Wednesday, October 23, 2013

In the Making: Effect.

The Big Effect. Affect. Whichever one it is. Pretty sure it's Effect.

I'm really behind in work, but I'm just so excited about the progress at home that I just have to take a minute to post a picture:


The living room.  Minus the mess on the coffee table, the mess on the floor, and a few other things, I am done! I have a white cloth to put over the coffee table and the side table, another curtain to hang in place of the blue one, and some spider webs around the place, but the most time consuming and hardest parts are complete!

This year I planned to focus on "The Big Effect". I wanted to do a small amount of work that would produce big results. So much for "small amount of work", but I think this "big effect" is pretty much there.

Rather than just have a few pumpkins lying around to call it a Halloween party, that's right, this girl goes all the freak out.  And I love it.

I told Adam that all I want (other than for people to have a ton of fun) is for everyone to say how cool just ONE thing is. Just say "hey, cool party", or "hey, this eyeball Oreo truffle is amazing", or "hey, I'm not touching those chocolate intestines... they look disgusting", or "hey, these games are fun", or "hey, this photo booth is radical", or "hey, you're the bomb".  Preferably all of them, but I just want a compliment. I know I'll get them from Erin and myself, but I hope everyone else thinks it's cool! I love to share my love for crafts and for stealing other people's creative ideas (thank you, Pinterest!).

Hopefully everything goes as planned. I pick up Erin from the airport tomorrow evening around 6, so by the time we get home (around 7) we will have time still to do something a little fun.

On tonight's agenda: Blood Sample Lollipops with Adam and dead trees with Adam. Adam said he's going to try to splice the speaker wire that I have, put the wires in banana plugs, and hook up the fancy speakers I got from my first boyfriend when I was 15! Wow, that was 11 years ago. Those are old speakers for having almost never been used...

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Dirty.

Check out this blog post for a tutorial on these dirty candles that I made for my apothecary!




I'd love to write more, but I have a lot more work to do around here! Thirteen days and counting!

Sunday, October 6, 2013

In the Making: Mugshot Sign

FOR SALE:



One fabulously awesome mugshot sign! Great for use as a message board for professional pictures, a photo booth, or for a family message center in your kitchen! Velcro letters, numbers and punctuation, with your choice of 100, 150 or 200 total, in a font of your choosing. 
See my Etsy Shop!

Where was this seen on Pinterest? Can you link it?
No, it wasn't on Pinterest. 
No? Then whose idea was this? 
MINE. ALL MINE.

I am so completely proud of this project. As I just said, this project was 100% mine. The only inspiration I had was this photo: 

Smilebooth.com
I am going to have this backdrop (or something cheaply similar with butcher paper and electrical tape) for our Halloween photo booth. But with the backdrop to the mug shot background, wouldn't a message board be cool? Wouldn't it be more complete with the sign that's held up to show their name and inmate ID number, just like in the real mug shots from back in the day?



OF COURSE IT WOULD.

The process has been long. My fingers have been damaged. The hours involved were many. Was it worth it? 

I THINK SO.

Check it:





Majority of the letters, most numbers, but no punctuation.
There's a total of about 150 characters.

I think this would make a great prop for photographers or a message board at home - kind of like how some people have a chalkboard or write things to household members.

The mugshot sign in action:





EDIT:

I removed the instructions to make this because I put it up for sale. I already have a buyer for one! Since I know one person purchased it, I'm sure there's someone else out there that would like to buy one! There just has'ta.

If you are interested in purchasing a mug shot sign, please contact me! tessa.rathsack@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Reinforcements.

Anyone that follows my Silhouette Freebies! board on Pinterest knows that I am OBSESSED with free SVG and .studio files. Obsessed!  I have over 2000 files downloaded... I might need a 12 step program soon. I don't care if I will ever use them; I download every file I see and put it in my library anyway! You never know when you might need it.

I've been making a lot of tags for several Halloween projects. The only slight problem I've had is that almost none of the tag files that I've picked up throughout the internet (again, see all the freebies I found here) have hole reinforcements included with the tag images.

For instance, take this awesome freebie file from KLDezign:

KLDezign

They're all great SVGs and convert perfectly to a .studio file, but I like me some hole reinforcements because I tend to rip these things. 


Because I'm REALLY bad at explaining things, and because I'm a visual person, this is what I'm talking about:

Amazon

Because I'm such a fan of free, I've made my own .studio file and I thought I'd share it in case anyone else can benefit from them like I have the past few weeks.  They are the standard 1/4" size, just like what you would buy at any office supply store. They resize perfectly for smaller or larger holes.

Click on the image to download.

I'm a complete noob when it comes to sharing files, so let me know if it doesn't work. Also I dunno how to save it as an SVG and I'm too lazy to look it up. If someone wants to tell me quick how to do it I'll share that file as well. 

Off to more Halloween work :D