Happy Birthday, Jan!

Dear Shayne,

Yesterday was my friend Jan's birthday (Hi, Jan!) and she is now...


Well, perhaps you can guess how old Jan is.

In fact, you might think you know what it's going to say inside of the card, right?


Hee hee. Maybe not!

I cracked myself while making this card, but boy did that ink drive me nuts! After giving it 24 hours, I thought for sure it would be dry and it was most certainly not. To get the card in the mail on time, I had to put a piece of vellum inside to keep things from getting too smudgy.

As it was, it was still a little smudgy.

But that's the beauty of handmade, right? You won't find a wacky smudgy card like this in any Hallmark store!

Meanwhile... got any tips for making ink-that-refuses-to-dry dry?

love,
kelly

PS -- The cute little calendar inside was from Etsy seller Elle's Studio. I got a whole year's worth and they're really fun for personalizing cards!

A case for a very cool new toy

Dear Shayne,

I got a very cool new toy last week, so I had to make a case for it:


And the cool toy? An iPad! Wheeee!


(Love. It.)

I used a very soft flannel for the lining:


So I could pull it out to polish the shiny, shiny screen:


The case isn't perfect, but it does the trick -- it protects my precious baby from the harsh cruel outside world.

love,
kelly

And then I'm 7.

Dear Kelly,

I saw this kit in the craft store the other day:



And since I can't knit, have forgotten how to crochet and Randy loves pandas, I used my 40% coupon and bought the kit. It took one episode of True Blood to stitch him (now named "Harold") together with the 5-inch plastic needle and yarn. Harold pretty much looks like the picture on the box - his head is a little squishier. I decided against recording my own message because really, what do pandas say anyway?

Love,
Shayne

I'm 12.

Dear Kelly,

Remember this? Well, I also did these last fall, but just got around to scanning them now.








I still have a list of more spam subject lines - I may have to revisit this project soon. Except I don't know what to actually do with these. They just amuse me to make.

Love,
Shayne

More Cross-stitchin'

Dear Kelly,

There was this restaurant called Fritzbee's that my family went to all the time when I was a kid. They had really good chicken fingers and strangely were not a chain and we lived in chain-land. In the ladies room, they had a sign that said "Please wait for our hostess to seat you." My mom thought this was hilarious and on our Apple IIe using Print Shop version 1, I printed that with a nice border on our first color dot matrix printer. She hung it in the powder room where it stayed for many years. For whatever reason, probably it faded, it didn't make it through several moves and she was just saying again how much that cracked her up, so since I'm in a cross-stitchin' mood, I did it up for her:



I'm going to let her frame it because I don't know which bathroom she plans to put it in.

Cross-stitchin's fun :)

Love,
Shayne

Awesome envelope for a goofy gift

Dear Shayne,

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm sending my nephew a dishcloth for his 7th birthday. Hopefully this cool envelope will add an element awesomeness:


(Note the Batman stamp. Sah-weeet!)

I also invited him to be my penpal. I hope he accepts!

love,
kelly

Goofy gift for a 7 year old

Dear Shayne,

I have gotten a report that my nephew is enamored with some of the dishcloths I have been making as of late.

Armed with the knowledge that he likes the color orange and his name begins with "D", I made him the following custom dishcloth for his upcoming 7th birthday:



As I packaged this thing up, I thought, "I am going to go down in history as the weirdest aunt in the world."

At least it wasn't a bunny suit.

love,
kelly

Flyin' Chucks, finally framed!

Dear Shayne,

I cannot even remember when I bought this card -- last year sometime. All I know is that it's been waiting to be framed for quite awhile.

This weekend, I finally dug out a frame and used some scrapbook paper to give it its due:


I love Chuck Taylors and I love Victorian era buildings, so this print is a total win. Yay!

You can find this card and other fantastic work at the Etsy shop of Two Guitars. In fact, this card is right here, but you should check out the rest of the shop, too -- lots of good stuff.

love,
kelly

Guess what? Dishcloths!

Dear Shayne,

My mother-in-law got married a couple of weeks ago, so what did we give the happy couple? You guessed it! Dishcloths!



(And theatre tickets, lest you think we are cheapskates.)

(But when that show is but a memory, these here dishcloths will still be going strong. Am I right?)

(Hrm. Suddenly, dishcloths seem like such a lame wedding gift.)

(And yet I'm posting this on the Internet! Go, me!)

Yes! Dishcloths!
[insert "jazz hands" motion here]

love,
kelly