Diary of a Crafty Girl

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...

 So my friend's daughter is in town for the summer.  She loves tie dye and I was looking for something to do with her.  I saw a few things on Pinterest where they used Sharpies to tie dye shoes.  I showed her, asked if she wanted to do it, she said yes so I ordered the supplies (thanks Amazon Prime Day!).  I researched a few different designs we could try.  She wanted to do all rainbow, normal tie dye looking with doodles on top when finished.  I wanted to do a galaxy-ish motif.  To say things didn't go as planned is an understatement.  Certain colors worked better than others, we got high on alcohol fumes, it was a mess.  We did have fun though, and that's all that matters.  I think her shoes turned out way better than mine and she is proud of her work. I was sad mine didn't turn out well, but tried to save it by adding color to the seams and adding affirmations to each one. Check out our work below and let me know if you've ever t...