Diary of a Crafty Girl

I watched my niece/goddaughter this weekend while her parents had a much needed weekend away for their anniversary.  She is a riot and kept me on my toes the whole time. One thing she loves is to paint. So on Sunday, we got out the paint and some canvas and went to town. There was a point where I felt like I lost control of the situation but it was fun nonetheless. I need to figure out how to finish my piece with the dots… I may add a quote over them or in between…

 For March I had a plan and I am happy to report that I executed it perfectly the first attempt!  I took a card layout and combined it with a color combination I liked to create what I think is the perfect card to send to your friends.  Layout and color combination are not my images, but the final product is my doing.  Let me know what you think!

 I always forget to come back and show you the cards I finished when I can't post them right away so here are my November and January cards.  November we were tasked with one design, but two different versions in case people didn't want to do a holiday card.  I made a card using our adorable hedgehog stamps along with the calendar stamps to show their versatility.  I made one a birthday card and one holiday themed. January we needed to use items from the mini catalog and/or Sale-a-Bration. I chose to use the new gnomes along with a background stamp from the mini catalog.  On Sundays, my friend and I have been trying to FaceTime to craft/journal together since she lives in Colorado and we can't do it in person.  Here is a creation from a snowy day in January.  My nieces both LOVE when it snows and it brought me such joy to see their joy so I decided to make a junk journal page dedicated to that happiness. 

 Sometimes I think I have a great card layout but it just doesn't come to fruition. I want to touch on my design process and how I get from the first rendition to the last when I am struggling with how it looks.  I started with a card based on my original layout. I planned to use a stamp set (Amazing Year) that was in the annual catalog, but didn't seem to be used too much (that I had seen). It did not turn out good at all, in my opinion.  So I sent it to my fellow demonstrators and got a few suggestions. I updated the design, but something was still off.  I asked my upline for some advice and then came up with the final design. While I did ask for opinions and suggestions, I didn't always use the advice given. The process took several days because I like to step away from a project when it's not going quite as planned.  The first one may have had potential, but I think I was limiting myself with a color palette since I was set on trying to use a specific DSP (d...

 This holiday season, I took some time off work to be able to spend time with my family and just relax. not having  to worry about work during an already busy time.  I spent a little bit of time crafting so I thought I would share my creations. One of the days I worked on a junk journal page.  I went a little overboard with the doodles at the end, but I like how it turned out overall I also made these Christmas postcards to send to my nieces.  Recently I have been leaving the images uncolored so that they can color them in themselves.  They are both very into coloring and I hope they never lose that sense of creativity. My friend's mom and brother joined us for a few days.  It was just as a snow storm was coming so we couldn't go out and do much.  We did watch a few shows and movies so I used that time to doodle and color This is a coloring book I snagged from Dollar General a while back.  I used markers to color these cats These two were don...

 The holidays are upon us so making time for things like self-care are harder than ever.  However, last week I made time to sit and try some water coloring and started sketching and doodling again.  My dad was interested in watercolor as well, but didn't like that I had liquid paint.  He wanted to try the kind from the tubes so I bought him a set along with some brushes so we could paint together.  For those that don't know, my dad was diagnosed with cancer last year.  He has lost a lot of drive to do creative things because his hobbies included leatherworking and woodworking - both of which he doesn't have the strength or stamina to do anymore.  The littlest things take a lot of effort for him nowadays, so I thought painting would be a good creative outlet for him.  I wanted to practice for the postcards I am going to make for my nieces and thought that would be a good time to do so.  Mine did NOT turn out like the TikTok I watched, but they...

 Life has been pretty hectic lately.  I had my birthday month, I started a new job, the holidays snuck up on me.... I feel like I haven't had time to do much posting so I am combining a few projects in this post. One of the Sundays we didn't have family dinner so my dad and I sat down to play in watercolors.  I didn't really know what I wanted to do with them, but I had fun getting some swatches made.  Now when I am ready to start a project, I have the swatches to help me choose my colors! I worked on my card project for December. Card reveal later since I can't share yet, but below is the craftermath.  I hate when I have what I think is a fantastic idea in my head but I can't seem to get it to work out on paper.  Finally got it to a good enough spot before turning it in, but it still wasn't what I had envisioned.  I haven't sent my nieces a postcard in a while, so I thought I would do one for Halloween and one for Thanksgiving.  The Halloween one...

