In mid-July I took a really fun art journal class at my LSS (local stamp store) Ink About It. I take quite a few art classes throughout the year to learn new techniques and hopefully find inspiration to be creative at home as well as during my classes. All too often when I attempt to let my creative juices flow at home, they seem to fail me. I get all excited, pull out a whole bunch of fun paper, stamps and ways to add color and then... nothing. I'm stumped. All the possibilities for materials and layouts are totally overwhelming. I can't even think of where to begin. After my most recent class, I have found a solution.
My first completed art journal page - Music
The class I took was Art Journal Pages with Nancy Lefko, a mixed media artist who currently lives in New Hampshire. She offers both online as well as in person art classes and her teaching style is fantastic! She walked us through the process of creating these journal pages layer by layer and gave us plenty of time in between each section to play with the materials as we went along. There was no need to rush; I just played with the different techniques and created. The whole process was very satisfying.
The second page - Nature
While I left the class without any of my three pages technically "finished", I still felt really good about them. What's even more telling is that I went home and the next day I worked on the pages some more... Bwah?!?!? Yes, I kept creating! I happened to have the day off and probably spent a couple hours finishing up the details of the Music page and then attacked the Nature page with gusto.
The third page - Inspire
It didn't stop there. This Friday I spent the day crafting with my mom and we made three background pages together. After she left I completed the Inspire page that afternoon. I'm so happy that starting this journal has allowed me to be creative at home and use all the awesome art materials I already have on hand. As an added bonus I have been using a lot of my own photography for the collage element of the pages. It makes the pages so much more personal. Each one reminds me of somewhere I've been or an experience I have had. So, by using my own photos I'm telling eve more of my story than by just using words alone. Wicked cool!
If you are local to Westford, MA and would like to take a class with Nancy Lefko, she is teaching art journaling at Ink About It again on September 7, 2013. Click here to see the class description. If you are not in the area, check out her other teaching venues here.
Last night I took a card making class with Jenn Shurkus, the creative chick, and this time she had us create six wicked cute cards using papers from Basic Grey and stamps from Hero Arts. The papers we used are from Basic Grey's 6x6 Life of the Party Collection. We only used a little bit of the paper in the pack, so I still have a ton of different papers left over that I can play with, which is definately a huge bonus!
Image courtesy of Basic Grey
The stamps we used are from the Hero Arts Spring 2011 collection. You can view that collection by looking through their online catalogue. The stamps we used featured cupcakes, cotton candy and ice cream just to name a few. We also made use of Copic Markers, flock, stickles and lots of glitter (which I think I still might have on my face, lol) to make the cards eye catching. Well, I think I've managed to talk about the cards enough, how about I actually show them to you?
Hmmm, didn't realize I made that sentiment so crooked... oh well!
I miss you cupcake!
With this card, Jenn taught us how to use extra layers of foam tape to really give our cards depth.
This is what happens when you are stingy (or lazy) with your glue pen when you are using flock. My bad! It still looks cute though :-)
Must get a craft stapler!!! Because big staples don't look right...
More CUPCAKES! And my favorite card of the much. So simple, yet so striking.
In honor of her very cute kitty's 3rd birthday, my favorite crafting instructor, Jenn Shurkus, is hosting a raffle on her blog. In order to enter we needed to make a birthday card just for Mr. Harley and send it to her. I'm coming in just under the wire and submitting it just after midnight on April 13th rather than on Mr. Harley's birthday, but I think he'll forgive me. I had a pretty long day and he is a very sweet guy.
Materials I used to make this card:
Stampendous - Kitty Silhouettes clear stamp set
a muse - Happy Everything clear stamp set
Ichiyo- Cat with long tail stamp (not the real name, couldn't find it online)
a muse square note cards (unavailable)
Shake it Up - mini mat stack papers
Memento Ink - Tuxedo Black
Dew Drop Versamagic Ink - Pretty Petunia
Spica Glitter Pen in Olive
a muse olive ribbon
foam tape
mono adhesive
patience of a saint
So, while this wasn't what I had planned to do originally, it came out nice and I am happy. I need to exercise my paper crafting and stamping juices more often... this card took me way to long to finally figure out. Oh well, hopefully more stampy goodness to come in the future!
