Enviee.com

craft-to-do

2008-09-16T22:44:36Z

I'm always brimming with ideas but I never write them down, then I'm in trouble.

a few things:
peanut butter rice crispy treats sound lovely
so do carmel nut rice crispy treats. yum!

i think I'm doing lady bugs/ sunflowers for Laurel's 2nd birthday. I wish I had time to make her a party dress. We'll see if I can perk up and have more time yet.

For those of you that still read, if you didnt know:
1. I had another baby!
2. I moved a lot of my craft blogging to here.

I had a ton more ideas. I will try to remember to jot ideas down here regularly, it may be very boring. I'm sorry.

oh, I should get a clip board for coloring with Laurel. It'd be nice to have an uber portable hard surface with a way to attach paper for coloring.. especially with being stuck to chairs and couches while nursing the new one.

Contact Paper

2008-07-02T21:28:58Z

I love clear contact paper. I mostly use it for packaging these days, I print up a mailing label on the computer, affix doublestick tape to one side (or glue) and cover it with clear contact that exceeds it by about 1/4th inch all the way around. This creates a waterproof type attractive label that I use when mailing.

I've also used it to protect some of Laurel's board book covers. (I keep meaning to do them ALL but am just too lazy)

today though, I came up with a fun use for it. I havent tried it yet, but you can be certain I'll try it sometime!
contact paper stencils for fabric!
now, its probably been done before, because I know my grandmother uses contact for stencils for say... wood or glass or any flat hard surface that she could remove it from without damaging the surface..
So, as long as you could get it to stick sorta decently to fabric I dont see why it'd be any different than freezerpaper stencils, except with the clear contact it might be actually easier to position it. Of course, like freezerpaper stencils it wouldnt be easily reusable (you MIGHT be able to get 2-3 stencils out of it depending on how fuzzy your fabric is.. maybe?)

anyway, totally untested idea. I'll get some fabric medium and try it out soon. (as if I'll have time with all this quilting, sewing, cleaning, and shopping I need to do before the new baby comes)

marblesfound @ 2008-05-30T11:22:00

2008-05-30T18:22:48Z

My daughter loves to color.

Recently I have been letting her sit in her highchair and use MARKERS as opposed to crayons which are far more innocent by comparison.

Out came a lot of papers. lots of scribbles.. sure, age appropriate. ... but we found that we didnt feel emotionally attached to them. We didnt feel the need to preserve them for prosperity. .. but I DID feel a bit guilty throwing them away.

The solution?

douse them in water and allow them to dry.

I think the resulting papers are really lovely.

We WERE in full scale production of these lovely papers, it was a lovely way to keep her busy while I got other things done.

however, I got a little marker shy after this:

Anyway, I'm sure we'll get back into it soon. I've only made one little thing out of the papers so far, and by far its not fabulous, but I think it illustrates that there's a lot of interesting potential for this media.

I love the idea that my daughter and I can already collaborate, even though she's less than 2 years old.

marblesfound @ 2008-05-02T09:21:00

2008-05-02T16:21:54Z

Earlier this year we found out our newly wed friends

were expecting a baby!!!
Oh, so excited I was!

After seeing some pictures of their nursery, I tucked the image away in my brain, and a week or so later I hit the fabric store.
I came out with these:

no pattern in mind, only that I'd want to do something simple, as I was ALSO pregnant and .. well, have much less patience and motivation and energy to work on projects than I did before I was with child.. (and taking care of a toddler)

I absolutely LOVED the colors though, and even the clerk ringing me up at the fabric store commented on what GORGEOUS colors I'd picked out. I felt super, SUPER excited..
until I realized some things..
1. I had NO idea what sort of block to do, and was crippled by this...
2. There's other quilters in this family... usually I give quilts and .. its sorta special cause there arent really other quilts.. (ie. I think the dad-to-be's mother is a quilter, and I know one of the mom-to-be's friends has made quilt in the past...)

I had a really really hard time starting on this quilt. In fact it was 6 days before the shower that I finally decided to just cut the fabric up into squares, lay them out randomly and piece together a simple, random quilt.

Random, is not my thing.

In fact, RANDOM is harder than.. pieced orderly blocks for me.

