Archive for December, 2007
* porcupine crewel
Posted on December 30th, 2007 by maitreya. Filed under Cross Stitch/Embroidery.
I saw this porcupine crewel kit that blempgorf got for 30 cents thrifting and fell in love. I commented asking if she’d like to swap, and amazingly enough, she was willing to part with it! I sent her a vintage bag kit I’d gotten at a church sale, among other things. I’ve been sick the last few days and it’s been the perfect sick-on-the-couch craft. The pattern has a little flower top right (you can see it in the picture blempgorf posted), but I have left it off for now. I might go back and add it.
Kit is 2017 “Prickly Porcupine” from Paragon Needlecraft, designed by Barbara Sparre.
* fun with resin
Posted on December 26th, 2007 by maitreya. Filed under Experiments, Jewelry, Resin.
My sister got me casting resin for Christmas, and boy did we have a fun time with it. Look at all this stuff we made. I’ve been wanting to try resin for a while (ye olde craftlog archives say since 2004!), and it is as fun and cool as I’d hoped. Comment with any favorite/inspirational resin links because I’m definitely hooked.
We tried all sorts of stuff for molds, and shockingly everything worked except for a tiny petri dish (I have a feeling a larger petri dish might still work because it’s more flexible), a very rigid contact lens case, and a thin plastic candy mold (which sort of worked except that I had to destroy the mold to get the thing out, see below). No mold release for anything, though 15 minutes in the freezer helped considerably for some of them.
My favorite one, a piece of Japanese fabric in a ~1.5×2 inch mold. Kind of Amy Ruppel-ish, no?
My favorite one that Ariel made, a zombie in a ~.5x.75 inch dollar store pill box mold with fabric background and a vintage model railroad figurine.
The pill boxes were really good molds. This one has a piece of washi paper embedded.
And these ones are buttons. Ariel is going to make a bracelet from them.
Another good mold idea I got from Crafters Coast to Coast is a plastic paint palette. The embeds are a carefully cut out fabric flower and a 1 inch punch from my 2007 Snow and Graham calendar. I am in love with the fabric flower.
plastic flowers
A candy mold with a plastic flower embed. The resin kind of melted or reacted or who knows what with the mold and I had to cut it off. Because of this, the surface is not as smooth as the others, but I think it’ll look great after some sanding.
My mom also got me a box of chalk pastels to use for coloring. They seemed to work, though I have to pay better attention to adding only really fine dust. There are a few clumps or bigger pieces in them. The cubes have one layer clear, one layer colored, but it’s hard to see. I think if I pour them deeper next time they’ll look super cool, kind of like plastic versions of P1 Unless Otherwise Noted’s awesome glass jewelry. The upper left one was molded in a contact lens case and you can see the starburst pattern in it. It looks like a piece of candy.
Now to drill holes in them all. :)
* felt star tree topper
Posted on December 25th, 2007 by maitreya. Filed under Holiday, Sewing/Fabric Crafts.
Last year’s tree topper got crushed in storage, so I whipped up this new one with my sister. It’s 2 sheets of felt that I sewed together in a freehand star shape. The concentric sewing makes it less floppy. For the very inside star, I put another sheet of felt on the front and sewed it from the back so I could follow the last round of stitching. Then I used embroidery scissors to cut close to the stitching. The tiny star is only sewed down on 3 points to make a pocket that goes over the top of the tree. I really like how it turned out, and this one definitely won’t get crushed!
* pompom garland
Posted on December 24th, 2007 by maitreya. Filed under Holiday.
The Apple store at the mall has a garland in the window made of big white pompoms of all different sizes. I’ve been going to Michael’s every time I pass one anyway, looking for the elusive Martha Stewart Winter Village kit (still no luck. They’re even sold out at her website, though I did find the little house favor boxes), and picked up 3 bags of 100 pompoms each in different sizes. I just strung them on button thread spaced about an inch apart. Great craft for watching a few more episodes of Twin Peaks.
I like how it looks around the tree, with the small pompoms at the top and the big ones at the bottom.
* treeling
Posted on December 9th, 2007 by maitreya. Filed under Toys (cat and kid).
Becket got me the Softies book for my birthday, so it seemed only fair to make her daughter a toy from it for Christmas. I couldn’t decide between the funny whale and the treeling, so I had Mark break the tie. The pattern is by the great littleoddforest, and you can also get it for free from the Craft podcast. I think it turned out great, and it was fun to make. Pulling all the leaf topthreads through to the back and tying them in knots took a while, but I was watching my early present from Mark, the Twin Peaks Gold Box, anyway and needed something to justify watching one… more… episode.
* spirograph swag
Posted on December 1st, 2007 by maitreya. Filed under Paper Crafts.
My sister got me a spirograph for my birthday. :) Should I be worried that I got the same present for my 30th birthday as I did for my 10th? Anyway, I filled a few pages of cardstock with spiros, cut them out, and strung them on cord for a sort of wintry decoration. It was kind of better in my head, but they’re still ok.
books I’m in
-
This week, I’m in Jaipur, India, starting my second teaching stint with Ritchie Ace Camps. Last year’s Jaipur experience was amazing (lots of pics here), and I can’t wait to meet everyone who is coming on the 2015 version (although I’m going to miss last year’s group like mad!). I hadn’t used block printing techniques a lot …
Categories
- Art
- Blythe
- Chickens
- Craft Room
- Crafty Links
- Crafty Review
- Crochet
- Cross Stitch/Embroidery
- Experiments
- Felting
- Fun with Lab Supplies
- Gocco/L Letterpress
- Holiday
- Home and Garden
- Inspiration
- Jewelry
- Knitting
- Martha
- Paper Crafts
- Projects with Instructions
- Random
- Resin
- Sewing/Fabric Crafts
- Toys (cat and kid)
- Uncategorized
- Wants
Blogroll
- a Stamp a Day
- Becca Stadtlander
- Cool Season Gardening
- ericamulherin.com
- Feeling Stitchy
- Frocks and Frou Frou
- Garden Mentors
- garden therapy
- Gardening in Seattle
- Hip Chick Digs
- Karen Barbe
- King County Seed Lending Library
- L I S A ‘ S – M U S I N G S
- Little Big Girl Studio
- Little Green Doll
- Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens
- Noodlehead
- Northwest Edible Life
- not martha
- Osborne Seed Company Variety Trials
- perdi o fio à meada
- Purl Soho
- Rake and Make
- Raspberry
- Salty Oat
- Seattle Urban Farm Company
- Sky Nursery
- Wee Wonderfuls
- Windy and Friends
- Wise Craft
Archives
- June 2019
- December 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- December 2017
- September 2017
- February 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- January 2016
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2013
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003