Create-A-Craft-A-Day

I'm back from the Chamberlain Ranch Shoot, a tradition 3-D archery shoot. I took over 150 photos so I won't be posting them all, but here are a few of the craft related ones. Gary shows a new archer how to tie a feather on an arrow. Whether you make bows, quivers or arrows, there's a place for you in archery. Many of these guys make their own longbows. Back quiver woven doll This little doll sold right away.

We spent the day in the park with friends. I got some knitting done. We shared our peanuts with the people and the squirrels. Then one of our friends offered us some peacock feathers and other assorted kinds of feathers. Well, I couldn't turn that down! I was just about to make some more hair ornaments called fascinators and now I have more feathers than I've ever had in my life! Paradise. It was super windy today so I didn't try to get photos of the feathers, but I will soon. You can see in...

Since the mosaics turned out so spiffy, we went back to Dollar Tree to get more wooden boxes and tree houses. I'm going to make some for Mother's Day.I don't see the bird houses on their website but the boxes are there. (I'm not affiliated with Dollar Tree, I just like their style). I also got some stuff for my junk journal there. I got plastic divider pages, those little reinforcement donuts for notebook paper, some 'baseball card sleeves' for business cards, and a new binder for the month...

The weather was gorgeous so I got to paint outside. I finished up the 4 mosaic projects.  I just love how they came out. They will make great Mother's Day gifts. And I can't wait to do more. I've already started collecting things that look like they'd go well as mosaic ephemera. There are so many ideas I want to try out. I think when they are good and dry I'll spray some sort of sealer over them to protect them a bit. I got both the wooden items and the flattened glass chips at Dollar Tree....

I got back to work on my knitted vest. I was afraid that if I waited much longer, I'd forget how to do it or where the pattern was. My hands could only take about 90 minutes of knitting four strands at once. This is the heaviest vest I've ever made and will be even heavier when I do the last panel. Yesterday I finished a white snood with a metallic strand in it. It's a gift for my boyfriend's mom and she chose the yarn. I like the way it came out. It's super stretchy.Next I did some laundry....

A few days ago I watched a video on using a nostepinne to roll balls of yarn. Tonight I found a fat dowel piece that I could use as a nostepinne. My first 3 balls were tall and football shaped, so I had to go back and watch the video over again. I was keeping my wraps too close to the stick instead of gradually moving them further and further out. I finally got a successful ball! Now if I can just carve my dowel into a more pleasing nostepinne. If you want to see her tutorial it's here:...

The rain left us alone on this crisp day at the tail end of winter. Last Sunday we met with friends at the Arroyo Seco area in Pasadena to work on bows and primitive skills. It had rained the previous day and the archers that drive from far away had second thoughts, fearing a wet day after a long drive.  We had a somewhat slow turn out for Paleoplanet, but our SCA friends showed up too, so we had enough to keep us productive and entertained. I worked on sewing beads around the rim of a...

After raiding Home Depot for non-sanded grout and plaster and raiding Dollar Tree for glass marbles and river stones and little wooden boxes and bird houses, I started making samples for my mosaic class. The class will be $5 for the lesson and $5 for the supplies. I haven't set the date yet but I'll let you know. Not that many local people read this blog so I'm not sure how I'm going to get students. Word of mouth hopefully. First you glue the goodies to the wood. After it dries you do the...

I was straightening the bookcase when I found a beading book that shows how to add a beaded fringe edging to gourd bowls. Surely that was why I bought the book in the first place. And I already have two tiny bowls ready to go. I was going to do crochet around them, but now I'm in the mood to try this. Tomorrow though. Started a beading project when it's almost midnight is folly. There is a reason Peyote stitch is more correctly called gourd stitch. It works great on hourglass shaped gourds.

Spring is finally here and none too soon. Sometimes I get so carried away looking at other people's crafts that I forget to design my own. I'm putting together craft classes for the spring and summer. I'm thinking of $5. per person per 2 hour session, plus a materials fee if applicable. Some of the topics I want to offer are gourd art, eraser carving, making a wood burned pendant, wire wrapped stones, tree of life pendants, fabric juggling bags, painting on glass, knitting for beginners,...

I think it's time to haul my mosaic supplies out of the garage so I can make mosaics again. With two grandsons now, I'm thinking of making personalized stepping stones. I want to make a mermaid headboard for my bed. I want to make wooden picture frames into mosaic frames. The recent book I got inspired me even more. I need to get to the hardware store to buy non-sanded grout. I was going to buy some anyway to make the chalkboard paint I mentioned in another post. I also need some plaster to...

I'm starting a new series of craft classes and I'm sure most of the time the project won't be able to be done in one session, so I thought I'd start a UFO craft night. In the crafting world, UFO stands for Un-Finish-Object. So I'm thinking Dairy Queen, Wednesday nights from 6 to 8. The dining room is open until 9, so if you are not able to get there at 6, it's no biggie. I've been there on week nights and they could use the business. There isn't a lot of sprawling space, so we'd have to stick...

First thing this morning I glued the rest of the pieces onto my birdhouse mosaic. I'm leaving the back, sides and bottom plain. So tomorrow or whenever I can get to it, I can do the grout. Once I know what color the grout will be, and let it dry, I'll paint the blank areas. I spent today straightening up the apartment and reorganizing craft patterns and supplies. It's supposed to rain this weekend, so I worked outside as much as I could today so I don't get cabin fever. I fed the birds,...

I polished up my mosaics this morning and now they are ready to paint. So far the predicted rain hasn't hit. It's very nice outside in fact. At 9 AM I woke up my boyfriend to see if he wanted to drive us to the swap meet. He said, 'It's going to rain," rolled over and went back to sleep. If we'd gone, we would have been home by now and it still hasn't rained.Yes, I definitely need to find a used car as soon as possible. I feel like life is passing me by. I love going out for breakfast too. He...

Those Youtube tutorials always get me in trouble. Today I was kidnapped by a tutorial on finger knitting. I spent the better part of the day making long glorious strands of knitted cording. I want to make an entire curtain out of it. Each strand is 12+ feet long. I want to hang it from my canopy as a backdrop for belly dancing or puppet shows or something theatrical. I'm keeping it in shades of green and blue like under the sea. I'm using up old acrylic yarn that was handed down to me. I...