April Ampersand 18

This quilled ampersand has been waiting to be posted for far too long.

Have you tried quilling yet? It's a super satisfying project that can take as long as you want it to take. The trickiest part of making something like this is the measuring and drawing the ampersand shape. The kraft paper shape is a little tricky to get to stay together and standing up in the right position, but then filling it with the white curlicues is pretty fun and speedy.

And then it takes about 3 more minutes to take the frame out of its packaging, pop it open, and drop in the ampersand.

Want a little quilling in your life? You can get one of these ampersands or another monogram in the Anderson Ink shop.

April Ampersand 17

For my craft night ampersand, I somehow ended up with two books about butterflies and moths.

So what could I do except create an ampersand that a 10 year old girl would think was maybe just a little bit tacky?

I couldn't resist it. Butterfly ampersand!

You too will not resist the draw of the butterflies. Mwahahaha!

April Ampersand 16

I had a little impromptu craft night with my supremely talented friend Valori. We gave ourselves a rule: we had to make ampersands out of items from the Target dollar bins. Here's what Valori came up with:

Supplies: polka dot greeting cards and buttons

And the finished product:

How does she freehand these so neatly? It doesn't make any sense.

They even still work as cards, as long as your note is short and sweet.

April Ampersand 15

I think that punched tin can sometimes look sort of awesome, so I decided to give it a try. I started simple.

And here's how it looks in the magical twinkle of candlelight.

This was fun. I read somewhere once that the trick is to fill the can with water and then freeze it so that you don't bend the can with every hole you punch into it. That worked like a dream, except that the ice made the bottom of the can bow out when it expanded as it froze. Anybody know how to solve that problem in the future?

A sneak peek into May

I've been thinking about a new project for a little bit. Here's a hint:

I'm plotting to send a postcard each day in May. What do you think?

Want me to send you a postcard? Leave a note in the comments section and I'll put you on my list.

April Ampersand 14

On Easter, I also made a cake.

Can you see the ampersand? Look closer. Closer...

This post was sponsored by Perez Hilton.*

*This post was not sponsored by Perez Hilton.

April Ampersand 13

Happy Easter, you lovelies. I've got a backlog of ampersands to share with you, but today I'll be taking these eggs to family dinner.

Our family has legendary and very vocal egg fights, and I've got a good about this year's batch. Does forgetting that eggs are boiling for 20 minutes strengthen or weaken the structural integrity of the eggshell? This is important.