Tag : fabric

62 posts

My spring break was spent quietly at home catching up on projects and knocking items off the perpetual to-do list. Not very exciting but that’s ok.

My first major accomplishment was tackling all the scraps that had been piling up. Truth be told there are still more but these were the ones that were really bugging me as well as the ones that required no ironing before cutting.

I also went through my wardrobe and got rid of two grocery bags of clothes that no longer fit. This is a nice problem to have. I’ve lost over 25 lbs now and decided it was time to purge the old to make room for a few new things I’ve purchased.

As I mentioned last week I’m super excited about gardening season. The garlic I planted last fall is poking through the leaf mulch. My seedlings are doing well. I even planted carrots, radishes and beets straight into my garden box since they are cool weather crops. I’m hoping they do better this way…although it was 87°F today…crazy! We had snow flakes in the air just last week. 

I was inspired to create a little diorama with a coworker in mind after finding some of her favorite characters at the dollar store. I’ll share the completed piece along with process photos in another post after I give it to her.

Today’s hot weather and the first day back to school called for a nice cold one after dinner.

I’ll leave you with Marvin making sure the newly delivered box of toilet paper didn’t get up and walk away.

What are you doing today?

Well, that month went by really quickly. I had planned to blog several times, even wrote down an outline during my lunch one day. Never happened. Such is life some times.

There is no way I’ll be able to keep this in chronological order so I’m going to be random like my brain works.

I have been creating a bit…not as much as I have been thinking about creating. Dumb, right!?!?

There are days when all I can get myself to do is look at art and think about what I’d like to do instead of going downstairs and actually doing it.

Like this piece I saved from the trash. I keep thinking about what I want to do with it. Journal covers most likely but I can’t get myself to commit.

One day that I did make it to the craft room, I made these little fairy chairs. They are both fun and frustrating to create. The champagne cage wire is stiff and uncooperative.

This week is my spring break. I’m using my time to tackle some projects such as sorting through all of my fabric and sewing supplies. I want to get them organized in a way that makes sense and makes it easy to find and use.

I’m cutting small pieces into usable scraps that are ready to go. Yes, this is an ongoing project. I think I started it in February. Truth be told…I haven’t touched it in a few weeks.

I did get some of my seeds started which makes me so happy. I still have more seeds to start this week. I feel like I need to put a shelf in my cart and add another light. Hmmm…another potential project.

I’m fully vaccinated! Technically they say you aren’t totally covered until two weeks after the second shot but I’m so excited. The side effects I got from each shot were very manageable. Nothing major and nothing to take me completely out of commission like some people. Mr G gets his second shot next week and Mini-me gets her first this week. J hasn’t lucked out yet on getting his shot. He’ll likely have to wait until he comes back home for summer.

Mini-me had yet another of her “lasts” a couple weeks ago. She had her last archery tournament. And technically her only one this season. It was a virtual tournament meaning they shot at “home” and turned their scores in. They were lucky enough to be able to continue with the tournament because they are Varsity. All non-varsity sports were paused due to an outbreak of a new COVID variant linked to some of the sports teams (not archery).

I usually only brag about my kids but this really made my day. A slideshow was created at school with each of our names on a slide. The directions were to take 10 mins and let some of the people you work with know why they matter. Its cool that its anonymous but not going to lie…I wish I knew who wrote these wonderful things.

I’ll leave you with two of my four new mugs. They were part of a silent auction at school to benefit LLS. There were actually 8 mugs in the set. The gal who won them thought for sure I was going to outbid her. She lamented that she really didn’t need 8 mugs. I suggested that we split them. Perfect! We each get a set of these beautiful mugs.

The potters name is Peter Potter…which just makes me smile.

Before sitting down to write this post, I was pulling out papers to make a new journal. I have been squirreling away all kids of bits of paper and treasures that I want to add to a more personal journal. The last one I created like this filled up super quickly. I’m going to try my best not to put too many pages in each signature so that there is still room to add bulky things to the pages. More to come on that.

