Bzz About Glue

As part of being a BzzAgent, I occasionally participate in different campaigns and share my opinion about products that I receive.  Well, this month, I jumped on the chance to participate in the Elmer's® Crafters' Campaign and this is what I received in the mail:

I’m pretty particular about my glues – if I’m going to spend the time to create a project, I want everything to stick nicely, be permanent and not make a mess.  So far, I’ve used the tape runner (I love, love, tape runners because there’s no mess involved.)

Last week I had to add hang-tags to items, so I printed out my product information, cut them with a paper punch and needed to glue them together.  The tape runner worked perfectly.  I was able to get the tape down exactly where I wanted in the small spaces and the machine didn’t get all gunked up.  (yeah, that’s a technical term - “gunk” and if you’ve used tape runners, you know what I’m talking about.)  If I had to buy a tape runner again, I’d definitely buy Elmer's®.

I haven’t tried the X-ACTO® cutters yet or the other glues, but I expect that over the next month you’ll see more of my feedback on these products, too.  

Elmer's® also has a free Craft It! Club that you can join online where you can “get free samples, tips, project inspiration, special offers and more!”  They’re having a sweepstakes going on now, also & some cute craft projects – check it out – what do you think?

Before this, I hadn’t heard of Elmer's® Craftbond™ or X-ACTO® Designer Series, although I’ve used both brands in the past – so I’m pretty excited to find out more about these crafty products.  Have you ever heard of these or tried the products yet?

Blog Carnival – Wedding Picture, 1991

PatchFirstShop is going to host the new Blog Carnival next week for the EtsyBloggers and here’s the request this week:

1) Show us your wedding photo!! or anything from your wedding day.. or
2) Any items in your shop that you think they can be on somebody's wedding day..

Not so sure about the shop item just yet, so here’s my wedding picture from 1991 when I had just turned 22:

So young!  That 80’s big permed hair!  The sleeves on the dress!  Wow, there’s been a lot of changes since then (especially in the hair department for both of us.. er, Mr. Tamdoll doesn’t read my blog so I’m pretty sure he won’t ever notice that little comment.)

My kids like to watch the wedding dress tv shows (no idea what they’re called) and from what I can tell, the trend now is for sleeveless gowns – I can’t imagine ever trying to pull that off in October! 

Our 20th anniversary is coming up next year, I can’t believe it’s been that long.  Thanks for the memory jog EtsyBloggers & Patch!

And just because I had to check my shop one more time for something wedding-ish – how about a bluebird of happiness on a necklace?  key to your heart?  something blue?

I made these crocheted key necklaces and had so much fun collecting the trinkets and combining them into unique pieces, I’m glad I found a connection to use it here for this post.

At the time I got married I never thought of doing anything “diy” beyond my veil (which I ended up buying anyway.)  It seems trendy nowadays to have a more hands-on approach to decorations, invitations and bouquets, so I’m wondering –

Did you do a lot of “diy” for your wedding and was it a long time ago or more recent?

Artful Thursday – Adventures in Baking Bread

Update! 9/24/10:

The bread came out flat as a biscotti, but airy, light and really tasty!

Instead of cutting the bread in slices, all I had to do for lunches was cut a chunk of bread and slice it horizontal – perfect!

Thursday 9/23 post:  Today’s post is going to be updated tomorrow.  Because I’m baking bread.  This one is going to take a while since I finally (at 7:30 pm) read my recipe &  the next step will take another 2 hours to rise. Wasn’t planning on late-night baking, so I’m not real thrilled about this.

What’s so special about this bread recipe?  It’s an experiment.  Lots of my cooking is.  Thank goodness my family has endless patience and a good sense of humor.  Last week I tried to put frozen ravioli in a Panini press.  (I don’t suggest it.) 

