of ink, it’s full of glue. Glue that streams out in a nice fine line. Glue that can be covered in glitter to add little more *sparkle* to your projects. Glue that can be used to stick the teeeeniest bits of paper to other bits of paper.

Sakura’s Quickie Glue Pen writes like a smooth ballpoint pen making it easy to add small glittery details to paper projects. I used it to add some subtle sparkle to some decorations (the Stars & Stripes Garland from Paper Source) for the Election Party. The Quickie Glue Pen writes with a 0.7mm point and is really easy to control. I traced the outline of the stars inside the circles and I had no problem staying along the edge, even though I am often careless, impatient and messy when I craft. When I first started, I traced small sections of the stars and added glitter to each section before “writing” more glue.

By the time I was on the last color, I was tracing the entire star and glittering all at once. (For the record, I only glittered six of these…see what I mean about being impatient?) The good news is, the glue stays tacky long enough to hold the glitter well.

I strung them up (with the included tiny clothespins and twine) and stuck them on the TV stand. I still have eight more circles and eight more stars that I can play with someplace else, if I don’t run out of time (or interest).

It’s hard to see the glitter in the picture, but it adds just enough sparkle to make things festive around here. As soon as the donkey and the elephant are glittered, they will join the garland near the TV for a little sparkle party.

But back to the glue pen. When the glue is still blue, it is a permanent adhesive. While I wouldn’t use a thin glue pen to glue large areas or heavy papers together, I do use it to adhere tiny bits of paper to other paper or to stick down that pesky corner that the glue stick always seems to miss. But for the most part, I use the glue pen just as I used it today–to add some glitter to decorations or cards. Because a little sparkle goes a long way around here. (And even a little sparkle creates a glittery mess that lasts for weeks…but it’s worth it!)

Tagged celebrations, crafts, decorating, election, little red toolbox

Nov 02 2012

3 Comments

celebrations, crafty adventures, Election Party, thoughts

These Guys Won’t Even Know What Hit ‘Em

Election Party prep is in full swing around here. On Thursday I packed up all of the Halloween stuff and the weekend ahead promises to be full of cleaning and craft projects of the red, white and blue persuasion. Those guys up above (a plastic elephant and donkey from the toy animal bins at Michaels) are going to get a glitter treatment. We are still deciding on food and I’m trying to motivate myself to get the cleaning and decorating and shopping out of the way so I’m not rushing around on Tuesday while I’m trying to vote and obsessively watch the election coverage on television.

And, while everyday life goes on here, everyday life has virtually stopped out East. My heart is breaking over the devastation there. Cecelia, my longest-running pen pal lives in Manhattan and I am anxiously awaiting a letter from her so I can hear how she fared in the storm. Of course, I understand that it might take awhile as she focuses on adjusting to the new normal there, but in this age of instant communication, it’s weird for impatient me to have to wait for news in the mail…like we’ve turned back the clock 100 years. Cecelia and I have never exchanged email addresses or phone numbers, so I’m relying on John-the-Mailman to bring me news.

In the meantime, I will be hoping for the best for Cecelia and everyone who is affected…

Tagged celebrations, crafts, decorating, diy, election

kimberly ah

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