Posts filed under ‘crafts’
Monkeying Around
Amy Winehouse- Monkey Man (The Specials Cover)
This little monkey and his buddy below are their way to find new friends at the Little Heroes Preschool Burn Camp in Livermore, California. The camp, for burn survivors age 3 to 6, helps children and their caregivers to deal with the physical and emotional challenges of burn recovery. Best of all, thanks to generous donors and volunteers, the camp provides this opportunity for free.
Check out the project’s Flickr page here. Some of my favorites are here, here, here, here, here and here. OK, OK, I love them all.
Thanks to Marjorie and Craft Hope for organizing this project! I’m so glad I was able to be a part of it. And now that I know how to make sock monkeys, I just can’t stop!
You might say I have monkeys on the brain.
Check it out…
If you’re going to be in or around Portsmouth, NH this month, check out the Ello Gallery at 110 State Street.
Bailey Works, a Portsmouth company, commissioned 15 local artists to re-invent their messenger bags. The Ello Gallery will exhibit their work from today until April 27th. My brother, Adam, is one of the artists that will be featured. A sneak peek of Adam’s work is here. Photos of last year’s exhibition are here. Check it out. Grab a bite at the Friendly Toast. It’s time to come out of hibernation!
The dark side of crafting
Have you heard of guerrilla knitting? Nefarious knitters (and crocheters) are covering public property everywhere.
Via Knit Sea
Via Knitta, Please
Via Yarnbombing
Via Knit Happens
Via Masquerade
It’s a grassroots movement, apparently.
Puppy’s Got a Brand New Tag
Remember Shrinky Dinks? I remember coloring those plastic sheets as a kid, cutting out the characters and baking them until they’d turned into little plastic toys. I can’t remember exactly which ones I had, but they were probably Smurfs or Strawberry Shortcake or something along those lines. By today’s standards these toys might seem a bit dull. But to me, they were thrilling.
These days, you can buy blank sheets of the plastic and design your Shrinky Dinks yourself. I’d been thinking of playing around with Shrinky Dinks for a while now, and our puppy needed a new ID tag, so it seemed like the perfect chance to try them out. I started with shrink film by Grafix, which I bought at the craft store. (Next time I’m going to see if the flat portion of a plastic takeout container will work just as well, which would be a great way to upcycle it.) Using sharpies, I drew a penny (three inches in diameter) and added Penny’s name and our phone number.
Then I cut out the circle and used a hole punch near the top edge. I put it on a cookie sheet between two pieces of parchment paper and baked at 350 degrees for three minutes. While baking, the plastic curls up and then flattens down again. It should be mostly flat by the time you take it out of the oven. If it’s slightly curved when you take it out of the oven, you can flatten it with a spatula. After the tag cooled, I coated it with Modge Podge to seal in the color.
Ta-dah! Now Penny is stylin’ with her own custom dog tag.
This was just as much fun as I remember. I’m looking forward to experimenting with other projects using shrinky film. It’s so quick and easy! I’m thinking about making magnets, wine charms, quilting pins, and custom eyes and noses for softies. More shrinky projects to come!
The New Cute
Thanks to One Red Robin for drawing my attention to this article about “new cute” aesthetic: check it out here.
I’ve always been drawn to cute things. In college, I carried around what little money I had in a plastic Keroppi wallet. I was in my early twenties then, and I probably figured that it was something I would, or should, grow out of.
While living in Japan in my mid-twenties, I was introduced to a culture in which it is very common and completely acceptable for grown adults to revel in a level of cuteness previously reserved for the toddler set. In Japan, cuteness is absolutely everywhere you look. A sign on a subway train may inform you that you are in a non-smoking car, but chances are it will be a gentle reminder coming from a cartoon cat. Check out the mascot for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police:
“Obey the laws, or I’ll wink at you and giggle!”
In the picture below I am posing with the Onibaba, an evil witch rumored to inhabit the mountains in the town where I lived. When she gets hungry, she lures children into caves and eats them alive. If you can look past the horns and the sharp teeth, she’s pretty cute, don’t you think? That’s how she gets you.
Cute is definitely in, and it’s not just for the Japanese any more! The article above discusses the trend in Australia, but I certainly see it here in the US as well, and I’m all for it. The next time I blog, I’ll show you what happens when the new cute makes its way into your lunchbox. Come hungry.
A Crafty To-Do List
For the next few weeks, I’ll be busy packing and unpacking, cleaning, decorating and all the other (ahem) joys that go along with moving. There won’t be a whole lot of crafting going on, although I do hope to somehow make some curtains, a duvet cover, and a baby gift for a friend. How I’m going to manage that with most of my crafts supplies in a box remains to be seen. In the meantime, I thought I’d post a list of things I hope to try (and blog about) once the craziness of the move is behind me.
- Sashiko (Japanese embroidery)– The Portsmouth Fabric Company is having a class on Sashiko in May– sign me up!
- Print Gocco– I want to try it before I buy it– I’d love to find a local class. I want to print my own fabric or try making something like this.
- Fabric-covered switch plates! This is just the beginning of my plan to cover everything in my home with fabric.
- Homemade paper from junk mail. Cool.
- Experimenting with shrinky dinks
- Magazine holders from cereal boxes
- Embedding objects in resin– Okay, this one is highly toxic, but I want to try it!
- The Eliot School in Jamaica Plain has all kinds of cool classes– I want to take the upholstery class, and maybe digital photography.
