This month’s packet included some lovely handmade papers, tags & paper ribbons, googly eyes, tan embroidery floss and brass buttons. My first thought was “CRAP! I’m not a paper crafter! What am I going to do with this?” Thankfully the fine print says you only have to use some of each material and although it must be one craft, creative packaging can count. Ah Hah! My loophole! I did some quick internet searching, found a project I liked, requested the book from the library and waited. Waited for the book to arrive, waited for Mr. T to depart so I could have some quality crafting time alone, and waited for divine inspiration on how to use the paper.

When I finally sat down to work on my project Sunday evening… Don’t judge me, I know I procrastinate! Well, let’s just say my initial project fell through. As did the next variation. Frustrated at how to use  both a whimsical googly eye and a stately brass button on the same project without coming off with something destined for Craft Fail, I turned to the internet. Did you know there is a hilarious blog all about googly eyes? After scouring the internet, I finally had an idea.

Armed with a base set of instructions from Wee Folk Art, I set off to make a cute little felt business card holder. After all, I did just buy my ticket to attend my first BlogHer conference, so it’s only logical I’d need something crafty to display my business cards. But as I was cutting felt, the project evolved one last time. Last December, while working the intense holiday production at church, a wonderful woman with fiery red hair and an awesome spirit to match, blessed me with a Starbucks gift card in this adorable little holder:

I love to give handmade gifts, but you know there are those recipients who aren’t truly *ahem* appreciative (or *cough, cough* worthy) of the time and care that goes into such a gift. This seemed like the perfect way to blend crafty with practical!

By the time I finished, I had decreased the original pattern by 70%, changed from two pockets to a single pocket for a gift card, and had enlarged the bird so that it would be closer to scale with the smallest googly eye from the package. I used the most minimal amount of paper possible to be the “card” that accompanied the gift card for the recipient. This was my end result:

Made of el cheapo acrylic felt (because it’s what I had), I’m thrilled with the results. Family and friends be warned: if you receive a gift card from me in the next year, you now know how it will be packaged! The photo doesn’t show the deep violet color of the main felt well, but in real life, it’s snazzy!

Once I had decided what I was doing, this was a quick and easy project. It took 2 days, because I was being careful. I stitched the design in a few hours one evening, then used hot glue to adhere the eye and left it to dry overnight. I did the rest of the assembly in a few (interrupted) hours the next day.

My felt still had the price sticker on it, I purchased it at 5 for $1. So with 3 colors used, that’s about $.60. Add 3 colors of embroidery floss and that’s another $1. Googly eyes and buttons you may have on hand, but if needed to be purchased for $1-2 per package. A cheap craft for sure, could be as little as free if you have these items left over from other projects, but not more than $5 even if you had to purchase everything! I suspect these sell for close to $5 at Starbucks each.

I truly loved working this craft challenge. I thought it would be much more difficult than it was, but the unique supplies provided just the right amount of difficulty to inspire and drive me to work a bit harder. It was a nice change of pace after having several big projects that took a lot of time and didn’t allow for as much creativity. Definitely helped me to bring my crafty mojo back.

Now I get to sit back and watch the voting for the next few days to see which project prevails. I hope the other entrants blog about their process as well, I would love to learn more about what appears to be a bracelet, listed as #1 for the vote. Click here to see all the entrants and cast your vote (no registration required)!

If you are inspired and want to join the crafty challenge, you can purchase a single month like I did to give it a whirl, or get a discount by subscribing for multiple months.

Why not?

This year, I chose my own valentine. I chose this beautiful print from artist Jennifer Katherine. I stumbled across her blog more than a year ago and began following her. I loved her style, I loved her use of digital, graphic tools and yet, she made things with buttons. Then, after following her a few months, I saw her delve into sewing. This was a girl after my own heart. Although I’ve put my digital art days behind me (for now), I have a great appreciation for the blend of technical with traditional arts and crafts.

I recall when Jennifer put the early sketches of this piece on her blog, and then a while later when she showed a glimpse of it with color. I was in love. It was one of those moments where art spoke directly to my heart. I went months without catching up on my blog reader, and wouldn’t you know, the evening I finally caught up, Jennifer had posted just days before that she opened an Etsy shop. And guess what was for sale?! The surprising thing was that she had a note on her shop about a portion of proceeds going to one of my favorite charities. I just HAD to have it. I sent Mr. T the e-mail with the link to purchase. Then I became impatient and just asked him one night if I could buy it, since I have an Etsy account and he doesn’t. A few clicks for me, a journey through a snowstorm for Jennifer and a few days later, it was in my hands!

