Sarchix Finds

For those who know me, they know of my addiction to office supplies.  I love going to the huge office supply stores and looking at the binders, paper and the pens – oh the pens and ink.  The sale rack is like searching for treasure.  I don’t know why I love office supplies so much but I have for as long as I can remember.  Even back in the day, I would pour over  catalogues that would come to the house (where my Dad had a home office) like my daughter pours over the American Girl Doll catalogues.

Finding this sewing project was so exciting!  My sewing skills are not the most talented, unlike my super sewing co-worker, but I’ll get better with time.  This craft uses cloth place mats and a bit of wide trim and turns them into an expanding file folder!

All the detailed direction to make this fantastic file folder are on Spool’s website with tons of pictures to help you along as you make it.  If you can sew a straight line with a sewing machine you too can make this!  I LOVE IT!!  With the seasons changing, the stores are clearing out their stock to make way for the spring and summer designs so you should get a great deal on four place mats, either identical or of coordinating fabrics or what ever you should find for a great deal.  New seasonal ones would also be so nice as we enter the warmer weather.  I think I saw the summer stuff already out at Wegmans… hmmmmmmm, decisions decisions, decisions.

I wonder if this would work with more than just the four place mats?  I’ll let you know if Spool gets back to me on this.

Spool – Place mat Expanding File Folder

Not everyone has a roomba but my wonderful parents gifted me with one a bit ago.  The idea was to motivate the kiddies to clean their rooms so the robot thingy could vacuum but once the initial “cool” factor disappeared the roomba’s appeal diminished.  Now I might have just found a way to make the roomba cool again!

Mamaqila.com has a fantastic wool felted roomba cozy that is the best I’ve ever seen!

They even have a video at Mamaqila.com that shows it in motion.

Is that just the most brilliant thing ever?  The kids loved it and asked if I could make one right away.  I wish I knew how to felt wool to do this but alas, there is only so many hours in the day.  A case of too many crafts and too little time.  Maybe someday I’ll learn how to felt but for now I’m still trying to learn how to crochet and do tatting.

I wish was more information about the artist on the site behind this creation so I could give them the due credit but this is really a great creation.

i-Toad – Mamaqila.com

First of all, WOW!  This was all painted by hand for a Christmas Gift.  I wish I could paint like this and I would be making sets all over the place.  I don’t dare share this with my oldest because he would want me to make him a set.

This was all done by the artist, Matt Brown and tells us the tale of how he made these.  He makes it sound SO easy too.

But it got me thinking, if he can paint Star Wars guys on these Matryoshka dolls (aka nesting dolls) then why can’t I try something a bit simpler.  I’ve always loved the idea of the Matryoshka doll and how they fit inside each other but applying a non traditional face to them inspires me to think outside the box.

Matt started with blank dolls.  What would you put on them?

Art of Matt Brown – Star Wars Matryoshka dolls

Shrinky dinks are one of the coolest crafts I did as a kid.  I remember getting the sheets with the small colored pencils and trying to trace some pattern or cartoon and then cutting them out and then the magic happened when they entered the oven.   I would use up the whole pack right away.  The next day, my Mom would be freaking out because the little slivers of Shrinky Dink that got cut away looked just like little shards of glass on the floor.

Cindy over at Skip to My Lou turned #6 plastic containers into home made Shrinky Dinks!  (Brilliant job Cindy.) 

Sure you can go out and buy (usually online) the sheets of Shrinky Dinks but when you need your fix of shrinking art, this is perfect.  The best part is, my town does not take #6 plastics for recycling and I feel bad throwing it away.  Now I have something much better to do with it!

Skip to My Lou – Home Made Shrinky Dinks