Category: Crafts

This cartoon made me laugh. My daughter saw it and frowned, I guess she foresees me doing something like that to her, but I promised her, I wouldn’t embarrass her like that.

Why should I? There are so many other ways that can be accomplished without me even knowing I’m doing that. I have tons of adorable childhood pictures, and equally cute childhood stories that are precious to me, but I’m betting as she gets older she’ll won’t be thrilled about me sharing some of those stories.  Sighs, kids…

Sunday, while at church, I chatted with a lady, who just happened to be over the small groups ministries at the church. I told her I’d be by the next day, to meet the quilting group and get additional information about some of their other outreach programs.

Monday, I arrived to meet the quilting group. I thought I’d only be there for about thirty minutes. You know,  just long enough to introduce myself, express an interest, and off I’d go. Boy was I wrong! The lady I spoke with on Sunday seemed surprised when she saw me. She introduced me to the ladies, who seemed happy to be gaining a new member. When they found out that I could sew, they seemed ecstatic.

As I suspected, at 41, I’m the youngest member of the quilting group. Which is perfectly fine, I have friends/acquaintances my age but I’ve always gravitated towards those a lot older than I, I’ve learned so much from them. The ladies seem to be retired, and the youngest is most likely in her late 50s.

As a new member, there was no sitting back and to observe the process. Since they knew I could sew, they were hoping I’d help. It’s why I volunteered right.  I rolled up my sleeves and started cutting.

Using my sewing skills…

Because they’re making quilts on a grand scale. They aren’t making hand sewn quilts, like the ones you’ll find at Karen’s virtual home. The material is cut, the quilt filler added, edges are secured with pins, and the quilts are neatly placed in a pile to be sewn. Guess who got to sew five quilts today? Yes, I had a chance to sew. Although the sewing machine is different from the ones I have at home, I got used to it and was soon sewing at my normal  breakneck speed.

Edited to add: The quilts are donated to Lutheran World Relief.

I started sewing when I was about seven or eight, creating a lot of designs that I’d dress the few dolls I owned. It’s the only time I played with dolls. I loved being outdoors. In my teens, I made a lot of my clothes, and in my twenties I participated in several fashion shows. At the time, its what interested me — so naturally I went after it. I’m determined that I won’t have any ‘what if’s in my life, and so I put a lot of effort into turning my dreams into a reality. Those were great times, I met some amazing people, and have lots of pleasant memories.

Anyway I’m getting sidetracked…

While sewing each quilt, I said a few prayers, hoping it would give the recipient as much joy upon receipt as the quilting group had making them. The room was filled with so much happiness, teasing, and joking among the ladies. Joined by a desire to help those less fortunate, even as a new member of the group, it’s obvious that they’ve become friends too.

I wanted to bring my camera, but I decided to hold off. How would that look, someone brand-new to the group coming out taking pictures? 😉 However, I’ll bring my camera next week so I can snap some pictures of the quilts, and if they ladies don’t object, I’ll include them in some of the shots, and I’ll share a few on my site.

Three hours later, our time was over. With cheery goodbyes from the others quilters, and see you next time. I left the group exhilarated (and a bit surprised that time had flown by so quickly).

It always feels great to help others, spending time in fellowship with like-minded souls is good for the soul too.

This weeks challenge at A Crafting Start is all about glitter.

The name of the challenge is ‘Stickles’. Stickles is a popular glitter glue that many paper crafters use. I’ve used it in the past but these days I make my own glitter glue. My homemade glitter glue does just as good of a job as Stickles, and the bonus is I can make tons of the glitter glue for a fraction of the cost.

The coloring page was found at the Deviant Art website. This lineart drawing is titled, Milk. It was drawn by the lovely and talented JadeDragonne. Jade also has art tutorials which are located on You Tube.

This sweet little girl reminds me a lot of my daughter. My daughter loves pink, so I chose that color for her outfit and hat. I used my Bic Mark it pens and colored pencils for this card. I edged the picture with silver glitter, I used white glitter for the spilt milk. I used the same glitter for the dots and starbursts on this page.

I’m new to shading, so there’s room for improvement, but I know I’ll get better as I color more. However, I was happy with how this turned out, and more importantly, my daughter liked it. She’s displaying this card in a prominent position within her room.

