Pokeball Christmas Ornament @ Dream A Little Bigger

Hi! Guys I have been swamped up to my ears in work. It's finals week(s) and the last day before my convention and I am in full RaChil Robot mode working on pumping out products that I should have finished weeks ago. Hail the procrasti-nation!

Today we are getting festive and geeky with this Pokeball Christmas Ornament.

I'm love to make nerdy holiday stuff; exhibit a, exhibit b. This upcoming year I may try to create a nerdy decoration for every holiday that could be a really fun challenge.

Seriously, I loved me some Pokemon as a kid. I still do, but the obsession is lessened. (I used to be able to name them all by heart, now there are over 500. That's toooooo many for me) This project is great for Pokefans of all ages and would make a great gift for a nerd you love. Get the tutorial over at Dream a Little Bigger!

(Side note: I got Pokemon Art Academy for my birthday and I looove it. I have like zero experience with digital art aside from basic adobe Illustrator and Photoshop lessons so it was really fun to learn all the tools. I may do a video game review who knows? No, I don't have the new ruby or sapphire games...yet)

Til Next Time!

Tutorial Tuesday: Recycled Pen Jar

I love burning candles because I, like most sane people, like good smells. Some candles come in really nice jars, for instance this one that started life as a Febreeze Apple Pie candle. I would feel just awful throwing such a nice glass jar away, I knew I had to find something crafty to do with this.

Here's what I came up with: a quirky colorful jar to hold some of my plethora of pens on my desk. You could easily use this same project for makeup brushes, paint brushes, pencils or pens. Learn how to make your own below!

Speech Bubble Patch @ DALB

I hope you all are having a wonderful Saturday, I hope to as well. Doubly so because today is my birthday! Before I go stuff my face full of free Red Robins burger and cheesecake though I remembered I had to share my tutorial for Dream A Little Bigger with you guys.

Isn't this a bummer? Your washing machine eats one of your best shirts and now it has a giant hole in it?

Fear not good crafters! I have the solution!

Make and embroider your own speech bubble patch for your holey shirts! Get the full tutorial here!
I am off to go celebrate being alive for 21 years, I honestly didn't think I'd make it this far. Not in a negative way or anything, just as a kid I remember not being able to imagine far past 18. Jeeze, I'm getting old. Anyway I'm rambling, bye!

Til Next Time!

Tutorial Tuesday: Leather Wrap Bracelet with EndlessLeather

Today is an exciting day everyone! Not that the majority of my days are not exciting with my special brand of cynical-optimism but this one is especially exciting! I am proud to announce that today's post was brought to you by EndlessLeather.

You can make this simple modern bracelet in about 3 minutes! (not counting drying time) More leather tutorials to come later, read more of this one below.

Spool Business Card Holder @ DALB

As many of you know, earlier this year I reopened my etsy shop, Cwafty Creations, and business has been decent. It's only going to pick up from here and I also picked this year to sell at my first convention. I've been thinking about products and displays a lot lately and in a bolt of inspiration I came up with the perfect way to display my business cards whenever I sell at fairs or conventions!

Behold the spool! My brand's logo was literally begging to display little card stock rectangles printed with images of itself. I couldn't be happier with the final product.

This is a very simple craft that I is sure to make a great impact on my display at my upcoming and any future conventions!

Find out how to make your own over at Dream A Little Bigger!

Til Next Time!

Jack-o'-lantern Candle Holder @ Dream A Little Bigger

Can you guys believe October is already half way over?! I am devastated, I feel like there is still so much to do to make the most of my favorite month, I haven't even carved pumpkins yet! I did make one of these adorable candle holders though!

These little cuties whip up really quickly and would be a great activity for kids! Check out the tutorial here at Dream A Little Bigger.

Til Next Time!

Tutorial Tuesday: Bat Choker + Coffin Giftbox DIY

I believe this shall be the second installment in what I hope becomes a Halloween tradition for years to come, a creepy jewelry tutorial! Last year I made this bloody-ax tutorial when I was inspired by a charm I found at Hobby Lobby. This year my palace of inspiration was Joanne's, where they had both that adorable bat pendent and that coffin box. The tutorial pretty much wrote itself after that.

