and now for some NON-paper crafts stuff....

i've totally been neglecting my sewing lately, i need to find more time for it.

here are a few things i've made for swaps lately.

for the i <3 sewing swap
top i made in a dark colour and "old lady florals" (per her request)




a pattern for the top, showing 4 different variations. i copied the pattern onto old sheets, and wrote up the instructions. i scanned the drawings, after failing miserably at attempting to draw them in photoshop!

and the rest, though i took out the zippers at the last minute (because i remembered that she didn't want zippers)

part of the swap was sending notions, but my partner already had a lot, and didn't really want more, so i substituted other things.
a couple of purchased patterns for dresses, cause that's what she likes to sew, i sent them instead of notions. crunchie bars and smarties, because she wanted some from canada. i figured they could be instead of notions as well. a 1/2 yard of pretty metallic purple fabric, two good size remnants or corduroy (definitely big enough for her to make bags out of), and 2 yards of stretch cotton floral (like blouse material).

and for the love/hate valentine's swap
here's everything all together.

she said she wanted a sketchbook cover, and that she loved lace, so i made her this -



(i have to say how FREAKING EXCITED i am that i found baby pink vinyl! i have been searching for it for YEARS! i had to buy 4 yards. i kinda wish i'd bought 5!)

part of the swap was to send a valentine's card, and i've been waiting for an excuse to make another one of these, so i made a very fancy card.







it's made of matchboxes, and each one holds a little surprise. one holds valentine heart brads, one holds a chocolate, one holds a simple pair of earrings once, and the last holds this cheesy little card.


(i should've known i'd end up adding papercrafts to this post somewhere!)

i also made her a simple pair of earrings to go in the last drawer of the box -

very very simple... i bought a bracelet at the dollar store and used the charms off of it, and the earrings themselves are from the accessory store, i buy earring/necklace sets when they're 10/$10 and dismantle them for the pieces.


she likes stripes, and shirts that are dark, and hoods.




there is red lingerie elastic trimming the bust seam, the sleeve cuffs and the hood, and there are three shiny red heart buttons on the front. this is the first time i've tried adding a hood to the pattern, and i'm not sure i like it... but i also think hoods on t-shirts are kinda silly too!

i really love that top!

and of course, she got one of the flying love monsters, this swap was the inspiration for all of them.


i forgot to post this well, i made it a few weeks ago. i really really wanted to play with my pink vinyl a little bit!





and the valentines i made this year... (i don't think i posted last year's valentines... i should do that) as usual, i made postcards instead of real cards!


red glitter paper base, then this super cool white netting with white foamy dots on it, red acetate, a vintage fabric heart, all sewn on with red thread criss crossing across the card. (the fabric was ironed on to interfacing before it was cut out, just to make it easier and to make them sturdier)

but then i ran out of the fabric hearts, so i made a few different ones with these super cool swirly patterned felt hearts.




they all have the same back "happy valentine's day" in the sweetheart font, and then "may it be full of love and creativity" in a cute script font with hearts. the writing was supposed to be red, but my printer apparently hates red! so they turned out sorta purplish, which was okay.

chunky 4"x4" pages

and here it is! i LOVE this page. it was so hard to give up, but i knew the reipient would love it too. i'm so proud of it. it was a lot of work (a lot of steps!), but i'd invisioned a page like it since the swap was first mentioned, and i was really excited to have someone to make it for so quickly (early on in the swap)! i'm planning a large piece for my bathroom that's similar.

first, the scans.

the page itself is about 1/4" thick, it's made of two layers of corrugated cardboard and a piece of a ritz box. i cut the niches out of the cardboard layers and glued all the pages together, then used gel medium to coat them in white tissue paper. i wanted the edges to be solid too, so i covered them in the tissue as well. i painted it all white, except for the niche, i painted blue. i really like how the paint reacted to the tissue paper texture, it almost looks rubbed off in places, like a whitewashed wall. i stamped it with blue pigment ink, and printed out "hail mary" repeatedly on acetate and attached it. the mary statue is polyclay, i made a mold out of one of my little statues in my bathroom (using polyclay), then carefully reproduced it. it's only 1/2 as thick as the original statuette, so it fits into the niche nicely. it was white polyclay, then i did a wash with the blue paint. the niche itself is flocked.

the back is painted with blue and white paint blended overtop more white tissue. i used some gel medium in the corner, with some of the holey material whose name i can never remember... i printed the title on acetate and attached it, and stamped the design on acetate with white StazOn ink, then stamped it again with the glue pad, and added flocking. the flocking didn't stick as well as i wanted, so i tried to redo it after it was already on, but the page isnt' completely flat, so the glue didn't xompletely cover it. i think it looks better than it did though. i'm a little peeved about my name in the corner - i went out and bought a light blue sharpie specifically to sign this page, and then it didn't work! damn.

