Piece 2 of a pair for Mom

A couple years ago, I did a cross stitch piece for my Mom, Spring Flowers in Blue, from one of my favorite stitch pattern websites for simple patterns: Daily Cross Stitch.

Anywho, I found a pair of flower patterns that I thought my mom would enjoy, with this one being the first:

And this one being the second:

I finished the first one, and gave it to her...

...but stole it back so I could make the second one on the same fabric (wanted to make sure they matched), and so I could try and frame them both and get them back to her as an actual completed pair.

I started the second one last Wednesday, and my progress so far...

It's hard to tell which picture shows the yellows better, with flash...

Or without flash...

I hope to finish this piece in the next couple days so by the weekend they're ready to get to her again (time to wash/iron and determine best frame options), and will show you how they look at that time!

UPDATE: Yellow flowers is done!!

And the pair together look great!!

Obviously I haven't washed/ironed this one, but wanted to share as soon as I got done!

I'll see how I get them framed, and perhaps share again! :)

Until then...

Craft ya laters!!

Monthly Flowers - March Done!

I unfortunately didn't take too many pictures of the work in progress, but wanted to share that I've (finally!!) finished March's flowers!!

Finished piece first because that's how I roll:

And of course, folks love to see the backs of projects:

Something I wanted to share however was the before and after of the back-stitching in the pattern around the flowers, and how much of a difference it can make!!

This is before any back-stitching:

And of course, the back-side at that time:

And this is the middle point, where I back-stitched one flower, and left the other bare so you can see the comparison:

So there you have it!

I've gotten 3 of 12 done, so I have 9 more to go, plus the base calendar grid, to be done with this major project!!

Craft ya laters!!

Monthly Flowers Calendar in Cross Stitch

I know I'm working on the Great Wave Off Kanagawa, but after looking at the same piece for 65 hours, I wanted to take a break and do something a bit smaller, more fun, just a little more of an instant reward type piece! 

I was looking around for something that fits, and I couldn't manage to find a single piece, until I came across a set of pieces! Whoo!!.... Oh, wait....

There's not just 1 or 2 pieces, oh no, that would be too simple for me, wouldn't it?

I found a set of 12 designs, flowers, that are supposed to represent each month of the year:

Aren't these pretty flower designs?! And so quick, easy, and simple. Each finished piece will be about 4.5" square, so when I frame them, I can use a 5" opening frame.

Alright, I can do this, sure!

And then what would I do with them.....? I mean, frame them, sure, but.....Hmm.......

I got it! I'll do a sort of calendar! I can get a bi-fold frame, with about a 5" opening in both frames, and you can change out the flower pieces to whatever month it is, and on the other side? I can create a design, using the same type of border as the flowers, and create a blank calendar piece!

Only, would I do one for each month? With all the days stitched out? Hmmm..... well, then it wouldn't be able to be used for more than just that one year! Plus, that's a whole lot more work, having to stitch another 12 pieces instead of just 1! Yuck!!

I'm not sure if it'll work, and/or how well, but what I will try to do is create a blank grid of 7 days (columns) and 5 weeks (rows) and  a box at the very top to allow for the month. Here's an idea of what I'm thinking:

I would allow for a spot above each column with a stitched letter to represent the days of the week, but as you can see above, for the blank calendar to be the same size as the other pieces and match, I don't have room. Oh well, it's not needed, right? 

Or maybe I can/should add a few more rows and columns to the whole pattern, and it'll be a little bigger than the flowers pieces, but allow room for the day first letters...

Either way, instead of stitching the day numbers in, since it'll be in a picture frame (hopefully if I can get a frame where the stitched piece on foamcore AND the glass front can fit), then all you'd have to do would be use a dry erase or permanent marker (permanent can be removed by drawing over it with dry erase ;) ) and write in the month and the number days!