If you’re new to paper crafts, or would like to participate in some of the crafting challenges, stop on by A Crafting Starts virtual home.

 

If you don’t monitor your spending, it can be fairly easy to leave a store (whether in person or virtually) with less money than you anticipated. My weakness used to be shoes, and crafting items. I’d spend more than I needed. Thankfully I’ve gotten both under control.

Although I haven’t been able to make my own shoes yet, I’ve been able to reduce the amount I spend on certain crafts by making some of the items myself. I’m a frugal crafter. I could go out and purchase the items I make at home Money isn’t the issue; however, it makes more sense to save that money.

Many of the items that are readily available in stores such as;  Glitter glue, alcohol based inks, pop dots, glue dots, dewdrops, etc., I don’t purchase. I make them myself — with excellent results. Since I’ve started to include some of my crafts, on this blog, over the next few weeks I’ll include simple how you can reduce the money you spend on crafts, by making some of the simpler items at home.

Later today, my daughter and I are making glue dots. It’s a simple process that can be done at home, without spending the unnecessary dollars on already made glue dots.

In other news…

This past Friday, my daughter had a play date with her best friend. They saw the movie Puss in Boots. Naturally her best friends mom and I were there too. We all loved the movie, and I’ll probably purchase the Puss in Boots on DvD for my daughter.

 

 

Happy Loc’s

It’s Digi Stamp Week at A Crafting Start. This is the entry I submitted.

It’s going to be a door hanger for my daughter’s room. The photo was a free coloring page I found on the web. Isn’t she precious? Naturally, I was drawn to the picture because of the locs, I wear my hair in locs aka dreadlocks. They’re halfway down my back now, at this point I cannot imagine wearing them any other way.

Ok back to the card…

I used silver glitter glue for the center of the sunflowers. Initially I was going to only place her on orange paper, but I when I saw the designer paper (mixed with all the colors I’ve used with this picture) in my paper stash , and so decided to add that also. Thus far I’ve only used colored pencils with my projects, but today I purchased BIC Mark-It Color Collection, 36 Markers, so I’m looking forward to using those.

As mentioned earlier, I’m a contributor to a new crafting group called, A Crafting Start. Those interested in paper crafts are welcome to join in on the fun. Throughout the weekday there’s a lot of conversation going on through emails. The people are friendly, and encouraging so if you’re looking to get into card making/scrapbooking or simply want to hang out at a friendly virtual spot, come on by.

 

A few weeks ago I was hunting for some digital images aka digital stamps that I could incorporate into a card.

I wanted them to be girly, and more specific, I wanted them to be ethnic. It took a lot of hunting but I finally found a nice selection that I enjoy. The original hair on this lovely young lady was a loose wave. Since I wanted it to mimic the curl pattern in my daughter’s hair, I tightened up the curls by making coils and spirals throughout the hair. I was pleased with the result.

Because I liked the how this card turned out, I decided to turn it into a sketch pad. My daughter is artistic, besides making sculptures she also enjoys drawing too. My idea is to use a three hole punch,  that I can attach with binder rings. Once the paper has been used, it can be easily swapped out and updated with new paper.

This will be the front cover. I glued the design to a thin piece of cardboard, so it will make the perfect cover since it’s hard. This works perfectly for my daughter since she needs the durability with her art books.

The letters were made with clear rubber stamps. I used an embossing ink. Embossing ink remains wet longer than your normal inks. Because of this, I was able to sprinkle the inked words with embossing powder. I used my heat gun to melt the powder. Lace trim was added to the design, and I incorporated heart brads into the trim. I used colored pencils for the gorgeous lady.

This started out as a card, but it’s quickly turned into something else. I still need to add the pages and a back cover for my daughters sketch pad.

 

Edited to add:

Use your Stash Challenge Week 3: Use your scraps

Since I used a ton of scraps with this card, I’ve added it to the Scraps of Color: Use your scraps challenge

• Lace trim (I made the ‘trim’ from an old lace shirt that I’d designed when I was 17).
• Daisy (snipped from a daisy chain trim)
• Yellow and orange construction paper (leftover from other projects).