Paper flower mosaic.

Huzzah! I finished something recently!* Thank you to Crystal Seibert of It's Doable for the idea, which of course I found on Pinterest.

This is an AWESOME way to burn through paper scraps, and I'll be sharing more paper mosaic projects later. Unfortunately, while I love the way this turned out ... I don't like it over the mantel, which is where I was planning on putting it. I have no idea what to do with this now. I think the problem is that my house is full of muted colors and the red is just way too vibrant without anything to balance it. So do I make another one with different colors?

Something has got to replace our mantel "art;" a marker sketch I did of the view from our back steps looking out onto the light rail and mills. It is geographically inaccurate. And very, very plain. Perhaps the red was a bit of an over-compensation.


UPDATE (1/3/13):
We've moved! Now we don't have a space over the fireplace for artwork as it's a really, really, really old-style mantel with a mirror - which works great for quaint xmas decor.

So the flower mosaic ended up in my new closet-sized craft room. I hung it with an empty gold frame I had lying around and I dare say I like it. Brightens up what it otherwise a pretty crowded space.

 

Also, I can now sew while being watched over by a *totally authentically signed* photo of Barbara Walters.

Very inspiring.

*True, but this isn't it. Wrote this months ago. Soon we shall see the real project-of-late.

New favorite craft: gift card holder.

It's the gift that says, "I didn't know what to get you!" Unless the gift card is what they put on their wishlist, and if that's the case then you're welcome, mom.

I finally found a use for the piece of red and silver double-sided paper I've been saving for who knows how long. Ever since that time I went to the scrapbooking store because I had a coupon and ended up buying nine other things. That one time.

I cut the festive cardstock so that it would fit in a necklace box and I could wrap it like a real present. Then I punched holes in it for the ribbon and button closure. The inside ends of the ribbon and button thread are hidden by the white insert, the edges of which I brushed with a powder-blue ink using a sponge. Then I stamped a line of snowmen in the same blue ink and drew over parts of each one with a clear sparkle pen.

The card itself is held in by pocket made of the same double-sided paper. You can follow this template and just use your own dimensions and omit the top flap. Rounded top corners make it look nicely finished. The only potential trouble was in getting the margins around the white insert to remain even as the envelope is folded shut. Cutting the white paper *just* shorter than the red/silver helped.

File it under "Projects that are pretty quick, pretty cheap, and pretty cute."

Does it count as crafting if you do it all online?

Well, it's creative, right?

So we have this sweet alphabet book made by Auntie Becky and I recently decided to make one of a different variety, because I am addicted to Shutterfly.

I've been having fun coming up with the objects I'll take pictures of August with to represent each letter, and the other day I did our first test shots. This is probably my favorite: F is for Frame...

He was not as pleased. Another preview: Y is for Yarn...

Of course.

The room is totally ready to not be used for like two months.

Tomorrow is 38 weeks! Translation: every moment becomes a waiting game. When will the real contractions start? Will I ever stop having night sweats? Am I ready for child-birth (um, no. Duh.)? Am I ready for parenthood? From a planning standpoint, perhaps. BEHOLD! The place where the child will eventually sleep but who knows when:



I admit that I might get real sick of green and yellow, but overall the room is a pleasant place to be. I can only hope the nugget feels the same. Because I'm not redecorating anything based on the whims of an infant. Unless he's going to help me make new pillows, curtains, chair cushions, and wall art. I hope he's a grateful baby. And a quiet one. And a clean one. Oh, God.

Apparently I never posted about the recovered chair cushions, or the last two pillows, or the wall hoops. So here are a few detail pics of that madness:

The chair *before* in all its pink, straw-textured glory...


The chair *after*...


Victory is mine! Seriously never thought I could pull off something like this with limited sewing knowledge and a tendency to rush through things. I did have some good advice though. The pillows...


Love making pillows. So easy and fast; and I'm going to keep making more and more because I've always wanted to have a "pillow room." Hubs knows this. It will probably be located under the basement stairs someday and I will lounge in there with snacks and a book and make people answer riddles if they must knock on my door. And finally, the embroidery hoops made with fabric scraps from the pillows and the crib bumper...


So I used two of the four crib bumper pieces between the hoops and the pillows. Now that I guess I've officially started "sewing," I'm wondering what to do with the rest. But really it'll probably be another five years before I sew anything again.

Baby room preview number, like, 65.

Much of my crafting these days revolves around the baby room, naturally, so there will probably be 98 previews in total. Then get ready for years and years of crafts made for the child. If you're lucky - real lucky - I won't spend those years also posting every damn scribble the kid makes. We'll see.

Venturing once again into the world of sewing, I made this pillow out of remnants and one of the appliques that was on the crib bumper. I'm sure there are people who use crib bumpers because Carters keeps making bedding sets with them - but no one I know used one, what with everybody clucking about suffocation hazards. I'm getting a breathable one. Still, I paid for that padded bumper and I'm going to use it somehow!


Yellow gingham. It's what my blankie was made of, so I kind of love it. It will most definitely be used on another pillow.