I hope you had a wonderful birthday Harley!!
Edited for spelling and grammar issues. Apparently, one shouldn't blog tired ;-)
A couple weeks ago I took a class with Jenn Shurkus, the creative chick, on painting with bleach on black card stock and then painting over the bleached areas with Luminarte's Twinkling H2O's to create a beautiful mottled stain glass effect. You can see the cards I made during that class at the bottom of the post. I have been itching to play with all my lovely H2O's for quite some time now. They have been reformulated, come in bigger containers and I have a whole mess of them that have been calling to me to start playing. So, today I decided it was time to get my craft on and try this technique out at home.
When I was looking around for some good candidates to stamp with and I found this gorgeous poinsettia stamp by Magenta I got last Christmas. I ended up embossing it with a Versamark pad and some fine detail gold embossing powder since the leaves and petals were so intricate and fine. Then I painted the whole thing with my standard issue grocery store bleach and sat down to wait.
Now, the thing that's so hard about painting with bleach is that you don't exactly know how things are going to come out all the time. your results can vary greatly depending on the bleach and card stock you are using. I got pretty lucky with the card stock I bought today. The bleach did work on it, but I wasn't totally happy with the amount of bleaching that occurred. Compared to the painting I did in class with Jenn, the results today were much more subtle, which in turn made the final product look less like stained glass than I had hoped. That's ok though, I'll just have to try out some different types of black card stock to see how they work. I only had one option for paper today and considering, I'm reasonably happy with the results.
Since the paper didn't lighten as much as I hoped, I ended up really layering on the H2O colors and trying to shade with them using some of the techniques I would normally use when working with copic markers such as shading by repeatedly going over one section after letting it dry. I also was having a bit of a problem with my heat tool, which I use to emboss and dry the H2O's between coats. It was the first time I had used it since I got it and it started smelling funny. I looked carefully and the metal tip where the heat comes out was touching the protective covering around it rather than free floating. I guess I'm going to have to invest in another heat tool soon... sadness.
Anyway, if you want to learn more about Luminarte's Twinkling H2O's or their other products, you can check out the Luminarte Blog. When I get better paper, I'll make sure to try this technique out again and share the results with you.
I take lots of classes... No really, I mean lots of classes. At least once a month I take a cardmaking class at my LSS (local stamping store). This month, in addition to my usual class, I signed up to take one to make a reusable Advent calendar. Advent calendars are something my mom gets for me every year as far back as I can remember. There is something so fun about opening up the little door each day to see a picture, read a verse or get some candy. The calendar I made today is of the candy variety (although I could add some random verses when I set it up for us this year). I have always wanted an Advent calendar that is more permanent than the flimsy card stock ones that are sold in stores. So, it was a real treat to get to make one for my little family.
This is the first year our instructor Jenn, aka Creative Chick, has brought her yearly Advent calendar class to my LSS. How she made it is really cool. The base is a metal bulletin board and each day is a little metal tin that is decorated and then stuck on the board with magnets. Here is a close up so you can see what I mean.
Isn't it sooooo neat! I'm so excited that I just kind of wanted to put it up now instead of waiting until Dec. 1. Now all I have to do is figure exactly what kind of candy and cat treat I am putting in each one!
Unfortunately I don't have time to put up the details of this card right now, as I am about to head out to a class taught by the lady that will be the recipient of this card, but I promise I will add the info in later. Stay tuned!
