Monday, May 25, 2015

Happy Birthday to my Sister!

I found this idea on Pintrest a while back,  I thought it was cool, but didn't honestly think it would work.  This is a post card I sent to my sister via USPS.  It was made using a big sponge cut into a wedge shape.  I created a narrow channel using a utility knife.  The whole thing was then spray painted brown.  Walking into an art supply store and telling them you're looking for chocolate cake brown is interesting.  After that dried I traced, cut out and attached the postcard component.  I was proud to have thought of writing on it before gluing it on.  Once the glue dried it was time to frost the cake.  The frosting is made using caulk.  I actually bought a caulk gun to frost a sponge.  Weird.  Using a ziploc for piping, I filled the channel and smoothed it, then got to work on the rest of the cake.  First you cover it, then you swirl it using a toothpick or in my case a coffee stirrer.  I didn't really think the end result would be accepted by the post office.  After a raised eyebrow postage was attached and 5 days later it arrived in my sister's mailbox!




This is the tutorial I followed:  http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/965787/diy-cake-postcard-tutorial

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Tablet Weaving.

While visiting my sister a week ago, she set me up with her inkle loom and tablet weaving cards and a very basic pattern.  She is a tablet weaving master.  For those who don't know tablet weaving is an old technique (I think the Vikings used it) that uses cards or tablets with a hole in each of the corners for a different strand of yarn.  Patterns are created by moving the card either forwards or backward.  While I did finish my project, I doubt I will tablet weave again.  I don't have the concentration for it.  Keeping track of how many times a card has been turned one way or the other was rough, and all I had to do was turn them all one direction for eight rows and then the other direction for eight rows. When you get into each card having it's own rotation pattern, it makes my head want to explode.  My sister is brilliant at tablet weaving.  She's good at weaving in general actually.  I'm glad she showed me how to do it and I got to experiment, but overall, I doubt I'll be tablet weaving again.





Friday, April 10, 2015

Belated Christmas Gifts

This year, my sister Melissa, her roommate Autumn, and myself all agreed to a handmade gift exchange.  True to form, none of us had our projects finished in time.  We finally exchanged when I went to visit them earlier this week.  So now I can finally post what I made them.

First is Autumn's:



I crocheted an infinity scarf using red and white wool yarn.  It's worked up in strips and then braided together.

This is Melissa's:


It's a hand embroidered full bib apron.  She's a fantastic baker and a fan of RuPaul's Drag Race.  Her kitchenaid is named after one of the queen's from the show Delta Work.  So I embroidered a RuPaul quote on it along with her blue kitchenaid.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

What happened???

So, it's been over a year since I updated this blog.  What happened?  Well, it's not a simple answer.  It never is is it?  To begin with, by the time I was done with the year, I felt something akin to being burnt out.  I had not idea what to create, had little to honestly no desire to do anything, and was suddenly overcome with the feeling that the year had been pointless.  I retrospect I know it wasn't, but it took a while to get over that feeling.  After what I would consider to be a lengthy recovery period I have done smaller projects.  I painted my mom something for Mother's Day.  I made my sister and my best friend Christmas gifts (they weren't done on time-to be brutally honest they still aren't done).  But overall, aside from photography, which I will always gravitate to, I haven't done much.  Part of it, I'm starting to see is habit.  I come home from work, get dinner together, and sit down in front of the TV and computer until it's time for bed.  I'm strongly starting to question those habits, but not enough to change them.  There are still classes I would love to take, (guitar lessons, weaving classes and maybe some pottery) but haven't been able to free up the funds to do so.  I sometimes marvel at how much I accomplished in that year, and I want to get back to having creativity be a regular part of life, though not as rigidly.  Time to re-evaluate some old habits.