Craft Craft Revolution

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2010-02-17T10:17:00.001-08:00

Soooo I haven't posted anything in a while. I suck. I think after the holidays crafty people get all crafted out trying to craft gifts for non-crafty friends. At least that's how it is for me...CRAFT RUT. Like writers block but with glitter & junk. Like my feelings towards crafting were like this guys face:

I finally snapped out of it making, of all things, a FRIENDSHIP bracelet. Yeah. A frickin' friendship bracelet. It's like I'm 14 and at camp all over again...makin' bracelets & wearing them myself 'cause my friends don't want them. Only they don't want them NOW 'cause they're too old not 'cause I'm a dork. Wait...

Any lonelycrafter, once I got out of my rut I went down to the Lowe's & bought a bunch of sheet rock squares then I went to the art store and bought paint 'cause I was feelin' all painty. Took it to the Lounge & had a crafty paint sesh with the kids. It's cheap, artistic, & fun. Good stuff all around. I highly recommend if you're in a fix for an art project. I like to paint creepy things like squid & hearts which is ok 'cause I'm disturbed but the kids tend to paint like a GOZILLION layers of paint, not let it dry & then paint their favorite quote. I love this. Mainly because I know inevitably one word is gettin' misspelled in that there artwork which makes it insanely awesomer. I loves me some art.

Or you can be a fellow counselor and enter your nerdfest painting in to the NerdFest Hall of Fame and do a HALO PAINTING. Props nerds...props.

We're also hosting a DIY Craft Lounge in the Lounge (redundant much?) which I'm particularly excited about. We did it once & like no one came but I'm hopeful it will catch on. There has to be SOME kind of crafty community in this town and I shall find it armed with nothing but a bedazzler & fabric scissors. Know this. It's on the last Tuesday of every month from 6pm-8pm, link here, you should come. This month we're making tea cup candles...which is pretty frickin' sweet if you ask me. Unless you like playing with fire, then it's just kinda dangerous.

Oh! P.S...I also had another crafty counselor paint this so we'd have something to look at when we were walking to the bathrooms...NOM NOM NOM...LOVE MR. NARWHAL.

I promise I'll post more...well maybe. No I will.

My Mac Can Kick Your PC's Butt...

2009-12-01T11:07:00.000-08:00

Sooooo, a while back on my *cough*th birthday I was fortunate enough to get a great big awesome Mac. And it's awesome. Super awesome. Like it has super powers. It can probably solve world hunger and junk. But like all ARTEEESTS I would rather use it for making cool videos and threatening people with its magical powers. This is working well for me. My first endeavor was to make a promo video for the butt-kickingest teen program that ever was: MINE. It's pretty great. Except yesterday, this one kid Ethan, kept farting in the lounge (I mean like REALLY farting) and by the time he was finished the lounge smelled like eggs and colon refuse. THAT time, the teen program kinda sucked. But most of the time it's top notch. Anygrossness, I made this video. And it's top notch too. So you should watch it....

And also you should watch this...because it's amazing...

Craft Club Unknowingly Prepares For Friday the 13th: The Luna Lovegood Edition

2009-11-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

So, like many people, I spent my Veteran's Day watching Harry Potter movies that happened to come across various channels. It appeared this week was the Order Of The Pheonix week...so I watched that...like maybe twice. Ok like 3 times but I wasn't, you know, WATCHING watching it...I DO stuff too. Accio-Interesting Life!

Anydumbledore, I decided Luna Lovegood is one of the most rockinest chicks ever. She's weird, she's crafty, she doesn't care what you think, she's sees stuff that nobody else see's, and she loses crap to Nargles. Let me tell you something folks, she's basically me. Only she's skinny at age 13 and I was a swarthy chub with too much arm hair.

Upon this realization I decided that we were totally going to make Luna Lovegood necklaces in Craft Club. This was risky, as previous craft clubs had been populated by boys and I wasn't sure a cork necklace was really going to fly with the DUDE ENERGY. But I am a persistant jerk...so I was determined to force the project upon whoever came within 3 feet of my craft area. Here's my little example:

The project was fairly simple, actually. I had found a few directions online that told me to get fishing wire and a needle and blah blah blah. I decided that those little eyelet screws were FAR more adequate so I go those. Directions as follows:

You need:
-corks (craft stores have cute little ones in the floral section along with wine corks but if you're doing this with kiddies who may or may not try and suck on the cork just because it once touched wine I would advise getting the regular ones.) It's amazing what you KNOW a 13 year old boy will do before you even start a project...see "No-Hitler Mustaches" post below.
-eyelet screws...also found at the craft store in the wood craft section.
-thin ribbon, various colors. Now, the necklace she wears has beads and whatnot but I'm all about individuality so I picked ribbon. Plus it was easier and less time-consuming for the youth. And me.
-Random bits of goodness. Charms, junk jewelry, mini-bells...you name it. I'm a full believer that all necklaces of this sort should be customized to the person making it. Afterall, what good is a Nargle Repellant if it doesn't have a bit of flair, no?

