i mentioned before that i signed up for the altered altoid tin swap on craftster.org and that i'm seriously obsessing about it. i've never made one before, and doing new things for swaps stresses me out (so why did i join? i can't resist halloween goodness!)
so i'm googling. lots and lots of googling. i found a bunch of tutorials, and rather than just sending them all to my favourites list where they'll never see the light of day again (i NEED to organize that list!), i thought i'd post them here in case anyone else ever obsesses the same way i am!
ribbon and paper tin
paper covered tin
paper covered tin with a primer base
another paper and ribbon tin
a vintage fairy tin tutorial
a free class/tutorial from artchix studio
prepping the tins for altering
a different way to add beads (no drilling)
and here are some inspirational tins...
a whole bunch, including halloween tins
mother tin
oooh, an altered altoid tin flickr group! lots of yummy eye candy!
and here are some random tutorial lists that i know i'll want to go back to!
scrapbooking and card based, but still lots of good ideas
a whole long list of altered art links and tutes
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
needlework, feminism and buttons!
this morning i went to the little intro to PE Design Lite class that i posted about last night. it was interesting, but not particularly relevant to what i've been working on. apparently i'm too far ahead! it turns out that saturday morning is the informal "show and tell" for the shop's customers, so it was neat to see some other people's projects, and people were really impressed with my embroidered rose pendant that i was wearing. i did get a few questions answered, and i'm going to book a one-on-one class to specifically deal with the white space issue i'm having with the sublime stitching pieces. apparently it has something to do with the fact that i'm using satin stitch (but i LOVE satin stitch!), and the stitch length. i'm going to play around a bit more and see if i can figure out how to adjust the stitches more.
my current issue of bitch magazine arrived yesterday (finally! i was getting impatient!), and there were a few things in it that i wanted to mention.
first, fun crosstitch kits! stitch'd ink (who have a um, interesting webname - i can't be the only one who read that differently!) have created a line of vintage tattoo inspired crosstitch kits
they're available in the NZ Cupcake Queen's Etsy store. etsy she also has a blog, which is full of yummy cupcake pictures!
and second, a fundraiser! if you're not familiar with bitch magazine, i suggest you get yourself a copy! (or pick up a copy of the book Bitchfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine, also amazing!) over the years i've gotten pretty damn pissed at various feminist magazines, and have stopped reading them or have taken breaks from reading them (like ms, which was pretentious, like herizons, which was transphobic, like bust, which isn't really very feminist at all, etc). lately i've been reading them again a bit, to see if my opinions have changed, but bitch has been a constant. it's an independant feminist magazine that's interesting, entertaining and current, and sadly, that's rare in our current climate. on october 25, at worksound gallery in portland, there is an art show and silent auction in support of bitch magazine called sm[art]. the deadline for submissions is october 3, which sucks for those of us in canada who didn't get our magazine until now, but if anyone has things that are pre-made, you still have time to donate! for more information, check out the post on their site.
and completely non-related, to go back to the buttony goodness from a few days ago, abuttonlady has some interesting articles on her site, and an ebay workshop as well. definitely worth checking out!
my current issue of bitch magazine arrived yesterday (finally! i was getting impatient!), and there were a few things in it that i wanted to mention.
first, fun crosstitch kits! stitch'd ink (who have a um, interesting webname - i can't be the only one who read that differently!) have created a line of vintage tattoo inspired crosstitch kits
they're available in the NZ Cupcake Queen's Etsy store. etsy she also has a blog, which is full of yummy cupcake pictures!
and second, a fundraiser! if you're not familiar with bitch magazine, i suggest you get yourself a copy! (or pick up a copy of the book Bitchfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine, also amazing!) over the years i've gotten pretty damn pissed at various feminist magazines, and have stopped reading them or have taken breaks from reading them (like ms, which was pretentious, like herizons, which was transphobic, like bust, which isn't really very feminist at all, etc). lately i've been reading them again a bit, to see if my opinions have changed, but bitch has been a constant. it's an independant feminist magazine that's interesting, entertaining and current, and sadly, that's rare in our current climate. on october 25, at worksound gallery in portland, there is an art show and silent auction in support of bitch magazine called sm[art]. the deadline for submissions is october 3, which sucks for those of us in canada who didn't get our magazine until now, but if anyone has things that are pre-made, you still have time to donate! for more information, check out the post on their site.
and completely non-related, to go back to the buttony goodness from a few days ago, abuttonlady has some interesting articles on her site, and an ebay workshop as well. definitely worth checking out!
Friday, September 26, 2008
ideas and rambling
i started this post nearly two hours ago, and then i got distracted looking through craft blogs, and then i realized what time it was, so i had a shower, and then i put in laundry, and then i looked at craft blogs a bit more.... i'm still not even caught up on the blogs that i try to read regularily, yet i can't seem to resist following links....
not much crafting the last few days! yesterday was a crazy stressful day with appointments and stuff, and today was spent running errands, i went to pick up my crosstitch piece made by the fabulous rachel at confessions of a crafter from the post office, and i went to the giant party supply store to pick up a few little things, and i went to the thrift store (i resisted! i barely bought anything! but i was driving by! i had to stop!), and i went to micheals to buy one thing, and after checking out the clearance, left with more than that - but still only $5 total, so not too bad. i managed to find 3 wooden bangles that fit my hands for only $0.66 each - much better than the $6 they were charging before!
