A little J scrabble charm I made for my best friend. Very difficult to solder, burned myself a few times, but happy with it. I'll probably go about making more once my craft room cools down!
Page #8: "Listen to Your Inner Child"
Yet another page inspired by childhood. Often my favorite inspirations come from memories of childhood.
Page #9: "Let Your Soul Shine"
Chaos is a friend of mine. This page comes with a removable charm with the initial of my swap partner.
This was probably the most difficult and time consuming hand sew I've ever done. It was very tedious, but I really like the results. I'm in the market for some monopoly pieces I can pick up with it.
I'd love to claim this was my own personal idea - but it was created from this tutorial on Craftster: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=103162.0
I've decided to post my back log of pages that I have completed for the Chunky Page Swap on Craftster because the swap is nearing an end. Too bad, this was a fab swap and I'll be needing another journal type swap after this in order to keep my craftiness flowing.
Page #1 "Ode to Sylvia Plath"
I have a deep obsession with Sylvia Plath that started with reading the Bell Jar many years ago. I've always thought it was humorous and unusual how pink all of her books always seem to be (I highly doubt this was a personal choice of hers). So I made a pink and depressing page to pay homage to a creative force in my life.
Page #2 "Movies of My Dreams"
This page is inspired by my favorite Built to Spill song - Car. The lyrics are all amazing, but my personal favorite, and one that I've been quoted as saying many times over the years is "I want to see movies of my dreams" - do I ever....
Page #3 "Love Gone Wrong"
I pretty much love this page and wanted to keep if for myself. The poem is something which has spoken to me since the first day I read it. Beautiful and haunting.
Page #4 "Be Free"
A simple page with an acetate swallow and tags.
Page #5 "Choose Your Muse"
This Ouija page was inspired by the tastes of the recipient. Fun and funky. I like it.
Page #6 "Create Your Life"
Another page inspired by the tastes of the recipient, acetate dragonfly, colorful fibers.
Page #7 "Let Your Imagination Run Wild"
This is the page so nice I had to make it twice. Nothing better than merging adorable imagery and the restless (verging on depressive) longing for childhood, and no one can do that better than Lewis Carroll! The quote, if it's difficult to read is: "I'd give all the wealth that years have piled, The slow result of life's decay, To be once more a little child, For one bright summer day." Oh - and sewing paper is super awesome!
Soldering pendants is one of my go-to crafts. I picked up a soldering iron just over a year ago and although I've singed hair, burned finger tips, and ruined favorite pairs of jeans that I got on sale and will never find a pair as cute so long as I live, I have come out of it with some wonderful pieces of jewelry.
Here is one I finished his weekend (I'm a HUGE Costello fan!):
A mini-collection of some of my first pieces. You can see how poorly done the edges appear. My results have started to look much better since I discovered the importance of flux when it comes to soldering:
Bird pendant:
I found these fab Loteria cards while thrift shopping and decided they'd make an awesome reversible pendant:
A scrabble pendant with flower rub-ons:
Here's a great tutorials for soldering with slides: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=39105.0;topicseen
Here are some older carved stamps I've created.... It truly is my obsession of the moment!
My collection, complied a month or so ago:
My favorite stamp I've carved (there's just something about a cute robot....):
Some I created for one of my best friends:
Many of the images are adapted from Craphound.
I have been smitten with stamp carving since I received a kit from someone in the Invite Your Partner Swap on Craftster. My swap buddy made me the kit below and I've been carving up a storm ever since! Here's a quick tutorial on stamp carving: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=176460.0.
My Kit:
Mr. Death stamp (from Craphound, of course, Issue #6 - Death & Scissors):
Here is my little buddy I sewed last night, he's about 4 inches tall. I found the pattern in a terribly adorable, terribly overpriced Japanese pattern book.
One of the greatest aspects of the Craftster community is the swap board. I've done over 20 swaps, and my latest is The Chunky Book Page Swap which consists of trading 4x4 inch book "pages" within the theme of creativity. I would consider myself to be somewhat of an addict when it comes to swapping, so I will often be posting my latest swap projects.
Here is the front of my current page:
And the back:
These are all of my pages (some sent from partners, and some of my own) together:
I had originally posted this tutorial on Craftster, but I figured I would post it here also, as many of the crafts I'll feature will be using this technique.
This process is called a cellulose transfer. It's an inexpensive way to print images on surfaces with things you probably have around the house.
Basic Ingredients:
BEFORE YOU START:
Put no more than a tablespoon of lacquer thinner into the container, use Q-tip to cover back of image while holding sturdy on notebook.
Peel back a small section to see how your transfer looks. Press again if the image hasn't completely transfered.
You can visit my post on Craftster to see more examples that other craftsters have posted as well as a discussion about what works, and what unfortunately, does not.
Tonight was my orientation and first viewing of Portland's IPRC. The Independent Publishing Resource Center is a word-lover's Mecca where craftiness and nerdiness merge beautifully. It's stuffy, cramped, and home to every published issue of Crap Hound (which only amounts to 7, but still, impressive). In a word - wonderful.
I found offerings from them a couple of months ago on the PDX DIY Alert and have been interested in signing up for a workshop - but the timing hasn't been right. When I saw the tonight's orientation on there last week I knew it was something I just had to check out. The offer classes in publishing, letterpress, gocco printing, and bookbinding among many others. I found the lead smell of the letterpress room disturbingly intoxicating - I'll probably take that workshop first.
Tonight really reminded me of why I moved to Portland in the first place - the art scene is larger, and thus less haughty and stifling than in smaller cities. And it doesn't hurt that it's right next door to a favorite coffee shop (Half & Half) and a favorite book store (Reading Frenzy: Home of Show and Tell Press). This block has been referred to as the Triple Threat, and that couldn't be more accurate in my opinion.
