Mancraft Monday: Decorative Pillows?

If there's one thing the dude hates, it's decorative pillows. When we visit my parents, we always have to take six or so pillows off the bed, just to get to the sleeping surface. It drives him nuts. So if your dude is like my dude, this is not going to be a craft for your man. But if your man can accept the decorative pillow, might I suggest a way to make them masculine might be to focus on geography. Men love that shit.{You know I'm joking.} I chose the latitude and longitude of Wells, Maine, which is where my family vacations. Unfortunately, I basically took a picture of the transfer. (Sorry)

I used Avery fabric transfer paper and ran it through my computer. (Did you know that if you wanted to make a mirror image of your text, you do that in the printer, not the computer?) {In some programs, I'm sure, ymmv.} Then I took about nine million times longer to press it than they said was required even though I was pressing with my considerable weight on a stone countertop. Then it's just my normal pillow routine, which I have discussed here.

I chose linen fabric for its beachiness. Without further ado.

Yeah, does not photograph well. I'll try again...

Man's Best Friend

This is one that I have wanted to do for a long time. So long that the original post has been removed from Modern Dog Magazine. (I guess Modern Dogs aren't doing this any more.) You could search on Pinterest, but when I did that I came up with the original I pinned that no longer exists, and a bunch of people who pinned pictures and not directions. Still, it's not rocket science.

I did require the assistance of my man for this craft but that's because the dog is who she is. I used a brayer to spread black (nontoxic) acrylic paint onto the dog's paw. Then we made her stand on a piece of paper. (The trainer was right, that "stand" command came in handy!) I had a soapy bath ready for her paw so that we could wash the paint off immediately (to avoid the dog licking it off). We also chose to do this in the kitchen with tile that could be washed. (I may have done it outside if night hadn't fallen.) Also, dried chicken--her favorite treat--was applied liberally.

I didn't use ink like many others because 1) I only have Stazon which... stays on--not good for my floor or the dog and 2) I don't think Stazon cleaner is nontoxic, even if the ink is. Ultimately the paint comes off with soap and water so it won.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about this process, because I think this is a super special way to remember your favorite pooch!

Christmas Ornament for Travelers

Sorry I'm so late tonight. I had Cookbook Club. We cooked from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. I made blue cheese and black pepper gougères, which the dude and I think got better as the night wore on. One recipe we all have to make is the mushroom bourguignon; it was amazing!

This ornament is something I pinned ages ago. I thought it would be wonderful to make these for the dude--I could do one for every trip we've taken together and write the year on the back. This map was pretty dull, but it is a significant sliver of land from our trip to Nova Scotia last year. I managed to get in the national park we drove through and Ingonish. Meaningful, but not snazzy. Which is why I had to paint with glitter on the edge--same glitter on last Monday's man craft. And then I swiped some across the ornament for fun.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Mancraft Monday

The very first thing you should do is go look at my inspiration piece here. This started out as a very manly craft. Stain! Woodburning! Popups! I started out down that path. Then I started thinking, and you know that always leads straight to trouble.

My parents' 50th wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of next month. Wouldn't a popup photobox be a neat little gift? Instead of stain and woodburning, I thought I'd paint it to match the decor and decoupage some gold glitter stickers on it. (Only the gold glitter stickers turned out to be silver, so I needed to find a way to go gold...and ended up with glitter paint and stencils.)

The inside had to be lime green, since both my parents' houses have lime green couches. (If you ever wondered who would buy a lime green couch, now you know.) I was going to make the accordion from black paper, but it didn't look right. Hot pink it was.

And just as an example of how this will look filled with pictures, here's a shot of me with my dad and Maggie at my 8th grade graduation back in nineteendicketytwo. Alright people, I have to find a way to cram three crafts into the next day so that the dude and I can take a little trip to NYC.

Mancraft Monday!

Can I even call this a craft? I mean, I emptied a bottle of Jack Daniels* and stuck the apparatus from a broken** soap dispenser on it. Seriously, screwed right in. That's the $11 bottle of Jack; just about what you'd pay for a new soap dispenser. My cousin's husband is going to love this. He's a fan of JD which makes it perfect for his bar!

But craft? Let's call it DIY and move on to next week, which will involve actual sewing.


*Into a decanter.
**For some reason the soap dispenser that we had in the kitchen came detached from its base. It became completely unstable just in time to be repurposed.

Mancraft Monday: The Re-defininging and Smalls Report

I want to thank you all for your encouraging comments and nice notes. Even though I returned to work the day of my last post, I have been tired until recently and I still have this damn cough.

I've been thinking and thinking about how to get back to the craft month celebration. I appreciate all your suggestions but the idea of taking it back up for three straight weeks kind of repulsed me. It's so much work to make a craft every day, and the idea of dragging it out to a new month did not appeal to me. That's when I though I could string out the crafts for the rest of the year in a series of Mancraft Monday posts.  Not only will I have the weekend to work on the projects, it has a nice ring to it. So for the rest of the year, Mancraft Monday. That also means there will be some bonus posts since we've got about 38 weeks left.

I started my small for Stitching Lotus's SAL when we went off to Washington. And then it got put away when I was sick. But I finally finished. Because I was crafting for men this month, I chose a small (which was not that small in the end) that might make a nice gift for a man. The men in my life have influenced the projects I have chosen, so it's another Dr. Who themed project.

This is a pattern by Wee Little Stitches whose work is available on etsy. This is a tardis with doctors 9, 10, and 11. (I bought it a while ago!)

When I was stitching on this, twice people who were sitting opposite from me (so looking at the back) exclaimed with delight, "Is that a tardis!?" The last time it happened I was getting a pedicure and wearing my double glasses, so you know, I really wanted more attention called to me. (And she called it knitting...)

I'm glad to be back and I'll have some more interesting mancrafts for you next week.