Placemats, Part I

I always forget how time consuming it is to use fusible interfacing, especially to multiple large pieces at a time.  In the time it has taken me to iron on 4 pieces of interfacing to 4 pieces for placemats, I could have sewn in all 4 and maybe finished one or two entirely.  Although it's been a while since I used sew-in interfacing, too, so maybe I forget the drawbacks of sew-in.

Here is the front of what the placemats will look like:

While we were in Portland for the Labour Day long weekend, I went into the Pine Needle Quilting Shop in Lake Oswego (apparently the "hoity toity" neighbourhood of greater Portland; we thought the downtown area looked like Whistler) and found some Ducks fabric. They had some placemat kits, and I thought it would be fun to make a set for Ben's Aunt Sandy, to bring up next Thanksgiving.  The lady helped me put together a placemat kit with Oregon fabric, although her version had the left panel using Oregon fabric that faced to the left, which I didn't realize until yesterday.  Luckily Eddie's was having a sale today... rather, unluckily for my wallet, since I found this pattern, and then decided to get fabric for it, too.

Mother's Day Craft Carnival

I submitted my post from yesterday on my Mother's Day card + towel roll cover to the Craft Critique Mother's Day Craft Carnival, and it's currently listed there amongst some very cool Mother's Day projects.  Check it out!

Here are some of my favourites from a quick glance: a very cute little hat (and a more stylish card than mine), a dish towel tutorial that seems like a good reason to finally use my gathering foot, tea and a card--which is what I did the first time I made a Mother's Day card, and a purse made with fabric and crochet--now that's a combination I could get into!  Not that I need more projects...

Happy Mother's Day to moms everywhere!

Mother's Day!

Mom, do NOT read this blog post!  I MEAN IT!

The Paper Source is currently having a Mother's Day card competition on Facebook.  Submissions are closed, and the winners are going to be chosen by popular vote, so I don't have my hopes set too high, but you can vote for my submission on Facebook, and I can always dream.  I didn't have a whole lot of time to make it, since I was away (visiting my Mommy instead of crafting for her) for the end of April, and didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. In any case, I do like my card a lot, and it's currently on its way to Canada.

Materials:
 - A2 foldover card in PS Poppy
 - vellum paper
 - paper in PS Blossom for the mum petals; PS Beet for the mum center
 - vine ribbon by the yard from PS for leaves
 - my favourite American Crafts rub-on letters -- this one is "Molly" in charcoal. I love these letter rub-ons.
 - VersaMark ink
 - Zing! embossing powder in blush
 - Paper Source mum (as in, chrysanthemum) stamp

One of my main problems whenever I make a card is with the background; plain paper is too boring for me, but patterned paper is too busy and takes away from the main decoration.  For this card, I stamped mums semi-randomly over the paper with VersaMark watermark ink, used a heating tool to darken, and fit the coloured flower directly over one in the background--you can kind of see it (maybe) if you click on the full version.  It's like my mom standing out amongst other moms, hey! Metaphors.

While I was visiting, Mom actually decided she wanted a (badly needed) electric kettle replacement for Mother's Day, so now my brother owes me $20. But I had already thought of something I wanted to make for her: a towel roll cover. My mom usually sleeps with a hand towel rolled up to act as a neck bolster, to alleviate pressure on her neck while lying down.  I think normal bolster pillows are too large for this purpose, and the nice thing about a towel is that you can just wash it and get a fresh one whenever you want.  Plus, when she travels, she can grab a towel from the hotel washroom to use, or from my linen closet when she visits.  I thought of making a nice cover for her, that she could wash just as easily as a towel and pack easily when she travels, but felt nice and silky and looked pretty.

Et voilà‎!

A towel roll cover amongst my messy work space.  Roll up the towel, roll that up in this cover, then use the elastics at the ends to secure the cloth in place.  I didn't think of taking a picture of it in action, and I didn't photograph the illustrated instructions I drew, and now the entire package is somewhere between here and Vancouver, sorry!

