I especially like the hamster, but the chemistry set is pretty cool too.

I got a bit tired of all the black and gray parts and switched over to the orange, which is actually a blend or orange and yellow and only half of a cross stitch. I haven’t done much of blending thread colors before, or varying stitches, but the effect is really quite nice.

I also tried to make some stickers last weekend, using Japanese papers (yuzen), a paper punch, and an adhesive machine. I was thinking of selling some on my Etsy store, just to see if there’s interest, but first I need to make a few more and take photos.

I also sent off my part of the Paper Swap a few weeks ago (cards and envelopes I made), and since then have been getting various parts from the other folks in the swap. My favorites have been some prints of various images, including a card from Frantic Meerkat and an assortment of prints from Snow Owl.

I had a slow day at work though, so I ended up messing around with a few cross-stitch-related things. First, I tried playing around with an image in Photoshop, to see how difficult it would be. It isn’t so bad, but I didn’t have an easy way of figuring out the floss colors, so I let that sit.

At home later I fixed PC Stitch on my new laptop and it is so much easier than messing with Photoshop! I had an old copy that I bought off of eBay awhile ago, and once I sorted out some errors, I was generating patterns like nothing. I’ll need to clean a few up, but this will make it pretty easy, once I find my images. I think I might use something from a Japanese web graphics site I like, called Fool Lovers.

In the middle of my playing around, I ended up on the DMC web site, to find info on their flosses. It turns out that they’ve created a line of Hello Kitty stitching kits and patterns, including some cross-stitch. I’m not really enamored with Hello Kitty for the most part, but if you are, you should take a look at the new collection.

On a non-cross-stitch note, I woke up this morning to find an Etsy order for a few handmade items in my store. I haven’t sold anything handmade there in what feels like such a long time, so that was nice. Not that I’ve been adding anything new to it, or doing very anything much to promote it, so I guess that’s not a surprise. It’s funny because I’m trying to close down my eBay store for now, because I’d like a break from it, but I think I’m ok with leaving my Etsy store open. I’ve had some ideas for new things I could make and post there, and maybe eventually I’ll get around to doing that.

I also tried searching around for some more interesting patterns, and had a little bit of luck on some Korean and Japanese sites. Nothing more than a small image here or there, but enough to get me thinking that maybe I should just sit down and find some images to make my own patterns with.

I did also order a kit designed by Pinn Stitch, the company that made the Ganesh one I did awhile ago. It’s a bit larger than I realized though, so I don’t know if I’ll jump right into that one after the current one is done, but we’ll see. The previous kit I had from them was really well done though, so that’s good at least.

Thanks for everyone’s comments on yesterday’s post by the way. Ismoyo recommended the Knitpro tool for converting images into charts; it’s similar to another tool I remember trying out, though that one has been taken down and turned into a craft store instead.

And Distel guessed that the design might be of a butterfly; it’s not, but I can see how it might look that way. What does it look like today?

I don’t want to reveal the design just yet, but here’s my progress so far:

I worked on it for an hour or two (maybe more) last night, and about the same today so far, so I thought it would be good to check in. I’ve never really tracked this sort of thing before, so I thought I’d at least take photos as I go along. I won’t be counting hours or anything though.

I know I’ve complained about this before, how it’s so hard to find good cross-stitch projects. I tried looking for kits online, and stopped at a few local craft stores as well, but it’s all the same stuff. Fantasy scenes, teddy bears, nature, and religious themes, none of which is my thing. I’ve made my own patterns before, but it takes some work to do. I’d really like to just pick up a kit and get going with it.

I’d be surprised if I were the only one who doesn’t like the styles or designs out there today, but maybe I am. If someone were to come up with some fun, modern kits for cross-stitch, I would totally buy some. For now, I’ll just try and find the least ugly design I can and go with that.

