Projects

Made myself a Harry Potter themed hanging thing.

I started with owl beads in the house colours, then added bead sets I got from Jesse James Beads and at Michael's.

I used half sheets of Shrinky Dink plastic to trace and colour the house crests and they shrank to the perfect size.

Several years ago I found a pic online of a beaded curtain with gorgeous crystal drops.  I even found and bought the crystals and curtain rod.  But they languished in the craft room, gathering dust for about 4 years before I took them out.  First I was going to string them on driftwood because I didn't think I'd have enough of the super cool beads I'd been collecting.  The original project had 23 strands and my layout only had 15.

But I grabbed a few more clear drops and did them on the curtain rod anyway.  I wrapped the top with green florist tape and then put the wire loops over that so they wouldn't slip on the metal.  After it was done, I wrapped another layer of tape to cover the wire.  My version has 19 strands and I'm happy with it.

Another key.

Eclectic altered art Altoids tin.  I just kept gluing weird stuff to it, and using glitter paper.

I found some wood slices at a craft store in Fall River when I went to visit Russell after his surgery and I broke out the wood burner.  These are addictive.  I made a whole bunch of Cape Cod cause I thought they'd sell at the craft fair but they didn't.  Some have a heart on Sandwich.

My friend Debby sent me a Seahawks Goodie Package that included a 3D chipboard 'build your own Space Needle'.  So I did that, painting it and adding a glitter coat.  I found the blue sparkly numbers at Walmart which was awesome.  The 12 being for the Seahawks fans, known collectively as 'The 12th Man'.  

I also made gingerbread cookies on a particularly cozy, rainy day and here is the Needle's cookie counterpart.

We found out that the baby (due in July) is going to be a boy, and will be named Mark Russell.  We were in the Christmas Tree Shop and he spotted the personalized stocking with Mark's name, and I found Jeff's but of course Dale & Casi weren't on there so I got 2 blanks and did them with silver puff paint.

Bday card for my stepdaughter.

At a bit of a craft standstill for now.  I am working on a cross stitch that I have screwed up so badly that it's become tedious.  Maybe I'll take up colouring again.

Rainy Day Crafts

We finally had some rain...in fact we had a lot of rain and wind...which was perfect for crafting.  I started early in the morning and worked on stuff throughout the day.

Made 2 more bottles.  This one started out as a crescent moon but I screwed it up so I had to make it a full moon and then draw a tree in front of it to cover up my errors.  I used all orange lights inside the bottle.

This one came out so good that I decided to keep it.  Russell loved it too.  My freehand skills aren't very good so I traced the castle and moon from a picture on my computer screen, then cut out the template and traced around it on the bottle before colouring it in.  The only things I freehanded are the cat on the moon and the windows.  Purple & orange lights inside. 

Since I had the glue out in my craft room, I made a couple of keys.

And a key in a mini bottle too.

Finally finished the shells cross stitch.  It took a bit longer than I'd expected when I started it in July. Now I need to find a frame to fit!

I had one bottle left to paint and was at a loss for a design. I tried to sketch some bats on paper but they didn't come out very good.  I googled 'Halloween silhouettes' and I didn't see anything that floated my boat there either.  I just wanted the project done so I did a simple triple moon with pentacle. 

I felt that it was missing something and although I really suck at lettering and centering, I grabbed an alphabet stencil I had and managed to get the text on the bottle without screwing it up too bad.

Now I need more new projects!!

Steampunk Keys

More altered keys.  People really seem to love these.  I wasn't expecting the response to them, although it's greatly appreciated!!

That one on the far left is my fave and I just can't part with it.  It makes me think of college at St. Joe's but I'm not sure why. 

I found that padlock in one of my old jewelry boxes and the keys work so I added stuff to it.

One of Those Days

It seems like, for me anyway, there is always that one incredibly dull, lame, boring day in late January.  It's always on a Sunday.  I even have specific memories of days like that throughout my childhood and have been kind of tracking it to see if it happens every year and it really does seems to.  There's nothing to do. Even if it's nice out, it's too cold and windy to go anywhere.  TV sucks.  You can't find anything good to eat in the kitchen.  You have so many things to do inside, crafts and chores, but no energy or desire to get up, and at the same time you are so restless you feel like you're gonna explode if you don't get out of the house soon.  I could feel it when I got up this past Sunday.  Facebook and the blogosphere were even dead.  Just a Bucket of Suck day.  I ended up in my craft room, to at least try and make some stuff and salvage the loneliness.

Anywho, I've finally tried to get a handle on my out of control needlework projects.  They are so perfect to do in the livingroom when Russell's home.  I discovered that a few of the floss packs had free designs on their packaging or instructions.  I decided to do a couple just for fun before I got back to the projects that have been started.

OK this one looks nothing like the pattern I started to follow because I made such a huge mistake that I couldn't go back and rip out all the work I'd done, and had to free form it.  This is the first time I've ever deviated from a pattern on my own and just made something up.  The pattern also didn't call for beads but I added them anyway.  The instructions showed that it was to be done in just blue, so I used varigated blue floss.  It was stitched on perforated paper and doesn't photograph well.  It looks much nicer in real life.

I also used my own colours for this peace sign design.  Again, all varigated floss, then outlined in shiny gold. The original pattern had 'PEACE' written on all four sides but I did not like the way it looked on the paper so I just eliminated that whole part of the design.  I may mount these small projects on cards.

OK LANGUAGE ALERT HERE!!!  Over the holidays, Axe & I were cracking up over a cross stitch picture that she or someone posted on Facebook.  It took me off guard, especially when sung, and I thought it was hilarious.  I told her that I was pretty sure I could recreate the cross stitch from the picture because it was a very simple design.  She asked if I could make it for her.  Since I was getting together a package to send her anyway, I decided to knock this out now rather than next fall, so that I wouldn't have to send a second package (believe me, sending to S. Africa can be somewhat complicated, especially for the addressee picking it up so you want to have it all together and just send it once).

This is the picture from her timeline:

I first enlarged the picture so that I could count the stitches, then found my cross stitch graph paper and sketched it out.  It only took a couple of days of stitching to get it done and it will fit in a 5x7 frame once ironed.  The original picture didn't have the words and holly trim outlined, so I added that to make it pop and easier to read.  If I never stitch the word 'la' again it'll be too soon.

Since I had the black floss & Aida cloth out, I did this simple Snoopy design in about an hour.

I made the small ones into cards.

I had another felt peace sign and decided to round up my sparkly pin collection and earrings I can no longer wear anymore due to metal allergy.  I snapped off all the pinbacks and earring hooks and glued them to the felt. In addition to the pins & earrings, there are a few items that I used to fill in the gaps. I love sparkly pins but they are kind of expensive and I don't wear them, so this was the best way to showcase my modest collection.

I love keys....everyone I know seems to love keys.  I like how the craft stores sell new ones made to look vintage and I always buy a package because you can always find something to do with them.  In my case, I broke out the rhinestones and went to town.  Must. Bedazzle.  Everything. 

I posted them on Facebook and got a lot of inquiries about possibly purchasing these or having custom ones done.  There is a craft show coming up in April and I am not really sure what to make for a spring show.  All of my shows have been geared towards ornaments and stocking stuffers, so maybe I'll try and sell the keys.

My bff Michelle requested the steampunk one on the right. 

2 Seahawks themed bracelets and the one in the center is Notre Dame's colours, that I made for Kris.

Do any of you have a particular Bucket of Suck day that seems to happen at the same time every year?  Is is also late January like mine is?