Happy Summer!

Happy Summer! A little ditty I made this week to welcome the most amazing weather! If you need a how to leave a note in the comments and I will put one together as soon as I can. 

Happy Friday <3

Modern Wednesday Has Arrived!

I have been away again. But I have a great excuse! I have been creating, but with a different purpose than usual! *drumroll please*

I have opened a shop! It is technically an online shop called Modern Wednesday but all of my sales have been local (semi) custom orders. So it has been an exciting couple of months. And let me tell you, nothing gets the creative juices flowing like a sense of purpose! Would you like to see a couple items from my shop? Awesome!

 Panel skirt with liner and tulle ruffle listing at ModernWednesday.

 Ruffle Bum Skirt with liner and blue tulle ruffle listing at Modern Wednesday.

 Chiffon flower accessory with beaded centre listing at Modern Wednesday

Denim and Yellow barrettes listing at Modern Wednesday

Stretch Cotton grey wrap with salvaged leather pockets listing at Modern Wednesday.

Blue Gigham and lace gathered flower accessory listing at Modern Wednesday.

Pretty snazzy stuff isn't it! Some of it you might even recognize them from old tutorials and pictures. 

There is three times those listings at the shop though. Also, I have galleries set up of my favourite projects that I encourage people to order custom made projects. Remember my very first sewing project ever? The bean bags? Well, someone ordered a set of eight as sensory toys for her son with Autism. Remember Wednesday's felt crown? Well I made the prettiest girly version of it this week for another custom order.

I chose Indiemade to host my website and shop because it was an all inclusive flat rate price that includes hosting, design and a shopping platform. I can have up to 13 galleries with unlimited photos within. I can list up to 100 items in my shop at a time and there is no commission for Indiemade. The biggest selling point for me though was that customers DO NOT NEED an account to shop at my shoppe! I love that. Believe it or not, a lot of people in my life do not shop within Etsy's 'borders'. Some don't even know what 'an Etsy' is.  So I didn't see the point in complicating the process for my local customers all the while giving my customers access to my competition.
That being said, I have an Etsy storefront, I just haven't decided how to divvy up my listings between the two. Suggestions?

I also have a Facebook fan page for those of you that would like to follow for sneak peaks and discounts! I update regularly with 'In The Making' photos as well as 'In The Shoppe' photos.

So there you have it. That is what has been eating up all my spare time. When I am not playing mom and homemaker I am playing maker and shopkeeper. I like my new hat(s). I have not given up on this blog, I swear I just have to find a balance because Storage Geek is still going strong as well. I'm nearly at 30,000 readers! So lots of stuff here, all awesome.

Cheers!

How To: Felt PIn Wheel Wreath

Wow, that is some seriously dreary weather lately isn't it? Makes you wish spring would disappear and summer would get here doesn't it? Well, to help pull me out of the grey weather funk I made the cheeriest wreath this morning!

Pretty as a picture isn't it? And it came together so fast I just had to share the how to! It mostly consists of a pinwheel primer (in case you have never made a single one in grade school. Seriously though, how did you let that happen?)

Get together your supplies which consist of:
1 wreath form
6 squares of felt (4)4" squares and (2)5.5" squares
3 Buttons
Enough lace and/or ribbon to wrap around the wreath
Rotary knife or scissors
Glue gun & sticks (But a needle and thread can be used in its stead)

Here are the super simple steps!

1. Lay out your squares of felt and layer them two to a pile. (I love the contrasting colours of each wheel.)

2. Find the centre and using a rotary knife or scissors, cut to almost the center.

3. Add glue to the centre and fold over one piece and affix. Your back layer might reach the centre but probably won't. I folded both pieces at the same time but had to add a bit of glue to the bottom layer and the point sat just outside the centre. (Don't worry though, the button will cover it.)