Construction of this was quite simple: cut two pieces of pre-shrunken, easy-care cotton fabric 15" by 17" large, and two pieces of elastic about 7.5" long.  Baste the elastics as a loop, to the right side of one long edge, with raw edges matching.  Sew the 2 pieces right side together using a 1/2" seam allowance, and leaving a hole for turning.  Turn out, poke out the corners (FYI pointy chopsticks are great for this purpose), iron, then edge stitch all around.

Edge stitching is my new favourite technique--I don't bother slip stitching turning holes, and it looks so clean when I use my edgestitch foot.

The labels are really old--I got them when I was a kid, and my mom found them recently, so when I left Vancouver, I left with that package, as well as the Olfa mat and cutter she doesn't use any more.  I would love to get more, so if anybody knows of a good place to get nice, woven labels, please let me know!  Seems like the ones I can find online are either printed, or can only be ordered in multiples of 100.

Sylvi Berninasdotter

Tomorrow, at approximately 9:06 AM, I will be 24!  I've discovered that there is no lack of "Birthday deals!!!" down here, and since March 1st, I have acquired makeup from Sephora, a 20% discount from Green Planet Yarn, which is my favourite yarn shop, and a 25% discount on fabric from Eddie's Quilting Bee, which I have visited nearly every week this month, and for good reason--Sylvi:

I finally bought myself a sewing machine!  Much research has been done since Christmas, and for my birthday, I finally settled on the Bernina Activa 210.  It's the simplest (and cheapest) of the lowest models of Bernina machines (not including Bernette), and I felt very out of place during the Bernina "Eddiecation" class I took at Eddie's Quilting Bee.  It was a class to learn the ins and outs of your Bernina, and all around me were women with sewing machines that must have cost at least $1500-$2000--but I think I bought exactly what I need, and the class went through the basic stitches of the machine, which are all going to be very useful.

Bernina manufactures a bazillion different specialty presser feet, which are all listed online.  Since I bought my machine at Eddie's, I got that Bernina class, but I also get 10% off on fabric for a year, and more importantly, 20% off of presser feet for a year.  There is a possibility that I have already bought two: the #2 overlock foot, and the #10 edgestitch foot.  Feet aren't exactly cheap, but man those two are awesome already.  I imagine that by the time that year is up, I will have amassed a small army of feet.

This was my second project with Sylvi--the first being new placemats which I forgot to photograph.  This  tiny little dress is made using a pattern from Leila and Ben, and I find that I actually really like the PDF.  Not just this pattern, which was extremely simple, but PDF patterns in general--no messing around with tissue paper, worrying that it will rip, and realizing that you will never reuse that pattern because you basically snip it to shreds while cutting your fabric.  Our printer is currently out of commission, so I sent it to the nearby Kinkos/FedEx Office to get the pattern printed, and it worked out extremely well.

Side story: when I went to the FedEx last Friday to pick up my prints, having submitted my files online, I just happened to run into the dress recipient's father!  I was still kind of sick and we couldn't go visit the newborn, so I at least got some preview photos.

Anyhow, PDF patterns = good.  I'll be buying more of them in the future, I think.  I like the idea of having a digital version that I can re-print and chop up without keeping the extra sizes to tape on at a later date.

Accidental Yarn Review

I am totally obsessed with making bowls! And felting them!  I meant for this post to be just a photo that I uploaded yesterday, but I got distracted.  So if you're interested in reading about me geeking out on yarn, then you're in the right place.

Crocheted bowls are super easy, very fast to make, and I've been testing out different types of wool yarn for the felting process.  I have an awesome spreadsheet tracking yards per ounce of wool and cost per yard, because I am a total geek!  And I love spreadsheets!

Here's my current list of wool, all in worsted weight:

• Merino wool
• O-Wool Classic (7 cents/yard)
• Shepherd's Wool, from Stonehedge Fiber Mill (4 cents/yard)
• Highland wool
• Cascade 220 (3 cents/yard)
• New England Highland, from Harrisville (5 cents/yard)
• Wool
• Nordique, from St. Denis (5 cents/yard)
• Classic Wool, from Patons (2 cents/yard)

My least favourite was the Harrisville New England Highland.  It was a nice colour, and it looked nice when I crocheted it into a bowl, but it smelled funny and felt coarse.  Then, after felting, it went completely shaggy--that was the first time I've ever had to clean my washing machine after using it.