the crafting i did do was a bit of spray painting. the sun came out (finally) just as i was about to leave the house, so i backtracked and set up a few things on a newspaper, sprayed them, then left them to dry while i was gone. i bought a bunch of bottlecaps from the cheesy scrapbooking store a while ago that were black on the backside, but they were all scratched, so i spraypainted them to cover that up, and i found a picture frame for $0.35 the other day that i think will fit the crosstitch piece i just finished, but it needed to be touched up too. so very simple spraypainting!
the only other activity of the day was cleaning... ugh!
i picked up a copy of woman's day special interest publications: halloween celebrations today (oddly, i can't find a link it anywhere!). halloween magazines pretty much suck this year, but this one's not bad at all. there were a couple of really neat ideas in it, one of which inspired me to go to micheals today.
i'm absolutely determined to make this! i'd leave it up all year long. i LOVE cuckoo clocks. we had one when i was a kid, and now i have a little one my sister brought me back from switzerland when she was a teenager as well as a few little fake ones. i bought this necklace last month, and i really want to play around with making vinyl cuckoos... but this one would be PERFECT for my bedroom!
and these spiderwebs are very cool...
and these are actually a funny coincidence! earlier today i came across surprise balls on notmartha.org and was thinking about what an awesome swap idea they'd be. there's a swap that's really popular on craftster called the Magic Yarn Ball Swap where goodies are wrapped in a ball of yarn, and the ball is sent with a pattern and the recipient knits or crochets the pattern and the goodies fall out as they progress (though i think most people are impatient and unwind it themselves!). it's a fun swap idea, but i haven't been doing much crochet in a while, and i think the surprise balls would be fun for the non-fiber craftsters (and the lazy ones like me!). it would be like a cross between the magic yarn ball and the jar of whimsies. i was so enthused about the idea that i actually bought a few colours of crepe paper at the party supply store.
and then tonight i was going through the magazine more carefully to scan the previous two pictures, and found this!
they call them charm balls, but they're pretty much the same thing! is that a sign, do you think? once the halloween swaps die down i think i'll suggest it.
in other crafty news, i'm going to a short class tomorrow morning at my brother dealer that's an intro to PE Design Lite. i'm going to take my sublime stitching samples, and see if they can help me figure out how to get rid of the white bits between the colour and the outline. i'm excited to learn more about it and to play around with it more.
the only other crafting i HAVE to do this weekend is hemming my dad's jeans... i HATE hemming, but he's been bugging me for a while, and he is going to look at my car and see if he can make stop making that noise. so i guess i'd better hem them!
and i plan on starting on some swap stuff this weekend. i still have a bit of time, but i need to get my butt in gear! on sunday i'm hoping to go to the i heart crafts bazaar, but it will depend on how i feel. i really really want to though!
i'm also on a search for bottle brush trees, after seeing this tutorial on the misadventures of mama and jack. so cool! i really really want to try it! anything with bleach and/or fabric dye makes me ridiculously happy. they're really cheap from sunshine crafts (also a great place to get clear safety eyes, that's how i found them in the first place), but i'd like them sooner, and besides, i'm not going to pay $8 shipping for $1.69 or $2.99 worth of merchandise! so i need to find them somewhere local. i forgot to check micheals today, but they're probably ridiculously expensive there. maybe a hobby shop? like the kind of place that sells stuff to make train sets and stuff? we'll see.
not much crafting the last few days! yesterday was a crazy stressful day with appointments and stuff, and today was spent running errands, i went to pick up my crosstitch piece made by the fabulous rachel at confessions of a crafter from the post office, and i went to the giant party supply store to pick up a few little things, and i went to the thrift store (i resisted! i barely bought anything! but i was driving by! i had to stop!), and i went to micheals to buy one thing, and after checking out the clearance, left with more than that - but still only $5 total, so not too bad. i managed to find 3 wooden bangles that fit my hands for only $0.66 each - much better than the $6 they were charging before!
the crafting i did do was a bit of spray painting. the sun came out (finally) just as i was about to leave the house, so i backtracked and set up a few things on a newspaper, sprayed them, then left them to dry while i was gone. i bought a bunch of bottlecaps from the cheesy scrapbooking store a while ago that were black on the backside, but they were all scratched, so i spraypainted them to cover that up, and i found a picture frame for $0.35 the other day that i think will fit the crosstitch piece i just finished, but it needed to be touched up too. so very simple spraypainting!
the only other activity of the day was cleaning... ugh!
i picked up a copy of woman's day special interest publications: halloween celebrations today (oddly, i can't find a link it anywhere!). halloween magazines pretty much suck this year, but this one's not bad at all. there were a couple of really neat ideas in it, one of which inspired me to go to micheals today.
i'm absolutely determined to make this! i'd leave it up all year long. i LOVE cuckoo clocks. we had one when i was a kid, and now i have a little one my sister brought me back from switzerland when she was a teenager as well as a few little fake ones. i bought this necklace last month, and i really want to play around with making vinyl cuckoos... but this one would be PERFECT for my bedroom!
and these spiderwebs are very cool...
and these are actually a funny coincidence! earlier today i came across surprise balls on notmartha.org and was thinking about what an awesome swap idea they'd be. there's a swap that's really popular on craftster called the Magic Yarn Ball Swap where goodies are wrapped in a ball of yarn, and the ball is sent with a pattern and the recipient knits or crochets the pattern and the goodies fall out as they progress (though i think most people are impatient and unwind it themselves!). it's a fun swap idea, but i haven't been doing much crochet in a while, and i think the surprise balls would be fun for the non-fiber craftsters (and the lazy ones like me!). it would be like a cross between the magic yarn ball and the jar of whimsies. i was so enthused about the idea that i actually bought a few colours of crepe paper at the party supply store.
