I got a couple of stamp carving books for Christmas (Block Print by Andrea Lauren and Making an Impression by Geninne Zlatkis) but hadn’t gotten around to trying it out or buying the relevant tools.  Conveniently, I came across a stamp carving class from Paper + Craft Pantry, which seemed like a good way to get over that activation energy barrier.  The class was taught by Laura Fisk of Fisk and Fern.  She had great energy and the class was really fun and definitely demystified the whole process.

My starter idea was a multi-layer modular plant set.  It’s 4 separate stamps: the plant, the pot, and 2 outlines, and I plan to make additional pots and plants that are interchangeable.  The hardest part is lining everything up, but I think being slightly out of register adds to the charm.

I’d played around with eraser stamp carving before, and the Speedball cutter tool is definitely way better than an X-acto knife.  I think I actually like erasers better than the Speedball rubber, though.  They seem more solid and easier to ink and print evenly.

Embroidered a tea towel for the coffee cart at lab.  I’d forgotten how meditative cross stitch is.

I’m living temporarily in Austin, and one of the nice things about being in a new city is having access to a whole new library system.  I have checked out a bunch of craft books that Seattle doesn’t have, including almost all the Meet Me at Mike’s books.  They are very pretty.  I particularly liked the Too Cute Tunic Dress from Sew La Tea Do:

Still haven’t managed to make any new projects.  I have a couple ideas in the works, though.

Wow, am I out of practice.  I bookmarked this *3 years* ago: LBG Studio potholder in a neo-retro kitchen-ware pattern from Melody Miller.  I tracked the fabric down on Etsy somewhere, also a long time ago, and even cut everything to size, where it then sat by the sewing machine until tonight.  I have never been very good at quilting and binding, and boy does it show that it’s been a while since I sewed anything:

I obviously should have used this tutorial for binding from Smashed Peas and Carrots.  Oh well, at least I’m back on the horse.  Maybe it’ll look better after a run through the wash?

I’ve had this as my phone lock screen lately and I’m trying to take it to heart.  Working on things I like and find important makes me happy.  Gardening makes me happy.  Cooking and exercising and not feeling like a slug make me happier than the alternative, even if they take a little activation energy.  Crafting used to make me happy too, but I stopped doing it for some reason.

image by Christopher Delorenzo

By the way, Craftlog has moved to a new setup with upgraded WordPress and such.  In the process Crafting Japanese and Marthadex both died, but their times have passed anyway.  Apparently I’m not the only purveyor of dead links: most of the links in my sidebar and my artists and shops page were dead.

New header font is Sketch Match.

I manage to make my holiday cards about every other year or so.  This year, I used the Gocco to print shiny gold bows.  The bow drawing is by Krusty.  I love how they turned out!

We’re home for Thanksgiving weekend, so it seemed like an ideal time to get some crafting in.  This is a present for my friend’s new daughter.  It came together pretty quickly (well, after I spent 3 hours cleaning my craft room to uncover a surface to work on!)

I’ve now made each of the animals in the Wee Wonderfuls booklet (see previous bear and kitty), yay!  It’s been a while, so it’s a little painfully handmade looking, but that’s the charm, right?

Mark said the other day that we need more coasters.  What a good crafting activity to get back into the swing of things.

I used my favorite vintage linen paired with my favorite Japanese thick felt.

I sewed the layers together just with a straight stitch, following the pattern on the fabric.

Which makes them reversible.

Oh hi.  I’m going to start craftlogging again.  Started to miss the place.

I’m working on a crochet project, and came across these two very pleasing crochet tricks to eliminate the ugly joins in crochet motifs.

1.  Get rid of the chains that make the first double crochet of a round!

2. Join the rounds perfectly instead of with a slip stitch!  (I use a crochet hook to pull through the relevant loops instead of bothering with a tapestry needle.)

Fun event of the morning: at a canning demo by the Food in Jars author. The Book Larder is a really cute little shop.