Something new from something old

Dear Shayne,

I've had this poster since, um... college, I guess:


It was one of my first real framed pieces of "art" (and by "art," I mean, "something not tacked to the wall") and, while I still love that image, the poster is faded and the "Flaming June" title at the bottom seems a bit tacky. But I always kind of loved the relief on this frame (please excuse the quality -- these photos were taken in the basement):

There's an empty space on the wall in the craft room/office and I could not decide what to put there. I finally decided I needed an "inspiration board" -- you know, a place to put up all of the stuff I'm constantly clipping out saying, "Hrm, pretty." Or, "I should make this."

Flaming June to the rescue! I took her out of there (bye, June!), painted the frame, put some wires across it and voila:


(The things clipped to it right now are for the purposes of photo-taking... just some stuff I had lying around the craft room... a postcard from Paul Madonna, a great little print from Wolfie and the Sneak, a postcard from Kurt Halsey, a mini-quilt that I made, a stencil from a Mini ad, and a postcard from The Paper Princess [that came in a Sampler!])

You can't really tell from that photo, but the frame held up fairly well under my heavy paint treatment (I used the same paint we used on the trim in the house)... the relief is more subtle, but still visible:


I'm looking forward to filling it up with all sorts of inspirational goodness!

Now I just need to make a board that will not only inspire me, but actually make the crafts for me... hrmmm...

love,
kelly

A crafty little shop(pe), revisited

Dear Shayne,

Waaaaay back in June, I wrote about a crafty little online shop/pe that I bought a great Biscuit-style totebag from -- The Curiosity Shoppe.

They recently opened a brick-and-mortar shop/pe in SF, and I just had to share my purchase:


Love, love, love this squirrel face!

Don't fret that you're not in SF -- their online shop/pe is still going strong, so you've got to order from them some time. As I mentioned before, they wrap everything in your order. It's like getting presents! Whee!!

The owners of the shop/pe are totally sweet and adorable. I thanked them for wrapping the items they send out (presents!) and they seemed happy that it was appreciated. Yay for crafty little shop/pes!

love,
kelly

Halloween buttons

Dear Shayne,

I know that you already saw these in person... when I saw you last week (How cool was that? Answer: Totally!) but I thought our other few readers might enjoy seeing them: Halloween buttons! (Boo-tons?)


We do have a couple of readers, right? Okay -- If anyone reading this wants a Halloween Boo-ton, leave a comment -- I'll contact you to get your snail mail address and I'll send it out this week. Let's say... on Weds (Oct 24).

(Unfortunately, anyone outside of the US will have to save theirs for next Halloween, as I fear that it won't reach you in time for this Halloween. But I will send it out if ya want it!)

love,
kelly

Address Book = Success!

Dear Kelly,

Last week I decided that I needed a new address book. I looked at a lot online and then at Borders but I didn't see any I liked. Then I remembered that I have a tab paper punch! So I bought a blank spiral book that I really love and set to work.

1. Lined spiral notebook with an elastic band and cute felt monster tag
2. Alphabet stickers, card stock and tab paper punch
3. Punching the tabs from card stock
4. Putting alphabet stickers on the tabs
5. Attaching tabs to pages (A through W got three pages each; X, Y and Z got two pages each, ! got four pages for entries that start with numbers or symbols)
6. Finished address book, closed
7. Finished address book, open
8. Address book in action

I'm really happy with the way this turned out and it only took me maybe an hour.

Love,
Shayne

P.S. Larger pictures can be seen in my Flickr.

Chain link scarf = Done!

Dear Shayne,

This project was a total blast to make -- quick knit, fluffy yarn, many colors, etc. I had a great time making it and will probably make more in the future. Meanwhile, I have many, many photos to show you (I'm sorry.)

First up, here's the scarf:


That doesn't really show the length very well. I tried taking a photo of it all stretched out, but it's nearly 6 feet long and that made difficult-for-the-internets photos. So I draped it artfully over a chair:


And when I went to put the scarf away, I stacked all of the rings on top of each other. It looked lovely, so I took a photo:


But c'mon... what you really want is photos of the scarf with Kaesea, don't you? (Well, I did... so I took a bunch!) First, his glamor shot:


Some people have made comments that perhaps Kaesea wasn't crazy about all of this modeling, so I just gotta show you this one -- while I left the scarf wrapped around him to upload photos... he fell asleep:


So I don't think he's too upset!

Just to give people extra reassurance, I told him to smile for the camera... but it looks a bit forced to me. Whatya think?


(Yeah... that photo totally cracks me up!)

So, there you have it -- my super-fun chain-link scarf (now with More Kaesea!) After that, I should probably get back to the lovely-but-less-fun scarf! (Or something...)

love,
kelly

Piece of Cake

Dear Kelly,

I got the embroidery machine all set up and stitched one rude word:














I definitely need to get stabilizer, but I'm thrilled that I was able to do something so quickly. I've read of so many people who never use their embroidery machine because it was too tricky to figure out. I guess I'm just clever.

Check out all the designs you can download for cheap at JoannDesigns.com.

Love,
Shayne

New Baby

Dear Kelly,

I have been wanting one of these:

















for ages. And today, my wonderful mommy bought it for me! I've installed the software but now I've got to wait for Randy to get home and bring the machine down to the basement so I can set up properly. I've also got to go back to the fabric store as soon as possible and delve into the unknown world of stabilizers. I'm pretty sure I've got some white canvas I can practice on that will probably be okay without a stabilizer.

Rude hankies, here I come!

Love,
Shayne

Three ring circus!

Dear Shayne,

Here are pictures of the Chain Link Scarf when it only had three links. It's got more now, but since it's getting dark outside earlier, I don't get home in time to take good-lighting photos.

Actually... I probably get home in time, but don't remember until a couple of hours later and then say, "Damn! I should have taken photos right when I got home!" Hrm.

Annnyyywwwayy... let's get on with the photos! Here are the three rings:


And, since I used Kaesea for scale for the first ring (and he's such an awesome model), here he is, modeling again:


(No, my blog entries will not all turn into submissions for "stuffonmycat.com" -- this was just too damned funny to resist!)

Meanwhile, I think I might like this version of the scarf better than the one I made for myself. Hrm.

love,
kelly

Grandma=Crafty

Dear Shayne,

As I've mentioned before, my grandma was my original crafty inspiration. Your post about plastic canvas crafts reminded me that I never posted this awesome skull tissue holder for the skeleton-themed bathroom:


She's not the biggest fan of that bathroom, so I think it's extra nice that she made that for us. :)

Lest you think that she is limited only to the Wonders of Plastic Canvas, I must show you this masterpiece that she finished for me (after two years of working on it) in 1999:


At first glance, many people think that it's painted, but it's actually counted cross-stitch. Wow. (I tried to take some macro shots of it, but was unsuccessful... if you click on it, you can view the slightly larger/more detailed shot...)

If you're at all interested, it's Anne Hathaway's cottage (Shakespeare's honey, not that chick from The Devil Wears Prada), which my grandmother sweetly chose for me due to my love of literature.

And in 2002, we got to go there and actually see the real thing together, which was pretty damned cool.

love,
kelly