A Craft-y Sunday II

Random yet orderly - I like it :)

The downside to being an adult is that all your friends lead busy lives and getting together isn't as easy as it used to be. It's been two months since our last get-together but a few of my friends and I finally managed to coordinate a crafting day last weekend. The main theme: felting! Of course, as it usually turns out, we all ended up doing a mish-mash of different projects.

It was Michelle's first time felting and she ambitiously tackled three different projects (unfortunately, I only have pictures of two.) That patchwork of hearts pictured above is her felted laptop case. We had gone on a shopping trip to Wabi-Sabi, a yarn store (not a sushi shop :P ) a few weeks ago and she had been enticed by a bag of pretty coloured roving (ie. unworked wool). The gorgeous raspberry coloured roving was her favorite as well as mine. It's nice that she finally got a chance to use it.

A single heart to contrast the busyness of the other side.

There was a fair bit of debate over the design: a single heart for the clean and simple look or a bunch of hearts for a more fun, chaotic look? In the end, she ended up doing both - there are two sides to a case after all.

She tried her hand at a 3D figurine after that. It's a mustached cat ghost/monster...sort of like a Pokemon but not.

Michelle is so creative :) 

My sister decided to be very ambitious and started work on a Chocobo (from Final Fantasy for you non-gamers out there.)

Sharp needles and small fluff - it's a dangerous past-time :P

I'm sure its going to look amazing when it is done but she still has a way to go. I guess we'll just have to wait for our next crafting day.

My friend, Nina, joined us but did not feel like stabbing herself with a needle that afternoon. Therefore, she chose to work on a less hazardous project - a pearl and amethyst necklace.

One small bead to start. 

She also did not finish her project that afternoon but got a pretty good start on it at least. It's going to look lovely when it's done. It's a shame that I'm not that into wearing jewelry or I would be tempted to take up jewelry making myself. Crafters are such magpies :).

As for me, I was working on this little puff of adorable-ness:

Is it a bunny? Is it a dog? Okay, it's supposed to be a bunny with its ears flopped down but I must admit,she ended up looking rather ambiguous between the two.

She is still very sweet though. It was through her that I have also finally figured out why Philly, my felted seal, looks so odd - he is way too toned :P. I felted him so firmly that he lost the cute, fat look. This little bunny had layers and layers of wool added on to plump her up.

Unfortunately, a lot of the other girls were busy last weekend and so we had only a small group gathered around my dining room table. Oh well, it was still a great afternoon and there is always next time!

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

I wanna be the very best like no one ever was. 

To catch them is my real test,

To train them is my cause.

I will travel across the land, 

Searching far and wide.

Each Pokemon to understand

The power that's inside!

There is just something about this song that always makes me smile and want to sing along (and if I'm at home, I do :P ) The Pokemon TV show was part of my childhood and at one time, I knew all 150 pokemon. Of course now, there are a lot more than that and I have stopped following this series but it continues to be a part of all my younger cousins' childhoods. 

While surfing the internet looking for interesting patterned origami star paper, I came across these two designs: one from RosyAutumn on Deviantart, and the other I found through Google Images. 

Gotta Catch 'Em All! Pokemon! 

Schroeder and Beethoven Live On...

My formerly 16-year-old cousin (the previous recipient of my Mario birthday card) has now turned 17 (whoa - I can barely believe it!) and so, of course, I made him yet another card. Aside from video and computer games, I know that this cousin really enjoys playing the piano. He does an amazing job playing theme songs by memory and it's always wonderful listening to him.

Ever since I came across some shaker cards while blog-surfing, I have been meaning to put my collection of random confetti to good use. I have a variety of confetti accumulated from graduations, birthday parties and dollar store visits. The shiny shapes have always screamed 'craft material' but honestly, I had yet to come up with a good way to incorporate them into any projects. This was perfect and I had a cute little box of music notes that I wanted to use first. 

Of all the Peanut characters, Schroeder is my favorite (well...him and Linus). I really wanted to use him but first, I had to make sure that my cousin even knew who he was (it is an OLD comic after all) - luckily, he did.  Therefore, Schroeder and his iconic piano made it front and centre. 

By the way, this is how a shaker card works:

This is how it looks at first. Give it a little shake and...

...a symphony appears!

A window is cut into the front of the card. A clear pocket is made of a piece of folded acetate which contains confetti and the sides are sealed off. A second piece of card cut to size is glued onto the inside of the card to hide all the tape which attaches the clear pocket behind the window. 

See? All neat and tidy. 

I have a music note punch as part of my set of 40 punches and so I sprinkled a few of the punched shapes on the inside to break up the expanse of white. 

I am really happy with how this card turned out :). Now I just need to figure out what to do with my dinosaur confetti...

It's a Girl!

Having already made an It's a Boy! card, naturally, I needed to make an It's a Girl! version. This one is for some friends whose daughter was just born two weeks ago. I got the chance to play with my Sizzix for the first time and I love it! I'm already making a list of all the new dies and folders that I want to get for it. (Yes, cardmaking is an expensive hobby if you really get into it...which I have.)

I decided to take some in-progress shots while making this card so you can follow along. The design is pretty simple so it only took me an hour to complete.

I started with an envelope. I have a whole shoebox of random envelopes which my mother has amassed over the years. Pack-rat tendencies are inherited :)

I then measure out a piece of cardstock to fit the envelope.

I try to maximize any piece of cardstock I use to reduce waste. (I also want to have as much space to work with as possible.)

I scored along the centre fold with the tip of an empty mechanical pencil. When you are using cardstock, scoring is an important technique to make sure that your fold is as accurate as possible. 

The sheet was then cut down to size. 

I folded along the scored centre line. For thick card, I recommend wetting the score line slightly so that the paper does not fray or crack when folded. Use only the tiniest bit of water though - you don't want your paper to warp.

I used a Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly punch to create ombre pink butterflies from paint chips.

1 paint chip = 17 butterflies :)

Out came the Sizzix! I punched out some trendy letters with one of my many letter dies set. This machine was such a bargain! 

I positioned all of the elements onto the cardstock and then sketched in the rest of my design. I borrowed the image from one of the sticker packs I bought from Dollarama.

With everything glued down and my doodle drawn in black fine liner, here is the final result!

I actually made this card a few weeks ago and it has been proudly sitting in my display case for the last little while. The choice of pink was deliberate since my sister has already purchased a cute pink jacket for the baby. So far, all our baby shower gifts have been accompanied by a coordinating card and I really didn't want to break that trend.

Of course, I need to add my signature.

I liked the design so much and it was so quick and easy to make that I threw together a purple version as well.

I used a smaller paintchip which is why there aren't as many butterflies. 

I have another friend who is now pregnant (it's like an epidemic :P) but she wants the sex of the baby to be a surprise. I guess my next card is just going to have to say "It's a Baby!" :)