Animal Magnetism

Behold...Page 197. Well, not so much exactly what's on page 197, but more of a combination of page 197, page 32, and something I saw written on page 61. Incidentally, these are not my first glass blob projects inspired by the Crafty Mama book, they just happen to be the only eight remaining blobs left of my 87-blob Crafty Marathon.

So, where are the other 79 blobs, you ask? And, what's so special about this project? Sure, it only took a simple glass blob, a glue gun, and a few other things to make each one, but that's not really the point; after all, pi is just an infinite value lying around on its numerical bum all day, but it's what we DO with it that counts. The same goes for a Crafty Mama's glass blob project. What sent my mind reeling that first day wasn't the fact that it had never dawned on me to glue two things together, it was that even though I had seen all of these supplies before--the glass blobs in the vase, the blank barnyard thank-you card that I never sent to anyone-- I had never thought about getting Crafty with them, and in quite that way.

That day when I first saw Page 197, it was like a big, energy-star, motion-activated light bulb went on in my head. Think of what I could do with this idea: magnets with Shakespeare quotes, drawer pulls with glitter stars and sequins...the possibilities were endless. I made Valentine's Day glitter hearts for my crew. I made Kids With Food Allergies' logo magnets for myself. My son is an exceptional artist, so I made hand-drawn Wall-e magnets for Grandma. Bible verse magnets for Nana (no, silly...I printed them out) and alphabet magnets for some young friends. And then there were these animal magnets.

My daughter was so taken with these animagnets that I took it one step further and designed a checkerboard fridge game for her. Which animal starts with "P"? Which ones live in the water? How awesome is Mama? What else can we glue Crafty glass blobs to?

The possibilities are, well, kinda like pi.

Calling All Crafty Mamas...

I love This Book.
Do you have This Book?
Go get This Book.

Two weeks ago a friend showed me This Book, which she had just bought the day before. She seemed quite excited about it, so as we chatted I flipped it open to take a look. Suddenly, there it was, on page 197. My friend saw the look on my face and immediately asked, "Which one?"

"Which one?" I asked.
"Yeah," she said. "Which project are you looking at? There are about a million cool ideas in there, and I can’t decide which to do first."

My inner Crafty Self became giddy, and as I continued to flip through This Book the most delightful words floated out at me; words like, "glass blob", "schmancy", and, "whaddya know?" True, the first two words of This Book’s title are "Crafty Mama" --which should have been my first clue that the Mama who wrote it was my kind of Mama-- but I could tell rather quickly that This Book was also my kind of clever, and that it quite possibly held the secrets to Absolute Craftiness.

For four long days I thought about This Book. I simply had to make the project I saw on page 197, but recreating what I saw based on my own intuition wasn’t enough; I wanted to experience this project the way the author did, to know how she had dreamed up this project. I wanted to know what happens on pages 198 and 199. I had to buy this book.

It was the best fifteen dollars and ninety-five cents, minus Borders rewards points, minus fifteen percent coupon, plus California state tax that I have ever spent in my life. As it turns out, there are 254 other pages in this book! Forty-eight of these pages introduce fast & clever projects equally as awesome as the one on page 197, and the remaining ones offer insider Crafty Mama tips, easy-(for-tired-brains) to-follow instructions, and a ton of clever uses for your new mad skills.

Months before, I had felt my inner Crafty Self starting to fight for stretching room, and now I had finally found the ultimate instruction manual to make that happen. Ladies, Mama has a new favorite tool: a glue gun. Oh, and forty-eight more projects to make...