TOW the tray became something else

A few years ago I was given a FRIENDS themed tray in a swap. I never used it often because I didn't want it to get scratched! But that meant that I had an awesome tray that was hidden away for most of the year.

The addition of a few hooks was all it needed and now I have a lovely jewelry holder which I get to look at every single day!!

Here is is hanging on my wall:

Close up of the hooks:

Original tray made by: smittenheart

Thank you!! I still love it so much!

We provide...

From the moment it first aired Leverage quickly became one of my favorite shows. It's one of the few shows I actually buy in itunes since i'm not sure that it will EVER air in Australia!

It doesn't seem to have picked up a huge following in the crafting community although there has been some mild chatter about a Craftster swap. That said, I still have no idea what to craft! I think it might be time for a marathon - I know that there's some amazing moments that need to be immortalized through I can't seem to think of any.

Any Leverage fans out there with suggestions?

Shawn Spencer VS Patrick Jane

I organised Round 2 of the Psych swap on Craftster but sadly didn't have the time to swap myself. So when a few people were flaked on I thought that it was the perfect opportunity to get some Psych crafting out of my system.

I made this x-stitch for a fan of both the Mentalist and Psych, so I knew that I had to use one of the Simon Baker references Shawn frequently makes. Unfortunately most of them don't make a whole lot of sense out of context. I ended up choosing this one even though it was a little long.

Unframed:

I designed the little pineapple myself since I couldn't find a pattern anywhere. My Mum told me that it did in fact look like a pineapple. Was she just humouring me?

Office Olympics

The humour of The Office is not for all people. I know that i've tried the original Ricky Gervais version many times but I just don't find it funny. For this reason I never cared to watch the US version because everybody knows that the UK always does it better. Plus Steve Carrell just bugged me.

I don't even remember what made me suddenly want to watch an episode. But I did, and that episode made me want to watch more. So once again I went and bought a few seasons on DVD. For most of the first season I would cover my eyes embarrassed for Micahel and by what Michael did to others. But he soon grew on me and now I love him. I still don't find the humour of Steve Carrell movies particularly amusing but i'm so glad I gave him a chance. Although to tell you the truth, it was Jim Halpert that won me over.

I made this altered book for my partner in an Office swap. It is based on the season 2 episode: Office Olympics and is a guide to hosting your very own workplace Olympics. I have to say the deleted scenes were EXTREMELY helpful when making this - they reference the rules of the games a lot more than the actual episode did. It was especially helpful for understanding Dunderball.

This was my very first altered board book and it took me so many hours to rip all the plastic and orignal papers from the book so I just had the cardboard left. It was only after I started on another book that I realised it wasn't supposed to be that hard. I had chosen a near impossible book to work with. I now know that it most cases the top layers should just rip off all in one go.

The original book was a Wind in the Willows picture book. I covered the front in a scenic scrapbooking paper and then overlapped sports themed stamps over the top. The Dunder Mifflin logo is from the NBC website.

The words on this page come from the opening ceremony speech that Jim gave. When you read it out yourself you need to add an echo after every few words :-)

Skeet Schruting. Pam named this game in the deleted scenes. Since the game is all about throwing office supplies into Dwight's mug, that's what I decorated the page with. I'm not at all happy with it although I do like the white note stapled to the bottom. I scrunched it up so that it looked like Pam had screwed it into a ball to throw it. If you look closely the words are those of the fax Jim wrote to Dwight when he was pretending to be future-Dwight (fyi, my favourite opener).

Hate Ball is actually just paper football renamed by Kevin because of how much Angela hates it. I made a paper football which is hanging off the side.

Pam Pong. The cute Pam and Jim pictures are from google images. When I find the original artist i'll credit them.

I found the instructions for Flonkkerton (the national sport of Icelandic paper companies) on this website. Hilarious. I took this photo before I had completed the page.

This lovely back page was given to me in a swap.

There are more pages in the book that I didn't take photos of, but I can't remember what the games were. It was unbelieveably hard to part with this book. And not just because it took every minute of an entire week to put together!

