Best Vacation Ever

I was reading a post over at Gingerbread Snowflakes – Pam’s reply to my Creative Blogger Award nomination of her blog – and admiring all the beautiful travel pictures she’s posted over there – when I remembered about this month’s blog carnival!!! I almost forgot! The EtsyBloggers topics – fun, sometimes thought-provoking, are what keep me part of the group, I can’t let this slide by!

This February 28 Blog Carnival is hosted by: HandmadeBySandi & the question is:

#1 What's the best vacation your ever had?

Easy answer! 2007 Ocean City, New Jersey

I wish I could find some better pictures of this trip – but they have been filed away somewhere and I’ve got to dig them out. Ignore the dorky hat and just enjoy the scenery.

I remember a few things about this trip – one, that Ocean City was really a nice, family-friendly place & very peaceful. Their Main Street was full of unique shops & a cafe there even had bubble tea! I love bubble tea – not something I thought I’d find in an out-of-the-way spot.

What sticks out in my mind is the little bed & breakfast we stayed at – a place called Somewhere in Time. It was so tiny. So cute. We stayed in “Arthur’s Bungalow”. The cutest part?? My husband booked it because he recognized the name from one of my favorite movies, Somewhere in Time. (I guess you’d call that romantic.)

One thing that stays with me is that it was so peaceful. We could walk everywhere, there was no rushing around, the kids behaved well and there was no stress. That’s what makes this the best vacation ever, in my mind. What’s yours?

Artful Thursday – Card Making

After:Two weeks ago I had cut papers to make cards and I looked at them today, frozen with indecision.  I didn’t know what to do first!  I figured I needed a process, or nothing was going to get done.  I’m underlining all the steps I did – for you readers and for myself – so I can use this blog post as a reference when I want to make cards again in the future.

The first step was to gather some materials - (took a while because this led to more necessary organizing and cleaning up.)   I had cards and envelopes and the decorative papers to start.  I have dozens upon dozens of rubber stamps but knew I didn’t want to do extensive coloring – so I just grabbed two sets of stamps and only two colors of ColorBox Chalk inks in addition to black ink.  Somehow I’ve misplaced my small detail scissor – took that as an omen to save time and not do much fussy-cutting.  Found a couple of brads, rub-ons, sticky gems,  ribbons and  flower embellishments.

Before:

I thought cutting the paper was the hard part, but gluing it down was just as intimidating with it’s permanence…. but I jumped ahead anyway and decided to round all the corners and ink all the edges with the chalk inks, adding some depth to the papers.  Then it was easy to glue them down onto some white cards.  (It’s like cutting into that 1/4 yard of special fabric – you don’t want to mess up because then it will be all gone!…. but what are you saving it for??)

I could have left the cards like this, not much different than many store-bought blank cards, but that’s not what Artful Thursday is about, is it?

I had two sets of stamps that I hadn’t taken out of the package yet – a cute Mr. Bear from A Muse, and Notice the Details from Close to My Heart.  So, I grabbed some coordinating solid papers and started stamping away, layering and drawing lines around the different images.  When these are ready to be mailed, I’ll add numbers or hearts to the calendar strips.  A couple of the cards called out to have pop-ups added, and I glued down some flowers, ribbon bows and used some of the rub-ons.  Before I knew it, the day had ended.  I still have a bunch of cards with papered fronts that haven’t been embellished – I’ll work on those again in the future.  Best of all, I have a dozen cards finished!

I used to do lots of paper crafting, (as you can see by my stash of supplies), but it’s been a while and working on these stretched me out of my comfort zone a little.  I didn’t even know I had a crafting comfort zone until I just wrote that. 

Do you ever branch out and work on crafts that you’re not a pro at? just for fun?

When Knitting Starts Looking Like Snack Food

(Original title of this post: “Wednesday”.  I hope you like the upgrade.)

When knitting starts looking like snack food – maybe it’s time to do it over.  After I took this picture I realized – whether it’s the yarn color or the shape – it looks like a goldfish cracker.

Started these slippers a few days ago and had to tweak the pattern so much because of the doubled yarn I was using.  These may look cute, but they don’t really fit – will be undone and started over.  Something went wrong with the tweaking part.  If you’ve knit or crocheted slippers in the past, I’d love to hear what patterns you like. 

I made some knit ones for my girls when they were little – but they were ugly – so I’m not crazy about making that pattern again – even though they stayed on.  Looking at three patterns on ravelry right now – would like to get this done by the weekend.  If the new ideas don’t go well, I’ll make the ugly ones and add a crocheted ruffled edge or something.