I consider myself to be a well-rounded crafter. From painting and card making to sewing and embroidery, I pretty much do it all.  I have been creating things for as long as I can remember. As I have grown older, I am trying to perfect a few skills and sewing is one of them.  I feel like it is a very handy skill to have.  You can repair items you already have or create something new.  This past weekend, I took time and some fabric scraps to make dog beds for two of my dogs.  They have been without them for a few months because they always get the store bought ones dirty and then you can't really wash them so we throw them away.  It's annoying spending so much on something that doesn't last long, so I decided to make ones that are easily washable.  Parker is getting up there in age (he is around 10) so I wanted his to be super comfy.  I had an old memory foam pillow I wasn't using so I decided to use that as my base and just made a cover for it....

 A while ago I posted a sneaky peeky of my July card design for stamp class.  I wasn't allowed to share the whole thing until after class and then I got busy and just now remembered to share. Cue *face palm* Please bask in the cuteness of my simple, plain-ish design showing off the new In Colors. 

My friend asked me a few months ago if I could make him some real life Purity Seals from Warhammer 40k, a game he plays. From the Warhammer Wiki regarding Purity Seals "For the religious or fearful, the Gods offer some consolation in the face of death. Some paint religious phrases on armour or shields, while many others pour sealing wax onto their armour and stamp it with a holy symbol to show their faith. For warriors without plate components, they incorporate such Purity Seals into the rune-inscribed plates they wear around their necks. He wanted the wax seal version since it was something he wanted to use as prizes for an event he was hosting.  I gave it a whirl and they ended up pretty cool. Fast forward to last month, he commissioned  13 more for another event he is running.  Below are pictures of the process. I still had all the materials from the last time - cotton handmade paper that looked like parchment; wax and wax seal supplies; markers and torch. He asked for...

 Not sure what was going on, but yesterday was NOT a good day.  I was emotional, cranky, tired, and just blah.  I had to do laundry and basically just sat around most of the day while I waited for loads to need switching.  In the afternoon, I finally decided I needed to do something constructive so I picked crafting.  I started by picking a new journal out of my pile of empty journals and grabbing some collage items - paper, stickers, washi.  I went to work creating a collage journal page that was space themed.  It turned out pretty good for my first attempt.  Feeling pretty good, I kept up the crafting momentum and tried a new stamping technique.  Not sure what it is called, but I learned about it from another Stampin' Up! demo during a watercolor webinar.  You use your ink pads and blending brushes to create a background piece on Fluid 100 watercolor paper.  You then take a stamp, lightly mist it with water and press it onto the i...

 I've been quite busy this summer since my friend's daughter was here for 6 weeks.  I have tried to take time for myself though.  I have Wednesdays off and I have tried to reserve those for "me time".  On one Wednesday, I went to my grandma's house and she helped me to assemble some curtains that I need for my room.  I bought the fabric months ago.  I wanted a blackout lining and I wasn't sure how to go about that.  She used to work with her brother at a shop that specialized in custom window treatments so I thought having her help would be best.  We got them all laid out and pinned, I just need to dig out my machine to sew them together.  On another Wednesday, I went to my friend Sheila's house.  I took Em with me just to get her out of the house and off her Switch and phone.  She assembled some Paper Pumpkin kits while I worked on a card design for stamp class (see image below). We were there for 4 hours and I finished one card lo...

This past weekend I had a sleepover with my nieces and my friend's daughter.  We wanted to get them matching pajamas but it was hard to find something matching when the kids are 2, 3 and 14 years old.  So we improvised and made matching tshirts for all of us.  We started with tie dying them.  I had never done that before but Em had so she showed me the ropes. After doing a little research, I washed them in soda ash (supposed to help with color retention) and then we got to dying while they were still damp.  We put them in a ziploc plastic bag and let them sit for over 24 hours to soak in the dye.  We rinsed them out the following afternoon and then I washed them without soap in the washer. I put them through two cycles of just water to make sure there was no more dye and then dried them on high heat to help set it.  I wanted to put their names on them and a fun saying on the front.  A quick Pinterest search later and I found one that I liked - Sle...