Archive for July, 2006

Reorganizing

My craft room/studio is in a major state of disarray at the moment, after I decided to buy a new bookcase to store all of my supplies, and am in the process of moving it all around.

I’d been toying with various plans to rearrange things in there, and had been trying to track down a cube-style bookcase with enough compartments to hold my stuff. I managed to find a pretty close match at IKEA, and despite my extremely mixed feelings (leaning towards mostly negative) about the place, I went to the nearest one on Monday afternoon and bought said bookcase.

(After the whole experience, I am quite sure that I won’t be returning to IKEA in the future though. Something about the way they arrange their stores makes me feel dizzy whenever I go there, and the products themselves are overrated and a pain to construct. Perhaps it’s doesn’t help that I’ve met a few insane IKEA fanatics who disturbed me with their obsession of the place, including knowing all the cutesy names given to the products they’d bought there. The whole corporate whore thing just isn’t for me. Sorry, but corporations and products won’t love you back.)

Anyway, after finally getting the damn bookcase put together, I had to move everything out of my craft room, and that wasn’t really fun. Not just for the fact that it all had to be carried out, but more for the realization that I have just too much stuff. A few times, it felt like carrying everything out to the dumpster would have been a better solution, but of course that would have taken more effort (all those stairs!) and several weeks worth of garbage pick-up. ;)

Enough room was finally made and the bookcase was shifted into place, so that left me with the task of sorting through everything and finding a new place for it. I’ve gotten through most of it by now, but there are still piles here and there that need sorting. I’m hoping to get the rest done before Friday, as there’s a rubber stamp meetup that night and I want to have some sort of project put together to take with me.

Despite all the physical work involved in moving things around, I think the hardest part has been in weeding out some items that I no longer need or will probably never use. I’m getting a lot better at it, having realized that I can’t use and don’t need all of this stuff, and would rather pass it along to someone who will actually use it. Now I just have to figure out how to do the latter, especially since it’s probably not worth the effort to list it on eBay or somewhere like that.

So, I guess I’ll start by opening it up to anyone reading this blog. If you have any interest in craft items like scrapbook paper, stickers, rub-ons, blank books/notebooks, empty tins (for altering?), tissue paper, confetti, and so on, please let me know and I will be more than happy to send you some. Just send me an email with your full name and mailing address included, as well as any particulars about what you’d be most interested in receiving. You don’t need to send anything in return (unless you really want to!); I’ll just be glad to give this stuff to someone who will actually use it.

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Emboss This!

Last night’s South Bay Craft Group meeting went pretty well, due to a great demo on heat embossing by Tracy, one of our members. Almost everyone tried it out for themselves and we spent the whole time embossing. I was able to ask her some questions about the issues I’d had recently, and I tried some of her suggestions out on a few pieces I’d brought with me or created there.

Pink Blossom Branch Postcard Monkey Dots Postcard Pink Sakura Embossed Bookmark

The first two are some more of the “wrapped postcards” I started making a bit ago, and I especially like how the first one turned out. The second wasn’t as great, due to the embossing powder having a lot of white in it and heating darker than expected. And the third was thicker than I thought, mainly because the powder I bought was pretty chunky.

All in all, the meeting went pretty well, though some of us seemed a bit slap-happy as the evening wore on. Side effects of the long weekend, perhaps. I think we had more people in attendance than we’ve had before, even compared to our previous meeting, when we had a lot of people making beaded bracelets. It’s interesting to see who shows up each month, because it seems like it changes every time. There are a few of us who are “core members” and show up pretty regularly, but everyone else varies. Lately, I think we’ve been shifting towards a slightly older crowd than the initial 20-something women who kicked things off. It’s ok to have the variety, though I’m curious as to whether or not it’s temporary and how it’s turned out like this. I wonder if the fact that I’ll be demo-ing cross-stitch next time will shift it even more in that direction?