The only way for me to cope was a combination of grabbing two random blocks and sewing them together, and finally laying the whole thing out and making and elaborate chart so I could remember what went where.

almost done with the top!

all done and out of the wash!

I'm really addicted to fleece backing and tie-ing baby quilts. I've heard from some people that they dont last as long as machine quilted quilts, but I gotta tell you, I've washed the fleece backed tied quilt that I made for my daughter SOO MANY times, and its held up better than our bed quilt which is machine quilted and has been only washed a FRACTION of times comparatively.

Overall I was pretty pleased. My biggest failure was not getting better pictures, but the quilt was completed and out of the wash just hours before the shower.

I love making these quick little baby blankets. They usually take less than 5 hours, fit well over those basket type carseats that lift out of the base, are nice and carefree, washable, and SO SOFT!!!

Crochetzoo

2008-04-03T17:12:50Z

Last night I crocheted up some octopuses.

I'll be dropping them off at Boomba Toomba today or tomorrow. It felt nice to make something that felt purposeful, I've been just sorta.. making random things, for no reason. Playing around I guess..

One thing that I've been messing around with thats turned out pretty well is a crocheted turtle.

I actually really love this guy... I sorta am not the biggest fan of crochet toys, but I sure love to experiment and make them..
I havent quite finished the turtle, and I'll have to make sure I can replicate him before trying to sell them, but he's been very successful so far.

a blue bunny for Laurel

2008-04-01T03:33:32Z

After I saw the adorable bunny that my friend Bertha knitted for her adorable daughter June.. I felt the need to make Laurel a bunny as well.
Well, I am not a fancy knitter. I crochet, and I never said I do it well...

This is a bunny that already looks like its been loved for years. It reminds me strangely of the velveteen rabbit, but.. well.. this would have to be called "The Wool-Acrylic Blend Rabbit" Which.. is not nearly as catchy eh?

marblesfound @ 2008-02-29T15:54:00

2008-02-29T23:54:24Z

So, I have this huge bag of vinyl craft lacing.. its commonly known as Rexlace these days from what I can tell. in my day it was called all sorts of things, like Maxi Plastic, or whatever.
If you're not familiar, it was used to make things like.. plastic keychains lanyards and other ..random (pointless?) things.

It apparently is used in dreadlock falls sometimes these days, but I cant find a lot of other information about what i could DO with it now. I can apply heat (boiling water) while its twisted around something (like a bamboo skewer) which makes it nearly permanently curly, which is fun, but... I still cant think of any interesting creative ideas for this..

I sat down to make a dumb keychain.. for .. nostalgia reasons maybe, but was SO over it lie 5 minutes later.
Why do I still have this stuff??

edit: ooh maybe i can print some things on cardstock.. double layer it, cut them out, punch holes, and try to get Laurel to use it as a one of those lacing boards its a long shot though, she's still pretty little.

Brad dolls?

2007-12-17T18:35:18Z

While picking up a gift at an office supply store, I picked up some plain ol brass brads on clearance. I thought, hey! I should make a brad doll! that'd be great!
Then I remembered that I designed something that would work for that a long time ago!!!

now, I havent gone into the file and taken her apart, resized, and printed her out yet, but hopefully when I have some more time I will, it sounds like fun right?

when I get around to it, I'll provide her in PDF format for anyone who wants to print her out and do the same....

I'm really embarrassed that I havent updated my website in FOREVER. I expected that I'd have time for that sorta thing as a stay-at-home mom, but somehow I cant seem to find the time. I suppose the next step is MAKING time!

marblesfound @ 2007-12-09T19:14:00

2007-12-10T03:14:20Z

hat made from chunky Wool-Ease. (lions brand I believe) in Willow (I think)

It snowed on and off all day. It didnt stick.

Recount of Productivity Tuesday.

2007-11-28T18:10:53Z

Yesterday was a fairly productive day.
First of all I took a pair of black and purple stripey tights, and sewed them into baby leggings with the help of the serger. I didnt snap a pic, but I promise to post one soon.

Later I dropped off some stars and hats at Boomba Toomba and picked up my first check! hooray!