and then tonight i was going through the magazine more carefully to scan the previous two pictures, and found this!
they call them charm balls, but they're pretty much the same thing! is that a sign, do you think? once the halloween swaps die down i think i'll suggest it.
in other crafty news, i'm going to a short class tomorrow morning at my brother dealer that's an intro to PE Design Lite. i'm going to take my sublime stitching samples, and see if they can help me figure out how to get rid of the white bits between the colour and the outline. i'm excited to learn more about it and to play around with it more.
the only other crafting i HAVE to do this weekend is hemming my dad's jeans... i HATE hemming, but he's been bugging me for a while, and he is going to look at my car and see if he can make stop making that noise. so i guess i'd better hem them!
and i plan on starting on some swap stuff this weekend. i still have a bit of time, but i need to get my butt in gear! on sunday i'm hoping to go to the i heart crafts bazaar, but it will depend on how i feel. i really really want to though!
i'm also on a search for bottle brush trees, after seeing this tutorial on the misadventures of mama and jack. so cool! i really really want to try it! anything with bleach and/or fabric dye makes me ridiculously happy. they're really cheap from sunshine crafts (also a great place to get clear safety eyes, that's how i found them in the first place), but i'd like them sooner, and besides, i'm not going to pay $8 shipping for $1.69 or $2.99 worth of merchandise! so i need to find them somewhere local. i forgot to check micheals today, but they're probably ridiculously expensive there. maybe a hobby shop? like the kind of place that sells stuff to make train sets and stuff? we'll see.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
i've been a posting fool tonight!
i know! i promise, this is the last post of the night. i've been trying to get caught up on stuff (almost caught up on craftster, finally!), and i keep uploading pics on flickr and then not blogging about them.
as for current crafting, there's not a whole lot going on. my health's been worse for christ, almost 3 months now, so things are going a lot slower than i'd like. i haven't been online as much, and i haven't been crafting as much. i've been sleeping A LOT! and there's been lots of family drama, including a massive leak in my storage shed! it was mostly my stuff - when i moved back in with my parents (when i first got really sick a few years ago) we put all my stuff in there, so all my housewares stuff that i didn't need, and tons of sewing and crafting stuff. it was a nightmare, but luckily we realized it very quickly, and managed to get all the wet boxes inside and set up to dry before much was damaged. my dad reshingled it the next weekend, so it won't happen again, and to ensure it, i've bought about 20 rubbermaid tubs! unfortunately, the cleaning up isn't going so fast. when it happened, we piled all of the boxes on a tarp in the dining room, and though we spent quite a lot of time sorting, and took a whole carload of stuff to the thrift store, the dining room is still a complete disaster. it's both good and bad that we can shut the door on it - if we couldn't, i'm sure it'd be cleaned up by now! i've been waiting on my sister to come help me carry stuff, but she's incredibly busy. plus, i hate sorting! i HAVE found some awesome stuff that i'd forgotten i'd had though! now if i could just get to the dining room table in order to actually cut fabric.....
healthwise, i'm getting better, i think, just slowly, and i'm hoping to get to crafting more soon. i've been working on a crosstitch project, and i FINALLY finished it (i forgot how SLOW crosstitch is!). it's been rinsed, but i still need to press it and frame it. i went looking for a frame today, but no luck so far. i finished off the last of it watching across the universe the other night, and i've had various beatles songs in my head ever since!
i'm in various swaps right now - the jar of whimsies round 3 (my partner is the fabulous kittykill), invite your partner round 10 (the amazing gingerquilts invited me!), the Trick or Treat Altoid Tin swap (racky partnered me with the incredible a-roze), and i'm organizing the alphabet atc MNO swap (i didn't participate because the numbers were off, so i'll have to do personal swaps for those letters.) i have INCREDIBLE partners for all 3 of the swaps i'm participating in, and it's way too stressful! i've been feeling really uninspired about them, i'm sure because i was so overwhelmed, and today i kind of got kickstarted for some reason, and it was so nice to feel inspired again! i'm feeling more like my usual self, and i'm full of ideas about what to make and what to send. i'm still rather nervous about the altoid tin one, because i've never altered an altoid tin before, but i'm thinking about it a bunch, and i've already started on stuff for inside it. i want to do a bunch more research first, and then i'll jump in!
and i finally got around to posting signups for the halloween atc swap, which i'm super excited about! damn, i love halloween so much!
so yeah. things have been kinda rough and crappy, but they're getting better!
in non-crafty news, i tried to do a photoshoot with my sofie last week....she hates having her picture taken, but she tolerates it more when she gets to sit in "her window" while i do it. (it actually is her window - when we renovated this room, my dad couldn't care less about ME being without natural light, but he was determined that sofie needed a window! he built her a special super wide ledge to sit on too!) as a bonus, the window gets great light.
ain't she gorgeous! she is SUCH a little bitch princess, totally momma's baby, spoiled rotten! she rules the roost around here, the other cats are all scared of her.
look at her giant feet! sofie's got 26 toes instead of the usual 18. bonus points if you can figure out where she got her name from!