Speaking of cross-stitch, I want to thank everyone who has commented on my cross-stitch piece of Ganesh, either here, on Craftster, or on Flickr. I was already overwhelmed by the reaction from my friend and her husband, so it’s great to hear additional appreciation for all the work I put into it. :)

Oh, and before I forget, I’ve created a few paper swaps over on Swap-Bot for anyone who’s interested. One is for origami paper and the other is for paper scraps, and there’s a little over a week left to sign up. I’ve actually been surprised to see how popular the paper scraps one has been; there are nearly 30 people signed up already!

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Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Last fall, a longtime friend of mine got married. The wedding was held in India and the following reception near Minneapolis, and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend either event. Even so, I wanted to send them a really nice wedding gift, so when I came across a cross-stitch kit of Ganesh, I thought it would be perfect for me to make and frame. I did a little research and found that Ganesh is often associated with weddings (or other new beginnings), so it seemed ideal.

It was my first major cross-stitch project, and I really had no idea how long something like this would take. The only other pieces I’d done before were quite small or had been set aside well before I’d even gotten far into them. So, of course, working on Ganesh took me awhile longer than I expected, and I was unable to send it before the wedding and reception happened. I kept at it though, working on “him” while I watched TV and taking “him” with me to craft group meetings.

Eventually, after 6 or 7 months of stitching — and occasional unstitching and stitching again — I finished. I think the whole thing literally involved blood, sweat, and tears at some point throughout the process, but I definitely learned a lot about cross-stitch, like how long it really takes to complete such a large piece!

I made sure to be very careful with the piece, and washed, dried, and steam-ironed it ever so carefully. I was a bit anxious when I took the prepped piece to a framing shop, worried that they’d accidentally ruin it somehow, but it was fine.

I sent Ganesh to Minnesota last week, and “he” arrived today, safe and sound, and “he” was welcomed with open arms. My friend and her husband were really happy with it and called to tell me how much they really liked it. Despite being quite late, they thought it was the best gift they’d received and it will be the first thing to grace the new home they’re looking for. They even hinted that if I ever made something like this again, that they’d love to have it, hehe. ;)

So, after many months of keeping Ganesh a secret (except from craft group friends), here are some photos of him, including a number of close-up shots. (These were taken before the piece was framed, so please forgive the wrinkles.)

Ganesh Cross-Stitch Piece Ganesh Cross-Stitch Piece (w/ Flash)

Ganesh Cross-Stitch Piece - Close-up of Face Ganesh Cross-Stitch Piece - Close-up of Lotus Flower Ganesh Cross-Stitch Piece - Close-up of Mouse

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Done and Done.

My “Coloriffic” swaps are definitely done. I scaled back the handmade items as I wrote last time, and even so, I think my swap partners will be pleased with the results.

For the international version of this month’s Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama, the colors were chocolate brown and light blue (or aqua). I made a tote bag and card/envelope set, to go with a bunch of sewing-oriented craft items for my partner.

Brown & Blue Polka Dot Tote Bag Brown & Blue Polka Dot Tote Bag - Close-up Brown & Blue Coloriffic Swap - July

And for the US/Canada-only version of this month’s Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama, the colors were black and white. I didn’t really get into this one as much, but I made a zippered pouch and another card/envelope set to go with more paper-oriented craft items.

Black & White Musical Pouch Black & White Musical Pouch - Lining Black & White Coloriffic Swap for July

Everything will go out first thing in the morning, and hopefully the recipients will like what I picked. I tried my best to consider their personal interests, as any good swapper should! ;)

I’m still signed up in a few more swaps via Swap-Bot, but fortunately they’re not as involved and aren’t due very soon. I will definitely not be doing any sewing for them, which is fine because I’m not really in a fabric sort of mood. I think stepping on a needle this evening sealed the deal for me, at least for awhile. ;P

Working on these swaps has definitely reaffirmed my interest in playing with color combinations in my creative projects though. Color is just a very exciting thing to look at, enjoy, and experiment with, and after my recent art class on the subject, I really want to play around more, especially with what I learned about color schemes. I have plans for a few “colorful” series of projects, focusing on paper for the time-being. Here’s what I consider the first piece for one of these series:

Handmade Postcard - Cyan, Blue Green, Green

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