Book wreath

I found this beautiful wreath online and thought it looked pretty cool.  I found some tutorials and off I went creating one of my own.

I took a used copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  The entire book.  It always hurts me to defile a book but it was worth it for the end result.  Plus it was a homeless book at a library book sale.  It will just be enjoyed in a different way.

I bought a medium sized Styrofoam wreath and went to work with paper, hot glue and staples.

I started in the middle of wreath.  On all layers but the first I only used hot glue.  Once I got to the layer that would sit on the wall I added a staple for some extra substance.

Once I made it to a flat back I flipped it over and started working again.  As I went along I used different folding patterns for various pages.  Some in cones, S shapes, and hearts.

Once I got to the inside on of the wreath I again secured the inside most layer with staples.  I had a couple extra sheets of paper in the end which I placed in any place where ever I could see the white from the foam wreath.  

 And it's complete!  Not to shabby for about a $5 project.

Another project complete.  I just need to make a second one for my mom.  Another day and another craft project to add to my list.

Disneyland Paris Flowers

I've made flowers from books and Disneyland maps.  Since I started crafting more frequently with paper I've been collecting it from every place I go.  Now to put some of them to use.

I guess one of my biggest souvenirs I acquired along my European trip were Disneyland Paris maps.  I grabbed about 20 of them while I was in the park to bring home.  Let me tell you that all that all those paper maps ended up pretty heavy coming back home.

The map itself it really quite colorful.  Compared to the US parks maps it has a lot more color.  And it's a two in one map, both parks are on one sheet.

And now for the finished product.  These are my favorite flowers that I've made so far.  The colors are fantastic and vary so much on each flower.

I wrapped the stems first with floral tape.  It give them a much more substantial look and feel.  Then I gathered all the stems together and wrapped them with ribbon.  To secure the ribbon I used fabric straight pins.

 What's not to like on how they came out.  

One map created this entire bouquet of 12 flowers.

Now to find them a proper place in the house.  

And to figure out what to do with the 19 other maps I acquired.

Baby Boy Teal Chevron Quilt

I started and finished a project, a quilt, in less than a week!  Who knew I could do it!  I would even doubt myself if I didn't know that I myself had made it.

There were scraps from my dad's quilt that were underutilized.  After finishing his quilt I found out that I could have used them but his was already done so they were moved onto another project.  I hate having extra strips of fabric from a big quilting project.  This was the perfect solution to not have to add them to my overflowing scrap box!

 I couldn't well move the cat off of one project let alone two!  I hand quilted every other chevron stripe in the ditch.  For those readers who are not quilters, in the ditch means quilting right next to the pattern seem.  About 1/4 of an inch in my case.  Keeps the front, batting and back all together.

 Obviously it looks a lot like my dad's quilt.  It was made from the same fabric so it should.  Unless I made a huge mistake, which sometimes I do!

I love it in the big version and the little.  Some little boy will love playing/sleeping/making a mess on it as any youngin' would do.

Girl Ombre Chevron Zig Zag Baby Quilt

Another day another baby girl quilt.  This one is the first of three quilts that I'm making for twins.  Why three you ask?  Well my aunt and uncle are gifting them to another family member, who I'm not related to, and they don't know the sex of the babies.  As I was already in a quilting mood all three came along very quickly.  And they came out beautifully.

As I was quilting it the cat decided to help.  And by help I mean sleep on it all day.

Plus they are absolutely on trend to!  I loved ombre, or color progression, before it was cool and I jumped on the chevron wagon when looking at other craft sites.

I had to make up for being a bit short on one fabric.  To make up for being short on the width I made a border all around.  I made sure to connect the light pink on both sides of the chevron pattern.

Obviously this quilt is for a girl.  It doesn't get more girly than pink and purple.  I'll admit that I have never been much of a fan of pink over the years but I find as I grow older it is growing on me.  But I've always liked purple.

Teal chevron quilt

This quilt has been in the works for a long time.  It was originally going to be a throw quilt for me.  I had tons of blue/green/teal fabric that was going to be used for something else.  About four yards of each color.  

As I started constructing the throw quilt my mom asked if she could have it for the quilt for the master bedroom quilt.  She had made the one on the bed over 20 years ago and it had seen better days.

I started it in May or so, got distracted by other projects and it sat.  