Cascade 220 was the other highland wool--excuse me, Peruvian highland--and I had a similar post-felting cleanup experience.  I'm certain that I didn't get all of it out, since the next batch I felted had little red bits floating around.  But despite the cleanup, it barely took 20 minutes to felt (most of my tests required at least 40 minutes for felting, though I wasn't timing very religiously).  Overall I was actually impressed with the final product, as the bowls have a nice weight to them.

Nordique from St. Denis was my first non-Michaels/non-Jo-Ann wool purchase, so I am rather partial to it.  It took forever to felt, however, and I'm not even sure it felted entirely, since the stitches are still visibly separate.  I bought a couple of balls in the Aubergine colorway which was a beautiful amethyst shade, but I'm not sure I would pick up much that line again.

Since I started going to a bunch of smaller yarn shops, I have become something of a yarn snob.  I refuse to buy anything that has a lot of acrylic in the mix, because I think it feels too crunchy.  I love working with yarns made from natural fibres, because not only do they feel better and they look better.  And I like the idea of supporting a local yarn shop--my current favourite being Green Planet Yarn, in historic downtown Campbell.  I could never see them carrying Patons Classic Wool, but I have to be honest: it felts really easily, and the bowls look great.  I have no idea where the wool comes from, and I have no idea if their manufacturing process is ethical or whatnot, but it's a pretty decent yarn for felting, and I actually quite like it.  But I am trying to be snobby!  Oh, what a dilemma.

The merino wools I listed first, but have left for the last, because I liked those two the most.  The O-Wool took about an hour to felt to my liking, but the bowls looked great.  It didn't shrink as much as the Cascade 220 or the Shepherd's Wool, but the felted wool is nicer to the touch than the Cascade 220.  At $14/hank, it was definitely the most expensive, so although I like it very much, I'm not sure if I would buy it very often.
(As a side story, the first skein of O-Wool I bought was from the DK weight Balance line, which is 50% Merino, and 50% Cotton.  Only, I didn't realize that fact until much later, and I eventually gave up trying to felt it.  "Ben, this wool refuses to felt!  I don't know what's going on!")

Last but certainly not least is the Shepherd's Wool.  This has got to be the softest wool I have ever felt. Ever.  I just felted the bowls from that test, so they're still drying on the counter--we'll see if they actually make sturdy bowls (my comparison point is currently the Patons Classic Wool), but I'm not sure if I care.  The first time I worked with a carefully wound ball of Shepherd's Wool, I was cuddling it up to my cheeks.  The Pacifist Knight is made of Shepherd's Wool (not including his face, which is actually SWTC Yin in Harmony, the only skin-coloured yarn I could find), and he is pretty cuddly too.  Green Planet Yarn has a "sale" where for any one purchase during your birthday month, you can get between 20%-100% off of that purchase; I fully intend on going as soon as I can in March, to build up a Shepherd's Wool stash.  Then it will be bowl-a-bonanza. 

The Pacifist Knight

  

Meet my hero, The Pacifist Knight.

After discovering all the cute amigurumi figures listed on Etsy, I wanted to try making my own!  During one of our many foraging trips to Borders, and armed with a coupon and a mission, I picked out a bunch of amigurumi books to peruse, ultimately settling on Creepy Cute Crochet.

I had actually bought this book before, as a gift, because I liked it, but ultimately returned it because it seemed inappropriate to give a crochet book to a recipient who did not crochet at all (in my defense, the contents of the book suited her well, anyway).  But despite my obvious underlying desire to own the book myself, the reason why I bought it the second time around was because Ben wanted me to make him a knight.

And so,

The Pacific Knight was born.  In the book, she recommends fashioning a sword out of felt, or perhaps out of clay, but I don't have felt in the right colour, I wasn't interested in using more wool to create the felt to fashion a sword, and I don't want to get into yet another craft, so I have no clay.

