A New Beaded Bracelet for Me

Last night at our monthly Chicagoland Craft Collective Meetup, I made this spectacular memory wire bracelet. Analee was our wonderful teacher of the craft this month. I brought a bunch of beads I picked up on sale at Joann's a long, long time ago that I intended to be a purse handle but now I have this awesome bracelet.

Next month I get to be the teacher. I am going to show everyone how to make these cool wire-edge ribbon flowers. You can view a tutorial for the folded ribbon rose I wrote over at Craft Critique. I am going to teach this rose plus the leaf and then if we have time I will do the rosette and rolled ribbon rose. They are quite easy to do once you get the feel of it and they work up very quickly.

My First Tutorial Completed - Stem Stitch

I completed my very first tutorial demonstrating how to do the stem stitch. It is posted at my quilting blog, Vertical Quilting Curve. I've tried to have close up photos to help you see how I do my stem stitch which I use for my redwork embroidery pieces.

Let me know what you think but be kind since it is my first one. I hope it is useful.

Here is a photo of the completed stitch.

Flea Market Fun

Last month the Chicago Craft Collective went on a little field trip to the Kane County Flea Market and I couldn't go. Luckily, this month I was there. I took along my hubby and my 6 year old. When I almost decided not to go my daughter begged and begged. So, since I didn't really need much encouragement I said "ok". And, although we warned her there would be lots of walking involved she still was excited until we actually got there. Then it was all about the feet hurting after just getting through one booth until we found Barbie dolls, new in the box for only $5. She picked out a cool cheerleader representing Texas. Later she found a used but good condition Cinderella Barbie for another mere $2 then 2 rings for $1. She definitely made out especially when we found swimsuits for $5 and I even got one. They were brand new with tags still on. The vendor says they got them in a lot at an auction from an out of business water park.

Okay, now we had lots of good bargains but not exactly what I intended to be on the lookout for at the flea market. Then I found a pile of old banners of mostly vacation destinations. In the pile I got this Kentucky - Birthplace of Lincoln which is going to go great for a scrapbook section using photos from a trip to the actual birthplace of Lincoln in Hodgenville, KY. I also picked up one for Brown County Indiana which I also have photos from a visit. It is a great place to view fall foliage by the way and not quite as expensive as New England.

Then I found my last purchases of the day. A 2 yard piece of this sweet vintage fabric and a handkerchief in great shape. It was a great day and I could have spent a lot more money without trying too hard.

Get a Hobby

A follow up post to 5 Reasons You Should Learn a Craft.

Over at Whip Up you can check out a book review and interview with the author: Get a Hobby by Tina Barseghian. Looks like a great reference for finding something different to do or a great gift for a retiree.

5 Reasons You Should Learn a Craft

1. Exercise your creative side, especially if you have a regular job that doesn't allow for creativity. If you already have a career that is creative then try something that is different from your daily job. For example, if you're a graphic designer, take a pottery class or learn how to sew.

2. Relaxation. Many knitters, crocheters and other needle artists I know say they do it for de-stressing. In the November 2005 issue of Natural Health they ran an article "Knit one, relax two" where knitting was cited as a meditation method. Click here to read the article.

3. Meet new people. Make new friends. I've moved around a few times and I always make friends by joining the local embroidery or quilt guild. After moving to the Chicago area I used Meetup.com to find the Chicagoland Craft Collective and the Palatine Crochet Group. Most groups don't require you to be experienced in the craft represented just interested and there are always people willing to teach each other.

4. Make gifts for friends and family. Want to give someone a special gift that's not mass produced by someone overseas? Or, maybe you want to give something a little more personalized? Find a book, take a class or enlist a crafty friend to help you learn how to sew, paint or decoupage.

5. Just to have fun! Of course, this is probably included in most if not all the 1st 4 reasons but it is probably the most important. But, if you find you start a craft then decide it's not for you, don't give up on all crafts. Just because you're all thumbs and can't for the life of you cast stitches onto a knitting needle it doesn't mean you can't try to make that mosaic stepping stone for the garden.

I hope you give something new a try. Everyone has the ability to be creative in some way. Whether you scrapbook your favorite photos or quilt a full sized bed cover just remember to enjoy yourself, especially when you first begin. Your skills will improve with each step of the way and you will make new friends and impress old ones.

This post was inspired by Problogger's Group Writing Project. If you have a blog of your own and are looking at ways to grow or are thinking about blogging as a business Problogger is a great place to start.

Happy Scrapbooking Day!

Can you believe it? A day just for scrapbooking. This hobby has come a long way. If you don't believe me you can check out the official website for National Scrapbooking Day created by the National Scrapbooking Association. Scrapbooking has been around a long time but I have only recently been really interested as I play with all the beautiful papers and embellishments.

As my interest in the craft/hobby has grown I have even done a book review, Scrapbook Styles: Fabric and Florals, for Craft Critique that put scrapbooking with some of my favorite things involving fabric. At that time I did my first 12" x 12" page using a cute cat fabric and an assortment of photos of my first cat. Although it turned out nicely, it just wasn't quite finished. Since I had not been doing scrapbooking very long I really didn't have the embellishments to give it the finishing touch. The weeks following my original creation I went on several hunts to find just the right items but it seems like I would find something and then it wouldn't be the right color or size. Eventually I picked up enough things to sit down and embellish the page. As you can see in the photo, I didn't really add too much more but I feel like I accomplished a good page.

Some of the things I used to finish it were some star shaped brads from Spare Parts. These were especially helpful for attaching the matted photos to the page. Since I had used fabric for the background I didn't think glue or regular adhesive would hold up so I attached the photos to the background with the brads. Some other embellishments include Love My Cat stickers from Karen Foster Design, an acrylic heart piece from Spare Parts and fabric letters from Spare Parts.

Craft Critique: Altered Ikea Magazine File

Whew! I've been so busy lately with regular life stuff that the only thing I've done crafty lately is my article for Craft Critique and trying to clean up my craft room so I can have space to do more crafting. It is such a small space and I have soooo much stuff that soon it's hard to tell if there is an actual floor in there.

The magazine file I chose to do really got my creative juices flowing. I was cutting, gluing and even ironing. It turned out super well, too. I have to say I was very happy with myself since I haven't done that much papercrafting. You will have to see for yourself over at Craft Critique. I hope it inspires you. I know I will be making more and may do one for my daughter's teacher for an end of the year gift but probably not quite so involved. To see the details of how I made an altered magazine file and up close pictures just click on over to Craft Critique: Altered Ikea Magazine File.