as for current crafting, there's not a whole lot going on. my health's been worse for christ, almost 3 months now, so things are going a lot slower than i'd like. i haven't been online as much, and i haven't been crafting as much. i've been sleeping A LOT! and there's been lots of family drama, including a massive leak in my storage shed! it was mostly my stuff - when i moved back in with my parents (when i first got really sick a few years ago) we put all my stuff in there, so all my housewares stuff that i didn't need, and tons of sewing and crafting stuff. it was a nightmare, but luckily we realized it very quickly, and managed to get all the wet boxes inside and set up to dry before much was damaged. my dad reshingled it the next weekend, so it won't happen again, and to ensure it, i've bought about 20 rubbermaid tubs! unfortunately, the cleaning up isn't going so fast. when it happened, we piled all of the boxes on a tarp in the dining room, and though we spent quite a lot of time sorting, and took a whole carload of stuff to the thrift store, the dining room is still a complete disaster. it's both good and bad that we can shut the door on it - if we couldn't, i'm sure it'd be cleaned up by now! i've been waiting on my sister to come help me carry stuff, but she's incredibly busy. plus, i hate sorting! i HAVE found some awesome stuff that i'd forgotten i'd had though! now if i could just get to the dining room table in order to actually cut fabric.....
healthwise, i'm getting better, i think, just slowly, and i'm hoping to get to crafting more soon. i've been working on a crosstitch project, and i FINALLY finished it (i forgot how SLOW crosstitch is!). it's been rinsed, but i still need to press it and frame it. i went looking for a frame today, but no luck so far. i finished off the last of it watching across the universe the other night, and i've had various beatles songs in my head ever since!
i'm in various swaps right now - the jar of whimsies round 3 (my partner is the fabulous kittykill), invite your partner round 10 (the amazing gingerquilts invited me!), the Trick or Treat Altoid Tin swap (racky partnered me with the incredible a-roze), and i'm organizing the alphabet atc MNO swap (i didn't participate because the numbers were off, so i'll have to do personal swaps for those letters.) i have INCREDIBLE partners for all 3 of the swaps i'm participating in, and it's way too stressful! i've been feeling really uninspired about them, i'm sure because i was so overwhelmed, and today i kind of got kickstarted for some reason, and it was so nice to feel inspired again! i'm feeling more like my usual self, and i'm full of ideas about what to make and what to send. i'm still rather nervous about the altoid tin one, because i've never altered an altoid tin before, but i'm thinking about it a bunch, and i've already started on stuff for inside it. i want to do a bunch more research first, and then i'll jump in!
and i finally got around to posting signups for the halloween atc swap, which i'm super excited about! damn, i love halloween so much!
so yeah. things have been kinda rough and crappy, but they're getting better!
in non-crafty news, i tried to do a photoshoot with my sofie last week....she hates having her picture taken, but she tolerates it more when she gets to sit in "her window" while i do it. (it actually is her window - when we renovated this room, my dad couldn't care less about ME being without natural light, but he was determined that sofie needed a window! he built her a special super wide ledge to sit on too!) as a bonus, the window gets great light.
ain't she gorgeous! she is SUCH a little bitch princess, totally momma's baby, spoiled rotten! she rules the roost around here, the other cats are all scared of her.
look at her giant feet! sofie's got 26 toes instead of the usual 18. bonus points if you can figure out where she got her name from!
mm, button love!
i ADORE buttons. i have a ridiculously unhealthy amount of buttons. seriously.
i was looking through oodles and oodles today, and saw a few posts about buttons... oh, so pretty! (the most recent issue of threads has an article about buttons too, so i've kinda had buttons on the brain lately)
the part that amused me was the comments about how many buttons she had! that's barely any! i'm sure she has more hidden away, since all button hoarders seem to, but even so... i cringe to imagine what her commenters would say about how many i have!
this is my button box. note that it is overflowing. it is frickin heavy. also note that i have many more buttons stashed in various places around the house. as a matter of fact, i bought more the other day that aren't in this pile. when you think about how small buttons are, that's A LOT of buttons.
this bag is full.....
and those cardboard pieces sticking out of the left side of the box? they're full of buttons too!
see?
the green tupperware is also full to the brim, of pretty good ones.
(side note - i LOVE those tupperware containers! i have them in two depths, and they're AWESOME! i wish i could find more of them, and i wish they weren't only in ugly colours!)
here are some of the baggies inside (the pic was taken over a year ago, but they're still the same!)
very few of these are new buttons. very very few! i generally hate new buttons, and buy them only when absolutely necessary (such as with the owl garland and the owl ornaments). and most of them have been sorted already, so there are very few "crap" buttons in this box. locally i find buttons most often in small bags or sets, or on cards, so i only buy the ones i like. and when i buy buttons back home (oh, prairie thrift stores, how i adore thee....), i usually sort them before i leave, to avoid lugging 5 times as many (or more) buttons home with me.
i particularly love BIG buttons, like the kind that were often used on 60s swing coats, and bright plastic ones. i'm not a button snob, i buy ones i like, regardless of their "value", though it would be kinda cool to discover that i have something insanely expensive or something!
so yeah. i have a button problem! (i also thought it was amusing when she suggested a muffin tray for sorting - much too small for me!) i thought it was okay if i could contain it to one box, but apparently i've passed that point without realizing it... one day i'll find a way to properly store them all, as it is right now, what isn't loose is in ziplocks by colour. and i think i'm going to hang some of the boards of buttons on the wall in my studio, i just haven't gotten the floor in there clear enough for a stepladder yet! i also want to try checking some of them to see if they're bakelite, especially after seeing this post (via craftzine, apparently that's how i found oodlesandoodles!). that sounds so much easier than rubbing them until your fingers are sore! and one day i'll get around to taking pictures of some of my favourites to post here... i'm particularly fond of my curling set (curling! i'm so canadian sometimes!), and the little 40s cigarette pack.... oh, and the ones with rhinestones.... and the brightly coloured cut out onew.... that might be a big post!
