The Greatest Song Ever Written!

Have you ever gathered up things around your house and made them into something new? As someone who enjoys crafts, I do this all the time. But have I ever gathered up lines into a song and made a new one? Definitely not. Mainly because I have no musical abilities at all.

A girl I went to high school with did just that. To show the flaws in pop music and how a majority of popular songs use the same chord progression, Beth took 40+ popular pop songs and combined them into "The Greatest Song Ever Written."

Check it out:

This takes creativity to a new level, and in just 2 weeks, she has gained over 200,000 views on YouTube. I hope you enjoyed it!

Creation comes in many forms. What have YOU created recently?

Fun Photo Prop!

While reading one of my favorite blogs, Offbeat Bride, I saw this awesome craft that I HAD to make as a prop for my upcoming engagement pictures. I will show you a picture of the outcome of the project then explain how it all went down:

It turned out absolutely perfect and just as I had hoped, but it definitely took a little creativity, as I did not have access to all the neat things that Whitney from Offbeat Bride had when making hers.

Here’s What You Need:
- Foam Poster Board (Mine was 1/2″ thick)
- A Pencil
- Utility Knives (I used a box cutter & a small Xacto knife)
- A *new* black Sharpie
- A decent amount of time

Step One: The Design

While others have used methods involving projectors and transparencies, I simply didn’t have the access to one, so I made up my own plan. I chose my word and opened up a new Microsoft Word document. When inserting “Word Art” you have the option of changing the font. I found a cute cursive font, made each letter take up an entire page, and I printed them out.

Step Two: The Transfer

How to go about moving the letters from the paper to the board was a decision that took a little brainstorming. At first, I planned on cutting out each letter and tracing it on to the board, but my terrible scissor skills made me resist this thought.

I decided to place the paper on top of the board in the exact place I wanted the letter, and pressing down hard on the pencil, I followed the lines so that an imprint of the letter would appear on the board after removing the Word document. After this is done, lightly trace the letter with your pencil. Try your hardest to resist erasing- it leaves terrible smudges!

These are the printed out letters. Be sure when tracing that you do not trace the part where the letter should connect with the following letter (the far right vertical line of these two letters)

Step Three: Outlining The Letters

In order to create the black part of the whole project, you need to add some thin lines around the entire word (See top photo about for the the “black part” is).

I decided to not have a real “method” for this and just took my time hand doing it. I took my pencil and lightly drew about a 1/2″ border around the entire thing, including the inside of the “o” and “e”. This part requires a little patience, but it’s totally worth it in the end because this is the part that make the prop so awesome!

Sorry this picture is terrible, but avoiding the glare on white foam board was nearly impossible. This just shows the light border I added around each letter.

Step Four: Cutting It Out

Because I was using out nice, wood dining room table, I decided to use a cutting board designed for crafts before I began the process. I encourage you to do the same in order to protect whatever surface you are cutting on.

Cutting out the project is a tedious task. Using the box cutter for the longer, straight edges and the Xacto blade for the rest, I began to cut out my design. Sound obvious, but be sure to cut OUTSIDE of the border- I almost made a couple mistakes that would have ruined the entire thing.

The foam board tends to bunch up on the inside very often, so you are going to need to repeat your cuts on each line several times. Make sure you’re cutting all the way through the bottom layer.

At this point, I was almost done; just had to do finish a few of the harder spots to cut out. It’s starting to come together! YAY!

Step Five: Coloring Your Border

On the recommendation from Offbeat Bride, I got out my nice paint and a few brushes and planned on painting the boarder. I seriously do not recommend this, even for someone like me who can actually paint in the line.

I found it to look really streaky and it would have taken forever. But to each is own; do what YOU think looks best.

If you go the marker route, as I did, make sure that you’re using a new one. Everyone knows how terrible a dull black Sharpie looks. Maybe even keep an extra one on hand if your word is longer than mine. Now all that’s left is to color in the lines and guess what? You’ve just created an adorable photo prop!

Step Six: Go Out And Play!!

Photos courtesy of our incredible friends and photographers, Cason and Lauren Slaughter, over at C. West Productions. Sorry that I don’t have any color examples; clearly have a love for black and white

Be sure to check out Offbeat Bride’s other methods of creating this prop here before deciding which method works best for your project!

What’s the next project on YOUR list?

Project Live Love

A little over a month ago, I posted about the tornadoes that heavily affected several Metro Atlanta communities. What I mentioned in that post was things that are constantly being created are ways to help. While I wasn’t able to do very much during the tornado situation, I had an opportunity to be a part of something incredible on Saturday: Project Live Love!

Saturday morning, after a large cup of coffee, two of our close friends, my fiance, and I hopped in the car and headed downtown for the event. We pulled in the parking lot a little early, but there were plenty of other people there early and as excited as we were! We got in line to hand in our registration forms and find out which project we would get to be apart of. There were several projects occurring that day, and rather than type them out, I’ll just show you:

We ended up in Group 4 and we were pumped up! We changed into our Live Love t-shirts, had a brief meeting with everyone who was part of the project, then broke up into our individual groups. The 12 of us drove a few minutes down the road to the Atlanta Community Food Bank where we would be sorting, inspecting, and packing food in order to help families in need have food on the table. And what an honor it was to do this!

We watched a short video and learned a lot of things about the food bank. ACFB provides food to over 700 nonprofit agencies in close to 40 Metro Atlanta and North Georgia counties every month. Each year, the ACFB distributes over 20 million… yes, million… pounds of food to help the needy. It is was incredible to see how it all works.

