Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway!

I'm so excited to be participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day!  I absolutely love the Sew, Mama, Sew blog.  It's a wonderful place full of tutorials, inspiration, and all sorts of other sewing-related goodness.  Plus, Sew, Mama, Sew! sells amazing fabric, patterns and more on their website.  Okay, enough gushing, and onto the giveaway!

I'll be giving this owl away to one lucky winner!  Mr. Owl was designed and handmade by me with brown wool tweed suiting material (for the body) and 100% wool felt (for the face, wings and feet).

Simply comment on this post anytime before Friday, December 16 at 5 pm PST.  In your comment, please share your favorite holiday tradition, or not... it's up to you.  Please be sure that I have a way to contact you if you are the winner!!  If your email is not connected to your blogger profile, please include it in your comment.  I will use Random.org to chose the recipient of Mr. Owl, then I'll announce the winner the next day.  I am happy to ship domestically or internationally.

My favorite holiday tradition is unwrapping the ornaments, and then watching my kids decorate the tree -- now that they can do it themselves!  And also staying in the house (in our pajamas most of the day) on Christmas day.

If you're not the winner, but would love to have an owl of your own, you can purchase a similar one in my shop.  Also, be sure to check out all of the generous giveaways on Sew, Mama, Sew! and to discover some amazing new blogs to follow.  Click the link below to get there.

From textile to print

I've been busy printing, scoring, cutting, and packaging sets of holiday cards so I can post them in my shop and have them to sell at a couple of upcoming local craft fairs.

The images on the cards began as fabric appliqués.  I was originally inspired by Syko's lovely postcards.  I love the way she uses stitches almost as if she is drawing on the fabric.  I also love the bright colors and whimsy in her work -- check out her stuff if you're not already familiar with it!  Anyway, I just couldn't stop thinking about this idea of turning one medium into another. And maybe I was also intrigued by the idea of using a medium I'm pretty comfortable with (fabric and thread) to create something else I love, but am less skilled with (ink on paper).  So, I rolled these ideas around in my head, and at about this time last year, I designed the Christmas tree appliqué below.  Here is the process of how it went from sewing machine to printer.

The image on the left is a photograph I took of the original appliqué.  For some reason I used a beige-y speckled muslin for the background.  Please don't ask me why, since my intention all along was for the background to essentially disappear.  Fortunately, I am armed with a version of Photoshop which, although rather old (actually, ancient!), still takes care of the basics.

So, I photographed the textile, taking care to get as little glare on the shiny buttons as possible (something else that was fixable in Photoshop).  Then I imported the image and began playing with brightness and contrast until I was happy.  The image on the right (above) is what I ended up with.  I was having so much fun, I then started playing around with hue and came up with four more funky versions of the tree.

Last winter, I printed these on pre-scored card-making printer paper from Avery and called it a day.  But I wasn't quite satisfied.  This year, I've experimented with several different paper types, weights, and textures. I finally settled on Paper Canvas from Red River Paper.  I has a lovely textured surface, a nice weight, and it takes color beautifully.  I bought myself a bone folder and a mini paper cutter... and away I go!

I'll be selling them in sets of 10 (some with only the original tree, and some with the original plus assorted funky colored trees).  Oh, and I've added a new card design this year.  It has similar bright colors of fabric, but is made of many circles... that form a circle...  Can you guess what it is?

Etch A Sketch Masterpiece

Ok, so it may not be a masterpiece, exactly... but this temporary miniature objet d'art did warm my heart.  My four year old daughter was drawing on her Etch A Sketch recently, when she exclaimed, "Mom, look!  I made a sewing machine."

I love that that's the object she pictured when she looked at this drawing.  A sewing machine.  Of course it is.  I'm so proud!

DIY: Upcycled Sweater Tutorials

I love, love, love these two sweater skirts from Anthropologie, especially the one on the left.  The skirts, and the fact that I can't really afford to buy either one, got me thinking about my stash of felted and unfelted sweaters, and what I might be able to make with them.  I thought I'd share here some of my favorites of the tutorials I found for upcycling sweaters into fun skirts, and a dress (Isn't the dress amazing?!).

