My Mind is a-Churnin

My plans for getting one thing done before I start on another has been working great. I just finished my uncle's painting and not only that... I actually shipped it too! WOOHOO. I am so glad that space in my mind is now free to think about other creative things.

Ever since I decided to start block printing my mind will not stop working. I find inspiration EVERYWHERE!!! Which is fabulous... even more fabulous if I could find the time to work on some of my ideas :-) HA! Hopefully sometime soon. I have been making some lino cuts but I have to fine tune the actual printing process to get exactly what I want. Once that happens I plan on making some stuff to put on Etsy!!! I can't wait!I had to venture out to Michael's this week to pick up some varnish to finish my Uncle's painting, and I discovered that they now have a "dollar" isle!!! You know, I think they see me coming... all these store see me coming in with this big FAT sign on my forehead that says, "I AM A SUCKER FOR DOLLAR DEALS." Luckily, I did really good and resisted until I found these:
These little frames are sooooo CUTE!!!! (and also very small, the largest at 4" wide). They are made for pictures, of course... but my mind started working and I can't stop thinking about what I can do with these little gems. The first thing I made was a Y for my monogrammed wall. Then, I was thinking of more things that I could embroider for the frames, and what about silhouettes??? I have been wanting to make some silhouettes of my kids.... I would probably want to paint the frames a more "little boy" friendly color, but hey. And why stop there??? You could use these for scrapbooking, jewelry and art projects. I am telling you, I have never been so inspired by little trinkets found in the dollar isle. I hope the inspiration just keeps rolling in. Oh wait.. maybe I can incorporate the frames somehow with my block printing!!! Needles to say, I bought 10 of the frames, and I am sure that the next time I am in the store I will probably buy more! I still have to iron and stretch the monogram embroidery, but this will give a good idea of what it will look like:
This past week I also made a pair of booties and a hat for a friend of mine who just had a little girl last month. Unfortunately, I was so excited to get them sent off, that I neglected to get pics of them. But somehow, I managed to get a picture of the congrats card that I made :-)
I also made a really cute card for my uncle to go with his painting and I got a picture of the painting but not the card :-) someday I will get it right!! So far that is it. I am really trying to concentrate on my block prints until I get my Etsy shop up and running. After that I would really like to start screen printing. I should set a goal for myself because I tend to be good with deadlines. Lets say... Etsy shop up by the end of April, that should give me plenty of time!!!!

The Scribble Project

I found this great blog and decided to participate and here it is:

Cute Story

I don't know why, but I never thought that kids really had imaginary friends. I don't remember ever having one and I didn't know anyone that had one, so I thought that it was a fictitious idea that people used to tell stories. Well...... I was wrong. :-) My 3 1/2 year old son has an imaginary friend that he likes to call, Monkey. Judging by the way my son carries him around, Monkey is quite small, maybe the size of a quarter? He is very friendly, likes to listen to stories and loves to play with Hot Wheels. I thought that this was the CUTEST thing ever and I can't seem to grasp that my 3 year old son already has the imagination to create his own little "person"! So I asked him some questions about Monkey's appearance and I decided to make him a little stuffed monkey so that his Monkey could be just a little more real. I put aside the projects that I was working on, grabbed some leftover fabric that I had laying around and in 1 day made his friend, Monkey, come to life. He's a little funny looking and is definitely homemade.... but my son really likes him. The stuffed Monkey's body is about 7" tall with the legs adding another 4" and the only complaint I received was that this monkey wasn't as small as his 'real' Monkey. :-)

Commitment

Main Entry: com·mit·ment Pronunciation: \kə-ˈmit-mənt\
Function: noun
Date: 1603
1 a: an act of committing to a charge or trust: as (1): a consignment to a penal or mental institution (2): an act of referring a matter to a legislative committee b: mittimus

2 a: an agreement or pledge to do something in the future ; especially : an engagement to assume a financial obligation at a future date b: something pledged c: the state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary)

This is what I lack.... the stick-to-it-iveness to get things done. I have good ideas, but for many reasons, most of them don't come to fruition. Whether I get bored, or burnt out, or I realize that the idea that I once thought was good... now doesn't sound so great; most of my projects just don't get done. In my personal life, I am the poster child for commitment.... but when it comes to my artwork/craftwork, I can't seem to stick with it. So, like every year for the last several years, I have made it my New Year's resolution to have more commitment with my work, to be more thoughtful and less compulsive when it comes to my ideas and to use my time more wisely. With a toddler and an infant, there doesn't seem to be as many hours in the day and the free time that I have is very valuable and I have to learn to use it wisely.