First up was the Matchbox Craft Swap, which required making something tiny enough to fit inside a matchbox. I had some blank matchboxes that I’d bought for a past project, and I thought about making a miniature scene inside of one of them. I didn’t really know what to make the scene out of or where to find the right items for it, so I scrapped that idea and made a cross-stitched pin instead:

The pattern is my own creation, though I have to give proper credit to another crafter for the inspiration. I was browsing Flickr for cross-stitch and embroidery photos and found this lovely set of cross-stitched pins:

Very cool, and definitely not like the sappy cross-stitch stuff you find in local craft stores. I decided to start with this and play around a bit, and this will hopefully lead to some variations and further patterns. And if anyone’s interested, I’d be more than happy to share my pattern, either in PC Stitch or image format.

As for the pin itself, I basically stitched out the design and then sewed the fabric around some layered pieces of template plastic. I wanted to add a fabric backing with the pin back, but I got tired of sewing and just hot-glued the pin back on. Maybe not the best approach, but it gave me a reason to finally use the hot glue gun I’ve had sitting around for a few years.

I was still in a cross-stitching mood after this project, so when I moved on to the Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama October Swap, I worked in another piece. This month’s colors were orange and purple, and after reading that my partner likes elephants, I combined the two into this framed cross-stitch piece:

I found the elephant pattern online and modified it slightly, dropping the border and filling out the background to fit inside the frame. The frame came from a $1 bin cross-stitch kit I found at Michael’s; it was some awful candy cane pattern kit, but it was worth it for the frame alone and I tossed everything else aside. Stitching the elephant part was easy, but working on the orange background took forever, so I probably wouldn’t do another one like this, or at least not for a swap with a looming deadline.

My other handmade items for this swap included collaged postcards and mini envelope/card sets (my old stand-by), plus a bunch of drawing supplies and candy for my partner. Here are a few photos of it all:

And now I’m all done for a little while at least. I signed up for a Japanese-themed swap on Craftster, which I have yet to start, and then I think I’m going to take a break from swaps for a bit. Or at least the rather involved ones that require a bit more time than I feel like dedicating right now. It’s hard to keep up the motivation to do things when I’m not at work, and I think a project without a due date would be more relaxing and easier to get into.

On Labor Day, I got together with Amytha and some other crafty friends to help her prepare some Halloween decorations for a party she’s going to throw. I mostly worked on painting a cardboard cutout of a scary clown, as part of a gory circus theme, and it was fun to just dive in and go to town with a paintbrush. There’s more work to be done, so we may have to gather again sometime before Halloween.

The painting continued at our September South Bay Craft Group meeting, with a demonstration on decoupaging wooden boxes, led by Amytha. Painting was optional, of course, but I thought the cut-outs I chose would look better on color than on plain wood. Here are a few photos of what I created:

Here are a few more photos of the box, if you’re interested.

Otherwise, I’ve mostly been buying more craft supplies I really don’t need. Amytha and I went to a rubber stamp show in San Jose, and I left with a pile of more origami paper (for making small envelopes) and some Japanese stickers from Hanko Designs. I bought some supplies to make some of these cotton webbing keychains, though I have yet to actually try to make one. I just haven’t felt like sewing much lately.

Instead of sewing, I really want to work on another cross-stitch or embroidery project, even if it takes awhile to complete. I have plenty of floss and various pieces of Aida fabric, so it all comes down to the pattern, which is the most difficult part of it all. I’d rather not create my own design, just due to the extra work, but then everything I see at local stores is just awful. I’ve lamented about this before, but there really needs to be a total revival of cross-stitch, and with better designs than the crap that’s out there now. There are plenty of cool things being crafted these days (just look at all the stuff on Craftster), but not enough in cross-stitch patterns. I don’t think it’s because there’s anything inherent about cross-stitch that prevents it, but someone needs to get the ball rolling, and with something more than just phrases. I want images and colors, people!

Anyway, enough ranting for now. I’ll just have to work on my own patterns in the meantime, and I’ll make sure to post anything I come up with. I’ve got some swaps to work on in the meantime though…

Before I go, I just want to thank Alicia at Posie Gets Cozy for linking to me this week. I’ve noticed a huge spike in my traffic, with lots of referrals from her site. Thanks to her and hello to anyone coming from there!

