The At-Work Crafter
Do you have an office job? Are you virtually chained to your desk? Are you a resident of cube-world? Does your spinny office chair have two little grooves in it from your butt cheeks? Do you need to find inspiration in your every-day life? Do you carry art kits in your briefcase? When you look at a file folder, do you see potential stencils & card-making materials? Do you want to take a paper punch to your labels to make stickers?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have the potential to be an at-work crafter. Let's be honest: this may be the only time you have to do this anyway. Work is busy, but you are entitled to the odd fifteen or twenty minute break here and there. Think of it as your "smoke break". And, during lulls, less obvious crafts can be prepared or carried out in full. All you need are the materials that surround you.
Office Supplies:
scissors, glue stick, those thin, freebie magnets sent by vendors, customers, etc., stapler, white-out (both wet and dry), paper of all colors, file folders of all colors, office supply packaging, ruler, post-its, tape, binder clips, etc., pencils, pens, teabags, hole punch, envelope opener (the long, thin kind).
Portable Craft Supplies:
self-stick embellishments, paper/chipboard punch-outs, hypotrhochoid kit, vibrant markers.
Here are a few ways to work your crafty magic at work:
1. Origami. Memorize a few forms, or bring an origami book to work. During your down-times, pull out some scrap paper and get to folding. You can make cute magnets, or little friends to populate your cubicle!
This is a basic rose, made with a Ready-Made mag subcription card and a yellow post it. I added a magnet to the inside and now I have a unique office deco.
This is a crane made from one of my Tazo Teabags. Such cute paper, and free! (I tried to make him into a magnet, too, with less luck. Finally I gave up and just taped him to the cabinet.
2. Cut-out magnets. I love my little coffee mug!
(i loved it more before I tried to cut out the inside of the mug handle...) Very simply, I cut the image from a Starbucks holiday catalogue and backed it with a manila file folder. Yay, gluestick! Finally I added a little flat freebie magnet and viola!
Same deal with the green snowflake. I had a chipboard cutout of a snowflake in my purse and glued it to my teabag. Then I added some slim magnets. CUTE! (above).
Also, I found this cool teapot on my teabag. I just cut it out and stuck on a magnet.
3. Pieced flower. So I got really crafty when I saw the empty paper package lying on the shelf. What mad thing could I do with this? After hearing all about making flowers on CraftyPod, I decided to morph the package into a six-petal bloom.
I made a petal stencil out of a file folder, traced, and cut out six petals. I arranged them to make a sweet flower, and figured out that I could adhere them by just using normal desk tape. Then I punched out various dots from the blue and purple post its and put them in the middle. And to add a little *something*, I cut thin strips of red paper attached them and curled them forward. Finally, I added a random pink gemstone found in my pocket (yes, really) into the center.
4. Fleurs de hypotrochoid.
Fun with spirographs! Very simple, just drew a pretty hypotrochoid on some copious green scrap office paper and colored it in with various awesome markers. I added some stiff paper to the back, and of course, a magnet.
Ahhh. It is so wonderful to view these little creations every day and to know that I can make things virtually anywhere!