Yesterday I made oatmeal for breakfast, added craisins, a dash of cinnamon… and there were leftovers.  So, I threw a pinch of yeast in the pot and then put it in the fridge (with a big: “Do Not Eat” note – just in case someone got hungry).  Took it out this afternoon and estimated that there was about a cup & a half of slightly bubbly oats in the pot and followed the recipe for King Arthur Flour’s Rustic Country Bread recipe.  Well, mostly.  It didn’t call for oats in the starter, or in the extra flour that’s added, but I threw some in anyway. 

Picture looks kind of yucky.  But there it is.  The beginnings of some [hopefully] yummy bread.  The recipe isn’t on their website, it was from a pamphlet I got at one of their classes once – they have a rustic bread recipe that’s similar there.

Right now they’re slightly sticky, in oblong baguette shapes, rising on my kitchen counter for the next few hours.  I’m hoping these come out good so I have something tasty to take to work tomorrow.  I’ll update with a picture here when I can.

Have a happy Thursday!  Stop by and visit all the other crafty folks participating in the Artful Thursday project, too:

Creativity & Opinions

Silly things going on today, and a few quizzes.  Just mentioned to a neighbor that sometimes folks think it’s trivial when I talk about crafting, but it really  makes me happy, and since I’ve been selling work locally and online, it’s self-supporting.  I’m not going to try and convince anyone, I just know it keeps me content.

From Psychologies magazine, a quiz What’s your creative style? via How About Orange 

my result:

Creativity is a release

For you, creativity is first and foremost a form of expression: it creates a special link between the internal and external worlds. It allows you to get a grasp of your powerful emotions, by moulding them into a physical form. In fact, the most important thing for you is to be able to release your emotions. You need to be able to touch them or look at them in concrete form, and to do that you have to find a way to make them come alive. This is how your desires and anxieties take shape. Keeping things bottled up creates a tension that can only be resolved once you have expressed how you feel. This means you have to be strong enough not to let yourself get swept away by chaotic impulses; if you turn your creative urges on everyday life — making a picnic, singing to the baby, choosing what to wear — you can express yourself while staying rooted in reality. Creativity is principally cathartic. It relieves a deep need, an almost primal, archaic impulse. For you, being creative is about having the power to give form to something you feel, to those deep personal issues that are often raw and disorganised. For these reasons you are usually attracted to art that demands physicality, that allows you to express what’s inside, and that unites spontaneity, strength, freedom, power and movement.

Less serious, but maybe more revealing: What Type of Vampire Knitter Are You?

“Crazy” I can relate to.  Cracking up at the thought of working through an entire lace shrug… or making and then wearing a corset.  

What’s your style?

Artful Thursdays – Crochet Hook Roll - Sewing Tutorial

Artful Thursdays are back!  I have a super-quick project to share, made this in under an hour this morning – even with interruptions – it’s a great useful project and would make a nice gift, too.

What to do with all these?

Make a case!  Somehow I’ve misplaced and re-purchased my size G hook three or four times.  It’s a good thing I have a daughter who crochets now and needs somewhere to store her own hooks (and all my doubles!). 

The first piece of fabric I grabbed out of my scrap basket happened to be the edge of a sheet – brilliant!  No hemming needed!  A pillowcase edge would work for this, too.  Of course, you can add an allowance for hem to all these directions, iron and stitch them in place, too.

The fabrics:I like the light-weight cotton fabrics best for this project without any interfacing or batting necessary.  Your completed project will roll up better this way.

 

Directions:

Cut 2 fabrics 10” x 7.5” – one of the outside fabric and one of a contrasting  lining fabric.

Cut two more pieces 10” wide, making sure the hemmed edges are on the 10” edge.  One will be 1.75” high and the other, 4.5” high.  (Remember, if you need to add your own hems to these pieces, cut them about 1.5” taller, fold, press, fold, press & hem.)

Working with all the fabrics right-side up, lay the 4.5” piece on your lining fabric along the bottom of one long edge.  Now you’ll stitch vertical lines over this piece.

Close-up of stitching vertical lines below.  I usually use my presser-foot as a guide, but most are about 1/2” or a little more apart.  It’s easy to just lift and turn the foot at the end of each row and make your way back up again in the other direction.  If you have thicker hooks or those with cushioned handles – be sure to make wider rows.