4. Continue with all four corners until your pinwheel looks like this.

5. Glue button to centre.

6. Rinse and repeat for the next two pinwheels. Aren't they just adorable?!

7. Pull out your wreath for and do a lace/ribbon mock up. I scavenged some lace from my jars for this. I actually used four different pieces so I wanted to make sure they would all fit.

8. Glue ends (if you have multiple pieces)and wrap evenly.

 9. Glue your pinwheels on and you are done! Now hang that baby and brighten your mood!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Happy crafting!

My Creative Space...In Tatters

You can always tell where I am creatively by my bookmarks, pins, tumblr posts and flickr favourites. I am sure this stands for most people. Lately I have been on a big "using fabric scraps" kick. A few months ago I tore up many a vintage sheet and unused yardage thinking I would make a rainbow rag rug for Wednesday's play space. As soon as I tore it up I regretted the entire thing. The process of sewing all of those strips together and winding them in neat balls and then braiding them without tangling seemed impossible. So I packed up all the strips hoping I would find some simple projects to use them in. Only two obstacles lay in my way. The first was that most of the sheets and yardage were unwanted for a reason. The colours and patterns were either too drab or not inspiring enough to be used.  The other was the sheer volume of fabric, there was just so much of it. So the bags (and bags) of torn fabric strips just sat there taking up a lot of space.

So I googled and pinned and flickr'ed. Finally I have enough inspirational galleries that I will be done with my scraps quite soon. I have already used up about a quarter of them. Here are some photos to give an idea of what I have up to.

 This is what I am all about this week. The more poms the better!

 This basket took about three days. But it is huge. I made it to be a laundry basket or Wednesday's room. It is smaller than a big plastic laundry basket but big enough for a little girl's weekly laundry loads.

 The basket and pom poms are all made from vintage sheets.

 I spent a week wrapping plastic hangers from Wednesday's closet. Since we hang most o her clothing (PJs and tights excepted) She has a lot of hangers. I am only about half done, but I needed a break.

Some of the hangers I have even managed to embellish a little bit.

I want to share with you some of my favourite inspiration photos so that maybe you will be inspired as well.

Most recently, I have created a Flickr gallery called Big Love For Small Scraps. Here is a sample of the photos.






1. Para a semana..., 2. weaved fabric basket - detailed, 3. curtains 006, 4. Scrappy Fabric Coasters, 5. Rag Rug Completed, 6. Pretty Little Pouch Full View - Option 3, 7. Scrap Fabric Curtain 4, 8. vintage feel, 9. scrap coil

Over at Pinterest, I have a board called Scrap Not, Lest Ye Be Scrapped. It looks something like this.

There is approx 50 or 60 great links to check out. I made sure that every pin links back to the original post. So you shouldn't have to do any creative searching to find the tutorials (if there is one) to go with them.

So what have you been up to? What is inspiring you to create and search these days? Why don't you link up your creative space?

How To: Beaded Garland Christmas Card Holder

One last tutorial before I take the week off to enjoy the holidays and recoup thereafter. I have had this done or some time but every time I would go to post it, I would create something much more fun that I wanted to share with you!

 

Doncha love the card!

Seriously though this is almost as easy as the stocking pillows. And here is proof:

Gather Ye Materials

Wooden clothespins

Mod Podge (I used Sparkle Mod Podge.)

Large wooden beads. (I think mine were about 3/4" in size) They were also from an old beaded garland from Christmases past.

String/yarn

Begin at the beginning...

Step 1: Cut paper scraps to size of clothespin front.
Step 2: Adhere paper to clothespin with one coat of Modpodge on Clothespin and then give paper one top coat of Mod Podge. Let dry.
Step 3: String beads (I used ten) in between clothespins. Simply put string through coil in clothespin.
Step 4: Hang and ill with cards from your loved ones.

This will be the last tutorial from me until the new year. I might pop back in with something shiny and fun or New Year's Eve but right now I just plan on finishing my Christmas prep and then recuperating from the holiday madness.

Happy holidays!

