Thursday, February 20, 2020

DIY Wedding Invites with the Foil Quill


     As some of you know, Brian and I are getting married this May.  When it came to the invites, we decided to make them ourselves.  To aid us with the invites, we picked up a machine called the Foil Quill, which adds shiny foil to your cards.  In this video tutorial, we'll show you the method we developed for using the Foil Quill to add some shine to our invites.


Here's what the front and back of the invites look like, as well as the RSVP card.

     Check out the video tutorial below to see how we used the Foil Quill to make our invites shine.




     Although I don't go through the design process in this video, if you want to find the clip art I used for the back of the card and the RSVP card, I ordered it from Etsy.  The three packs I used are Alice in Wonderland Clipart, Tea & Macaroons, and Autumn in Wonderland.

Monday, February 17, 2020

Hey, Day Challenge Week VII Round Up

     Week seven of the Hey, Day Challenge has come and gone, and it was a busy one.  If you're not familiar with this video series, I challenge myself to try out activities relating to various pages from the book Hey, Day! by Clea Hantman and Keva Marie, a day book filled with things to "do, make, and ponder."  I'm not covering every page in the book, but rather about 10 per month.
     If you've been meaning to follow my Hey, Day Challenge video series, but haven't had a chance to, here's a round up of all the videos that aired between January 9th and February 16th.  I've included a brief description of each video so you can determine whether the videos sound like they're up your alley.

DIY Fake Blood


     In this video, I test out a couple of fake blood recipes, one suggested by the book and one that I looked up online.

Valentine's Placemats


     This video is the first in a three part Valentine's Day party series.  In this one, I show you how to make Valentine's Day placemats using dollar store Valentine's Day cards.  Note that all three party posts are cutesy rather than zombified, so if cutesy Valentine's Day is your jam, you may want to give these a watch.

Valentine's Day Party Menu


     This video is the second Valentine's Day party video.  In this video I show you how to create an elegant looking menu for your party.

Valentine's Party



     In the final video in the Valentine's Day series, I show you how to set up a Valentine's Day party tablescape using relatively inexpensive and easy crafting ideas.

     This past week was a busy one for the series.  The next couple of weeks will be a bit slower, since a lot of the February projects I liked happened early in the month, but don't worry.  There are still plenty of videos in store.

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Simple Zombie Makeup Tutorial


     What better way to celebrate Zombie Valentine's Day than by dressing up like the undead?  If you already have a makeup collection, you probably have everything you need to put together a basic zombie look.  Check out the video tutorial below to see how you can transform yourself into a zombie.


     Need some fake blood for your zombie look?  I have a Hey, Day video for that.  I was kind of winging it with the blood tutorial, so while this one will work just fine, if you would like to see a more refined tutorial in the future, let me know!  I'm definitely down to test out more fake blood recipes.


     What are you doing for Zombie Valentine's Day?  Let me know in the comments.  Brian and I will hopefully be watching something zombie related.  If you haven't seen Troom Troom's zombie apocalypse video series yet, I highly recommend (although the series isn't finished yet and does end on a pretty big cliff hanger, so you have been forewarned).  It's part horror movie, part survivalist craft tutorial, and highly entertaining.  Here's a compilation of the first five episodes:


Sunday, February 9, 2020

Hey, Day Challenge Week VI Round Up

     It's hard to believe we're already through six weeks of the Hey, Day Challenge!  In this video series, I challenge myself to try out activities relating to various pages from the book Hey, Day! by Clea Hantman and Keva Marie, a day book filled with things to "do, make, and ponder."  I'm not covering every page in the book, but rather about 10 per month.
     If you've been meaning to follow my Hey, Day Challenge video series, but haven't had a chance to, here's a round up of all the videos that aired between January 20th and February 1st.  I've included a brief description of each video so you can determine whether the videos sound like they're up your alley.

Conversation Heart Valentine's Cards


     If you prefer cutesy Valentine's Day crafts to the usual zombie fare, you may want to check out this video, in which I make a zombie-free conversation heart Valentine's Day card.  If you'd prefer the zombie version, though, check out this post.

Paper Fortune Cookies


     This craft is one I've had saved to a Pinterest board for a while, but was afraid would be too complicated to make, so I didn't try it.  The Hey, Day Challenge finally gave me the reason I needed to test it out, and it turned out that it was much easier to make than I originally assumed it would be.  If you like paper crafting, I'd recommend giving it a try.

Future Files Part II: Places to Live


     In this installment of the Future Files, we're thinking about where we'd like to live in the future.  If you know me well, you won't be at all surprised to see where I want to settle down.

     This week in the Hey, Day Challenge we'll be throwing a cutesy Valentine's Day party.  There will be three videos relating to the party, so if Valentine's Day is your jam, be sure to keep your eyes out for those videos.

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Zombie Conversation Heart Valentine's Cards


     Let the important peeps in your life know you've been thinking about them with a zombie conversation hearts Valentine's card.


Add a box of zombie felt chocolates too for a zombified update to a classic Valentine's gift.

     If zombies aren't your thing, or you have would-be recipients who would prefer a zombie-free card, check out the Hey, Day version of this project, and keep your eyes on my YouTube channel for more cutesy Valentine's crafts.