I picked it back up for to construct most of the top, and it sat again for me to finish another quilt. 

 At least I got another one finished.  Then came Christmas, it came and went and I finally finished the chevron quilt at the start of a new year.  That's always a good feeling, starting something new and starting a new year at the same time!

 I hand sewed and turned the quilt.  I quilted along every other color.

The back I tried to make it fancy.  I had an extra row that I used to divide the back into three different section.  

 One side is solid and the other side is divided with another row of chevrons.  It's a bit hard to see in these photos since the colors were so similar.

I like and my parents like it too.

It's so teal, so Bryn.

February Cross Stitch

Here we are at the start of another month.  And here is another finished cross stitch project.  

Hooray!

To everyone an early Happy Valentine's Day.  

2/12

January Cross Stitch

Just a little cross stitch for each month.  Some I finished a very long time ago, some are still in progress.  It's my style.  2013 is the year to clear my plate of unfinished projects.  

I love these little cross stitches.   So cute, simple and fast.  Well, fast if I actually finished them in a timely manner.

So here is the start of finishing a 12 part project.

1/12

Jayhawk revisited

I made an embroidery of a Jayhawk a couple monts back.  I decided after a while that I did want to paint it to add some extra interest.

I started with some scrap fabric in another embroidery hoop.  I made a little sample and decided that I liked it watered it better.  Just a little water with acrylic paint is all it took.

 The finished project.  I like it much better with the color.  It's always fascinating to me that color bleeds even across mediums.  The top of the Jayhawk's legs are now a little green.  Adds character!

After using the acrylic paint I went off to the craft store to buy some watercolors for future projects.  Hopefully I will be able control the saturation of the color better in the future, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Baby quilt déjà vu

It seems a bit a déjà vu.  This quilt looks offley similar to another one I made.  And for good reason.  It's version 2.0 of the baby girl lattice quilt.  I finished the top a year or more ago.  Now it is finally complete and off my to do list!

Some baby girl will love this quilt.  The pink back makes a great frame for a girly quilt.  But as I am not one myself, it doesn't make it too girly, but enough.

 This quilt features the warm colors from the color wheel and green.  Green seems bend either way for baby quilts, clothes, decor, etc...  I love green, especially when it leans towards teal, and it completes the rainbow pattern within the size of the baby quilt.

It feels so good to mark a project off my list, even if it wasn't written, it's a weight off my mind!  

100th Post! Christmas Ornaments with Wedding Flowers

Hooray, it's taken me about 18 months or so but I've made it to 100 posts!  100 projects, probably not but for sure 100 posts!  That's kinda cool.

Well anyways onto today's craft.  I've been in two weddings over the last year and a half and I dried the flower bouquets.  Since I was already in the mood to make ornaments it fit for my next project.

One of the bouquets had tons of different flowers so I wanted to make sure to get all the color and texture.  I slowly took the ribbon off, found out a lot on how professional bouquets are made, and cut it apart.  I discovered quickly that I would not be able to get the leaves in without breaking them.  I suppose if I did it with fresh flowers they would go in whole.

 Once all the pieces were inside I took the ribbon from the stem and made a bow on the top.

 I did the same with the baby's breath bouquet.  These went in a bit easier.  I kept the baby's breath on their stems as well as I could.  I cut off stems that had many blooms still on them.  They seemed to float inside the blub.

Both brides really loved them.  

And I made some for me too.  They are a part of my life too and a nice reminder every holiday season.  Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.  And Festivus for the rest of us.

Origami Cranes ornament

Continuing with the Christmas cranes projects.  Last year I made glass bulb ornaments with Disneyland Maps curled inside.

This year my ornaments have origami cranes inside.  I made all the cranes in high school and they have been sitting in a Lord of the Rings tin for many years.  Now that The Hobbit is out in theaters it was time to open my Two Towers tin.  I made tons of them over the years.  There were about 10,000 inside so I had plenty of cranes to choose from.  

I picked out many different papers and put them inside the ornaments.  I decided to put cranes in the ornament from the same paper inside.  Some were green, some were pink, some white, some were made from wrapping paper, some from Andies mint wrappers.  I kept one with a music score.

I'm glad I kept all those cranes over they years.  Now to figure out what to do with the 9,000 cranes left.  

Make 9 wishes?