Madcap Frenzy: graphic design, DIY and everything in-between: April 2012

Bar Cart is complete!

I finally finished my Bar cart with the help of my hubs and my mom.

This is what we started with (I found the cart on the side of the road, next to someone's trash):

After one coat of spray paint and sanding, it looked like this:

This was the fabric I picked up:

And here is the end result (with the before next to it):

Basically we sanded and scraped the old plastic/metal from the cart. Then spray painted it 3 times with metalic silver spray paint. Then, I made a pattern out of paper for the inset areas. I cut out some one-sided stick batting to make the fabric stiff and easier to adhere to the metal. I then cut out the fabric from the patterns and adhered the batting to the fabric. After it was all ironed, I adhered the batted fabric to the cart with a heafty mod-podge adhesive I spread over the metal before dropping the fabric pieces ontop and smoothing out.
So far (it's been a few days) it is doing well and adhered like a charm.

I'm super proud of how this project turned out, considering what it started out with. yay! Now I have a super cute bar cart!
-M

Antique and Boutique finds

So this past weekend I went to a crop with my mother (now traditionally every year) hosted by Scraptacular for Autism (I'll post the layouts i created later). We had a blast wandering through various antique stores and boutiques on our way out to the crop. My mom bought me this adorable necklace (below) at a cute boutique called Hearts Desire in Skippack, PA.

We followed it up with eating at a cute diner next door, Mal's American Diner.

Later in the day trip, we picked up some shoes and purses and a little something for my friend's bridal shower at a cute boutique/consignment shop closer to the crop (who turned out being a sponsor of one of the basket raffle prizes!). We totally found the place by chance, and I was super happy to find it. I scored a used Vera Wang purse (which was half off the already on sale price), 2 pairs of shoes- black velvet flats and maryjane style platforms, as well as a little something for my friend's bridal shower.

We then got to the crop- but realized we were too early for check in and had 40 minutes to kill. So we drop down the street and found this great antique store, The Mill Property Antiques. It was so misleading, I thought it was a cute little store, with different vendors that have their own booths. When I thought I was done, the owner pointed out to me there was another 50 vendors downstairs! The place turned out to be so huge, I almost got lost in it! So many great things at every corner! I picked up a few things for my friend's bridal shower (one big item that was only $7.50 and a few smaller items for a few bucks each), an old bridal veil (to add to my hat collection) and a few old books to add to my antique book collection. It was a great score!

Earlier in the week, we headed to my local 2nd Avenue thrift shop. While wandering around looking for some clothes (as I've lost weight, nothing fits me anymore). I found a cute pair of jeans, but that wasn't the best of my finds. As I was heading to the front of the store to get a cart, because we ended up having way more than we thought in our arms, they brought out this gem of a piece of furniture. $30- that's it! It was mine instantly.

I also picked up a cute old lined picnic basket, a few items for my friend's bridal shower (boy can I NOT wait to show you all the cool stuff I got for this shower), a simple heart necklace, a tiny apothocary-style jar, and a few other odds and ends (a belt, etc.).

The day after we got back from the crop (Monday) we headed up to Allentown for my mom's dentist appointment. While I waited for her, I talked to the receptionist/dental hygienist Alex, and after we chatted about our weekends I mentioned our antiquing finds. She then told me about this big 2 day sale that the Jewish center a few blocks away were having Sunday and Monday (that day). After my mom got done at the dentist, I begged her to go with me to the sale. It was amazing, to say the least. Because it was nearing the final few hours of the sale, they made everything 1/2 off. I scored 1 old fur hat, 2 velvet fedoras, 1 blue egg holder, 1 pair of adorable pink and green go louses (to use to dress up my front porch with a plant in them), 3 pants, 5 tops and a few other odds and ends we stuffed into a bag/box and got the entire lot between my mom and I for $35 total. Major score!

