Homemade Rocket Pop Crayons

I've been wanting to try this for so, so long. And here are the results of attempt number 1.

I melted crayon bits in the microwave for this project, then poured. The splashing is an annoyance because I wanted clean lines. I intended to make "rainbow pops" but poured too much in the beginning because I couldn't see what I was doing.


So they are kinda funky.

But they color GREAT! I'm gonna try again as soon as I feel like peeling wrappers off of 100 crayons.

Vintage Pattern Restoration

I have a box of fun but really battered old patterns. It would be fun to do something crafty with them, so I decided to take a stab at digital "restoration." Here are the results:

This was the in-between version, where I removed what I felt was unsightly wear, but kept the authenticity.

Does anyone have an opinion on which is better? I am thinking about making a few journals and cards out of these...

FREEBIES! Old US Air Mail Postage Stamps

These are so cool! I found them in a huge stamp collection I won on ebay. They were the only US air mail stamps in among hundreds. I just had to scan them to have them for keeps. Then I thought, HEY! Everyone who loves stamps should be able to play with these, too.

Enjoy!

Making Pinbacks from Old Postage Stamps

Here's a little behind-the-scenes fun for you. I won't call it a tutorial, because the equipment needed to do this is prohibitively expensive; a very generous family member purchased this for me and I'm still in the clouds over it.

Making pinback buttons is the bestest funnest thing EVER! I have this little glassine envelope of old stamps from Yugoslavia. Most are the perfect size to fit on a 1.25" pinback button. In my opinion, it's much more fun to display them then to keep 'em in an envelope in a drawer somewhere.

First, I decided to mount them on paper so the shiny part of the button didn't show through. To be as authentic as possible, I used super vintage yellow graph paper.

One of the things that makes pinback equipment so costly is this amazing circle cutter tool. Like everything else, it is SOLID STATE and adjustable so you can make these perfect circle cuts.

So next, you need all of the button parts: the back, the smooth front part, and a clear mylar cover. It's time to make a button sandwich!


Here is this juicy stamp, just waiting to be smashed into an awesome button. Notice that there's plenty of yellow paper hanging over the edges, but most of that gets wrapped around and tucked into the middle of the button.



Ta-da! So, so thrilling!!