The back is simply two fabrics that overlap for easy removal and cleaning. White with black polka dots and a scrap piece of green from the curtains. Very pleased, but here's a sewing machine question: why will my machine not thread a bobbin? I put the bobbin on there, loosen the wheely-thing, flip the bobbin winding lever over, and it still just tries to sew when I press the peddle. Bobbin does not turn. Boo.


I've also finished this ink drawing which will be part of a little wall collage. Hawaiian for "family," ohana* will be surrounded by photos of the baby's four first cousins: Laura, Sam, Max, and Finn.

COMING SOON! Lots of drawings.


*I do think Wikipedia's info is accurate, but it's funny that the first source listed is Lilo and Stitch.

"'Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten." -Lilo

Craft! Craft while you still can!

This is what the voices tell me. There are just 12 weeks left.

Which reminds me - I went shopping for clothes and found A LOT of deals so I ended up in the dressing room for like an hour and somewhere in there I noticed that I'm really pregnant. Our little $15 dorm room mirror at home has not done me justice, but the store had huge mirrors unblemished with areas of distortion and cripes am I big. Not as big as I will be, but I still had to take a moment. Will I ever look like this again? Will I remember this when I'm old and have no idea what day it is? Do I fully appreciate the quiet calm of having an inside-baby?

Um, anyways. As expected, most of what I've been doing is in the drawing book because it indulges the crafty side and the lazy side. But I need to make curtains, I've started a stuffed giraffe, I'd like to start knitting a skirt for Laura's birthday, and I have made several thank-you notes to be used later on. They kind of follow the theme and colors of the baby room.


I love paper crafts. I love the smell of paper. So cards are some of my favorite things to make - especially because they are uber expensive to buy and I've already amassed a stockpile of supplies.

On the other hand, designing these things can take a lot of tries and it can still get expensive depending on embellishments. This is why I don't plan on making scrapbooks for this child or possibly for anything other than to add to books I've already started. Instead I plan on ordering custom digital books, which might not take any less time but will be less expensive. And they'll have that delicious paper and ink smell.

Valentine's blue.

Who says Valentines have to be pink and red and purple and sparkly and ruffly? Other than every six to ten-year-old girl I've ever known?


A four-year-old boy. It kills me that he no longer accepts my kisses and I suppose someday he'll stop giving me his already sparse hugs, but I'm embracing the way Sammy does love. And that is through race cars.

Let's return to some normalcy, shall we?

Another HandmadeMN Market is coming up on November 20th! I am super behind on making new stuff, but I have done some holiday gift tags, and here is a preview:

Kids craft the darnedest things

Well, even though there has been little to no crafting going on in my house of late (*sob*), the kids have been creating all kinds of treasures and graciously gifting them to me.

For instance, this bookmark Laura made by using some fancy scissors on a bit of scrapbooking paper. It is sparkly and I love it.


And this painting Sammy did depicting a race track with race cars all around. One of the red ones (or possibly all of the red ones) is Lightening McQueen.


If you're familiar with Gary Chapman's Five Love Languages - which I put some amount of stock in - you'll understand when I say that I'm "gifts." Perhaps perceived as the shallow, materialistic love language, "gifts" people like myself are not really looking for things so much as the thought and effort behind those things. So when a six-year-old gives you something she would not use or necessarily care about but knows you'll use because she's drawing on something she knows about you (in this case, that I like to read), it's kind of perfect.

Which isn't to say that I can't appreciate gifts of sweet electronics and the like.

Sometimes it's fun to look through old stuff.

This is why my mom never throws anything away and why I also have this inclination. Unfortunately, hubs recently informed me that he would like there to be nothing in the entire basement of our house; he's on a bit of a purging rampage. He believes in simplicity and responsible consumerism. I believe in not having to buy things later when you can save them now. It's a different kind of responsible consumerism. Compromise; THAT'S the name of game, ABBA.

So while rummaging through an old file cabinet looking for 1)my passport and 2)my social security card - in a bit of a panic because I really thought I had lost both* - I found this:


It's a project from my graphic design class in journalism school. The grey rectangle is there because I don't want any of you crazy people showing up at my parents' house thinking you'll be getting cold-cuts and sheet cake.

I'm a little ashamed of the blatant judgment my message via that poor chicken's board places on folks who put on costumes to make a living. TC Bear is frickin awesome. Also, I have a lot of respect/sadness for people standing on the sidewalks of Edina dressed like Lady Liberty. It may be a crappy job, but at least you've got one. And who knows, maybe it's a great job. Maybe I should look into it...

Actually, speaking of jobs, I did recently score part-time employment at Patina (which is why I was searching for certain documents providing proof of my legal status). But I'll continue crafting and, hopefully, making really bad posters and such on the side. Here's the one I did for hubs's graduation:**



* Not the case; employment, here I come!
** May contain historically inaccurate detail.

Two gifts and a sneak peak

It seems I'm always excited about some pending baby or another - sometimes more than one at a time, like right now I know of like five - and this week I got to give them things.

