My Craft Corner

This week I thought I would share some pictures of where I make my cards. We have a small apartment with a large kitchen, so I've always done my card-making there. Up until recently I'd done everything on the kitchen table which really got to be a hassle. Every time I wanted to make cards I'd either have to clear everything out of the way come dinnertime or we would constantly eat out in the living room. I frequent an antiques store in Lititz (the same place we got the toys for the boats) and they had a desk there for $50. The cheapest suitable desk at IKEA was over a hundred, and this little desk seemed perfect, so I bought it. I'm so glad I did! I was able to find a little niche for it in my kitchen. I should have taken a whole room picture, but this will have to do. Here is my new card-making area:





I'm not the only one who benefits from this set-up. Kitty now has a new place to snooze in the sunshine:

Blue Mood.... and Pink. And Brown.

Actually, more aqua than blue. I made two cards this weekend, both in the same color scheme (but not on purpose). I had this first card rattling around in my head last week and put it together when I got home on Friday. I got out my watercolors and free-handed a branch in brown with green leaves on off-white paper. I then outlined the branch with a fine point black marker. I used my mini flower punch to make several pink flowers and painted a dark pink center in all of them. I drew black squiggly lines around the edge, layered it on dark grey paper, and tied a pink ribbon around it; then I mounted it on light aqua cardstock. Finally I cut out a small square of the grey paper and punched a larger cherry blossom in pink with a darker pink mini sun center.



I made this next card to send to my friend Linda, who I haven't heard from in a while. I had this striped paper and have been wanting to use it but just never sat down to work it out. The pink center of the flower is a brad and the "Hi" was done with rub-on letters.



This past weekend I got a few new toys at AC Moore. The first thing I got is a tag maker, which I can use to make my own metal-rimmed tags. I also got one of those old-fashioned label makers. I'd been wanting one for a while and Onil really wanted one too, so we picked it up. I also got this sheet of clear stamps to use on the inside of cards. This was all a great deal -- the tag maker was on sale for 40% off, and I used 40% and 50% coupons for the label maker and the stamps. So everything I got was like half price. AWESOME.

Hurray for Presents!

A few months ago, I asked Lita to crochet a pair of mittens for me. I'd been wanting a simple pair of black mittens, but apparently mittens are hopelessly out of fashion. I couldn't find any that weren't those waterproof insulated kind. I told Lita what I was looking for and she jumped right on it. I guess she had a black sweater she unraveled or something, because she had the black yarn on hand already. And here they are!



You will note that the picture is entitled "Black Mambas". That's because Lita worked on these while she was substituting high school something or other, and the teenage boys thought the mittens were super awesome. In fact, teenage boys had a lot to do with the making of these mittens. One boy borrowed a mitten to smack another boy in the head (something of which I mightily approve, because smacking teenage boys in the head with mittens is always good). Another boy wanted to know if Lita was going to put an idiot string on them, just like his little sister has. He even demonstrated how he pulled on one mitten so his sister could smack herself in the head with the other mitten. I thought the string was an awesome idea -- the possibility of someone making me smack myself in the head notwithstanding -- because I would be so upset if I lost one of Lita's mittens on the subway or something. So I asked Lita for the string, and with some adjustments it works out perfectly. And finally, at least one teenage boy thought the best name in the world for these mittens would be the Black Mambas, and I liked that so much that I've continued to call them that: "Hon, have you seen the Black Mambas?" So I guess the lesson we can learn from all of this is that teenage boys are completely captivated by crocheted mittens, and if you have the means to make a ton of them you could potentially rule the world.

Then PM, knowing how much I love to make snotty remarks about fundamentalist Christian tracts on my other blog, thought that a Lenten present would be just the thing for me. And I think so, too! I especially like the keyfob, which I have hung up on a nail by my door. Almost a mezzuzah; it's at least in that spirit.



Also completely awesome was the comic he sent to me with his note. He drew a picture of Onil swiping my present and me chasing him. Look how big my boobs are! OH YEAH!



So to thank Lita and PM, I made them a few things. I sent Lita a copy of the heron bookmark she liked so much and this set of thank you and birthday cards in four different colors:





PM received three bookmarks, which I finally got around to sending last week. Sheesh, I'm late. (CD are PM's initials.)

KITTY!

Putting pictures of your cat in your blog is the thing to do these days. Everyone's doing it. Rimmi did it. Twice. So did Torrk. Lita did it too, although she doesn't want you to look at her cat for fear that he will go missing.

I'm going to do one better. May I present, KITTY in all her slide show glory! Enjoy.

A Blast From the Past, Part 4: Spring Is Here!

I'm working on some new stuff to post here, but until I finish everything, enjoy some of my older cards, won't you?

First, we still have a little bit of snow to deal with. I used to run a message board and we had a secret santa. I sent this card with my gift to my santa and she thanked me for the card with drunken snowmen, which totally cracked me up. She turned out to be completely insane, but the observation about the snowmen was right on.



Here's a card I made for Onil a few years ago. He's a boxers guy, so this card is perfect for him. I stamped boxers on red gingham paper in black and little hearts in red, then cut them out and used mini clothespins to affix them to the string. The background was made with blue paper, white pigment ink and a stencil I made myself.



Now that the winter is overwith, let's celebrate Easter and spring with my fluffy little bunnies. I stamped them in black waterproof ink and painted around them with watercolor, a technique which I really love. Inside the card it says "Happy Easter!", although I guess if I wanted to be pithy I could have put "Hoppy Easter!" Ha! Ha!



Continuing in the stamp and watercolor vein, here are two more cards with that technique. They also show off a cool process which I think is called transference or something (maybe I just made that word up). Take a small picture from a magazine and lay a piece of clear packing tape over top, making sure to remove all of the air bubbles. Cut out the picture so there are no exposed edges, just packing tape. Immerse in warm water and gently rub away the paper behind the tape. The picture will remain on the tape but will be transparent. It's difficult to see how transparent the picture looks here, but it turns out looking pretty cool.





This last card was also made with clothespins and is very much like this baby card. The booties are little embellishments from Jolee's.