Below, I've got a little smaller image of the bottom in which I want to have a little flower decor at the middle (up close doesn't look as good lol),  but I'm not sure about style and colors just yet. In the close-up below, I've roughed up an idea, but I'm not sure I like the colors/flower designs. Who knows, it might change once I get closer to working on that one, and we'll just see! :)

Anywho, for the flower pieces, I was going to start on November since it's finally that time of year, but I only have 2 of the colors I'd need to work on this piece! :( I do have most of the colors of January though, and enough cream colored fabric to do 2 months, so I've started on the January carnations, and will just have to plan a trip to Jo-Ann to get the rest of the colors I'm missing, not to mention the fabric to finish the rest.

The next part will be to find a bi-fold frame that'll work, and once I get maybe one month's flowers and perhaps the calendar done, I can fit them in and see how it looks! Whee!

This is going to be such an awesome project, isn't it?! Aren't you excited to see how it turns out? I sure am! :D

At least...I think it'll work...

It might work?...

Either way, I'll let you see my progress as it goes! 

And as always, for now.... Craft ya laters!

Making a TON of Origami Flowers

I'm not sure what happened to me in February, but I do know where I was in March!! I was making 7 DOZEN origami flowers for my boss who was decorating a friend's baby shower. The type of origami flower I was making was called a Kusudama Flower, instructions can be found here.

I had the whole month of March to make them, but I only really got into gear the last week and a half of the month, like a good craft procrastinator...lol But hey, in my defense, 84 flowers, each with 6 petals to add up to 504 petals total?! That's a LOT of work!!

I helped myself a little though and bought a fantastic cutter that fits a 12" sheet of paper and it made the paper cutting part especially easy!!

Since I had so many petals to fold, I just tossed them in a box as I finished folding them....

Once I was done folding them all, the box was FULL!! 

Then came the task of matching up all the petals...

This was also about the point that boyfriend had told me he didn't think I had enough petals. I looked at him and even though I assured him, "Are you kidding?! I counted like, 3 times!!!" He was saying this because he helped me glue the petals since I had class that night (which was an AWESOME help since we were on the last week deadline!!) but when he glued the individual petals closed, he used paper clips and said the count had to be off based on how many paper clips he used and how many the box said there were in the case....

Laying them out in the above way however assured me (and my sanity) that I had in fact made enough petals!! YAY!!

Next came the dowel rods I was going to be gluing the petals to. He also helped me paint these, what a trooper!! :D

Once I had all the petals grouped together, it was time to pair them up...

All the petals paired up!!

The flowers in action at the baby shower:

The soon-to-be mother was happy and the party went off fantastically, or so I hear. I was also told that there was a clamor to claim flowers by just about everyone at the party!! Talk about a job well done!!

It doesn't end there, either! I had 6 dowel rods left over and my boss told me the leftover paper was mine!! ALL MINE!!! WHEEEE!!!!! So what's a girl to do with this knowledge and these supplies???

Why, make MORE FLOWERS! Duh! Only, I made them smaller; 3" square petals to the original 4" square size.

That's it for this post, I hope you guys enjoyed!!

Craft ya laters!!

My 2nd Attempt at a Zippered, Gathered Clutch

I decided last night to make another attempt at a zippered, gathered clutch. This time however, I decided to follow the instructions just a liiiiittle bit better. If you recall, the last time I tried making one, it turned out pretty alright, it just didn't have a pocket inside, I didn't do the lining right so you could see the seams on the inside and the strap wasn't quite right (it started fraying pretty bad):

Original post here : My First Zippered Pouch/Wristlet

It was however my first attempt at a gather and only my 2nd ever attempt at a zipper!! I believe it may also have been the first time I put a strap on anything too?

Anywho, last night I decided I should try making something that ISN'T perlers and something that I could maybe actually use! I again pulled up the awesome tutorial over at Noodlehead  and decided to follow the instructions for doing not only the lining properly, but also the band across the front.

