Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Weigh in Wednesday!

Hi ladies,

First I would like to point out that nobody gave me a heads up yesterday as we discussed last week. I am remembering this Weigh in Wednesday all on my own! As has been the case for quite some time now, I did not lose or gain. But, since it's only been a few days since my last weigh in, I'm not surprised. How did you do? Or, is it too early to ask?

Most of you know the game, but if you're new leave a comment today and you can be entered to win our prize. What will we give away this week. HMmmmmm. How about a Be Good Paper crafting kit to make this fun project sent to us by Sarah Hodgkinson. Be Good was last years Christmas line, but it's still super cute! Then, I think the winner will also need Buck Naked Alphabuttons and Ornaments and something new to get excited about. I think maybe a Chemistry Paper Crafting kit would do the trick!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

A Cogsmo Christmas


OK, here is the project I told you about yesterday. I have been dreaming about this idea for months! And, have just been waiting until it was closer to Christmas to give it a try. It worked even better than I'd imagined, and looks even better in real life. I think a little Christmas tree, in Jack's room, decorated in robots and gears is sure to have him on his best behavior while awaiting the big day!

If you would like to make these cog ornaments, here's what to do.
1. Get some Cogsmo Blackboard.
2. Coat one section at a time in glue and then glitter.
3. Assemble cogs. I didn't even use glue! If you look closely at the circles within the cogs, you'll notice that they aren't perfect; they are squished. So, what you want to do is create pressure to hold them in place. I started from the outside in. Take the outermost section of the cog. Look at the hole in the center of it to determine where that hole is the narrowest. Then take the next section of cog and determine where it is widest across. Now, wedge the widest section of the inside cog into the narrowest section of the outer cog.
4. Repeat with each cog section.
5. String with thread and you're done!

You can get 2 large cogs, 3 different robots and one dogbot from one set of Cogsmo Blackboard. There are also lots of little cogs that are cute on smaller Christmas trees.

Monday, November 17, 2008

And the Lucky Girl Is.....

Julie at 7:00 AM! Congratulations Julie!!! On your weight loss and on winning our prize. Send us your address and we'll send it out to you.

I have been working on a fun project this weekend. If I get a chance I will post it later today.... if not, tomorrow morning. Be sure to check back...... especially if you'll have little boys around at Christmas time!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Farewell Forever Fat Friday!

Did you think I forgot?

I didn't, it's just been a crazy morning. Anyway, I didn't get to say farewell to anymore fat. It's like a guest that has overstayed it's visit. I really want it to leave, but I think I've made the accommodations to comfortable! Or maybe it's just my charming personality. I think it might be lonely without me. Although, I did draw the line at letting any of its friends come crash our party. In other words, I didn't gain any and I didn't lose any either.

How did you do? Up or down. Happy or sad. Let us know and you could win a Gretel Collection with the Buck Naked Alphabuttons to make Krista's cute project below. Along with a Jack's World set, just for the fun of it.

PS: You don't have to post your weight, weight loss or gain, just give us some encouragement and you can be entered to win the prize too!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Give Thanks!


Before we talk about this fun project and what we're thankful for. Let me just say, that you know you are in over your head when you don't realize it's Wednesday..... the entire day. And then, when you realize it's Thursday, it still doesn't register that you missed Weigh in Wednesday. I think that from now on, someone needs to post a comment on Tuesday reminding me that the next day is Wednesday. I guess my mom was right all those times she told me that I'd forget my head if it weren't attached!!

Maybe I'll just pretend that these slip ups are intentional to keep you on your toes. You know, so you don't just show up on Wednesday hoping to win a prize. Maybe if Weigh in Wednesday was on some random day of the week you'd visit even more. HMMmmmm, I might have to think about that:)

Anyway, I'll make it up to you. Visit the blog tomorrow for Farewell Forever Fat Friday. We'll play the same game as usual.

OK, so today I am thankful for Krista! Krista works in our office and helps me with everything. Just a side note here, that all our employees are fabulous, not just Krista! But, today Krista is helping me with the blog and she doesn't even know it. Last week she sent me photos of this cute project she made for her home. I thought I'd share it with you! She used all products from our Gretel collection with Mr. Campy ribbon and our Buck Naked Alpha-buttons.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Paper Flowers


OK, I know that many, if not all, of you have already made these super-cute flowers. I see them on layouts and cards all over. But, until last night, I had never made one myself. These little cuties don't take up much time or paper at all. In fact, you probably have scraps big enough for these and too little for much else....... what a great way to use them!

Here are my first three attempts. To start, I used a circle punch (around 2") and cut all the circles for each flower. You could use even less paper by cutting each circle with nesting punches, or if you're really good, hand cutting diminishing sizes. I am not really good, so I started with four-five 2" circles. I picked the pattern I wanted to be the largest. Then, holding all three-four of the remaining circles, I hand trimmed them all one size smaller. I choose the next largest and repeated. Does that make sense? Doing it this way made it easiest for me to get the sizes of each circle right. Anyway, in a nutshell, you need to get 4-5 circles each smaller than the one before.

After you have your circles, you can try some different techniques. I only had time to try three, but have some other ideas in mind I'd like to try later.

For my first flower, I cut the circles and then sprayed them with a water bottle. When they were wet, I tore the edges and crumpled them up. I flattened them slightly and let them air dry.

For my next flower, I cut the circles and then fringed the edges. I think next time I might spray and crumple these too. And, I think a larger brad or maybe a button would work better in the center here. I'll have to see what I can find.

My final flower was simply cut with decorative edge scissors. Then I inked the edges and used a cute button for the center. It seemed to be the homey-est of all the flowers and so I picked it for the one on my house warming card. Now, to bake up a plate of cookies and welcome the new neighbors!

Update 2:39PM-- I thought I would let you know what I used on my card just in case you wanted to replicate it. The base is Prism cream colored cardstock (I don't know the color, sorry). Then, I used a journaling card from Chemistry for the background. The flower was cut from Flirt cardstock and the brown border from Forget Me Not (both Chemistry). I added a random button from my jar. The stitching is all done with embroidery floss, using all six strands. The tag was made with Flirt and Prism cardstock with a rub-on from Jack's World. I used Making Memories red string to tie on the tag. The crochet trim was just something I happen to have an entire bolt of. I found it at a tag sale years ago...... almost evey article of clothing I have ever sewn for my girls features it and I still have tons!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Japanese Friends & Class Instructions


Here are some of the friends we met in Japan. There were many others including Rei who gave us a lovely gift and Yoko who made this album using photos and entries from our blog.

Sorry about the poor photos. It's very overcast today, and I don't have enough light to shoot these. But, don't you just love this album! I will treasure it. So many great memories! I especially love that she took stills from the videos and placed them in as film strips.

On another note, here are the instructions for the classes I taught in Japan. I wasn't sure how to save these for the blog. Hopefully they work for you (click on them for the full size sheet). If they don't, email us and we'll send them to you. You are free to use these for yourself or for classes or anything else you have in mind. We just ask that you credit Cosmo Cricket. Enjoy!