This necklace could be a great costume accessory or is great for everyday wear in my opinion, and if you have a friend who happens to have a penchant for the unusual, you can package them a handmade necklace in this spooky gift box! Find out how to make both of those items below.

Skull Striped Tee @ Dream A Little Bigger

Getting into the Halloween spirit around here! I am officially off of hiatus and you can expect a wonderful plethora of spooky, creepy, haunting posts around here for the whole month!

Starting off we've got this lovely shirt I DIY'd when I realized how many of my skull adorned clothes I'd recently outgrown- late growth spurt? Anyway, if you need something festive to wear that's not a costume you can always just add a little creepy to a normal outfit and this project is perfect for that!

Too cute right? It's such an easy look to achieve.You can find the full tutorial over at my other home- Dream a Little Bigger.

Need an accessory to go with your new skull top? Check out my tutorial for this bloody ax necklace here!

Til Next Time!

Tutorial Tuesday: Bow Ear-Warmer

Whoo hoo guys! I was so excited when about two months ago I got an email from Havalah, blogger at Sisters, What!, asking me if I'd be interested in participating in a handmade-gift blog hop.
Was I?! I was! It's my first hop and I and I am pleased to see my project in such beautiful crafty-company! If you want to make your loved ones some great gifts this holiday season hop around at the end of the post for inspiration!

These crocheted bows take about two hours to make and keep your ears nice and toasty when the air is chilly. I was so excited the first day I got to wear mine and needed it. I got a bunch of compliments! Beautiful and functional, I love it! Fully photographed step by step instructions and pattern below!

Funky Lamp Refashion @ Dream A Little Bigger

Howdy Ya'll! (Sorry, some days my 6ish years of being a Texan show through more than others)
I've been doing a bunch of school and work while I've been away from the blog. I aced my first tests for all of my classes and I have already started on my final projects for most of them too. Well...coming up with my topic/thesis is the first step so I have technically "started".

Today I am over at my pal Allison's blog sharing this really odd lamp I refashioned.

You have to admit, it looks 100x better now right? Well, it fits my colorful taste!

Head on over and check out the how to: here.

Til Next Time!

Crafty Catch-All @ Dream A Little Bigger

So this week I am very excited to be sharing my newest office organization project! I have been lax on this year's goal of getting my office organized so it's nice to get back to that!

I made this little tray to keep all of my sewing stuff organized. So I thought giving it a button motif would be adorable, and I was right!

Glitter Tape Notebook @ Dream A Little Bigger

If by some chance you haven't already heard, I went back to school a few weeks ago! This has been super exciting and I wanted to get prepared for school in a familiar way. I decided to continue my longstanding tradition of decorating my school supplies only now I'm sharing the results with you!

Tutorial Tuesday: Batman Notebook

Nananananananana BATMAN! Batman is my all time favorite super hero. He pretty much kicks butt in all of his incarnations and I have a special place in my heart for the 1960's-Adam-West version all the way to the Dark-Knight-Christian-Bale trilogy. I have a thing for crazy guys and so the joker also has a whole chamber of my heart to himself (his girlfriend Harley Quinn as well!)

Since I started school last week I decided to give some of my little moleskin notebooks a facelift. There will be two more notebook tutorials coming up, a bonus post at DALB this saturday, then my next tutorial. This project is super simple and quick, plus you get to play with gold-leaf which is very fun.

Abstract Tie-Dye Button Up @ DALB

Whooo hoooo! Celebrating the end of summer with some tie-dye awesomeness! I picked up this cute but very in need of some pizazz shirt while thrifting with my Aunts the other weekend.

Great color scheme! You know how I am with purple and green.

Head on over to Dream A Little Bigger for the full tutorial for this rocking shirt.

Til Next Time!

