New Year

So, a part of this season is examining the past year and making goals for the coming year.

My past year, I got quite into crafting. I've rekindled my relationship with my sewing machine. I tried new things and I'm getting better at everything solely by doing.

In my next year, I have a few crafting resolutions...

1: Be a dedicated journaler:

I've already started this one. I bought a journal just before X-Mas. I couldn't wait, even though I got a beautiful one as a gift. I have a tendency to pick things up, cut things out, and generally save things that are somehow inspiring to me. I file them into a folder marked "inspirations". Well, that hasn't really worked out. I have these bits and peices of paper and junk. But for a lot of them I have no idea what was inspiring in the first place. In my journal, double stick tape is key. I'll stick my cached bit down and then write why I like it, why I picked it out of the trash can or up from the ground, why it is there. Plus all that personal stuff inbetween. There is a tendency for my thinking process to clear up when I write things down. Get it out. This is applicable across the board.

2: Quit with the wishy-washy:

This is a big one. And it is going to be applied to personal life as well. I need to make up my mind and make others make up theirs. I often start projects I don't finish. If it takes more than two hours, I'll set it aside for that "rainy day" that comes, but rarely.

3: Build a Silk Screen:

Oh My. I want to do this soo bad. It's all about time and money really. I've got the time, but I haven't got the money. It's not that expensive, but, hey, I'm a poor college student. I really hope to get to the hardware store in the coming week, but I've been saying that for over a month.

4: Shoe Paint:

This shit is harder to find than you think. It's paint that's made specifically for painting shoes. It's flexible, pretty durable, and covers well. I'd like to paint shoes with it, of course, but then there's also the many many other things it would be just fabulous for.

5: Go to California/Oregon:

Just because.

Ties and Hair Doodads.

So, I painted a lovely pepper mill to be a X-Mas present for my stepmum, but I forgot to take pictures of the final product. Ooops. It had a retro-hipster-tree forest in blue. I think I'm going to make orange marmelade.

So I made these a few weeks ago.
Materials: Ribbon, glue, molded resin+paint, bobby pins.





For the flower, I started with cutting petals out of 1 inch ribbon. I like using ribbon because it gives me a good width to start from. I use the full width as the largest petal and cut down from there. I cut the petals out by size, 5-8 of each, then put clear nail polish around the edge on the back side to keep it from fraying. Then I glue 'em all together with hot glue, starting with the center first. If I'm just going for a flower, I wrap a few around each other for the center, but in this case, I kept the middle open, not very clustered. At the end I glued the little skull in the middle.

The bow was super easy. I made a loop, creased it a bit in the middle, wrapped a peice of ribbon around it. The tails are just slant-cut ribbon glued to the back. The bone, again, is a painted peice of molded resin. I glued it down, wrapped a thin ribbon around that.

Resin is fun stuff. It comes in this metal bottle like paint thinner comes in. It hardens once the catalyst is added. It stinks like hell until it's completely dry. Oh. And it can probably kill you. You can pour it into any type of mold. Once it hardens, it can be sanded and shaped, which I've done to get nice round edges, which can be hard to make when carving molds. I've been carving them until I can get my hands on some nice mold-clay. It's a type of clay that, after hardening, is still flexible without cracking.

Also. I LOVE THESE!
I got a nice set of paint for X-Mas, something which I've been needing badly. So, of course, I had to use it immediately. I've been collecting old, ugly ties. I've had this idea for a while, but never actually...done it.

Materials: Ties + Paint. Posted in the order they were made.













Also, I've been asking all my friends to send me a list of their five or so favorite things. It's a nice source of ideas. That's where the space and cigarette painted ties came from. So please, send me your damn list people.

P.S. I need a better banner image for this thing. Any ideas?

Edit: By the way, the second one down is a peacock. Not a trippy eye thing. Wierdo.

Gift Baskets

My neighbor across the street and over a bit has been extremely helpful in dealing with our snow. He brought his snow-blower over and helped us clear out the driveway/sidewalk, clear out our cars, and get one unstuck from the snow this morning when we were on our way out.

So I put together a gift basket for him. Gift baskets are generally...well...shitty, primarily the pre-made ones you can buy in any store around any holiday. They're one third full of things you like and will eat/use, one third things that are okay but you'd much rather just give to someone else, and the last third is crap you're most likely to throw away.

My utilitarian holiday gift basket consists of:
One loaf of nice bread
Cheese and Crackers (organic cheddar and little toast-crackers)
An orange-fig spread
Little mini-muffin coffee cakes
Bath paints (for the two little girls)
Pack of blank thank you cards
Stamps
And all in a basket that's the perfect shape for storing holiday cards

Full of things you'd want for the holidays and that will definitely come in handy. Good snack foods, etc.

I'd also thought about putting in little boredom kits for the little girls to take to family outings during the season. Maybe a little pack of crayons and a notebook in a bag with some candy. Something of that sort. Because it can get damn boring at grandma's sometimes.

First Blog.

I make things. I make many things. I think that I can make anything I truly want to. I like the idea of being able to make the things I use everyday (although I'm a few steps away from mastering the electronics aspect). I'm a soon to be an Ebay seller, once I get paypal set up straight. So, I've recently decided to start a crafting blog. I read these things damn near every day. And, for the most part, I can do better.

So in honor of the season and the blizzard, here's what I've been making...

I love this:


I made these a while ago, my X-Mas Cookies:


I've been wrapping all my gifts in these little Asian-food takeout boxes...
Momma's:


All of them lined up on the piano:




Of course, now I need to learn how to take better pictures.
Apologies.

More Later.
More Soon.