Bracelet Gift Box: Template

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If you like to make jewelry and give your creations as gifts, I have a really easy and cool bracelet gift box you can make. 

For the template, click HERE. 

The template includes the gift box and the bracelet holder, complete with a guide for where to punch the holes.  You’ll need some wire to attach the bracelet to the card, and a 1/16″ hole punch or some type of paper-piercing tool.

(P.S.  Isn’t the bracelet gorgeous?  My aunt made it for me for Christmas.  I keep trying to get her to make paper crafts, but I still haven’t had any luck.)

Get started now making a bunch of these boxes, especially if you are planning on giving handmade bracelets as Christmas gifts.  If not, make a set and give them to your friends who make jewelry.  What a fun gift!

From One Extreme to the Other

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When I get bored, maybe like twenty years from now, I plan on scanning and uploading pictures from my modeling days.  It was a non-stop job full of glamorous clothes, fun opportunities, and lots of good times.  (When I enjoyed it.  That all changed at the end when I began to dread it!)  I was at the top of my game.

Fast-forward twenty years later, and here we are.  Today I was measured for a custom-made pair of support stockings.  Yeah, THOSE UGLY THINGS THAT OLD PEOPLE WEAR.  I went for the really sheer ones that are open-toed and have pretty lace around the thigh-high elastic bands. 

They cost around $100.  It takes about a week for them to come in.  I never in my life had anything custom-made for me, not even a gown by one of the famous designers I modeled for.  But now I’m having a pair of SUPPORT STOCKINGS THAT OLD PEOPLE WEAR custom-made for me.

There are  bonuses, too!  I get to buy a special “glue” to put around my thigh to keep them from falling down.  I also get to buy a special pair of rubber gloves that I have to wear to put the stockings on so they don’t run or get picks on them.

I learned more about orthostatic hypotension from the guy at the medical supply store who measured me than I did from all of the doctors I have been to over the past few months.  A couple of the doctors recommended that I try support stockings, but I rolled my eyes.  Taking a pill would be so much easier!  Turns out the pills don’t work, so instead of feeling like I am going to die every day, I’m opting for the things THAT OLD PEOPLE WEAR. 

(Here’s a little anatomy lesson:  when you stand up, gravity naturally pulls your blood down into your legs.  There are valves in your veins that are supposed to work against gravity to help pump the blood back up to your heart.  Turns out that mine aren’t working, so the support hose will help them out.)

My new mission in life is going to be to come up with nifty ways to hide the fact that I am wearing these things.  I thought if I get Botox and enhance myself in all areas above my waist, no one will bother looking down at my legs, right?  Hmmm….anyone know a good doctor for that?  Might be time to give Dolly Parton a call…

Small Candy Bar Box: Template

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These cute boxes are the perfect size for small candy bars and/or Ghirardelli chocolate squares.  For Halloween, I especially like the dichotomy of combining gruesome with serene.  That is why I combined blood splatter stickers with sticky-back pearls.  Sick, I know! 

For the box template, click HERE.

random thoughts, just cuz I feel like it

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Tonight was Open House at Dreyfoos.  For the first time ever we had both girls’ Open Houses on the same night at the same place.  Neil is oot, so it was up to me to go.  Erica took center stage at this event since I couldn’t be in two places at the same time.  She made me a cute map and wrote little notes and directions for me so that I would know where to go.  I’m going to save that piece of paper forever.  She was so excited when she was writing/drawing it.  I took a picture of her with my heart.

I have so many opinions about this blogging thing, especially when it comes to all of the craft blogs that are out there and all of the blogs that offer giveaways.  I just need to vent about this.  It seems like one day someone decided to have a blog dedicated to crafting.  Now there are thousands of craft blogs.  That is fine, but why do they all follow the same formula?  I have made the decision that eWillow.com will not be like the rest of them because honestly, it’s not how I roll.  I need to stick with what comes naturally to me.  No more giveaways.  I want loyal readers; I don’t want people who pop by just to enter a giveaway.  I also very quickly got over the “I Was Featured” thing.  It boosts traffic for a day or two, and then the people go on to the next featured site.  Once again,  loyal followers are what I am focused on.  Traffic has doubled over the past month.  I’m happy about that.  I don’t care if it is a slow process…I have all the time in the world.  I am going to do it MY way and let the chips fall where they may.

I wasn’t accepted into the Vanderbilt research program, but I WAS accepted to visit with a physician at their clinic for 1 to 3 days.  The jury is still out on whether or not I’m going. 

Martha Stewart rejected me, but so what?  That’s just a sign to me that I am going to continue doing things my way, and not follow a formula.  I am NOT a professional photographer like so many of her Martha’s Circle bloggers are.  Plus, I’ve already been accepted into the Mom Logic ad network, so who needs Martha anyway?  Who died and made her the queen of all things crafty?  I come up with my ideas on my own.  Does she?

Okay, it’s after midnight and I hear the printer.  That tells me that someone who should be fast asleep is still awake doing homework.  At this hour?  What’s up with that?  I guess she doing things her way.  I wonder whom she takes after?

BOO! Here’s a Template for You!

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Next time you’re out shopping, buy a bunch of clipboards.  You can decorate one for every holiday and display them in your foyer to add an extra welcome to your visitors!
 




Let’s start with Halloween. 

Send your husband on a mission for you…ask him to go to the hardware store (what husband wouldn’t like being asked to do that?) and have him buy you a large roll of drywall tape like this:

A big roll like this one will last forever.  I have had mine for so long that I don’t even remember how much I paid for it, but I’m sure it was under ten dollars.

Every paper crafter needs a roll of drywall tape, especially with Halloween quickly approaching.  It adds so much spooky flair to a project and it is so easy to work with.  It is sticky on one side, so all you need to do is cut it the length that you need and stick it to your project. You can even use a brayer and ink and make it any color you want to make it.

You can’t see it in the photo, but I put a piece of drywall tape along the length of the BOO clipboard.  It kind of brings out feelings of mummies and creepy stuff.

Now for a brief tutorial on how to make the clipboard.

First, click HERE to download the letters.

1)  Tie lots of different textures and colors of ribbon through the hole(s) at the top of the clipboard.

2)  Cover the clipboard with a couple of different colors of coordinating decorative paper.

3)  Use photo-corners or a photo corner punch to cover the tiny areas of the clipboard that you can’t quite cover during step #2.

4)  It’s a MUST to use tiny googly eyes on the spiders!

5)  For the letters, I used black cardstock and then randomly stamped a white craft ink pad directly onto the paper.  It gives the look and feel of cobwebs.

6)  I cut out tombstones from one of the sheets of decorative paper.  I adhered four tombstones directly to the clipboard, and I used dimensionals to adhere the remaining two.  It has a great 3-D look to it.

BOO to you