Of course, as soon as I get money, I go spend twice as much as I made at the fabric store. BAD ME!!!

The other day I essentially started 4 quilts, We have a friend who is giving birth in the next few weeks and I would love to give her a quilt, I'm a little afraid it will be over the top though, I've only met her and her husband 4 or 5 times... But the husband is Joel's friend from grade school, so... yeah. I feel like it would be nice, but I dont want them to feel.. weird. ya know? The other options for the quilts is to try to sell them at Boomba Toomba but since it is a consignment store, it would jack the price up on the quilt to the point where it might be cost prohibitive for someone to buy.

Of course another option is to list some or all of them on my etsy store, as its currently empty. I've had pretty limited success on etsy though, and its really SUCH a pain to list things.. also, because its competitive there's a lot of sales undercutting and my products would probably even seem expensive in that venue because I really DO want to be paid for my time and materials.
Taking a bit of a cut for Boomba Toomba is okay, because it sorta gets my stuff out into the local population, also, its great to support local businesses, and part of that is being able to provide great products at decently affordable prices.

Anywho, I picked up a few fabrics for the quilt tops (I was able to start them with just my stash, and picked up just two bits of fabric for the tops where I needed a certain color hue) I also picked up fleece backs for them, even though they were on sale, I'm always a bit sad at how much fleece costs, and how much quilting really costs in general.
I also picked up some knits, black for a project I'd been envisioning for laurel, and some red to be the edging for some pajamas as well.

After I came home I worked on one quilt, completely finishing the top, due to a ... computing error its a bit smaller than I was planning, but instead of slapping on some more borders I might just fleece back it and have it closer to "receiving blanket" size. It'd be the perfect size for over one of those basinet style carseats and such.
I'll photograph and post pictures of the quilt when its finished. (hopefully I'll finish today and post tomorrow eh?)

so, still feeling creative I pulled out some old socks I had.. red and black argyle socks that I'd bought at like.. Target some 4 years ago or more. They'd become holey and I'd cut the toe out to repurpose it as arm warmers for myself, but I stopped wearing awesome weird bits of clothes a while ago, so... I finished off the cut edge and made repurposed baby legs for Laurel!

So cute! a bit saggy, but I dont mind, I love to use her babylegs all scrunched up in leg warmer style anyway.

Still feeling the creative bug I moved on to the black knit! 20 minutes later I had one of the best, quickest results I've ever had with a project. Now.. I'm sure to you accomplished sewers out there its no big deal, but seriously I was so pleased with myself. (I still am!)

and now, pictures of them all together!!!

I will totally be making some more super cute speedy outfits soon, maybe for sale, I'm always looking to make a buck. Will try to think of some easy, washable, adorable embellishments to put on them as well.

Oh! and after that I went to bed and crochetted a quick hat. I meant to make it for the boutique and bought what I thought was an awesome chunky wool But silly me I looked at the label after I was nearly done and saw it was 80% acrylic, ah ha, wool-ease is only 20% wool, still lovely looking and lovely to work with.. but even with chunky wool it took an hour and a half to create a hat, so really, too much labor for such a small outtcome. Laurel can only wear hats that tie on now, because she yanks other ones off, so the ones I made for her for this year will not work, so.. I made the one last night with ties and will most likely just keep it for laurel. Pictures of that to come as well!.

Dance in Pajamas

2007-11-20T15:43:26Z

I've become obsessed with making pajamas for Laurel. It all started because she was really short on warm pajamas this year since she decided that she hates to sleep in the one piece footy pajamas. So, I set to work trying to make one pair, pretty awful is how they came out.
Then my MIL let me borrow her serger (indefinitely!) and then I tried some more!
The shirts are still not perfected, but the pants are coming along much better. Learning to do an edging on them that looks good was the issue on these, which are more close to what I desire, however the edging fabric is heavier weight than the light thermal material so.. it causes a little bit of funk issue.
Also, my pattern for the shirt top is not quite right, it doesnt overlap enough in the shoulder area, is too wide in the shoulders, and doesnt curve enough at the front neck line. I supppose this is the trouble you run into when you decide you hate patterns and are going to just make your own stuff.

sorry for the bad morning picture, I just really wanted to post early today

the overall look is a bit overwhelming I'n afraid...

