Imperfect Crafters

Tis the season to have craft shows!

2011-10-23T17:39:00.000-05:00

We went to our first craft show of the Christmas-y season yesterday. It was a first time event for the church, so it was a little slow. It wasn't bad though! There were quite a few other vendors and we picked up a lot of ideas on how to set up the next time. Plus, it was an amazing day, so Jennifer and I got a little (too much) sun.

Also, Jennifer created a Facebook Fan Page. We were talking about randomly giving something away once we hit 50 followers. So go ahead and like it!

Stay tuned, we have lots and lots of things in the works! Our next show will be on November 19th from 9-4 at the West Oak Baptist church in Austin. Hope to see you there.

Summer Crafting Updates!

2011-06-16T11:31:00.000-05:00

Finally had time to take some photos of the new bows I have been making! Just spent the morning adding them to the shop! Go check them out here! Also, I took this round of photos on some fun polka dot papers, I think they look cute, but what do you think?

New style fabric flower - I am loving these things!

A cute little variety pack!

Started making more sets of mini clips

Seriously, there are 12 different ribbons in this bow.

A fun new felt flower!

Another fabric flower!

Also, Go to I Like Big Bows and enter your little one in the photo contest. Imperfect Crafters is donating a $25 gift certificate to the winner! Deadline to enter your photos is June 21st.

Still Crafting!

2011-02-26T19:33:00.000-06:00

I'm still crafting, just a little slower these days! Finally added the lanyards to the store and posted a few bows and clips to the New Items section of the shop.

Ready for spring!

For the fancy little girl in your life.

Christmas Craftiness!

2010-11-22T19:31:00.000-06:00

I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but the Christmas Craft bug has bitten! Lots of new bows added to the store today! More to come seeing that I have the whole week off from work!

Post Craft Show Update

2010-11-06T18:27:00.004-05:00

It was, well, a bit sloooooooow.

Jennifer sold some bows and I sold a big, fat nothing. It was still fun. There were some lovely ladies that we met and talked to. Plus, it's always fun to look through the 1,000,000 bows Jennifer has made since the last time I looked. You know, like 5 seconds ago.

Here is the grand layout:

The official magnet board boy:

We have another show at the Creedmoor Community Center soon! We'll keep you posted.

Upcoming Sales

2010-11-05T19:27:00.000-05:00

Hello all! Just wanted to let you know of some upcoming craft sales we will be participating in.

We will be part of the Rancho Alto Holiday Open House tomorrow, Nov. 6th from 3-6pm. It will be at the model home at the entrance of the neighborhood.

On Friday Dec. 3rd we will be at the Creedmoor Holiday Bazaar at the Creedmoor Community Center from 5-9pm

Come get some holiday shopping done!

Lanyards, flower clips, key chains, bows, Oh my!

New Products!

2010-10-17T22:46:00.000-05:00

Well, it is getting to be gift giving season again! I've been working on coming up with some new products. I have still been making a ton of bows, but as it turns out, not every person in the world wears hair bows! Can you believe it?

We have a couple of craft sales coming up over the next few months, e-mail us for details if you are in the Austin area! Check the store for these products soon!

Oh! We've had almost 10,000 views at the online store! That's pretty awesome!

For when your $5 coffee isn't fancy enough :)

I started making lanyards - LOVE THEM!

Jamie's adorable apron

ohhh - zig zag stitch

New style of bow - having fun mixing ribbons!

One of my favorite lanyards

Singed Flowers and Halloween Bows

2010-09-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

singed flower in dark teal and black

singed flower in dark blue and black

singed flower in purple

flower as a brooch

singed flower in champagne

whoo! whoo!

Eek!

Not sure why blogger is putting all of my pics at the top and making me type waaaaay down here, but whatever, here are some things I've been working on recently. Started making some Halloween bows, the season is fast approaching! The singed flowers are so much prettier in person! They can be made into pins to wear as a brooch or into a hair clip. Pretty fancy stuff!


dem bones

All kinds of new stuff!

2010-07-25T07:59:00.005-05:00

Jennifer and I have been working on expanding what we do. Since we are now rocking awesome twin sewing machines (that we have determined are like sewing through butter on the back of a unicorn flying over a rainbow), we have decided to expanded our sewn goods. Here are some previews.

