New Product

Sometimes I get way behind on things…like introducing all you non-facebook friends to the newest additions to the Midkid family.
You can now view all of Midkid's super fantastic awesome wicked new product!
Just take a trip over to my portfolio and check 'em out!

If you're interested in anything you see and aren't local just hit me up with an email and I can get you all set up!

Project ReStyle

I'm ready to admit it, I have a little crush on Elsie Flannigan of A Beautiful Mess. This gorgeous woman is stupidly talented, and just all around super cool.

This year she's teamed up with Rachel Denbow to produce Project Restyle.

I don't have much to offer in the fashion department, so I decided to go the home decor route and created this pretty cool picture frame/alarm clock.

I found this hideous "Bratz" alarm clock at Value Village for $1. I simply took it apart, put a photo of Ken and I in, put it back together...and voila!

I'm super happy with it, and will definitely be making more in the future. Hopefully ones that function, as this one was broken when I bought it.

Here are some of my favourite Project Restyle's thus far:

Old Salty&Cap'n Pepper

I attempted to make everyone's Christmas present this year...and didn't quite get there.

Here's one I made for my new brother in law.

I schemed with his girlfriend to find out his favourite quote.
I painted the background all matte black and then painted a silhouette of a cat in glossy black. That way if you look on it head on, you don't see it, but when hit with light a cat appears. I'm a magician!
I also whipped up this guy for my regular brother and his girlfriend.

When it was all said and done I gave myself a present.
My lovely friend Paula gave me these hilarious vintage salt and pepper shakers as a house warming gift several years ago. I love them and they served me well, but as you can see Old Salty has seen better days and I had to replace them.
I found these guys and just love them. They're much more cute than humorous but I love them anyway.

I put salt in the light dog, and pepper in the darker...but I don't know if I was right in that.

Which one's supposed to have 2 holes...or 3?

SOFA

I survived the first week of University!!! And I loved it!!
I truly thought I was about to throw up every time I opened my mouth on the first day, but it never happened. I'd call that a success.
At the moment I'm pretty stressed out about it, but I'm sure it'll all come together. When I discovered that my mid terms and projects would all be around the wedding date my stomach dropped so I pretty much need to go into hyper drive now.
In the last week I've finished:

• Folding all 1000 paper cranes (YEEAAAAHHH!!!!)
• Cleaning and decorating all the mason jars for the candy buffet
• Creating dessert stands by gluing a vintage candle stick to a vintage plate

Still to go:

• Spray paint the 1000 paper cranes gold
• Thread all the cranes onto a string and bead
• Scan all of Ken's baby pictures
• Put together a slide show with a play list
• Write vows

And probably 300 more things that I'm forgetting right now.
In the meantime I'm re-branding "Midkid" like crazy, and have a wackload of reading and new school assignments to start on.
I'm losing it!

On the plus side, I've received nearly ALL of my wedding things that I've ordered online. All that's left is an LP of Sophie Madeleine's album Love.Life.Ukelele. Sophie was completely out of these limited edition LP's and was kind enough to find a way to get one to me! She's just as a nice as her voice, if you can believe that. I can't make up my mind on whether to walk down the aisle to "Take Your Love With Me" or "You Are My Favorite". I'd love if you would listen to them and weigh in for me.

Next post will be about all my other fabulous Internet finds. My garter, head piece, earrings, shoes. You know, all the best parts of a wedding!

Countdown

4 days until art school. 5 weeks until the wedding. 100 birds until the "1000 paper cranes" project is done. And I'm losing my freaking mind. Even after making 9 directional signs to help guests find their way to the wedding I feel completely lost. (I can't take all the credit for those. My lovely brothers used recycled wood from my dads shop and actually did the construction part - I just painted the pretty lettering) Seriously though, am I the only person in their 20s that still gets wicked butterflies before the first day of school? And it doesn't help that Ken and I are on a streak of bad luck.

In an effort to boost our moods my lovely husband to be (in 5 weeks! AAAHHH!) made us this delicious "lazy pie". How adorable is that!? KM+CG? Ummm super cute. Not super cute? That that black blob in the top right corner is our coffee grinder...that melted onto the element while the pie was cooking.If that wasn't bad enough, yesterday we walked out to our car to find out it had been broken into the night before. They took Ken's bag full of important work papers and some other non-important things. On the plus side, they ditched a bunch of the papers and either a conscientious thief, or our friendly parking neighbor put them into a waterproof bag and placed it on our windshield.