For the 1st attempt I did, I folded under the edge of the strip and stitched that down, and THEN attached it to the pouch front. If I'd only read the instructions better, I would have seen that you're supposed to fold the strip over length-wise, stitch, turn inside out and then with the seam in the middle of the underside, you stitch the sides down. This process is much cleaner and much nicer!!

I also pulled out my instruction manual for my sewing machine for the first time ever that I can recall in the 10 or so years I've had it!! I had to look up how to change out to my zipper foot (first time using it and I kinda like it!) and also double-check how to change the tension for the gathering stitch. I don't think I ever realized that it should always be at 4 when I do normal stitching on projects and the process goes much smoother and quicker! D'oh!!

I am so excited I was able to stick some card pockets in here though! I aaaalmost didn't do them but decided at the last minute, why not!!

The only thing with this guy is I got so excited to get the fabric stitched down as close as I could to the zipper, that I kinda went too close to the zipper in a couple parts. I fixed what I could with doing a stitch on top of the fabric at the zipper's edge while pulling it as tight as I could and it helps, but it's still a little hard to not get the fabric stuck in a couple small spots.

All in all, I am really happy with this finished product and I can't wait to make some more!! What do you guys think?!

Craft ya laters!!

Tissue Paper Flowers

I have a friend that has asked Airon and myself to help with figuring out wedding decorations for her barn-themed wedding later this year and one of the things we thought of trying out when we were brainstorming the other day were tissue paper flowers!

If you try to google "How to make tissue paper flowers" you will get literally dozens, if not hundreds, of results! The how-tos and variations are EVERYWHERE!!

I decided to try out a few myself however, just very basic ones, to see how long it takes and variations of size and number of sheets of tissue paper. 
First one I did was 2 full sheets of tissue paper, but folded length-wise and cut so that I had 4 pieces of paper to use. I then cut the tips to sharp points and this is what it looked like:

Not bad,... but what about 6 pieces (3 sheets)?? She only had 1 more sheet of yellow, but the bride had 2 sheets of a tannish/pinkish glittery color! Awesome! I really wanted to see what that would look like together! This time however I cut the edges at a curve:

Another view. This one's my personal fave for the day!

Next up was to try a smaller version!! I went ahead and used 6 pieces, but each piece was about half the length as the previous 2 were. I cut the edges as an inverted "V" (to the ^ on the first one) but soon I realized this thing had wayyy too much tissue paper going on! I was having difficulties getting the layers of paper separated to spread out and actually tore the paper in some places where they seemed particularly stuck together... Not the best idea and I think I gave up on the 2nd half's last 2 pieces to split:

Last, I tried a small one again, only I used just 4 pieces. This worked out muuuch better and I did the ^ point again:

Here I just went ahead and took a group picture of all 4 pieces. I definitely like the 2nd attempt the best but we'll see what the bride decides to do!! Either way, I kinda like making tissue paper flowers!!

Craft ya laters!!

Clear Resin Pendants with DIY Backing Decorations

Previously on Artfire: Published On: 07-26-2012

I found this blog that Carmi Cimicata does using Envirotex Resin to show the awesome diversity it has to it, and this is one of the many posts that caught my eye so much so that I just HAD to play with it in my own way!!

http://resincrafts.blogspot.com/2012/04/resin-shoes.html#



Aren't they just the neatest!!

She has the tutorial for making them on the link I provided as well as a bunch of other things so go check it out!

For mine however, since I didn't have a high heel mold, I used a little flower mold I have since they're thinner and would cure faster.



These are a few of the flowers that came out. Now, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them, so I went looking through my scrapbooking paper pads and found this one!



It's pretty neat, but doesn't seem too terribly exciting on its own. When I put it under one of the flowers however, it took on a pretty neat look!!




Isn't that neat?! I think I'm going to have to try fabric and maybe paints next and of course I'll share so keep an eye out!

I might even make bunches of the clear pieces and sell those as lots so you can put whatever backing on them you want and use as jewelry pieces or embellishments or whatever!! What do you guys think?