Cardweaving...the new addiction

Ah yes, yet another new craft addiction. Derek mentioned card weaving for SCA stuff and I remembered it when I went to the convention center with my mom for a bead show. That happened to have a weaving section that had books on card weaving. So of course I bought some >.> The blue, yellow, and purple piece is the first one I did and you can see all the irregularities where I was learning. I learned to use a butter knife to beat down the threads so they are more dense. I learned that I need to color the tops of the cards when I'm weaving so that I know when I've done four turns. I also learned to use my scissors to indicate whether or not I needed to be turning the cards towards my body or away. I have a tendency to space off and then I forget which way so that can change the pattern. Oh one more thing the weft thread should be the same color as the ends it's hard to see in the photo but it was dark blue since I ran out of embroidery floss of the same color and it definately doesn't look as good on the edges of the piece because of that. Oh well it was my first one.

The second piece the red, blue, and yellow is a pattern that Derek created for me that is supposed to emulate lotus blossums in an egyptian style it didn't quite fan out as well as it did on the graph so we will have to work on it when I do my actual belt for my garb. My first piece was ten strand and the second one was 16 strands. The second piece I started out with 36 inches for each color and ended up with approximately 18 inches of woven material that's how much it condenses it down. Honestly the hardest part of card weaving is getting all the strands cut and then set up. The wewaving is quite simple and relaxing. Making your own patterns isn't too difficult either. I plan to continue to learn this craft so that eventually I can do even complex things such as creating letters of the alphabet in the weave.

Metals Class

Here are some of the things that I've done in my past two metalsmithing classes. The first class was about learning how to cut out shapes so I learned how to use a jewelers saw. I'm not going to mention how many blades I broke trying to get the eye and the birds beak this way. The blades are super thin and tiny. The bird has been soldered together I swear I had to have my teacher explain the hard to soft soldering concept to me three times before I understood. It's pretty simple you start with the hard type and with each successive layer you use a softer one. She must have thought I'm a moron but was very patient. The metal disks are done by using a metal punch and then a dishing tool I'm thinking of incorporating them into a dancing belt with my cardweaving. What is cardweaving? Ahhh I will show you in my next post. :)

Happy Cactus!

This is the card for my brother's b-day. The cactus part is a personal joke. Huh looking at the photo it looks kind of washed out but you get the idea. The blue background is actually cool Caribbean which was an in color for stampin up a year or so ago I believe. The flowers are a punch that I have and the cactus bodies themselves are the pumpkin image for stampin up's set carved and candlelit stamped in green. This is something I've seen done on splitcoaststampers several times a nice gal from the wish random act of kindness group sent them for me. :) The sand is just craft brown that was torn and then inked with a dark brown on the bottom edge. The fiber is one from my vast collection that just seemed to fit. I just realized that I didn't take a photo of my father's birthday card that I did a few days earlier I'll have to do that sometime when I'm home.

Cuttlecrazed

Here is a super simple fun card I did with a cuttlebug folder and die. I really love the ribbon slider dies they are so much fun and have so much potential. Sorry the colors are so washed out and kind of blah in real life they look much better. Oh photo studio I shall have you someday. The round bit in the center of the slider is an SU stamp. I took chalk to white ribbon and used it to create a custom color. Something that is super fun to do with chalk and ribbon is to color one side with a dark chalk and another with a different color that is lighter so when you tie bows you can see both it's a really neat effect. Yup that's about it for this card I always end up using tons of thank you and that's why I chose this sentiment.

Wedding Wishes

This is a super simple wedding card. I know it's hard to see but that's because it's silver embossed on silver paper in this case Wausau stardust. This color on color embossing is quite elegant and pretty in real life. The background stamp is a retired SU image as well as the sentiment which was embossed on vellum and then placed on mulberry paper in order to make it less lost in the background. The cording is the old silver type made by SU.

Iris Folding

Iris fold card that I made a few years ago at Women's Own an amazing retreat held on a girl scout camp. It is so fun tons of super nice people gather together to enjoy Washington's sound and there are lots of ladies that teach assorted craft things so basically it's heaven on earth. I hope to get to go this year and maybe teach something. The iris fold in this case was done with tissue paper I find that it's best to iris fold with thin paper because it gets bulky rather quick. Honestly these types of cards look super hard but they are fun and easy with patterns. The colors were so bright and fun which you really can't see in the picture (note: the base card is actually a bright cheery yellow) so I added a macaw sticker in the middle. Here is a website if you'd like to try iris folding http://www.irisfolding.circleofcrafters.com/ it's super fun.