How To: Recycled Crayon Wax Christmas Ornaments

You know all those cheap wax crayons you get at restaurants? Or in bags o crayons at thrift shops and yard sales? Well, they do not make good cupcake crayons. They don't, I have even mixed them with Crayolas. The thing is the cheap wax is light and floats to the top o the crayon instead of mixing with the good wax. So, what do you do with all your child's broken crayons and cheap crayons? Well, you can make candles. But it takes a lot o crayons to make candles. (And I cannot attest to the safety o crayon candles.) So what else? Well you can make Christmas tree ornaments. It is super simple! Wednesday was able to help with most of the process. he liked sorting and breaking the crayons. (I  asked her to pick out all the pink, green, red and white ones.)

Gather Ye Materials
Broken crayons
Glitter (I used fine, medium and chunky)
Screw Eyes
Ribbon
Cupcake molds The smaller hearts are Wilton Mini Scalloped Silicone Cupcake Hearts and the bigger hearts are dollarstore valentine molds. (Super flimsy)

Begin at the beginning...

You are essentially making crayon cakes with LOTS o sparkles....

Step 1: Remove wrappers from crayons and break crayons into small pieces.

Step 2:  Sprinkle glitter in the bottom of the molds/tins. (Little or lots, it is totally up to you)
Step 3: Line a baking sheet with tin-foil or parchment paper and set molds on top. Fill each mold with crayon pieces.You can make these monochromatic, keep it Christmas-sy or just go-to-town with the rainbow.

Step 4: Put baking pans/cups in an oven pre-heated to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 5: Leave in for ten(ish) minutes, you want the crayons to be melted leaving a smooth surface but not boiling.
Step 6: Remove from oven and sprinkle with more glitter. (Don't go crazy, most of it sinks to the middle of the wax cake anyways.)
Step 7: Let cool. (This really doesn't take as long as you'd think) and remove from molds.

Step 8: Carefully attach screw eye to wax tart.

Step 8.5: I found pre-poking a hole with a tooth pick helped.

Step 8.75: I also found that if I broke some it was no biggie, I just pooped the broken ones back in the oven or a couple minutes and we were golden.

Step 8.9: I also found that if the screw eye fell out, I just heated it up for a second with a lighter and it glued itself to the whole, better than before.

Step 9: Add ribbon and voila! You're done!

P.S. I you need pictures of a crayon cake tutorial this one from Indietutes is super!


Happy Christmas Crafting!

How To: Ice Cream Cone Christmas Ornament

I am in love with my Ice Cream Cone Christmas ornament. I made the ornament and how to or Savvymom.ca. It was the least I could do ater they put Until Wednesday Calls AND Storage Geek on their 35 favourite Canadian Mom Blogs List.

To find out how I made this ornament click here!

Authors Note: Pictured at the tutorial is a wreath. The hot glue and the glas Christmas balls did not stay bonded through the first freezing rain storm we had. The glue contracted too much in the cold. But as a Christmas tree ornament it is good enough eat!

Free Printable : Thanksgiving Cupcake Toppers/Food Picks

Hey there folks! I have a quick little goodie for you today! I have a great giveaway coming this weekend (Starting Sunday night!) and this printable ties in with it. For now my American readers can bask in the cuteness that these topper will bring to their food next week.

I made these little numbers with my new copy of MyMemories digital scrapbooking software. Aren't they adorable? I wish I had time to whip up a batch of muffins to pop these in but I am rearranging my house. (Serious undertaking!) So you will just have to use your imagination (and printer).

Click here for the Google.doc download.

Printable sheet made using graphics from MyMemories suite 2 and Let's Talk Turkey digital design pack.
Come back on Sunday to enter the giveaway for your very own copy of MyMemories scrapbooking software! I am so excited about this you don't even know!