So, I'm still keeping up with my one card a week goal, which I'm pretty psyched about. Doing these cards has been getting easier and easier as the weeks go on. This week I thought I would do a thank you card since I have more than a few people who could use some thanking in my life. I'm also really excited because A Muse just came out with their spring release, which is called Everything's Rosy (I looooove floral stamps). I'm so psyched because in a couple weeks I'll be going to a class featuring the use of all these new stamps. AWESOME!!! You can get a sneak peek at some of the new stamps by checking out A Muse's blog. Papers:
1 A Muse Lavender Square Card (these are unfortunately discontinued, I just happened to have some)
For my week three card, I have yet another birthday card. I certainly do seem to have a lot of friends and family who were born at this time of year. I've actually been holding off on posting this because I wasn't sure just how long the card would take this card to get to it's destination. However, I am happy to report, it made it to the birthday girl on time, so now I can share it with everyone!
Week 2 of card making was successful!! So what if I cheated and actually made this card last Saturday? I was on a paper crafting roll and knew I would see my friend Bob that day so I could give him his birthday card, albeit belated. Whatever!! What matters is that a card was made :P
To further aid my Card a Week posting goal, I bought a whole bunch of 8.5 x 11 A Muse papers when I was up at Ink About It on Wednesday night for my class with Jenn. We made really cool things that night, but I will share that lovely creation with you in another post. I think I might have come close to buying one of every different color and style paper they have, but as they are only 45 cents a sheet, the bill wasn't too destructive :-)
Papers:
1 A Muse Orange Square Card (these are unfortunately discontinued, I just happened to have some)
To keep myself blogging regularly and increase my paper crafty skills, I recently decided to make a card a week and put it up on the blog. I really enjoy stamping and doing paper crafts, but I generally have a very hard time creating things on my own. It's like I get overwhelmed. I came to this conclusion when I took the Creativity Bootcamp Class at Ink About It a few months ago.
So, I figure, the best way to get myself to be less uptight about making cards is to just jump in and do it, even though it might be uncomfortable for awhile. So, I did and this was the first card I came up with. It's a little busy, but that is ok. Making my cards too busy is another one of my usual downfalls. I just don't seem to know when to stop. Anyway, back to the point.... so if any of you are crafty and want to make the cards I do for my card a week, I will include in the post a list of materials needed to recreate them.
Papers:
1 A Muse Blue Square Card (these are unfortunately discontinued, I just happened to have some)
Yeay, I was creative! I decided that the Easter Bunny needed to see my family members, so I came up for this card for my folks and used the same cute bunny lineup for making gift tags for mini Easter Candy Takeout Boxes. Not too shabby if I say so myself. All the cardstock, stamps and ribbon are by A Muse and the ink pads I used are Memento Dew Drops. I just adore how everything coordinates so well. These literally only took me a few moments to make and they look adorable!
These are two different valentines cards mom and I made today. We had lots of fun, but still need to work on getting our creative juices flowing. As usual, we spent a lot of time figuring out how to make things both match and balance on the card. Overall, I think we did pretty well though.
So, there's no Ten on Tuesday subject this week and I kind of missed last week's entirely... so I thought I would do my own in an effort to pick up the blogging pace. Here are 10 Little Things Can That Make My Day:
1) Starting a new project - Whether it be knitting, crocheting, stamping or whatever. There is just something exciting about starting something new.
2) An attentive purring cat - Molly is NOT a lap cat, so whenever she chooses to lavish attention on me, it's a good day.
3) A beautiful sunrise/sunset - I don't know what it is, but whenever I see a particularly pretty sunrise or sunset, it seems to alter my mood for the better.
4) A surprise visit from the iced coffee fairy - You know who you are and I am always grateful.
5) Comments left on my blogs - Hint, hint... :D
6) When that awesome smell in the hallway when I come home is actually coming from our apartment - I am so fortunate I have a hubbie who can cook and is not afraid to try new things in the kitchen. Brian's Peanut Chicken and Heavy Kodo Stew from the MMO Cookbook are my favorites.
7) Checking things off of my to do list - Sad I know, but I get a thrill when everything is done.
8) Getting a new achievement in World of Warcraft - Yes, this is a bit specific, but when you haven't played in a few weeks and then your computer croaks, you realize just how happy you got about silly things like these.
9) Chocolate - Enough said.
10) Having someone favorite one of my projects on Ravelry - It's a nice little pat on the back, usually from a complete stranger, but it's nice to see that people like my work.