i was looking through oodles and oodles today, and saw a few posts about buttons... oh, so pretty! (the most recent issue of threads has an article about buttons too, so i've kinda had buttons on the brain lately)
the part that amused me was the comments about how many buttons she had! that's barely any! i'm sure she has more hidden away, since all button hoarders seem to, but even so... i cringe to imagine what her commenters would say about how many i have!
this is my button box. note that it is overflowing. it is frickin heavy. also note that i have many more buttons stashed in various places around the house. as a matter of fact, i bought more the other day that aren't in this pile. when you think about how small buttons are, that's A LOT of buttons.
this bag is full.....
and those cardboard pieces sticking out of the left side of the box? they're full of buttons too!
see?
the green tupperware is also full to the brim, of pretty good ones.
(side note - i LOVE those tupperware containers! i have them in two depths, and they're AWESOME! i wish i could find more of them, and i wish they weren't only in ugly colours!)
here are some of the baggies inside (the pic was taken over a year ago, but they're still the same!)
very few of these are new buttons. very very few! i generally hate new buttons, and buy them only when absolutely necessary (such as with the owl garland and the owl ornaments). and most of them have been sorted already, so there are very few "crap" buttons in this box. locally i find buttons most often in small bags or sets, or on cards, so i only buy the ones i like. and when i buy buttons back home (oh, prairie thrift stores, how i adore thee....), i usually sort them before i leave, to avoid lugging 5 times as many (or more) buttons home with me.
i particularly love BIG buttons, like the kind that were often used on 60s swing coats, and bright plastic ones. i'm not a button snob, i buy ones i like, regardless of their "value", though it would be kinda cool to discover that i have something insanely expensive or something!
so yeah. i have a button problem! (i also thought it was amusing when she suggested a muffin tray for sorting - much too small for me!) i thought it was okay if i could contain it to one box, but apparently i've passed that point without realizing it... one day i'll find a way to properly store them all, as it is right now, what isn't loose is in ziplocks by colour. and i think i'm going to hang some of the boards of buttons on the wall in my studio, i just haven't gotten the floor in there clear enough for a stepladder yet! i also want to try checking some of them to see if they're bakelite, especially after seeing this post (via craftzine, apparently that's how i found oodlesandoodles!). that sounds so much easier than rubbing them until your fingers are sore! and one day i'll get around to taking pictures of some of my favourites to post here... i'm particularly fond of my curling set (curling! i'm so canadian sometimes!), and the little 40s cigarette pack.... oh, and the ones with rhinestones.... and the brightly coloured cut out onew.... that might be a big post!
craigslist score!
last week my little sister found a listing on craigslist that said "estate: suitcase of knitting patterns" she e-mailed me the link, and i e-mailed the poster, even though it had already been up for a day. i totally wasn't expecting it to still be available, but it was!
i went and picked it up the next morning, and it's awesome! there are a lot of mid-80s patterns, not tacky enough to be fun, but just a little too tacky to make, if you know what i mean, and some are mid-60s and cool, but there were also some absolute gems! the suitcase itself makes me happy too. it's in rough shape, but i don't care, i adore vintage suitcases.
i don't knit, but i do crochet, and a lot of the books had both, or were cool enough that the images themselves were the best part!
i SO need to learn to knit! the elves with their fat bellies are the best (they call them pixies, actually), but i love the kitschy cuteness of the kittens too!
i love the little green hat with pixie front and the pompom on top. if i had kids i'd totally make them wear hats like that!
also, those red slipper/socks? ouchie! i don't understand buttons on the sides of socks, don't they dig into your ankles whenever you sit down?
this one was printed in germany on US soil (which i totally didn't even know existed!), so that explains the knitted shorts! the poodle totally makes me giggle.
i'm definitely going to be scanning them for my own use (artwork, etc), but i'm also looking into copyright stuff to see if i can scan any of them and post them for others. it's a bit more complicated because the majority of the patterns are canadian and british.
aren't they fun?
i went and picked it up the next morning, and it's awesome! there are a lot of mid-80s patterns, not tacky enough to be fun, but just a little too tacky to make, if you know what i mean, and some are mid-60s and cool, but there were also some absolute gems! the suitcase itself makes me happy too. it's in rough shape, but i don't care, i adore vintage suitcases.
i don't knit, but i do crochet, and a lot of the books had both, or were cool enough that the images themselves were the best part!
i SO need to learn to knit! the elves with their fat bellies are the best (they call them pixies, actually), but i love the kitschy cuteness of the kittens too!
i love the little green hat with pixie front and the pompom on top. if i had kids i'd totally make them wear hats like that!
also, those red slipper/socks? ouchie! i don't understand buttons on the sides of socks, don't they dig into your ankles whenever you sit down?
this one was printed in germany on US soil (which i totally didn't even know existed!), so that explains the knitted shorts! the poodle totally makes me giggle.
i'm definitely going to be scanning them for my own use (artwork, etc), but i'm also looking into copyright stuff to see if i can scan any of them and post them for others. it's a bit more complicated because the majority of the patterns are canadian and british.