So, overall, this past weekend has been an amazing adventure in antiques and boutiques! I finished my bar cart too and made t-shirt grocery bags (I'll show pics of those later too).
We also made stops at New York & Company (I scored a cute red peacoat, a pair of jeans and a top- using a gift card I got for my birthday), Maurice's (I scored a sundress- in the color of the year orange, a sparkly pink tank, a teal ruffled top and a pair of earrings and necklace), 5 below (a few items for my weight loss Secret Sister, purple go louses in my size, and a pair of York peppermint pattie headphones), among other places we got great deals at. We also had this amazingly huge lunch/dinner at a diner in Blue Bell, where we watched the Phillies and the Flyers games (such a great fighting game between the Flyers and the Penguins!).

All-in-all, it was a super haul for how much we paid, and so much fun as well. Once we get our future house, I am sure I'll be scouring the thrift stores and such for more furniture, but for now, I'm set for a while. haha
-M

T-Shirt reusable grocery bags

I found this great idea on Pinterest on how to make simple T-shirt reusable grocery bags. Now, I had a HUGE pile of t-shirts that I had saved, after going though all my clothes a few weeks ago to purge after my weight loss, so I was determined to make the shirts into something useful.
I enlisted my mom, when she came to visit, to walk me through the basic idea, so I could crank out a bunch (she now plans to make them for her American doll clothes- Repurpose with a Purpose line of clothes).
It turned out to be SUPER easy.

(me with the 10 bags I made from old shirts- I'll have to take a picture later of stuff in them, so you get the gist a little better, but it was super easy to make these)

Here's how to do it:

Turn the t-shirt inside out.
Sew the bottom of the shirt together (this becomes the bottom of the bag). Basically just sew straight across the bottom, sewing together both sides of the shirt.
Turn the t-shirt back to the right side out
Take a bowl (or frisbee is what I used) and draw with a marker over the top portion of the shirt, by the neck- this becomes the inside part of the handles.
Cut along what you drew, basically cutting out the top of the shirt collar- would be cute to make these into little throw-away or reusable bibs if you had kids.
Cut the sleeves off of the t-shirt on both sides.

TADA! You have a t-shirt bag!
It was super easy. So easy, I made 10 of them in less than an hour! Amazing!
Just try it- I am sure that even the most beginner of sewing skills can do this (I did it after all!).
Enjoy and craft on!
-M

2012 Autism Crop layouts

So over the weekend I went to a crop with my mom hosted by Scraptacular in Morgantown, PA. Besides antiquing and shopping along the way (see post later for that) we scrapbooked till our heart's content all weekend. Here are some of the layouts I did and some pics from the crop (I think I forgot to photograph a few layouts and I'm not posting the banner I made for my friend's bridal shower, as I don't want to ruin the surprise). In the crop we took some inspiration fro Pinterest (on my mom's ipad and my iphone) and some sketches we brought along. Through our findings, we found one double layout that worked fabulous as a jumping off point in our layouts.
I tried to do some older photos I've been meaning to crop, but never got to, so that's why a bunch of them have photos from 2010 and 2011, lol!
Anyways, enjoy.

(2010 CHA layout)

(Christmas Gift opening 2010)

(My friend's annual White Elephant party, 2010)

(Last year, 2011, Autism crop)

(2011 Crop for a cure layout)

(My 24th birthday layout- I lost the photos from this, and cropped my 25th bday last autism crop, so I decided to back-track and finally do my 24th bday (I'm now 26, lol))

(Our 3rd wedding anniversary- August 23, 2011)

(the decor from my Harry Potter Movie marathon party)

(beachy pics from our trip to Florida last summer)

(Relaxin' at my husband's papa's house in Florida)

(Harry Potter 7, final movie- my husband and I's obsession and seeing it opening night)

(This puppy took FOREVER to make with all the frames, but oh well. It's a layout using Harry Potter scrapbook stuff, for my Harry Potter Movie Marathon party pics)

(My hubs becoming santa for his work's party...the T on that font is a little weird now that I look at it- maybe I'll cut the tail off it to make it work)