Photo Wall

I am home for my sister's engagement party and an early Thanksgiving with the family. These festivities take place over two weeks and I am sitting at home while my family members are at work. I am not good at sitting at home. So I craft!

Check out the photo wall I completed for my parents' house.

Most of the frames were 5x7, plain, black or multiple four pane matted frames. I needed to break up the monotony.

Holiday Catchup

Ok so before holidays get too far behind us, I'd love to show off my quick, easy, cheap and cute decorations. I LOVE to decorate! And to rearrange and to host... I should really be a trophy wife in the 1960s (I could just be saying that because I LOVE Madmen. Let's face it the best part would be the appearance, cute dresses- with the over apron, the rest of the life style would bore me or pissed me off. Who really wants to sit around drinking and ironing all day... On second thought, maybe I should reconsider my life choices...)

Any way I digress. Home made holiday decorations, GO!

My first idea was an snow flake chandelier. First of all, we need a bit of mood lighting for the party, also I have a lot of saved up tissue paper from old gifts and Victoria's Secret purchases. I take tissue paper and newspaper and cut different sizes and shapes of snow flakes, you know, elementary school style. Then I hang said snowflakes around my ceiling lamp to block out some of the harsh light (I really love light so I have the brightest and whitest halogen light bulbs in my apartment). I put up these chandeliers in both our entrance way and the living room.

Next we need mistletoe! We all know I love deadlines (some would call it procrastinating, SEMANTICS), so of course I don't go on the search for mistletoe until the day of the party. None to be found. Anywhere. Well with a little google image and some scrap booking paper, vwah la!

Lastly I have a small box filled with last years decorations. All are placed throughout the apartment, radiating holiday joy. The last touch is the string of lights we saved to put around the tree. Well, sorry to say but the season swept by so quickly we never acquired a tree. I finally decide the right place, hang and then plug in.... Only to find the lights have lost their will to live over the past year, one bulb must have given in to the ghost of christmas yet to come and taken then whole string's spirit with it!

Well, if you can't have a tree, and you can't have lights, have both! I was determined to make my own! With presents under it and everything!

A friend of mine at the party recommended to do the same thing next year (with a string that worked) plug in the lights and put green tissue paper around the lights to make it look even more like a tree! Too cute!!

Well, happy holidays all!
Kosmo here reminding everyone to keep Christmas with you, all through the year!

CGrif Invites

Sorry it took so long to post this! Well here are the final invites!

And here is their final website: http://www.weddingwire.com/CaitlinandAndrewGriffin

Also if you have not RSVPed please do!

Please come check back on Saturday, I will be updating more often!

Keep it Crafty!

~Kosmo

Usher Crafts

It has been a while since I had a new craft post. Even with my crazy schedule lately I have still made plenty of time for crafts! Actually, my ushering job really helps in that department. See, every Broadway house has their playbills delivered to them in bundles and each bundle is held together by twine. At our theater we put out about 45-50 bundles a show, with 8 shows a week the discarded twine builds up. The average person would feel fine about throwing all this twine away but I am a hoarder and also hate throwing away anything that could be used in a craft project of some sort.

As this twine is building up, some of the ushers made bracelets, anklets, and bookmarks to pass the time during the show. I grew tired making simple braids and knots and was curious as to what I could create with the twine. On Halloween all the ushers at Henry Miller's were sad by the lack of decorations. So I dedicated a show to making a halloween spider web and spider to decorate the usher closet. It actually turned out rather well!
After the success with the web I was motivated to create more with the theatre twine. I knotted lots of twine together and started to crochet! I have never really crocheted anything other than a simple chain for a knitting project before. Once I connected the crochet chain instead of doubling back I found how to easily crochet in the round. I created my first hat!... the only issue was I didn't think of how the chain will not stretch and the hat is REALLY small. (That's my usher friend Candice in the picture by the by)

I am now in the middle of creating roses for all the ushers. I have knitted 8 usher roses I only need 7 more (If I include my HM and AHM). I am going to dye them red and give them out at our holiday gift exchange on December 19th.