I created this piece as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the toilet paper crisis of this spring in the midst of the COVID-19 panic buying.  You may be questioning how this is a nod to that so let me explain.

The colorful papers that make up the background of this piece are the colorful wrappers from our “who gives a crap” toilet paper.

Back in January I’d had an ad for Who gives a crap show up on my Instagram feed. I was interested but didn’t jump on the bandwagon however did get on their email list. Little did we know this was going to be a really good plan.  I love that its a little more eco-friendly than standard TP and the company is part of the greater good.

So now back to the piece…

I tore pieces of the wrapping paper and glued it to some printer paper.  I used a bit of paint to blur the details in a few spots to make it feel a little more cohesive. The page looked very 1980s.  I ripped a piece of mop-up paper and stitched it vertically along the page. Over the top I created a loose ruffle of some equally 80s feel fabric.

Since my mind was in that era I decided that some day-glow green mesh on a tag was fitting. Very 80s pastel and geometric shapes…anyone with me so far?

If I’m completely honest, I’m not sure the quote fits the page but the color of the stamped image worked and I’ve had it in my stash FOREVER!

Won’t you join me for A Stitch in Time on Art Journal Journey?

Art Journal Journey

This week is brought to you by my sewing machine…

Most of what I’ve been doing for the last few weeks is sewing in my spare time.

I can’t stop. I pushed off my junk journal November project a bit because of all my sewing.  I still plan to finish the prompts…just a bit behind schedule.

I completed another quilt top with my scraps and some that were gifted to me. So many fun fabrics!!

I haven’t decided on the backing and binding yet to it sits for now.

Our school is having the annual craft boutique this week. After last year’s dismal turnout, I wasn’t sure I’d even participate but I just couldn’t help myself. Since I was in full sewing mode I decided to try a couple of crafty items that I wanted for myself but would be great and less costly made in bulk.

My first item is key chain wristlets. They are so cute! Since I have such a huge selection of scrap fabrics, I knew these would be perfect for another stash-busting project.

My next item has school staff written all over it.

 

They are lip balm holders on a clip. Perfect to attach to your lanyard, bag, backpack, purse….you get the picture.

Lots of fun varieties to fit anyone’s fancy.

Today when I set up I saw the cutest Gnome and snowmen decorations. I hope I make more than I spend. :)

Last week had my college student home not only for Thanksgiving but for two additional days due to bad weather on either end of the holiday break. You know its bad when they cancel college classes. But a blizzard with over 20 inches of snow will do that.

Today had me at school and then at a meeting until dinner time. Long day…but I knew I still wanted to stop in for T Tuesday before you all forgot all about me.  LOL My own fault…I haven’t been very active in the blogosphere lately.

What are you doing today?

I can hardly believe it but I’m posting something other than T Tuesday. It’s been a while. I’ve been in a creative slump. Not sure how it happened but never the less it did.

I’ve sat down a couple of times trying to force creativity.

Don’t do it. It’s ugly.

What I did finally decide that I’d like to create was a place to create. A junk journal. I’m sure you’re thinking…hey wait…didn’t she just make one of those. Yep sure did. But that one is for bits of my life, more personal.

This one is for the creative process. Whether that may be art journaling, responding to a prompt or a challenge.

I loved this calendar ephemera my BFF sent in a package. She knew I’d love it as much as the actual gift she sent.

I used some rusted fabric on the inside of the softcover.

The outside is watercolor paper that had been painted and whitewash some time ago. I found it in my stash and knew it would make a nice flexible cover.

I decided to use a 5 hole pamphlet stitch this time instead of my usual go-to of three hole stitch.

This journal has a wide variety of papers that should prove to be a good and challenging launching point for the creative process.

I’m considering joining another junk journal challenge on Instagram as I did in July. I need to decide soon otherwise I might be too far behind.