Star Pals!

2007-11-09T21:44:00Z

This week I dropped off a group of stars at Boomba Toomba which will be opening TOMORROW! (how exciting!)

The shop is super cute. If you're local you should totally check it out!

If you need directions you can find them here!

I also am lucky enough to be indefinitely borrowing my MIL's serger, however, .. somehow I've convinced it to stop working and may have to .. uh get it serviced before I can use it again.. on the positive side though I've learned more about how sergers work than I ever thought I would.. and know how to change the stitch length, adjust tension, change blade positions, and how to change throat plates... I suppose you learn more about things that arent working properly than when things are going peachy! hopefully i get it fixed asap because i already miss it!

Now its off to Craft Warehouse to hopefully find paper suitable for snowflake making, it's snowflake season!!!

Late fall wreath project.

2007-11-02T21:16:59Z

i had totally planned on making a halloween wreath this year, or at very least some sort of colorful fall wreath. I always thought that wreaths were a little.. dumb and old ladyish, but was won over by gum drop wreathes and ones made from christmas balls in monochromatic colors.

Well, halloween day I sat down and started pushing some little pinecones I picked up at my moms house into a styrafoam wreath. First I wired each one to stick it in, then realized I could just use their little stems. I ended up running out of pinecones and had to go visit mom and pick up some more.. I had spray colored the pinecones I'd already stuck in with some gold halloween hair color. (great in a pinch!!! and i didnt feel too bad doing it in my bathroom, cleanup with water!) I decided not to spray the natural color ones, and like the color variation, I'm actually not huge on gold, but.. I'm totally pleased with the results. The eucalyptus leaves are also from my mothers yard, and also stuck into the styrafoam with no problem. I really, really like the eucalyptus and am very interested to see how it weathers. Maybe newyears will find me making an all eucalyptus wreath.

life is busy. I'm attempting a grapefruit cake. So far its going so so.

Pumpkin plush

2007-10-26T19:41:44Z

So many of the lovely craft bloggers out there make pumpkin plush around this time of year.
I found myself wanting to attempt my own pumpkin plush, but I was fearful of finding a way of doing it that would stand apart from others. I sorta threw this one together in a standard globe construction kind of way, similar to the way I make hats actually. I only used 4 pieces, had I really wanted to make a nice product I almost certainly would have done 6 or more pieces. The sewing of this seriously took less than 10 minutes, and cutting was super, super super fast as well, because I didnt make any templates or anything and very roughly cut it out.. truthfully when you sew with VERY plushy/fuzzy fabric its sometimes very very forgiving.
I stuffed it with scraps of fabric left over from cutting and some poly fill.. inserted the stem and hand sewed it up.
At the time the picture was taken I hadnt sewn the face on, but had cut it out and was happy with it.

I'd planned on not posting it until I had the face sewn on and had lovely new pictures of it, but oh well. I got lazy today and probably wont finish it today. (I will be working on my nephews halloween costume with any free time I have today)

marblesfound @ 2007-10-22T12:41:00

2007-10-22T19:41:47Z

with halloween coming up, and the fall season directly upon us, I feel SO inspired, its SO lovely to be back into crafting.
So, I'm working on Laurel's halloween costume (she's going to be a fall fairy)
I'm working on some little leaves to make up a little skirt for her to wear over a onsie... tights and wings will finish it off, it should be pretty easy.. except of course that she hates wings. I may have to make a smaller, softer, baby safer pair of wings out of like... cardboard and felt or something. Who knows what it'll end up being!

Anyway, I'm totally loving making these little leaves!

The stitching isnt incredible, and i sorta just did some rough tracing of leaves onto paper to make templates, and its pretty rough cutting, but despite all the no perfectness, I LOVE THEM, besides, imperfection lends to their "organic" feel right???'

WIP babyquilt

2007-10-18T20:21:27Z

I was so inspired by the completion of Laurel's quilt, that I found myself at the fabric store two days later, and bought fabric for another baby quilt.
I decided to do the same pattern, because its fast, simple, and I really think its charming.
This time I chose fabrics in the pinky-peachy family. I'd hoped to do orange, but there just wasnt enough selection to get the tones I wanted.