Sewed up another flower from the most recent book I’m loving working from:Having fun using up my odds and ends of stash yarn with these small projects.  Since I don’t have the labels for most of these yarns, I’m really flying by the seat of my pants when it comes to needle size and content.  I just finished a bracelet that came out HUGE – redoing it in a smaller size needle is coming out much nicer – will have pictures of that comparison in a few days.  The first one will just become a bookmark. 

What do you do with your yarn odds and ends?

February Featured Blogger – TiLT Creations

Theresa of TiLTCreations is the EtsyBlogger of the month. I don’t know how she does it but she has two blogs & two etsy shops!

You can read an interview with Theresa here: I’m impressed by her self-taught skills and her meticulous stitching. Love hearing about artists and how they come to their craft.

Blogs:

Her Etsy shops & my favorites:

Did you see that banner? There’s a sale going on through February – don’t miss it!

and don’t forget her other shop filled with pattern, fabric & supplies:

Artful Thursday - Creative Detour

Didn’t get to finish the cards I was planning last Thursday since I was reminded of this project.  I got this adorable kit back in the beginning of August as a birthday present, last blogged about it in the summer and never completed it.  Until now.   All it needed was some assembly – just what I had time for today.

The original pattern is called the Sushi Wallet – and you can get a hint of it in the zipper pull.  You can see how it’s “supposed to” look here.  I replaced the sushi motif pattern with crochet flowers and I’m pretty pleased with the results.  I think I used a pattern for the outer petals – but for the inner parts of the flowers, I just free-formed loops and rings – knowing that felting would hide any mistakes.  A few embroidery stitches in the centers and around the petals hold everything together.

How often do you fiddle with patterns?  As I’ve become a more confident crafter over the years, I’ve definitely done this more and more – I figure, if the worst that can happen is that I have to do it over – what have I got to lose?  Here’s some ways I thought of that you can modify a given idea (fabric, yarn, beaded or paper projects- these would work for most anything) to make it more unique and one-of-a-kind:

Make your own Detour:

• Change the colors (a pastel design made in primary colors goes from pretty and cute to bold and statement making – how about black & white?)
• Switch out materials (cottons to velvets; fine yarn to chunky, sparkling to organic, hard to soft) – iron-on fusible web or layer fabrics to add stability.
• Alter motifs (sushi to flowers;  owls to butterflies; frogs to turtles, etc.)
• Hand-embroidery to Free-motion stitching (country turns modern - see my tote bag)
• Embroidering?  Instead, try paint, stenciling, colored pencils or even computer generated iron-ons.
• Embellish – buttons, beads, charms, sequins, ribbon, paint, found objects, clay, fibers, words, paper, and so on…

What else can you think of?

 

Be sure to check out the other participants in Artful Thursdays – the blog posts have been filled with all sorts of great inspiration.

Japanese Crochet

I am not immune to the craze for Japanese craft books – I just haven’t blogged about them before.  Once I learned to crochet so I could edge my knit projects, it was only a matter of time before I realized I could make all the cute amigurumi I saw all over the internet.

This is the most precious book I’ve bought to date - “marche special” ISBN978-4-529-04549-0.  I got it while I was in New York a few months ago and picked it up at a Kinokuniya book store.  (There are many places you can pick these up online – etsy sellers and superbuzzy are just a couple.)

The instructions are by diagram – not too hard to follow & I’m sure I’ll be making most of the things in this book –if not all of them.  Right now, I’m trying to start a new one and having a little difficulty figuring out where it begins – I think I’ll just have to make it and see how it turns out – learning from the experience.  Little flowers and corsages like this are perfect for me since I tend to hoard odds and ends of yarns instead of full-skeins (perfect little stash-busting, on-the-go projects). 

Have you tried any craft patterns in a language that is not your native one?

Happy Valentine’s Day

 

Happy Vday.  & Thanks to Skip to my Lou for the Crochet Heart Garland pattern!

Artful Thursday – Only One Hour

I was so excited to get started this week for Artful Thursday!  But I only got to spend one hour of the day on my planned project.    My plan was to get hold of all the scrapbook paper I’ve impulsively purchased over the years and make cards.  Make an entire year’s worth of birthday, thank you, and holiday cards.  To use my rubber stamps, all the fancy scissors, glues and embellishments that have multiplied in my stash like bunnies in springtime.  (My friends and I have even talked about his – getting together over an evening to use up our papers and make cards – but we haven’t gotten around to it yet!  It’s been years that we’ve been talking about this!)

I didn’t get very far this week – so – this will be another one of those Artful Thursday projects that perhaps get extended over a few weeks.  I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the intention of the original idea – but in the spirit of it, I’m going to keep going.  Gathering my materials as the week goes on (found a lot as I was searching for a paper-cutter blade!), uncovering treasures stored around my workspace and planning next week’s card-making layouts.

