Birthday Yummies

Whoops. I found this one-lined post in my drafts. From December.

Let’s talk.

I didn’t drop crafting, per se, but in the interim, I discovered a love for baking. To me, it’s part chemistry, part manual labor (I mix batters by hand, thank you very much!) and part YUMMY. I love sampling uncooked batter, and I especially LOVE tasting a finished delicious treat.

My birthday was in December, and I turned the ripe age of 26. Instead of ordering my usual grocery-store vanilla cake with sugary white icing and pink/purple flowers, I decided to bake my own top-notch hilarious cake and decorate it, for my party. My original plan was to bake a few layers and slice them thin to have a beautiful multi-layer cake with tons of icing and fillings. My mom was slightly upset that I didn’t A. ask her to do it first and B. allow her to just BUY me a cake, so I ended up allowing her to pre-bake the cake layers for me. At my request: 2 layers of vanilla confetti and 1 layer of lemon.

When it came to actually icing the cake, I was so excited that I COMPLETELY forgot to trim and slice down the three layers of cake. I’d become so hilariously preoccupied with making the perfect shade of pink icing (thanks, red food coloring all over my fingers & betty crocker whipped icing). By the time I noticed that I should’ve evened out the layers, it was way too late. And then I ran out of my pink icing. And then my carpal tunnel kicked in and I couldn’t make cute rosettes.

And then I got lazy.

What I didn’t get lazy for, however, was decorating and assembling my “sweet table”. That’s the Martha Stewart in me, I suppose!

Special thanks to my man, who bought me a beautiful bouquet of pink flowers to match and, of course, for hosting my party. He is the best!!

Tags: baking

Montrealers.. This is for YOU

http://www.salonpassionchocolat.com/home.aspx

This weekend. Equivalent of the Beer Festival but with CHOCOLATE. Delish!!!!

Not a Craft, but Craft-Related!!!

I saw this in the newspaper - because I happen to be an AVID comics reader - and I knew it was destined to have a cameo here.

Self-explanatory, don’t you agree?

And hey - does anyone happen to have a BeDazzler handy or know where I can find one?? I could go for some awesome STUDS!!

Recycled Tacky Brooch Hairclip (with Feathers!)

When I first decided to make a craft blog, I brainstormed ENDLESSLY and was constantly writing down craft ideas in my notepad, sketching concepts here and there, and making spreadsheets with my plans. I dreamed this craft and could never figure out how to doodle it so I’d remember exactly what I wanted. And then I found this old creeper of a pin that I actually used to LOVE. It was in the same box as the cuff bracelet from the previous craft. I actually found a truckload of old weirdo brooches, so there’ll be more pin-activities coming up.

There’s something special about wearing a unique hairclip - whether it be covered in feathers or jewels. Equivalent to having a festooned headband that nobody else has. I have two beautiful hairclips (purchases, not made) that manage to make me feel that much more special whenever I wear them. It’s so common these days to either shove a headband in your hair or just wear it loose. Yes - it’s also common to wear plastic banana clips or claw clips, but I’m talking more for style than convenience. A lovely hairclip can really just take your outfit up a notch, and hey, why not have one that nobody else has? Onto the craft!

Things You Need:

• 1 old tacky brooch that you KIND OF like
• 1 hair clip (mine are 3″ long & come in a pack of 6 from the dollar store)
• Glue gun
• Feathers
• Heavy fabric scraps or thick ribbon (I used 1.5″ thick velvet ribbon. I’m fancy.)

Things You Don’t NEED But Are More Than Welcome to Use Because I Did:

• Faceted jewels

How To:

1. Cut a piece of ribbon/fabric long enough to cover the hairclip, leaving about a half an inch hanging off the length - that’ll give you extra space to dazzle up the clip. This is purely to have a base that not only covers the clip, but also is a background for your pin and feathers. It doesn’t matter WHAT you use, it’s just for show.
2. Glue the bottom of the pin to the now-covered clip. I didn’t remove the back of the pin, but depending on your pin’s size, you may want to, with needlenose pliers. I only glued the bottom down so I’d have space for the next step…
3. Because of the style and size of my pin, I was able to cheat a little bit. Pipe glue between the pin and the covered clip and quickly push feathers, stem first, in between the pin and clip.
4. Continue piping glue and pushing feathers in a crescent form around the brooch, so it looks like a semi-circle of feathers exploding from the brooch.
5. Add jewels - if you like - to the edges of the clip. This serves 2 purposes: covers up excess stems and glue and adds EXTRA dazzle!
6. Clip it to your hair and prance around like the fab peacock you are!

