Holiday Cheer!

It's easy for me to get over- whelmed this time of year, and this year I'm way behind on a lot of my projects. I'm also stressing, because most of what I'm working on are Christmas gifts; I don't have anything to post about, and fear that I might not until after the holiday! I guess that means I should just point out some fun holiday crafting cheer!

If you haven't seen them yet, go check out Hillary's Elf Stitchette embroidery patterns, they're super sweet! (Hillary is the amazing talent behind Wee Wonderfuls, and recently divulged that she's pregnant with her second child! Congrats & Good Luck with the morning sickness!)

I also love these button trees, I think I saw them first on Whip Up, and now there's a Flickr group full of them!

.:Tree Branch Earrings Tutorial:.

These are made with copper colored craft wire and genuine apatite beads.

I've decided to enter these in this month's Whiplash contest - Gifts & Decoration. I wanted to wait & post pics of the first pair I made, because they're a gift for a special friend; but I didn't want to spoil a Christmas present (it's no fun to know ahead of time!) Good luck to all of the participants, and Happy Holidays, too!

Hand wired tree branch earrings would make a lovely Christmas gift! (Don't worry! They're super easy, and quick too!)

Materials you'll need:
28g wire
Briolette beads, or any kind you'd like
Small jump rings (optional)
Earring wires

Start by cutting a length of wire, between 18" - 24" (go longer if you want longer earrings, shorter if you prefer a more petite size.) Thread the largest bead onto the wire, and pull the 2 ends even. This doesn't have to be perfect.


Hold the wires between your fingers, close to the bead, and twist them together. The goal is to get a nice even twist, but be careful! Twist too much, and you run the risk of snapping one (or both,) of your wires. When you twist the wires together, try and balance them, instead of wrapping one wire around another. Holding the wires in a "V" while you twist will help achieve a balanced twist. This will form the lowest hanging branch.




Next, take another bead (I used increasingly smaller beads, as I wired them, you're working from the bottom towards the top,) and thread it onto one of the wires. It doesn't matter which wire. Move it close to the first bead, and then play with the spacing, until you get a result that pleases you. Pull the loose end back up to the other wire, and hold there.

Twist the second branch into place, remembering not to twist too tightly! I find that odd numbers of branches look more organic than evens, and that asymmetry also makes them feel more branch-like. (Basically, if they're perfect, they won't look like real tree branches, so little irregularities are a good thing!)

The rest of the beads follow the same way, I used smaller beads, and gave them smaller branches each time, to lend a realistic feel. You can wire whatever kind of beads you want, into almost any shape you want.

To finish, I simply twisted about 2 " past how tall I wanted the earrings to be. Bend on a circle shape (I used a double-pointed knitting needle, sz2) and wrap the end around the stem. Clip closely (see below for picture of clipped & bent ends,) and fold the ends as close to the stem as you can, with pliers, if you have them. I added a jump ring to the first pair I made, but it's not a necessity though. Attach to the ear wires, and you're done! Easy peasy, and oh so pretty!

I'd love to hear comments & suggestions, I'd be happy to help if you need it!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Ack!

Even though I've gotten a little better about posting regularly, I still totally missed yesterday; and I was planning on posting the earring tutorial. Sorry guys! I should have it ready on Monday. For some strange reason, I decided the Holidays would be the perfect time to re-organize my craft room. Ha! Ok, so I knew the timing was bad anyway, but I couldn't stand the chaos any longer. I just had to do something about it. So, the tutorial is actually all written, I just have to go back and get all the pictures taken, and put them in an order that makes sense. Hopefully by the end of next week, I'll have the room clean enough to post about again, too! I loved seeing other people's craft rooms in the Flickr pool!

Tree Branch Earrings

When I was little, my family and I vacationed on a wonderful lake in Michigan. We had a cute little bluff cabin, it had the most amazing view. I never got to stay in the front bedroom (the adults had first dibs,) but it had 2 walls of windows, and the sunrise was incredible coming up over the lake & the hills. I'll never forget it, but I'm glad I have a very good visual memory of what it looked like, because it was sold & demolished several years ago. It was so sad to be so forced into letting something go, but it really proved to me that everything changes, and you just have to be grateful for the time you get.