Then Ben got it in his head that no sword was necessary, since our little knight was a pacifist.  I'm not sure if that means he resolves problems, or if it just means that he doesn't get involved, but either way, the chocolate lolly I bought Ben for Valentine's Day made a fitting addition to his photo.

Honey Garlic Chicken, and, a sale!

One of my bowls sold on Etsy!  Apparently it sold last night, but Etsy didn't see fit to tell me until this afternoon, which means I can't send it until Monday morning.  But it'll be very nicely packaged and ready to go, before then!  Later tonight, or tomorrow, I'll have to list the other bowls I finally managed to photograph--I made a few amethyst coloured bowls; it is February, after all.

Tonight on the menu is honey garlic chicken and rice.  I found a recipe at Christmas that worked really well, but I never wrote it down, and I can't seem to find it any more.  So, I'm trying a new experiment today, which I will actually write down.  But we will see how it tastes.  The chicken is marinating in it now, while the rice cooks, and it smells pretty good so far.. of course, it is basically swimming in garlic. Noms...

Honey Garlic Marinade (good for 1 chicken breast)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced

Rice vinegar is starting to be one of my favourite marinade additions. Have I mentioned that yet? It makes me wonder how horrible it is for my health.

etsy

I've been talking about wanting to list items on Etsy since I first discovered it, and I've finally mustered up enough courage to do so.  A few items are listed, just to start--I'm trying to be both realistic and optimistic at the same time, but maybe I'll get noticed by somebody!

http://wordium.etsy.com

Christmas Advent Calendar

Apparently, I uploaded photos of my Christmas advent calendar project, but I failed to mention them on my blag.  The Paper Source card contest completely took my attention, and lately, I've been spending a lot of time knitting and crocheting and felting, so it seems as good a time as any to post these photos, finally.

Ta-da!  Twenty-five little baggies, Christmas style.  The numbers are cut out of recycled felt, using the Red Tag Sale alphabet set for my Cuttlebug, and putting them through my Xyron sticker maker.  For the bags themselves, I used a fat quarter I found at Jo-Anns, which I had bought originally to cover buttons, to use in a felt ring advent calendar, like this one I found on Etsy.  But then I realized, advent calendars are fun because there is chocolate contained within!

Chocolate and goodies!  Those are some magnets I found (on Etsy, again) featuring images from Portal; I put the cake magnet in day #25, because I really wanted cake at the end.  Every day had a chocolate and a magnet or a Jibbitz for our Crocs.

In case you were wondering, one fat quarter is not enough to make 25 bags that are 2"x3" in size.  But when I went back to get another, after I ditched the button idea, I couldn't find another, and they didn't have any bolts of the same, so I instead dug through the remnants pile and found some nice silk.

The colour seemed to match, and it didn't require waiting the half hour it usually takes to get fabric cut.  Having never worked with silk, though, I wasn't expecting it to fall apart as easily as it does, so there was some hacking involved to get it to stay.  Even then, I'm not sure these bags will hold up very well to abuse; I cut them too small to do any sort of seam finishing on the inside.  But they did the job, and now they are packed away nicely, in the Christmas box.

Yarnwork

My last post was on the 17th, so this appears to be right on time?

In the suitcase my mom left me at Christmas, alongside packages of Canadian Smarties, leftover cross stitch fabric, floss, and patterns, and slippers too warm to wear in this balmy climate, was a roll of crochet hooks. 

Being totally obsessed with felted bowls I've seen on Etsy, I bought some yarn and made some little bowls, none of which are photographed. In the interest of experimenting with felting on my own, I subsequently bought a skein of 100% wool, and that endeavour turned out extremely well:

Those are just single crochet spiral bowls, with my favourite new technique: an adjustable ring. The bowls didn't take long to make, and felting them was pretty easy too.

I've also decided I'd like to take up knitting (because I need more craft hobbies, apparently), although to less successful results.

Bit of a rocky start, there. Muscle memory made knit stitches fairly easy, so that first cm or so is just garter stitching. When I was little, Mom would help me cast on, and I never figured out how to purl, so those need some practice.  I'll get there.