One of the best parts of the piece for me is what’s happened behind the scenes. I shared through the Etsy convo feature why I was so excited to purchase it, she shared some of her heart and personal story of why she made the piece. It’s truly amazing how the whole thing is stitched together. I almost didn’t share with you on here on my blog, because it’s so unconventional to have a broken heart as a valentine’s gift. But, it’s the truth, my heart is being mended, our marriage is being mended, life right now is a season of healing and restoration. Nothing could better represent this season of life. Even down to the part where it arrived in the midst of my medical testing for those chest pains! Literally and metaphorically, this speaks to me in so many ways. I love passing by it multiple times a day, and am surprised by the variety of emotions and thoughts is produces. This piece of paper speaks to my soul. That is truly the best kind of art!

If you love it too, Jennifer has placed another print for sale in her Etsy shop. Be sure to stop by and leave her some love on her blog: Elegant Journey as well.

If you have a piece of art that speaks to your soul as well, I’d love to read about it. Share the story in the comments or a link if you’ve already blogged about it.

For the next few posts, I’ll share some of our valentine’s day fun.

I like to make my life easy, so we pick up premade paper cards for the kids. With 3 boys in school, we had 48 valentines (minimum) flying out of our house, I just don’t have the energy to do completely handmade. But, crafty as I am, I had to help my crafty kids add a unique touch. We love melting crayons in this house, so when I saw silicone ice cube trays in heart shapes at Target last month in the ‘dollar’ section (they were actually $2.50 for 2 trays), I knew what we had to do.

There are instructions for melting crayons all over the internet, so let me just share my tips.

• I like to melt at 250 degrees. It takes a bit, sometimes up to 10-15 minutes depending on your oven and the brand of crayon, but just keep an eye on it. I set the timer for 8 minutes to start, then check every 2-3 after until they have turned to liquid.
• The most difficult part of this project is prepping the crayons. I highly recommend using a craft (X-Acto) knife to slice the paper off and then to chop the crayons into appropriate size pieces for your mold.
• Don’t worry about gaps. I just place crayons inside the mold in a single layer, with a few gaps, so you get a nice flat result.
• Watch your brands! You can see in the photos we had a few restaurant crayons sneak their way in. Some brands just won’t melt. I only buy Crayola crayons for our house for many reasons, the easy way they melt is one of those. Don’t fret though, if you have bad crayons weasel their way in, it just makes for some unique texture.
• If you don’t have shaped molds, my favorite melting containers are individual silicone mini cupcake cups. With ridges that mimic paper liners, they create great edges the kids love to color with!
• We used hot glue to fix them to the paper valentines. This was tricky and may not be the best solution. I used a generous amount of hot glue, let it cool a bit (so it didn’t melt the wax too much), then pressed the flat side of the crayon into it. Some I didn’t let cool enough and they melted, some cooled too much and they popped off. At their best they removed easily, but it made them stick long enough to travel to school and make it into valentine boxes.

If you had fun, crafty ideas you used this year for classrooms, be sure to leave a description and link in the comments to share with me!

Last Thursday I spent most of the day in the emergency room due to chest pains. I think my body wants to make sure my 30th year goes out with a bang. After a series of not too invasive tests, the supposed diagnosis is esophageal spasms. I’ll save you the Google time, it’s like really killer heartburn that wreaks havoc on the esophagus. Trust me, it didn’t feel like heartburn, and it still isn’t very comfortable. But I have medication, the pain is definitely decreasing, and thank God I have tests confirming I have a healthy heart! Surprise, surprise, stress is the likely culprit. Take a couple of boys with school difficulties, a husband preparing to travel overseas for two and a half weeks and add that to the typical day to day for a family of six and you might be surprised these are my first chest pains.

As if that weren’t enough, yesterday half of my hand turned blue. Not Smurf blue, but “dusky” blue. The color your skin turns when there is not enough oxygen or circulation in a part of your body. We initially witnessed this dusky blue color during our twins’ time in the NICU, so as soon as I saw it, I knew it wasn’t good. I called the ER, discussed it with a nurse. After what seemed like forever, but was really about 45 minutes of intense prayer and rest, my hand returned to normal and I dodged another ER visit.

My health is just another addition to the pile of things trying to discourage me lately. I’m combating my own negative thoughts with the promises of God. It’s not easy, I’m not perfect at it, but I’m trying and getting better at it, bit by bit. I still haven’t thoroughly processed what all this medical stuff means, I’m still working the process with doctors, but I know that God is faithful. I’m encouraged by Psalm 34:19 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” If you have something you are struggling with, I’d like to encourage you to check out White Paper Bible. The papers are compilations of scriptures that anyone can create on any topic they like. Use the search feature to find something that fits what you are going through and find a scripture to use as a weapon against your own negative thoughts.

