Getting Crafty

Leaves are my latest obsession: I seem to be on the lookout for the perfect leaves with which to make some jewelry, earrings mostly. Want to see what I’ve found so far?

Walmart has been a surprising source of leaves:

I see these ones as pendants more than anything: they’re a bit too heavy to be anything else in my mind. Black cord would be a nice contrast, and go nicely with the black veins that are visible in the leaves.

These cuties could be used on a necklace too, or mixed with some fine chain and tiny jump rings for a long and delicate looking set of earrings. It might look nice to have different lengths of chain too in one pair of earrings.

If you’re into making jewelry and live in Canada, the best place you could go is the The Sassy Bead Co. This store is a delight for any jewelry lover: every surface is covered with glass jars, from the tiniest of jam jars to larger mason jars of beads. The beads all have funky names too, clearly chosen by the employees. The newest location in Ottawa is so bright and sunny that I was surprised to find the store all but empty the last time I visited it. While I was there I picked up these delicate looking leaves:

Another thing I’m rather taken by is kidney clasps. No, this isn’t an extreme jewelry fetish of mine, they are the delicate earring clasps that are used in this beautiful etsy offering:

(photo courtesy of juneshin)

Dooce also featured a pair of earrings with a kidney clasp opening in her daily style section, which you can read about and see here. I found a large pair of sterling silver ones that I can’t wait to use:

How fitting that the results of preliminary adventures with shrinky dinks coincides with the demise of my camera! Never fear though: I managed to borrow a camera so that you could share in the magic that is shrinky dinks.

Prior to this year, I had never heard of shrinky dinks. A coworker had the cutest earrings and when I commented on them, she informed me that they were handcrafted. Another coworker, overhearing our conversation, told me that she strongly suspected that shrinky dinks were involved in the making of the main “bead” of the earrings. After hearing that I just had to know all I could know about shrinky dinks.

What I found out is the following:

• shrinky dinks (SDs) is the brand name for shrink plastic
• when put in an oven (not the microwave!) this plastic sheet which resembles a sheet of acetate used on overhead projectors more than anything) will shrink up and thicken
• the stuff has been around since the early 1970s and seems to be making a comeback

When I did a search for jewelry made with shrink plastic, the first thing that caught my eye was Planet June’s tutorial, which I shared earlier. A search on etsy revealed the beautiful rings of Dillon Designs

I decided to pick up some ink made for unusual surfaces such as plastic, and some of this plastic and see if I could fashion some cute earrings.

Here’s what I started with:

…and here is the final result.

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I wanted to share pictures of my shrinky dink adventures and my progress on the baby blanket but guess what? My camera is broken and my backup camera is missing (the owner is notoriously careless and has misplaced it).

I’m rather frustrated because it’s past 3am and I was all set to show you all sorts of pictures, complete with explanations, but now I’ll have to wait.

And I am not a patient person!

I bought the knitting needles that I needed to make the baby blanket.

I bought shrinky dink plastic and I have this shrink plastic ring tutorial.

I bought earring-making materials (will share those later)

No, I’m not pregnant but my friend is. Here are some things that I’d love to make for my friend/her baby:

What I need: time, lots and lots of time.

If I had more time and more skill with a sewing machine, this diaper bag would be so lovely! This crafty person made hers from an old dress but I’d love to make it using a blue/grey colour that I know the mom-to-be loves.

A baby blanket, preferably knit from supersoft wool and a very easy pattern, would be ideal. There are a lot of options for easy patterns out there, and I do have time to do this. I really must get cracking on this! (Update: I have found the perfect pattern that uses yarn that I already have on hand: Hoodie Baby Blanket)

A diaper cake for the baby shower’s centrepiece is a must! Have you heard of these? You roll up little diapers then stack them together vertically to make a layered “cake”. Some more elaborate ‘cakes’ have baby rattles, pacifiers, bibs and other small but necessary baby things nestled in the cake. Some good instructions for this masterpiece are here or here if you’d like a nice illustrated tutorial. You can find a very impressive gallery of variations of the diaper cake here.

I’m currently trying to figure out what I want to do for the invitations. The grandmother to be is a florist and very artistic so she tends to like themes, and the baby room has a theme but I think the parents want that to be a surprise for guests to their home after the baby is born so we can’t use that theme. Is it too cliched to use the basic blue theme? It is a boy we’re expecting, after all!

Go read about my adventures putting up my hope notes!

I took some time during this weekend to make the first five messages of hope that I will distribute around my city. We’ve been deluged with snow so I’m hoping these very bright notes will make someone’s day. I was tempted to add a little “take me” on the messages to encourage people to bring them in out of the cold and onto their desktops or fridges but I guess I’ll let the people who see the messages decide what they want to do with them.

