Handmade Christmas Recap 2

A selection of things I made for friends and family this past Christmas.

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I only made the truck stencil, Ethan made the rest

The silhouettes were really easy and turned out great. Not sure why, yet again I sewed so many things when I hate sewing! I really like the look of hand sewn things. I think the coolest gift I made, was for Ethan, but I can't show it yet.

I have to fix it...oops!

DIY Stamp Tutorial

In my art, I often use stamps. Mostly foam stamps, handmade stamps, and various found objects. All of these create wonderful opportunities to add visual texture. I have two artists that are my inspiration for the use of stamps; Michelle Ward and Anne Bagby. Each use color so effectively and make wonderful art with their own stamps.

Not all stamps need to be carved though. I recently started playing with an alternative idea. It is east to cut or burn into craft foam to make a stamp, but you can't make more detailed stamp.

I added a narrow metal tip to a bottle of Puffy Paint and drew a free form plant design.

You can see where my first start looked bad, so I wiped it off leaving a black smear.

After it dries, which seems to take forever, just brush on paint and stamp!

This doesn't create a deeply etched stamp. Though when you play around with it, there are cool things to do with it. I used it for stamp but also for collagraph type printing. Sorry no photo, but if you paint the whole surface, lightly stamp on scrap paper, then press hard on desired surface. Use a brayer or rolling pin. Very fun effect.

Here is a little collage I used this stamp in:

I started with a flash card

Glue on tissue

A little paint and paper

Now stamp! I used both white and black paint

All finished

Project Quilting Season 3

Stop over at Kim's Crafty Apple blog to see the details on the new season of Project Quilting. The first challenge is up and I can almost hear the creative gears going!

I have donated a few things toward the prize pool and there are some really great prizes!

Project Quilting Flickr slideshow

Handmade Christmas Recap 1

Every year each of us in the household make a gift for each other. It doesn't need to be fancy or complicated, just a thoughtful gesture. As an example, Emma make her dad chocolate chip cookies. Ethan made a sign for his dad to put in the garage. I'll post later what I made but for now here is what my family made for me.

Ethan made me a Bat House with a cool wood burned bat design to hang outside in the spring


Emma made me a walnut Squirrel shaped Oven Rack Puller
(which is currently running across the kitchen chalkboard avoiding the monster! Run Squirrel!)


Mike made me a floor lamp to put next to my favorite chair.

Years ago I bought the cool wood surveyors tripod really cheap. It sat in the basement, waiting to be used. He turned it into an awesome floor lamp! I love all of my gifts!

I Love Pinterest!

Now that is a post title I've seen a ton of. What is the big deal? I didn't get it until I tried it! Pinterest makes it so easy to keep track of any image that strikes my fancy. When used correctly, it will keep the link back to the original website for reference. It is perfect for visual people like me. Next Halloween the kids and I want to host a haunted woods walk. I am using Pinterest and my Firefox bookmarks to keep track of tutorials, DIY projects, and products we are interested in. Easy Peasy!

A few screenshots of my Pinterest boards:

Decorating board
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Garden Board
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Crafts Board
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I just wish you could choose whether your pins were public or not. Do I really want everyone who stumbles by my boards to see what odd stuff I may pin? No, so I am censoring myself because it is the internet and I am not always in a sharing mood. I guess that is what bugs me about social networking and how people are using it. Not everything needs to be shared. I've made missteps and blunders just like anyone else, but whatever you put online is permanent. Gotta keep that in mind folks ;-)