1.  Anthropologie Inspired Sweater Skirt from Your Homebased Mom
2.  Upcycled Sweater Dress from Simply Step Back

3.  Child's Skirt from Crafting A Green World
4.  Hip Huggie from Betz White

I tend to use tutorials in the same way I use recipes.  That is, I peruse them to get a good idea of the concept, the process, the flavor combinations... then I use what I've learned to create something of my own. So I'm not quite sure what I'll do with these lovely ideas yet.  But when I figure it out, I promise to let you know!  And if you end up trying any of these tutorials, or making something else based on any or all of them, I'd love to hear about it.

Sneak peek.

I've been very busily getting ready for Constructor, which happens in just FOUR short days!!  I know my friends and family are sick and tired of me talking about the fair.  To them I say:  It will all be over soon and then (hopefully) I'll return to normal.  In the meantime, forget it.  It's all I can think about.  Have I made enough?  Am I pricing everything right?  How can I best display [fill in the blank]?  What have I forgotten?  Etc, etc.

Since none of this new stuff is in my Etsy shop, I thought I'd give you a peek at what I've been spending all my time making.  These are mostly process photos, and, really, much of it is finished now.  Just a few more things I'd like to make!!

It's been a lot of fun.  I've really had a blast creating all this stuff!

Perhaps I'll see you on Saturday.

Still 39.

At least for a few more hours.  According to my mom, I was born at around 1:30 pm Eastern Standard Time.  So, I'm not quite 40 yet.

I have to say, though, I'm feeling pretty good about this next decade.  When my friend asked me about my weekend on Tuesday morning, I happily told her about how much I enjoyed spending it with my extended family, and about the screen printing I was able to do.  It wasn't until about five minutes later that I even remembered to mention a little health problem that had crept up during the same weekend.  (Yeah, I get to spend the morning of my birthday having an ultrasound of my leg just to make sure I don't have a DVT, or deep venous thrombosis -- I'm pretty sure it's only a superficial clot.) 

Overall, I feel really lucky.  I have a wonderful and supportive family.  I have friends who will watch my kids in a pinch (and at a moment's notice), and who will listen patiently as I ramble on about my next crafty idea.  I live in a community I love.  And, for the most part, I am doing what I want to do right now.  I've sold a couple of items from my shop to actual strangers (as opposed to friends or relatives!).  And in the last two weeks, I've started preparing for my first big (really cool!) craft fair -- Constructor.  Even better, if Constructor's motto is accurate, then I'm officially a "bad-ass crafter."  Wow!  Who says you can't be 40 and bad-ass?!

The same friend who asked me about my weekend gave me some words of wisdom regarding this momentous birthday of mine.  She said our thirties are the "decade of children", while our forties are the "decade of ME."  I know this varies widely for individuals, depending on when, or if, each of us has chosen to start a family.  For me it is mostly true.  And I think it's an idea I can embrace.

Screen printing... and robot love

I've wanted to try screen printing for a long time.  I've been ogling this book for ages.  And I've checked this one out of the library too many times to count.  Both books feature several types of DIY printing (with rubber stamps, linoleum blocks, even with potatoes) for fabric and paper.  For some reason, though, it's the screen printing technique that got me.  I've held myself back from buying supplies on several occasions.  Not until I know how to do it, or have time to learn, I told myself.  I already have too much fabric and crafty stuff and not enough space to store it!!

Then I (finally!) signed up for a Saturday workshop at the Needle Shop.  It was an exhilarating four hours of printing, printing, and more printing!!  Our instructor taught us the photo-emulsion method of screen printing, which involves burning an image onto a screen treated with a light sensitive coating.  While we were waiting around for our screens to dry, and then the emulsion to dry, and then for the image to transfer... we created stencils with plain ol' masking tape.  Below are two t-shirts I made using the robot design I (literally) masked on a screen.  I also have some tote bags with this print for sale in my shop.  This masking tape process is so cool because it's instantly rewarding.  And inexpensive.  The only drawback is that the stencil doesn't last through repeated printing and washing.  And I love my little robot so much that I'm in the process now of making a new, more permanent, screen with this same robot image.

I think what I love about screen printing is the mass production factor, with a caveat.  Yeah, you can spend several hours drawing a design and preparing the screen.  But, then you can print almost forever (unless you've used masking tape to make your stencil).  Yet, because the ink is applied by hand and not machine, each print is ever so slightly different.  So, it's mass production in a cool, crafty, artsy sort of way.