After posting about the perler bead earrings several days ago, I immediately made a pair :D They look so sweet! And so quick to make. Kind of have a lacy look to them.
It was a very small craft project but it made me really happy. There are so many things that I want to make and I post them on this blog, but I rarely make any of them.
The next day Mike and I went to Greg’s Ice Cream :D mmm crunchy malt.
Wishing everyone an awesome start to the week!
I was curious about making sun catchers with white glue and beads, something I saw in one of the blogs I follow. So I thought I’d give it a try.
Here the glue is setting. It took a long time…
I was worried that it was going to stick to the mold, but it came out very easily :D
It’s now perching on a small stone vase, it was a birthday gift I received last year. It’s made from a glazier stone from Nova Scotia, one of my favourite places on earth!
Watching it sitting on the vase reminds me of a story that a very wise woman shared with me this week, The Mountain that Loved a Bird by Alice McLerran (and so wonderfully illustrated by Eric Carle!).
In the story are a barren mountain and a bird named Joy. It’s a beautiful story about sorrow, and how courage, love and hope can emerge from it. A synopsis of the book can be read here. But the book is written in such a profoundly moving way, if you can get a hold of a copy I really wish you can read it (if you haven’t read it already).
Take care, everybody!
p.s. the letting go series is proving to be a bit difficult to keep up because of an extremely busy couple of weeks, and because it’s getting harder to find things to recycle or throw out when Mike is doing the same… so I’ve decided to give it a rest for a while, maybe I’ll come back to it in a bit, but I will certainly make time to create when I can, and I will most certainly keep you posted when I do :D
Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and support for the craft-along party! I’m so excited :D Will post more details in the first week of November – stay tuned! :D
Had an idea for making button earrings. I have a mixed bag of vintage buttons, many of them make interesting earrings (I think) but there was only one of each. So I made a pile of single studs for the shop. I often wear different earrings on each ear, so I hope there will be people who like them as much as I do. But I also wouldn’t be too upset if I get to keep all of them. Especially the sweet orange rose. I was so tempted to keep it for myself.
And I made pairs of button earrings. Very simple.
Have a great start to the week, everyone! :D
It would be so much fun to organize a weaving party! :D
A comment from a blog visitor, Kate, has motivated me to just pick up some yarn and start weaving. Thanks, Kate! :D
I found a paper plate and cut notches all around it, about 1″ apart, and then taped lengths of cotton string across, like so…
Here’s the back of this make-shift loom…
Then I just tied a length of yarn to one of the strings in the middle and started weaving between the strings, over and under, over and under, over and under… Until I ran out of the colour of yarn I was using, then I tied a different colour of yarn to the yarn tail, and continued weaving…
When I’ve gotten a big enough circle (I decided that I wanted to make a coaster half way through), I cut the strings near where they’re taped to the plate, one at a time, and tied each loose end to the last round of weaved yarn.
I hid all the loose ends and yarn tails under a piece of felt, which I cut to the size of the finished weaving and sewed onto the weaving around the edge.
And this is the front!
A fun party coaster :D
Did it all while watching TV. Very relaxing. I think it would so much fun to organize a weaving party, where everyone can weave and chat.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Shrink plastic is so much fun. I had long been thinking about making some stuff with it for my shop. Finally got around to it :D
I like drawing circles connected to one another. This particular shape reminds me of the abalone shells my grandparents gave me when I visited them in Hong Kong.
More necklaces. The one on the far left was a bit of an experiment of plastic fusing. According to the list of “Mind-shrinking Ideas” (that’s what it says on the package of shrink plastic I have), I can fuse layers of shrunk plastic together under higher temperature in the oven. The round shapes are actually circles from the hole punch.
The middle one is a firefly that glows in the dark! :D And I’ve always been fascinated by seahorses.
More glow in the dark fireflies, asterisks, and abalones.
Had fun coming up with things to draw for the stud earrings :D Actually, as I’m looking at this picture I realize that all of these are my favourite things… let’s hope the shop visitors like them as much as I do. And the starfish glows in the dark too!
Alright, enough of this talk about glowing in the dark – wanna see them in action? :D
That’s the best my point-and-shoot camera can do for capturing images in the dark, but they really do glow! I was quite impressed.
(I found out that the emission of light by a living organism is called bioluminescence – isn’t that such a cool word?)
Anyway. And then I thought it would be cool to make a plastic feather. Kind of like those leather feather earrings that I’ve seen a lot on craft blogs. But they turned out so much more beautiful than I thought because of the way the plastic twists and turns as it shrinks in the oven…
So I did what most craft sellers often do.
I kept it. For myself.
Ha!
The single earring goes with my haircut :D
But of course I made another set for the shop. Even added a glittery button stud earring to make a funky asymmetrical set! :D
I’m hoping that this will keep the shop full for a month or two before another school break. But I’ve got to say that I really, really, really enjoy the opportunity to make my favourite things without having to keep (and find place in the apartment for) all of it. And making a bit of money is always a bonus.
Have an awesome evening! :D
Was investigating the idea of wet felting as a possible group activity last night. The tutorials I read said that a felted bead takes about 30 seconds to a minute to make, so I thought, I’ll just give it a try now! I have a bunch of roving and there’s plenty of dish soap.
But after an hour of rolling felt between my palms nothing really came together. Just clumps of shapeless fuzz that aren’t sticking together (they will be put into good use as stuffing for plushes). Possibly because I was trying to see if it would work with lukewarm water, because it won’t be possible to use boiling hot water in group.
Then I read a couple of tutorials of making felt bracelet with kids, and it involves warm water, so I thought I’d give it a try.