Keepin' crafty!
Kosmo

New Place, Same Fun Crafts

Hello Blogger! I have missed you the past month and a half. That's a lie; I am sorry to say it is the crafting I have missed not necessarily the blogging. I am happy to be posting none the less. Currently, I am typing from my new apartment in NYC. My day has been spent awaiting the gas company and the super (for general maintenance) so I had plenty of time to settle in. Naturally, instead of unpacking and organizing, I got crafty.

For some reason our hallway light was green upon moving. Since I need to get through the hallway to get to my room, one of my first missions was to find one of my desk/table lamps to light my way. Last May when I was moving out of my previous residence we found a box of goodies left behind by past tenants. I took a plain black desk lamp from this box and is now the lamp that is lighting my hallway. Since the most important and interesting part of any lamp is the light that come from it I spiced up the shade to enhance the light and mood of my hallway.

I first took silk ribbon and whip stitched the bottom border of the lampshade. The top border I painted using gold liquid leaf and framed in the same purple silk ribbon as the bottom border. Then I found vintage stage and theatre pictures using google images. Using preview I slightly altered the pictures by cropping and changing the color balances. I did a simple collage of five pictures on the lampshade using rite-aide brand glue. My final touches were designs painted with black fabric paint and a fine bristled brush and accents of tiny holes poked through the shade to let more light escape through the pictures.

Here are the pics. I hope you enjoy! I really like how it turned out!

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Love from the Big Apple
~Kosmo

It has been so long...

Hello all,

I promise I have not abandoned my projects! I finished the first samples of my sister's wedding invitations. I am sending them to her this Monday so we can discuss which style is best. I am up for redrawing or just reworking the styles. The mediums used to create the cards and envelopes include: cardstock, recycled paper, various textured paper, stamps and ink, watercolor, fine-tipped permanent markers, ribbon, and etching stencils.

Three Samples

The Two Different Inside Designs

Kosmo out!

Project #3 Complete and Rendering for Project #4

I completed my Vases!! I got the idea from Todd Oldham's book Handmade Modern but I changed it a bit. Instead of using a pigment and natural alcohol epoxy, I went a cheaper route and bought stained glass paint. The brand is Vitrail bought from my local crafts store. After coating the bottom of the vase in paint I simply held it upside down until the excess paint poured out. This created a smooth paint effect. I used two colors per vase (green and purple, and green and yellow). I then used silver liquid leaf on the rims to give it a finished look. To give the vases a personal, one-of-a-kind touch I enscribed the enitials and wedding date of the couple I made them for. I finally used transparent sealent on all painted areas so the vases can be wet or dry vases in any decorative setting.

Here is my rendering for the my mom's porch! My parents are trying to redecorate their house and my mom has the idea for a Key West Style. She asked me to paint their porch while I was home for the summer. We discussed what she was looking for and here is the rendering for the main section of the proch. I will base the section above the bar and the smaller section off of these palm trees with maybe an illusion of a sunset. The main background color will be a sea green and she wants the ceiling to be yellow. It's very Floridian but I feel it will be fun to do! (don't get too excited... just to warn you: I can't even get started for another week)

I was thinking for making more Vases and maybe selling them on Etsy or Ebay. Let me know what you think!

~Kosmo out!

Project 1 complete and Upcoming Projects

I finally finished my dress! It really should not have taken me as long as it did but I have had a lot on my plate lately. I know it seems I should be simply sitting on the couch eating cereal and watching cartoons... not that I haven't been doing that part of the time, however, I have been organizing, cleaning, and running around to get ready for the summer. My major accomplishments have been arranging my room, so it feels like someone actually lives there, and writing lesson plans for the summer.

Anyway, what you have all been waiting for:

Upcoming projects: last weekend there was a Hillsborough County Public Library book sale. Since I got there in with only one hour left in the sale they were basically giving the books away; I got a bag of craft and theatre books for only $1. I am going through the books this weekend and I will post the projects I am interested in. We will see what I accomplish by the end of the summer!

Kosmo out!