During the course of the class our instructors, Karen and Ursula, presented us with a couple different challenges. The first was speed. We were split into two big tables due to the layout of the room and therefore divided into 2 teams. Each team would compete in a card making relay race to earn a prize. We were doomed from minute one. We stamped in the wrong ink, so the copic markers got all smudged, we didn't cut our ribbon. It was a pretty sad excuse for a card, but hey, it was lots of fun making our team's train wreck. Needless to say, despite the cut corners, our team didn't win. I was okay with that because the runner up prize was M&Ms. I've never been so happy to be in second place!
For our second challenge, they wanted to make us think outside the box and design something using a color we don't naturally go for. It is all too easy to get stuck using the same color palette over and over again. So, they passed around a bag of crayons and we each reached in to pick our assigned color. Maybe picked isn't the right word here, we didn't choose the color, it was more of a grab bag. Mom got green and I got blue. I think we did pretty well considering all the crafty holdups we tend to have.
This past Saturday mom and I went to a great class at our favorite stamping/scrapbooking store, Ink About It. The class was called the Best of Creativity Boot Camp and featured demonstrations of the most popular techniques that were taught during the Creativity Boot Camp (CBC) class series in 2009. The great thing about CBC is that the reason the series was created was to meet the needs of the customers.
So many crafters are afraid to use their supplies because they think they might "waste" them or they have so many great craft supplies, they are overwhelmed by them and don't know where to even start. I am definately of that ilk. Just digging out all the supplies to make a card is tortuous. I have so much cool stuff to use and no idea how to even begin...
So, to get over all of our crafting "issues" the CBC intructors had us focus on learning techniques and "playing" with things to see how they worked. Here are some of my class samples:
Stamping with bleach on cardstock
Stamping with bleach on dye inks
Kissing off - a technique where you use one stamp to give texture to another. The black print on the lady's dress was "kissed off" of another stamp in a different ink.
Masking - a technique done by stamping an image on masking paper, cutting it out and using that mask to create depth.
Stamping on acetate - great for adding depth. You must have very steady hands!
Stamping with clear pigment ink on glossy paper and then applying dye ink directly to it to get a resist of the image. This technique is one of my favorites!
I'll have another post up soon about some other neat things we made in the class.
These are the 5 incredibly cute cards mom and I made tonight at Jenn's Amuse Valentine's class at Ink About It. Both mom and I really liked this year's release for the holiday because the stamps can be used for so many things other than on a valentine. Now, I admit I have been neglecting my stamping for a bit now, but that doesn't mean that I don't still love it and want to create cute things. I just seem to get a creative block whenever I try to make something myself... must work on that.
Anyway, thanks to Jenn for yet another lovely class! I have the Amuse Addicts Get Together on Sunday, so I should come home with lovely stamped items to show off then. I should have 20+ cards to share, so I'm really looking forward to that.
Ok, so this post is officially on restriction... I was very close to being done with it, having looked up all but two of the links I needed and written out all my lovely commentary. However, that post was not meant to be. Somehow it managed delete itself and then auto save before I could hit undo.... so, the original is lost somewhere in the sea of ones and zeros that is the internet. Hopefully I can remember all the neat things I was going to share now that my temper tantrum is over, lol. Well, here goes...
The actual Ten on Tuesday topic for today is 10 Things I want, but wouldn't buy for myself, but I decided that it wasn't particularly my style. I always end up feeling a little bit like a greedy monkey at this time of year, with everyone asking what I want for Christmas, so instead of focusing on what I want, I decided to focus on ways I can be creative in December. Fortunately for me, there are lots of great ideas out there. Here are ten that I thought would be worth sharing. I do want to put in a disclaimer here... while I have tried out some of these crafty projects and I do plan to try out others, I have not tried them all, so.... I refuse to be held responsible if you project is CraftFail worthy : P Believe me, I've had plenty of those moments myself.