<--- booties and blankie --->

There were many other gifts given this week that I don't have pics for yet. But I do have a picture of my entry in February's HandmadeMN Challenge:


HandmadeMN is a blog by and about Minnesotans who have shops on Etsy. Every month, we can submit something to the challenge that fits whatever theme we've been given and you can vote for your fave! February's theme is fiery.

Go vote! Also, if you like Etsy and you like buying local goods, all the members' shops are linked by category for your shopping convenience (I'm under "mixed media artists").


PS - Remember when I mentioned the type of vacations we take? Well, tomorrow I'm going to Atlanta with Becky to visit some friends for a week. Super excited to see the aquarium, zoo, and Coke museum! And I'll be with people who can talk about knitting with me without getting bored.

WIPs: knitted bag and pen palm

This awesome bag is called Miragamo and it's a Ravelry pattern by Georgie Kajer. I'm uber excited about it, except that I'll have to KNIT 11 STITCHES TOGETHER. Are you kidding me?? No? Several times? Sheesh.


This is the yarn I'll be using. The pattern calls for 100% hemp, which apparently you can't find in stores. I suppose I could have ordered it online, but I found this green wool while I was on vacation for half-price. Honestly, what I'm more worried about than knitting 11 sts together is sewing up a lining. Sewing + me = strange or unintended results.


And then there's this guy; another pen drawing. Knock on wood...between this and knitting, I'm sure to be blind or riddled with arthritis by the time I'm 40.

Back to my framing roots

My mom brought me this cute card from her recent trip to brasil thinking I could frame it for the bathroom where I have a yellow duckie bath mat and coordinating toiletry accessories. It matches perfectly.


The quote is one of my favorites from The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Here in Portuguese, it translates the same as it does from French, in which the book was originally written: "the essential is invisible to the eyes."


So I used my trusty Logan mat cutter to turn the card into an 8 x 10 with a yellow silk mat on top and a basic white mat below. Seriously good investment on the mat cutter. It doesn't do everything, but what it does do comes out just as nice as a mat cut on the $2000 cutter at the shop - I don't know that the 220 model is sold anymore, but I think it was about $100.


So here's my lovely mat. If I'd been thinking while I was at the store buying the frame I would've gotten different colors, but I wasn't. So this was the best combo I could get out of what I had. The yellow silk is almost exactly the same color as the walls. I may change it someday but I needed to hang something in there.


It almost makes me miss my old job...well, not really. I do miss the framing and my coworkers. Some of the customers. The odd job like this one is satisfying and just the other day I went to a knitting night with a couple of ladies from the store. It was at Crafty Planet, which is my new favorite LYS. Just a really good selection of yarn. Useable, you know; good blends, good wools and cottons, tons of sock yarn, all price ranges. Plus they have fun fabrics and other wares for the creataholic.

In other news, I'm on vacation next week! No posts! Blurg! See you on June 20 for North Shore recap.

The best kind of gift

My niece, Laura (who is four), loves to do "projects."


So one day she decided to make a card for me and it's just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. On the front there is a "T" for Theresa, along with some other things Laura likes. I'm not sure what the "A" is for.


Inside, she spelled my name, only it was started a little too far to the right, so when she ran out of room she just went back to the beginning to finish. I used to do the same thing, only I started out spelling my name "oieusa" or something crazy like that. People must have told me the right letters, but, you know, sometimes when you're four you just do what you want.

Again, not sure what the "T" and the "A" are about (especially since I have neither - ha!), other than that they are in my name. The figures below that, however, I can clearly interpret as X's (albeit sideways) and O's - hugs and kisses. The "L" is for Laura, of course, and then she signs it with I love you. Too sweet.

Lucas's card and bear

A little blurry, but this card was made via Becky's cricut machine. Awwwe-sommme! It cut out the card with the carriage front, and it also cut out a coordinating envelope. It recently went to six-week-old Lucas, the baby of a friend from high school. His bear turned out very cute with a little cabled scarf, even if his ears are a little snaggley.

And I'll be making more animals whenever I have some time. There has been ZERO time to knit for the last week because my sister and her family are staying with us due to a fire in their house. No one was in it, but the smoke damaged everything. Everything. Photos and scrapbooks are among the most lamented losses, of course. It's fun having them here, but life is much busier. So a bear and an elephant are in the queue to replace Laura and Sam's originals.

One of these days I'll also finish the shrug I've been making for myself. In the mean time, I'll post more about the garden because the kids love helping outside. They do not love helping me knit.

Pen Mosaics

These are a little weird. A dog and a peacock started me on this series, and here it continues. The style really came from a former co-worker, Mychal, whose form was much more admirable than mine. They combine a lot of influences; henna design, Scandinavian textile, pop culture relics, and the spirituality in nature.

Crayon Woman

I'm not much of a sketch artist, but this one works for me.

Pastels

Speaking of brief forays, these came from the one in oil pastels; Space Baobab and Lion.

Oils

These came out of my brief foray into oil painting. The red-winged black bird is an homage to my great-grandma, who would point them out on walks by the Minnehaha Creek. The dog is a portrait of my Penny, whose face I could never hope to get right.