Gnome Home

An interesting piece of firewood became a home for a small little man today. He was out gathering mushrooms when he found this new home.

The wood before

His new home!

And the mushrooms that were for dinner...

The whole land.

Fauna of Big Sur

Some photos from my weekend trip

Swap results!

So I sent out my swap envelope last week

And received mine in return today

In the envelope was :

a mix cd
some easterish flower stickers
some cartoonish bee stickers
a fabric flower
take out menus from a wings place near the city i live in (weird... why would i want this?)
a blank lamb card
a small red ribbon
- and the best thing was : a bone tribal pendant

Worth it? Sure! I'm signed up for the next one!

First time embossing!

I've been wanting to try this for a while and today was the day. I bought a heat tool, an embossing pad, and embossing powder.

The finished product

I learned that you should make sure that most of the stray pieces are gone. I like a little, but this was much.

BY THE WAY -----> I love Martha Stewart glitter. Love love love. I almost bought the multi-pack today but I couldn't being myself to spend $30 on glitter. Look at how tiny the glitter specks are. Flawless.

Felt Hair Clip

Thursday at work a little girl wore this amazingly cute felt hair clip, and I was jealous.

I took a look at it, and when she was picked up I asked her mom where she got it. She said that there was a little boutique in some "far off land" where a woman made them. I will never go there, so I decided to make my own.

This is the journey of the first one.

First I traced some shapes onto felt that I layered.

Then, came the sewing machine. I sewed each layer separate to make sure each part would lay flat. Any tips on sewing in a circle? I'm not very talented at that.

The clip got a layer of ribbon for looks (hot glued)

Then I just hot glued the felt onto the clip.

I received many compliments today on this clip, and was even told I should sell them... maybe one day people, maybe one day...
I bought more felt today so more on the way!

wildflower walk

I made a pact to exercise most days, and today I had some time to do an outdoor walk/climb. There are these stairs by my house that are really steep and there are some amazing things to see.
Poppies are my all time favorite flowerThey go all the way up!Who ate your tail, mr.?Hiding!

Stuffed envelope swap

My stuffed envelope went out today (to Texas) and this is what was inside
Pencils, tea, stickers, a line drawing, a postcard, scrap yarn, little packages of beads and jewels, paperclip and pouch, a stamped card of my dog, all wrapped in wonderful scrap silk that I found, or packed in shiny envelopes.

I made a couple of handmade items to use for this swap. My partner said that she like colored paperclips, so I made a little pouch for them.

For an envelope border I used a leftover piece of rubber I had and free-handed a design.
What started out as a simple vine...

Turned into this!

Finished Zoe

I finished Zoe this weekend, and she turned out pretty well for a first attempt. I passed her along to a friend and hopefully she was enjoyed.

Zoe Doll

I'm making a doll that I want to give to a little friend of mine, and it is the first time that I've made a doll like this. It has been pretty challenging.

First I made a rough drawing on the fabric.

After that I just started sewing. I figured it would work out for the best, and that was not the best plan. The best I can say is that Zoe has an interesting body. Maybe she was in an accident, or maybe she was born that way....

My idea for hair was to use yarn, so I just sewed it on the inside of the head. This was more difficult than I thought it would be because my sewing machine doesn't have a ton of room between the needle and the base of the machine. In the end I didn't get as thick of hair as I was hoping, but I was able to fluff out the yarn a bit.

Then after turning it right side out (I used a chopstick for the thin parts), I stuffed it with regular stuffing that you can buy at any craft store.

I sewed the opening shut, and covered it (somewhat) with the hair. Zoe loves ponytails, just like me. It covers up her scar really well. Her eyes are bright blue, just like my friends', and hopefully, they connect well...
Hand detail...

More details will be embroidered another night!
If anyone has noticed, I'm a huge fan of having a million projects going at once. I honestly have 3 others things going that I really need to finish.... oh well. I'm sure this is a fault of many a crafter.

Preserving Flowers

I was organizing some photos and I came across this project that I did a while back. I made a sort of "boutonniere".

I dehydrated roses using a food dehydrator. Depending on what you are making, it may be best to just hang the flowers to dry upside down. It takes longer, but preserves lighter color flowers better.


After dehydrating, I dipped them in flower preserving resin (available in the flower section of Michaels). It is super bad smelling and you should do this outside if you can.


The flowers dried with long resin drops, which were beautiful, but I ended up cutting them off.

After this I wrapped the stems in ribbon with beads.


I still have these and I'm not sure what to do with them... Any ideas? I might send one to my swap buddy if they like flowers...

Manchester Orchestra 3/10/2010

A couple good ones from the show last night.

Swap-Bot

I found/joined a new, amazing website today called

SWAP-BOT

http://www.swap-bot.com/

This is amazing for me because I love receiving and sending mail, and getting things that I never thought of making/buying for crafting. It really opens up a world of possibilites.
I also realize now that I'm just not ready to sell my things, mainly because I don't have the time. For now, I am confined to making things for friends and relatives, being commissioned for crafts, and swapping.

I feel like swapping will encourage me to create things I would not have normally think of.
I hope this encourages you to find swaps also!

Red Turq Jewelry

My engagement photo shoot is coming up next weekend and I've been searching for some pink jewelry to complement my outfit. I was unable to find anything at all, so I decided to make my own out of

SPREE!!!

just kidding, its Red Turquoise which I don't think is a naturally occurring stone, but rather dyed to look like this.

The necklace

and the bracelet