Create Something By Hand This Week!

Creating things by hand can have a powerful effect on a person. Whether it’s making a card, building a bookshelf, or simply cooking a meal, making something with your own two hands provides a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.

There’s this sense of pride when you make something yourself. And if that something is a gift for someone we believe it takes on a whole new meaning.  We aren’t saying we only make the gifts we give. There is nothing wrong with buying gifts, but when you receive a homemade present you can feel the time and love your friend has put into it.  When we create our cards, we always have this feeling in mind.  We believe our cards can be the perfect accompaniment for your gift.  They have that homemade feeling you want to convey whether you have the time to make the gift yourself or not.

This is a gift we received at our engagement party from Chad's family friend, Jimmy Eudy.  It is by far the best gift we got that day because of the love and time he put into making it. He transformed an old horse yolk into a personalized mirror. He carved both of our names by hand and finished it with a high gloss.  It is beautiful and we think of him every time we use it.

  

Jimmy Eudy - He is as bad-ass as he looks.

One of the great things about making something by hand is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. The fact that YOU made it should be what you focus on and embrace.  The imperfections are what make it unique.  Don’t try to be Martha Stewart or Bob Villa. You will enjoy the experience if you stay true to yourself and let your creative energy free.  

We find ourselves making things as opposed to buying them pretty often.  Call us frugal, but we truly enjoy the creative process.  The number of times we’ve been in a store and said, “we can make that” is too many to count.  We’ve sewn aprons, welded bottle openers, turned an old box into a “wine celler”, and even gave new life to a rundown hutch.  (as time goes on, we hope to share the process of some of these DIY projects with you)

One of our favorite people in the world, Yvette, is wearing an apron we sewed for her one Christmas.

We like to say welding is a mans hot glue gun!! Here Chad and his cousin Brandon weld a souped up bottle opener.

The bottle opener: Try to open your bottle and get the cap in the bucket. If you miss, you'll have to drink another beer to try again.

  

We bought this box at Brimfield one year because of its character and low price ($15)! We didn't even have a plan for it.  Then one day we realized we needed a place to store our wine...and the wine cellar was born. We added shelves, lined them with burlap, and finished the outside with a high gloss polyurethane.

 

Our hutch is hands down our favorite DIY project!

We try to make one thing by hand every week.  Sometimes we can only cook a homemade meal or change out the furniture feet on our kitchen chairs, but those things give us a small sense of accomplishment.  We encourage you to do the same. It doesn’t have to take up too much of your time.  You can simply decoupage an old can to serve as a pencil holder on your desk or paint a ceramic planter for your back yard.  You will find the process can be therapeutic and relaxing and the outcome will put a smile on your face.

That's right...it's just plain old spaghetti & meatballs with salad and a roll, but we made it and it was delicious!!

Creating cards by hand is the backbone of our company.  It’s how we started.  We’ve always loved arts & crafts and also consider ourselves true DIYers!  As we continue to grow, we have begun to explore new printing techniques in order to meet the demands of our customers.  When printing with these methods, we always start with a hand created process for the design. We’ve water painted, stamped, and even sketched (and sharpied) our original card creations! We believe when creating, the possibilities are endless.  We also try to carve out some time to add to our Limited Edition cards to keep our creativity flowing. Be sure to check back there often.

We made this card for our friend Lauren, the Valentine's Day she was pregnant.  We used markers, stickers, stamps, and glitter.

Below are two projects we’ve recently made, that are extremely simple.  We hope they inspire you to make something similar for yourself or someone you love.

GEORGIA'S PEEK-A-BOO FUN!!

Last weekend our family took a trip to Ikea.  We weren’t in search of anything specific, we just wanted to see what new things they had and let Georgia explore. Plus, we’re always in the mood for those Swedish Meatballs!  While we were there Georgia loved playing with the Vitaminer Drapes (basically a colored miniature version of the plastic flaps at the car wash). We almost bought them because they were only $14.99, but they really didn’t match her room and they were too long for the space we thought we could hang them.  So I thought, “I can make this”.

First thing Monday I searched through our art closet and found some pretty ribbon that went with her room colors. 

I simply cut a piece for the top and then cut as many strands as I could to hang vertically. 

Voila! Instant peek-a-boo fun! And I did it myself. And it cost me nothing!! (another reason to not let anyone call you a hoarder for keeping the beautiful ribbon you receive on gifts or buying the clearance bin ribbon just because. You WILL find a use for it.)

REPURPOSED DISHTOWEL DRYING RACK!

It seems as though we mention Peter Walsh often in our blog, but we are going through a purging period.  A couple weeks ago, I realized we had way too many dishtowels. For some reason I found an emotional attachment to some of them. I don’t know why.  

I decided to cut some of them up sew them together and make a custom fit towel that we can use when we dry our dishes…one that can also be easily thrown in the washing machine.  Full disclosure: we wouldn’t give this as a gift and it’s certainly not perfect, but it serves a function, reminds us of good memories, and helped us get rid of more than half our dishtowels.

Now go…the week is just beginning. You have 7 days to create something with your own two hands! Enjoy the process and the feeling of accomplishment you get!