aren't they fun?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
WAHOO!! my new toy! (and sublime stitching!)
so! i mentioned that i made a rather big purchase at the sewing machine/fabric store.... i bought PE Design Lite!
it was ridiculously expensive, and i totally couldn't afford it, and i totally shouldn't have bought it, but i did, and it's so much fun, so whatever. i borrowed the money to buy it, and i'll be paying it back over the next few months, and i think it's worth the smaller craft budget i'll have in the meantime.
i had to order it, and then wait impatiently for it to arrive (patience is not my strong suit!) i was just going to buy the PED Basic so that i could download patterns cause that was about $300 less, but it's been discontinued in canada, and the woman at my brother dealer totally convinced me that the PE Design Lite was worth it to be able to make my own simple designs. i was originally told that the PED Basic was discontinued, period, and was rather irritated to discover that it wasn't really, it was just discontinued in canada, but i don't think she was trying to lie to me, i think she just didn't know, because when i told her the price i was seeing from US sellers, she said it was because it was discontinued. but this is good anyway, it's way more fun than the PED Basic would have been!
it's really fun, and it'll do for now, and it's giving me an opportunity to experiment with the Brother software without buying the $1000 PE Design 8. i've been playing around with it a bit, and it definitely has some limitations, though i'm not sure if the limitations are due to my lack of knowledge, or the software itself - a combo of the two is most likely i think. i need to go back to the brother with my samples and see if they have any suggestions. i'm rather intrigued by Embird as well, as it's much less expensive than the PE Design 8, so i might try switching to that whenever i decide to upgrade (not going to be any time soon though!).
after playing around a bit, i used it to digitize Sublime Stitching patterns for machine embroidery, and while some of the results weren't as good as i'd hoped, some of them turned out awesome! i was getting really frustrated trying to get the images "good enough" for the software to process them (it seems rather temperamental), but a friend gave me some tips on how to adjust the images in photoshop (i found the "stroke" option, and my paint bucket isn't hiding anymore! wahoo!), so i'm getting a lot better results. (all of the coloured in designs were coloured in photoshop before digitizing) my first ones were MUCH worse than these!
from the black apple pattern set
outline only
(i obviously forgot to trim that thread before i scanned it!)
coloured in
(there's entirely too much space between the outline and the colour, they should be butting up against each other. i don't know how to fix that. and i messed up and set the shirt and the hair to embroider in fill stitch, which i don't like as much as satin stitch, especially for the hair, because i think it looks like he has a buzz cut!)
outline only
coloured in
(i don't feel like the colour is consistent - like it's not filled in enough. i don't know. i think there's a way to adjust that, i just haven't figured it out yet!)
from the forest friends pattern set
outline only hedgie
(i did this one before i figured out how to change the stroke size in photoshop, and i think the outline is a bit too narrow. he'd pop a lot more if the lines were a bit thicker i think)
outline only deer
deer with some colouring
(crappy scan, i'm sorry! the scanner hates the khaki brown i used. but the colour matches up with the outlines really good in this one!)
from the sexy librarians pattern set
glasses
typewriter
(look at all that white space between the colour and the border! argh! and i cut one of the pink satin stitched threads while trimming the black threads! whoops! i'm going to go back and edit the pattern so that the keys of the typewriter are sewn first, then i can stop and cut all those threads BEFORE the body of the typewriter is embroidered!)
from the vital organs pattern set
(this one turned out SO GOOD! i love it!!)
and this one's not from a sublime stitching pattern, it was a freebie i downloaded online. it's designed to be embroidered with a much heavier thread, so it doesn't cover as well, but i like the design. i don't know anything at all about embroidering with wool, like this design called for, it's something else to look into!
so it's fun. super time consuming, but definitely fun! i need to find the rest of my sublime stitching patterns (there's a reason why these are all newer designs, that's all i could find!). from what i can see on the sublime stitching website, it's A-OK to do these, because they're based on patterns i've already purchased and these aren't for sale or anything like that. i've been trying to use clipart as well, but scanning the images seems to work better.
it was ridiculously expensive, and i totally couldn't afford it, and i totally shouldn't have bought it, but i did, and it's so much fun, so whatever. i borrowed the money to buy it, and i'll be paying it back over the next few months, and i think it's worth the smaller craft budget i'll have in the meantime.
i had to order it, and then wait impatiently for it to arrive (patience is not my strong suit!) i was just going to buy the PED Basic so that i could download patterns cause that was about $300 less, but it's been discontinued in canada, and the woman at my brother dealer totally convinced me that the PE Design Lite was worth it to be able to make my own simple designs. i was originally told that the PED Basic was discontinued, period, and was rather irritated to discover that it wasn't really, it was just discontinued in canada, but i don't think she was trying to lie to me, i think she just didn't know, because when i told her the price i was seeing from US sellers, she said it was because it was discontinued. but this is good anyway, it's way more fun than the PED Basic would have been!
it's really fun, and it'll do for now, and it's giving me an opportunity to experiment with the Brother software without buying the $1000 PE Design 8. i've been playing around with it a bit, and it definitely has some limitations, though i'm not sure if the limitations are due to my lack of knowledge, or the software itself - a combo of the two is most likely i think. i need to go back to the brother with my samples and see if they have any suggestions. i'm rather intrigued by Embird as well, as it's much less expensive than the PE Design 8, so i might try switching to that whenever i decide to upgrade (not going to be any time soon though!).
