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The second part of my Beatles swap is here at last! I finally got time to craft for the swap, and I am incredibly thrilled with that I came up with. Since there were an odd number of people in the swap, there were three of us in a round-robin sort of partnership. Here’s what I sent to SwampOlympics
This sweet bag, made from a t-shirt and Barney bedsheet and also some canvas-ish fabric for handles. A little puckery in the sides because I’m completely impatient when it comes to sewing, but it still came out nice. Once I remembered how to sew the straps on properly. : )
This FUCKIN’ SWEET little notebook. It’s made from a pad of Post Its, some cardboard, and embellishments. The background is from a book in German (which I thought was fitting because they did record a couple of songs in German), and I am SO FREAKIN’ PROUD of the submarine. I looked up the album art for the Yellow Submarine and basically copied what I saw using some scrapbook paper, white printer paper, and the measly collection of colored pens that I have (basically just red, blue, and black. I miss my sharpies). If I had any use for notebooks, I would have made one for myself too, but I don’t, so it’s been sent off.
And a collection of notecards, which is sort of my fallback craft for swaps. I love making them though, so I am totally okay with any opportunity to do so. I am particularly a fan of “All you need is love”, but I love them all. I thought the “Here comes the sun” one would be perfect for a get well soon card, and “I want to hold your hand” (which says “PS I love you” on the inside) would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, or just to tell someone “I love you” or “I miss you”. I also wanted to try my hand at a slightly larger submarine. I will probably make some more in a similar set, or at least using song lyrics, because they’re perfect for non-specific sentiments.
The rest of the swap gallery can be found here on Craftster if you want to check out more Beatles-inspired crafts.
Coming soon(ish): Inchies. A knitting wip. Eventually a spinning FO (or maybe just a wip). Stuff. Things. Crafting is happening!
Well, round two for me. It’s actually round ten of the swap over on Craftster. Thankfully, this time I was not the organizer, so I got to kick back, mail my secrets at my leisure and see what happens. Here are the secrets I got:
After a huge fight with my best friend, I wished she could never have children. She wanted them more than anything. A few years later, she had a molar pregnancy that developed into cancer–which eventually killed her. We made up before she died, and I never told her what I had wished. I’ve never forgiven myself…. And I miss her so much.
I hate when my mom uses hott guys to get me to go to church.
Back:
I am agnostic and I just wish she would accept it instead of taking advantage of how desperate I am for a guy.
I suck. So bad. At flossing. I should only be allowed to have 4 teeth. (Middle) Start flossing! You’re an adult!
I burned my butt! (Back) Thankfully, it is NOT as red as this card. *tear* It itches!
Sometimes I don’t think I’m cut out to be a mom.
The rest of the gallery is here
In other crafting news, I finished the Beatles swap, so when it gets there, I’ll post it. I’m waiting on one more set of inchies before I can post that swap. The super secret knitting is almost done, but I can’t show you that until December because the recipient sometimes checks the blog. : ) I started a new project though, so perhaps I’ll have a wip photo and some info about that at some point. Stay tuned!
So I recently discovered inchies. Inchies, if you don’t know what they are, are little 1″x1″ works of art, usually grouped together. More information on them can be found in a very helpful post on Craftster here. My recent obsession with card making led me to think I’d also like making inchies. I was right:
I love almost all of them, though I do have a couple favorites. I love the one with the starburst as well as the one with the argyle pattern that says “Live big”. I’m also quite fond of the one with the big pink b. : )
I used a variety of materials to make these. Some old books I got in a library sale in Fredericksburg in French, German, and Japanese, a magazine, bits of a newspaper, scrapbook paper, some punches, and stamps that I either bought or carved and stamp pads my mother had around (though I did buy a couple for myself).
It’s safe to say I’m completely hooked on making inchies. I even signed up for an inchies swap: you make a total of 49 inchies and send seven groups of seven to other people. Though I did sign up for the swap before I made these. I’d been meaning to try inchies and I figured the swap would give me the push I needed.
I’m pretty thrilled about the swap, both for making and receiving. I think I’m going to mount them all and frame them to spice up my dorm room. : )
So I joined another swap, even though I said I wouldn’t. This was a small one: we just had to craft two bookmarks based on the themes our partner gave us. My partner was beeker and she made me some awesome bookmarks:
My themes were knitting, art deco, dinos/animals, and Star Wars/space. The first two were for me, but I aimed the second two at my lovely boyfriend. It was a quick, easy swap and I figured I only read one book at a time so I only need one bookmark (and I have two), and he reads about as voraciously as I do. : ) So the dino one is for him (I told this to my partner, btw, so no surprise handing off of crafty goodness).