Directions: Really? You can't figure this out? Screw in eyelet...add ribbon & goodies. Tie off. Done.

Or if you're my students...you do this:

So then this morning I woke up and realized it was Friday the 13th and what else could possibly be more perfect than a little charm to protect me. Oh! AND girls totally did this project, which was refreshing...

2 years after it's popular...we make them...

2009-11-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Soooo yesterday I was looking through the Instructables website. Btw, if you don't look at this website, you're basically a lame crafter. Because it's awesome. You can make like chainmale suits from soda can tabs and turn your T.V into a fish tank. Which I have ALWAYS wanted to do. How great would that be...like people walk in to your house and are all like, omg is that a fish tank tv, and you're all like...totally. Something like this:

Except I always worried about a leak or something. For example, I had this sweet globe-type fish tank that I kept my goldfish in then one day I came home to a tank with no water in it. And poor Winston was just laying there all dead and stuff. So I do what girls do...cry and freak out...then get THE NET. Well once I dumped the fish in the toilet so I could ceremoniously flush him (after a dead fish prayer of course, I mean, what do you think I am? Some cold hearted witch who flushes dead fish without a second thought?) I noticed that Winston wasn't actually dead...he just needed water. Toilet water. Anyway, my point is tv fish tanks would be great so long as it doesn't leak or you have a fish that can live on land, like mine.
THIS is totally what Winston needs!

Moooooving on...So I was on this website and I found like a gozillion directions for those little juice pouch wallets and I thought to myself "hey...those are sooooo 2 years ago, let's TOTALLY make those." So we did.

May I just say how entertaining it is to watch dudes sew? I mean, I know that's super gender biased and everything but, come on, that is ridiculous. Even they know it's ridiculous. Like the kid with the awesome 'fro freaked when I took his picture 'cause he didn't want his non-fro sporting friends to know he knew how to use a sewing machine. Even all the cheeto dust on his face couldn't hide the fact that this kid loved making faaaaaaabulous things. Which is undeniably awesome. We need more kids like that in this world.

Long story long we made some coin purses (or pouches for the dudes) and a few wallets. The whole process was pretty easy once you washed all the sticky stuff out of the inside. Bonus: Capri Suns are flippin delicious.

Nice 'Stache

2009-11-02T12:11:00.000-08:00

So a few weeks ago we decided to nurture our students desire for unrealistic facial hair and made some Mustaches-On-A-Stick during our Craft Club. The project was a success...for multiple reasons.
One: Mustaches are awesome
Two: Mustaches that cover mid-pubescent mustaches are even awesome-er.
Three: Any thing that gives someone the excuse to act like a pirate is totally worth it in my book. Except for maybe accidentally amputating an arm or a leg just so you can replace it with a wooden peg or hook. That, I don't really condone. Though I would admire the dedication.
Anywhydoesthatguyhaveapegleg, here are some pictures of the righteous facial hair we made.

Directions are as follows, you know...so you can have righteous facial hair too.
1.Get Felt & dowels (we used many colors...I even got tie-dye felt...like, for the hippies and such.
2.Draw said mustache design. Now...this can be a 'stache of any shape or size..HOWEVER..I recommend banning all Hilter-esque mustaches as, well, everyone finds them offensive. We are nothing if not socially responsible. Know this.
3. Cut out 'Stache....then...cut out another one...you want two...that are the same.
4. Plug in glue gun...don't burn yourself, it hurts.
5. Place dowel in desired location in between two 'stache designs...
6. Glue together (again, don't burn yourself. I'm not joking when I say it hurts. For real.)
7. Let glue harden. Then, apply 'stache-on-a-stick to your face & make "I have a sophisticated mustache" face. Like this:

Beards can also be made...just ditch the stick and use some clear elastic to make a mask. Enjoy.

The Lazy Woman's Introduction

2009-10-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome All! This is my first attempt at a blog...I apologize to all the veteran craft bloggers out there who may stumble upon this blog-bastardization. Well, not really. I actually don't care. The purpose of this blog is to document and over-expose the wonderful happenings of craft amongst Lake Oswego Teens. I hope you enjoy...