after playing around a bit, i used it to digitize Sublime Stitching patterns for machine embroidery, and while some of the results weren't as good as i'd hoped, some of them turned out awesome! i was getting really frustrated trying to get the images "good enough" for the software to process them (it seems rather temperamental), but a friend gave me some tips on how to adjust the images in photoshop (i found the "stroke" option, and my paint bucket isn't hiding anymore! wahoo!), so i'm getting a lot better results. (all of the coloured in designs were coloured in photoshop before digitizing) my first ones were MUCH worse than these!
from the black apple pattern set
outline only
(i obviously forgot to trim that thread before i scanned it!)
coloured in
(there's entirely too much space between the outline and the colour, they should be butting up against each other. i don't know how to fix that. and i messed up and set the shirt and the hair to embroider in fill stitch, which i don't like as much as satin stitch, especially for the hair, because i think it looks like he has a buzz cut!)
outline only
coloured in
(i don't feel like the colour is consistent - like it's not filled in enough. i don't know. i think there's a way to adjust that, i just haven't figured it out yet!)
from the forest friends pattern set
outline only hedgie
(i did this one before i figured out how to change the stroke size in photoshop, and i think the outline is a bit too narrow. he'd pop a lot more if the lines were a bit thicker i think)
outline only deer
deer with some colouring
(crappy scan, i'm sorry! the scanner hates the khaki brown i used. but the colour matches up with the outlines really good in this one!)
from the sexy librarians pattern set
glasses
typewriter
(look at all that white space between the colour and the border! argh! and i cut one of the pink satin stitched threads while trimming the black threads! whoops! i'm going to go back and edit the pattern so that the keys of the typewriter are sewn first, then i can stop and cut all those threads BEFORE the body of the typewriter is embroidered!)
from the vital organs pattern set
(this one turned out SO GOOD! i love it!!)
and this one's not from a sublime stitching pattern, it was a freebie i downloaded online. it's designed to be embroidered with a much heavier thread, so it doesn't cover as well, but i like the design. i don't know anything at all about embroidering with wool, like this design called for, it's something else to look into!
so it's fun. super time consuming, but definitely fun! i need to find the rest of my sublime stitching patterns (there's a reason why these are all newer designs, that's all i could find!). from what i can see on the sublime stitching website, it's A-OK to do these, because they're based on patterns i've already purchased and these aren't for sale or anything like that. i've been trying to use clipart as well, but scanning the images seems to work better.
Kitschy Rose Tea Towels!
i wanted to make a present for Leah in appreciation of everything she's done for alwaysinmyroom and i with the master crafters brother campaign, but it had to be quick, because i wanted to mail it to her when i mailed all the stuff i made. (she and her husband took awesome pictures of everything for me!)
i was wracking my brain trying to figure out what i thought she'd like, what would fit in with her house, based on the little bit of it i saw in a magazine article ages ago, when i realized that non-traditional flower colours would totally fit with leah's love of kitsch!
did i mention that i decided to make these the night before i had to mail the package? oops!
so i drove around to multiple stores trying to find solid coloured tea towels that weren't white, and finally found this awesome green ones. score! i hustled home and preshrank them, and started going through my patterns while i was waiting for them to dry. i found the perfect roses on the Lace II memory card.
so i ironed the towels, marked the centre, and got to embroidering!
i used a tear away stabilizer on the backside, and a dissolving stabilizer on the front, since the towels had a bit of a waffle weave.
the next morning i trimmed around the dissolving stabilizer and then threw it in with a load of laundry, thinking it would dissolve easily in the washer while i went to my dr's appointment. when i got back, i tossed the load in the dryer without even checking the stabilizer. oops! when i pulled them out of the dryer to iron, right before i had to go mail the package, the stabilizer had dried into hard clumps around the embroidery!
so i gave up on the idea of mailing them along with everything else, and plopped them in a sink full of water, hoping that they were salvageable. when i got back from the post office, the stabilizer had dissolved, thank goodness! i threw them in the wash again (good thing i had laundry to do anyway!), and by the time they came out of the dryer, they were perfect. crisis averted!
i learned my lesson though! from now on i'm going to dissolve the majority of the stabilizer in the sink before i put the items in the washer! someone on craftster suggested spritzing them with a spray bottle full of warm water, which seems like a good idea as well. i REALLY dislike how the stabilizer feels on your hands as it dissolves (it's slimey! it grosses me out), so a spritz bottle sounds less better!
i love how the blue thread pops on the green!
after all that, i had to send them USPS anyway, but at least they turned out cute!
i was wracking my brain trying to figure out what i thought she'd like, what would fit in with her house, based on the little bit of it i saw in a magazine article ages ago, when i realized that non-traditional flower colours would totally fit with leah's love of kitsch!
did i mention that i decided to make these the night before i had to mail the package? oops!
so i drove around to multiple stores trying to find solid coloured tea towels that weren't white, and finally found this awesome green ones. score! i hustled home and preshrank them, and started going through my patterns while i was waiting for them to dry. i found the perfect roses on the Lace II memory card.
so i ironed the towels, marked the centre, and got to embroidering!
i used a tear away stabilizer on the backside, and a dissolving stabilizer on the front, since the towels had a bit of a waffle weave.
the next morning i trimmed around the dissolving stabilizer and then threw it in with a load of laundry, thinking it would dissolve easily in the washer while i went to my dr's appointment. when i got back, i tossed the load in the dryer without even checking the stabilizer. oops! when i pulled them out of the dryer to iron, right before i had to go mail the package, the stabilizer had dried into hard clumps around the embroidery!