With that said, I have decided to finish up a few of my ongoing projects. The first one that I want to complete is my lip gloss shelf.

I was making this shelf in sections, which will be assembled together to make one large shelf. I have 3 sections completed and I have about 4-5 left to make.

Usually, I don't even attempt long term projects because I know that I will inevitably put it down and fail to ever pick it back up and get it done. With that in mind, I started the lip gloss shelf knowing that it would be ongoing and that it would most likely never be done since I will continue to add to the collection. But I figured I would work on it a little here and a little there and what ended up happening was that (surprise, surprise) I put it down and haven't worked on it in 3 years. So I am determined to get it done, of course we will soon find out HOW determined I am and if it ends up getting done. When I worked on it before I would purchase/cut the wood as I went, this time I am buying and cutting all the wood at one time so that I don't have an excuse to not work on it. I hope that will make a difference since now I don't have an excuse not to work on it.

The second project that I want to complete is a painting of my uncle that I have been working on in some form or another for the past 5 years. I have one SMALL section left to paint, there is another small section that I would like to change and I am debating on if I am going to finish it with a varnish or not. And even thought that might sound like a lot, it really isn't and then the painting is done.... I just need to do it.

Once those two things are done, I have decided to start making some linoleum block prints that I am going to try and sell on Etsy. I have some sketches started and I am coming up with more and more ideas for the prints. The first set will most likely have an "A is for..., B is for...." type theme. And since art imitates life, it shouldn't be surprising that mine is staring to look like a baby's nursery or a pre-school lesson :-)

Hopefully soon I will have a little more to post in regards to those prints. But I am at this moment determined to conquer the world... we will see if I feel the same tomorrow :-)

Completed Projects

Although I have been extremely busy with my 2 kids, I am still going to try and post every month, and so far so good. And I am surprised by how many things I have to post.

I have been looking for a winter hat for a long time now. I didn't want the standard ski cap and most of what I was finding just didn't look right on my head. So I happen to be at Dillards on New Years Day exchanging a Christmas present for my son when I stumble on the cutest hat ever! After I bought it I decided that I needed a scarf, mittens and purse to match. The first thing I attempted was a scarf. This pattern was in the January Martha Stewart Living issue. It was really an easy pattern that took me only a day to knit.

I liked it so well that I made one for my friend Emily for her birthday, which happens to be today (happy b-day Em). The funny thing was that she commented on my scarf when I showed up for her birthday dinner so I had an internal chuckle because that was what she got later for her present. And, of course, I had to also make her card... because you can't give a handmade gift with a store bought card. Everything used, with an exception of the stamp is Paper Source. So here is how that turned out: I also knitted a purse. I usually strive for perfection when I make anything and this purse I purposely made imperfect. I wanted it to look handmade and a little funky and I think I achieved that look. It is pretty much just a rectangle with straps and a flap to close. I used Amy Butler fabric for the lining (that I bought at Urban A+C). I initially reinforced the knitting with plastic canvas to give it some structure, but it was a little too much structure so I ended up using regular canvas on the inside to give it the amount of structure that I was looking for. I didn't line the handles or the strap just to see how much give they had, and I think I am going to go back and line each with the same lining fabric so that it doesn't stretch quite so much. But none-the-less, here is the result. Sooo I have decided that my motto is, "I can make that." Anytime I see something that is handmade or something that is within my repertoire of crafting I always say, "I can make that." Of course there are very few things that I actually follow through and make... but here is a good example of one that I did make. I started reading Jayme McGowan's blog after seeing her shop on Etsy. I love her cut paper designs and I thought that it would be a really nice thing to have of my toddler... like a 3-d picture of him when he was little. So I used a picture that I took of him when he was having fun at the park and I used some of Jayme's techniques to put it together in a semi-3-D design. I used mostly various types of card stock, ink pen for the details and the frame is one of Martha's specimen boxes that I bought at Michale's a year or two ago. The size of the final piece is 6"x6" and the only complaint that I have is about the details that I did on the face. Jayme has a very stylized face that she uses on hers and I wanted to make mine more realistic. But without shading and more fine line work, it looks a little funny. Oh and her craftsman ship is a LOT better than mine:

The original picture:

When I was making this project it reminded me a lot of something I made my senior year of high school a little over 10 years ago. It is the same concept of a semi-3-D picture made with cut paper suspended at different levels. The big differences between the 2 are size, the one from high school is more like 2.5' wide and I "hand made" (by pulping different papers and recycling them into paper) most of the paper used in the one from high school. My parents still have it hanging in their formal living room and because I used a lot of news print to pulp for the paper, it has yellowed quite a bit so I am fortunate to have a picture in its original condition (although not a great picture):
Since we are on the "I can make that" subject, here are some coasters that I made last year. They are corduroy that I stitched a wood-like pattern on and sandwiched around a piece of batting. I saw these on Etsy and I had to have them... but since "I can make that," I actually did. I wanted to insert a link here to the Etsy shop that I got the coaster idea from but it seems as though they aren't on there any more. But I will say that they are virtually identical.

This summer when I was in the Dr's office, I was thumbing through a magazine and I saw an ad for this from Redenvelope.com:

I immediately thought that it was a very clever twist on the whole "ceramic handprint" plaque that I think we all made in preschool for our parents. But since the kit is close to $40, not only did I say, "I can make that" but I said"I can make that a lot cheaper." So I went to the craft store, I gave a few dollars for the small canvas and at most $1.00 for each bottle of craft paint. For under $5.00 I made one of these of my 3year old's print and I also picked up an additional canvas in the same size for my newborn's print. The best part about the whole thing was that I let my 3 year old pick out the colors he wanted and it became as much of his project as it was mine. The picture turned out a little blurry, but I can assure you it looks great! I added his name at the bottom because he wanted it on there and I put the date on the back of the canvas.

So far that has been about it. I have a few other, "I can make that" ideas from Etsy that I still want to try here are some pics (click on the pics to link to the Etsy shops):

I like this idea for plaques of my kids names. I would probably copy some font from my computer and paint them on canvas.

Since I have had my 2nd son, I have been wanting a "mom" necklace, but I don't want the typical silver kids with the triangle/gemstone bodies. So I thought a pea pod with 2 peas would be perfect. I like the idea of green peas, but since my sons' names are Jasper and JETson, I thought about getting a jasper bead and a jet bead for the peas.

I like this too... a needle felted pea pod, which would make for a funky/bohemian necklace. I would have to put this on a piece of leather?

About a year ago I saw these felt purse/houses on an imported toy website. And since, "I can make that," I started to create my own version. I knitted each side seperately out of wool yarn and when I was done, I threw them in the washer to felt them. That is about as far as I got. I was thinking about finishing it for my niece's birthday in March. However, since she is only going to be a year old I think I might get her something a little more age appropriate. But I still want to finish making the house just for my benefit. I did try needle felting the details onto the felt and it just didn't look right. So I bought some felt from the store in assorted colors and I will sew those on by hand. I am going to line it with a cute floral material in coordinating colors and I am contemplating sewing little stuffed dolls to go on the inside. I am really excited to get this done, but I still have no time to really work on it. So it might go back into the drawer for who knows how long.


So that is what I have been up to and even though I say I have no time and that I will probably not be working on anything, inevitably I will find the time to make something. Martha had a pattern for seamless mittens. I might try to make a pair of those to match my scarf...... :-)

I've been busy

Geeze.... having 2 kids is hard!!! I knew that once the baby got here my time would be severely limited, but knowing something and experiencing something are 2 different things. Needless to say, I haven't been doing much crafting lately. I have been gaining ideas and putting them in my scrap book, but that has been about it.

I made a few things before he arrived that I will share after Christmas, I don't want to spoil the surprise for any of those people that may read my blog.