I have to admit that I was feeling a bit bored with cross-stitch that night, most likely brought on from looking through so many bland patterns in preparation for the class. We used some free starter kits that I got from DMC, all with simple, but somewhat boring flower designs to them. Their site offers a few others, but there isn’t much variety. I think if I give this demonstration again sometime, I’ll make sure to use more interesting designs, like these abstract art patterns.

I guess I’m feeling a bit stuck in the crafting area overall lately, partly due to my recently begun job search. I think it’s about time to get back into the workforce, so I’ve been busy fixing up my resume and putting together a web portfolio, as well as talking to a few headhunters and HR people. All of this takes quite a bit of energy, and I don’t feel like doing much creative afterwards. I’m sure it’ll only be more of a struggle once I’m working again, so this is quite frustrating.

I will say that I’ve still been looking for new project ideas though. Last week I was searching online for hours to find Japanese sites about carving stamps, and found so many good resources, none of which I can read. I started with some new Japanese books on the subject, and eventually figured out the phrase for carving stamps (it refers to using rubber erasers as the carving base). I ended up with lots of good bookmarks, but never carved any of my own stamps after that.

And then last night, I started browsing Etsy for things I might like to buy, but it turned into gathering ideas for my own projects. I went from wanting to learn how to make mosaics to thinking about creating my own jewelry (which I don’t really even wear), and then ended up feeling like painting. And yet I didn’t make very much when I was through, and everything I’ve tried today just didn’t seem to be quite right. Maybe I just need to do something else for a little bit, and a new project will come to me. Sometimes the things you look for the most come out of nowhere when you stop actively looking for them.

I did bring my wrapped postcards to the meeting, though I wasn’t as interested as working on them. The finished pieces didn’t really turn out as well as I’d hoped, but I got to experiment with different inks and embossing powders, as well as try out chalks for the first time. I think I want to buy some chalks of my own sometime, though the ones I want aren’t inexpensive. Here are the cards though:

Khris and I ended up talking more about trying to get people involved in and attending craft groups, and how we’ve both found it to be somewhat difficult. We have all sorts of theories on it, but nothing that stands out as the most accurate. A new suggestion I had was that perhaps it’s a bit intimidating to go to a new group, where you don’t know anyone and are going to work on projects in front of the other members. I can definitely understand this, having had the same concerns when I first attended a South Bay Craft Group meeting, but I soon found that the attendees were all pretty laidback and it was definitely a relaxing environment. Purely social, with a bit of educational curiosity mixed in, and not a bit of pressure to follow along or work on anything in particular.

I’m not sure what it’ll take to crack this problem, but I have a feeling that word of mouth will have a role. We’ve definitely had a number of evenings when friends of regular members appear and then begin to become regulars themselves. And the social crafting activities I’ve participated in outside of these meetings, though with people I’ve met at them, seem to happen a lot more easily, since there’s some familiarity and a social network already established.

Related to this, my Saturday afternoon was spent with Amytha, who founded the South Bay Craft Group. After letting her rummage through my excess craft supplies, we drove up to parts of Los Altos and Palo Alto to stop by a few estate sales. I think it was my first time attending an estate sale, and there’s definitely a creepy, morbid sort of air to the idea of walking through the home of someone who has died and poking through their belongings, with the aim to take some home with you. Not disturbing enough to keep me from going to others, but still kind of sad.

Amytha bought a few things, including a few vintage, women’s hats (40s/50s era?), and then we headed over to the Los Altos Library to take part in a t-shirt alteration workshop organized by Sarah, the teen librarian there. It was inspired by the book Generation T and though it was geared towards teens, it was fun. I ended up using an old sweater, embroidery floss, and a few buttons to make a three-eyed monster plush toy. It was hard to embroider through knitted material, and we didn’t have any stuffing on hand, but I made do with what I had and I like how it turned out: