more halloween wreaths

i finished a couple more wreaths. these ones are WAY faster than the other, only about half an hour each. amazing what a time saver the glue gun is!

they're both made of a flat wood wreath form from the dollar store that i painted, then wrapped garland around. (each wreath used two garlands to cover them)

the orange wreath

a black cat wire garland, little plastic pumpkin ornaments, orange mardi gras beads, black spider rings with the rings cut off, and halloween ribbon.

the fang wreath

(the flash made a few of the irridescent bats look orange, but they're not)

i got those cheapy plastic fangs and drilled holes in them, then used black embroidery floss to tie them into a biting shape. i threaded them onto a third garland to look like they were biting it, and wrapped that around. i added the irridescent bat garland, the purple spider rings with the ring part cut off, and the little purple flies.

i think they're so fun! and they were pretty cheap. i have a ton of halloween stuff already, so the base supplies were about $3 or $4 each, and then the extras. i probably spent about $10 for the two of them.

i've still got one more like this to finish, but i need to go buy more black garland. and then i have a grape vine wreath that i want to put halloween ATCs on too.

seamrippers

i always thought seamrippers was pretty cool. i'm impressed with the stuff they put together, even if my craft fair experiences with them have never been particularily... well, let's just say there are often some organization issues with collective type groups. and i think they've gotten much better anyway, so that's probably irrelevant now.

i always wanted to go to events and workshops, but their parties were completely overwhelming and innaccessible (and, um kinda gross - sweaty walls! though that was a good party), and the workshops were either never anything i was excited enough about to take a workshop on, or something i already knew how to do (which sounds conceited, i guess).

i was always kinda intimidated by the coolness factor, and i think, unfortunately, that i let other people's negative opinions about seamrippers affect the way i thought. which is sucky of me, really. luckily, those particular negative people are no longer part of my life (yay!).

so. seamrippers has decided to do craft socials instead of workshops this fall, and i really want to try to go to at least one or two. they're themed, but you can bring your own stuff to work on, and they're at one of my favourite places, rhizome.

Rhizome Cafe -317 East Broadway, Vancouver
Every-other Tuesday at 7:00pm.
Instruction and supplies will be provided by donation.

the schedule:
Tues Oct 2nd- Embroidery
Tues Oct16th - Knitting
Tues Oct 30th - hand sewing animal hoods and tails
Tues Nov 13th - CRAFT SUPPLY SWAP!
Tues Nov 27th - doll making
Tues Dec 11th - seasonal pop up cards

one of my biggest problems with "craft nights" is the prep time involved - i never have my shit together enough to have a hand project ready to go. however, now that i've started embroidering again, i DO have SEVERAL projects waiting to go! so no problem!

well, except for the energy required to drive into vancouver. at least they're evening, and late enough that i can avoid rushhour. so hopefully i'll be able to go.

eyeball wreath

i finished this tonight.



i have three more i'm half done, but they're all different than this one.


i bought the wreath at micheals about a year and a half ago and never got around to spraypainting it, and i finally did a few days ago.

then i took all the eyeballs and drilled two holes in each one (they're like pingpong balls with the eyes painted on) and threaded them all onto embroidery floss with a few black pony beads between them. i wrapped the eyeball garland around, took a purple and a black mardi gras necklace and cut them open and wrapped them too. then i laid out all the gummy bats and spiders, which i'd drilled holes in earlier (i love my drill press!). i took a super long piece of black embroidery floss and sewed it all together to keep everything in place, and then i added all the bright colourful rings - i just threaded them onto pieces of the wreath to keep them in place.

i am SOOO GLAD to finally finish something! i have all these projects i'm half done or close to being done, and FINALLY, something is finished. i'm satisfied.

cool site

i found this the other day and forgot to post it.

it's a project done in sweden that teaches people who are in wheelchairs how to sew clothes that are suited for a sitting position, and it looks really cool. it's got some patterns, and some interesting info about what kinds of alterations are required when you spend your life sitting.

wedding crochet

when one of the other mods on craftster was planning her wedding, she had an idea for how we could all "share" in the wedding without actually being there.

emily (emilyflew) sent balls of yarn to all the mods who wanted to participate, and asked that we knit or crochet a piece for her. the only requirement was that it be 3 feet long, it could be as wide as we wanted. then we all sent them back to her before her wedding, and she seamed them together to create a a beautiful piece to decorate the space on her wedding day.

she posted the full piece on craftster here.

these are the two pieces i sent - closeups only, unfortunately! (click on the pics to see the full image)


fishnet with seed beads in orange and yellow, her wedding colours.


and shells.

the yarn was super lovely, very very fine mohair, and it was much nicer to work with than i'd expected! one day i'll make a shawl or something out of similar yarn, it would be fabulous! (but i won't do the fishnet, cause that took forever!)