While I was working on more printables, (I'm to cards now! Yay!) E was making nice things out of duct tape and the box from her dinner last night. She had Winnie the Pooh cheddar filled ravioli because she thinks my spaghetti sauce is gross (all those vegetables and meat, she thinks spaghetti sauce should be just a plain smooth red sauce).
( come see what she made )
She seems to be having much more fun then me today. :) But we are henna-ing later.

So... I walked into my room, and E was sitting on my bed with the remnants of probably a saltines box, and her duct tape sword on the bed, and a top hat in her hands. I watched her pull up a piece of tape from the sword.
"Why are you taking apart your sword?"
"How else am I going to make this top hat?"
I asked if I should pick her up some more tape when I go to the store. She said "That would be great!" and we talked a bit about the armature of the sword, which, despite having several layers of cardboard from packages, is a bit floppy. I grabbed one of Mike's wire coat hangers from drycleaning and started bending it and started to say "Have you thought about reinforcing with coat hanger wire?" She beat me to it. "THAT would work!"

The top hat is made from cardboard from some sort of packaging, like I said, I think saltines (we get big boxes), the crown of it was wrapped in red paper from our reclaimed giftwrap stash. And duct tape. And you know something?

I think it's incredibly neat my daughter can look at stuff most people think is trash, and make things.

E got in trouble last night for helping herself to a roll of duct tape. She knows she's supposed to ask about using my craft supplies, but frequently gets so caught up in the moment, she doesn't. She used *most* of it.
When I said "Well, what should we do about it?" She replied "You can stop buying so much duct tape."

Yeah. No. Not an answer.
But I guess I should be grateful, I mean, she's 12, it could really be so much worse. Of course, last week she tried to borrow one of my leather jackets, and I said "NO NO NO. And besides, it needs to be cleaned." She said "oh.. okay." and I said "Nice try though" (she had put it on and was heading out the door wearing it) and she said "I know."

The tape was for making paper nunchaku (what is the correct way to use that word? A set? A pair? Or is just nunchaku enough?), and I'm not sure I have enough left, however, it occurs to me, I could crochet a pair with fun foam to stiffen and fill it. It also occurs to me that even hypothetically designing crocheted nunchaku brings me to whole new levels of crafty geekdom. Time to just go ahead and bead myself a bracelet that says "Shop Smart, Shop S-mart".

How to make Angel Wings gave me a probably impossible idea. Wouldn't it be NEAT to make a pair of magpie wings and dress all in white and black with *tons* of sparkly jewelry next year for Halloween?
Maybe a tiara. Ahh.. to be a magpie diva in sequins, beads and big pretty wings.

Well.. time to go check my tape supply, hopefully I've got a roll stashed away of black duct tape.

( E's purse )
Y- as promised, links to hats I've made.
Fun colorful hats, I love making these, I play with texture and colors on them.
Pink Heart Flap Heart
Mel's Blue Hat (star flaps)
Cabled Hat
Plain black which makes it very hard to see the cables, but it's cabled. This is the hat I wear when it's very cold, since it's alpaca and silk.
Very basic beanie with spike stitches
Kitty Hat white
Witch Hat! Awful picture. Sorry!
Frog Hat
Hello Kitty
Sun and Rainbow set E's favorite. She loves the reaction this set gets.
Ribbed hat and Hello Kitty hat on my kids. The ribbed hat was a design I came up with because.. it's really hard to crochet for boys!
Hmm.. seems like there was also a black kitty hat, but I can't find that one. The 2 hats my son is wearing were made of wool, and the black cabled one, as mentioned, is silk/alpaca (too expensive. I'm not sure I'm doing that again!), the rest are all worsted weight cotton.

I hope you are all having a lovely holiday if you celebrate it.
Working on- Shawl and cross stitch still. Very slowly. I duct taped my lighter last night because I got bored with it. :)

Just realized, like just this second because I was looking for it, I don't think I ever posted the bat earrings I made myself here. I guess I figured, I showed them to R, and that was enough.
( bat earrings )

My daughter is happily using up the last of two partial rolls I had of black duct tape (scotch brand of course) and making her favorite Barbie into a duct tape witch. I'll get pictures later.

Beadwork at Bellaonline has been updated.

You all remember this bracelet right?

From my post on Craftster when I made it..
"Super easy to make.

Measure your wrist, add an inch for the overlap where the velcro dots are, then add two inches, cut a piece of duct tape that long. Fold over one inch on both ends. Cut a picture from a comic book or magazine or print out something nifty to fit, and put it on the sticky side between the folded over ends.
Put clear packing tape or clear duct tape over that.

Use two sets of Velco sticky dots, and the rough side to the soft side so you have them in matched pairs. Peel of the backing from the rough side and position them on the upside (graphic side) of your bracelet, then pull the backing off the soft side, and wrap the bracelet around to place them on the other side. (perfectly placed to match up now!)

