Planning the perfect Craft Staycation Part 4

Day 2 of my craft staycation was loads of fun too! I made loads and loads of birthday cards, some victorian paper shows, scrapbook layouts and an idea jar to wrap the vacation up!

I started with the cards. I wanted to use all my paper scraps and left over embellishments that had been getting pushed to the back of my crafting pile. I pulled out all those scraps and stickers and embellishments, gathered a few blank cards and got to work. I came up with 12 birthday cards and loved making each and every one of them. I specially enjoyed using some ‘thank you’ cards that I had purchased at a thrift store for $1 as card bases. Covering them up with paper and embellishments enabled me to make some pretty cute cards. I also repurposed some old cds and their covers to turn them into novelty birthday cards. It makes me really happy to repurpose and upcycle things that might otherwise have been wasted. You can see complete project instructions for all my upcycled cards in my upcoming book titled ‘The Ultimate Guide to Upcycling’.

Next up I made some victorian paper shoes. I have always loved to read victorian romances and have always been inspired by victorian era decor and crafts. When I saw these paper shoe templates at: I had to turn them into my own version of victorian paper shoes. I used coordinating pieces of paper and some embellishments to craft these beauties. These can now be used as mini gift boxes and I can’t wait to fill them with goodies!

I have been working on a recipe book for a while now. I gather recipes from different family members and friends and have been designing one 8.5 inch x 11 inch layout for each recipe. Some of the recipes incorporated in my book have been passed down three generations. This project is very close to my heart and there were a few recipes that were waiting for their layouts when I was planning my staycation. There was a cupcake recipe from my sister, a guacamole recipe from a friend and some condiment recipes I had tried out with my mother. They all got their own layouts and I love the unique character of each one.

The last project on my craft staycation list was an idea jar. I usually come up with ideas at all hours of the day and night, while going through magazines and catalogues and sometimes even in dreams :). I really needed a place to gather all those ideas and somehow a little idea book never really worked for me. I use all sorts of pieces of paper/napkin to jot down my ideas and so I came up with an idea jar. I used an old plastic jar and decorated it to hold all the little pieces of paper and napkin and card that have various craft project ideas jotted down. I thought this was the perfect way to wind up my craft staycation!