Note: Because of the style of my pin, I was able to push feathers easily between the clip and pin. Most brooches aren’t as easy. If yours is on the more suspicious side, I strongly suggest glueing your feathers first and THEN topping it off with the brooch.

Estimated Time: 20 minutes of feather-glueing
Craft Level: Moderate - styling a brooch-feathered-jeweled-hairclip can be tricky!

I am FAMOUS

Well, not quite, but I did get a little write-up in Design is Yummy plugging my blog.

Design is Yummy is the blog of - wait for it - the kind soul of a designer who helped me put together THIS web space. She blogs about interesting design bits she sees. Naturally, Craft with Jackie made a cameo appearance.

Check it out here!

Tags: "press", fun facts

Questions Answered

A friend of mine who also happens to be fairly crafty asked me a pretty SERIOUS question about my crafts and I knew I’d have to address it here.

She had wanted to make this and didn’t know where to buy the materials needed. She proceeded to ask me where exactly I get all my supplies.

So, crafters, where DO I get all my supplies?

I foremost use - and suggest - Wal-Mart. Lowest prices, a pretty decent range of supplies ranging from mountains of beads to aisles of scrapbooking materials to inexpensive fabric. They also have the best return policy EVER. I get all of my basics there.

I also visit local Dollar stores for odds and ends, like fun stickers, cheap crayons, specialty paper. Oddly enough, the Dollar Stores near me happen to have a pretty amazing selection of scrapbook stuff and at $1 each, I can’t say no.

If I’m looking for something particularly special, fancy or weird, I visit Omer DeSerres. That’s a Canadian art supply chain. Not overly cheap, but the flowers I used on the extra headbands? I bought them on clearance! Can’t say no to a good deal!

If I am lucky and my parents happen to be going out of town or I happen to skip out of town, I ALWAYS try to visit a Michaels. If Omer DeSerres and Wal-Mart had a craft-love-child, it would come in the form of Michaels. ONLY crafts and tons of great deals. We don’t have one in Montreal, and the closest one is MINIMUM an hour away. I can’t exactly visit daily! When I DO get to visit a Michaels, I try to sneak in as many specialty products as possible. I sent my mother there to get me fancy specialty feathers - which apparently, are totally unavailable in Montreal.

I think it’s also necessary for me to mention one extra little fact: I have my own collection of supplies I’ve collected over the years. I keep a stack of old magazines handy for collages/decoupage. I hang onto extra buttons from clothes for quick accents. I hang onto clothes with weird patterns or fabric that have the potential to be reused.

Oh, right. That, and I happen to have a crafter mother who has enough assorted supplies for me to make anything on this planet. We have a room FULL of everything basic that I can dream of. Drawers of ribbon, assorted peculiar fabric remnants, thread to match every color in the rainbow and enough glue guns and scissors to supply an army.

How’s that? Feel free to bombard me with any questions at jackie@craftwithjackie.com

Tags: fun facts

Seen on TV: Fancy Headbands!

Seen on Larry King Live last night: Meghan McCain sporting a very CURIOUS headband!

While I doubt she made it herself - KUDOS if she did - Meghan’s proof that fancy headbands are ALL OVER THE PLACE!

I hope I can find a better picture of it, but Meghan’s got a beautiful black flower headband/headpiece on. This is SUPER easy to copy - just attach giant fake flowers (or make your own out of fabric or ribbon) to a simple skinny headband! Easy!

Update: I got a great Twitter answer from Meghan McCain herself: McCainBlogette@lilmissjackie my headband last night is from Forever 21! Everyone go get one it was only like $4

I found it - okay, so it IS really cheap at Forever 21 - BUT you can easily use headbands you see at stores for inspiration!

Welcome to Craft with Jackie

I’ve always had a love for arts & crafts - probably since the day I was able to choose which crayon I liked best (purple with sparkles, naturally). I was brought up by a mother who can craft her way out of a cardboard box - that didn’t hurt.

Being the avid crafter and a blogger, I decided to combine my two greatest hobbies into one: Craft with Jackie. This is no ordinary craft blog, though. At Craft with Jackie, we’re going to work with ordinary things that you already own and change it from DRAB to FAB!

I am always looking for inspiration, so if you come across a craft that you’d like to see here, or an item that you wanted to buy but have a feeling you can EASILY make yourself, leave me a comment or send me an email and I’ll be MORE than glad to try it out here. If you make one of my crafts yourself - which you should - send me pictures of your versions so I can post them!

I have a TON of exciting crafts planned and I can’t wait to share them all with you!

Coming up next: Jackie’s 1st Craft: SURPRISE.