Here are the little notes I made:

I bought the printed vellum that is layered on top of this yellow sheet of cardstock years ago. What I really need are some colourful markers thicker than the pink pen I used to write the message.

One of my favourite artists, India.Arie, has the following quote by Gandhi in her song Better People: Be the change you want to see in the world. (Incidentally, I keep misquoting this as “Be the change you want to be in this world.” I guess both are close enough in meaning that it’s not such a big mistake.) I love the quote so much because it speaks to the fact that change doesn’t have to have a huge campaign, or be started by powerful people: all it takes is someone who is willing to work for the change and it will grow from there. You can be the good (peace, beauty, love) you want to see the world.

I love bright orange and pink together and these next two simple messages used those colours primarily. I like the idea of sharing that the individual is special and important and even though they might feel like they’re insignificant or unimportant, they aren’t. We’re all important all have a place and role in this world.

Sunny yellow rules this last message. I know I often feel like a failure, like I can’t do anything right so I’m hoping someone who’s feeling the same will be cheered by the colours and the message.

Is anyone else doing this project?

I’m still trying to get my hands on some knitting needles and what I’ve discovered is the cost of a tiny bit of metal or bamboo is really far more than I expected. Thrifty crafter that I am, I’m seeing cheap circular needles and double pointed needles. There’s a store I need to check this week. If I’m out of luck there, I’ll have to cave in and pay through my nose for needles that I may only use once.

The wool prices are also making me catch my breath a little.

• I have a new project! I would love to get started on it this week but this is a busy week in the world of Jummy.
• My attempts to find the tools that I need to make the beret have been in vain at Michaels. I think I will have to find an honest to goodness knitting shop and go there. One was recommended to me that I must check it out.
• I’ve decided that my life will not be complete unless I make these slippers for my best friend’s soon to be born wee one.

Good news: the marble magnets were sent to the lucky winner the very next day! It felt great to shove that off the old to do list. Because I love etsy and I was so late sending off the prize, I asked the recipient to pick something from an etsy site of her choice that I could have sent to her as a “Sorry I’m a terrible procrastinator” gift. The beauty of this plan was that I didn’t have to be responsible for ensuring it reached her in any amount of time! These etsy shop owners are pros at this sort of thing.

I decided to browse etsy too and see what I could get myself. So far I’ve just been looking and drooling over on etsy:

Art Under Glass
This crafter makes soldered pendants and each piece has a scrapbook/collage look to it that has completely charmed me. She can put any image you want under glass, or you can go with one of her own designs. I’m rather partial to the pendant below, mostly because of the poppies (I hope it’s ok for me to borrow a picture from the site):

(Image is the property of Art Under Glass)

Lisa’s Pieces
I’m a big silver jewelry fan and I’m forever doodling spirals so this site that creates (among other things) spiral shaped pendants with inspiring messages on them was an instant fave. You can even choose the words you want to have stamped on to your pendant. Since hearing that it was Gandhi who said that we must be the change we want to see in the world, I’ve been hooked on those words.

(Image is the property of Lisa’s Pieces)

In the end it was the monogrammed aprons offered at Pink Chameleon that caught the eye of my prize winner. With a move to my own place imminent, I must keep an eye out for a cute apron for me too. If only the donning of an apron would give you super cooking powers, and work in the same fashion that capes do.

Creating has been hellish: I can’t seem to do anything that doesn’t turn out looking awful.

I continue to struggle with the magnets—have I suddenly become anal-retentive, agonizing over every excess dot of glue, or am I just not able to make them like I used to? I am still having trouble putting the right amount of silicone sealer to the marbles: too much and it globs all over and looks juvenile; too little and you can see it under the marble. It’s enough to make me scream, especially since this is that prize that is so overdue that I have to send an apology card and throw in an extra gift too I think.

A friend of mine, knowing my love all things crafty, sent me a picture from Cosmo magazine of a knit slouchy beret that she is in love with. It’s the “it thing” right now, as you can see from this clipping, which shows a number of young popular stars wearing the very cute berets in a number of ways. This is not our grandmother’s beret, that’s for sure:

(Image courtesy of Accessories Studio)

I would love to make one for her, because this friend has been nothing but kind for me, but the pattern I found (a very popular knit pattern that’s going around right now is Wendy Bernard’s Le Slouch) uses double pointed knitting needles and Jummy has never had the pleasure of fumbling about with dpns (as the cool kids call them). I’m sure I can direct my questions to Barbara over at Knitting Passion and I may have to, but in the meantime I better get some dpns!