This list should keep me busy for a long time to come. Of course, before I get around to all of these fantastic projects, I’ll probably get distracted by others. Ooooh, like the free embroidery pattern posted last week on Wee Wonderfuls. Or Suey, the Super Sock Pig! Here I go again…
Home Sweet Home
When my Anthropologie catalog arrived last week, I was immediately drawn to these photographs. It’s a crafter’s dream– an upholstered HOUSE. Look closely– the artwork on the walls is made of cloth. The paneling on the walls and the doors is all needlework. Even the light switches are stuffed! Impractical, yes. But so pretty!
I have house and home on the brain these days because we’ll be moving at the end of the month. We’ve been in Salem for three years now, which is the longest I’ve stayed anywhere in a really long time. There’s definitely something to be said for sticking around for a while and really getting to know a place. In some ways I’ll be sad to leave Salem because there are lots of things about this little city that I’ll miss. I’m really going to miss being able to wander around downtown on a whim. I love just heading down there on a warm Saturday with no idea where I’ll end up. Sometimes as I walk around the back streets of the Derby Wharf area or past the McIntire mansions of Chestnut street, I feel like I’m transported through time. I imagine what life was like here a hundred years ago, or two hundred years ago. I can almost hear the clatter of horses’ hooves as they pull carriages through the cobblestone streets. Oh wait, that IS the clatter of of horses’ hooves as they pull carriages (full of toursists) through the cobblestone streets.
I’ll miss seeing the harbor every day and smelling the salty air. I’ll miss brunch at Red’s, the Peabody-Essex Museum (which has a really cool photo exhibit of the art of Maori tattoos right now, check it out!), and frozen yogurt delivery until 11:00 pm! (Sometimes, you just gotta have it in your pajamas.) Of course, I’m NOT going to miss the traffic, trying to park downtown during a snow emergency, or shopping at the black hole that is Salem Market Basket.
As for our apartment, I do like it but I don’t think there’s much about it that I’ll truly miss. I’m definitely not going to miss having only one kitchen cabinet and almost no counter space. Sayonara, grimy bathroom floor. You are someone else’s pet peeve now.
Holiday Ornament Swap ’07
While stranded by some nasty winter weather this weekend, I crafted up a storm! I don’t dare post about most of my projects because they are Christmas presents and inquiring minds who read my blog will want to know.
Here’s something I can post about today. I mentioned a while back that I was participating in Cake+Pie and freshly{blended}‘s Holiday Ornament swap this year. I mailed mine out on Saturday, and here they are:
I designed these myself based on Japanese kokeshi. I have a small collection of kokeshi, and my mother suggested them as an alternative to the matryoshka ornaments I was thinking of doing, which, while very cute, seem to be everywhere at the moment.
They didn’t come out quite the way I’d imagined (as things seldom do), but I’m happy with them… and happy they’re done. Many thanks to my fellow swappers in Group 44… the ornaments I’ve received so far are fabulous, and it’s been so much fun opening those packages!! Once I’ve received all of them, I’ll post a collage.
Bazaar Bizarre Boston
I went to Bazaar Bizarre Boston this afternoon. I didn’t buy much but I really enjoyed seeing what all the local (and some not-so-local) crafters are up to. If you weren’t able to make it, here are some of my favorite vendors from the event. They all have websites where you can check out their wares.
This table was very popular. There were lots of cool monster stickers, magnets and pins with a crafting theme. I picked up some monster stickers with sayings like, “I Make Stuff” and “I Deserve a Cookie.”
OMG, so so cute. Cuddly food toys. I love the ice cream sandwich and the sticky bun. I cracked up when I saw the toast that was sad because it was moldy and green!
I loved these adorable crochet creatures– especially the octopi, gingerbread men, and bunnies. There was even what appeared to be a bloodthirsty zombie, which somehow managed to be cute too. I just noticed on the Bazaar Bizarre website that this crafter lives in Salem, Massachusetts. So do I… shout out!!
I loved their apple-head dolls– they even had a kit for you to make your own. They also had very nice zippered pouches.
Cool crocheted creatures and cards. I loved the card with the peanut butter toast saying to the jelly toast, “We belong together.” So sweet.
Lovely, modern, and very original softies.
What a gathering of talent and creativity. I will definitely be back next year!
Backpacks, Birthdays and Broadway!
I couldn’t resist adding this little backpack to the doll for our niece’s fourth birthday, also from a Wee Wonderfuls pattern. The backpack came together much easier than the jumper did. Now that I’ve done the tiny backpack, I think I’m ready for my first try at a tote or shoulder bag.
For more about putting this doll together, check out my last post, this post, and the Wee Wonderfuls patterns.
We had a nice time at our niece’s bithday party yesterday. Lots of little ones running around, but the chaos was pretty contained (it helped that it only lasted two hours!) The kids had lots of crafty activities to do, including painting T-shirts, making picture frames, and decorating their own cupcakes. The birthday girl was very happy indeed.
In other news, this week I am getting psyched up for three events I’ve been looking forward to:
One, on Wednesday, a trip with my mom to NYC to see Cyrano de Bergerac! With Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner! We were nervous for a while that this trip wasn’t going to happen because of the stagehand strike, but the strike has been settled. Yay! I’m hoping we can also squeeze in some shopping (Kinokuniya?! Purl?! Muji?!) and a visit with a friend who lives in Manhattan.
Two, on Saturday, my husband’s band is playing at a children’s charity benefit. They play a little of everything, but mostly classic rock covers. Afterward, we’ll have a little get-together at our place.
Three, on Sunday, the Bazaar Bizarre in Boston! I’ve never been before, and I’m really looking forward to it. If you’re in the area, check out the website. There are also events coming up in LA, Cleveland, and San Francisco. (I also hope to make it to Craftland in Providence sometime before it ends on December 22nd, but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to squeeze it in!)
Lots of fun things to do and post about this week!