How To: Harry Potter Text Book Covers

I have created a lot of things in my time, some amazing, some big fat fails, some with a sewing machine and every now and again I am able to create something with the computer that just makes my heart happy. Right now the combination of Halloween decoration and harry Potter inspiration has me just tickled pink (or a festive orange and black).

The original inspiration for this project came from a ceramic set of books from Michaels Halloween deco section. I have a picture somewhere just a sec...here is a clearer one then my horrible cell phone pic.

Original pieces are titled: Hexes & Curses, Essential Potions, Rituals and Charms.

Source

With some recycled paper shopping bags and Photoshop, this is what I came up with.....

 In case you are wondering about the absolutely amazing Nightmare before Christmas mugs, my sister and her husband bought them for me for Christmas from last year's Tim Burton exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum.

At first, when I started designing the book covers I went with the titles in the original photo. But it then occured to me that these were very similar to subjects the Hogwarts taught. I was then inspired further to make textbooks from the actual books and movies. To keep the Halloween theme the spines have a sinister feel them while the front of the jacket is titled and authored just as it was in the books (and movies.)

Each book cover is inspired by the actual book but none are identical. I have neither talent or the time but I am incredibly happy with each and ever book. (Did you notice there were seven books?)

How about a look see at each cover.

Left book: On the spine this one says BEASTS, but the front cover is the first year textbook Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Seamander.
Right book: On the spine is DIVINATION, on the front is the third year text Unfogging The Future by Cassandra Vablatsky.

Left Book: The spine reads HERBOLOGY, the cover is Magical Water Plants of The Highland Lochs by Hadrian Whittle. This was the book Neville learned about gillyweed which Harry used to compete in the Tri-Wizard tournament.
Right book: The spine reads HORCRUXES, the is Secrets of the Darkets Art by Owle Bullock, This was the book that Tom Riddle would have gleaned his initial knowledge of horcruxes from.

Left book: Spine reads POTIONS, front is the sixth year potions text, Advanced Potion Making by Libatius Borage. (Half blood prince would have used this same book.)
Right: Spine reads SPELLS, front is first year text Standard Book of Spells by Miranda Goshank.

 Left book: Spine reads VAMPYRE, cover is perhaps my favourite just for the cheekiness factor. It is second year text Gilderoy Lockhart's Voyages With Vampires. 
Right book: The back of each book cover reads Happy Halloween!

Pretty amazing right? Seriously, I am in love. They were worth every single second they took to make. And they took awhile let me tell you. They won't take you any time though because I have made a handy dandy zip folder of the finished covers for printable just for you to download!

All I did was cut the paper bags to fit the book and then feed it through the printer.
Do you see how each book is a little different in size? I did that on purpose. I did not want them to like a Harry Potter box set.
♥ Every cover is designed to print out onto paper no wider than an regular sized printer allows. So when cutting your pages from paper shopping bags just remember to never make them taller than 8.5" and no longer than 16".
♥ The height of each book varies from 7" to 8.5". Please take note of the image size when you are printing and adjust your print settings accordingly.
♥ The width of each book cover also varies from 14" to 16". Please check each document and adjust your print settings accordingly.
♥ Each cover is set up to give approximately 1" of cover inside each book. If you would rather a more snug fit you can always use low tack painters masking tape.
♥ And just in case you're wondering:
-Horcruxes is a hundred year old Latin Dictionary
-Beasts is an electrical wiring handbook
-Herbology is Clan of the Cave bear
-Potions is Douglas Adams' Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy (A trilogy in five parts) 
-Divination is Anne Rice's Pandora
-Spells is Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix
-Vampyre is Book Thirteen of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events

Notes about the graphics & fonts:

♥ I could not have made any of these book covers without the graphics from a couple great websites: The Graphics Fairy and Vintage Feed Sacks were easily the biggest help.
♥ I downloaded almost every font from fontspace.com that link is a great list of Harry Potter related and/or themed fonts. Some mimic the fonts used in the movies.