At this point we can't afford anymore bad luck so I'm ready to bust through the final 100 birds and wish for some good luck!

Future Mrs. Mason Jar

6 weeks until the wedding people! And all my procrastination is starting to hit me. My handmade to-do list right now is to print off and assemble our crosswords, wash and decorate our candy buffet jars, finish folding the paper cranes(then spray them and thread them), and more...
So what better thing to do with my time than blog about things I finished long ago!!
I like to think I'm pretty clever and when I decided that I'd be swapping out my last name(Gesell) for Ken's(Mason) I thought it would be brilliant to use Mason jars for as many things as I could think of for the wedding. I really wanted the cool old aqua blue mason jars but when I found out that they frequently EXPLODE when they have a candle in them I opted for an alternative. I found this tutorial for painting the jars blue and it worked perfectly.



I decided to make about 40 of these, half for lanterns, and half for flowers. The lanterns I mixed a little iridescent Vitrea 160 in to give them just a little more sparkle. I then wrapped twine and wire around the rim. Where it matched up I braided the twine and wire(I don't recommend doing this if you want to keep your hands baby soft!). Once the braid was at a good length I hooked the wire onto the rim and wrapped the rest of the twine around the rim and tied it in a rustic knot.
For the vases I left out the iridescent paint and added more thinner. This was a lot more simple to make. I just wrapped twine around the rim twice and tied it in a bow! Easy peasy.


Speaking of procrastinating, I totally didn't post about my bridal shower. My Auntie Geri and cousin Ricci put it together. It was super small and quiet, very much the opposite of what I expected from my friends stories. Quite the relief! I was so thankful to have my friends and family there, and was so taken aback by their generosity. Ken and I really didn't feel comfortable registering for anything. As an alternative we decided that we'd register for things for our honeymoon and are sooo thankful for all the gifts we've received. This specific gift has been the only non-honeymoon gift received thus far...and it brought me to tears. Just typing about it is making me misty eyed! My grandma died only a few months after I was born but I always felt a closeness with her. These birds were hers and were passed down from my Auntie Geri with a tear jerking card... They're beautiful and I'll be placing them on top of our cake.

Do me a favor.

Check out this bad boy that I got at Lune Vintage/Jill's yard sale today! Um, it's pretty much the most beautiful thing - ever. I have no clue what I'm going to use it for (but I wont tell Ken that). I just loved it too much to walk away from it.


It reminded me of my favor bags for the wedding that I had yet to post about, so here they are folks!See that sexy typewriter font? Ah! I'm so proud of these. I have very little sewing skills and figured I was biting off more than I could chew when I came up with this idea but I am soo happy with the outcome. I wandered into Mitchell's Fabrics for this endeavour and fell in love! That place is magical! Gorgeous fabrics filling every inch of the room - I really wish I had more reason to shop as I could have bought so much more. Anyway, I actually got most of my explanation for how to make this from one of the staff there. She was so patient with me... I found one tutorial that basically was what she'd explained, only I was making mine in bulk so it was just slightly different. The tip to use a safety pin to pull the string through was a huge help!
I wound up using just regular ol' twine instead of ribbon as I liked the rustic feel it gave to the muslin baggy. I also used the same stamp I used for my envelopes and another letter stamp for the words. I now have about 50 of these (way more than needed) and they'll be filled with treats at our candy buffet. They were so easy, I didn't manage to mess up a single one!
So Lady from Mitchell's Fabrics, all I can say is.....

Crafty Minions

So I survived my first craft show. Not only survived but I had a terrific time!! I should have known that Winnipeg crafters would all be fantastic friendly and hilarious women. I spent the day selling my pieces, oogling at other crafters goodies, and laughing up a storm at the Crafty Minions: The Handmade and Vintage Sale. This was my first time visiting Aqua Books and it's definitely going to be a new favorite. It was such a cute shop with awesome vintage books and a DELICIOUS cafe! The menus are placed in vintage hard cover books, and there's unique salt and pepper shakers on every table.

I was stoked when I found out I'd be sitting next to Milena of Just The Goods, whom I met at a craft sale last winter. Her stuff smells AMAZING and filled the room. I have one of her shaving solids and it literally works wonders.

I was also lucky enough to meet the women of Dizzy Dame, Marathon1981, Mrs. Glockenheimen, and Heather Bays. All incredibly talented women. And I'm kicking myself for not buying a necklace from Alexandra Tumanova. I'm super jealous of her mad skills

I can't wait for the next one. Here's a peek at some of the items I brought to the show.