1) Knit a Christmas stocking - As part of my knitting insanity this year I want to make Christmas stockings for my little family. I just love the idea of those really cool multi-colored faire-isle ones that have your name knitted into them and look like they took hours to make. So, I hopped on Ravelry and found the pattern for Cascade Christmas Stockings. This pattern is great because it allows you to customize your stocking by section and color. For each section, the pattern offers a few options so that way you can mix and match your favorite designs. Now, if you don't want to dive into a project like that, but you like the idea of a stocking, you can try out this pattern for Mini Knitted Christmas Stockings.
3) Make an eco-friendly garland - You can make a cool eco-friendly garland out of all sorts of things you can get at the grocery store, or even in your backyard. Some good ideas are cranberries, popcorn, dried fruit, cinnamon sticks, pine cones, and acorns. Instructables has directions on how to make a Delightfully Dehydrated Garland of dried fruit slices and Ocean Spray gives some good tips on how to string up cranberries and popcorn. What's great about these garlands is that when the holidays are over you can put them out on your bushes in the back yard and they will mysteriously disappear!
4) Bake cookies for your friends and family - This is something I do every year with both my mom and friends because baking for people is a great way to give them something special when your budget might be a little tight. In early December the girls get together for cookie day and we each make enough cookies from recipes we each pick so that everyone to bring a dozen home. It really makes getting all that baking done fast and fun! My current favorite recipes are the Lemon-Honey Drop Cookies and Molasses Cookies from Cooking Light magazine, but I have also made a family favorite, Chocolate Crinkles. A really great resource for recipes in general, but in this case cookies is MyRecipes.com.
5) Make your own holiday cards - Now, I have tried to do this for several year, each year with different levels of success (or failure). I love card making, but I am not the best designer so I tend to do most of my paper crafting and stamping in the classroom with Jenn our instructor (who is awesome). But, when I do endeavor create on my own I stick with stamps from one company and that is A Muse. They offer the cutest stamps ever and their slogan is perfect... think simple. think a muse. I can't speak highly enough of their quality stamps, papers and other accessories. So, go to their site and check them out. They have excellent examples of holiday card ideas you can check out at their design studio.
7) Cut out paper snowflakes - Now, I know this sounds just silly, but they are a lot of fun! You can either find a pattern and follow it to get a snowflake to look exactly how you like or you can be a rebel (like I normally do) and fold your paper and attack with the scissors. I honestly haven't come out with a bad one yet doing it this way. You can also try your hand at making a 3-D Paper Snowflake.
8) Make soap that reminds you of the season - I have never gotten the chance to make soap and there are many ways to do it. You actually have a few options if you are interested in soap making, first you can just melt down pre-purchased soap and add other ingredients such as dyes, exfoliants or the scent of your choice. You can also purchase the ingredients to make glycerin soaps (this is the one I really want to try). Lastly you could make lye soap (which I really wouldn't recommend). Idea Queen has some recipes up on her blog for you to try out. You should be able to get most of the ingredients at Michael's or AC Moore. The only thing I would stress is that anything you use for these recipes should NEVER touch food again! So, once you have used a pot or a wooden spoon in soapmaking, it is married to that function or the trash for life.
9) Make a wreath for your door - Either go the traditional route with tree branches or use something you already have, extra scarves. You can see some great ideas here at Country Living or at Martha Stewart's website.
10) Make a fruitcake - Nah! Just kidding :-) I'm scared of those, but here is a neat article on the Great Fruitcake Toss held every year in Manitou Springs, Co. Also you can listen to Robbie O'Connell sing about Mrs. Fogarty's Christmas Cake (one of my favorite Christmas folk songs):
This is such a great 10 on Tuesday. For most of November I kept on seeing people on Facebook and Twitter talking about all the things they are thankful for. While I know I could do at least one status update a day with something or someone I am thankful for, I just didn't seem to find the time to actually do it. So, I guess this week's 10 on Tuesday is my opportunity. There have been so many awesome things for me to be thankful in the past year. Here is just a small list of them:
1) All the wonderful people who are part of my life - I can't even begin to list all of the people who are dear to me, so I'm not going to try. Some people I see everyday, some less than once a year. I am so blessed to have such caring friends and family, thank you all for being there for me.