I'm grateful that I can still remember what the fireworks looked like from the middle of the lake; and the awesome little secret passage from the kid's bedroom to the bathroom. It went through the back of the closet, and wasn't very secret, but I loved it anyway. The town's called Beulah, but it's not the same anymore, either. Lots of money to build lots of big houses meant the small town charm faded. I'll never forget it, though; the smell of ripe wild raspberries and the cool breezy forest hikes. Another Michigan treasure is Gwen Frostic, a wildlife artist who owned a print shop near Beulah (she's since passed, but her work is carried on by her children.)

It was a yearly treat to go into the print shop, we got note cards, stickers, framed prints, books and really anything else they'd print on. The shop was as close as I've ever seen to nature come straight indoors. Tree branches on every wall, windows to the outside forests and prints of nature covered the walls, and the large printing machines were showcased in the front. They were always going, and I can recall staring for what felt like hours. Every detail was so cared for, even the book paper had deckled edges, and it looked so organic. If you like nature, check out the website, I absolutely LOVE her prints!

I've been very inspired by nature lately, even though the Chicago weather's cold & snowy! I saw this concept in a very high end jewelry catalog, and knew I could replicate it with materials more in my budget. Although I have long dreamed of being able to use tourmaline, sapphire, gold & all sorts of expensive supplies!

These earrings were totally easy peasy to make, and I'll be posting a tutorial soon! You can use any wire/beads you want, from colored craft wire & plastic beads, all the way up to gold wire and gemstone beads. These are fine silver wire with lilac freshwater pearls.

My sewing machine

It seems another trend going around the crafty blogs lately - showing off your sewing machine! Of course, I had to get in on it; I love my current machine! It's a Husqvarna/Viking 6460, and probably older than I am! But it's a workhorse, and it's never let me down, (unlike my first machine, a cheap plastic Husky star, that died within 18 months of purchase.) It's all metal, and probably 30-40 lbs, I don't tend to move it very much though. I use the metal casing to my advantage, sticking every little doodad right at hand, with magnets!


I found it on Ebay, and I looked for this particular model, because it's what my Mom's been sewing on my whole life. (Her's is 1970"s brown, though - LOL!) And, coincidentally enough, my twin sister has a Viking 6400 series as well. Great minds think alike! :P I use a vintage incense holder for all my broken or damaged sharps (needles & pins.) It's Confucius! I use a small plastic divided container to hold all of my machine parts, presser feet, needles, and anything else I might need to sew.

Recently, I heard a rumor that Viking isn't manufacturing out of Sweden anymore, so I'd caution potential new buyers to review newer model's performance. My machine is 20+ years old, and (knock on wood!) is still sewing strong!

Where, oh where can this fabric be?

I'm just dying to find this fabric!

It's featured in the Asian Dream skirt in Sew What! Skirts, and I ADORE it! I've been looking and looking, and I can't seem to track it down, can anybody help me? (The polka dots are trim, and not part of the motif.)

It's actually slightly blue-er, and the red is more pink, really. If anyone can find it for me, I'll swap nearly anything for it!

Kool Aid Dyed Yarn

This is the final result - yeay robin's egg blue yarn!

Alright, so I'm obsessed with robin's egg blue, have been for 3+ years now! I still love purple (my first favorite color,) but I knew I had to try for robin's egg, since it's so hard a color yarn to find. I started with Lion brand Wool in cream. For my first try I only used one packet of Ice Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid, and it turned out slightly more minty green, and less robin's egg blue than I wanted. No matter, just dye, dye again! LOL

Here's the color after the first round of dyeing.

I couldn't find another packet of Ice Blue Raspberry to save my life, so I tried Berry Blue next. I should have probably only used half of the packet, but oh well! It's a very vibrant robin's egg blue, is all! LOL It does have some lighter areas (which I was hoping to avoid,) but I don't want it any more blue, so I'll live with it. I'd encourage anybody to try it, it's lots of fun! Be careful of dyeing your hands, though! The area circled didn't absorb as much dye as the rest, and stayed lighter.

Here's the whole skein layed out, after 2 rounds of Kool Aid dyeing.

Store Sneak Peek

Back at the end of September, I opened my Etsy store. I've only made one sale, and while I know that's better than waiting a long time for the first sale; I get the impression that the lack of inventory, coupled with photography that's a little dark, doesn't give potential buyers that "Wow!" impression I really want to. So, I've worked hard lately to get a ton of inventory to restock my store up. I'm also trying to figure out a small photo booth, so I can photograph all the little buggers a little quicker! (If anyone has tips, I'd LOVE to hear them!)