WIBW is late this week, not because something wasn’t bought but because the purchased item was misplaced. But it has surfaced:

I love these fabric flowers, and they come with jeweled brads for their centres. Who can look at these bright colours and not be happy? Certainly not I!

These would brighten up any card, or they could be arranged in a cluster at the corner of a photo if you’re scrapbooking. I see these being used on yellow or black paper; the colours would really “pop”. And one day, instead of talking about how you could use them, I promise to actually use them and let you see what I’ve come up with.

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The biggest obstacle to crafting has been time, and this obstacle remains. Between my two jobs (one full time and one part time) and other obligations, I come home drained and want to do nothing more than sit in front of the computer screen, reading about other people’s lives, barely taking it in but just vegging. Or, I like lying down with a good book, an inspiring or motivating book, then promptly falling asleep the moment I crack it open and read a few words. That’s been happening a lot lately.

Needless to say, it is hard to create when you’re weary, and it’s even harder to get “unweary” when the same routine keeps happening day after day. But before you lose all hope, a lovely day is upon us: Valentine’s Day!

So, Happy Valentine’s day to you! If you need some last minute crafty ideas, may I point you to Martha Stewart? She’s got some beautiful things up that you must see. Enjoy!

What I bought Wednesday will be skipped for this week because in the past week I haven’t bought anything! Shocking, I know. It wasn’t for lack of trying though, at least from the dollar store. A couple of thing tempted me but they were firmly from the brads category and we all know I have far too many brads.

I haven’t been the least bit creative lately, and besides time, the biggest impediment to creating has been clutter. Clutter sometimes inspires people; but it can also be a hindrance because you simply don’t have a clear place in which to create. Everything is a mess, and even if you have an idea, the process of searching for just the tools and materials you need can be an exercise in frustration. Trying to find something in the midst of chaos is a good way to go insane, let me tell you.

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For this week’s What I Bought Wednesday (WIBW), I returned to my tried and true dollar store. They get new things nearly every week, and I make it my job to scope out these new things.

I fell in love with brads. Yes, more brads. I can’t resist them it seems. I did use a whole bunch over Christmas so buying even more was justified.

They don’t look very special do they? Well that’s because they are not the easiest things to photograph. They are almost half an inch wide squares with a capital letter etched on them with a sort of filigree design surrounding the letter. They look elegant. Here’s a (hopefully) clearer picture of a letter:

(You’ll just have to take my word for it that they are pretty). These brads would be great for anything that I want to create a monogrammed effect on, perhaps invitation cards or a wedding card. I see this looking especially striking on a dark grey/black/white colour scheme, and I think I have some perfect background papers to go along with it.

Following my brad theme, I picked up these brad frames:

You can’t see it well but each frame has some detail on it. There are six people in my family, and six frames—perfect! These frames would look so cute in a scrapbook about family, perhaps framing our baby pictures or something. The only problem I see with these brads is that there is nothing on the bottom of the frame to keep it from swinging around: there is only the brad at the top. If I want them to stay put I’ll have to get out my adhesives.

What do you think of this week’s stash? Have you bought some neat crafting things that you’d like to share? Don’t be shy, show me what you’ve got!

I’m going to start a new feature here called What I Bought Wednesday (WIBW). I’ll share with you some of my ever growing stash, including what plans I have for the things I have purchased.

This past Saturday, I went to Watertown, NY for some shopping. Even though we have Michaels in Canada, I like to check out the US locations because there are always some things in there that we don’t have. This time around I found a couple of things that I did not see at our Michaels the few times I’ve been there:

These are gift card tins. I love the bright colourful patterns on them (the pairing of green and blue on the bottom tin is my favourite!). These tins also happen to be perfect for housing marble magnets.

I forget where I had heard of clear stamps but until I bought some I didn’t understand how neat they were. The best part about them is that you can see exactly where you are stamping, and after the hassle I had trying to stamp “Merry Christmas” on various cards with individual letter stamps, I really appreciate having clear stamps that would show me exactly where each letter will be ending up in relation to already stamped letters! I don’t have clear alphabet stamps yet but I’ll be on the lookout for them.

I bought the clear acrylic block and it’s very easy to switch the different stamps around: just peel them off their back and stick them on the block. Magic! My best friend is pregnant, and I think I’ll be planning a shower for her in the future and this little figure on the left will come in handy when that time comes. However, it looks like I need a little lesson on applying ink evenly. Apparently you can even apply different colours of ink to different parts of the same stamp, so I have some learning to do.