Contrariwise ramblings

Crafts, Tutorials...
Pop-up cards:

Rather than buying them at a store, my daughter always makes birthday cards for her friends. At 12, she realizes that a home-made card is so much more special than a store-bought one. Making the card a pop-up, is even more special! Here's an easy tutorial that covers the basics on simple pop-up cards.

Simple enough for a 1st grader to make! But you can easily get more elaborate.




If you do a quick google, you can find lots of sites that have pdf's that you can print out and create more elaborate pop-ups. A few that I found were this birthday card, and this carousel.







A variation on the pop-up card, is the pop-up photograph. An example, showing a desert scene is on the left. Before printers, these used to be a pain to make because you'd have to take your negatives to the local drugstore, make copies, etc. (Am I dating myself?)

I think anyone receiving a card like this would be really impressed. I know I would. (I'm not especially a fan of desert scenes, but I would love to see one of 6timesmomma's nature photos made into a card like this. An example of her work is on the right.Wouldn't that look great as a pop-up card!)




Precious Metal Clay Tips:

Cool Tools has everything you ever wanted to know about metal clay. There's an amazing How-To video library, a Project Central that includes downloadable instructions for the items you see on the right.

MangoTango is a jewelry artist who does amazing things with PMC. (See her earrings on the left. The PMC connector between the earwires and the dangle really make these earrings something extraordinary.) Everytime I see her stuff it makes me want to go out and buy some PMC and try it out myself. But I'm trying to restrain myself. Metalwork/wirework is expensive enough (silver is at $17+ an ounce) and addictive enough (just ask my husband). I'm afraid if I start with PMC, I won't be able to stop .




...and more!
(My favorite part of the Friday downloads!)

Outcomes from the strange Polish postcard prank.

This is absolutely Brilliant.

Brian Sack of Banterist offered his services on eBay a few months ago to 'Drive Someone Crazy' with a series of postcards from Poland. Sack promised that 'These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the addressee. Details you will provide me.' The postcards would be signed illegibly. The postcards were written and sent and received, and the joke finally revealed to the recipient. Sack shares the postcards now on his site:" Link

And here's my favorite from the series:



Coming just in time for Mother's Day!
Dr. Michael Salzhauer, a certified plastic surgeon, has written a children's book called "My Beautiful Mommy" that explains to kids about their mommy's new body parts. (Ha ha, adorable! )

In it, a perky mother explaining to her child why she's having cosmetic surgery (a nose job and tummy tuck). Naturally, it has a happy ending: mommy winds up "even more" beautiful than before, and her daughter is thrilled.

I hear that the book comes with a companion pamphlet, "Don't Hug Daddy Too Hard While His Penile Implant Is Healing".



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