I did make the Thank You cards that I sent out for those who bought the baby something. They are really simple, but I loved how they turned out. I take every opportunity to send out pictures of my kids, so I took thins opportunity to send one out of my new son, Jetson. I used the 4 bar cards and envelopes from Paper Source in the color pool and I used cards in the color Chocolate for the background behind the picture. I used chocolate ink and some alphabet stamps for the text, a 1.5" square punch for the photo and a 2" scalloped square punch for the background.

It might be a while before I have a chance to post again, so until then....

completed projects.

WOW 2 posts in the same month... I am on a roll ;-) O.k. so in the last few weeks I have been a knitting FOOL!!!! I completed the background of the wall hanging for my friend's wedding. I am not sure that I like how the intarsia turned out. This was my first time attempting intarsia at this size and for the most part it looks o.k. but some of the stitches look a little wacky where I carried the opposite color in the back of the stitch. I think I just need to work on my tension in those areas. But either way, I don't know if I like the piece well enough to finish it and send it to her. For starters, it is HUGE... it is about 26" square and when I started this, I thought that it was going to be much smaller like 10" square. I don't know if I would even want to hang something that big in my house and I don't want to make her feel obligated to hang it just because someone she knows made it for her. At any rate, here is the picture of the piece so far.
If I were to finish it, I would make several eye cords to embellish the hills on the bottom, the tree and add some "leaves". I would also embroider their names and wedding date at the bottom (see picture). This project comes from the book, Closely Knit by Hannah Fettig. The project is really cute, I think in the end it was my yarn choice and lack of intarsia experience that has left me disappointed. (picture is of page 46-Tree of Love Wall Hanging).

And the entire time I was knitting this (which took me a long time) I was dieing to start knitting some baby stuff out of this book:
So the minute I was done I started knitting a hat, then another hat then some booties and then another hat. And now I am going to start on a baby sweater. It is probably my nesting instinct kicking in, but I only have a month (or less) before the baby gets here so I am trying to cram all of my knitting for him in before D Day!! :-) But I have to say that I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! There are so many great, fast and easy projects in there and now I have a few go to items when people I know have babies. I check out every book from the library to test it out and see if it is worth purchasing... and this book I am definitely going to buy!!! Here are the projects that I have done so far:

I also have all of the paper goods to make the baby announcements. Since I don't have any of the information or the picture of the baby to start making them, I have just set them aside for when he gets here. I used Paper Source products; for the announcement I used the #10 card in the color Bluebell for the background and the 4-bar flat card in the color Leaf (for the text). I also used the #10 OE envelope to match the background card in the color Bluebell. I plan on printing the pictures and cutting them to fit the area adjacent to the 4-bar card... so we will see how that goes considering I don't have a picture for a size reference.
BUT when I was picking out the cards at Paper Source, I noticed these really cute address labels that were in the shape of clouds:

I thought that these were PERFECT for the addresses on the announcements but they are pretty expensive... $4.95 for only 8 labels. Considering I have to send a little over 60 announcements... we are talking $40 for just the labels. So, since poverty breads ingenuity, I decided to make my own. I bought ink jet address labels that are 3 1/3" x 4" from an office supply store and a 2" round scalloped paper punch from a craft store and WAAH LAAH. Now, they aren't clouds... but I think the effect is still the same and I saved a TON of money. The best part is that I bought 150 labels (so I can do the mailing address and the return address) and I have the punch for other projects or other announcements. Now I am thinking about getting a "Christmas-y" punch and making labels for my Christmas cards! Maybe that would be a little much....

many projects

This past month (2 months) has been CRAZY!!! I have completed and started so many projects that I lost count a long time ago. One that I completed was my knitting needle organizer. I made it so that it would hang on the wall and possibly fold and roll up if I needed it to, but I think that it will always be too full to fold. Besides I don't know why I would need to have my entire collection of knitting and crochet needles anywhere but at home. I used a bunch of Amy Butler scraps that I had left over from other projects and although the organizer is HUGE, I really like how it turned out. The main thing I was trying to accomplish was to just be able to look over and see if I had a specific size needle and to just grab it, instead of having to fish through a bin of assorted needles for 10 minutes every time I started a new project.
I also completed the knitted bear for my cousin's baby, but I neglected to take a picture of it. So you will have to take my word for it.... it turned out cute.