Clip loose threads and lay a hair elastic along one side, tacking it down with a few stitches.  Next, lay the 1.75” piece, right-side up, across the top edge of your lining fabric.  Hair elastics are great for these projects, very sturdy!  (In the picture my elastic appears in the middle of the fabric – I think it works better if it’s more toward the top third of the piece.)

 

Turn your outside fabric piece over and pin it to the layered pieces, all right-sides together.

Stitch it around all edges, leaving an opening along one side.  I use a 3/8” seam allowance.

Next, trim around the piece, making sure to clip diagonally along the corners.  I have pinking shears, but they’re not necessary.

Poke out corners with a round-tipped stick.

Once your piece is turned right-side out, give it a quick press with your iron and stitch closely around the edges, making sure to capture the opening and stitch it closed.

It’s done!

  Ready to be a home for crochet hooks.

Rolls up easily for storage.  

My case is almost all filled up.

Mother-daughter crochet hook cases, complete!

Have a happy Thursday!  Stop by and visit all the other crafty folks participating in the Artful Thursday project, too:

Blog Updates

Before:

If you’re reading this in an email, click over to see the tweaks and additions I’ve made to the blog.  Refreshed a few things and added a menu bar to the top of the window.  Thanks to the help of the Katydid & Kid blog, I changed where different links and buttons will appear and made a place where all my tutorials can be found together.

What do you think of the changes?

Planning for a December Craft Fair

Here’s one of the bags I’ve been working on for a craft fair in December: 

I’m pretty slow about cutting, sewing and assembling these.  Each one will be one-of-a-kind.  Right now I have a half-dozen bags in various stages of completion.  Some need assembly, handles, zippers or all of those. 

I have fun making the basic shape, but I’m not really motivated to finish them once I can visualize the completed piece.  I guess after that, the creativity part is over and that’s the part I really like.  It’s not really  a problem – whatever part I’m working on, I do enjoy the sewing … but the finishing is usually what I have to be business-like about forcing myself to work on. 

Anyone else have parts of their projects that they like to work on better than others?

Beauty Tips & a Fabric Jewelry Sale

Each week at the EcoEtsy blog there are great features and articles.  Natural beauty care isn’t hard or expensive… one of my tips is included in the article: “Letting Nature Work for You — Part II: Beauty Isn’t A Beast!"  Do you have any natural beauty tips to share?

Just as I put my crochet pins on sale, my Robin’s Egg Blue Brooch was put in this fantastic treasury, check it out:

Beautiful treasury by anjalicreations, thanks!

Did I mention, SALE?!  Yes I did!  I need some motivation to create new pins, so I’ve lowered the prices on the pieces in my etsy shop.  If they sell, that would definitely motivate me. 

A Handful of Tomatoes

Ceiling Constellations

Just a little digression from my usual crafty blog posts.  I’m still busy sewing and knitting and crocheting, but have been lax about taking pictures of it all.

Did you ever lay in bed and stare at the ceiling and start to see pictures in it?

I took a picture of mine this morning and tested out my drawing tablet with it.   This is what I saw on my computer screen:

Try it.  Take a picture.  Draw on it (use my ceiling picture if you like).  Share what you see!  (Put your link in comments.)
Ooh, now that I’ve created this blog post, I see more:

It’s a good thing it’s really dark when I fall asleep or I’d be busy all night looking for patterns, or getting scared from the ones I do find!

Artful Thursday – Maybe

It’s noon… and thinking that now that school has begun perhaps I can get one special project started and finished today.  Maybe.  For now, I’m relaxing in the quiet of my house just thinking about it.  Got a nice surprise, seeing that my Linen & Velvet Bird cuff was in this unique Treasury.  Click over and take a look:

I don’t know why my etsy screens are grey.  No idea and can’t seem to be able to fix it.

Tea Bag Wisdom