Anyway, I thought I'd post a sneak peek of what's going in the store. I posted a work-in-progress picture with my Tiffany craft box, but most were only partially finished; and they're much further along now! I'm really proud of this round of flowers, I'm hoping to get enough inventory together to contribute to The Sampler next year. Every month I try to buy my own, but I'm too slow! So, I thought it'd be nice to both promote my store, and get my greedy little paws on one! I'd love to hear about experiences with The Sampler, both contributing and buying/receiving. I bought a Sample Sampler (say that 3 times fast!) a few months back, and was fairly surprised at the range of products included.

Feeling sick...

Unfortunately, I've been feeling a little sick this whole weekend, so I don't have anything interesting to post about today. Plus, I'm headed to the vet later this afternoon (for annual visits, nobody's sick but me!) Cody & Ginger like to make it difficult for me, squirming & not sitting well for the vet; so I'm looking forward to having it done for the year.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend!

Beige Silk Slip

Well, after a few months of procrastinating this project; I've finally picked it back up & finished it! I got the silk fabric at Vogue; I was contemplating a silk satin as well, but the tone was too yellow and it cost twice as much! I was a little concerned because it seemed semi-sheer, but it works beautifully underneath my Craft: skirt (and I'm sure it will under my other a-line skirts!)


I used my new book, Sew What! Skirts, and drafted my own pattern, although I needed to make it smaller after I started construction. Not too hard to fix, I just sewed the skirt smaller til it fit closely over my hips. Then I enclosed the seam allowances, pressed & sewed the elastic casing (for the waistband,) closed the casing and hemmed the bottom. It's not perfect, I made the elastic casing slightly large, and the elastic tends to roll around in it. It makes a white cotton skirt wearable finally though, so I'd call this one a sucess!


On another note, it's only a month to my birthday, today; so the holidays are headed really fast! I need to get going on some projects that have stagnated!

Learning to Spin!

I'm excited to report that I'm learning how to spin yarn with a drop spindle! My sister's been a great help, showing me how spindle & wheel spinning works. Actually, I've already spun myself out of roving! LOL Saturday night I sat down and spun everything I had… so I'll just have to buy more! The merino Jenn donated was a little easier to draft than the wool (of unnamed content) I received in a recent swap, and softer. Most of it's overspun, and twists on itself a ton, but I figure everybody's got to start somewhere, right?

Also, I'm happily moving along with the silk slip. It's a little trickier than first imagined, but it was somewhat expected, I picked a nice slinky silk, and it's shifty! I knew I didn't want to use poly-satin, though; synthetics don't breathe, and especially because it's a slip, I wanted something with nice drape to it. Cross my fingers, I'll have it done soon, and be able to show off my Craft: skirt without flashing everyone my underwear!


The tiny ball is the merino, the stuff on the spindle is the wool-of-unnamed-content. I need to get more roving ASAP!!!

New Sewing Books!

Yeah... as if I need more! LOL And, they took a little longer than I'd hoped, but they made it! I got Sew U by Wendy Mullin, and Sew What! - Skirts by Francesca DenHartog. After sewing a fedora for Whiplash a few months back, I have much less fear of curves, and fitting round forms. After all, the worst thing that can happen is ripped stitches!


I've already started a beige silk slip (for my Craft: skirt,) with help from the second book! Even though it wasn't quite as simple as I'd hoped (i.e. I added ease, and you don't need it for undergarments, at least not with this slip.) I got the fabric at Vogue, a few months back, and was a little too intimidated to actually do something with it. But no more! Silk slip with elastic waistband = Easy Peasy! I decided to use a faux-flatlock seam on the inside to enclose the seam allowances; the Craft: skirt is finished this way, so I decided to keep things consistent. Basically, you trim one seam allowance down by half it's width, then fold the other side over it, and sew the whole thing down. The silk is extra ravel-y and I needed to finish the seam allowances nicely. Hopefully I'll have it done soon, even though the Chicago weather probably won't be good enough to wear it in - it's just a silk slip with a cotton skirt! The skirt was such an easy project, though; I'll have to write a tut up for it!

