Watch Out Y'all, I'm about to Get Crafty

I am not a crafty person. I blame this womanly deficiency on a lot of things, but here are the top five:

1. lack of patience
2. inability to draw, cut, sew, or walk a straight line
3. abhorrence of puffy paint and raffia
4. a nasty childhood encounter involving yarn, popsicle sticks, and glitter glue
5. unwillingness to contribute to the ugly craft epidemic the world is suffering from
   

But every once in a while, I need something and I'll think, "I REALLY don't want to buy that!! Maybe I can just make it." You know I'm serious about not purchasing when I'm driven to say that I'd rather MAKE IT! And this is when my Anti-Craftiness and my Cheapness step into the ring to duke it out.

This time, I needed CD sleeves for the boatloads of mix CDs I'm sending out as my lame excuse for a Christmas present.

I had one of those jumbo packs of blank CDs but I did not have the accompanying jumbo pack of jewel cases or equivalent. And I don't mind telling you that I did NOT relish the thought of purchasing one. It's crap like this that it really drives me crazy to buy. I would much rather be spending that 4.99 on something I can really enjoy like a pair of earrings or a Wendy's Single combo meal.

What I needed was a cheap solution and whenever I need cheap solutions I cast my mind back to college when I inexplicably lived like a queen on $300 a month. In college, I had a phase where I refused to purchase envelopes. This was before email, people, when we actually needed envelopes from time to time. So instead of buying envelopes my Sophomore self made them from magazine pages and a roll of tape. It was fun to flip through mags and pick advertisements with interesting images that would add a little extra something to my letter. And I thought, "Voila! What if I make CD sleeves from magazine pages!"

So I did, and they turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Here are the results:


Aren't they cute? Let's take a closer look at a couple of them.

This Dewey Cox ad screams Album Cover to me.



Notice how the title of the story "When Stars Record" looks like the title. PERFECT! By the way, if you've got sharp eyes you might recognize Demetri Martin and David Cross.


This one is Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward ... so suitable for an M. Ward CD don't you think?


Here I added a cute "Hello My Name Is" sticker with the name of the album. But you can just write on it with a Sharpie if you prefer.


I thought this Hershey's one was crazy cute! So good if you're making a "Sorry I'm a loser, let's be friends again" CD.




And just LOOK at how CUTE the CD is peeking up from the top.

I could give you instructions, but basically it comes down to: tear, fold, tape. If you have opposable thumbs you should be able to manage it. I did.