When in doubt, return to what you know.

I’ve not had much luck with the various projects I was trying to start, so I’ve set them aside and focused on making envelopes in the meantime. The process is so ingrained in my brain, that I don’t have to think about much more than what paper to use and what size or style of envelope to make.

There’s a soothing quality to it as well, especially when I work on small batches at a time, like I tend to. Pick a few sheets of paper, cut out and make the envelopes, and then repeat until I feel like doing something else. My envelope stash is definitely growing again.

While working on a few more batches last night though, I was thinking about ways to make them more interesting. I usually just have piles of envelopes and fill them with whatever I want, but I thought about making cards that correspond with the envelopes somehow. My first try was in using scraps of the paper that actually made the envelope, and adhering those to white flat cards.

I’m still trying to decide which version I like the best. I like the “thumb tab” look, though it’s not as clean-looking as the lovely striped versions. Oh, and the sad-looking card in the upper right of the photo was a failed attempt at arranging a few squares and rectangles into the corner. I couldn’t quite get the look I wanted, so I might have to work on that arrangement before I give up on it. I also plan on trying out different colors of cardstock for the actual card.

I think I’ll try making up some sets of these card and envelope combinations, and perhaps list some on my Etsy store. We’ll see though. I’m just glad to have something crafty to work on to break up all the job search intensity I’m in the middle of. Things aren’t going so badly in that area (my portfolio is pretty much done and I have at least one interview scheduled so far!), but I definitely recognize my need for some time away from the serious stuff.

Phew! I made it through the heat ok for the most part. I think my brain may have melted a bit, but I’m starting to get back to normal so far, and fortunately the weather should be a lot nicer for awhile.

I’ve knocked out a few of the swaps that I had due, though I realize I didn’t take any photos of them before packaging them up. Two were varieties of paper, and since they weren’t handmade by me, I didn’t feel as compelled to photograph them. A third swap was for items that correspond to the five senses, and I did include a print of some digital artwork and a wrapped postcard, but nothing handmade otherwise.

Now, my focus is on my package for the August round of Coloriffic Swap-O-Rama, and it’s been fun to work on so far. Usually, there are one or two theme colors, but this month, it’s been bumped up to six to make a rainbow effect: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. It’s nice to expand a bit, but then it makes me want to include more items, just to cover all of the colors.

For my handmade items, I decided to stick with paper, mostly because I didn’t feel like sewing, and I made an envelope/card set (the envelopes are primary to me, what can I say?) and more “square” postcards.

I’m really pleased with how the postcards turned out, and I’ve received a lot of nice comments from people who viewed the scans on Flickr. They’re really pretty easy to make, only requiring paper scraps large enough to cut 1-inch squares from, a bit of glue, and a postcard (4×6 inches) to paste the squares onto. I have a thing about squares, I guess, or so you’d think looking through some of my previous work. Maybe too easy, but they’re simple enough to work with.

Speaking of squares, I attended a scrapbooking workshop at the library last night, where we created the 6×6-inch accordion books. It wasn’t too difficult to follow, especially with all the components provided, but it did feel a bit too specific for me. There’s a follow-up session next week, when we’ll start decorating the books, and it seems that there is an exact order of different layouts in mind for us to create. Not that I don’t mind the occasional kit or guided instruction, but I like to have a bit more openness for projects like this. I’m more interested in learning techniques from others than in replicating the exact project they already made many times before. At the very least, now I know how to make a book like this, even if I don’t use the one I made for anything in particular.

Along the lines of teaching classes, I still need to prepare for giving a cross-stitch demo at next week’s South Bay Craft Group meeting. I have the basic supplies, but I have to figure out how to demonstrate it all, especially with something so small. Maybe everyone will have to gather around and look over me as I work, though I’m going to see if I can find some diagrams that I can use. It should be interesting at least.

Just a quick post to brag a little…

About two weeks ago, I decided to create a page (they call them “lenses”) on Squidoo.com, which is a site that provides a way for people to share a topic by providing links, text, pictures, and other related info. I’d found the site through Lisa Vollrath, a paper artist/crafter who created a few lenses on paper crafting/art techniques, and when I saw there wasn’t one about making envelopes, I thought I’d make one. I’ll admit that the content is pretty much the same as the pages hosted here on Being Crafty, but the format is different and reaches additional viewers.

Anyway, I was amazed when my lens ranking jumped up to 51 since I first posted it, and even better, I found out that it was featured as today’s Lens of the Day! Here’s the great write-up from the email announcing today’s feature:

I never cease to be amazed by the passion craftsters have for their work, let alone the obscure projects they choose to take up.

Exhibit A: Valerie Franek’s lens on making your own envelopes.

www.squidoo.com/makingenvelopes

If you’ve ever seen Apple’s packaging, or Oddica’s, then you know how strong an impression packaging can make. The abundance of D.I.Y envelope resources on Valerie’s lens is awesome, and means we can all impress the heck out of anyone we’re corresponding with. She’s also included links to supplies, some truly great books, easy templates, and everything else you need to make something stunning and show someone how much you really care.