Tutorial Tuesday: Majora's Mask Clock

I love video games, which I've mentioned on the blog before once or twice.  Video games are very inspiring to me because I'm a gigantic fan-girl. The particular clock is from a video game I have not gotten very far in, but have watched many people play and will one day conquer myself. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

 One of the starting roles in this game is a giant evil moon that is slowly/quickly plummeting to the surface of Termina. You have 3 easily manipulated days to stop it, therefore time is of the essence and to represent that there is an iconic clock tower. I have wanted to make a clock from it's face for a long time. Read about the results below!

Purple Mountains Majesty Necklace @ Dream A Little Bigger

 Guys, confession time. I feel like I have literally lost my mind this week. I have been so stressed/ frazzled with some last minute complications with going back to school that I dropped the ball with blogging. Whoops, I promise my brain will be back on straight by Tuesday. Well I hope, don't hate me if it's not.

Seeing as I wanted situations like this never to effect my contributing I wrote 2-3 tutorials for Allison in advance. Here's this weeks project, my Purple Mountains Majesty Necklace.

Tutorial Tuesday: Kimono Top DIY

So the week before last week I hit a creative wall that I not only overcame, I burst through like the Kool-Aid Man. Oh Yea! I was worried about getting all my ducks in a row for going back to college in the fall(less then a month!) and worrying about trying to juggle school, work, blogging(2nd/ job now, woot!)when the time came. So that kind of drained all my creativity, but then I cleaned up my workshop and sat down for a big de-cluttered brainstorming session. The results were the next 10 weeks of tutorials planned out and the next two full months of posts. Then over the next few days I proceeded to finish 5 of the tutorials on my list. Let me tell you, its about to be a great two months at The Cwafty Blog.

Here is the second of those tutorials, the first can be found over at Dream A Little Bigger.

I've been noticing lots of kimono inspired pieces in the DIY and fashion worlds lately, and let me tell you, I'm loving it! I had a huge obsession with Orential culture growing up and always loved the beauty of kimonos and desperately wanted my own. One day I will make myself a full-fledged kimono, but until then I made this snazzy top! Find out below how you can make your own, with only one yard of fabric!

Cat Crack Stick @ Dream A Little Bigger

I'm back with another project for DALB this week. I got some new power tools(yard sales all the way y'all) and I wanted to put them to use asap.

So I knocked out this easy, quick(plus drying time), fun toy that your cats will love!

Sweet Treat Tote @ Dream A Little Bigger

Guess what?!?!
Its my first day posting over at DALB. Is that news to you? If so, check out my post about it here!

Summer is just not my season, but can you guess what my favorite thing about it is?

Thats right! Popsicles and Ice Cream! Mmmmmm I may need to go grab a bomb pop, I have been surrounded by popsicle shapes and talking about ice cream for too long now!

Tutorial Tuesday: Wire Wrapped Button Bracelet

Whew ladies and gents, last week was exhausting. I started my new job and they gave me a lot more hours than I expected. Now, having just quit a managing position, I'm used to a lot of hours and hard work. When you couple that with learning a completely new position, plus a new trade(I've never worked retail), and a schedule flip(I used to close mostly and now I open mostly, earlier than I ever opened at the restaurant) it all adds up to a completely pooped RaChil. Therefore I took a bloggy-break but I'm back, and with great news!

1. My last two posts were my most popular posts ever for their categories! Seriously, everyone seems to love my Crystal Necklace tutorial, its my most viewed and most pinned project by an exuberant amount.
2. That has lead to a general increased following on the blog so I'd like to say 'Ello to any new readers and welcome them to the site! Lets become BCBs , best crafting buddies :) Feel free to comment below or message me if you ever have any questions or just want to chat!
3. Guys, I have major news. Its huge, its magnificent, it monumental! But I can't tell you yet- don't hate me, I'll be writing a whole post about my big surprise soon(I'm thinking next Tuesday?) and some changes it may mean to the blog!

Speaking of my last DIY, that one was a really long project. To bring a little balance back to the blog, I came up with this super quick bracelet!

It only takes about 30 minutes to make, maybe more depending on the amount of buttons you need. It's a great summer craft, or a good group craft. Me and a few of my girlfriends made some button jewelry a few days ago, and that's where I came up with this one!