The appliques are in testing now with some awesome toddler-helpers. They will be available once we determine their hardiness. We don't want to sell something sub-par. Slightly imperfect? Yes. Falling apart? Negative

This one is being tested by my own 2 year old. He loved it so much, he slept in it last night.

How cute is she? I have a love for owls. I think a different bird will be my next venture.

Reversible apron. Should be in the store soon.

July Updates

2010-07-20T20:36:00.006-05:00

Just spent HOURS taking, editing and uploading photos to the store! Here are some of the highlights of what I've been working on!

Started making a new style of key chain. Here is my favorite!

Going to try selling some sets of mini clips. What do you think of that? They sure do look cute when you line them up like this! :)

Bumble Bees are just cute!

Also, I'm going to work on more bows that are customizable, like this one. You can pick the color of the center bow. Like hot pink with zebra instead? What about purple polka dots? Just e-mail me with your order and I'll put it together!

Check out the rest of the new stuff under "New Items" or just click here!

Back to Business

2010-07-07T09:36:00.002-05:00

Enough of this....

Not really, there will never be enough relaxing on the beach, but I'm back to crafting anyway!

Vacation!

2010-06-21T16:44:00.001-05:00

I'll be taking a break from bow making for a few days! I'll be back July 1st! If you need me, e-mail me! See you guys soon!

Store Updates

2010-06-09T23:57:00.002-05:00

I just uploaded photos of all of the new bows that I have made over the last month. I created a "New Items" category that I'll keep all of the new creations in and after a while, I will sort them by type.

Check back often! It is summer and I'm staying home and crafting as much as I can!

Thanks to all of our recent online shoppers!

Summer Time!

2010-06-09T16:47:00.002-05:00

Taking photos of bows I've made recently! They will be added to the store as soon as I can!

Expecting 2 shipments of ribbon so stayed tuned!

May Bows

2010-05-16T20:13:00.008-05:00

May is a crazy time of year! Lots to finish up at school, but I'm crafting every chance I can get. I am ready for summer when I can craft on my own schedule without that pesky job getting in the way!

I wanted to post some pics of new bows. These aren't in the store yet... but maybe I'll try to work on that after dinner!

Thanks for checking up on us!

Craft Success!

2010-04-11T19:18:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all who came out and shopped at the Menchaca Round Up this Saturday! We had fun showing off all of our new crafts!

I'll be making a lot of new bows and of course posting pics soon! Jamie is going to get busy making some more of these adorable purses!

Thanks again for checking us out - click on The Shop button to your right to check out all of our crafty goodness!

Craft Sale tomorrow!

2010-04-10T01:10:00.001-05:00

We craft sale tomorrow here's what I have in stock:

229 pairs of mini clips

114 medium bows

76 large bows

8 bow boards

27 key chains

33 simple large bows

50 infant headbands

115 daisy clips

28 ribbon flowers

8 med. spiked bows

9 large spiked bows

19 assorted flowers

I think I should be ok :)

Out of control

2010-03-25T21:45:00.003-05:00

Seriously! This is a mess! I should work on cleaning up this room because I'm pretty sure it is against fire code.

Spring Updates

2010-03-19T20:11:00.003-05:00

Well, I hope that someone still reads this blog (or someone once read this blog!). I've been busy getting ready for a craft sale we have coming up in April. I've spent most of my spring break crafting from sun up to sun down.

Here are some of my new favorites!

Cupcakes! Too cute!

I also got an order to make bows for a girls' baseball team. I can't wait to see the team in their bows!

New Clips!

2010-02-06T10:21:00.003-06:00

Ok I've got some new cute as can be ribbon flower clips, the only problem is... what's cuter? 6 loops (right) or 8 loops (left)? I'm leaning towards 8, what do you think?

Whew!

2010-01-24T22:35:00.002-06:00

I just spent HOURS today posting new bows, clips, headbands etc. to the store. Whew! I also went in and reorganized how to view the products. Turns out I have a lot of of different bows!

I added some new categories to make the page a little easier to navigate. Let me know what you think of the changes.

