Hackman and Hair Baubles

This morning was all about 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure" and my hot glue gun. One natural disaster, several harrowing feats and one minor finger burn later, I have this clutch of hair goodies (plus, an as-yet unfinished cut-paper project) to show.

I guess I had some pent-up craftiness inside me after last night. I drove 25 minutes to Costa Mesa's Seed for their monthly OC Craft Club meet-ups, only to find it had been cancelled. Aargh! This was my weak attempt at channeling the little bit of creatrix energy that remained after that let-down.

Eraser Crumbs — Well, More Like Paper Slivers This Time

The other day I mentioned my budding paper-cutting skills. Here's my most recent attempt. Pretty simple, but I found myself with more inspiration than supplies.

This was done using these Cutter Bee scissors I picked up at Target. They were on the scrap-booking aisle and real life, grown-up paper artists might scoff at them. But they did the trick (more, or less). I just bought this Fiskars craft knife today and, with any luck, I'll be able to use it on the trickier stuff, like letters. I'm slowly working my way up to X-acto knives, which, for some reason, seem so professional and unapproachable for a novice such as myself.

For reasons I'm sure a therapist could easily elucidate, I never seem to do these projects for myself (or, for money). The only thing that gets me motivated is the need for, say, a birthday gift. This one was done by request for an almost-3-year-old homie of mine.

I'll make you one, too, if you like*. I'm stocked up on supplies now and the first person to ask for one in the comments will receive a customized cut-paper piece (it doesn't have to be letter-, or mermaid-specific). We'll sort out shipping behind the scenes.

*Um, for practical reasons, I probably won't be making offers like this in the future. I just need the practice, so...

Everybody's Got A Hungry Heart

Valentine's crisis averted.

I sent my daughter off to her school Valentine's party with a batch of cupcakes (Trader Joe's yummy Vanilla Cake Mix) topped with strawberry hearts (not nearly as Martha Stewart-level difficult as I originally suspected).

The cupcakes were a bit of a trial. The first batch were mini — less sugar for already spastic 5-year-olds — but, the buggers wouldn't come out of the tin. The second batch weren't going to win any prizes, but it's not like I'm charging for them.

As far as the pass-arounds, my little Cupid wore her tiny hands out cutting, writing and gluing her own cards. We filled them with stickers designed by artist Lotta Bruhn. I printed out her free download-able PDFs onto adhesive paper. They aren't Valentine's-themed, but cute, nonetheless.

Wonder how many Hannah Montana, High School Musical, [insert inappropriate kids' phenomenon here] cards can she expect to get in return?

The Obligatory Valentine's Day post

Two weeks from now, parents around the country will participate in the time-honored tradition of frittering away money on disposable palm-sized trinkets, treats and multi-colored slivers of paper. My daughter will scramble into the car after a school day spent collecting valentines from her classmates. And I, for my part, will be responsible for making sure she's prepared to dole out something with her little name scrawled on it.

'Round about now, I usually start scouting out cute little craft projects online. Something like these pins, or recycled crayon hearts. But, inevitably, my approach to step-by-step DIY projects goes like this:

1. Find idea.

2. Coo over idea.

3. Assess the many ways in which I am way too lazy to see idea through to completion.

4. Bookmark idea anyway, because...you never know.

5. Forget about idea completely.

As I say, this is my usual M.O. Today, though, I realized I may have to actually make with the glue gun and construction paper after all. Pushing the cart through Target, I came across these marvels and knew the mass-produced route was not for me this year.

There was the nauseating:

The grossly inappropriate:
(These Forbidden Fruits feature such choice love notes as "Live 4 Ever" and "Bite Me".)

Speechless. This being OC, I wouldn't be at all surprised if these sell out.

Nothing says love like hired assassins and military men.

Yeah. I'm thinking we'll do something creative this year, for certain. Simple and homemade. It'll make me feel haughtily superior as a parent and it'll keep my kid pre-occupied for a half-hour, or so. The only losers in the picture are the greedy little hands at school, for it's a known fact that their appreciation of a gift is inversely proportional to the amount of effort put into it. Thankfully, there are only a dozen little wooden cubbies that we have to fill.

I'll keep you posted on what we whip up.