Hopefully, I’ll find some rest and my children will be fever free and on their way back to school soon so I can find more time to blog about all the craftiness I’ve been working on. Real life isn’t the most fun to read about, but it’s the most authentic. Truth is at the sight of the blue hand I thought, “Now how am I supposed to finish those crochet projects for Valentine’s Day?” LOL

My kids have been using JumpStart online for a while now. We first started when we won a free 3 month subscription from a contest over at A Mom Blog. It was in the early stages and while the kids liked it, I had a few issues with it. I was pleasantly surprised when I received positive interactions from the crew over at JumpStart to my concerns. Since that time, we’ve continued to use it and I am really amazed at how they continue to roll out new “worlds” which are new sections of games. I am amazed that it continues to captivate my first grader. He frequently chooses JumpStart over other television network websites for games.

If you are a family with multiple children like ours, you’ll like that each child can have their own sub account to save their own game. We can even have more than one child playing on our account on different computers at the same time. Because the virtual world remains the same, I’ve discovered the older children helping the younger ones navigate the world and the games. Hop on over to JumpStart.com to try a subscription membership for yourself to see how well it works for your family. It’s a great way to keep their minds busy on snow days!

Personally, I can’t imagine any mom, especially a stay-at-home, run of the mill, mom blogger such as myself, following the Twitter buzz, internet hype and a post like that and investing in one. It almost makes me want to cry. So as self-proclaimed Mac enthusiast and mom blogger, let me lay out my argument against (this version of) the iPad.

#1. It won’t multi-task. It’s not like your laptop, you can’t have 6 different softwares open at the same time. If you are like me, when on the laptop at any given time I may have a music player, Tweetdeck, an internet browser (or two) with numerous tabs each, e-mail, iPhoto and maybe even Skype all open. No, the iPad won’t do this. Yes, for the price tag, in my humble opinion, it should.

#2. No Flash. You know all those websites with the fancy photos on the front page? How about those games your kids play on all the network webpages? Yep, most of these are in Flash. When on the iPhone and you encounter a Flash application, a lovely blue cube with a question mark appears. Annoying yes, but can you imagine how much more annoying when the blank area takes up half of your 10 inch screen?

#3. Not for children. I’m not sure where people are getting this idea, but have you seen what my sons can do to a $7 paperback book? There is no way I’d hand them a $600 device to read a book or watch a movie or whatever. I think this is a completely ridiculous notion. And even if you do have older, more responsible children than I do, see note #2. Do you know how annoying it is when a child expects to see something on a webpage and it isn’t there? Yeah, that’s just a free ride to Whine City.

#4. No camera. Seriously? Not anywhere? Several of the design speculations about what the new tablet from Apple would look like had one on the front, so you could use iChat, Skype, etc. for video chat. Sure, it’s obviously too bulky to use as a regular camera like you would your iPhone, so it makes sense not to have one on the back. If Apple is the king of innovation, they really missed the mark here. All Mac laptops come with built in iSight cameras, so clearly Apple does not view this as a laptop competitor.

#5. Apps only. Not software, just apps. For instance, you’ve got a few minutes of time while waiting in the carpool lane, and you want to do some quick color correction on your photos. You’d have to have an app for that. So that thousand dollar suite of Adobe software you have at home, nope, can’t install it on the iPad. You’ll have to buy a new app, that’s likely far less useful to fix those great photos of the kids for your Christmas card. Sure, I expect the App store to explode with new versions of things with the new iPad capabilities, but it’s still just a glorified iPhone, not a real laptop.

#6. Hard drive size. Yep, they only go up to 64 gigs. If it’s bigger than an iPhone, more useful than an iPhone, why didn’t Apple give us more room to store things on it? If I really expected to replace my 2 yr old 160 gig Macbook Pro with this new cutting edge technology that is going to revolutionize how I view computers, it’s going to have more space. Again, the design shows that it’s clear that Apple is not intending this to replace your computer, it’s really just competing with the Kindle.

Don’t believe me? Check out this article from someone who knows more than I do and has actually seen an iPad: Gizmodo: 8 Things That Suck About the iPad

I’m really quite disappointed by Apple. It’s almost as if Apple set me up on a blind date and the iPad was waiting at the table for me. Sure, it’s quite the looker, but as dinner wore on, I grew weary of the shallow conversation. Clearly the iPad is all beauty and no brains. Apple, you told me you knew what I wanted in a partner; how great you were at pushing boundaries; how you’d revolutionize how we read, write and interact. I just can’t trust you to pick another blind date for me again.

All in all, I think I may ask my hubby to build me a hackintosh. So if I ever get to attend one of those cool blogging conferences, I’ll be the chick in the corner with a netbook with an Apple sticker on the lid.