Wildlife Safari Thanks

These are some thank yous for that I made during the summer as a thank you to the veterinarian and his intern at Wildlife Safari. They and the animals were super fun to work with. A good portion of the collection is large hoofstock with a portion dedicated to African wildlife. All of the stamps and ink are SU in this case. I used the Aida cloth to make the background and the leaves on the side are another SU background that I just blocked off. The side is hemp and twine. Overall I'm pleased with how these turned out. I'll show the other card that I made as a thank you later on.

Rainbow of Hope

I made four of these the other day and have already used two. One was for a radiology technician that just had her co-worker whom I also worked with pass away and another was for another student who is having a rough time right now. I think the saying really works as both sympathy and/or encouragement. It is from http://www.yvonnealbritton.com/ they were at the last show I attended but I'm not sure if it is present on the website.

Colored with watercolor crayons on watercolor paper and used an aquapainter a.k.a. water brush to blend the colors. I then stamped the saying on vellum with white stazon, which I then stamped again with blue slightly off set. In order to make this look right I used my stamp-a-ma-jig. Then to hold the two layers together I used brads in the corners and put on a base card of Pacific Point a 2009 in color from SU. I really like this blue because it is bright and cheery without being too loud.

New Containers

Lookie at what I found at the craft store the other day! My eye immediately caught on these cool little storage containers that were in the bead section that were on sale no less. I knew exactly what to put in them my eyelets which have been languishing away in old tackle boxes where I can't see them and thus don't tend to use them.
So I told Derek I think I'm going to purchase two of them and he said, "Do you need two?" >.> To which I replied that I probably would in order to fit all of my eyelets. He didn't believe me that I had that many. Hi my name is Crystal and I have a compulsive need to collect embellishments for cards/scrapbooking. What if I don't have the right color in a fit of creating? I've got to have them in every color just in case. Never mind that I might have to go to the craft store anyway to get what I want. :P
Anywho I really like these containers they have screw top lids and the whole thing is on a lazy susan. The cats haven't managed to knock them over and heck I didn't have as many eyelets as I thought and so I was able to place rhinestones in a row. Here is the website of the company that makes them. http://www.creativeoptionscrafts.com/ Not affiliated just enjoying them. I really like several of their other containers as well I just wish they wouldn't have the really bold patterns I'm more of a plain and simple person. You can see Rumisiel got in the last shot I try to use natural lighting for my photos and the door was just too interesting so he needed to trek on through my photo.

My new pincushion

Ok I admit he isn't pretty but he's my first sewing project from my class. I tried learning to sew way back somewhere around the 5th grade. Well my mom's machine was having issues the bobbin ran out of thread, the needle didn't seem to be aligned right, and then finally the needle broke, which frustrated me so much I gave up crying. Turns out now when we went to get the machine a new part that it is super messed up and would be a few hundred dollars in repairs. This is really too bad because my parents paid a small fortune for it and put less than 10 hours of use on it. It had a 25 year warranty that would have been valid back when I first tried and was having problems. Oh well water under the bridge now.

Unfortunately for this little guy I had class all day before I went to sewing class so I did the first stuff on the machine and decided to take him home to finish. Did I mention I know absolutely nothing about fabric arts. Give me a dog or a cat to suture up and I can totally do it but as for getting fabric to work for me no way. So I hand stitched the rest which came out pretty wonky because I was in a hurry to try to get it done before class and when Derek looked at him he said he needed googlie eyes. I think he needs some bigger ones but this is all I have for now. Aren't the pins pretty I spent a smidge extra for them because I'm addicted to shiny things. >.> If anyone has a suggestion for a name I'm open.

Penguin Get Well

Used prismacolors and gamsol to color in the image which in this photo looks a little washed out. Someday I would really like one of those photo studios so I can get pictures that more accurately represent my work. The prima flower was attached using a brad. The background is a linen background stamp which looks strange in the photo but in real life gives just a little more texture and dimension. Sentiment was stamped with white SU craft ink. Set used is Stampin Up Happy Healing.

Heat Gun Holder from Mary in PA and her hubby :)

Vashiel says, "What is this contraption you are so fascinated with?"
"It seems to be constructed quite ingeniously."
This is an amazing heat gun holder that I was blessed to win from Mary and her husband as blog candy. Talk about the bestest winnings ever. :) A tutorial on how to make one for yourself is on her wonderful blog is here http://myhandsandmyheart.blogspot.com/2008/01/29-organizational-efficiency.html