Here I was “fussy cutting” some images from the back of some double-sided scrapbook paper.  These are going to be raised up over the base cards with some foam.  Maybe I’ll add glitter, too.

Over the next week I’m going to have to figure out how I want to make these cards – doing each one individually is going to drive me crazy and take waaay longer than I want it to – I’m going to have to think of some assembly-line process where I can make the base of these cards quickly and then embellish each one in their own unique way.  Any ideas?

Since I started buying rubber stamps over 10 years ago and am drawn to colorful papers – I haven’t purchased a card in ages (well, maybe I did – but it was a handmade one from an etsy seller!)  But a lot of the time, it’s a last-minute deal and I know I can make nicer things instead of just rushing to get one done.  Do you make your own cards?

Symbols

 

Locked up, or kept safe?

 

Opening doors or solving a puzzle?

What does a key mean to you?

Now in my shop.

Putting Things Together

How do your ideas come together?

I started this one wanting to make some lavender sachets. I had some linen & felted wool sweaters near my worktable (that I didn’t get around to using for ornaments in December, time to clean!) so I cut a few hearts out with the Sizzix machine that I hadn’t put away yet from packaging (definitely seeing a trend here in the ‘needing to clean up’ department). And that was it. I was stuck. So, I began taking out bits and pieces I had stashed – ribbons, crochet flowers, and some beads:

I started free-motion embroidery on a few, then embellished with hand-stitching. Filled with lavender and a hanger – and they were done.

I think these are cute for this time of year, and for all year round, because ‘Love isn’t just for Valentine’s Day’.

Belated update - thanks for the link Dot! Check out this awesome site: Dabbled:

Artful Thursday – Tote Bag Complete!

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

I’m so glad this is done!  Now I can carry around my new bag.

Why the quote?  Well, the back wasn’t as big as specified in the pattern, so it was easy to trim the front to fit.  But in making the lining, I forgot to adjust the width and it came out quite bunched up on the inside.  Most people would re-cut and sew the lining to make it smaller, but not me… I thought I could ease in the fullness around the top and get it to look fine.

Didn’t work out that way.  Instead, when it was complete, the top had some puckers and irregular gathers.  So, I took out the free-motion foot again and some variegated thread and thread-painted on squiggles and vines all across the top.  This flattened out the puckers, and hid any overlaps.  Now I love it!  So, in this case, my irreverence for not following directions paid off in a nice new design element.  I would recommend to others though - “measure twice, cut once.”

I may re-evaluate what I’m going to be doing for Artful Thursdays from here on.  It was good to have a project completed and my stash reduced a bit – I’m afraid that if I focus on my quilt for the duration, that I won’t want to continue – I mean, I’ve been putting it off for years… and also, even if I do work on it, I’m not reducing my stash of supplies by too much – so we’ll see.  Maybe next Thursday will be to finish some almost-completed projects that are just taking up space right now. 

I am going to remind myself that Thursdays will be for personal projects – not ones  that I plan on selling –this at least will keep the day fun for me, too!

I’m wondering if you readers do the majority of your crafting for yourself, or for others?

Finding Time to Knit or Crochet

Another pair of fingerless mittens completed, to be shipped out on Friday.

I don’t usually knit or crochet too much when I’m at home unless I’m finishing up a project . Typically, I have a project or two stashed in my purse and I’m ready to knit whenever I’m stuck waiting.  For my kids.  On a line.  In the car.  At a school.  In a meeting.  These were completed at my town’s deliberative session while folks argued over the school budget that will appear on ballots in March.  I’m glad they’re done. 

I’ve already started another project – a scarf – at a meeting today and worked on it while I was at the town’s budget meeting.  It’s 3/4 of the way done… I’d like to finish it tonight – but I left the meeting early.

One thing that I’ve learned: if I’m listening to something while knitting - a podcast, a lecture, or at a meeting – keeping my hands busy helps me to concentrate better on what I’m hearing.  I definitely absorb more of the information & focus a lot better.  I wish I had known this in high school and college…

Do you have projects that you work on while you’re “on-the-go” ?

Irreverent

I’m slowly listing some of my Key creations at my online shop.  Some will be sold locally, and others will be at my etsy shop - I’m still working on combining elements with the keys and chains.

Today, Irreverent is listed -

I love the blue heart with this and am going to work some birds, hearts, and beads to combine with the other keys I’ve made.  When I started this I didn’t know where it was heading, and I like the mystery behind the chained up key – what are you preventing from being unlocked?