gifts from the heart

today my very good friend Kristin turn 18! :D note:
KRISTIN, IF YOU'RE READING THIS BEFORE YOUR PARTY SATURDAY NIGHT, STOP! DON'T SPOIL THE SURPRISE!!!!

ok well, you might remember in the months of september, i vowed to NOT SPEND ANY MONEY for a whole month. well, last month i went a little overboard and i think another swearing off spending is in order for the month of february. although its only 4 days into this month and i've already spent $30 in korean stickers- more on that later- and a bottle of nail polish and floral wire.. ok ill just stop there. EEPS! :-S  well this project cost me NOTHING! :) but its from the heart and it turned out super cute so i know she'll love it. ;) the only thing i spent money on was that i got her a disposable camera to go with it. $3.50. i can live with that.

*clears throat* okie dokie then. well TRYING to be frugal,  here's what i made, a photo album, posing with one of the cute handmade owls that the lovely Brina gave me in the Surprise Ball Gift Swap a while back. <3

cute, right?  want to make one? well here's how! :D
Materials:

1. cardboard
2. fabric
3. fabric glue
4. ribbon
5. eyelets and eyelet tool
6. clear plastic page protectors
7. scrapbook paper
8. sewing machine / needle + thread + patience 
9. scrapbook paper

optional for decoration:

1. fabric paint
2. felt
3. small beads
4. embroidery thread

ok so first thing, cut your cardboard. (i got my cardboard from the packaging insert from a calander - $0)

the back cover is 5 X 8 inches, and the front is two parts so it has a hinge. the larger part is 5 X 6 1/2 and the smaller part is 5 X 1 inch. i poked 3 holes in the small part, and 3 holes in the back cover. make sure they line up!

next, chose your fabric. i chose solid pink with a striped pattern on the inside. the fabric for the outer cover should be roughly 8 X 9 1/2. just as long as you have enough to fold over, really. i cut the fabric for my inner cover the same size as the cardboard, 5 X 8. for the inner fabric, cut out the corners, pin about a half inch inside, iron and sew. (fabric scraps i had laying around for over a year - $0)

yeah, i know it's crooked. i eyeballed this project. i wasnt exact on everything. :]

ok so now you have your covers (front and back, inside and outside) all cut out. time to make 'em pretty! :D

you can do whatever you want for this step, but i chose to use felt and spell out PICS with beaded and embroidered detail. these are all things i had on hand. $0. booyah.

cute cute cute.

i embellished the inner covers with a little fabric paint. i taped off sections and brushed over it with gold fabric paint. i tried one with stripes and one with zig zags. i liked the zig zags  :]

next,  spread fabric glue all along the cardboard out to the edges. place the cardboard on the fabric, centered. make sure when you glue on the front cardboard (the two pieces)that the gap between then is 1/2 inch, so together they are as long as the back cover, 8 inches. and keep in mind that you'll need to glue the 1 inch cardboard to your left side, since you're glueing it to the wrong side. so once you turn it over it'll be on the right.. i know that should go without saying, but hey, its something i would do. :-P

 now cut the corners out of the outer cover fabric and glue the flaps in.

   now cut the corners out of the outer cover fabric and glue the flaps in.

 next, glue on the inner covers. i shifted mine over so it would be easier to poke holes through the pink fabric for the binding.

now you'll need to add the eyelets for the binding. this part was tricky. just make sure you make your holes big enough to put the eyelets through where they won't get tangled in the fibers of the fabric.

the way eyelets work is this: they come with a little shaped piece of metal, and another one that's a little longer. you put your eyelet between them and hit it with a hammer. the two pieces bend the back of the eyelet down and hold it into place. if that doesn't make sense, there are instructions on the package of eyelets. and they're cheap. like $2.50 for a 24 pack with the special metal pieces included.

well, your cover is DONE! :D mine got a little warped and wrinkly.. :( so sad.

now for the inside. cause it's what's inside that counts, right? riight?

for this part i took regular page protectors and cut them down to 5 X 8 inches.

now stitch up the bottom and right side. make sure you leave the top open so you can slide in paper and pictures. the left side won't matter because it will be bound with ribbon at the end.

i decorated the edges of some of the page protectors with sharpie and stamps. (if you use stamps, make sure you use the Stayzon brand. other brands won't dry on the plastic and will just smear. ew.)

i also added a few random pages of paper and magazine pictures so my friend can journal on them.

now the binding part is rather tedious, but don't give up now, you're so close! :D

the hole punch i had didn't punch a clean hole through the plastic. it more like, popped it? so i had to add each page one by one and kind of struggle with it. but it was worth it. :] tie ribbons in bows and finish ends with fray-stop or clear nail polish. cute, right?

 what it looks like with photos. this is one of a good friend of mine with my kitty when she was a baby. *aaaw she was so cuuuuute!!!*

 a journaling page

another journaling page

warning: this project is likely to make your room look like this!

gaaaah! D:

wasn't that fun? gift wrap and card tutorial coming tomorrow! ;) stick around.

A New Art Journal

i have a tendency to abandon things when im not happy with them, and start fresh. i do it with knitting projects, diaries, sketchbooks, and *cough cough* blogs..

well here is a peek at my *newest* art journal. i wanted to capture the feeling of spring. (i say that while my city is trapped under a sheet of ice..) hey, i'm anxious for spring, ok? :-P

 yaay spring!

 new spring purse!

 ok, not really springy, but eh. this is me! :D

this is a page i did in response to Brina's prompt on her blog, Rose Colored Glasses!

The prompt was to journal a page on one of your personal catchphrases. I picked "how lovely." Honestly, i don't say it out loud much, but I'm thinking, "Well that's lovely!" and it reminds me of the song from Bye Bye Birdie. <3 Check it out!

culture: animal sounds edition

i thought this was cute. you know how in the US we refer to cats and saying "MEOW" and dogs as saying "WOOF WOOF?" Well in Korea, if you say meow or woof when referring to animals, they won't know what you're talking about. Its "Yooung Yooung" and "Mong Mong," DUH! :-P

if anyone knows how to re-size videos so im not chopping off the right side.. let me know :)

ice ice baby

what's the weather like where you live? its gross here. icy and cold. but honestly, im not complaining. i got to stay home and work on craft projects for the last 2 days. heck yeah! :D

one final thing must be said: *clears throat*

"TREE BE LOOKIN LIKE A FOOL WITH YO' LIMBS ON THE GROUND!"

thank you, and good night.

i have some really awesome craft tutorials and free print outs to share with you here soon! :D stay tuned!

hi there. me again.

remember me? i'm angie. we used to be good friends, you and i. then i got busy. and lazy. and uninspired. and i'm sorry for that. but i'm back now. i'm living the dream life again and i have a lot to share with you.

i haven't decided if i'll be making a new blog or not. this blog, "angie may handmade" was created mainly for the purpose to promote my etsy shop, not gunna lie. but i've since given up on becoming an etsy seller and now i just want to share with the world things i see and do that i feel are cool. i want to take it in a new direction, and i would love to get a fresh start with a new blog. i'll let you know if and when i have blog #2 up and running. <3

thank you for stopping by my little edge of the internet. i hope you stay a while.

busy busy busy

If you've been reading my blog for a long time, you may remember me mentioning a house I was hoping and praying I would be able to move into. And you may remember the loan being rejected by the bank due to the house's rundown state.

Well, I have some news.

IT'S MINE!

I'm beyond excited. And also kind of stressed... Christmas is a stressful time anyway, but this Christmas is going to be crazy hectic. Moving day is in 9 days. NINE DAYS! I'm not ready. Not sure that I'll BE ready by then. But I'll try. It's not just the packing, but this new house needs a lot of work. We're actually going to be moving in with a lot of repairs still to be done. I'm working full time until school starts again, and every day after work I've been going to work on the house. My best friend and my boyfriend helped a lot the other day with ripping out the old filthy carpet and prying up the tack strips. Over the weekend we'll be laying new flooring. Right now I'm on the painting stage. I don't have time to paint the whole house right now, but I wanted to get a few things done. I'm painting my room my favorite color- light grey. (I prefer the British spelling 'grey' over the American 'gray' for some reason. I'm weird like that.) 

 My room is almost done now. Just needs one more go-around with the roller. I'll share more pictures after I move in and make it pretty. ;)

One of my many many tedious projects- taking the staples out of the stairs- taking it from carpet to bare wood. Extremely time consuming. But I do it happily. I feel like it's kind of like a craft project. Instead of saying, "Look I made this little thingamabob," I'm saying, "Look I made this house awesome!" Kind of the same idea, right?

I did a great deal of Christmas shopping today. I went to the mall. It was a tad bit insane. But I did get quite a lot of my shopping done. And one tiny thing for myself.. 0:)

PS Michelle, I think you'll like it. ;)

So yeah, that's my update, in case anyone wants to know. :) I haven't been home to even clean my room in like 3 weeks. I'm juggling work, fixing up my new house, moving out of my current house, Christmas, and making time to see my best friend and my boyfriend. Things are crazy right now, but hopefully everything settles down in the next few weeks and I can relax and enjoy how awesome life is. <3

christmas is coming

Today was the first snow of the year, here in Dayton, Ohio. Now I'm really in the Christmas spirit. I officially started my Christmas shopping yesterday, and got a few things for myself too.. I like to have a few new festive articles of clothing at the start of each season. It gets me in the mood for celebrating the different times of year- the only good thing about living in Ohio is that you get to see all four seasons in their glory, and I like to celebrate that.

Are you getting snow where you live? How do you get into the Christmas spirit?