The Mystery Thing Revealed: Green Apostrophes

Wow, I'm sorry it has been a while since my last post - one of those times when work life interferes with blog life.

So!  Want to know who guessed the Mystery Thing this week?  Well I'll tell ya!  It was...

Nobody, that's who!

This is a rare thing, my friends.  Normally, when I challenge you all to guess my Mystery Thing, a whole bunch of you manage to figure it out and amaze me.  Not this time!  To refresh, here were the mystery jewels:

And here's the answer:

From the dollar store!  They are for clipping plants to stakes, trellises or other supports.  They make a figure eight, but I liked the swoopy curves and never did make anything figure-eight-shaped with them.


Here are some other creations.  Two glasses-hanger necklaces:

And a Mod kinda weird kinda arty pendant thingy:

Winners this week: as always, it was nearly impossible to choose.  You people are high-larious!  This time, I was reading over the guesses with my youngest brother, and noted the ones that made him laugh hardest.  Anything that can make my stressed little bro happy is a winner.

Two winners for for Most Creative Incorrect Guess.  Sunny from Life in Rehab, who was certain they were hemorrhoid cream applicators.  And Creative Mind, who said:  I think you crush a toy of any little kid & make these beautiful pieces.

Two winners for Randomly Chosen Incorrect Guess:  Denise and Kathryn!  Yay and congrats to all, I will email you guys shortly.

Thanks for playing, people!  Love you much.

Oh, wait, one last thing...I just wanted to say...

Nyah nyah nyah-nyah nyah!

I got you, I got you!  *sound of insane cackling*  I finally got you!

So fun!  We'll do this again soon.

Guess the Mystery Thing: Green Apostrophes! Or maybe they're commas.

Hey howdy!   It's time once again for that very popular challenge game, Guess the Mystery Thing and Win Because It's Swoopy and Interesting and You Want It But Also Because Darn It You've Had a Rough Couple of Weeks What With the Usual Stress and Valentine's Day and All that Other Crap That Went Down Therefore You Deserve Something Nice And Since Mich Has Finally Given Up and Knows She Can't Stump You Someone Is Going To Win and It Might As Well Be You.

Guess the Mystery Thing for short.

Here are two unusual jewels, made with some kind of swoopy, curving, dark green objects of mystery.

I used some more of them to adorn these  fruity necklaces:

So.  What are those green apostrophes?  (Or commas.)

There will be two winners: first correct guess and most creative guess, to be chosen by moi.  If nobody gets it right, there will be a random winner.  So even if you're stumped, guess anyway, you could still win!

Hint: they are something both men and women would use.


The rules:

1. Open to anyone, anywhere.  (You don't even have to be a follower of the blog, although I would lurve it if you were!)

2. If your email isn't available to me in one click from an online profile, be sure to include your email address with your guess.

Okay, y'all - you know what to do.  Ready?  Set?  Guess the Mystery Thing!!!

UPDATE: THIS CHALLENGE IS NOW CLOSED.  THANKS, EVERYBODY!

A Sneaky Peaky.

Hi, my dearies!  Today I will just give you a peek at something fun:

You may recognize the plastic fruits from my last post.  They're a cute type of Mexican candy for sale around L.A.  I made them into photo garlands:

But I could not resist turning a few of them into jewelry.

So here's the sneaky part.  I will just mention, there may or may not be an upcoming Mystery Thing in that photo.  Don't start guessing YET, but put on your thinking caps.

Let me finish up today with two little announcements:

1. Winner of the garland giveaway was...drum roll...Jill from Queensland, Australia.  Hip hip hooray, Jill!

2. For those of you following along with my Pupsicle of the Month feature, I am so excited to tell you that over the past two days, ALL my outstanding rescue Pupsicles got adopted!  Hip hip hooray, Yetti, Alexander, Pickles and Nutmeg!  It was an amazing, record-breaking weekend in which seventeen of our abandoned dogs found homes in time for Valentine's Day.  Which means we can now rescue seventeen more dogs off the mean streets of Los Angeles.  W0O0t!!!

Okee doke.  Happy Valentine's Day to all of you lovely people.  Be sure to come back next time for the Mystery Thing Challenge.

She Slapped My Face With a Glove and I Liked It: Photo Garland Tutorial.

This post is going to be complicated; it does involve a bit of exposition.  Just know, there is going to be a Very Easy Tutorial, and a Nice Little Giveaway before it's finished. So I do hope you will keep reading until you get to the fun stuff!

You guys know Michele-with-one-L from the super-wow-amazing blog Michele Made Me, right?  A while back, she challenged the brilliantly craftapaloozical Aunt Peaches to a little creative duel.  To see what happened when those two got to duking it out, click here!

I really enjoyed watching from the sidelines, and no one was injured in the bout.  So much fun!  Good times, good times.  And then...

 

I found myself the recipient of a most terrifying e-mail.  Michele had challenged me to a one-on-one.  And swelp me, I accepted!  The idea was, we'd pick a day, and simultaneously post competing crafts, with a theme chosen by the previous challengee.

Okay, Peaches is either a tiny bit evil, or the power went to her head.  Not content with simply choosing a nice, easy, general theme (like flowers, or ponies, or blue), she set a Fancy-Shmancy Difficult Theme and Three Intimidating Rules!

