iPad case from upcycled leather purse

Good morning everyone and Happy January 6th! Yes I had to look at the calendar to be sure because the past month has absolutely flown by so quickly that I thought I had jumped inside a movie set of the next Back to the Future episode! Can you believe that my grandson was born over a month ago? No, me neither!

In my last post I showed a little of our multi-purpose craft and hobby room in our basement. You saw my daughter and son-in-law working on their projects and also saw the snowflakes I'd been making. What you didn't see because I forgot to take a before picture, was the gorgeous navy blue soft leather purse that I took apart to remake in to an iPad case. Yes I'm too cheap to invest in a store-bought case that has all the sections that I need. Initially I wanted a padded sleeve that would protect it while being carried around in my messenger bag, but what I ended up with was a stand-alone, or should I say a carry-alone bag with the original shoulder strap put back on after I so carefully removed all the stitching. Well I kind of like the vintage looking stud thingies that were used to hook it back on, don't you? Oops, you can't see them, so I'll take another pic. BRB...... Okie dokie, here's a picture of that lovely brad thing that is holding the strap on. I also couldn't resist hooking the Brio! charm back on because it's so.... well, classy! It was on the inside and would be scratching up my lovely iPad case and we just couldn't have that, could we? I glued leather scraps on the inside to cover the metal brad pieces and also glued leather scrap flaps over the inside pocket metal zipper end and beginning. I actually made a wool fleece iPad sleeve, but it doesn't fit inside this new bag, so there ya have it... two custom fit iPad holders don't fit inside each other! Kind of like the whole reason for making this case is because after I got the Logitech bluetooth keyboard for Christmas (woohoo I FOUND my arrow keys!!!) I could no longer use the iPad case/stand that I'd been using. Anyway.... on with the show...

I left the outside of the back section intact so I'd have this awesome outside zipper compartment along with the smaller inside zipper. Having already removed the studs holding the top section together I had to cover the holes with the vintage brass studs below. I'm a real dork sometimes when it comes to figuring out how to put that sort of thing on and ended up with the sharp point of the tack coming all the way through the outer brass brad (ouch!). Luckily I had some smaller matching studs that I could flatten the sharp hooky points meant to go through the fabric, then glue over the mistake. Crossing my fingers that it will all hold together!

You can see how the keyboard fits inside very snugly. Since I use my iPad to take the pictures it's kind of hard, no actually quite impossible, to photograph my iPad inside of the case, so just use your imagination and trust me, it fits!

and when I carry it around it will look like this. There's room for my car keys, entry badge for my job, sunglasses, small wallet and a few other goodies, but most importantly there's room for my iPad!

Toodles!

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Happy New Year!

Today is usually a day of reflecting on the events of the past year and I must say this day is no different except that I haven't been watching all those shows on television. You know, the ones that rehash all the news and events and deaths and tragedies the world has experienced during a 12 month time period

So what did I do today? Well back up a couple of days, or better yet how about 4 weeks to be exact... to that awesome day when this little guy was born. Yup, he's one month old today!

Isn't he the most precious thing you've ever seen? Yeah, I think so too! I feel so lucky to have my daughter and son-in-law living here so I can help pitch in with grandma time and watch him grow. Can you believe they still ask me if I want to hold him? Silly kids! Speaking of kids, here they are in our joint multi-purpose craft and hobby room. Emily and I were cutting out paper snowflakes for Sandy Hook (see below). I just found out today that they received so many they don't want more sent, so guess these will be used to decorate something else next year. Maybe Oliver's nursery?

Matt said he finally has the incentive to get his train layout completed so Oliver can play with it. What fun to be able to all work on our crafts together. Oh yeah, we installed a small flat screen tv on the wall above Emily's area so we can all see it. This week we began watching Downton Abbey which is proving to be all they say it is and quite entertaining.

There are sooooooo many projects already floating around on my to do list for 2013, but for starters and for tonight I need to make a few "necessaries" for Emily. What would those be? Well if I tell you that she's breast feeding would that be enough? I found some tutorials for making breast pads out of flannel and either fleece or wool, so will make a couple of prototypes to have her try out, then will make a week's supply when we know what works best. I also unassembled a soft navy blue leather purse that I could never get rid of because I love the feel of the leather and paid far too much for it to give away. It just isn't made to suit my ever-growing space needs for an every day purse. Now that I have one of those keyboard case things for my iPad it leaves both sides of it unprotected, so I want to use the leather to make a slipcover/envelope-type case for it. Then I need to make a cover for the Kindle that Emily won recently. We have some ideas to use felted wool sweaters in a patchwork pattern to make a cover. I'll be sure to post pics of all of these projects after they're done. For now, enjoy the snowflakes!

 

 

 

 

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Paper, glue, scissors

That's basically all it takes to put together a special mini album for a co-worker who is retiring soon. We decided that it would be nice to have some room to write notes to her instead of trying to cram everything on a little greeting card. I threw this together using some upcycled file folders and Stampin Up paper.

 

 

 

 

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Restocking the Eco Chique Boutique Shelves!