We went into the GIANT warehouse and unpacked pallets and pallets of food, making sure to check that the donated food was unspoiled and not out of date. We worked for a few hours doing this and did not even put a dent in the amount of food that this place had to sort through. ACFB heavily relies on volunteers and I would definitely recommend this organization for anyone looking to give back to their community.

Here is a picture of our awesome group:

For anyone interested in being involved with upcoming LIVE LOVE events, there are a few ways you can help. The next event, which will have similar projects to this past event, will be taking place on January 7th and can be registered for online on their website. Another awesome project they have started is called THREE-OH-WE-GO! and will begin this winter. When the temperature in Atlanta goes below freezing, the Live Love crew will head downtown offering blankets, hot chocolate, and hand warmers to people on the streets. Each year, 20+ people die in Atlanta from sleeping outside in the cold and this year, Live Love wants to make this statistic change by doing love!

Everyday, more and more opportunities to help those in need are being created in our communities! How will YOU help?

The World's Hottest Bottle Opener!

Brent and Mark Gregory are two of the most creative and hilarious people I know. Coming up with insanely unique ideas is definitely their forte. Recently, one of their crazy ideas has become a reality!

I introduce to you: The ButtleOpener! : The World’s Hottest Bottle Opener

A few years ago, Greg and Mark, after a round of golf, ended up at the local bar. This is where the dream was born. Somehow the thought of a life-size butt than can open your beer bottle was brilliant in their minds, so they took off running. After patents, drawings, prototypes, and business plans… and a tremendous amount of time… the ButtleOpener became a reality. In early September, the first shipment arrived!

Since its arrival, the brothers, along with friends and family, have been traveling to colleges, NASCAR races, and various other events to push the product. They have even rigged up a ButtleOpener on their truck to promote it while driving. From what they tell me, they get some hilarious looks and comments.

In early November, my fiance and I will be traveling with them to Tuscaloosa to help promote! My beloved Crimson Tide will be playing LSU, so I know it will be an incredible weekend!

This “dream” becoming a reality goes to show that creativity is not a lost cause. They took their idea and made it happen! Sometimes I come with awesome ideas, but someone else is always one step ahead of me. The thing I admire most about the Gregory brothers is that they wholeheartedly pursued creating this product, even though it people laughed it off and said it was crazy. Creativity IS crazy sometimes; that what makes it so fun!

Do you have any ideas that you’d actually like to pursue? What are you waiting for?

The ButtleOpener is now for sale on their website– it will make a hilarious gift or the perfect decoration for your basement, poker room, etc. Take their advice and “Man Up And Getcha One!”

Ahhh, Tornadoes!

Want to know what is constantly being created? Opportunities to help!

Last night (9-5-11), North Georgia experienced some terrible weather and several tornadoes made appearances in Kennesaw, Woodstock, Canton, Ball Ground, and everywhere in between. Many people still remain without power and there are tons of houses with damage in our communities.

Here are a few pictures from my in-laws’ neighborhood in Towne Lake, right outside of Woodstock:

And here are a few pictures of my aunt’s road in Ball Ground, just north of Canton:

As you can see, this terrible weather did some serious damage. From what I have seen on the news, these pictures are minor compared to what some peoples’ homes have experienced. If you have some spare time, why not lend a helping hand to your neighbors, friends, or members of your community and find out ways you can help?

A Little Introduction

Welcome to my blog, Creations And Crafts, which will be all about, yep- you guessed it, things involving creations and crafts. From small decorative projects to refinishing furniture, I'd like to give you a glimpse into my passion of using imagination to CREATE!

I have always had an extremely creative mind, and as much as I wished I could pursue art, I was just never that good at it. BUT several years ago, after compiling years of memories into a hefty scrapbook, I realized that while I don't necessarily have a gift for drawing bowls of fruit or sculpting masterpieces from lumps of clay, I can still CRAFT like nobody's business!

By definition, a creation (cre·a·tion, noun) is, "the action or process of bringing something into existence." In my opinion, I believe that that 'something' can be anything. Because of this, I also hope to share with you some other companies and blogs of friends and colleagues that share my same passion of creation.

Over the years, I have created some fun things, but never took the time to document them and share. My method in using this blog, aside from sharing others' creative works, will be to share a step-by-step, picture guided tour of the process I endured in creating a specific thing. I have several projects lined up on a to-do list, so I hope to work through that list quickly. This blog should give me the motivation I need to do just that!

I truly enjoy the idea of "turning trash into treasure" and whether it's scrap materials around the house turned into a fun, new decorative piece, or even a crappy old table from a garage sale being transformed into a new living room centerpiece, there is always something new to be created and that is something I never want to lose sight of!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and I hope you enjoyed it. I look forward to sharing more in the future and hopefully, you too, will be inspired to find your knack for creation!

Everyone Wants To B.Loved

Last November, my friend Mandy launched an online store called B.loved, which sells women’s clothing and accessories. From belts and bags to dresses and rompers, they have a wide selection and are consistently adding more items to the collection. They also have a fun blog full of style ideas, health tips, and some amazing recipes.

Recently, B.loved began selling Lenny & Eva jewelry! Their leather cuffs are awesome and would make a perfect gift for any of your jewelry loving friends and family out there. The cuffs and braided wraps can also be customized with metal sentiments, which will definitely give you the unique look you’re after!

Be sure to head over to shopbloved.com and see what clothing and accessories you can add to your closet today!

This picture is from the B.loved website and features my friend Katie fromfaithandfunfetti.com! Be sure to check out her blog as well; I promise you won’t regret it!