One of my new favorite bows

emails!

2009-12-24T10:55:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to post a quick message that you can now e-mail Jamie or me at our new e-mail addresses.

jamie@imperfectcrafters.com
jennifer@imperfectcrafters.com

Let us know if there's anything in this craft world we can help you out with!

Merry Christmas!

December Crafty-ness

2009-12-22T19:51:00.012-06:00

December has been pretty busy! Had a sale at school and made some money. Wahoo! Here are the pics of the crafts of the month. I'll be adding them to the store as soon as I can.

whew! And I didn't even put the mini clips on here :)

Some boards I've made

2009-11-14T15:26:00.004-06:00

I realized that I don't have any of the bulletin boards that I have made in our store. These boards have all been special order, so I don't have a stock of them (yet... Thanksgiving break is coming soon!) but I wanted to post some pictures of some recent boards that I have made.

If you are interested in buying a board, send me an e-mail at imperfectcrafters@gmail.com. We can chat and decide what size, colors and patterns you'd like.

Thanks for checking in!

Keychains

2009-11-01T21:06:00.004-06:00

Jamie gave me her old sewing machine a couple of months ago and I finally got over (most of) my apprehension of it to whip out a key chain. I've always sewn by hand - too afraid of running my finger through the machine, but my purse is like a black hole and I can never find my keys in there, so I made this my first ever sewing machine sewing project.

You may notice the blue stitches on there, Jamie sure did. Well that was because it took me an hour to figure out how to thread the machine, and after that I was too worn out to attempt to try to change the bobbin of thread in there.

Anyway, I've gotten better at them and I made this one today - well mostly made, the sewing machine needle broke, so the green ribbon detail isn't attached yet, but it will be!

Anyway, these will be added to the store just as soon as I work out all the kinks!

Thanks for checking in!

Tie Dye How To

2009-10-19T20:41:00.000-05:00

I'm sure there are many ways to do this...here is the way that I know and what I do.
Oh, and be smarter than me and WEAR GLOVES. That soda ash can burn like an SOB.

My layout for fun.

I mix up my dye. I like to use a procion dye that doesn't require heat and actually reacts with the fabric. Walmart (yes, yes, I know) sells a reasonable kit with nice dyes. That's actually what made these shirts.

But I use Dharma for the most part. Moving along...
First you soak what you are dying in a solution of washing soda (soda ash) and water. I go about 10 minutes.

Then I take a fork to the center of where you want the swirl and twirl it like the biggest piece of spaghetti ever.

If you are doing a rainbow with 6 colors, then section it like this.

Dye 3 sections yellow

Overlap one section on the yellow with the blue

And the same with the red

Until you get this big messy mess and then flip and repeat.

Wrap it up in plastic wrap or a Ziploc

Let sit overnight (or at least 8 hours) in a cool, dark place. Rinse until water comes clean. Wash ALONE or with other dyed items and look awesome.

PS, you aren't high. I was using pics from two different things: a sheet and a shirt. Some pics just illustrated my point better. :)

We're Up!

2009-10-18T23:25:00.003-05:00

Well, we got the store up and running. I spent hours photographing bows, editing pictures, and uploading them to the shop. So much time that I didn't get to make a single bow today! But that's ok, I did figure out how to make the boutique style bow this weekend, pretty excited about that!

I also nearly finished 2 bulletin boards, just have to personalize them.

Alright craft lovers, go check out the site! Click here for cuteness!

Just so you know, we can customize any of our products for you. Just send us an e-mail at imperfectcrafters@gmail.com and let us know what you are looking for!

Store Opening Soon

2009-10-11T18:22:00.005-05:00

Jamie and I will be opening an Imperfect Crafters store soon! We're just waiting on some set up and approval stuff. Until then, here are some bow shots...

Hi again!

2009-10-04T17:44:00.005-05:00

It's been a while. It's so hard to get into the swing of a new blog. I have grand plans for crafting coming up this week. I'll probably do some tie-dyeing and hope to put up a how-to if you want to learn. It's pretty easy when you have the right materials.

Jennifer is also working on an etsy shop where you can buy some of the awesomeness she (and I hopefully) makes.