I'm going to write more about Sew U later, but this weekend I was totally into Sew What! - Skirts. I'd HIGHLY recommend it, especially for beginning sewers. Even though I'm not a beginner, I still really appreciate all of the tips & techniques in this book. The tone is fun, but not too joke-y or trendy (I found S&B to be too "now" in it's language.) The sub-title is 16 Styles You can make with Fabulous Fabrics - and I have some awesome fabrics laying around! My favorites are Asian Dream (a short ruffled number,) Singing the Blues (a super easy a-line with drawstring waist & pocket,) and East Meets West (a zippered a-line with bias tape waistband.)

I have 4 yards of a very soft black fabric, with a diagonal weave, that I'm hoping to get a nice skirt suit out of! I'm dreaming of a sleek pencil skirt and fitted jacket! (And to think I got the fabric for a curtain! LOL)

Dowel Rod Displays

Here's the custom displays I made for my sister's craft show this weekend!



They're just wood dowels, beads & bases, spray-painted in ivory & catalina green. I used satin finish paint, and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out! Jenn liked them too, woohoo!

They were made to hold her paper crane Christmas ornaments, and I think they do so beautifully, if I do say so myself! LOL I made 2 small (one ivory, one green,) and 1 large ivory.

She's showing at Creative Collaboration Holiday Show in Downer's Grove (at the Comfort Inn at Finley rd. & Butterfield,) today until 5PM. If you're in the area and have some time, go check her stuff out!

Tsumami Tiffany Box

I realized pretty quickly into making tsumami kanzashi flowers, that I'd need a pretty specialized storage container for all of the different stages of construction. While I like the small plastic containers I've been using, they don't hold very much. So I set about designing a custom solution, and here's the outcome! Anyone who knows me, knows just how much I love Tiffany boxes - I'm kind of obsessed! So, I knew it had to be a part of this design.

This caddy actually started it's life as a plain jane cardboard box, with lid. How boring! Now it's robin's egg blue, with white satin ribbon; sealed with glossy Modge-Podge. I made a handle from a wire coat hanger, and covered it with the same ribbon I used on the sides. I sewed 2 pieces together to make a sleeve for the wire. The top sports a folded bow, I could never tie them very neatly, so I used fabric glue to make it neat and even. It's filled with card stock trays, stabilized with thin black ribbon at the corners, so I can stack them. The trays hold all stages of my flowers, from fabric squares to completed flowers, as well as all of the notions I need (thread, snaps, accessories.)


I originally wanted to cover the cardstock with robin's egg fabric, but when I tried it, the finished tray edges were all wavy, and I didn't like them. So, they're just plain white card stock, with 3/4" tall sides. I lined the bottoms with black felt so the petals wouldn't shift around. The larger trays have tabs in the middle, to help support the tray above it. I wanted to make a base, to be able to lift all 9 layers of trays out at once, but I couldn't bend in the steel handles enough to have clearance, and it just don't work out. It's always interesting to me, trying something new and seeing what works - and what doesn't.

The lid is inverted here, I use it to hold notions & scissors while I'm working. (The scissors I use are very heavy, and so I have to use a seperate plastic caddy to carry them, but they're also SUPER sharp, so I feel more comfortable when they're somewhere I can't accidentally stab myself!)

I've also added a sneak peak at my latest flowers! Most of what's pictured below will make it into the store (hopefully very soon!) A few are gifts, and a few I'm keeping for my greedy self - the double petal purple w/ turquoise was made to match my Femme Fedora!


I'd like to make a tutorial for a more generic craft caddy, if there's interest for it. I see those cardboard boxes at every craft store, and they're so boring, just begging for decoration! LOL There's so many different things you could do to them - decoupage, paint, ribbon & fabric, the possibilities are endless!

Swap goods!

Here's the wonderful good I got from AgentAlmost for the Handcrafts for Handspun swap on Craftster. He sent over 500 yds in 5 balls & 2 skeins, as well as a spin kit with cd drop spindle, roving & instructions. I'm so excited to learn how to spin!


And here's what I sent! A giant knitting needle roll (with 65 pockets!) a crochet hook case, stuffed sushi catnip toys and a skein of Simply Soft. I also added a cute turkey button I received in a recent Sampler.

I'm planning on writing up a tutorial for the crochet hook case, hopefully I'll have it done before the end of the year. (It's the holidays, and I'm lazy! LOL)