Category: Crafts

crafts

Playing with Photoshop Text Effects

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I’ve had Photoshop on my computer for years, but I’ve mostly used it for, y’know photos. And doodle-related stuff. If I was using it to put text on something, I might put an outline around the text. Or a drop shadow. That was about the limit of my Photoshop text experience. Recently, I’ve had my eyes opened that you can do some really cool text effects in Photoshop. We bought a package of vintage and retro text effects (they were on a hella good sale, which sadly ended a couple. . . Read More!

Weird Holidays = Holiday Doodles

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A few months back, I posted about the daily doodles I was doing at work. And more than one person said that I should be putting them online somewhere, or make a daily calendar, or something. The calendar thing would be a challenge, only because at this point, I’d have to start researching and drawing 2015. Because that’s how the calendar business rolls. But I did finally build a site where these will be online! The daily doodles are now at holidaydoodles.com, and I’ve even bumped from 5 days a. . . Read More!

Draw Something on Good Morning America

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I’m a huge fan of the game Draw Something, and have many matches going on. (I keep a little gallery over at Facebook of my favorite drawings. (I also keep a gallery in my cube at work. It brings me joy.) So last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Jimmy showed special guest Johnny Depp some drawings that people had made of him in the game. This morning, one of my bosses was watching Good Morning America and saw one of my drawings on a segment THEY did, which talked about. . . Read More!

Restringing a Ukulele with Fishing Line

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Having put good strings on my good ukulele, and great strings on my great ukulele, I thought I’d put comically cheap strings on my cheap ukulele. And what better way to get a plinky-dinky cheap sound than fishing line? One problem is, fishing line isn’t actually all that cheap. Because it’s hard to find it in short lengths. Sure, you could pay a few bucks for a 500-yard spool … but you’ll never use that much line (unless you actually go fishing), and more importantly, you’d have to get four. . . Read More!

Crafts: Quick Little Purse / Tote Bag

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Goodness, I’ve been remiss in posting. My computer pooped out recently (shiny new one is now in use), and the other person who does my job at work went and broke her wrist, so I’ve been a little busy there. But not too busy for a little weekend crafting! I was at the IKEA and saw that they had some cool fabrics for cheap, so I figured I’d throw down a little purse. The plain yellow and blue were on sale for something crazy like $2.99 per yard. The colorful. . . Read More!

Free Fonts for National Handwriting Day!

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So you may know that I have a thing for making fonts. Several of which are yours for the taking, for free. Which means that I’m super-duper excited that YourFonts will create your very own handwriting font for FREE today and tomorrow, in honor of National Handwriting Day (January 23). I’ve already created a couple, and coerced Scott to fill out his own template so I could process it. They make it pretty darned easy — download the template, fill out the letters with your favorite pen (I have a. . . Read More!

Compu-Crafts: More Phone Hijinks!

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Yes, I just spent a good portion of last weekend monkeying with my phone. Not only did I do things to the user interface to make it look pretty, but I also installed new software on it. That software was awesome. Then, this last Monday, the news came out that with Cyanogen (the new software we’d put on our phones), our phones couldn’t dial 911. It’s not a problem with all phones. It’s not even a problem with some phones. It’s a problem specifically with this one model of phone,. . . Read More!

Compu-Crafts: Phone Fonts, Skins, and Rooting

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It feels weird to categorize this stuff in the same way as the oven mitts, but it’s crafty in its own way. I discovered the other day, after a year and a half of using this phone, that I could change the font. Yes, it took that long for me to find a little menu. I immediately changed it to something called “choco cooky” or something, which was cute enough, but if you know me at all, you know that I want my own darned font on there. So I. . . Read More!

Crafts: Easy Little Oven Mitt

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So a little while ago, in a post about gluten-free pasta, I mentioned that I’d made the oven mitt in the background. We have two other store-bought oven mitts, but we went for the cheapest and most boring ones, and they look a little scruffy. The yellow one is the one we use the most. I figured I’d make a couple more, and take snappies of the process. This is a pretty easy project for a beginner, and a lot of fun. Onward! First off, you’ll need to get your. . . Read More!

I See Some White Shorts and I Want to Dye Them Black

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I visited Old Navy the other day, and was delighted to find that they had half the store on clearance. A huge section was dedicated to white shorts in all lengths. I got a couple of pairs, since Old Navy’s shorts fit my pear-shaped butt fairly well. But white shorts have a problem — a HUGE problem, if most of your undergarments are colorful. That’s right: VISIBLE UNDIES. Scourge of the warm-weather world. So I figured I’d keep one white pair (to only be worn with flesh-toned underthings, I swear). . . Read More!