2) Warm, purring cats - To me a house without a cat isn't a home. I have had a kitty in my life since I can remember and for 4 years we did without, which was very difficult for me. Whether I'm reading in bed with our Molliwog rubbing her face against the pages of my book or having Winks purr like a madman when I stop by to feed him when Brian's folks are away... these cats just mean the world to me.
3) The smell of a good campfire - I'll admit, I'm a sucker for certain smells and the scent of wood burning is one of them. Good thing I married and Eagle Scout and I was a Cadet in Girl Scouts. Between the two of us, if we need one, a good campfire is an easy undertaking.
4) The taste of freshly baked bread - To quote a co-worker of mine, "I never met a carbohydrate I didn't like," and since I'm home on vacation and have some spare time this week, I've been cooking a lot. Today I made spice bread and it is just so good hot with a little pat of butter. I love my bread machine; now I just have to remember how it works.
5) My hobbies - They might sound distinctly unimportant in the scheme of things, but knitting, paper crafting, photography, blogging and computer games really make a big difference in my life. They de-stress me while forcing me to be creative and laugh at myself. There is also the added bonus that they are all social in some way. I play World of Warcraft with several of my friends, so that gives me a chance to spend some time with them during the week when I normally couldn't see them. Almost all of my paper crafting projects happen when I'm in a class of mostly familiar faces and my knitting introduces me to all sorts of small businesses and other knitters as I look around for some beautiful new yarn I have yet to discover.
6) The exquisitely soft feel of Malabrigo - Ok, forgive me, I'm going to step into my yarn geek persona. If you told me a year ago that I was going to absolutely drool over certain types of yarns... I would have thought you were crazy. However, a tactile obsession has befallen me sometime since I started knitting in earnest. I. Love. Soft. Yarn. All I do when I go to a fiber store is touch things. I can honestly say I have picked up a gorgeously dyed skein to put it in my basket, only to put it down when I notice it's just not soft enough for me to knit with. So sad.... but, at this point I know my weakness. To me the perfect illustration of what is soft (yarnwise) is how Malabrigo Worsted feels.
7) The generosity of others - It always blows me a away how generous people can be. Just this week one of my friends' parents gave us a beautiful four poster queen sized bed. They were moving and didn't need it so they generously said we could have it. Now, my husband and I have been married for over six years now and for those six years have been sleeping in a full sized bed. Our old bed was great, don't get me wrong, it was just a little tough to establish peace where covers were concerned.... Another example is how quickly Brian and I found ourselves with new queen sized sheet sets and a comforter after mentioning our new bed's imminent arrival. I mean really, we didn't even have time to go out any buy any for ourselves!
8) Music - I don't think I can say how much am am thankful for music and do it any kind of justice. It has played such a large part in my life for so many years that I don't know how to begin. I have yet to find a musical genre I don't like at least in some way. From classically written movie scores to musicals and Metallica, I really enjoy a wide range as both a listener and performer. Music is just the perfect way to express all kinds of emotions that are hard to convey by words alone.
9) All the beauty that surrounds me - Spring flowers, blazing sunsets and birds calling in the early hours of the morning; the sound of children playing on the playground outside our window. These are just a few of those tiny things that bring a smile to my face everyday that people often overlook. Even I forget to take time out for them on a busy day, but when I have a change to slow down and relax, they creep back into view.
10) My wonderful husband - I couldn't leave him out now could I? Love you honey!
This is a shoebox project I made for the A Muse Addicts get together at Ink about It back on Sunday Sept. 20th. A rather large group of us came from around the state and even further to spend some time together and celebrate our love of all things A Muse. For 10 Treat-Filled Halloween Matchbooks you need:
Take a slate note card and put it color side up on the scor-pal so that the long side is against the ruler edge.
Score your card at 1" and 6", repeat this for all 9 remaining cards.
Fold the cards on your score marks so the fold at 1" is the flap to catch the matchbook lid and the one at 6" helps form the wide edge of the matchbook.