Since it is 2010, I've decided on a fairly decent and reasonably attainable resolution: to make as many gifts as possible this year, instead of spending tons of money buying stuff.  Felted anything is probably a good start; crocheting is fast and easy, as is felting.  Once I get my knitting up to snuff, I'll have an even better skill set for being successful.  And once I finally get myself a sewing machine of my own, oh ho ho!  I just need to find one that's both suitable and affordable. 

I'm not sure if this is really a resolution, or if it's just a good excuse to spend a ton of time crafting.

Winnar!

I got a call yesterday from the Paper Source in Palo Alto.  That holiday card contest that I absolutely had to do?  I won!

And there it is.  It features a freshly baked gingerbread couple, but oop, someone's leg has been bitten off!  Following rules, I used only materials one could find at a Paper Source:

Basics:
 - 5.75" square folded cards in Pool
 - square cards in Eco-White (30% post consumer waste! Better than 0%)
 - glitter paper for envelope liners
 - 6mm satin ribbon in Pool
 - VersaMark ink pad for the background

Gingerbread people:
 - this cute couple
 - VersaMark ink pen for inking
 - white embossing powder
 - silver paper for the baking sheet
 - vellum for the parchment paper
 - little gems

Adhesives:
 - Zots (gingerbread people, ribbon detail)
 - Xyron sticker maker (ribbon)
 - glue

A lot of time was spent agonizing over what sort of paper or pattern would work best on the background, and I eventually just tried out pressing the VersaMark pad on the card itself, which turned out much better than I expected, especially after using the heating tool.  For the gingerbread people, the lady was inked using the pad, but her poor little husband (or S.O., or friend; I don't want to assume) was inked with a VersaMark pen--excepting his mouth. Using the same pen, I gave him his rather unhappy mouth, and embossed them like that.

My favourite part of this year's card is definitely the vellum paper that I ripped to resemble parchment paper.  That, and the greeting on the inside, which was inspired by a Kate Spade card I saw on display at a card shop on University.  I had already planned to write, "Wishing you a tasty Christmas," but this was better:

I printed it on vellum using my current favourite font, Alte Haas Grotesk, and it's secured by four Khaki snaps, to match the gingerbread people.

The only thing that's missing from this post is a few pictures of the mess that I created while making this card, and about 20 others which were mailed to friends and family.  There was excess cookie "dough" everywhere, glitter, punched off corner points... and of course, a bunch of little gingerbread man feet everywhere.  Messy.

But it was all worth it!  I wasn't expecting to win, but I'm really excited.  I meant to make a post with my holiday advent calendar, but that's going to be postponed!  That's how excited I am! Now I have to figure out what I will do with a $50 gift card to the Paper Source.  Somehow I don't think that will be difficult at all.

December

Frequent posting is aparently not my forte. But fear not, a new block of carefully proofread text has arisen from the depths.  And since I last posted, something great has happened:

I won!  With a total of 50034 words, I completed a barebones novella.  It's going to need a lot of work, still, before I could even consider letting someone else see it, but hey, I finished NaNoWriMo for the first time in four years.

What's more, today I sent off the last of my Christmas cards, which is momentous since I started working on them in October.  After making about twenty cards, I sent them off to friends and family, keeping one for myself, and giving one to the Paper Source for their card contest, which I may have mentioned previously.  The two people who were there when I submitted it were pleased with my card, although I don't think they would have let themselves come across as anything but impressed.  I meant to mention that the vellum paper is supposed to represent parchment paper, but it didn't occur to me until afterwards that it might not be obvious.  In any case, I thought that idea was brilliant.

Since Saturday, I have found myself to be in temporary possession of a sewing machine. My ultimate goal is to create a Christmas advent calendar, which I'm working on for sure, but this is what I spent most of my Sunday doing:

A tea cozy! I followed a pattern I found on the Rusty Bobbin, which worked extremely well.  Materials I used:
 - iredescent flocked taffeta (fabric.com)
 - cotton batting (also from fabric.com)
 - beige broadcloth for lining, which I found in the remnants bin at Jo-Ann (I'm finding lots of useful bits of fabric in there)
 - baby blue piping

I only bought half a yard of the taffeta, and I have bunch left over, so I'll have to make another tea cozy for the next teapot I want to get (a smaller pot for just me).  The one pictured above also fits right over my glass tea kettle, so I might make a third to cover that and keep it clean.