A few notes before I give up the link though, if you wouldn't mind reading them.
♥ So as not to detract from the sheer awesomeness of the graphics I have not added a watermark anywhere to the covers. That being said, I would appreciate it you do not share these files via email. Please, link back to this page whenever you would like to share the files. Which I encourage you to do. Go forth, make the world a little more spooky!
♥ I have never shared files before so if for some reason you cannot access the files, or have trouble using them PLEASE leave a description of the issue in the comment section and I promise to notify you as soon as it has been remedied.

Finally, HERE is the link for download. There is seven book covers in a zipped folder. Click the link, it will bring you to a Googledoc page in the upper left corner click on file>download original.You will need a program to unzip it. If you do not have one, I recommend Winrar.
 

If you have any issues please do not hesitate to leave a comment with your issue, I will help you out in any way I can. Happy crafting and happy haunting!

Reader Question : Simple and Inexpensive Dorm Storage Ideas

musicxmylove asked:
So happy I found this blog! I am going to be studying abroad soon and cannot bring a lot with me and won't have any extra furniture except for what is included in my room. Do you have any easy and inexpensive do it yourself storage ideas for dorm rooms? If it's something that can be recycled later when I fly home or takes up very little room in a suitcase would be great. Maybe something reusing cardboard or other recycled materials that I could get for free? 

Hey there! Sorry this took awhile to answer but there are a lot of photos and posts to sift through. I really wanted to give you some super practical ideas.
 Below are some ideas made with recycled and/or super cheap materials. While I am not sure how many you could pack back up, given the relative cheapness of materials you could give them away and people would be happy to use them likewise, you can recycle a lot of the materials as well. So, that being said let's see what I found!

First storage option: string. String is cheap (You can almost always find a handful somewhere free.) and fits any sized room. Create a gorgeous photo banner wherever you room and room mate will let you. Found via Dorm Design.

Cearal box magazine (Notebook, binder) holders. Grab a cereal box and cover with pretty paper or fabric. Although this won't fit in your suitcase I bet someone would be happy to have them when you're done. Full how to at The Wicker House.

This was one of the very first DIYs I posted here at Storage geek and I still love the idea. Add some cardboard dividers to some cookie tines (You know your Mom has at least three kicking around.) and voila, instant (stack-able) desk caddy! Full how to at Design Sponge.

Have some chain and a few hangers? Now you have an instant mud room or extra closet. Chain is cheap you can buy it in plastic or metal at hardware stores but you could also probably find some on freecycle.org  if you asked nice enough. Hangers well, I am sure you can put a few of those in your suitcase when you head over. Found via Apartment Therapy.

Another fabulous bit of recycling here. Can cubbies make great storage because they are free and come in a variety of sizes from the small tomato paste size to the giant tomato ketchup size. Ask a local restaurant to sort through their recyclables, you'd be amazed at how many cans and glass jars you will find! The how to on this pretty system can be found at Leethel.

Have cork and pushpins? You now have necklace storage. Bonus, you can bring this with you or back with you since they pack up so nice and flat in your suitcase. Photo from Pretty in the Desert.
If you sew I found two great projects that could come in super handy and fold up nicely.

These denim wall pockets made by Flickr member Made by Beag would be invaluable as an organizer for everything from desk supplies to toiletries. Made out of recycled denim makes this project cost a whopping zero dollars.

I love this laundry bag. While you don't have to make one this elaborate (But if you do you can find the tutorial here at Sew 4 Home.) But a sturdy laundry bag will be invaluable to you in your student living.
How awesome are these projects? I know! But, while Storage Geek is my name, and DIYs are my game decorating is a very personal (and uysually drawn out process for me) so if you would like to see some great dorm deco may I direct your attention to a couple Tumblr blogs I found? Dorm Design and EFFyeahcooldormrooms Both of these blogs have pages and pages of great dorm rooms.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope it inspired you. Thanks for asking such a fantastic question and I would love to see photos of what you make! Cheers,M.