Okay.. very easy. But I'm going to go through my messed up comics and make more. The picture on this one was from the 25¢ promo copy of Red Sonja. I bought a few of them to cut up for stuff.

There's a technique people use sometimes for ATC backgrounds, they cut a window out of a piece of cardstock the size of the ATC and position it around until they find the section they want and then use a craft knife to cut it out, so once you know the measurement for center piece you can make a template to cut out your pictures."

So yeah.. easiest thing in the world. Anyway.. to get to the point (you knew there was one somewhere in this right?)
There is a promo issue of the Battlestar Galactica comic out. It's a quarter and has a *great* panel for bracelets.
Cylony goodness
Isn't that great?? So I'm going to have a cylon bracelet too. Happiness is 25¢ comics.
-Shala

( from one of those mini legal pads that's only about 3.5 inches wide )

-Shala

Mike gets odd gifts from vendors trying to sell things, usually they aren't much, and we give them to my dad or whatever. Of course my favorite was Seattle's Best. They gave him a BUNCH of stuff. Including coffee.

Anyway, one of them he pulled out earlier that I hadn't seen yet was a memo pad holder. Simple thing, pretty cheap actually, I don't recall which company and wouldn't say anyway. Convenient yes. But CHEAP. Plastic over cardboard. I can do plastic over cardboard!!!
I have TAPE!

It's got slots for business cards, and a little loop of elastic to hold a pen, no snap/hook and loop tape closure like most of my notebooks have now, and I've done a refillable holder or two already, which I thought I posted here. I didn't.
( looky here )
The one Mike had was vertically oriented and had one of those little "scratch" pads in it. Dirt cheap it is. The paper reminds me of that *awful* stuff my high school typing class had.
I asked him if he would use one if I made him one, he said yes, but he can't promise he won't lose it, heck, I KNOW that. He's as good at losing things as I am.
EDIT: 4 that are perfect, 4 more that are just a bit small but have great magnification, 4 more large, weak magnification, but nifty, and 8 double convex lenses that make things smaller. I forget the name of that sort of lense, but THOSE I can use for suncatchers/pendants.

Also!!! GOT the box from Edmunds Scientific. I ordered the Bag of Lenses for myself. Gotta say.. very happy with them, even compared to Science and Surplus. The thing I LIKE about Science and Surplus is when they have them, you get all one kind, but sometimes a small size. I got some from ES that are only going to be good for gluing stuff on and turning into necklaces that way, but the magnifying ones!! They are larger and thinner, and 5 of them have a truly decent amount of magnification. (I haven't checked all of them yet) So even if I only count the 5 I *know* are completely usable for what I use them for
( clicky here to see )
they only cost 2 dollars each. (the bag was 10) AND they are glass. I've priced magnifying lenses. I do so frequently, and usually that cheap they are plastic. Plus I'd have to break the frames to make them usable for necklaces.
OH I'm happy.
-Shala
PS.. another edit.. I'll happily traded one beaded magnifier pendant for a Bag of Prisms, a Bag of Magnets, and a Bag of Optical Components. I know.. they don't have the prisms in stock. Darnit it all.
Click here. Colors and chain length would of course be of your choosing.

( my very talented daughter )
-Shala

I have both of the Oreo Twins on my friends list! I'm the luckiest girl in the whole wide world!

I'm contemplating a Valentine's layout. Still going to be pink. Sorry. That's going to happen.It must be pink. What I'm deciding is should it be blinkie and sparkly? Can I be that awful?

So you know about me, and Kim and the duct tape notebooks, what I didn't realize was that 2 of the men in my family love them. Mike uses legal pads and blank books for work, comp books won't work for him or he'd be into it.

Emily makes her own, with handles, and sometimes tassels.

William "borrowed" one of my notebooks, here's the funny thing, my personal journals all have my angel on them. I've decided to make him one, I need to figure out the art still, and my *dad* loves the minis. He needs to carry something to keep logs on, and I gave him an untaped mini comp book from my supplies, and he saw the ones I made for Kim and said "That's handy. Does the duct tape help them hold up better?" So I'm also going to make him some too. What I'm thinking is for dad's, instead of the usual hook and loop tape closures I use, I should use elastic, that way he can slip a pencil into it if he needs to, and can keep reciepts and such in it. Possible a pocket. Art for dad's will be easy. Pick up a Stewie postcard from Hot Topic, or download Stewie art from the net. He *loves* The Family Guy. Early this summer I bought him a Stewie mint tin he buys lifesavers or mints for and refills. Art for William's is a bit more difficult. He and Emily both prefer my work to anyone elses for things I make them.