so i gave up on the idea of mailing them along with everything else, and plopped them in a sink full of water, hoping that they were salvageable. when i got back from the post office, the stabilizer had dissolved, thank goodness! i threw them in the wash again (good thing i had laundry to do anyway!), and by the time they came out of the dryer, they were perfect. crisis averted!
i learned my lesson though! from now on i'm going to dissolve the majority of the stabilizer in the sink before i put the items in the washer! someone on craftster suggested spritzing them with a spray bottle full of warm water, which seems like a good idea as well. i REALLY dislike how the stabilizer feels on your hands as it dissolves (it's slimey! it grosses me out), so a spritz bottle sounds less better!
i love how the blue thread pops on the green!
after all that, i had to send them USPS anyway, but at least they turned out cute!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
dotees round 2!
the last of these was actually received a week or more ago, i'm just behind. (surprised? you shouldn't be!)
i was running late for round 2 of this swap, and i of course felt guilty about it (it's that catholic guilt thing), so i decided to make everyone two dotees. plus my dotees weren't really all that traditional, so i was worried....
so! enough babbling, onto the pics!
i made 3 with gold, 2 with baby pink, and 2 with bright blue. i only needed 6 for the swap, the 7th was for a friend.
eyes are gold and black craft eyes, the wings are gold vinyl stamped with stazOn black ink, then sewn to another layer of gold (ie, the wings are plain vinyl on the back) the stamp was the flying heart stamp autumn leaves stamp set gypsy style by rhonna farrer.
eyes are pink and red albino craft eyes, the wings are baby pink vinyl stamped with stazOn red ink, then sewn to another layer of pink (ie, the wings are plain vinyl on the back). the stamp was the flying heart stamp from autumn leaves stamp set gypsy style by rhonna farrer.
the eyes were blue and black craft eyes, the wings are blue vinyl stamped with stazOn black ink, then sewn to another layer of blue (ie, the wings are plain vinyl on the back). stamp was the skeleton butterfly i think blue ones are my favourites!
and the second set!
- diamond stamp is from www.savvystamps.com
- believe stamp is from www.purpleorangearts.com
- stitches stamp is from stampers anonymous
- square with stars stamp was $1 on sale at collage, no brand visible
- knitting and crocheting stamps are from www.sideshowstamps.com
- doodle stamp is from stampin' up!
- create stamp is from www.invokearts.com
- stitches stamp is from stampers anonymous
- pen nib stamp from www.alphastamps.com
- curlicues are the top of a stamp from paperbag studios
- life stamp is from www.purpleorangearts.com
- striped stamp from www.savvystamps.com
- clock set from www.invokearts.com
- inspire stamp from www.invokearts.com
- clock set from www.invokearts.com
- "art" from www.alphastamps.com
- inspire stamp from www.invokearts.com
- sacred heart stamp from www.invokearts.com
- flower stamp from large set that i believe is autumn leaves, but i lost the insert ages ago
- numbers/lines from a Paperbag Studios set
i have to say, i was MUCH happier with my dotees this round than the first one! however, i probably won't join another round. they're fun to make, but there are just so many other things i could be making!
i was running late for round 2 of this swap, and i of course felt guilty about it (it's that catholic guilt thing), so i decided to make everyone two dotees. plus my dotees weren't really all that traditional, so i was worried....
so! enough babbling, onto the pics!
i made 3 with gold, 2 with baby pink, and 2 with bright blue. i only needed 6 for the swap, the 7th was for a friend.
eyes are gold and black craft eyes, the wings are gold vinyl stamped with stazOn black ink, then sewn to another layer of gold (ie, the wings are plain vinyl on the back) the stamp was the flying heart stamp autumn leaves stamp set gypsy style by rhonna farrer.
eyes are pink and red albino craft eyes, the wings are baby pink vinyl stamped with stazOn red ink, then sewn to another layer of pink (ie, the wings are plain vinyl on the back). the stamp was the flying heart stamp from autumn leaves stamp set gypsy style by rhonna farrer.
the eyes were blue and black craft eyes, the wings are blue vinyl stamped with stazOn black ink, then sewn to another layer of blue (ie, the wings are plain vinyl on the back). stamp was the skeleton butterfly i think blue ones are my favourites!
and the second set!
- diamond stamp is from www.savvystamps.com
- believe stamp is from www.purpleorangearts.com
- stitches stamp is from stampers anonymous
- square with stars stamp was $1 on sale at collage, no brand visible
- knitting and crocheting stamps are from www.sideshowstamps.com
- doodle stamp is from stampin' up!
- create stamp is from www.invokearts.com
- stitches stamp is from stampers anonymous
- pen nib stamp from www.alphastamps.com
- curlicues are the top of a stamp from paperbag studios
- life stamp is from www.purpleorangearts.com
- striped stamp from www.savvystamps.com
- clock set from www.invokearts.com
- inspire stamp from www.invokearts.com
- clock set from www.invokearts.com
- "art" from www.alphastamps.com
- inspire stamp from www.invokearts.com
- sacred heart stamp from www.invokearts.com
- flower stamp from large set that i believe is autumn leaves, but i lost the insert ages ago
- numbers/lines from a Paperbag Studios set
i have to say, i was MUCH happier with my dotees this round than the first one! however, i probably won't join another round. they're fun to make, but there are just so many other things i could be making!
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