Distress all edges of the slate cards with the paper distresser so that you can see the white of the card stock beneath it.
Using the black pigment ink pad, distress (or flip according to Jenn :P) the edges of all 10 pieces of the vintage orange. You can do this as lightly or heavily as you prefer.
Using mono adhesive, attach a distressed vintage orange piece to each card so that the left, top and right sides have an even amount of space between it and the card.
Using the black dye ink pad, stamp the pumpkin basket on the vintage orange pieces.
Stamp 10 images of the pumpkin basket on your piece of Natural White and color in with the Copic marker.
Cut out each pumpkin basket you just colored (ignoring the handle part) and attach one to each of your cards with foam tape directly over the one on the vintage orange.
Using the Black dye in pad, stamp Open if you dare on the 1" x 2" Palm green rectangles.
Use the paper distresser on all sides of the green rectangles. Then, bend each of them so that they look crumbled.
Attach the green rectangles to each card using foam tape.
Flip open the matchbooks use mono adhesive to secure your favorite candy inside (I personally prefer Gummy Body Parts). Make sure to leave room at the top to stamp Happy Halloween above the candy.
Finally, tie the orange polka dot ribbon around the bottom of the matchbook to secure the bottom flap and keep the matchbook from opening.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy my first attempt at designing a little project. I had lots of fun working on it and getting it ready for the A Muse Addicts for last weekend. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or send me an email.
I've just had lots going on lately, so there hasn't been much time to post or take any pictures. Buuuuut, I am working on some new projects as you can see in my current projects list on the side of the blog. So, I should have some finished object posts soon for you.
Also, I've got some neat things I'm doing in the next couple of weeks that will be really great subjects for photography. One of them is a Photography for Knitters workshop I'm going to with my friend Tara this weekend. The workshop is being put on by Gale Zucker who is a professional photographer and produces a blog called She Shoots Sheep Shots. I'm very excited about the workshop because I have a hard time taking nice final pictures of my completed projects before I send them off to whomever they are for. So, lots on neat images should come from that especially since she asked us to bring our own finished projects or works in progress to shoot!
Then, next weekend I have Annual Apple Day with a bunch of my friends. This is always a great time to break out the camera and enjoy the fall together. We gather at a local orchard, pick a bunch of apples, then head to one of our places to make pies, make applesauce and make dinner. We basically spend the whole day together and it is one of those traditions that I think is really hard to beat. I'm guessing we've been having Apple Day for at least 5 years now, although it could be more (feel free to chime in guys).
Then on Sunday I'm going to an A*Muse Addicts get together at Ink About It, the stamping store my mom and I frequent for classes and supplies. A*Muse is an awesome company that makes the cutest stamps eva! Check their stuff out at their website. So, a group of about 20 of us are getting together and each bringing a shoebox project with enough supplies for everyone to make the project. So, when I'm all done, I'll have 20 little projects to photograph. Neat huh?
So anyway, more to come and thanks for being patient through my lack of posting.
During the course of the class our instructors, Karen and Ursula, presented us with a couple different challenges. The first was speed. We were split into two big tables due to the layout of the room and therefore divided into 2 teams. Each team would compete in a card making relay race to earn a prize. We were doomed from minute one. We stamped in the wrong ink, so the copic markers got all smudged, we didn't cut our ribbon. It was a pretty sad excuse for a card, but hey, it was lots of fun making our team's train wreck. Needless to say, despite the cut corners, our team didn't win. I was okay with that because the runner up prize was M&Ms. I've never been so happy to be in second place!
For our second challenge, they wanted to make us think outside the box and design something using a color we don't naturally go for. It is all too easy to get stuck using the same color palette over and over again. So, they passed around a bag of crayons and we each reached in to pick our assigned color. Maybe picked isn't the right word here, we didn't choose the color, it was more of a grab bag. Mom got green and I got blue. I think we did pretty well considering all the crafty holdups we tend to have. 
