Our New Christmas Ornaments!

I was hanging out in the living room a little bit ago, and was trying to decide how to decorate these clear glass ornaments I had. I had recently bought this little tub of ultrafine glitter (Art Glitter, which is amazing!), and loved the dark purple color. I also had a 2 liter of flat Sprite from the night before. The thought of glitter inside the glass ornaments appealed to me, and I used what I had. I couldn't think of a way to use glue, so I used Sprite. I swirled a bit inside each ornament, drained it, and used bent cardstock to funnel in the glitter. Shake it up, and voila! It stuck, and they're still going strong! Apparently the bond of Sprite and glitter will last.

Special Unveiling!

Here's what that tree full of buttons turned into.

Button Tree

And who said buttons don't grow on trees?

Shea's Necklace

This is a necklace that I made for my friend Shea's birthday. Since Shea doesn't read my blogs, I felt it safe to post this, even though she won't get it until tomorrow. It's a collage on a wood tile, with a bail attached on the back. I think it's rather cute, don't you? I love cats.

Some New Earrings

Here's some pics of some new earrings that are in my shop, as well as one of my rope bowls. Aren't they cute?

New Tags

I found a new way to make tags for my softies, but I haven't yet figured out how to make them waterproof. First, you take Heat'n'Bond, iron it onto some cotton cloth, peel off the backing, and iron on some tissue paper. It takes a bit to get used to how to do it, but it's not hard. Just make sure that the iron doesn't touch the actual sticky stuff. Then, cut it to 8.5"x11" and stick it in your printer. Space what you want to say onto a Word document, leaving plenty of space around the words, and print on it! Make sure you print on the cotton side, not the paper side. Cut up the sheet, and they're ready to use. I folded one in half, sewed it onto some wool scraps, and made a cute little snail! He just can't get wet...

Goldfish Stamp

Here's a scan of a little goldfish stamp I carved. Not very professional, but very cute! I did it with wood carving tools and an eraser.

A Tie for All Occasions!

This is a cute pink shirt! What can I do to make it cuter?



For the tie, cut out two pieces of coordinating cotton cloth. Right sides together, sew all around, leaving a hole to turn it inside out. Then stitch along the outside again, sealing the hole. You'll also want to put a little piece of interfacing on the inside of the shirt where the rivet will be. This helps the shirt not stretch so much around the rivet.



Cut a hole (a little smaller than the rivet hole) in both the shirt and the tie.



Layer everything according to directions of the rivets and pound away! It took me about 20 good whacks with a real hammer, so make sure you put a pad underneath everything and use a surface that can handle a few hits.



This is the final look! Be careful you don't put the rivet anywhere you don't want to show what's underneath. I have ideas of using this idea to put flowers on jeans pockets.

Some New Books

Here's some books that are now on etsy. The little one is only 2.5"x3", but I didn't skip any steps. :) I've now started the creation that will become Garret's wedding guest book. More to follow.

Sundance Booth

Here's some pics of my very first booth! Actually, the first one is a picture of the cool display I found at DI for $5 (for good reason, as you can see). We cleaned it up and painted it, and now I think it looks rather dashing!
It was drizzly while we set up, but we had every expectation of it clearing up. It didn't. About 11:30, there was a real storm, blowing our canopy over and soaking the merchandise. This happened to several other vendors as well, and everyone immediately started packing up. Oh, well. There's another fair in September, and I'll be putting more things up in my booth, like my books.

Possible Pandagoldfish Icon

This is a drawing I did (using my new awesome Prismacolors that Mom gave me for my birthday!) that I'm thinking of using on my business cards. What do you guys think?

Sweater Rocks

These little guys are going to be at my booth at the Sundance Children's Festival! Aren't they cute? They're all of my own design, too.

Pencil Drawing of Skeet

This is a sketch done from a picture I took of Skeet. His face is a little unnaturally round, but other than that, I think it really looks like Skeet, huh?
Also, as a side note, I'm officially going to have a booth at the Sundance Children's Festival next month!!! I'll be selling my star crayons in zipper pouches, sweater monsters, and little 'sweater rocks'... I'll get a picture of those soon. They're impossibly adorable, and I can hardly believe that I came up with them!

My First Sock!

Here's my very first real sock. It's done with this really cool yarn that stripes itself as you knit! I'm about halfway done with the second sock, but that's going pretty slowly.

Photography

These are a couple of pics of two of my Scleich toy animals. I'm trying to collect them all, and so far I have 20 of them. There are several hundred of them, mostly discontinued, so I have a fair while to go. Aren't these cool pictures, though?

The New Kitty Sweater

This is the cat sweater that I wrote about before. I finally buckled down and finished it! Yay! It's mostly from a simple dog sweater pattern, but the bottom part is fudged a bit to be better for cats. Aren't my kitties adorable in it? I have plans for a red sweater for Skeet, maybe this time with sleeves.

Zipper Pouches

I found a load of little zippers at my local thrift store, so I decided to use up some of my scraps in my fabric trunk. This was the first one I made. I made another last night but haven't taken pictures yet, and they'll probably go on my etsy shop.

Tatting Class

Hello! I recently took a lace tatting class from The Mad Tatter. Here are the things that I made in his class, and hopefully over the summer I'll be able to make an edging for a sheer light green curtain that's hanging in our living room. I'll post pictures when I pick a pattern and as I go along. It will probably take quite a while... Each medallion took me about an hour to do, and I'll need at least 20 feet of edging.

My Serger!

Last year I found this old serger at a garage sale, and bought it. I only started cleaning it and trying to figure it out in the last couple of weeks. I had to buy the manual on eBay. I threaded it with regular spools of thread because I don't have the special ones... It took forever to thread, but it was worth it! It actually works! Here's a pic of the serger and the first piece of fabric I tried it out on. The tension of the threads is hard to figure out, but hopefully I'll get it eventually.