Here are the ones I made for her (her themes were Beatles, red, pink, and leaves):
I loooove the red one, and I’m not quite as happy with the Beatles one. But I still like it and I am quite pleased with the dictionary definition of love bit. I shall definitely be making more thread crochet bookmarks as it was quite easy and I scored a bunch of crochet thread at the thrift store. Random stuff at this particular store (Goodwill Outlet) is something like 59 cents a pound and my total (which included a somewhat heavy roll of contact paper/stickable vinyl) was only 74 cents. SCORE! Anyway, the bookmark took literally about 20 minutes to make and they’ll be perfect for Christmas presents for some of the readers in my group of friends. Oh, and to stiffen it, I just dunked it in a glue/water bath, pinned it out, and let it dry. : )
The rest of the gallery is here if you want to check out the rest of the swap.
Here’s a bunch of non-knitting things I’ve been working on lately:
I made a couple of notecards (the first one of which I sent off to the boyfriend) out of stuff around the house. I love cardmaking but sadly have few occasions to use them. At least I’ll have lots of lovely ones for including in swaps.
A little notebook out of a pad of post its and some cardboard. If anyone’s interested in a tutorial for this, let me know! It was pretty simple but I know I would have appreciated a tut for notebook making that didn’t require sewing or making signatures.
I made yarn! It’s about 30 yards, according to my rudimentary measuring system (find book about a foot tall, wind yarn around book, count strands on one side, multiply by two, divide by three). Two ply, pretty thick and thin but loads better than my previous attempts. It goes between a fingering weight to a bulky weight, though it mostly sticks to worsted-ish. I think I’m going to try to make a calorimetry or some sort of headband/earwarmer type thing.
I made more yarn! I dyed this with kool-aid as roving, then spun it as a fingering weight-ish single. It’s overspun, but that’ll get better the more I practice.
I’ve found I really enjoy spinning, so I will definitely be doing more of it. Now I just need to find a good place (probably online) to get roving, preferably already dyed and for a reasonable (read: cheap) price. Or maybe I’ll just dye it myself. Knit Picks has some nice dyes available…
Sorry for the radio silence, people. My hard drive crashed and I needed to install a new one, so I’ve been without a computer since… Thursday? Friday? Something like that. Anyway, on to crafts:
I recently tried my hand at swap organizing! I put together and organized (with co-organizer edwards1) a Post Secret swap. If you don’t know about Post Secret, check out the official website here. The basic premise is that people write their secrets (normally with an artsy element) and send them to Frank and he puts some of them on the blog. He’s also done several books of Post Secret cards.
This swap was similar. I put everyone into groups and gave everyone some addresses. Each person made five secrets and sent them to five different people and got five secrets, one from each person. Here are the secrets that I received:
My secret still secret
For 15 years, my stepfather and I didn’t get along. For one 1 year, we didn’t speak. The last 5 years have been great. All it took was 120 miles.
I may not cry in front of other people but that doesn’t mean I don’t cry.
I would say yes in a heartbeat.
Back:
We’re not even dating… He knows I have feelings for him… He doesn’t know I’m in LOVE him!
I think Harry Potter sucks!!
Mine were also quite crafty, but I’m not going to post them here (because they’re secret). If you want to see the rest of the secrets in the swap (including mine), the gallery is located here.
No new FO’s to report (shocking, I know), but I have certainly been knitting and crafting. I’ve been working on a tank top:
(Razor Cami in Caron Simply Soft cause it’s what I’ve got onhand and I want it out of the stash)
and a little cardigan for my littlest cousin:
It’s in some random sport-weight acrylic I got from my grandmother ages ago (it’s been in my stash basically since I started knitting). The cardigan is the 24 months size, so I hope it will fit him during the winter. He’s not even a year and according to my sister (according to the baby’s sister), he’s already in 18 month size clothes. We’ll see.
In non-knitting news, my sister and I spent an afternoon being crafty, resulting in this:
We made paper! Ground up newspaper and magazine pages in a blender, dumped everything in the sink with a bunch of water, then strained the pulp and let it all dry. It’s thick and some of it’s quite fragile, and it’s a strange grey color, but I like it, and I’ll definitely use it in some paper crafts. And there’s glitter in it!
So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. I did another round of the Ongoing Wish Swap, so that will be happening soon. And there might also be a little tutorial type of thing… Stay tuned!
I did, you know. That’s the only explanation for why I’ve taken up card making in earnest. It all started with these books I got out of the library. Cardmaking books. About card making.
