ellebee

a new something that's new.

i've been trying not to allude too much to a change that i've had in the works for awhile for this blog for exactly that reason... i knew i'd be working on it for quite awhile and i didn't want to string you, my dear reader, along until i got my act together. after lots of effort and a crazy time transferring my archives by hand so as not to lose them entirely (note to self: don't start a typepad blog if you ever plan to possibly leave typepad, they make it insanely difficult to transfer your work)... i am happy and oh so excited to announce:

a new blog. all new!

leaf & letter handmade on blogspot!

in the hopes of giving myself more room to grow, i'm changing the name of ellebee studio to leaf & letter. ellebee studio has served me well, and i will look back on it with pride and joy as the early days of my blog/business, but i'm looking at this name change as a chance to hopefully revamp, re-do, recreate, and revive. it's exciting!

the very unfortunate thing is that i will lose all of the comments that you lovely readers have left me, and also any links to me that you've been so kind as to create will be broken (boo.)- so if you'd be willing, please update your links whenever you get a chance, and maybe say a little hello over at the new blog. i'd be oh so happy if you did! the ellebee studio blog here will be kept up for a reasonable amount of time in hopes that everyone will get this note and be able to travel along with me.

here are all the updated places you can find me, please link and share away!

leaf & letter handmade- the blog

leaf & letter on twitter- legal stalking!

an all new leaf & letter shop on etsy will be coming soon (yay!) but for now, the old shop will be up for awhile and will have a link to the new shop when it's ready! just imagine peeking through the newspaper taped to a new storefront window, waiting to see what's inside...

see you at leaf & letter!

teeny tiny little jars part 2.

is it bad that my favorite part of having a 7 month old 8 month old (geez, they grow fast!) is all the teeny tiny little jars all over the house? truly, i have a kitchen drawer full of them as a result of saving every single one she's ever eaten out of. seriously. i've done a fairly good job of washing them out, de-labeling them, and setting them aside for craft-preparedness as we get done emptying them of their pureed contents. i gathered some up the other day and set them on the porch to dry, delighting in the sweet possibility of little empty jars.

i found a pretty little tray in my craft room, set them up in it, and started filling them will all the little craft-room flotsam and jetsam that tends to get tucked in a drawer or a ziplock baggie somewhere and lost or forgotten. even after tucking every little something i could find into them, i still have a few empty ones- prime real estate for more crafty organizational fun! my favorite is that i finally have a place for the little parts and pieces of a couple different sizes of fabric-covered button sets.

i love it when some of my favorite crafting elements collide- simple, repurposed, organizational, and cute! some of the things that finally have a home are: pushpins, blank magnets, hairclips, brads, buttons, beads, mini keyrings, and small, rolled-up tape measures!

oh what a staple gun can do.

before: square bulletin board covered in cheap fabric for $5 on the clearance rack at hobby lobby

after: cute little clip board for hanging/displaying earrings, or any other small lightweight thing that could be attached to paper and clipped on!

how to: I cut neutral cream-colored fabric to size (with a little extra to wrap around the edges) & stapled it in place on the back edges. I used two pieces to make sure the old brown cloth didn’t show through, & realized right afterward that I probably should have ironed it first. The trick here is to stretch it nice & tight before stapling, & to use lots of staples to secure it. then I stretched lengths of green ribbon across, eyeballing a generally equal distance between them & stapled them to the backs too.  i used an iron photo easel to make it stand up on the table. done & done!

before: shabby chic style tabletop floral birdhouse fence thingy (maybe supposed to be used as a background for indoor plants?) for $4 at goodwill

after: tabletop hanging necklace display for craft shows!

how to: I started by removing the little birdhouses & attached grass by unscrewing the poles & gently pulling them out. Then I used a little green paint to dab over the little painted flowers to make it more leafy & less floral, & painted the pink ribbon detail into two green leaf details.  i also dabbed on some green paint over the gray checkerboard edges. i added a few  little nails into the top of the display (corresponding with each fence point) to hang the necklace hangtags. add the necklaces & presto! show-ready! I really love how these two cheapies transformed, & was really excited about how much they added to the look of my craft show booth! i’m getting there, slowly but surely.