I have been so focused on creating that I completely forgot about blogging. I tend to do that. My focus shifts and I have tunnel vision. Of course, it’s always hard for me to complete each project. That’s a whole other issue of mine. Many UFOs aka unfinished projects. Amid this creative explosion, I’m trying to devote a bit of time daily to cleaning, organizing and purging unused or unwanted “crafty crap” as Mr. G calls it.

Let start here with yesterdays crafty diversion. It started with me finding a bunch of small styrofoam balls that I’d used to make knitting Christmas ornaments. I thought it might be a good starting point for a yarn ball wreath.  I dug out my bin of yarn and gathered my other tote bags and came up with my color scheme. While I had all of it out I made the executive decision to toss 3 UFOs. I just wasn’t interested in finishing them anymore. How freeing!!!

My fabric stash and sewing supply hoard are much further out of control.  I love fabric. I have gotten rid of a bit. I gave it to a co-worker whose girls learned to sew this summer. They started a scrunchie making business. They’ve earned enough to buy themselves the trampoline they were begging for. Isn’t that amazing!?! Anyway, Mini-me and I have been following their progress. Mini-me loves scrunchies too. They are not cheap to buy. Once she found some pink velvet in my stash, I knew I’d been making some scrunchies too.

We picked out some fun fabrics…now her hair accessory bin is overflowing! I don’t envy the girls at all. Those scrunchies are kind of a pain in the you-know-what. Digging through my fabric did get some other ideas going. Once J goes back to college in a couple of weeks,  I’ll set my sewing machine up in his room again.

Yesterday was HOT and HUMID! We had two rounds of severe storms…thankfully the worst of it missed us. About a 30 min minute drive from here had tennis ball size hail. YIKES! Before the storms came I was going outside to secure anything that might blow away and I saw this in the backyard…

A turkey hen and her chicks…or whatever they are called. She was much bigger than I thought one would be. And very protective. She chased a grey squirrel that happened to jump from the tree…it was pretty comical. Do you see my compost “garden” in the far left middle of the photo? The plants are still thriving. LOL

With the weather so gross I decided to have a refreshing beverage. It’s almost like drinking a mimosa to me. Pretty tasty.

The weekend was really hot as well. I decided to do a bit of work on the computer where it was nice and cool.

I’m creating some printable pages for junk journals. I’m thinking about reopening my Etsy store with digital downloads for some passive income…all to support my crafty habits.

I also got this in the mail last week. I ordered it when they had a 20% off sale. I’m super excited about this project. I have until February to complete and send it back.

So as you can see, I have been busy…just not in the blogging world. I think part of it may be the fact that I have been slack on using my planner. I was definitely more on track when I used it daily. I know I need structure in my life but willy-nilly suits me.

Next week will be a scheduled post if I am disciplined enough to get it done. I have training on Tuesday all day and them Mini-me and I are taking the red-eye to Montana! I’m so excited. I’ll have lots to share about that the following week.

What are you doing today?

I’ve had the idea for this page knocking around in my head for a while. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it work until I realized that using die cuts would be the answer.

My neighbor borrowed me her massive stash of dies and a motorized version of a Cuttlebug….more on that on T Tuesday… In the stash were the perfect dies to bring my vision to life.

I went through my scraps and picked out warm Fall colors. As I set the die cuts out on the page I realized that they needed to blend with each other better to give more cohesion to the page.

I used 4 different sprays to achieve the mix of colors you see here over the top of the already different papers. Now I was feeling better about how this page was coming together.

The words I used came from my thought of this magical place, deep in the forest. A place where the dense forest gave way to a place with smaller saplings and bushes, A place for the lovely creatures of the wood to gather.

My word stack consists of rusted fabric, torn lace, bundle of green thread and the mop-up paper from the earlier sprays.

 

I think this is the very last spread in this journal. It’s getting too thick to close and increasingly difficult to work in. Of course its my own fault…I tend to use lots of bulk on my pages. I can’t seem to help myself. I love texture and fabric!

Won’t you join me in the final days of Words to live by at Art Journal Journey?

Art Journal Journey
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