So far in my advent calendar, I've made up to 10 bags.  The idea is to have 25 little cloth baggies that we can fill with goodies, and put up one every day.  This project is on hiatus until I can get new thread, however, since I've just about run out.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing--bags 1 through 10 have been made using blue thread on white cloth.  I don't think anybody is going to complain.  I should be done before Christmas, at least, but we'll see about my speediness in posting about it on here.

Upcycled Shims

According to the e-mail my manager received recently, I've been working for exactly one year as of today!  That means it's been just over a year since I moved south, having left my cozy, rainy homeland for near-daily sunshine.  Although it's odd to be wearing only two layers instead of three (plus a water-resistant shell), I don't regret moving because of the weather.

And most certainly, I don't regret moving because of the shopping.  Not only is Amazon.com far superior to Amazon.ca, but there are so many stores here I love to visit!  It took me a while, however, to discover the Paper Source.  <3  Their stores are always full of fun things to look at, and of little crafty knick knacks that make me want to drain my bank account.  In short: an effective business model.

The most recent thing I discovered from the Paper Source, however, that I absolutely love, actually cost me no money at all: a Paper Source brochure!

Ta-da!

Here it is, disassembled.  As fun as it is to browse through, I'm not going to order personalized cards, and I'm not getting married yet so I'm not interested in ordering invitations.  However, I do love flipping through it.  And when I'm done with it, apart from making mini envelopes (which will have to be another post on its own, some day), the intact pages are the perfect size to use as Cuttlebug shims.

And once again, ta-da!

I shan't deny that I absolutely love my Cuttlebug.  That's probably slightly because of brand loyalty ("My PlayStation can kick your GameCube's butt any day!"), and I have to admit that the only other manual die cutting machine I've tried is the Epic Six.  But my Cuttlebug (and its suction rubber bottom) can kick your Epic Six's butt any day!  But I've had a lot of fun with it, and I fully intend on continuing this trend.  So to find perfectly sized paper shims that look nice was a very exciting discovery for me.  As the picture above shows, they're just the right width.

Any time I'm doing something that doesn't involve the standard embossing folders or dies, which is actually pretty often now, I grab my pile of brochure leaves and slip them in as necessary.  They're thin enough to give a little bit of extra pressure, but can get fairly thick when piled together--I don't think I've used an entire brochure yet!

Cuttlebug Letterpress

Recently, while shopping online for a Cuttlebug storage binder, I discovered the L Letterpress from Quickutz--it's basically DIY letterpress, at home, with just a die cutter/embosser.  It looks very impressive! (har har, I wonder how many other craft bloggers have made that pun)  The kit itself isn't out yet, though it should be soon, as "late October/early November" is basically now.

My ProvoCraft Cuttlebug, however, is not an Epic Six, so I'm dying to find out if I can get the L and use it without having to buy another die cutting machine.  I really love my Cuttlebug; I've had it for a couple of years now and it's very reliable.  Considering that I can use nearly any brand of die in my Cuttlebug, I'm going to guess that it's compatible--all that really matters is, will it be too wide, or too tall?


Very likely, I will end up getting one of these, although I will probably wait until it's actually released so that I can read reviews by real crafters.  I couldn't help but do some frantic online searching, however, and I did come across the idea of using the Cuttlebug and embossing folders as a makeshift letterpress, however, and I wanted to try it myself.  Combined with the fact that I recently took over Ben's abandoned camera, my endeavours required some bloggin'.



There's a video available on instructables.com, which involves cutting the embossing folder, but I didn't feel that was necessary--most of my embossing folders are the A2 size, so they're patterned, and it works just to flatten the folder.

For a shim, I used some felt, cut to size.  I started with 2, which provided adequate cushioning for a couple of presses, but I had to add 1 after that, and ended up with four sheets of felt underneath.

