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Thursday, November 28, 2013

Crafting Thanksgiving: Faux Stiching

graphing paper plus colored pencils equals faux cross stitching


be sure to look up cross-stitching alphabet templates before "stitching" and have wite-out handy

Crafting Thanksgiving: Making a Tree

For the past few Thanksgivings our lil family has done crafts as part of what to do on Thanksgiving.  It's time together, fun, laughter, joy.  Three ladies: 35, 36, and 65... no traditional children, just inner kids :-)

To make sure I get something down for our reference, and anyone who stumbles upon this blog, I am drafting this post while doing things.  We'll see how that works ;-)  I went totally brain dead on Halloween time and forgot to post the cupcakes we did for the folks at the doctor's office.

Here we go.  I will likely switch between past and present tense depending on when I wrote the passage.

MAKING OUR HOLIDAY TREE

Our youngest cat hurt herself on last year's tree, so we wanted something that didn't cost an arm & a leg and also wouldn't hurt her.  We'll see what happens with this idea.

WHAT I (THINK I) NEED
  • Foam Boards
  • Paint
  • Paint brush, naturally
  • paint palette  (I'm using an old unwanted DVD... Speed Racer)
  • Clear laminate (like "contact paper")
  • glue gun
  • pencil
  • single sided razor blade (or with it in it's box cutter)
  • paper towels
  • q-tips for paint mixing
  • water for brush cleaning
some supplies I think I need

THE PROCESS
Mixed green and blue paints to make green of course.  Paint foam board surface. Remix paint as needed the hope is a more "natural" variation.  We'll see.

the DVD palette
I found that I had to retire the DVD for a disposable condiment cup due to the cat. This project is so interesting... yeah that... with a cat "helping."

easier with the cup -- naturally
As I am painting both sides I thought I would add why --- I didn't like the shade of green board we found at wally world and we weren't able to make it to Michaels... so... Dollar Tree it is.

dabbing paint on board #1
Hazards of painting by the laptop... green dots to be scratched off, or coaxed off with a dab of water.

Well, got done with the second side, and the once straight board is now bowed, guess our tree grew crooked, reaching for the sun.

Then I drew the tree shape on the boards and cut 'em out.  I want to use as much as the board as possible, so I don't think the shape is going to be too classic. I started cutting when I forgot to apply the contact paper.... oops, applied and continued cutting. on the second board I laminated before cutting (used board #1 as template for shape). After board #2 is cut... I cut it in half from top to bottom.
laminating

The halves of #2 will be hot glued to #1.  (the paper came apart from the foam and since I can't find my packing tape, I'm using my foam glue to glue the parts back) my foam glue sucks.  parts are still curling up.  So I'm heating up the glue gun -- I'll get the stubborn corners then glue the halves to the whole. First I put a strip of glue on the half then pressed it to the center of the whole.  Then "caulked" both sides to fill in the gaps.  Side 2 of this 3D tree is a little trickier, since you're working upright ;-)
"caulking" to secure

and then, after about 4-5 hours... huh?! geez!  I am done.  Now we can make our own paper ornaments and use removable glue dots or looped tape to stick to the laminated tree, ideally it will be able to be removed.

I think I did alright considering that I had only a vague idea in my noggin. :-)

FINISHED!


I still need to post our ornaments  - hopefully I will remember.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Oopsies-That's a Little Too Irregular

I finished this awhile back.  Well stopped it is more accurate.  Like I've said I am not yet ready to work with real patterns, I'd like to "wing it" for now... and see if I come up with any "happy mistakes."  Besides, this way -ideally- I will get a feel of how to work with it and not freak out as much if I "mess up".

So ... My goal is to make a blanket.

Before I even ordered my Long Loom Set, I had my Round Looms.  I know if you skip the last peg and keep doubling back on yourself you'll get a panel.  So.... I figure "I will use 5 skeins of yarn for each panel"  No counting needed there, hah! Then at most I would be satisfied with slightly irregular  edges as I am aware that each skein may not be perfect.

So I got my two panels done.  And I set out to stitch them together.  That in itself was me doing what I think is a basic crochet stitch along the seam.   Well.... I get half way done when it dawns on me I forgot to ensure that both panels were facing the same way.  I was doing e-wrap stitches on the loom.  Each side of the panel looks different!  Silly me... oh well... continue stitching....

Done!  Wait a second!!!!  That it a lot left over!   Seems that I also forgot that not all skein are created equal regardless of apparent size & brand.  



So... I now have my Long Looms.. Gonna try that for my next blanket attempt.  I have measured out 5 skeins of yarn each to the same size and have pre-russian-joined each skein into a huge ball of yarn.

I just started, I don't have a lot of time for this project... so once a bit more is visible beyond the loom, I will post.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Welcome to Krafts and Knitting

Greetings and Salutations!

I am hoping this will be a fun way for me to document my progress (or just the final product) of various craft items.

In June of 2012 I started tinkering with loom knitting.  I enjoy it. I currently do not follow patterns per se -- I make it up as I go.  I use YouTube instructions as guides as well since written instructions seem to confuse me.  It seems with knitting I am a strictly visual learner ;-)

I enjoy other arts and crafts.  "Kid Krafts" as well as more "adult" crafts.  I would like to posts these as well. Whether it is something created from scratch or something from a kit bought at the local dollar store.

I also enjoy baking -- and sometimes that can get creative ... so I might add in goodies too!

Whether I come up with my own tutorials or if I simply show us what I've made (and with luck exactly how I managed that result) I hope this journey will be fun :-)

Thank you