and the fibers are a mix of white fibers, blue ribbon, some twill tape i painted blue, and a silver embroidery floss strand with beads on each end. one end has clear blue beads with the teensy white mary bead i used on alteredmommy's tip in page, and the other has clear and blue glass beads with a small copper mary on the end.


and because i'm so obsessive, i took a bunch of pictures too, i didn't think the scan showed the details well enough. blogspot is cutting them off, but if you click them, you can see the full image.








and i just realized i never posted the first 4x4 page i made...

again, the scan doesn't do it justice...

it's corrugated cardboard, with some of the lines showing where i tore the front off. i painted it with a mix of brown shades, with some gold paint mixed in as well. then i took a piece of pattern tissue paper, stamped it a bunch of times in different shades of brown, copper and gold, and glued it onto the cardboard. i painted over it again, so that the stamping barely shows through. the birdies are from a children's book, i scanned them and resized them and printed them and cut them out. i wrote the words on brown cardstock, and inked around the edges, put grommets on them, and threaded them onto ribbon and yarn. glued them down, then made the nest and glued that down too. the nest is organza ribbon, satin ribbon, light brown wool, and this cool brown satin trim that looks like leaves. i smushed it a bit to scan it, it's really 3-D in real life.


brown paisely patterned scrapbooking paper glued to brown cardstock (cause the cardboard needed a bit more support, and the scrapbooking paper wasn't enough). then i glued more of the pattern tissue on, and brushed it with more paint. wrote my info on a piece of brown cardstock, inked the edges, grommeted it, and threaded it on pieces of the brown wool and the cool trim, and glued it down. printed the bird bigger, and glued it on. i wanted it to look like the birds were holding the ribbon and stuff. the general theme for these pages is creativity, and my partner really likes birds.

and again, more pictures.... you can see how sparkly it is better in the pics.


i don't know if they're that much better, but the whole page has a little bit of a metallic sheen from the gold paint i mixed in, and all the inked edges have gold pigment ink as well as the brown. sparkly!

i'm really enjoying the 4x4 size, and since i always have to restrain myself from adding too many 3D elements, i love the chunky part too!

tip in pages and recipe cards!

look at me, posting during the day! amazing!

and you can actually tell that it's daytime, because the sun is out! it's been sunny for about 3 or 4 days now, and it is SO refreshing, god, i hate the rain! spring is definitely coming, the rhubarb is coming up, there's a yellow rose blooming my backyard, i can go outside in just a sweater... oh, i'm so excited for summer. i need warmth. i'm such a cat, there's nothing i love better than curling up in a patch of sunlight for a nap!

so i've got a bunch of stuff to catch up on, i've had multiple tip in pages arrive since i posted last, as well as a chunky 4x4 page. and i realized i never posted the recipe cards i made in december.

the first tip in page
i started with a catalogue card for a book titled "one two buckle my shoe"

(the scan washed it out a bit)
i used a neat background paper that had kids playing, words from a kids primer, polkadots, and an overall wash to blend it all together. i carved stamps for the numbers 1-5 and stamped them all over the background. i scanned vintage buckles, then printed them out and cut them out. i coated them with glossy accents (LOVE that stuff), so that they'd look shiny, like real plastic. then i threaded ribbon through them and glued it on.

the back is more of the same, a piece of the catalogue card and more buckles with ribbon.

(though the scan isn't quite as washed out)

i really loved how the buckles turned out.

another tip in page

the picture of the women is from thepaperfleamarket.com, though i scanned it and adjusted it in photoshop to make it sepia toned before printin it out again the right size. my idea was that they're sitting around reminiscing about a family vacation, hence the "remember when" twill tape. the writing is actually on acetate, but it needed a backing to show up, so it's glued to some white cardstock. i bought this acetate that you can print on using an ink jet, and i'm really not liking it. it works cool, but it's got a wierd texture that makes me unhappy!


the back was stamped with the water technique before everything was glued together, and then i added the vintage bus ticket and the camera stamp. the writing at the top is a packing tape transfer, i've been playing around with those a bit.

it was really time consuming - dyeing all the twill, ironing all the twill, weaving all the twill, etc! (the twill was dyed using dylon hot "coffee" - the darker was left in longer) plus just figuring out how to do the slides between the layers, etc. but i do really like it. the slides came from stifflersmom a long time ago, and i finally got an excuse to use some of them!


and the recipe cards i made! i quite like them, they're pretty simple, so as to not distract from the recipe, but cool nonethless. note that i REALLY don't cook, i'm quite a klutz in the kitchen, but these are family recipes that i quite adore.
i scanned them and printed them out on cardstock for the swap.










i'll post the chunky page in a few minutes... there are A LOT of pictures of it!