Embroidery Hoop Art - French Knots - Fire

A few months ago, I got interested in trying out some embroidery hoop art, and in particular, I wanted to work on some french knots. In the same vein as miniatures like the miniature art canvases, I bought a bunch of 3" and 4" hoops. I started working on one of the 4" hoops and wanted to do a design similar to this:

Only, I didn't want to worry about beads this time, I figure I'll just practice the french knots. So I got some brown cotton and some batting, put them in a hoop, and get started! I got some shades of red, orange and yellow going..(please excuse poor photo quality on these, I wasn't even sure how it would look out so photos weren't a top priority for me along the way....):

Ok, not too bad... messed up a couple of the yellow ones (far left and about an inch to the right of that one...) but off to a good start, I think.

Now to fill in the red some... 

Nearly all of the red is filled in and working on the orange and a little on the yellow now...

And done! I decided (much through feedback from friends mind you) that it'd be better to not fill in the entire area of the piece, and to just sort of phase out towards the top left corner. Also, I was about done with this thing as it took me around an estimated 22 hours!!!!

I think it's safe to say that I'm about 95% efficient at doing french knots now lol!!  I don't ever want to do a french knot again, but at the same time, I kind of can't wait to try some again! Maybe even in a smaller hoop and/or bigger knots all around, and even maybe try to add some beads for shine and spacers.

Craft ya laters!

Perler Bead Tic-Tac-Toe Sets

I almost completely forgot to show you guys some of the perler bead sets I made a few months ago and just never got a chance to blog about!!

The idea of perler games came to mind, and when I saw this one online, I just couldn't resist making one myself!!

Mario mushroom tic-tac-toe set made from perler beads.

Then the idea came up so I went online to get ideas of what looked best for small versions of Mr and Mrs Pac-Man along with the ghosts and this is what came next:

Mr and Mrs Pac-Man tic-tac-toe set made from perler beads.

The bff, Airon, is really enjoying crossfit and has found it as a passion and so when we were talking about the previous sets, of course it was logical that we'd come up with something like this!

Crossfit tic-tac-toe set made from perler beads with kettle bells as pieces and barbells as the grid.

What do you guys think?! I'm thinking maybe putting magnets on the backs of the boards and then the pieces so they could be put up on a wall, or for anyone that has a travel tin, the pieces could be kept in there and then the metal of the tin used as the magnet backing for car travel games and such!

Craft ya laters!!

Craft Show Prep - Miniature Galaxy Art, Daisies, Starry Nights and Display Ideas

I hung out with a friend of mine this last Saturday and we ended up getting some crafting done! I believe I was actually the most product craft-wise in that 4 hours than I have been lately....I really need to work on that one...

Anywho! She's been getting pretty into papercrafting and gave me this piece she'd done before:

And she got this one done while I was there:

I can't wait to see what else she comes up with!

So, what did *I* get done in the 4 hours we were hanging out? Well, I think I mentioned to you guys before about using some mini canvases to re-create a couple of larger art pieces I did at Easely Amused here, but not that I'd been on a huge miniature art kick earlier this year that was the reason behind even having those miniature canvases! 

Those little art canvases are so awesome! You can get in sizes like 2"x2", 2"x3", 3"x3", 2"x4", etc... I'd gone to a local art store and gotten a ton of them because I was seeing online lots of cute things you can do with them! They sold them in packs of 6 and were about $5-$7 a pack. These little things are perfect for use as doll house art pieces, putting on a little trinket shelf, or for me, the appeal is putting on my wall at work since I have a desk job and only so much space to display art and things. 

I also love the miniature canvases because I don't have to be a great artist to get a small piece of art that actually looks pretty awesome! The Starry Night especially is one of those cases where if I tried doing the detail of the tree tops on a bigger canvas, say, 2'x3' or something I would have taken FOREVER and still not felt like I got it just right.

Now, I haven't sprayed these guys in an acrylic gloss sealant but I wanted to show you what I got done. I will show you guys what they look like after I spray them though as they should pop just a tad bit more on the colors, similar to what resin does on the clay pieces I've done.

The whole set.

Galaxies - Top left is 2"x3" and then 2"x2" canvases, bottom row are all 3"x3" pieces.

Daisies - This piece is 2"x4".

Starry Night - This little guy is only a 2"x2"!!

There were a couple of these that I painted what I thought would look good and then completely painted over and started again, but hey, I'm pretty happy with the results! Now I just need to do more!

I was also given an AWEsome suggestion by my bff, Airon, about what other pieces I could do. She suggested I do some sets as Xmas ornaments by doing some wintery/Xmasy themes and putting ribbon on the back to hang them by, and sell them for something like "Any 3 for $12". What do you guys think?

Also, I've been thinking about how to display them and have seen this idea which I think is cute:

Seen here from Two Hand Design blog.

Or maybe something like this:

Seen on Jamie's Home Blog here.

I want to mix the two ideas above and make something that's maybe about 1' wide by 2' high, with a hinge, so really there would be 2 pieces that are each 1'x2' and instead of using 1/2" quarter round for the shelves, I'd use 1/2"x1" quarter round so there's enough space for the canvases to be leaned back.

For the Christmas themed pieces, ornaments and such, I have bought a 2' tall (tabletop type) green fake Christmas tree so I can display the ornaments on that. I'd be able to use a clip and put a yellow paper star on the top, and that could be my price sign!

Craft ya laters!!