Emily... well.. she's making birthday lists already. (her birthday is in July), and one of the things on her list is a lunchbox. We have *several* lunchboxes in the house. I buy a new one every year, and use them as purses sometimes. Nope. None of those will do. She wants me to MAKE her one. In fabric. My darling daughter must be unique. What I'm thinking of is teaching her a few more embroidery techniques, and how to do chicken scratch. Chicken scratch is a type of crossstitch/needle point done over gingham, and letting her design the base fabric.
Currently avoiding work with: another doily. I figured it out. It's the math of them. It entrances me figuring out how to make it work and stay round. Still don't use doilies. I *think* I may have figured out how to do a pentacle doily which would be a nifty gift for a few people I know. I'll play with it after I finish this piece. I accidently spilled coffee on the white one I made a few months ago that I was planning to send to Naet, so I guess I'll coffee dye it and find someone who wants a faintly beige doily.

-Shala

Okay.. I admit, I haven't finished my halter top yet. I got bored with it, and it's very nearly done.

But on the subject of "Why didn't I think of that"
Book sock for an address book. Okay, I don't use address books. I'm bad that way, but you know those little duct tape notebooks Kim goes through a lot of? I've got a stack of mini comp books waiting to be decorated and I can't find my hook and loop tape tabs I use to keep them closed. I was thinking of diving into my stretch lace stash and probably will for a couple, but I can whip up a sock for one in nothing flat. Crochet of course.

Oh I *do* like this idea.

Craftster rocks my docs. Which I'm not wearing today. I'm wearing my black and pink converse chucks.

As I've mentioned before, I've got stacks of torn comics. I can't stand to throw them out, but some of them are torn past being able to read. Usually I try to make sure the comics get into boxes, but when they don't, they get stepped on, or the cats run across them or whatever and they get mangled. Plus whenever there is a 25¢ or 75¢ preview comic I get several copies to cut up.
A lot of these have images I can use for duct tape stuff like duct tape bracelets, purses, and mini comp notebooks, and my offer is still open for anyone in the purse swap who wants me to turn some into stickers with my handy dandy xyron, but there will still be unusable pages. I think I'm going to use those for lucky stars.
Emily is a catalog/magazine junkie. She likes the shiny pages for origami, paper airplanes, for cutting out to make her own wish books, and for cutting out images to glue to ANYTHING. She's so totally my daughter that way.
The pages from old phone books are also ideal for a lot paper folding things because they are so thin they work wonderfully for making smaller models with.

Earlier I was looking at a snowflake Emily made and thought to myself that half of a snowflake would be pretty to make a crown out of. So she and I will be playing with that later.

An awful lot of things, but good deals make me incredibly happy. I got some really great deals shopping this weekend.

I picked up a couple copies of a goffy type magazine for 50¢ each that have neat art in them for my duct tape projects, plus pages of white print on black that will make nifty stars for bracelets.
I got my dad a batman comforter for 15.00 which made me insanely happy. He's been complaining he needs new blankets and I haven't finished his yet. So why does it make me so happy? For a very silly reason. He's nearly 60. I know he will NOT bring a woman his age into his room where she might see that Batman blanket. Not that he's shown any interest in dating really.

The memory part of Saturday.

I thought about bringing the children to a nice sit up straight restaurant, but instead after LOTS of shopping, we stopped for Mexican near the hotel and brought Mike something from there. For the special treat part of the day, we stopped at my favorite coffee/tea shop downtown where I let the kids each pick a mini tin of cocoa and got them each a teaspoon. When we got back to the hotel, I let them make their cocoa, and coincedentally enough, for whatever reason, I had both a starlight mint and a butterscotch in my purse, Emily had picked candy cane flavored cocoa, and William picked butterscotch, so both dropped a piece of candy in their cocoa cups. We sat around the table discussing books and proper teas, and I apologised for not getting them bicuits to have with their cocoa.

Poor Mike worked harder then he does in the summer on one of these weekends. There was a major dinner that night, so he was up for about 20 hours. We were both incredibly happy to be home. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up something for me to make for dinner (after a weekend of hotel food he was SO ready for my cooking) and I got a bribe so my cat would forgive me for leaving. It worked.

I didn't work on my hat all weekend. i had the best of intentions, but got caught up reading and being terribly self indulgent. Hopefully I can get it finished this week!

My daughter loves duct tape. I'm trying to find some of her other recent projects to get pictures of.
( here is some of it though )
( current crochet )

Okay, I'm having entirely too much fun.

-Shala

( my vampi purse )

And ( quick cotton washcloth )
edit:
( an old duct tape purse I made a couple years ago. )
-Shala

Finished my Vampi purse.

While Emily and I were out walking the other day, we stopped and got a smoothie, the barrista working said "I wish my mom would go for walks with me"

There is a lot I take for granted. I hope I never forget how lucky I was with my mother despite the problems we had.
She also gushed about Emily's duct tape purse which Emily was justifiably proud of. She's out of duct tape now so I'll have to pick her up a couple more rolls soon. It's awful, but while I buy myself the good stuff (Scotch brand) I buy her cheap stuff from Walmart mostly because she uses incredible amounts of it.