Be sure to check out the Flickr Envelope Group’s pictures toward the bottom of her lens (see, there’s a whole group of them!), and the project ideas section; they’re great.

Thank God for passionate people like Valerie!

I was already pretty pleased when I saw referrals coming in from the ReadyMade blog because of my envelope content, and I’ve even received a few emails about envelopes recently. This just makes it even better though, and I’m not only glad that they liked the page I put together enough to feature it, but hope that it will get more people making their own envelopes.

I’ve been trying to finish up final classwork as the semester winds down, so I haven’t had as much time for any major craft projects over the last few weeks. It doesn’t help that I hurt my back while lugging my laptop to class (to work on digital art), so I’ve been trying not to sit for too long since that makes it worse. That doesn’t really work well with any sort of crafting unless I want to stitch while pacing around the apartment or down the street.

In between all the classwork and back pain though, I’ve started getting into stamping again, little by little. I think going to the South Bay Stampers meeting really got me going, especially since I got to poke around all of the supplies in the studio we met in.

I decided to give heat embossing a try first, since we’re going to have a demo at our next craft group meeting. I had actually bought a heat gun and embossing powder several years ago, but I never had the time to actually try it out for myself. I eventually sold off these items, so I had to buy all new ones this time around. Here’s my first go at it:

Not perfect, but a good first try. I’m not sure what caused the little pocks (air bubbles?) in the surface, but it might have been a problem with ink coverage. It was a lot easier than I thought to do it, but it looks like it’ll take more work to improve how I do it.

I’ve been stopping by the few stamp stores in the area (Stamp On Over and Only the Best mainly) on and off to look at what stamps and supplies are out there these days. The basic supplies are fine, but I haven’t found very many stamp images that I like enough to buy. I even stopped by a used stamp sale at one of the “crafter’s malls” nearby, but only left with a vintage stitching kit I found inside the rest of the store. I think I need to try making more of my own instead, and here are a couple I carved the other day, after finding a neat popsicle pattern on some scrapbook paper:

Otherwise, I’ve only been making a few envelopes here and there, and just trying not to overdo it with my back. Hopefully it won’t be hurting me too much longer, because I really need to get going on a bunch of swaps I signed up for. I sent off my end of an envelope swaps I organized on Craftster, but now I have three color-themed swaps and a handmade postcard swap (via Swap-Bot and Flickr) to get going by the first week of July. I’ve done a bit of shopping for the color theme ones, but they all require handmade items, and all I’ve put together so far are these envelope sets:

I need to get some sewing done and pack everything up, as soon as I finish one last class assignment. The heat is on though, since I already received my things from my partner in the Turquoise Swap. Jen, the organizer, sent me some really lovely things, including cards she designed herself and some actual turquoise earrings:

I only hope I can whip up something that my partners will like just as much as I’ve liked what I received so far.

On Friday, I decided to check out the first meeting of a brand new craft group in San Jose that’s entirely dedicated to rubber stamping. I wasn’t sure about going at first, but I’m glad that I did, mostly to have met more crafters in the area.

The South Bay Stampers meeting was held at a very cool paper arts studio called A Work of Heart, which I had intended to visit before but never had. The space was a bit messy, but it was full of all sorts of rubber stamp and paper supplies, including stamps, inks, diecut machines, adhesives, and a lot more. They apparently teach classes and rent the space out for parties and paper crafters.

Although there were only three of us in attendance, it made for a nice evening, with each of us working on various projects and chatting. I poked around the supplies a bit and then made envelopes for the rest of the time, spending most of my time talking to Khris, the organizer, about various crafty things. Khris teaches classes at the studio and has various crafty business ventures as well, and it was really great to hear about what it’s like. It definitely made me think about trying it out for myself (someday). We also talked about various craft blogs and organizing craft fairs, and I invited her to check out the South Bay Craft Group.

I ended up spending nearly 3 hours there and I had a pretty good time, so I’ll definitely be going to the next meeting. Hopefully we can get more people interested in joining the group and attending as well. Khris and I talked about this being a major issue in this area, that there are plenty of crafters out there, but not many get involved in groups, even if it’s totally casual and social. I’m not sure what the reason is (too tired? don’t know about groups? don’t care? too lazy?), but I’d love to figure it out. It’s frustrating because it seems like I always hear about cool crafty things happening up in San Francisco or thereabouts, but not often down here. I don’t mind driving up there sometimes, but it’s nearly 2 hours round trip, so I don’t want to do it all the time. My current thinking, though, is that if people actually organized and attended events down here in the South Bay, that interest would group and end up perpetuating itself. It’ll just take a bit of work to try and get to that point.