Washi On Washi Off

I'm late for the Washi party and from the looks of things on Etsy and Pinterest I am not even fashionably late. I'm like "oh that party was last week" kinda late.

But then Washi felt sorry for me because I was standing at their door awkwardly so they invited me in for crafts. 

Today's washi related craft: mail organizers. We have three people living in our house and the mail bin sitting on the kitchen counter overflowith. I also needed some place to drop all my receipts for rebates (yeah, I'm one of those). 

Supplies:

• Three clear plastic mail wall files from Office Depot  (I bought one box - that had three files)
• Washi tape that I picked up at Michael's today (clearance 2 rolls for $1.99)
• Cloth "buttons" with sticky on the back also from Michael's (clearance 1 sheet for $2.49)

Really the instructions are - decorate files, put on wall. I didn't even stack my files! But anyway - picture time:

Fresh out of the box...

Washi Tape and 

Fabric "buttons" with adhesive on the backs.

Two rows of pattern tape and one silver, plus a button for pizzazz

Equals: 

BF's instant comment" "the middle one should have two stripes" (thanks Mr. Asperger) 

Totally matches the blaze orange. 

This was just a quick project for me tonight. I plan to write on each  in the lower right corner with fancy writing what should go in (ie - grandma's mail, our mail, receipts). I will post pictures if I don't ruin them. 

To adhere these to the wall I used the sticky adhesive that came with the files. Because we have so much mail I will probably need to use the drywall screws that also came with the kit. 

Reference: none this time! I thought of this on my own. 

The Gift

For my first art related task I didn't actually choose a Pinterest item. I was feeling pretty crafty on my own so I decided to send my friend Kate an early holiday package.

I found a box that was less than attractive but would fit the items I wanted to send:

I then glued fabric to the inside of the box using mod podge. I didn't put fabric on the tabs (you can see they are still white) because of the way the box closes. These tabs need to slide into the front of the box and I was worried adding anything to them would make this difficult.

Next I found some twine (actually left over cooking twine from Thanksgiving). I laid a length of this on the bottom of the box with enough coming out of the box on either side to be able to tie a bow after everything was packed in. The "why" will make more sense in the finished picture later in the post.

      

Then I laid a piece of brown craft paper over the twine with enough extra on the sides to cover the items I was going to put in the box. Again, this may make more sense when looking at the final product. I added the gifts next. (I did pack some extra paper around the items so they wouldn't move in shipping.)

        

Next, I folded the paper over the gifts - so it looked nice. I like to fold about an inch on the ends of paper "under" before wrapping my presents so the cut lines aren't visible. I did the same thing with this so the ends looked a little more polished. I tied the twine in a fancy knot (since it was still layered under the paper) and added a tag that matched the fabric I had lined the box with. 

Now on to the ugly outside.

Remember?

I was going to figure out a way to glue more fabric over the front of the box to cover all of the old writing and stickers. BUT THEN I thought - what if I photocopy a fabric piece onto a white shipping label? My printer has a color scanner/photocopier function. I used a full 8.5"x 11" white shipping label sheet (from some office store - I've had these for about six years). I put a piece of fabric on the scanning glass and pushed "copy." It turned out - "pretty much awesome."

Even the frayed bits photocopied and looked neat!

From that it was as easy as adding a label to a box. I cut the label to the size of the top of the box and  +BAM+ new lid. 

Yes, that is the printed label!

I added two white labels with addresses - I wanted to keep with the cloth theme so I used some fancy scissors to cut a border. Be warned if you try this. My scissors were dull and I found that if I didn't have "enough" label on each side to cut the scissors would actually pull the label off the backing and would stick to my scissors. But I finally succeeded. And then, as I always do - I thought more would be more and drew a stupid flower on the "To:" label. Sigh.  At least this was the only thing I didn't like about the project!

I did put clear packing tape across the entire front of the box since the label was printed with my inkjet printer and wouldn't stand up to rain.

I'm excited to try more things with the printed fabric! I am working on a washer necklace project I think this would work really well with and I'm also wondering if it would be possible to make a photocopied quilt... I haven't searched either of these ideas yet, but almost want to try them on my own first so I don't spoil the surprise! (I will add links to these projects if I end up doing them.) 

References: None this time. "I made this." 

Starting Point

I've enjoyed about 15 years of collecting supplies for art projects that I've never finished, actually never started. Although I don't see myself as a hoarder, I do see myself as the type who hates failure, an unhealthy hate of it, and therefore I don't start projects because I don't want to fail at them. But I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that failure is what makes art great. One of the best lessons for this came in the form of Pinterest.

I saw so many talented people pinning amazing arts and crafts projects and describing how awesome these were and the creator is a genius, etc, etc, etc. I pinned till my clicking finger hurt - hundreds of project I would never try but looked so clever. And then one day something happened...someone pinned something, calling the creator a god of good ideas, and the idea was something I already did. Now this may sound petty but it struck a real chord with me. I realized that I too was a keeper of great ideas but they were so ingrained in me I didn't see them as anything but everyday life. Others most likely were in the same position, only some of these people actually posted their ideas and in turn we "pinned" them.

To make the point - my supplies have been liberated and I am ready to face failure. I will be "testing" craft and art ideas I "pin," will keep a log of what worked, what didn't, and what I would do differently.

I'd like to close with a quotation pertinent to the upcoming journey but it seems a bit too cliche.


Disclaimer - I have no connection with pinterest.com except that I am an end-user of pinterest.com. I do not have any financial connections, personal connections, management connections, etc.  I don't know how they manage anything. I am just an end-user. I repin items I find on other's boards, load some of my own images, and that's about it. I do not claim to own anything on Pinterest or that any of the ideas on here start as original. I will always do my best to note where ideas come from (who, link to blog or site, etc). I may come up with some idea that someone else has but just because I try something that perhaps someone else has already and I don't mention them doesn't mean I am purposefully plagiarizing. It means that people can actually come up with the same idea independent of one another. From the flip-side: sinc eI make every effort to document who's idea is who's I would appreciate including a link or reference to this blog if you use any ideas from it. After all, this is all my writing.