New Fabric for January!

I went shopping the other night for new fabric, not like I need more mind you, but I wanted more! I figured with Spring coming up though, I wanted some bright, colorful prints. It seems however that my BFF Airon and I had turquoise and coral on the mind...

See?! With the one exception of course of this last pairing, the others are pretty much turquoise and coral. This was not planned, but hey, it will be interesting to see how they all mix with each other on whatever designs I use them for, right??

I can't wait to get working on these, and some of the older fabric, and show you guys what I come up with!! I have already found new patterns and ideas to try and am excited to see them and even learn a few new techniques in sewing along the way! :D

Craft ya laters!!

My first quilling pieces!!

I have been craft-lusting (crusting? no, that doesn't sound right....) after the idea of learning paper quilling for MONTHS! I follow another blogger who posted a while ago about a contest where you create a Pinterest board for a new craft or hobby you haven't tried yet, put supplies in there, and then enter the contest by commenting on her blog/Facebook pages to win $100 worth of supplies to try this new hobby. Thus, my Quilling board was created on Pinterest here.

I didn't win, so my board and interest took a back-burner until I could afford the supplies and time for this new hobby. With Christmas having just happened, I was (awesomely) given some money as gifts and so, was able to buy some supplies to get started!!

I bought this kit from Hobby Lobby:

Hobby Lobby - Basic Quilling Kit

It provided me with all the basic tools I needed to start; glue, circle sizing ruler, needle tool, slotted tool, tweezers, instruction booklet and a pack of paper strips. The container is one of those that has a lid on top and bottom so you have 2 sections to keep your supplies. After I decided I wanted more paper however, and realizing not much else would fit in the paper side but the 1 pack they gave me, I decided to buy this along with 4 more paper packs and a little box of pins with big heads so they're easier to work with than my sewing pins:

I already had a piece of foam-core from other projects so I was able to use that as a work surface, but I may actually get a couple pieces of cork board (those little 6" squares or something) to use so they're easier to take with me than an awkward piece of the foamcore, plus I can only put so many holes in the foamcore before it starts getting a little hard I would think to find spots without holes to use. 

I was able to get started once I finished my loom knitted baby blanket project (going to try getting better at finishing a project before starting a new one...) plus the fact that after working on the blanket off and on for a few weeks, I was anxious to get it finished for the sake of it!! :)

I sat down on Thursday night last week and made 3 pieces:

 

How can you tell someone Reddit's too much? I made sure to make a banana, "for scale"!!

I then took my kit box to work the next day as it's been slow at the office all week (holidays are usually pretty quiet at a desk job) and during my break time, I made:

Now after doing a few, and especially this last one having too much paper in the coiled areas, I realized I needed another trip to Hobby Lobby for more paper, a bigger case and varnish. I found a bottle for about $10.33 in the paint aisle, then grabbed a little empty 2oz paint bottle in the artist section to put some varnish in (the $10.33 bottle was 8oz and that was a little big to haul around with me on a regular basis). Varnish definitely does help strengthen the pieces, but I realized it's a little hard to paint it on pieces with big gaps, like the banana.

After getting more paper, I then made the following pieces Friday night even though we had friends over. I basically half-commandeered the kitchen table and was making pieces while a few friends sat around chit chatting and the rest were in the kitchen or living room.

Family portrait!!

The ducks themselves were fun to make, but the waves not so much. I was trying to use the same piece of paper to do all 3, but it just wasn't working out so I made 2, cut the paper, then glued the 3rd spiral on after getting it as good as I could.

Regarding varnishing difficult pieces, I realized that painting the tail feathers on the bird may not have been the best idea.... They look fine and even up above, but after painting the varnish on and how wet the pieces of paper got, it got a little wonky just because the pieces that are right next to each other stuck all the way and I could only straighten them out so much while they were wet. I think I might try to use a spray next time and see if I can find one that works well enough.

There is also a small matter of I didn't realize the tail feathers were sticking out past the lid of the box I have when I closed it the other night and so this happened:

I guess I'll be re-making the tail feathers after all!!

It's ok though, it's just a learning experience, right? Right! I'm not sure what I want to work on next, but I am thinking that printing out some templates would be a good idea.

I will try to make some time this week/weekend to make some more things and will definitely show you guys what I come up with!!

Craft ya laters!!

Goodbye 2013, Helloooo 2014!!

I started this blog in late 2012, and a majority of the first 2 or 3 months' posts I put on here were in fact older ones from another blog, about other projects I'd done that I just wanted to put on here to consolidate.

I also started off 2013 with a "New Year" post, as well as tried to start what I called "Monthly Craft Challenge!" I don't want to say I didn't get a lot done in 2013, because I did get things done, I just didn't really keep up with my blog and projects as well as I would have liked. I also made goals in 2013 that I only somewhat kept up with, even after proclaiming them to the world, here on the interwebs.

The Monthly Craft Challenge lasted all of 1 month I believe, and I just barely completed that one. We did have craft days each month...up until October when people got too busy, myself included, to try and plan a craft day where we could all get together to work on anything. It probably doesn't help that my boyfriend and I hosted Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and multiple other more casual get togethers throughout that time period at our house, so there's that cleaning and organizing of those events.

I was excited to get my real, first consignment deal at a local shop in town, and sold a few pieces of jewelry! But.... she decided to go full home decor in her lobby and asked me to take my items home since it was just jewelry and clutches. I was definitely saddened by this, but am glad none-the-less for the experience and at least the attempt to get my name out there in my town.

I've also had ups and downs at my day job, not sure which of more has happened, but either way it's been keeping me busy and not able to feel energized to do much in the ways of crafting.

Now, all this being said, I don't want to start off 2014 with a sort of resolutions list or anything, get myself too hyped up on goals that I'm not sure are really attainable for me, only to be disappointed later or feel bad about not doing those things. What I do want to say for myself, and for you dear readers if you've made it this far, is that I just want to hope for 2014 to be as full of new things as it can be, many new projects and creations, good times with friends and family and to make more time for just all around crafting and spending a little more time on the blog to share it all with you. I also want to practice taking better photographs so you can see my projects better, more clearly. I want to not go on hiatuses of weeks at a time. I want to find a way to keep better organized in my craft room; not completely organized as I know this is probably impossible, but at least organized enough in my room and thoughts and ideas that I'm actually excited to go home and get to working on something creative.

These are all simple ideas, but they are more difficult for me in practice. I just hope that I can try and if I do a little of what I'm hoping for, I know this new year will be happy and creative and I hope that you still stick around and share it with me!

Happy New Year!!

Craft ya laters!