Feature: The Crafty Scientist

We landed in Oslo, Norway. The main reason for coming to Norway was so I could visit a friend of mine. We don't have set plans for Oslo like the rest of the trip--we're secretly hoping Oystein will act as our tour guide :). We are only here for the weekend, but will have plenty of day light to fit a lot of sight seeing in. Right now Oslo is experiencing about 19 hours of daylight per day, which is how Norway got the name "Land of the Midnight Sun". Who knew?

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Today Mel from The Crafty Scientist is sharing some of her unique tutorials with you all. I enjoy reading Mel's blog because like me, she too is a graduate student--which means finals make us lose our mind--but blogging keeps us sane. It's a nice balance :) Even though Mel is a student with a tight budget, she still manages to come up with some of the coolest projects. I personally think being frugal forces us to be more creative and as you'll see below, Mel confirms that belief with all of her awesome tutorials. Enjoy! 

I'm so thrilled to be here and a HUGE thanks to Miss Caitlin for having me - especially because I was crazy-disorganized and she had to coach me through it!

I started my blog - The Crafty Scientist - in January of this year so I'm still pretty new to blogging. Basically, I used to write fun, fancy (frugal!) letters to my best friend while she was serving the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. I figured out ways to make fun stationery and started reading blogs to get mailing labels and cool printables and then when my friend returned stateside, I wanted to do more creative things... so my blog is where I share some things I do in between teaching my own giant lecture course (and I do my own grading - insert "oooo's" and "ahhhh's" here), finishing up my Ph.D., consulting jobs, spoiling my dog (and the boyfriend's dog) rotten, using my new DSLR camera and trying to learn a bit about photography, and a million other things...

the little furry loves of my life

So far, even though my blog is pretty new, I've explored blog design and made my own buttons, background, header, post divider... the whole nine yards! I've provided some links and told everyone what I learned in this post. I don't have a ton of money to spend on crafts and I don't have fancy tools so most of my projects are pretty easy to do and don't require expertise. I've also tried to incorporate some of my most favorite things into my projects. And some of my other loves include argyle, candy and sweets, monograms, jewelry, and paint chips - so some of my favorite projects obviously includes them!

First, there's this argyle wreath I made (and you can find the tutorial here). I really like my wreaths and so I decided to name them after constellations in keeping with the science theme. This was one of my favorites though - it was surprisingly easy once I figured out it was basically yarn, straight pins, and felt! Then came the lemonhead wreath, hung up with some jute!

My love of monograms and initials has led me to create two fun little monogram projects - and I definitely have more in the works - one with buttons and the other with felt and fabric I had on hand!

Recently, I shared how I made these works of art from paint chips and mod podge. And how I've made tons of them since then because I love to collect paint chips... and ideas for more paint chip projects (you can find my Pinterest pinboard here to see them all).

And of course, there's my love of jewelry... when one of my students told me she loved looking at the interesting necklaces I wore every day, I determined I had to keep it going and create even more to wear! Inspired by Beckie at Infarrantly Creative, I made these briolette necklaces where you can change out the ribbon to match your outfit! I love it!

I hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory lane. A big thanks to Caitlin for letting me share my projects with all of you and I hope you'll visit me at The Crafty Scientist and see more of what I'm creating!