You can kind of see my layers:

B - cutting
paper
inked embossing folder
B - cutting
felt (just scraps in that photo above, though, from testing)
A - block

For ink, I just used some stamp ink that I've had around forever.  Not being much of a stamper, I don't have much ink.

Yeah, that's about it.  There's a black pigmented ink pad that I found when I was moving things around, but I didn't get around to trying that one.  I also tried out my Marvy Wet Looks markers, but that didn't turn out too well:

The ColorBox inks weren't bad, especially the little Chalk cat eyes.  The dye ink was okay, but not great--I used it for the present, below:

Overall, I think it worked out fairly well.  I could definitely see myself trying it again, although I think I need to pick up a rubber roller, and some more ink, or some paints.  The ink came off fairly easily with stamp ink remover and a paper towel.  The paints for the L Letterpress are more oil-based, though, so I'm not sure how that would make for cleaning the embossing folders.

Don't be surprised if I end up getting the L, assuming it works with the Cuttlebug, or at least some of their printing plates and inks.  I would be extremely surprised, though, if the L wasn't compatible with the Cuttlebug and the Sizzix, or any other basic die cutter/embosser on the market.

Birthday Card

Last weekend, I picked up a copy of Paper Crafts, a magazine I'm amazed I haven't found until now.  It's a fairly small glossy, but it has some cute ideas, and I've already incorporated one for this year's Christmas card design.  Combined with the workshop I did at Paper Source, there is a lot less design experimentation and a lot more card making this year.  But while I'm really excited about my Christmas cards, I don't want to post them until they're sent out!  Ever since I started making them, they've become like mini-gifts to people I care about, but don't get to see very often. 

But I would like to start posting cards that I've made, or am making, so here is one that was fairly recent.  This birthday card was made for Ben's aunt in Arizona.  Usually the cards I make are for people I know personally, but this would be the first I've made for someone I've never met.  This is significant, since I normally set out to design my card based on its recipient.  Now that I think about it, I write in the same way, too--I can't tell a story unless I know the main characters well.  But even so, I went fairly generic:

From Craft projects

Supplies:
 - 3" x 5" card
 - iridescent paper (likely from Bazzill, but I can't remember)
 - EK Success flat edge punch: swiss cheese
 - Cuttlebug cake die shape
 - foam squares, glue, 2 sided tape

When I bought the punch, I thought they were just bubbles, but that's how I did the edging--think champagne bubbles?  The cake was chocolate with vanilla icing, and the stand matched the card backing.  I'm never a fan of gluing little parts together, as I always seem to get glue everywhere, but I liked the way it turned out, overall.  Inside I stamped "Happy Birthday", fairly simple, and on the back, my usual made-by-me stamp.

Speaking of custom stamps, I am seriously thinking of doing that stamp making workshop so I can turn my robot into a reproduceable image.

Brushes

I've been meaning to post about the Brushes app (http://brushesapp.com/) available for the iPhone and iPod touch.  At $5, it's a bit more expensive than the normal app available on the iTunes store, but it's well worth it.  It's a fairly lightweight application that seems like a simple finger painting application on the surface, but it has many interesting features.

1. Different brushes
There are 3 brushes that are available to "paint" with, and I'm not sure if it's merely a different brush type or if it's supposed to simulate a different paint type, but I can tell that they're different.  I won't pretend to know a lot about art mediums, so I will leave it alone.  You can also change the size of your brush, from 1px in diameter to 64px.  The same goes for the eraser.

2. Colours
That's right, "colours", with a 'u'.  The app uses "Color", but I'll forgive the author since he includes the entire spectrum of RGB colour choices, with varying transparencies to choose from.  A little colour picker lets you find a colour you've already got on the canvas.

3. Layers!
How awesome is that?  Four little layers to choose from, to move around, fill with colour, merge, or delete.  You can also import one of your photos as a layer, even awesomer!

4. Zoom
Just like any other iPhone/iPod Touch application, pinch to zoom in or out.  I discovered this after a few paintings, and it makes a big difference.  This is very obvious.