Materials:

*Pastel pink, purple, green, and yellow cardstock
*White cardstock
*Pink or red gel pen
*Scissors or die cutting machine
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:

*Cut out about four heart shapes of each of the following pastel cardstock colors: pink, green, purple, and yellow.

*Write zombie conversation heart sayings on the hearts using a pink or red gel pen.  Here is the list of sayings I brainstormed for my card:

Brains
I <3 Brains
*Zombie emoji*
Love Brains
Tasty
MMM
Bite Me
Good 2 Eat
U R Sweet
I Chews You
Cutie pie
Dinner?
U R my snack
Too Sweet
Yummy
Love UR Brains

*Fold the sheet of white cardstock in half lengthwise.

*Arrange the conversation heart shapes on your card in a pattern that you find pleasing.

*Glue down the hearts.

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Hey, Day Challenge Weeks IV and V Round Up

     We've made it through a full month of the Hey, Day Challenge!  In this video series, I challenge myself to try out activities relating to various pages from the book Hey, Day! by Clea Hantman and Keva Marie, a day book filled with things to "do, make, and ponder."  I'm not covering every page in the book, but rather about 10 per month.
     If you've been meaning to follow my Hey, Day Challenge video series, but haven't had a chance to, here's a round up of all the videos that aired between January 20th and February 1st.  I've included a brief description of each video so you can determine whether the videos sound like they're up your alley.

DIY Stickers (No Sticker Paper Needed)


     In this video, I show you how to make stickers from materials you likely have at home.  This is probably my favorite craft I've made for the series so far.  The stickers were easy to make, and they ended up looking adorable.

Writing Urban Legends with the Urban Legend Generator


     In this video, we take a trip back through time via the Wayback Machine to access the Urban Legends Generator.  I use it to concoct a couple of urban legends to share with you all.  This one was a lot of fun, and if you like urban legends I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.  Maybe you could get together some friends and have an urban legend storytelling contest, seeing who can come up with the best tales using the Urban Legends Generator template  (which I'll include below).  If you come up with urban legends of your own, I'd love to hear them.

Urban Legends Generator:

     To use this template, you have to replace "subject" with a person of your choice (e.g., my cousin's college roommate), "scenario" with a scenario of your choice (e.g., at the science museum), "action" with an action (e.g., sampled one of the demonstration vials), and "consequence" with a consequence (e.g., grew fangs and developed a thirst that could only be quenched by human blood).  Also, I copied the template verbatim, which included she/her pronouns, but you could easily switch them with he/him, they/them, etc. if your subject has different pronouns.  Here's the template:

     I know this may be hard to believe, but it's completely true. I know for sure that it happened to subject. It happened while she was scenario. Apparently, she action. Before she even knew what happened, she consequence!  Think about that next time you're action.
     As with any other information that you receive from questionable sources such as this, it is wise to believe everything that you have read here without questioning it or attempting to verify it in any way. Make sure to pass the story along to everyone you know, too. Imagine how you'd feel if you opened up tomorrow's newspaper and found out that someone you know action.

     These two videos are my favorites of the January videos, and I hope you enjoy them.  February will bring us a fair number of Valentine's crafts, and unlike here on my blog, they will all be nice, normal Valentine's crafts.  So if you prefer cutesy to the zombie Valentine's projects I usually post, you'll want to keep an eye on my channel for those videos.

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Zombie Altered Cameo Necklace


     Looking for a gift for your undead sweetheart, pal, or maybe for yourself?  Why not give them a cameo necklace - with a twist!


A comparison of the modified and original cameos.  While the original is fine, I'm rather partial to the zombified version.


Materials:

*Faux cameo pendant
*White acrylic paint
*Red acrylic paint
*Black acrylic paint
*Brown acrylic paint
*Green acrylic paint
*Paint for hair (I used yellow and gold, in addition to brown)
*Paint for clothing (I used pink)
*Fine tipped paintbrush (I used a nail art brush)
*Acrylic sealer
*Necklace chain

Directions:

*Mix together paints until you reach a shade that is close to the color of a zombie's complexion.  For a light skinned zombie, you'll want to use mostly white, with a little black and green.  For a darker skinned zombie, you may want to use brown as your base color instead of white, although you may want to add, in addition to the black and green, a little white for pallor.

*Paint the face, neck, and any other exposed skin of the cameo using your zombie skin colored paint mixture.


*Combine colors until you reach the desired hair color for your cameo.  I mixed together yellow, brown, and gold for a dark blond color.

*Paint the cameo's hair and eyebrows.


*Paint the cameo's eyes white.  You may also want to paint any pearl jewelry white, although you could choose other colors for the jewelry as well.


*Paint the cameo's clothing a color of your choice.  I went with pink because blood drips would show up well on pink, but any light color should work for that purpose.


*If your cameo has flowers or other surrounding details, paint those in the color of your choice.  I opted to use a blood red color for the roses, which I made by adding small amounts of black and brown paint to red paint.  I also painted the leaf green.

*Once the base colors are dry, it's time to add some blood.  I made crimson paint by mixing a little black and brown into red paint.  I painted her lips, added a trickle of blood dribbling down the side of her face, and then added some drips of blood along her necklace and across her dress.

*Add in any missing details.  I used brown paint to add some detail to her hair.

*Coat pendant with an acrylic sealer to keep paint from chipping.

*Place pendant on a necklace chain and now you have a stylish zombie accessory to wear.