It was indeed a lot easier. Here I am rolling the ends together on my own wrist. It was quite fun.
It turned out a bit big so I thread (or more like force, with the aid of a piece of wire) a red wooden bead onto it.
It feels very soft.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
And goodbye summer.
Strange. Looking at this photo (from Mike’s camera on our recent trip) I have this feeling that my old self is carrying all the lazy, fun days of summer and running away from me :S
Can’t help but feel a bit sad about the later sunrise and earlier sunset and decreasing daylight. And everybody’s in a rush again. Schedules get filled up. Less time to craft.
But hey, whatever I can squeeze in, every small project counts!
Ta-da! :D
Found out (by accident) that the local dollar store sells glitter in tiny glass bottles!! Comes in a pack of 6. I used the one with white glitter in it. Emptied the bottle but a few glitters still stuck to the glass (you can kind of see it in the photo), which I think looks rather sweet. Followed this tutorial to make a pendant. Tried a variety of beads and feathers to hang inside the bottle but didn’t end up with anything I liked, until I remembered that I have a collection of tiny maple keys in the phone book! I knew when I picked them up from the pavement that they will be perfect for a project one day! :D
I applied a thin layer of PVA glue to both sides of the maple key. Probably better to use acrylic medium for that, but I don’t have any at the moment.
It’s hung onto the wire loop with sewing thread. I love the slight pink edge on it.
Made my day :D
I have five other bottles to play with. Still thinking about making the tiny terrarium with moss. Mike reminded me that the art supplies store by the art college probably sells them for students who make architectural models. Will have to check that out.
And look! My book order just arrived! :D
Bought it with the last of the Christmas gift card money :D I’m a huge fan of Jessica Polka‘s fascinating crochet sculptures. I don’t buy crochet patterns very often, but I did buy her mustache pattern to make a Christmas present one year – they were so much fun to make and well received :D
Many projects in this book are knitted, so I’m going to have to figure them out somehow (I have very limited skills in knitting). But the crochet angler fish is beyond awesome! (The pattern is actually free on Lion Brand Yarn, if you register on the site)
Maybe I’ll start with the barnacles…
Have a wonderful start to the week, everyone!
Visited a yardage sale at the Textile Museum this week!
I didn’t take this picture, was too busy digging into the piles of fabric. I found the picture from Strand News, probably from last year’s yardage sale? It’s just as crowded, if not more crowded, this year! There were lineups going into the multiple tents and once inside it was shoulder-to-shoulder from one end of the tent to the other.
At the end I brought home these small pieces. I thought they’d make good fabric-covered buttons (note the chicken in a pot piece! Not sure what to do with it yet but it’s so awesome-looking I had to bring it home).
Tiny strawberries, isn’t it so sweet?
This is a larger piece, enough to make a dress. I like the tiny splashes of bright colours in it.
Thinking about using it to make this dress in particular…
From the book I Am Cute Dress (got the picture from the Craftypod review). Not sure if you can see it in the picture but the front button panel shifts downward, creating some interesting-looking folds.
It requires drawing a pattern, so I’ll have to wait until summer school is over…
But a necklace! A necklace I can make in half an hour or so! :D
From the yardage sale I bought these bright red glass beads (about 10 mm in diameter). I strung them together on a teal piece of yarn with double knots in between :D
I didn’t have clasps. So I made my own with some wire.
I made the top a couple of weeks ago. Bought the fabric when I was in high school and made a peasant shirt with it. I wore that shirt a lot, I liked how soft the fabric was. It got paint on it and the elastics were all loose, so I had to retire it. But I recently found the leftover fabric at my parents’, just enough to make a square top :D
Have a great week everyone!
My friend Nancy sent me a package in the mail, full of treasures! :D
There were lots of craft supplies, each thing related to a blog post I wrote! I was so moved by the thoughts and kindness behind this gift. It meant so much to me. Opening all the tissue paper-wrapped and ribbon tied parcels felt like Christmas!
Amongst the many things in the package, there were beads! I love beads! I poured them out into a paint palette and marveled at each one. There were a lot of stone chip beads and each is different. It was fascinating. I particularly love stones that are transparent with streaks of colours in them. Reminded me of the tiny bottle of tumbled stone chips I got at the Big Nickel when I was a kid.
It was a such special gift and I wanted to make something really special with them. Something that I can carry around with me.
And so the earth owl came into being! :D
I haven’t done a lot of wire work so this turned out better than I thought. I kind of just bent the wire into an owl shape in a free-formed manner. For the body and the wings I attached/strung the beads on by crocheting with a 2mm hook and thin wire. The eyes are also crocheted.
I found these gorgeous, sparkling glass beads from the package for the eyes.
And the best thing about the owl is that I had a super fun time making it. The beads inspired many hours of creativity and pure joy.
Feeling so very thankful and blessed.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
This was inspired by a necklace tutorial I mentioned in an awesome-finds post. I decided to make it one afternoon when I was feeling nervous for no particular reasons.
I do wish I have different colour glass beads but green plastic ones were all I had. And I used two different shades of silver wire because the one spool I was using ran out in the middle of it. But I think it still looks pretty good with the wooden bead added to it. Though I’ll likely swap out a green bead for an white pearl or iridescent one when I can find it.
I was also thinking this would be a lovely reflecting on support/blessings kind of project, where each bead could represent an important person in one’s life, or a milestone, or a blessing. The green beads I use don’t really represent anything or anyone (though I do like the colour green), but I think I might make this again with more thoughts put into it.
Wishing you a day full of joy and wonders.