And it was all downhill from there. I gathered as many supplies as I could find in my house: Construction paper, elmer’s glue, ribbon, a magazine, scissors, fabric glue, buttons, and water colors. Plus these books I got at a sale at the Fredericksburg library, one in German and on in French. At the time, I figured they’d be useful in some sort of papercraft. Anyway, I spend several hours with the supplies and the books, and this is what I came up with:
My favorite is definitely the one with the pink bow and the panties (or I guess it could be bathing suit bottoms), but I am really quite fond of the wine glasses too. They’re not perfect by any means, and I am definitely more crafty than artsy, but I rather like them. I would prefer to use cardstock and I would eventually like to get better supplies/better quality so I can sell them in my artfire shop (in the sidebar). At the moment, I’ll work on my technique and use them for friends and for swap packages. These are definitely a lot prettier than a sheet of notebook paper. : ) Also, I’ll include a note that they can just glue a sheet of white paper over my note to reuse the card. Eco-friendly! I mean, they are already because of the books and the magazines, but still.
In knitting news: Climbing Vines is DONE and all sewn together. Pictures soon. I also just finished a tank top out of Cascade Sierra, so that’s coming also.
I finally received my tree swap package from Lunakitten on Craftster.
Let me just say it is fucking amazing:
These AWESOME paintings on BOOK PAGES. Seriously, I am in awe. Until I obtain frames, they’re just chilling on my desk, but I’m totally going to frame them because they’re amazing.
Tote bag. HUGE totebag. I could fit myself in this totebag. It is awesome. I shall carry everything I own in it. Or at least use it for my books. : )
This BITCHIN’ box, which currently houses my button collection, meager though it is (my button collection, I mean. The box is kickass).
Sweet stitch markers to add to my collection. These are so pretty!
Thanks a ton to my super AWESOME swap partner, Lunakitten. So much win!!
And here’s what I sent her:
Pillow cover made from a bedsheet, random brown wool yarn, Red Heart yarn, and hair ties. The tree is freehand crochet (I made it up as I went along) and the cover is removable but buttons together with two crocheted buttons that secure via cannibalized hair tie.
Another pillow cover. Made with a thrifted curtain, brown stretch knit fabric with houndstooth on one side, an old green tank top, part of a white t-shirt, the leg of some old jeans, a button, and a hairtie. Basically, I took parts from all the old clothes I had in my fabric stash. She (and her son) seem to really like this one and I am thrilled because I wasn’t thrilled with how it came out (though I guess it came out alright). It was fiddly as hell to sew the tree on there, and my sewing machine did not enjoy sewing through denim. I actually sent her two covers and one pillow form, so she could change them out as she saw fit, but apparently she just got another pillow form so she could display both. : )
Made from a curtain, a cereal box, white paper, t-shirt scraps, awesome glue, ribbon, and dental floss. I did a bit of searching to find how the hell to do this, but I mostly just made it up. It was pretty easy, but if anyone wants a tut, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v447/EssenceJaded/Crafting/?action=view¤t=2103.jpg
Possibly my favorite papercraft thing I’ve ever made ever. I just used construction paper and computer paper. I think they came out wonderfully, even though holepunching for the autumn tree took a VERY long time. I love how it came out though. Also, look at the cute little bird on the spring tree:
So cute.
The gallery for this swap is located here if you want to see more trees.
And because I forgot to mention it before, the gallery for the quotes swap is here in case you want to see more quote crafts.
(Hey Teach pictures are coming… eventually. I promise.)
I finally received my swap package from Rockmygypsysoul on Crafster, and it is rockin’:
KICKASS tote:
Sweet coasters:
Stitch markers:
She used almost all of my quotes between the bag and the coasters, and the bag has such a great shape. Because I know you can’t read it, the quotes on the bag are:
“The one you love and the one that loves you are never ever the same person.” (Invisible Monsters)
“You know that old saying about how you always hurt the one you love? Well, it goes both ways.” (Fight Club)
“We are not special. We’re not crap or trash either, we just are. We just are, and what happens just happens.” (Fight Club)
And now, here are the things I sent to her:
Notebook made completely from scratch (recycled cardboard, white paper, decorations from stash). Interestingly (I think anyway) it’s sewn together with dental floss–I wanted something stronger than thread but didn’t want to buy anything new. Stash item ftw.
A set of notecards made from computer paper and construction paper. The quote on them is “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart, I will always be with you.” (AA Milne). They were lots of fun to make.
And finally:
Tote bag made from red houndstooth fabric, a flowery bedsheet (the lining), and felt. I used this awesome-strong fabric glue so I didn’t have to fiddle with sewing on the letters, though I did cut them out free hand. The quote that this goes with is from the West Wing and is something to the effect of, “Victory is mine! Victory is mine! Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land!” The muffin is a t-shirt scrap and a scrap from a thrifted curtain.
Stay tuned for one more swap, which is finishing up soon.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 