I plan on adding a border, and fleece backing this one as well, and I may tie it because it was a really simple, pretty quick way to finish it, and babies love those little yarn bits to pull on..

Anyway, for maybe 2.5 hours of work spread over two days, I'm pretty pleased with this top and how its coming along.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it, its just sorta an extra..

marblesfound @ 2007-10-15T19:17:00

2007-10-16T02:17:26Z

In January 2006 I found out I was pregnant, and designed what I hoped would be a whole fleet of baby blankets. In reality it became one. Not unremarkable itself though, when I went to the fabric store the day after I found out I was pregnant I bought some purple starry fabric. I absentmindedly thought, "I can use this in the baby's blanket". Later it occurred to me that I didnt know I was having a girl then.. and in fact, everyone around me was SURE I was having a boy.

When we did find out it was a girl I hit the fabric store again, totally forgetting to bring a swatch of the original purple fabric. I wandered aimlessly, but came home with some fabric that I just couldnt leave.. purple dragon flies. I knew they wouldnt match but I just couldnt leave the fabric there, I HAD to bring it home.

At home I put the two together, and they matched so well they looked like they could have been professionally matched or something.
The third fabric in the quilt was not miraculous or interesting, instead it was a quick buy with only color in mind..

I put the thing together, fleece backed it in the pillow case type style.. did some stitching around the edge and then.. well.. damnit I was just too pregnant by that point to DO anything. (besides, what energy I did have I put into making a giant beast of a quilt as a favor to my MIL and working full time)
so now, a year and some months later, I have finally finished it (a quick tie job)

try as I might though, I could not get a picture of the quilt without my daughter also in the picture.

and with some star friends:

There's something so satisfying about finishing a quilt. These little ones really can be quick projects when you actually have spare time. (HAH!)
I'm inspired though, hopefully there will be more to come soon.

marblesfound @ 2007-10-04T13:47:00

2007-10-04T20:47:18Z

Before Laurel was born, I made her a little star. you may remember..

So, now ... a year and some months later (Laurel's first birthday is this coming Sunday!)
I'm Addicted to making these little star pals.

Yesterday I made a big green star and had trouble deciding on a face...

anywho. I made a little pink one today, and I took a little group photo today

the light green one was from a few months ago when Laurel went to sleep early and I was up waiting for Joel to get home from a school reunion..

Silly, silly stars.
at least *I* like them.. oh and Laurel loves them too... she hugs them and now she just started saying "star" though, it usually comes out like "sTAAAAAAAAA"

marblesfound @ 2007-09-16T15:52:00

2007-09-16T22:52:14Z

Crochet Swimsuit

2007-09-07T16:57:24Z

Soo many updates to make, so little time

Free form (no pattern) crochet swimsuit for my little one.
The bottoms were a little big, I made the whole thing without sizing it on her, and I thought her swim diaper might be a bit bulkier than it was. I had to cinch up the back of the bottoms when we put it on her..

she really didnt care for the hat..

paranoia and the arts.

2007-08-09T17:59:04Z

I've been wanting to keep a journal of inspiration and ideas. For example, techniques or adorable things that I find on the net, coupled with how I'd plan to use that technique or emulate that adorable thing with my own twist...
couple of course with my own brilliant ideas and techniques.

of course, the problem is.. I'm paranoid someone will think that these things are indeed brilliant and beat me to the punch line.
Part of this is because I have no time to craft so, I feel like I must horde my ideas. This is silly, seriously.
The other part though, is totally based in reality, because this sort of thing happens ALL the time. Beyond that, the very beginning of this post pretty much states that *I* see adorable things and want to recreate them in my own way, so why wouldnt anyone else.

There is, of course a whole bunch of things to think about as far as copy-write infringement and all that, but at this point I'm not selling items, and beyond that, I'd never purchase something to dissect it in order to reproduce it. Instead I mean, I see a cute octopus plushie and think, "I want to make cute octopus plushies!!!" or "wow, thats really cleaver how they put the head together, I wonder if that same construction would work on a _____"

Anyway. I'm finding difficulty in remembering all these little tidbits of inspiration and technique, so I'll have to journal it in some way, shape, or form. Here, there, somewhere. Most likely on the internet. Maybe I'll just make private entries and then make them public after I've decided to do something with the idea (as far as my *own* brilliant ideas) and post links to inspiring adorable stuff publicly.. i mean its out there anyway.

