How To Pretend To Be A Craft Blogger.

by Lori Dwyer on August 13, 2012 · 12 comments

How to pretend to be good at craft. 
Bought to you by Lori, the self–confessed un–crafty blogger.

Step One: Go to the Canon PIXMA Printables site.

Step Two: Assess your patience level for the following factors…

* Cutting
* Pasting
* Concentrating
* Vacuuming up tiny itty bitty bits of paper from your lounge room floor.

Cake card: Tolerance level required- medium.

Step Three: Dependent on factors in Step Two, select your project.

If patience levels are low, select….
Get Well card or craft calendar

If children are being annoying (common), select…
Any Ice Age 4 printable, especially
Personalised door hangers or printable mazes.

Bump shows off the megaphone, tiara and Ice Age 4 stickers created to distract her while Mummy gets some work done….

If patience levels are at medium tolerance, select…
squirrel family mobile or printable basketball game.

For (rare) high patience levels, select…
Paper toy train, paper drumming monkey or fish craft calendar.

Step Four: Hit print.

Step Five: Test your hand eye coordination by cutting, snipping and trimming according to instructions. All mothers know the cardinal rule– if you actually want this project to look any good then keep your children far, far away from your workspace and your half–finished craft.

Step Six: Vacuum up tiny bits of paper. Wrestle the only pair of adult scissors in the house away from annoying but cute two year old.

Step Seven (*For those not afflicted with un–craft–ism, proceed directly to Step Eight.): Dependent on pre-determined tolerance levels from Step Two; either scrumple badly cut, toddler-tampered printables into bin, swear, concede defeat; or scrumple badly cut, toddler-tampered printbles into bin, swear, gather your tenacity and begin again; or leave printables in neat pile out of the reach of children for a week or more, followed by either abandoning the project (“What on earth did I print these out for….?”) or gather wits, be as stubborn as an un–crafty mum can be, and begin again at Step One.

Step Eight: Following the instructions (bookmarked on your laptop rather than printed, of course, for reasons of environmental responsibility), mark out your fold lines with a used–up ball point pen (unless you actually happen to have the tool that they seem specifically for doing this. In which case, hello, crafty person. What on earth are you doing here…?) and organise your pieces lest they become lost, thrown out or accidentally glued to each other and/or other random objects.
 
Craft calendar: Tolerance level required- low.

Step Ten: Salvage children’s glue stick. Trim top two centimeters to remove cover of glitter, fluff, bled marker or unrecognizable debris. As carefully as time allows, paste your previously cut–out bits together in the order nature intended.

Step Eleven: Pause repeatedly to fetch cups of milk, retrieve toy cars from under lounge, kiss ouches and break up sibling fisticuffs.

Step Twelve: Repeat Step Seven.

Step Thirteen: Glue last piece of carefully cut paper into place. Happy dance. Admire finished product repeatedly. Show off completed craft project to family, friends and IG followers. D
eclare you are never paying for birthday cards again.

My personal favorite, the matryoshka card: tolerance level, medium.

Step Fourteen: Bask in self satisfaction. Continue to bask for ten whole days. Forget about printables and return to usual un-crafty-mummy self….

But damn, it was impressive while it lasted.

***

Big props to Canon who gave us one of their PIXMA printers to play printables with. They also gave us a pack of cool stuff. If you have a Canon printer, it’s worth buying new ink right now even if you don’t need it straight away- just so you can claim your Ice Age Party Pack, which is packed with different types of printer papers, and an optional Ice Age DVD.

Just to be extra cool, I’ve got four passes to see Ice Age 4 at your local cinema to be won by one lucky reader. You also get some limited edition Ice Age 3D glasses, as modelled here by the kidlets. To win, tell me- are you crafty? Or, like me… not?

This is a quick one- entries close at midnight Wednesday 15th August.

The answer that amuses or confuses me the most wins. My decision is final and no discussion will be entered into.

This one’s open to Australian residents only.
 