Tall Cards

Is there anyone in the world greater than Joss Whedon?

The correct answer to this is of course, no. There is nobody greater than Joss Whedon. I know it. Nathan Fillion knows it. And a whole bunch of others do as well.

Joss has brought so much good into this world. Buffy, Angel, Dr Horrible, a new script for Speed but best of all, dare I say it, is Firefly. There is NOTHING cooler than a space cowboy.

Ever since the first time I watched the Firefly episode, Shindig - I have wanted to play Tall Cards - the poker type game played by Jayne, Simon and Book. I never did anything about it until a Firefly Craftster swap. That's when I knew I had to make it for my partner.

Unfortunately the episode wasn't very helpful when trying to learn the rules of the game. Luckily for me I live in an age where if you have a problem you head straight to the Google. And that's what I did.

I found an amazing website that provided me with rules and even the cards to play Tall Cards! My only problem was that it didn't look anything like the cards they used in Shindig.

So with a little help from the Firefly Companion: Volume 1, I was a able to create this deck of cards. I'm not sure that my partner will ever play Tall Cards, but I hope she agrees that they

sure are pretty. Perhaps even in the infamous words of a Dr Simon Tam, pretty pretty??

The box: Decorated with different strips from the Firefly comics.

The back of the cards. Thanks to the book these look just like the ones featured in Shindig - the only difference is that mine are not metal (I also darkened the colours slightly because I thought it looked more authentic)!

These are made using altered Pokemon cards. Papers are glued to each side of the Pokemon card and then the cards were cut down. I do wish I had used a smaller card though - the callouses on my hands from all the cutting lasted for ages!

In progress shot.

72 cards in total. The 6 suits are: apple, peach, strawberry, banana, plum and orange. Each suit also has a tortoise, dragon, unicorn and phoenix card (instead of King, Queen etc). All the fruits and animals are painted with water colour crayons.

These are the true colours on the cards. The flash didn't work on the other photos which is why the colours look duller.

The 6 suits.

All the cards in the strawberry suit.

All tied up with string.

The Tall Cards - one for each suit.

The bets. In the episode when Book, Simon and Jayne are playing Tall Cards they don't bet with money, they instead make bets using chores around the ship which they write on scraps of paper. I tried to make my bets look exactly the same, I did add a few chores which would be relevant to my partner as she has school aged children. Garbage, dishes, septic vac, homework etc.

Here is everything all together - including a set of rules, which I burnt the edges of and stained with tea. Nobody ever takes good care of the rules :)

All tied up.

I had a lot of fun making this game and would love to make one for myself. Unfortunately I still remember just how long it took me to make this and I just don't have the time to dedicate to such a large project.

Please link me to your version of the game if you've made one. I'd love to see it!!

And I just have to add.... this game was a featured project on Craftsters 2010 Papercraft Board. I'm so proud! :) THANK YOU!

NCIS tarot cards

My partner in the NCIS swap on Craftster also happened to be in the tarot card swap which I had been unable to join. Combining the two seemed the perfect excuse to get both out of my system! :)

Finding the correct screen captures turned out to be the most difficult part of the whole process, but i'm fairly happy with the end result.

Let me know if you can think of better moments or captures for the many cards I did not make. I plan on making a set for myself one day and using them as wall art so that I don't have to alter both sides of the card!

This is the box the cards are kept in. Altered with paper, stamps, stickers and a drawing of Abbey done by Kate in one of the early episodes.

I managed to even find a quote about tarot straight from the show! I knew straight away it was a sign that I was meant to be making these cards. I can't remember the characters name that said the quote but she was a small town Sheriff with a crush on Gibbs.

And now the cards. For these I altered novelty giant playing cards - about 3"x5" in size. They were so easy to work with! Much better than the pokemon cards i've used before.

O - The Fool

Like these was anyone else's face that could belong on this card!

The back of each card is made with a corresponding paper and has 'NCIS tarot' stamped onto it.