I decided to make my Christmas cards this year. Usually I buy my Christmas cards the day after Christmas for the following Christmas season and store them for a year. And I usually buy the really simple ones that you insert the standard size picture into the pre-made frame. This year when I was making the invitations to my son's birthday I stared to wonder, "why don't I make my Christmas Cards when I make cards for every other occasion?" So I decided to make them and I knew that I was going to have to make them early because I am not going to have much time for anything soon. It took me a week to do, but they are all done.... all 110 of them. I can't take the credit for the design, I got the idea directly from the Spring 2008 issue of Paper Crafts Magazine.

The idea came from p.36 and the thing I liked the most about this design is that it had a picture that you could hang in the Christmas tree. I didn't intend on using the same paper, but I found it on sale at Archiver's and couldn't pass it up. They didn't quite have enough so I found another paper that I liked for the rest of the cards. Both came double sided in 12"x12" and the bottom of the pocket shows the reverse side of the paper. I couldn't find a shipping tag that was the size I wanted so I made the tag and the backgrounds for the text from Manila folders that I use for filing. I also played around with using each side of both papers as the background, so I have 4 different versions of the Christmas card. Inside:

The inspiration card had a ribbon embellishment, but it has been my experience that when you put any embellishments that adds any sort of dimension and then you try to send it through the mail, they end up torn apart when they are delivered on the other end... if they ever make it there. So I think I am going to put a piece of string through the whole for hanging, similar to what you would normally find on the commercial Manila shipping tags. That way they can be hung and the string is thin enough that it won't cause any problems in shipping.

I also added some embellishments on the envelopes that I bought at an office supply and for the most part these are done. I don't have the photo for the cards yet, so that will have to wait until last minute and even though I have put the return address on them already, I am waiting to address them just in case there are addresses that change.

This week I have been working on my son's Halloween costume. I have committed myself to making all of my kids' Halloween costumes, probably because that is what my mom did..... so I started early to make sure that it would get done. This year, my son is old enough to pick out his own costume... so I took him to the fabric store, we looked through pattern books and he picked a pirate. I decided to wait until the pattern was on sale to buy it and while I was waiting I saw a really cute pirate costume on Old Navy's website for an infant (which is no longer available so I can't include a link). I instantly like the look of the Old Navy costume much better than the one that was in the pattern books! So I decided to wing it and make one that looks like the Old Navy version for my toddler. I got a simple pattern for pants and a simple pattern for a buttoned down/collared shirt. I adjusted the pattern so that I could make it out of micro fleece, add french cuffs, a sailor collar, ruffles on each of the cuffs and add embellishments. I decided to buy the pirate hat, an eye patch and a hook. I am trying to find a stuffed parrot for his shoulder, but I am not having any luck with that, so he might have to go without. To be really honest I think my son is only interested in wearing the hat, but the costume turned out great and I can't wait for Halloween!What else??? I have a friend that just got married this past weekend in Georgia and since I am about ready to pop, I couldn't go. But I found this really cute "wall hanging" in the book, Closely Knit by Hannah Fettig, that I checked out from the library. I think it is just a cute something to commemorate their marriage and something to hang on the wall so that they don't ever forget their anniversary :-) So that is what I am currently working on. It is an intarsia pattern and although I have knitted intarsia before, this is the most in depth intarsia pattern that I have attempted. It is looking good and I am learning a lot!

I think that I have started to "nest". Up until recently I thought that was just a myth... but lately I am doing some crazy organizational things like uploading my entire CD collection onto iTunes.... which has become quite the task. But I have also started to do things like make my Christmas ornaments that I make every year for people. This year I have decided to make paper mache "snowmen" but it has turned out to be more work then I wanted... so I might have to rethink my options for that.

I think my next project(s) is going to come out of this book:
There are 2 hats and the sweater pictured on the front that I am dieing to make for the new baby. I think it would also be cute to make matching hats for my toddler too! I must like being busy...