The winner will be announced via RRSAHM’s FaceBook page and Twitter feed, and probably in the newsletter as well. Winners will be emailed and have 48 hours to respond to that email with their postal address, or the prize will be redrawn.

Comments must have a valid email address to be included in this competition- I cannot stress this point enough, people. The number of times I pick a winner and have no contact address for them… it makes me sad. If you’re on Blogger, make sure you’re logged in then click this link to set your email address to reply-able. Cheers.

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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

Jess@Diary of a SAHM August 19, 2012 at 7:51 pm

Oh being a craft blogger…. I have delusions that I am one, and even post the odd 'tutorial' but really I'm just a mum who wants to prove she has done something with her day.

Reply

nikki August 16, 2012 at 1:26 pm

i like to think i am crafty, but i am not blogging about it anymore…i should actually, from time to time..
thanks for the link to the Canon printables page!
we already went to see ICE AGE 4 – it's awesome,
love the whole series. =D

Reply

Mary August 14, 2012 at 9:38 pm

I cannot stand craft, at least not the type my kids like. I love it when the babysitter does art or craft with them, I have no patience for the mess. Though things are getting better now that little Miss is 5, though Master 3 is a terror with scissors! I suppose I should get motivated to do some more with them, more often as they do love it.

soy_mj@yahoo.com.au

Reply

Spagsy August 14, 2012 at 10:03 am

I have my moments, but usually its because I was inspired, not because I made something off my own bat. Unfortunately nothing I do is original.

Nice to see no one commented on the font size. :)

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Melissa August 13, 2012 at 11:53 pm

I like to think I'm crafty, and I like making cards….well, that's on the outside! Just between you and me, I'm not very imaginative and do much better following someone else…

Oh, and I much prefer shopping for crafty stuff!

mjg326362@gmail.com

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Anonymous August 13, 2012 at 11:16 pm

Just wanted to stop by and say that your Bumpy Thing is growing into a really lovely little lady!

– Crystal

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Natalie R August 13, 2012 at 8:50 pm

O and my email is nat@the-swamp.com. I thought that my google profile would pick that up! Sorry Lori!

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Natalie R August 13, 2012 at 6:47 pm

My 5th grade teacher, Sister Carmel, wrote on my report under arts & craft "Natalie does not exactly shine in hits area. She does,however, try her hardest.". All it's missing is a patronising sounding "God bless her". I'm still scarred by this…how can you tell? Year 5 fr me was about 1980!!!! 32 years and Sister Carmels words still hurt!,

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Natalie v August 13, 2012 at 5:36 pm

I am SO bad at craft. I tried scrap booking and failed miserably, why when other people do it it looks so pretty, but when I attempt something it looks shitty.

Natalievega@live.com.au

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Catherine August 13, 2012 at 3:26 pm

I guess I'm a craft blogger, but can I say it sounds about as sexy as a mummy blogger, and I'm probably that too! Thing is, I'm better with a spray can or paint brush than I am with scissors…

You can check out my latest work here
http://paisleyandpolkadotthreads.blogspot.com.au/

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Tara @ Our Whirlwind Adventures August 13, 2012 at 11:33 pm

I am not crafty.
However, it would seem my inability has not rubbed off on my spawn. In fact, Master S' kinder report stated he's passed 'cutting and pasting!'.
Cool right.!?
WRONG!
Because being pro cut and paster means I occasionally get a picture made of lawnmowers cut out of a Bunnings catalogue glued randomly to a piece of cardboard…
Or, it means cutting one of the most precious thing to me… His sister's beautiful golden curls.
Like he did yesterday!
And now she is a bit bald.

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Kel August 13, 2012 at 11:21 am

That looks fantastic!

My problem is that I think I'm crafty but I'm actually not at all. So I collect pretty bits of scrapbooking paper, buttons and ribbon which look really pretty sitting unused in my wardrobe.

Or I buy stuff for the kids to encourage their creativity then can't be arsed dealing with the glue and mess.

The idea of printing something out is brilliant – no mess or fuss!!

kellie61910@hotmail.com

x

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