The theme is Candy Wrappers.  The rules are: 1. The project must be a stashbust.  2.  It must be shared.  3. It must be inspired by something specific of the crafter's choosing.  (This rule was kind of vague, that's my interpretation.)

Whew.  Alrighty, then.  Here goes nuthin'!

Candy Wrappers.  I love these Mexican candies, aren't they the cutest?  The plastic fruits are my "wrapper" element...I mean, they contain the candy, they sort of wrap around it, right?  Anywhoo, I am declaring them candy wrappers for the purposes of this challenge.

Stash-busting.  I already had these dollar store barrettes, which I have been wanting to use for ever:

Sharing. I figured the natural thing would be to make three versions of the project.  One for Michele, one for Peaches, and one for YOU GUYS.  That's right, didn't I promise you a Nice Little Giveaway?  Yes, I did.

Inspiration.  For my inspiration, I am using Michele herself.  You see, she doesn't wear jewelry!  Hmm.  Gosh.  Well now.  It was a little extra challenge to myself, to make a non-jewelry giftie that she might actually use.  Let's see how I did.

First, The Very Easy Tutorial.  You'll find out what the heck it is at the end.  Ready?  Begin!

I snipped the barrette parts off the flowers, and poked holes with a heated poker.

I added jump rings and then paper clips to four flowers and one fruit per project.

That's it!  You are totally done!

Now, what the HECK is it????

See?  Adapts to any paper art you care to display.

I did one grape, one peach and one strawberry.

What do you think?  I do hope you like it.  And now - the all-important one-on-one CHALLENGE part of this post!

I suggest you finish reading my post first.  Then you absolutely MUST CLICK HERE to see what magic Michele has made.  (I have set up this link and written this paragraph without even seeing what she did, but I know one thing.  She wins.  Of course.  But I had an utter BLAST going up against such an honorable opponent!)

But wait, there's more!  Michele's post is going to explain in detail.  Today, she and Peaches are announcing a COOL NEW THING UPON THE INTERWEBS.  It is called

MAKE IT GOOD!

And today's one-on-one kicks it off, yay!  It's going to be sort of a ROUND ROBIN.  Sort of a CRAFTY CHAIN.  Sort of a NEVERENDING CHALLENGE.  Sort of a TAG, YOU'RE IT!  Here's the pretty green button:

The green is for upcycling, because trash is the theme.  Each  person who is challenged has to agree to PASS ON THE CHALLENGE to one more crafter.  And that crafter will pass it on, and so on, and so on.  The button will take you to the rules.  (They're simpler than the ones I had to work with, I promise.)  It should be super fun, and I hope it spreads far and wide.

Oh, one last item of business.  You didn't forget The Nice Little Giveaway, I hope?  So - who wants one of these thingies?

Peaches gets the peach, natch.  Michele will pick her fave.  And whichever is left, I will send to one random lucky reader.  To enter,  just leave a comment along the lines of, "Hi, now gimme!"  Be sure to include your email or a link to it.

Thanks, Michele and Peaches, for starting this crazy game of tag!  I am not worthy.  But I had wicked fun.




And be warned, my crafty friends.  Someday soon you may open an innocent-looking e-mail from another crafter, and - uh-oh!

 

The challenge will be on. 

UPDATE: THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.  THANKS FOR ENTERING!

Tubs into Toggles: jewelry clasps from recycled plastic.

Recently I had an email from a new reader, asking me to make something from cottage cheese tubs or other plastic recyclables.  What a co-inkee-dink!  I've had this tutorial germinating in the ruburbs of my brain for ages, and her email got me motivated to write it.  Thanks, Carrie N.!

Toggle clasps: I love love love them!  And sometimes I like to make my own.  I've done it lots of ways: polymer clay, hardware, precious metal.  Today, I want to introduce you to these little guys:

Yep, they are made from recycled tub containers.

So here's what ya do.  Start with a plastic container (or any old plastic, really) from your recycle bin.

Cut out two pieces.  One can be any shape, with a hole in the center - that's your toggle.  (Try hearts, flowers, squares, teardrops - or just go with a classic circle.)  The other is a straight skinny shape - that's your bar. 

The one trick is to make your bar long enough so it won't slip out of the toggle hole.   Maybe take a look at some ready made toggle clasps to eyeball the proportions.  Too long is better than too short, in my experience.

Next, poke a hole in each piece.

On a headpin, stack your plastic bar and a flat spacer...

And make a wrapped loop on the back.  (Wrapped loop step-by-step tutorial here.)

Guess what?  You're done!!!  Just use jump rings or links of a chain to attach them to a jewel that needs a clasp.

This cute blue one was cut from the logo on a cottage cheese tub:

Nifty, eh?  They work like any other toggle.  But they're extra fun, because you made 'em!

While saving the planet.  Raht own!

 

It's Superball Sunday!!!

Hey, sports fans!  You know what today is!  It's...

Superball Sunday!

Hee hee hee.  I crack myself up.

So I hear that some large men will be playing the foosball at some point today.  I wish each of you a very thrilling Sunday, no matter what it is that gets you excited.