This little crafter's been MIA, there have been reports of tests scaring the nation and essays long enough to get up and walk out the door (not without first bringing devastation upon countless helpless library books) and that's my life. Last time I was on here I said I would be showing how to make use of an old pantry door, however I changed my mind and as I frequently explain to my boyfriend, my lady parts mean I can do that without explanation. I made these drinking cups for my 1920's themed birthday party; individualizing things for friends and families at get-togethers helps break the ice and feel more intimate (especially when you're like me and have like 10 friends, don't judge). I used mason jars, which were $9 at Publix for a pack of 12, burlap (to fit the theme), ribbon, and Martha Stewart crafting paint ($4 at Jo Ann's). The point of this project was to make a type of party favor without being extremely lame or told my blast from the past roaring twenties party was actually better suited for roaring five year olds, which obviously when faced with any dilemma, you use mason jars. I've not seen a thing that mason jars can't do really, kind of sad they're succeeding at life better than most of my college counterparts (myself included). Here's a step-by-step process showing how these jars are complete awesome (someday I'll rival them in skill).

Le Materials

When dealing with burlap, if you make a slit about the size of an inch between two of the tassels (?) as show below, you can have strait lines without the frustration (Who knew?!) 

My slit (it's beautiful I know, geez stop making me blush guys!)

Hard part, oh wait nope, it's not. Grab one of the tassel thingies and pull it toward you, be gentle but not like dealing with my 93 year old great grandpa gentle, more like talking a 7year old YMCA camper out of running around with scissors gentle, otherwise your tassel will break and you'll have to jimmy (get it? 1920's...) yourself back to the starting point

Hooray for pulling string! If only my finals could be this easy, oh wait, I'm an economics major, they ARE this easy. Hooray for me! 

Should look like this once you're done, if not, I would give up now, you have no hope to finish this correctly, but it was cute of you to try. And BAM you've got yourself a good looking guide line for cutting your burlap! *pat on back*

And as always, if you find yourself needing help, your cat is the best type of assistant. If you don't have a cat, go get one from the nearest shelter....now.

And just when you thought your aging bladder was going to let out from all this excitement, wait for this next doozie, it's the *real* fun...

Once you've measured out how large you want the burlap to be, you can then cut them according to how many people you'll be catering to

For the names, I found a font from google that I thought fit the theme and went with it, if you're not as steady with the paint brush, feel free to get a stencil and tape that sucker down, it will work just the same 

After the paint has dried, use your handy dandy hot glue gun to add the ribbon, or whatever add-ons you would like, the good thing about this project is that you don't have to be afraid of getting creative and making it your own 

The trickiest part of this endeavor is fitting the finished product to the mason jar, the goal is to get the label tight enough where it won't slip when the lucky guest picks up their cup, but loose enough to be able to take it off when cleaning time comes. I just winged it and made each one a different size, using the mason jar as best as I could, if you wanted to get scientific/mathematical with it I'm sure you could but you're on your own with that one. 

 And wha-la! You have a unique cup that doubles as a party favor when it comes time to kick everyone out. My original hope for this project was to use stencils and chalk paint so that my guests could write their names on their own cups (mainly because I'm obsessed with calk paint) but the paint required a good amount of time to set before it would be able to be washed, which defeated the purpose of my idea, so if you have time, that would definitely be something cool to try. Other than that, try fabrics that would fit the summer time and play off of the yellows, pinks, and oranges that pop up in refreshing drinks and cute dresses. Until next time, you stay classy my fellow crafters!

When in doubt, create a... blog?

I've always been bad with introductions (there seems no way to escape the awkwardness and mistaken pretenses to someone's character) but I'll do my best to entertain the people who in all reality probably aren't reading this. 

A little bit about myself- I'm a sophomore at Florida State University and majoring in Econmics. Boringggggg- what you really want to know is that I just celebrated my 20th birthday (I'm getting old!) and found myself in a confusing situation. It went like this- I'm sitting in between my best friend whom I've known for pretty much my whole life and my boyfriend of almost 3 years, shoving my face with the warm bread and butter in portions sufficient enough to have been my entire meal when all of the sudden my foodgasm turns to shit at the words "moving to Washington". My best friend, married now and graduating from college in a year, gleefully exclaimed these seemingly simple words. I'm overwhelmingly happy that she has decided to skip town and live it up, to make stories and see and experience things she wouldn't have otherwise, but then I got to thinking (a dangerous task if you ask anyone who knows me). If she moves to Washington and my boyfriend becomes Katy Perry's next obvious remix single 'California Boy' for the internship position he's been quietly super excited to explore, where does that leave me? Alone and just as lost as ever. See they (whoever 'they' are) lie. They tell you that you can be anything you want to be. Bull. Money doesn't grow on trees and it sure as hell won't just walk over to this creatively lost individual. They tell us you'll figure things out and not to worry. Poop coming out of their mouths. Only those fortunate enough not to get doubly  confused by these college classes move on up to the top of the food chain. 

So where does this leave an ambitious girl pursuing an Economics degree (because let's face it, when you don't know what to do, do economics) with no ambitions other than to open a Michael's craft store credit card and buy out the damn place within a week? Royal screwed. And this my friends, or not friends, is why I have started a blog. To make myself feel better. Now, look at all the fabulous things I have done and will do and start racking up my self esteem. Kind of kidding, not entirely though. Here's a picture of my super adorable devil cat to compensate for my ridiculous rant.

P.S- Watch for my next crafting project: repurposing an old pantry door, Exciting!