Checking in to say we are still here and kicking. :)

Boards, clips, and tacks! Oh my!

2009-09-13T15:22:00.006-05:00

I made this board for my friend, Jennifer at work. She works in our school office, so a lot of people have seen it and I'm getting requests to make more. I freakin' love the paisley print of the fabric, her's turned out way cuter than mine and I'm a little jealous!

Another teacher had a cork board in her room, but wanted it dressed up. Don't mind the squigglies all over her name, that's not art, that's me not being sure if she wants her name blasted all over the internet.

Then I made a hair bow holder for a little girl I know. Her mom told me she likes zebra print and hot pink, so zebra print and hot pink she got.

(My arm costs extra)

And since I was making a bow holder, I had to figure out how to make bows, these are a few of the ones that I made last night.

The tails on the bottom one would have been longer, but when I was using my lighter to seal the ribbon edges, the whole thing started to burn up. Oops! Still pretty cute anyway!

And last, but not least, the tack making has gone overboard! We recently took a 6 hour each way car trip and came back the next day, so I was busy punching out circles to make tacks and magnets. (obviously, I was the passenger, not the driver)

This really isn't even all of the ones I have, there are others that are in different stages of completion.

Update

2009-09-10T21:48:00.002-05:00

I've been working on teaching myself some new crafts (thank you fellow bloggers and google) and also quite a few more bulletin boards. I'll update you guys with pictures this weekend!

Teacher's Cork Board

2009-08-15T19:02:00.006-05:00

I never make crafty things for my classroom, but I've got a new name and a new class mascot. We're the Monkeys this year, so I made myself a cork board ($3.99 from goodwill).

Also, I'd just like to add that the glass bead tacks are incredibly easy to make. I made about 100 of them this evening. I was curious how other people were attaching the tacks to the back so I did a google search and found an online shop selling them for $1.00 - $2.00 a piece! WOW! So, I figure I will be able to retire from teaching if I just keep making these cute little guys.

If you'd like some, let me know, I promise I'll give you a better rate than $1 each :)

A vessel sink stand from an old sewing table

2009-08-11T22:02:00.006-05:00

It was really very simple. I bought a vessel sink and I needed to find something to put it on. I searched the internet and everything I liked was around $300, so I went to Craiglist. I love Craigslist.

I found a perfectly lovely sewing table ($30!) and took out the guts.

Sanded it down.

Re-stained it. Drilled a hole for the drain and another for the faucet (crappy pic, I swear it's gorgeous).

Viola! And I would also like to point out (like to do to every person that enters my house) that I tiled and grouted that floor myself.

Deal of the Day

2009-08-10T23:19:00.008-05:00

I’m a bargain hunter. I really enjoy the excitement of getting a good deal. I can’t help it, it is in my blood. My Nana was a coupon extraordinaire. My dad is a known dumpster diver. So, I check the online ads each Sunday morning (or at 2 am on Saturday night if I’m still awake) for the deals of the week. I was elated to find ribbon half off this week at Hobby Lobby, so I went in to pick up a few (dozen) spools of ribbon and came out with the “Deal of the Day.”

I was heading to the checkout line, I swear I was, but then I saw this 900 year old man carting a cool looking hutch to the back of the store and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a “sale” tag swinging in the breeze. So, I stalked the guy and right after I saw him take the hutch off of the dolly, I strolled over to take a peek. Original price $499.99 Holy Smokes! Oh but there was that sweet loving red tag.... “Now marked $100.00” It had to be mine! He was probably less than happy to load it back up and cart it back to the front of the store but whatever.

And just so you know, I did get the ribbon that I originally went into the store for. And to the cashier – no, sir, I do NOT have a shortage of ribbon at my house, thank you for asking.

Here’s the hutch with nothing on it:

And here she is, all dressed up.

Check out that ribbon holder at the top, just ran a dowel rod through the iron and ta-da! Perfect fit! I’m going to get another dowel and put in another level... so I can get more ribbon!

And just because, there’s nothing cuter than a jar full of buttons!

Another board

2009-08-09T18:35:00.006-05:00

Here is another board I made. I found it at goodwill for a whopping $3. It had this beauty of a picture in the top section.