I - The Magician

I was extremely unsure with this card. Ducky is not really the saving lives type of doctor that might be equated with a magician. But what he does and who he is are both pretty magical. Plus, I really love the picture. Sadly, the camera flash made some of the detail disappear.

III - The Empress

I was completely against making Jenny the Empress, but my sister insisted that it was supposed to be her card. Especially since I was making Gibbs the Emperor. I'm not sure where my head was when I chose the photo - it's awful!

IV - The Emperor

The Boss Man. I like that this card has a somewhat patriotic feel to it. I can't recall if Vance was a character when I made these - perhaps this should have been his card. Although I do not like him.

VI - The Lovers

I had not planned on making this card because although relationships have been had or hinted at, there are not any couples within the main cast. Plus, i'm a die-hard Kate/Tony fan so that probably would have upset some people! I did not want to use future couples (Toby/Ziva anyone?) or former relationships. None of them seemed to fit... and then I remembered! I just love Dinozzo!

VII - The Chariot

The NCIS van! Hands down, the most difficult capture to locate.

IX - The Hermit

Gibbs in his basement. This was probably on par with the van. Getting Gibbs and his boat is the same frame doesn't happen too often!

XV - The Devil

I do love me some Fornell, but he IS F.B.I!

XI - Strength

McGee carrying Kate - with his eyes closed so he doesn't get accused of looking up her skirt! I just loved their relationship! I think the episode was See No Evil (2x01) with Abigail Breslin.

XIII - Death

I was not going to make this card either because I did not think it would be particularly tasteful to have one of Ducky's cadavers on a card. Then I recalled a picture a certain Italian Special Agent had once drawn....

Queens of Wands

Wand/gun.... same thing, right?

and saving the best till last...

The Queen of Cups

Abs and her Cafpow!

All together. Pretty!

Suggestions of other cards I could make next time? Are there any moments or characters which perfectly suit any of the cards below?

The Hangman, Wheel of Fortune, The Sun, Judgement, The World, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, Temperance (Bones tarot cards??) and then of course the four tarot suits - swords, wands, coins and cups.

NCIS crime scene scarf

Last year I watched 3 episode of NCIS in a row having never watched any before. I mean, it was just another crime show, right? WRONG.

After those 3 episodes I became a crazy obsessed fan and went and bought the first 2 seasons on DVD. And now I craft for the show. My dream is to crochet a pillow with Gibbs Rules on it - just like Kate references in the pilot.

I wanted to make a crime scene tape scarf and there are plenty available online, even free patterns - sadly, all way beyond my abilities. So instead I turned to crochet. It took a really long time to make this as I cannot follow a crochet pattern either. Mid way through I gave up on the pattern and went back to basics.

For the lettering I cut out felt letters and stitched them on. I think that it turned out looking fairly cute. Or at the very least you can tell that it supposed to be crime scene tape. Right?

TOW the game

FRIENDS was my first real tv obsession. I own all the seasons on VHS (showing my age...) and dvd. Multiple copies actually, as a real FRIENDS fan will be able to tell you that unless you own the special edition dvds there are a few minutes cut out of each episode. Shame on you NBC.

Being the huge fan I am, I of course, own all the board games and dvd game. One of the best episodes ever is TOW The Embryos AKA the one with Ross's game. In a classic episode of guys vs girls, Chandler and Joey compete against Monica and Rachel for their apartment.

Unfortunately the store bought version of Ross's game is not specific to the television show. Instead it is a general game you play with your own friends in a guys vs girls situation. Of course I had to remedy this situation and create a replica of Ross' game. Made on a sheet of cardboard just like Ross's, I did try my best to imitate "his" writing.

Categories include: Fears and Pet Peeves, Ancient History, Literature and It's All Relative.

The first few questions are exactly the same ones that are used in the episode. The other cards hold questions that I made up myself.

Lightning Round!! Kept in a sealed envelope, lightning round is only brought around in the event of a tie.

One more thing...

WHAT IS CHANDLER BING'S JOB??