Archive for the ‘Handmade’ Category
Jul
Whiff of Joy – Challenge and little tutorial for the Inspirations blog
Our challenge this week at Whiff of Joy challenge is Fuzz. Now when I first saw the theme my lil old heart thunked right down to my boots, but I really did enjoy making this card and after seeing the creations done by the rest of the DT I’m guessing they did too. The paper is from the new Christmas digi kits from Bearly Mine Designs. I love the icy blue colour that I got after fiddling with
Jul
VIDEO: How to make a mini-zine!
Last week I posted about my altered Starbucks VIA box and how I turned it into a zine holder. I received so many emails asking for a zine tutorial, that I put one together!
I like BUSY, I like to make all kinds of layers on my work, as if you haven’t noticed. But if you want simple, just take the idea and adapt it to your own style.
I made one mini-zine focused on my novel, each page has a quote for a different character, with the book info on back. The second one has inspiring quotes! I included other ideas in the video as well.
I used colored pencils, Crafty Chica® Mojito Papers™ and Aleene’s® Acid-Free Tacky Glue™ Glue Sticks.
Enjoy!
Peace, love, and glitter!
Kathy 
Jul
Autumn Purse Block Update
Just a quick post for today everyone. Thought you would all enjoy seeing an update on my Autumn Purse block:
Bet you’ll never guess what’s going on that spider web? LOL!!! I may still hand-paint that lace piece on the top right. I still haven’t decided yet. Stay tuned! I’ll be offering this in my Etsy shop when it’s complete!
Jul
CAPTION CONTEST!
This is my desk at the iLoveToCreate design studio when I’m not there. This contest will run for 48 hours. I’ll post the winner the week of August 2nd, 2010.
Peace, love, and glitter!
Kathy
Jul
Glittered wallets in our booth!
Sealed with Aleene's gloss spray…
These were made by one of our in-housedesigners to show off our glitter colors!
Jul
Taking Apart An Old Hat Tutorial
Bubba & I hit 2 Flea Markets yesterday! I didn’t find anything all that exciting but I did pick up this ugly old hat for $6.00:
I buy these these old hats for the vintage flowers. Many times, they’re velvet and silk and usually in very good shape. I buy them when I find them for around $4 – $6 and then I take them apart. This may seem like a rather dumb tutorial but I thought someone out there may like know how to do this.
In most cases, the glue on these hats is rather brittle and the flowers will come off easily but I have had a few that were a big old bear to get off!!!
First, I started on this one by removing the leaves:
The leaves & flowers are usually glued to each other. Find a starting point and carefully start pulling the leaves or flowers away from the mesh base.
Silk flower petals may tear a little. Do your best to carefully pull them off and keep in mind that if they tear, it adds to the charm and raggyness of the flowers. I for one, love the raggy look of vintage things! They can always be slightly trimmed with a pair of scissors.
There may be areas where you just have to cut the mesh base to get the flowers off.
Once I had the flowers off of the sides of the hat, I cut the mesh base on the top off.
This just makes it a wee bit easier to get the rest of the flowers off.
Continue to carefully pull the flowers off the top.
I pulled them all off the top of the hat and then I pulled them off of each other. And now I have a nice bagful of silk & velvet vintage flowers & leaves!
It takes about 1/2 an hour to tear one of these old hats apart but it’s well worth it. The flowers can be used on crazy quilting, art quilts, cards, art dolls…just about anything! They can be sewn on or glued on with a glue gun. The can also be glittered!!!
If you find one for a few dollars, give it a try! It’s fun to re-purpose these old flowers on new projects!
When I finished tearing that old hat apart, I did some baking! My Kitchaid was calling to me! LOL!!! I made some Banana muffins with chocolate chips:
I just used a regular Banana Muffin recipe and replaced the nuts with chips. Scott always laughs at me because I put chocolate chips in everything!!!
Then I made a batch of Sugar cookies with cinnamon and chocolate chips:
This is my basic Drop Sugar cookie recipe. You can find it in my sidebar. I added 3/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon to it.
By the time I was done baking, it was late afternoon and Bubba had gotten the headlights on our Model A:
Is this incredible or what? He’s been working on this car for 7 years now and it’s really starting to come together. He has the running boards on it now too!
Finally for today, I’ll leave you with an update on my Autumn purse block:
This is ready for beading now. I’ll start on that later today!
Before I head out and start my day, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the sweet comments that you’ve left for me on my depression & anxiety discussions. If any one would like to share a link to the articles on their blog, please feel free to do so. I truly feel that if I can help even one person who’s going through a horrible depression experience, then my energy in writing these articles is so worth it. My next article will be available this week.
Jul
Recent Press!
Patrick’s painting was in the background of a scene in Dad Camp on VH1! This is at our space at Handmade Galleries in Los Angeles. The painting has since sold.
And here is my lamp project in Decorating Digest’s Craft & Home Projects. You can click on the pattern to get a larger image to get the directions and use the patterns.
Peace, love, and glitter!
Kathy
Jul
Wild Orchid Crafts Challenge – Lovely Lace
I can’t believe the huge number of fantastic entries we had for our first Wild Orchid Challenge, well over 550 entries oh my goodness!! This week the challenge is Lovely Lace, so my new DT kit with the gorgeous new lace that’s now in stock came just in time. How exquisite is this Guipure lace? I am totally in love lol. I used Papermania Blueberry Hill papers, love the pastel colours of