5. Brush stroke log
You can undo and redo nearly any brush stroke you've painted during the session, and even better, you can download the image as a Brushes filetype, and use the viewer available on their website to turn it into a movie of your painting, from start to finish.  I imagine this could make for some very interesting movie art.

6. "Connect"
In the corner of the Gallery, they give you a little wireless/RSS-type icon, which gives you a URL to try, if you're connected to a wifi network.  This is how you download your paintings either as .png or whatever format the Brushes file is in (I haven't tried it yet).

My paintings, so far, are in my Picasa album, and I hope to add more to my fine portfolio.  Here are a couple of my favourites:

From Brushes

The left is the first painting I did, the right is one I did after I discovered you could zoom in.  It makes a suitable iPhone background image.

I have to do this!

The Paper Source is having a holiday card contest which I have to enter. I have to!

I've already got some supplies for Christmas card making, thanks to that card workshop I took yesterday night.  I came home with a fairly hefty bag of stuff, I'm (not really) sorry to say.  But the card contest rules state that the card must be made with 100% Paper Source materials!  That means I have to go back. I have to!

The card workshop was fun, although it was a little odd for me, going by myself and being surrounded by middle-aged female teachers and/or domestic engineers.  There were so many alpha types there, it was scary. "Me me me, oh yeah I know that, me me I I I gimme gimme."
I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the cards or techniques they showed us, since I'd already had experience in most of them (stamping, embossing, using a sticker maker, glitter and glue, punches), but it was kind of nice to be able to play with their materials hands-on.

The one thing I did find impressive, however, was the envelope liner templates.  They're extremely simple--you cut nice paper to the shape of the template, and glue it into a matching size envelope.  I've never used liners before, but they look awesome, and they only take a minute.  I feel the need to also get the envelope template kit so I can always have matching envelopes. I have to!

Another thing I liked quite a bit, but had used before, was the embosser + plates.  I can emboss papers with my Cuttlebug as it is, but the specialized embossers can be made into custom designs, and they have a more refined look to them.  I have to get this one eventually. I have to!

One of the most amusing things of the evening was the impatient husband I saw as I left at 9:30pm, waiting in a car outside the store.The other really amusing thing was the way one of the instructors showed us how to deal with excess glitter or embossing powder--"You just flick it, like this," she said, and flicked the sparkles onto the ground.  !  I would never be allowed to do that at home, anywhere.

Overall I was happy with the workshop, I came home pretty hyper.  I'm seriously considering doing their make your own stamp workshop, though it's longer and more expensive, and seems more involved (a challenge!).  I think it's about time I turn my classic robot drawing into a stamp... I have to!

PC Stitch Pro

About a month ago, I bought PC Stitch Pro (Amazon link).  The software isn't perfect, and lacks things like keyboard shortcuts, but their pattern printing is pretty good.  I'm not so keen on embroidering a photo, which seems to be their selling point--and it can turn photos into stitching patterns-- but it's fun to do pixel art that will become a cross stitch pattern complete with symbols and matching DMC floss numbers.  This was my first pattern edited with the software:

Robots, naturally!  Robots in love.  It turned out well enough, and I really like the heart, which is outlined in double-flossed backstitches.  Unfortunately it's been so long that I'm out of practice when it comes to other stitches, like the French knot. These little robot buddies are supposed to have red and green status indicator lights, but I can't get my knots to knot.  A lot of practice is required, and I suspect a lot of practice will be forthcoming.  My current project (or I should say, one of my current projects) is stitching out the logo for Ben's team at work, "Faster Google".  They have a shiny red racecar, and I've already got a pattern printed from the image he sent me.

Edit: Ben thought that I had stitched a pair of Whos from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

Panda

I found this panda pattern somewhere, but I can't remember where. Originally, he had a bunch of bamboo around him. I started it to keep myself busy during the flight to Vancouver at the end of July this year, but I decided to finish it before I left, so I could give it to Mitch. She has a thing for pandas. But as neat as bamboo is, I didn't think it added anything interesting to the pattern, so I give you "Fatty Panda Eats a Timmy's Maple Doughnut".