Beads and busyness

This is the second ornament I started this week. The first one was another pin and bead satin ball kit. After several hours of working on it I realized that there was no way I could finish it this week. Too much happening - mostly fun.

So, I searched for something I could finish and did what I could on the other one.

This pretty little tidbit is a nice easy addition to my collection.

So what sort of busyness? We started with a washer repair. Monthly cheese club and dinner at Cyril's. Haircut. Pink Martini concert at the zoo. Stitch and Pitch at the Hillsboro Hops game. And a few days in Seattle with friends. After being sure the guys knew what needed doing during my absence.

Next week should be more of the same. Oh and another small detail - I'm turning (gasp!) 60.

Another pin bites the dust

Or to quote The Graduate, "One word: plastics."

I found these directions on Pinterest. They are from an internet craft seller, BJ's Craft Supplies.  It is made with tinsel stems, i.e. pipe cleaners, and a variety of plastic beads. I used pinkish-purplish tinsel stems, purple beads, AB multicolor beads and long clear AB beads which let the brights stems show through.



I think I faked a few steps of the directions - I was baffled by the diagram showing wrapping the stems around the ferris wheel bead. My brain and 2D pictures showing a 3D object do not always play well together.

It was very hard to capture the dimension of this one in a photo. Ward helped hold it, His comment, "It's really pretty if you like purple." Which of course he doesn't.

And now for something completely different

I used to like to cross stitch. Not so much anymore. It's kind of hard to see those tiny little holes, especially at night when I usually do my crafty things.  I do have a few cute cross stitch kits left

which I should try to get around to. This one, though, was a level of cross stitch I'm totally comfortable with right now.

I found these on etsy a year ago. There were 3 plastic trees with holes to use to cross stitch, some yarn in 3 colors and buttons. I went ahead and made 2 of them because they were quick and easy.

More pins

 This week I worked on a kit I got on etsy recently. It is a kit sold by Lee Wards in the late 70s. It seems I keep working on new purchases and not getting rid of old ones (which of course was the aim of this project!). Not to mention that I am making one from packages, leaving extras to deal with. I think a future project will be trying to sell these leftovers!

This one was really fun to do! The black things (that look like headphone foam covers) are the base - already covered in black! The covering is usually the hardest part. The pins were easy to space because of the silver paper shapes. And it is really pretty!

So pretty and so much fun I almost want to make the other one in the package. Almost but probably not.

On the road

For the last few years I've been taking a trip to Seattle the week when Stitch and Pitch happens. I love baseball. I love knitting. And I love a few days alone in a hotel. Reading at meals. Sleeping when I want. Only worrying about me. Indulgent! Last week was the week. I spent 2 days alone and Ward joined me for 2. The Mariners lost 3 of 4 games - it isn't easy being a Mariners fan!

 I  needed a portable project. These little knitted hats seemed to be a good choice.I made one the first night and another the next. These are kits I got at Knit Purl in Portland several years ago. There are 3 colors of yarn and 3 patterns: a fair isle, a striped and a solid. I didn't make the solid.

I thought it would like posing on my windowsill overlooking Safeco Field!

When I got home I added the pompoms. I've never made a pompom before. I used a fork, wrapping the 3 yarns around the tines abou.t 15 times. Then I tied around the middle and trimmed.  The only hard thing was tying the middle tightly. Yarn didn't work well - it kept breaking. I eventually used the same beading thread I used last week. I think they might need to be stuffed with something - tissue? - to look more well-shaped.

Easy feels like cheating ...

This idea idea comes from Martha Stewart. I love Martha's ideas. Some are tricky. Some like this one are easy but the challenge is finding the materials. These are made from wood veneer. After a search online, I found some at ARC Crafts. They had an assortment of woods and thicknesses, including some sampler packs. It was tricky deciding what thickness would be right some I got several sample packs.

She used embroidery floss. I have lots of different kinds of thread from the beadwork I've done. Small spools of this nice nylon thread seemed like a good choice.

Next, I looked at my punch and Martha's directions. My punch was about 25% smaller but the bigger issue was that it had fewer scallops. The directions said to skip 9 scallops - I realized I only had 14! I punted and made 4 different woods and 2 different spacing. I thought they looked pretty good.

Then I got out 2 scallop circle dies for my Sizzix.

These are so much better! Albeit a little hard to see the scallops on the cherry butcher block since I used cherry wood paper.The smaller of the two used Martha's formula exactly - skip 9 scallops. On the bigger one I skipped 8.

Here's a picture on my kitchen tablecloth - crumbs and all!

I'm heading up to Seattle for my annual Stitch and Pitch excursion. I am taking a portable knitting ornament along - we'll see how I do next week!

Paper craft

When I looked at my halfway collection of ornaments I realized that a category that wasn't represented was rubber stamping and other paper crafting. There was an ornament on the Stampin' Up 2012 catalog cover that I really liked. I got all the supplies to make it and then didn't. Last week, I got some new glues and a new (working!) mini glue gun. Actually a fancy 2 temperature glue gun - cool!

This was a bit time consuming but not too difficult. Each of the points consist of 4 pieces - stamped and cut with my Big Shot die cutter. 3 are folded in half, glued together and glued onto a 4th.

The rosette can be hand scored and folded but I also have dies to make them in 3 different sizes. The die cuts a narrow strip with a scalloped edge and scores it every 1/4 to 1/2 inch. I enjoyed finally figuring out how to make these. I ended up with all 3 sizes and decided the middle one looked best.

Once the 5 3-dimensional pieces in each color and the rosette were made and the tuille was cut into pieces it was just a matter of using the glue gun to put everything together.

Unfortunately I had a tragic accident with my nail polish during the crafting. I think the really good paper glue stuck to the foil on my ring finger nail and pulled it off when I cleaned it off. Just the fact that I have foil on my nail is rather surprising - 3 years ago I would have laughed at the possibility. Ah well. In any case, the polish loss was a small price to pay for this awesome ornament finally being done.