To view a full selection of my pieces visit the Art by Cara FaceBook Page.

I've been wicked busy preparing for the craft show and haven't been able to blog about my latest wedding creations. I recently finished my mason jar lanterns, vases, favor bags, and started making 1000 paper cranes!! Now that the craft show is done I'll have plenty of time to update you all on my handmade wedding insanity.

Kitty Corsage

Finally, after a long wait my cats corsage blog post is here!!
To make this I used one of her old collars, blue ribbon from Micheal's, an old lace curtain I found at Salvation Army for $3.99!!, and one of the smaller boutonnieres I made from this post.
I used this tutorial for the flower and adjusted it slightly. Instead of using a fabric that frayed easily I used silk from ribbon that I cut in half. I then place the raw edge over a candle and let it melt just enough to keep the fabric from fraying. I also sewed the lace onto the ribbon to give it a more layered look. Once the flower was complete I sewed it to Virtute's collar, pinned on the boutonniere and I was done!!
It was super simple and I'm trying to think of more ways I could incorporate the flower into the wedding.

She is just going to be the prettiest guest at the wedding!
In other wedding related news; today Ken and I shot our very first wedding. It was completely overwhelming, but the wedding itself was beautiful and I've never seen such a gorgeous dress on a bride in my life. Stay tuned for sneak peeks of photos from the wedding!

Bow Wow

Oh my dog, the cat.
I swear I'm a "dog person" even though I own a cat, and treat her like she's my baby. However, my family dog and I just don't get along. He acts more cat like than my cat. And my cat more dog like than my dog...
But I do like the dog enough to allow him to come to the wedding... However, for this to happen he needs to get dressed up. Probably more formal than my dad will look. So I made the little muppet a bow tie using this tutorial and adding a smaller version of the boutonniere I made in my last post.


I was super excited when I found the cheesey "perfect pair" ribbon in a matching color. Aw pets in people clothes. Gotta love it.

Faux Bois

As you can see by the background of my blog; I love Faux Bois(fake wood). Especially oddly colored, or really linear faux bois. The more faux, the better.
I was trying to think of a way to incorporate it into the wedding somehow. Ken's tie was my first thought, but with it being such a casual wedding I don't even know if a tie is appropriate.

Upon brainstorming boutonniere ideas it came to me. We're not going with the crazy bouquets and centerpieces, so why don't I make a faux bois boutonniere!!

I made a quick trip to Michaels and picked up some small wooden hearts. I already had some E600, pin backs, and brown pens at home so that was easy.

I then drew wood grain onto the hearts, squeezed a dollop of E600 on the back, pushed the pin back on, wrote Ken + Cara and the wearers name and voila! A personalized boutonniere for the VIPs.


I even made tiny ones to put on the pets attire and corsages. Stay tuned for pictures of those!

Wedding Invitations

Ken and I have opted for having a very small wedding. We want it to be eco-friendly and super hand made and crafty. So when it came to the invitations I knew exactly what I was going to do.

I started by attempting to make "plantable paper". I used this tutorial for my (first) batch. When my paper hadn't dried after about three days it started sprouting! "Scrapping"(teehee) that plan, I ripped up the sprouting paper and made a second batch using this tutorial instead.

I even threw in some petals and leaves from our garden outside. I was so excited for this one to turn out. I had been keeping it outside to dry faster but it was going to rain so I brought it into the apartment and set it on the bath tub. I should've known what was going to happen next. Ken came into the bedroom saying "You're friend (referring to my cat Virtute) knocked over your screen...the paper's in pieces."
Ugh. I was livid(Virtute slept on the couch that night!!). I was able to salvage 4 good size pieces for the invitations but I needed 10 more.
In a huff I logged onto etsy, found a seller, immediately bought the paper, and went back to bed.

The paper got here today and I was able to finally put together the invites. The picture at the top is the finished product. Here's a couple other views of it, including one of the invitations made from the paper I made.
The stamp, marker, ink and envelope were all bought at Micheals.
I included planting instructions for those guest that don't have much of a green thumb (like myself).

This invite is made from my paper. It's about 5 times thicker than the other paper!

The "information part" of the invite is on velum. I printed the information mirrored onto the velum so that you're actually looking at the backside. I then printed the header and our date by hand on the reverse side giving it kind of a three dimensional effect.



Now to deliver these bad boys!