Yesterday after doing my Saturday morning errands (LOVE our local Farmers' Market!) I spent some time taking pictures of all my upcycled drink can brooches and restocking my Etsy shop's virtual shelves. After church today I'll take pics of badge reels and if time permits will get some of my oodles and oodles of upcycled paper embellishments posted. I kind of got carried away making all those die cuts out of assorted food and tissue boxes, wallpaper samples and security envelopes. Here's a few of the new brooches just listed in Eco Chique Boutique.

Christmas Cards I've Made

I'm just about done making Christmas cards and wanted to share a couple of them with you. The first one is extremely clean and simple (CAS) using only one piece of cardstock embossed using my Cuttlebug, a bow and a brad and some tape to adhere it to the front of the folded cardstock. The second got a little more involved and took much more time to punch all those little branches and get them lined up, but I love the way it turned out. The last one is super fun because it's in three parts. I got the instructions for it on Julie Davison's site and found all kinds of tutorials that I want to go back and try. The snowman stamps and the sentiment are from Stampin Up. What really makes this card special is the custom die that I used for the outer circles. It's called Embroidery Anglaise Circle and can be purchased here by itself or with matching stamps. Cindy at StampingScrapping has some awesome custom-designed matching stamps and dies and also has a TON of other products in her store. The Merry Christmas sentiment on the white card with the branches is from the matching set of stamps. She even gives discounts to subscribers of her Yahoo group. Disclaimer:  I am not getting any compensation for telling you about her store, I just personally LOVE it and wanted to share the love! Ok, back to the cards.... enjoy!

Oriental Trading Post Haul

Ok Ya'll, please don't laugh, but I finally made a video to share a haul with you. I discovered that my daughter has the best place ever for making videos, so might just have to spend more time granddogsitting in the future. Or I guess I could just go when she's there to keep the dogs out of the room. Anyway, here's a video showing all the cool stuff I got from Oriental Trading Post.

Time to get organized!

What do YOU do when you take time off from work? Well if you're like me you work even harder at other things. Whether that means gardening, cooking, sewing, taking kids to doctor appointments, cleaning house, caring for elderly parents, or like me, organizing your craft space; it usually requires a lot of work. I've taken the next two days off to clean up my two rooms dedicated to my crafts. Yes you heard me right, TWO ROOMS!!! AAACK!!! For those of you who are now wallowing in jealousy over the fact that I have two full rooms for my crafts (one for paper, the other for sewing) let me tell you that I'd have more room on my dining room table than in both rooms put together! More space means more STUFF!

On Saturday my daughter and I had a very successful sales event in Lawrence, Kansas. There were a dozen Etsy vendors set up in a room at a downtown restaurant, Pachamamas (with absolutely FAB food that we've promised our husbands we'd taken them to later!) The crowd was awesome and steady throughout the entire day and the other vendors were all so friendly and talented that just meeting them would have been well worth the time.

Anyway.... I've finished doing inventory and now it's time to make a dent in the mess called my craft room. Hopefully I'll be able to spend tomorrow cleaning up my sewing room. I have every intention to finally get both rooms to the point where I can actually walk in, sit down and do some creating, then eventually start creating tutorials. What would you like to learn how to do? Is there a paper craft that you've seen here that you'd like to learn all the steps? Maybe you've seen a finished product somewhere else and just can't figure it out? I used to do training as part of my job and I guess you could say that it's in my blood. There are already soooooo many awesome tutorials out there and I don't want to repeat things that are readily available, so pray tell, what can't you find? Not that I can guarantee I'll be able to figure it out, but it'll give me something to shoot for when this old antique computer gets replaced by a graphics capable one. Oh, please also tell me if you're more of a visual, auditory, textual or hands-on learner. I'm one of those people who needs to do all four: see it, hear it, read it and do it. If you're anything like me you do best when there are written instructions to go along with the video tutorial so you can concentrate on soaking in all the visuals and listening rather than scrambling to write everything down.

Ok, NOW I'd better get out of this room and get to work in that craft room! Hopefully I'll have some success stories and pictures to share later. Oh, OH OH! Don't forget to sign up for my October Blog Candy Gratitude Giveaway that closes at midnight on October 29th!

Part of my organized craft room

This wall display is one of the areas of my craft room that stays organized no matter how the rest of the room looks. It holds all my punches, crimper and some ribbon. My makeshift clip-it-up sits below it. Isn't that plant lovely? I have several plants in this room and find them to be inspirational and calming.

Here's my reality... a perpetually messy desk with that tinsy winsy little spot for creating. Can't you just hear my desk crying, "help me I've disappeared and can't find myself!"

I have been invited to participate as a guest designer for Fresh Brewed Designs in June and also as a featured artist in July for Scrapbook News and Reviews, so the next couple of months will be very busy for me. I'll post more details about both of these exciting projects as they happen, so stay tuned. In addition to those fun projects I continue to get ready for Farmer's Market and Top City Thursdays. Now if only I didn't have to work for a living 8 hours a day and could put all my focus on creating....