I know, I love me some crackle painted roses too. But, I mod podged over it with some fancy looking scrapbook paper. It already had a cork board in the bottom, so that was helpful.

Spray painted the frame, then the wind blew my newspaper on top of the frame and I cursed a bit, then AJ dropped his tennis ball in the wet paint, again with the language... At this point I decided Ah-ha! I will "distress" the frame - code, I'm not going to repaint this bad boy, I will just sand off the spots that look like crap.

So here it is... in our bathroom
don't pay attention to the water spot stains on the wall - we still have builder's flat paint in there.

Now you may ask, why would you put a bulletin board in your bathroom - well, I'm the most forgetful person in the world. So I tend to forget things like "go to work in the morning" or "it is awards day for your kindergarteners, so don't dress like a slob and for god's sake, brush your hair."

Bulletin Boards

2009-08-09T17:17:00.014-05:00

Well, while cleaning out our garage for the third time in the year that we have lived here, I found an old cork board that I had gotten from Big Lots for $2. I have almost gotten rid of this thing at least 100 times, but I finally found a use for it. Covered it in cute material, painted the frame, added some ribbon and viola! Well damn if I didn't get inspired then! John's company just got a new office and I thought the only woman of the company needed something cute like this in her life. I went to Goodwill, found a $3 frame, sanded and spray painted it etc. I just spray painted some upholstery tacks for mine, but wanted to spice it up a bit this time around. I got some of those flat bottom glass marbles (the ones you put in your beta vase) used a 1/2 inch round hole punch and cut some cute papers out. Then mod podged them to the bottoms, and gorilla glued on a tack. I ended up making about 65 of these tacks because it was just too freakin' cute when you put the marble over the image it magnifies it and makes everything look cuter! What can I say? I'm easily impressed.

Anyway... after all the tacks, I went back to the project at hand and finished up the board I was working on. I'm going to add some 1 1/2 inch red ribbon to the back and tie it in a bow for hanging purposes, but I haven't found the right shade of red just yet. Tomorrow will be another trip to Joann's, Michael's and the devil itself: Hobby Lobby...

The overall board.

details...

A good craft gone bad, and then back to good!

2009-08-08T21:07:00.010-05:00

As I mentioned in our first post, I bought some letters to make my son's name. It's pretty standard baby room decor and I thought it was a good idea. I wanted something simple and small, so I naturally chose the 9 1/2" mdf serif letters (<--- this is sarcasm). It was a moment of ridiculousness and I regret it, but they were on sale and I had put this project off long enough. I get home and start my project. That's when I realize my paints are crap (stupid Texas heat). The ones that aren't crap are still crap because they are ugly. I forge ahead...for some reason. Then this happens:
They were ugly and I knew it and I threw them in a closet and forgot about them until yesterday. Yesterday I had the sudden and insatiable urge to make cute letters for Daniel's room. I remembered the ones I had murdered and decided to dig them out and perform CPR.

I began by painting them white. I figured I start new. Three coats of paint later, the closet was looking really good again. Those giant, alphabetic bastards were taunting me with those putrid colors. They bled through time and again.

That's when my genius struck.

Ok, so I am sure that 1 million crafters before me have had this idea, but it was a new one for me. And I think it's awesome. So as the craft elitists collectively roll their eyes, let me show you what I came up with!

(Click me, I get bigger. Or not, no pressure.)

Scrapbook paper! It was sitting right on the ground (where it belongs, right?) and I thought why not? I sponged adhesive glue onto the letter, plopped the letter on paper and used my exacto knife to slice all around them. This picture honestly looks like crap, but I finished at about 9 and the little dude was fast asleep. I wasn't about to put them on his wall and snap some photos, so you all get my kitchen table with horrid lighting. I'll work on a better pic tomorrow. Maybe.

Now it's all hung up. A bit of wire and some nails did the trick.

A beautiful way to start off!

2009-08-07T22:16:00.003-05:00

I got the craft bug tonight. I decided to paint my son's name letters that I started almost a year ago. I have no idea what I was thinking and painted them some hideous colors.

Well, I can't actually find them. Ripped the house apart and everything. So here we are starting out with our first craft fail. Awesome.