Christmas crafting

The 30 hats in 30 days craze was a sudden urge of a project that ended up in failure (which is okay!); Christmas crafting is usually on the chill side in these parts --  intentionally so, so as to enjoy and concentrate/contemplate the Reason for the season.

I try to write Christmas cards each year, but don't stress out too much over them.  I still had a few purchased cards to use, a hodgepodge mix of designs bought on sale here and there over the years.  I supplemented those with some simple handmade ones, using a single stamp (picked up on a whim), my usual cardstock, and a shimmery ink I'd received years ago as a gift.  I was quite pleased with the results:

[xmas postcards]

When I ran out of those, I dove into my stationery stash and found some Crane's letter paper with a blue border.  I folded the sheets in half and stamped them with blue ink.  DC helped me out a bit and I realized that I should have enlisted him much sooner, because he did a great job!  It was a nice treat to take my time to write the cards --  60- or 70-something all told -- until Tuesday of Christmas week, under twinkle lights and with glasses of tea or wine.

[cardmaking station]

I also took down the leaves and, with DC's assistance, put up the crocheted snowflakes that I'd made a couple years ago

[snowflakes]

The only other truly crafty thing I finished was a crochet project that actually got done in time to gift to our friend in Phoenix (so it doesn't really count for Christmas).  The pattern is Drops' crochet collar with bobbles, which I worked up in doubled Malabrigo and my largest (size P?) crochet hook;  I omitted the crocheted edge (which I didn't know was there at all from the picture, because it's the same color as the model's shirt!). The inflections in this Cinnabar colorway gave the collar a lot of depth and texture, and it looks lovely on our friend, who has a snow-white complexion.  Sadly, this is the only photo I have of it:

[bobbles]

Thanks to limited Christmas crafting, the holidays remain devoted to faith, family, and friends -- the way I hope to always make it!  Hope you had a great Christmas!

Happy heart days

The other day I was surfin' the 'nets and stumbled across this how-to on The Purl Bee; soon thereafter I realized that I have some fabric scraps and some blank cardstock:  I can do this!  And, in time!  Woot!

I dove into my stashes.  Fabric: small, odd-sized pieces, a few inches by a few inches, that I'd been saving for some kind of use one of these days... I'm especially pleased about being able to use the hot pink with multicolored cherry blossoms--something I brought home from Japan an embarrassing number of years ago.  Stationery: I cut some letter-writing paper in half to add more color.  I had some gold- and silver-splashed paper that worked wonderfully.

After just a bit of fudging with tension and stitch length I was off and running.   In a couple hours (measured by the passage of a couple of tween dramas), I had a dozen cards.



Here's a few things I did differently:

Because my fabric scraps were all different sizes,  I simply folded each piece in half and eyeballed a heart-shaped cut.  Then gave them all a quick press under the iron.

I put each fabric heart in place with a little bit of glue to avoid bunching or slipping off position.  This was helpful because there was a lot of turning involved to follow the curves and points of the shape.

I also played around with sewing the "fold" border onto the background cardstock at different edges, just to mix it up a bit.

This spool of thread in variegated reds added a fun, whimsical look, but also saved me both time and money in terms of not having to buy more than one spool, and not having to re-thread the sewing machine multiple times.  I chose to do zig-zag stitch for the cards' borders to show off the color changes.

The thread was the only item I purchased (with a 40% off coupon to boot), making the grand total for this project was something like eighty-four cents.  That's a whole lotta bang for under a buck!

I'm putting the last few in today's mail, and since they're all going domestic, my friends should receive them just in time.  (DC's was the prototype, which I managed to finish early and slip in his bag before he left for a conference on Wednesday.)  If you've got time today--or even tomorrow if you're going to hand-deliver--I highly recommend this quick and fun project!  Hearts will be glad!

Happy "moo" year!

It's the Year of the Ox (or Cow), and (one of) the cultural tradition(s) to which I adhere allows me until the end of this month to send New Year's cards. *sigh of relief* Finding New Year's cards is not so easy, especially those with the zodiac, so I kinda end up making my own.

[year of the rat cards]

Last year's cards were cutouts on origami paper.  I enjoyed the entire process, from conceptualizing to making a prototype to refining to executing.  However, they involved a lot of time with x-acto knife and glue.  A fun project, but intensely specific, insanely messy.

This year I wanted a project that was less time-consuming in the making.  I envisioned a cool, mod-looking, retro-ish design, paired with a clever saying...But do you ever have projects that look so good in your mind, but turn out horribly when you actually do it?  That's what happened to me on this year's cards. Check it out:

 

  

 

There go any dreams I ever entertained about being a greeting card designer.  And ohmygosh it took so long to draw that cut out that heifer stencil!  I am especially disappointed at how simply unpolished my end product looks.  There is absolutely no way I can send something like this out.

I am learning, though.  Whereas in years past I would have consoled myself by saying, "I'm sure it'll look better if there are more of them," and willed myself to keep going, I nipped the project in the bud this year and acknowledged my failure.  Then I hopped over to my local Michael's and, with the week's 40% off coupon, acquired a remedy.  At home tonight I pulled out some scrapbooking paper, ran it through the typewriter, inked up my stamp, snipped a bit with jagged-edge scissors, and ended up with these:

And I still have about two weeks to get these sent out--boo yah!  Or, rather, MOO yah!