1) Knit a Christmas stocking - As part of my knitting insanity this year I want to make Christmas stockings for my little family. I just love the idea of those really cool multi-colored faire-isle ones that have your name knitted into them and look like they took hours to make. So, I hopped on Ravelry and found the pattern for Cascade Christmas Stockings. This pattern is great because it allows you to customize your stocking by section and color. For each section, the pattern offers a few options so that way you can mix and match your favorite designs. Now, if you don't want to dive into a project like that, but you like the idea of a stocking, you can try out this pattern for Mini Knitted Christmas Stockings.
3) Make an eco-friendly garland - You can make a cool eco-friendly garland out of all sorts of things you can get at the grocery store, or even in your backyard. Some good ideas are cranberries, popcorn, dried fruit, cinnamon sticks, pine cones, and acorns. Instructables has directions on how to make a Delightfully Dehydrated Garland of dried fruit slices and Ocean Spray gives some good tips on how to string up cranberries and popcorn. What's great about these garlands is that when the holidays are over you can put them out on your bushes in the back yard and they will mysteriously disappear!
4) Bake cookies for your friends and family - This is something I do every year with both my mom and friends because baking for people is a great way to give them something special when your budget might be a little tight. In early December the girls get together for cookie day and we each make enough cookies from recipes we each pick so that everyone to bring a dozen home. It really makes getting all that baking done fast and fun! My current favorite recipes are the Lemon-Honey Drop Cookies and Molasses Cookies from Cooking Light magazine, but I have also made a family favorite, Chocolate Crinkles. A really great resource for recipes in general, but in this case cookies is MyRecipes.com. 
7) Cut out paper snowflakes - Now, I know this sounds just silly, but they are a lot of fun! You can either find a pattern and follow it to get a snowflake to look exactly how you like or you can be a rebel (like I normally do) and fold your paper and attack with the scissors. I honestly haven't come out with a bad one yet doing it this way. You can also try your hand at making a 3-D Paper Snowflake.
2) Warm, purring cats - To me a house without a cat isn't a home. I have had a kitty in my life since I can remember and for 4 years we did without, which was very difficult for me. Whether I'm reading in bed with our Molliwog rubbing her face against the pages of my book or having Winks purr like a madman when I stop by to feed him when Brian's folks are away... these cats just mean the world to me. 
3) The smell of a good campfire - I'll admit, I'm a sucker for certain smells and the scent of wood burning is one of them. Good thing I married and Eagle Scout and I was a Cadet in Girl Scouts. Between the two of us, if we need one, a good campfire is an easy undertaking.
5) My hobbies - They might sound distinctly unimportant in the scheme of things, but knitting, paper crafting, photography, blogging and computer games really make a big difference in my life. They de-stress me while forcing me to be creative and laugh at myself. There is also the added bonus that they are all social in some way. I play World of Warcraft with several of my friends, so that gives me a chance to spend some time with them during the week when I normally couldn't see them. Almost all of my paper crafting projects happen when I'm in a class of mostly familiar faces and my knitting introduces me to all sorts of small businesses and other knitters as I look around for some beautiful new yarn I have yet to discover.
6) The exquisitely soft feel of Malabrigo - Ok, forgive me, I'm going to step into my yarn geek persona. If you told me a year ago that I was going to absolutely drool over certain types of yarns... I would have thought you were crazy. However, a tactile obsession has befallen me sometime since I started knitting in earnest. I. Love. Soft. Yarn. All I do when I go to a fiber store is touch things. I can honestly say I have picked up a gorgeously dyed skein to put it in my basket, only to put it down when I notice it's just not soft enough for me to knit with. So sad.... but, at this point I know my weakness. To me the perfect illustration of what is soft (yarnwise) is how Malabrigo Worsted feels.
9) All the beauty that surrounds me - Spring flowers, blazing sunsets and birds calling in the early hours of the morning; the sound of children playing on the playground outside our window. These are just a few of those tiny things that bring a smile to my face everyday that people often overlook. Even I forget to take time out for them on a busy day, but when I have a change to slow down and relax, they creep back into view.
