Nautilus Desktop Theme

As I mentioned earlier this week, just because it is Shark Week doesn't mean sharks get all the fun here on The Craftinomicon! My husband sketched me this cute little nautilus the other day, and I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with him.

While I'm pondering, I put together this cute little August calendar desktop theme for any of you that may want to stare idly at a nautilus for the rest of the month of August (you can always just tile the nautilus image without the calendar too!). Click the image to enlarge.

I'm thinking he might become some fabric, or I might enlarge it and trace it onto a pillow. What do you think?

Shark Cupcake Toppers

Here is a great, quick paper craft to start off your Shark Week right! The best part is this template can be used not only to make the shark cupcake toppers shown above, but to make cute little shark cutouts for scrapbooking and other collage and art projects. You could also print out a larger template if you want to top a full sized cake!

To make these cupcake toppers you will need:

Shark template (found at bottom of this post)
decorative papers or cardstock
toothpicks (or larger skewers if topping a full sized cake with larger shark cutout)
scissors
glue

Begin by printing out your template (found at the bottom of this post). I recommend using a thicker cardstock to make tracing easier. Cut out your template and trace onto the paper of your choice. Scrapbooking papers are great, but you can also use colored printer paper, construction paper, old magazines, etc.

For a double sided cupcake topper, make sure to cut out two sharks of the same paper, one facing each direction, so that when glued together they match up with your design on the outside, as shown above.

Spread glue evenly onto the back side of one of your sharks. Place your toothpick in the desired location, and sandwich your other shark cutout on top, smoothing together evenly. Allow to dry before storing or using.

You don't have to limit yourself to using these as cupcake toppers. These would easily make a fun sandwich toothpick as well. Have fun and enjoy!

Shark Week, It's Here!

It is once again Shark Week! In fact, it is the Discovery Channel's 25th Shark Week anniversary this year, so feel free to check out all of their extra Sharky programming this week to get some inspiration! I'll be having some Shark and Under the Sea themed crafts on the page this week, possibly including food crafts! Before I get started on all the new posts, here is a recap of some of my old Shark and underwater crafts to get you started!

Pictured above is my super easy Felt Shark stuffie. For full tutorial go here. Why not go get started on your very own with the basic felt tutorial (multiples can be made in any color for a great mobile!).

Also, in honor of Shark Week, I have started a new Pinterest board featuring great Shark themed foods, crafts, gifts, decor, nail art and much much more. I will be adding many new items to the board every day this week!

Sharks too scary for your little undersea explorers? Give them a fun lunch with Hotdogtopus, the hot dog octopus! There will also be some more fun lunch buddies visiting us this week from the depths, so check back often!

Happy Shark Week!!

Shark Week!

Shark Week is fast approaching, and for those of you who don't read my newsletter you may be unaware that I have a bunch of sharky plans coming up in honor of Shark Week!

I decided to spice up my Spoonflower "Hammerhead" fabric design with my new favorite color combo: yellow, gray, black and white, so feel free to go check it out and purchase some for your own shark themed crafts. I will also be giving away some swatches of my sharky fabrics during shark week, so check back for your chance to win!

Easy Vellum Flower

I have been slaving away making flowers for my sister's wedding (it also helped pass the time while I was waiting for a replacement lens for my camera to arrive). As such, I was not really able to post in July, so I hope you all haven't been too mad at me. Fear not, the new lens has arrived and I am almost finished cutting out all of my sister's lovely wedding flowers.

While my sister decided on mainly paper roses, which can be found as part of my paper flower roundup post. I have come up with some cute and much easier flowers that can be used to fill in bouquets. A great thing about these flowers is that they work especially well with this great platinum vellum paper I found! Vellum doesn't like to be bent/shaped/hot glued the way copy weight papers do, so finding a simple flower with less fuss is a great way to use it. The shimmer of the paper also makes this simple flower look a bit more exciting. It's a win/win!

I started this flower by using the template from some of my tissue paper flowers, as shown above. I decided that cutting out 3 same sized petals, punching a small hole in the center, and arranging them around a simple bead on a wire looked simple and elegant, and was also pretty darn quick and easy! I used a tiny bit of glue between each petal to hold them in place. You could also cut out 3 petals of each size and make a larger, layered flower. I think a bouquet made entirely of these little beauties would be a great everyday centerpiece or table decoration!

I'll be posting again tomorrow to let you all in on my upcoming projects! If you can't stand the suspense, check out my July Newsletter! What have you all been up to during my unplanned break?