I've been working on some portraiture recently. Namely one of my daughter, which I'm having issues finishing. Mostly time issues, but also, once I take a break on an illustration I have trouble returning to it. I work on momentum a lot which is an absolutely impossible thing to do when you only have 15 minute bursts of time to work on things, or when your daughter naps in your lap and you have to make slow, quiet movements...

here's a badly cropped capture of where the illustration was a few weeks ago. its progressed slightly since then, but unfortunately I think some of it was lost due to a "not saving and baby bumping the power cord of the computer" incident.

I hope you all are having fabulous days and wondrous nights.

marblesfound @ 2007-08-01T13:48:00

2007-08-01T20:48:51Z

I miss you, craft journal.
I miss creativity as a form of therapy. I miss creativity as a form of recreation.

These days my creative energy goes into processing baby food, keeping Laurel from rolling over when I'm changing a poopie diaper (seriously, its like trying to lasso a tornado and ride it to town) and maybe some short bursts of something that resembles my prior creative means.

I started this a few weeks ago as a project while she was napping (she naps in a baby bjorn On me, but its very hard to DO anything while she's sleeping)
It never got finished, like oh so many other projects.

after a while of not working on it, I just sorta lose steam.

I imagine this will improve. Someday she'll go to preschool, and maybe, just maybe, I wont have to work a typical "job" and I can stay home and actually put some work into myself, and my art.

She's absolutely beautiful though, my life's greatest accomplishment.

sleeping baby on lap

2007-06-20T22:05:27Z

between chaos and sleep (or lack of) I sometimes find a moment for crochet.

Easter Pictures.

2007-04-13T20:05:12Z

I'm terrible at craft blogging these days.
Partially because its difficult to find time to craft, and also because its difficult to find time to photograph, transfer photos, edit/resize/adjust photos, upload them, and post them, let alone have any time to write content to go along with them!!!

Finally though I think I have a few minutes to try to post a few pictures from this easters' egg dying.

This year I decided to expand on the natural dying process that we used last year
Several years ago, I'd read a Martha Stewart Article on dying eggs naturally and had vowed to try out some of the dyes myself sometime. This was the year.

We had an easter egg dying party, but unfortunately not too much came out of it in the way of beautiful productivity, but it sure was fun!!! The next day finding that I had around 5 dozen eggs in my fridge.. most of them still uncolored.. I called my mum to come watch the baby and I set to work..

I wanted to use the natural dyes but also use the same process we did last year to make botanical impressions on the eggs. Alas a lot of the new dyes were not so good for leaving beautiful bold impressions. the winner for the impressions was still the onion skin dye, but I did enjoy the colors that came from the natural dyes. they all seemed wonderfully harmonious with each other, which I hadnt expected!

Shown here are a some of the dye ingredients.. we used Red cabbage (for blue dye if you can believe it!) tumeric (yellow) and onion skin (deep brown/red) Shown also are some nylons and twist ties, the other main stars of the show :)
We also used beet, but only had canned at our disposal, so were not able to get much in the way of nice coloring with it.

I found that once I was working by myself I was really able to hone my technique. I wished I'd done several practice eggs before the party so that I could have gotten into the swing of things again and been able to more aptly teach the procedure. I suppose there's next year though!

Joel's Belated Birthday Cake

2007-03-13T19:26:40Z

I have a bunch of catchup photo blogging today, but I figured I'd start with these.
Yesterday I finally got time to make Joel a birthday cake, almost a MONTH after his birthday.
It was my first time doing a frozen buttercreme transfer, and while it could have been better, I'm really pretty pleased.
A FBC is done by placing an image underneath a sheet of wax paper and piping your design over it, freezing to firm the icing, flipping onto the cake and removing the wax paper.

anyway, I'm super excited about future cake decorating. My icing is not very smooth but I was REALLY in a hurry with a 5 month old to take care of.. I was not obsessed with perfection :)