halloween crafty post

Here is my one halloween crafty creation this year. It was a kit. It's one big panel with 2 borders. Very easy and fun to make. The beagle bagel for halloween did not work out. I'll try harder next year. -amy

Don't get too excited...

...it's just a couple of websites.

The first is stitchlounge.com. VERY cool, though not particularly close to any of us.

The second is reprodepotfabrics.com. Alot of great fabric, trim, buttons, etc.

My current project seems to be the house--espotts.blogspot.com. We picked paint colors on Saturday and I did a bit of purging and packing on Sunday. So you may not be seeing much from me in the way of output for a bit. But I think I'm going to Stitches on Saturday, so I'll file a report next week.

CowBOO Hat

Working outside your normal is some times scary......





Let me explain. Usually my sister has a Halloween party so this year I decided to be prepared. My mother, father, sisters and nephews expect me to be weird and I did not wish to disappoint them. All of this stuff, except the netting came from the dollar store, even the hat. So yesterday with my trusty glue gun in hand I got to work. Bats, snakes, roaches, spiders, rats, etc., adorn the brim. The netting is black with orange sparkles. I think it will look stunning with a black skirt, black jacket and black cowboy boots. I also have a string of BIG orange beads to wear which were also from the $store. I wanted to be subtle, yet edgy. Did I succeed?

I hope the crafters challenge didn't spell the end of our blog..it's been pretty quiet! I know what Amy and Kristen have been up to, but where are your priorities? Remember our motto? "Blog first and take care of other things after".

My Oh My! What a week it was!!!

crafts from quincy

so i guess we're not doing the anonymous thing...here are my crafty driftwood creations. sorry i'm a little late.

Driftwood Challenge

You know how much I love the beach and you know how muc I love driftwood so I crafted this life sized model of my favorite animal ----Not!!














This is a shrine which I titled "Bird's Eye View".
The small people on park benches were found at an antique mall out West and I never knew what to do with them, until now. The legs are brass bolts from the hardware store and the bird is from a garage sale. The back and sides are plastered with "birdy" sayings.
The most fun was trying to get everything to stay glued.
I gave this piece of driftwood several coats of clear spray and then split a chunk off-oh darn!#%&*!!-when I tried to put a hole in it thus the 2 gold beads at the bottom in an attempt to cover up the mistake. The chain is an extra long old watch chain, the amber pendant both flea market finds.

So I boiled down the driftwood...

...to create cellulose pulp, which I then spun into fiber and wove some ribbon, to which I afixed some chalcedony beads to create this necklace.


OK, maybe not.

Instead I made this ocean-themed scarf of silk and velvet. I'm not sure the photos turned out as well as I'd like--there is an image of a seahorse and a nautilus, along with part of an ee cummings poem, "for whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it's always ourselves that we find at the sea."

The driftwood serves as part of the toggle closure.

driftwood challenge

So I made an anti-teasing crown! Sticks and stones may break my bones ....

Thank goodness mom gave me a skeleton on my Halloween gift -- it was just the perfect piece to add in! Elements you may not be able to pick up in the picture include brown lace, doilies, copper findings, feathers, torn paper, old trim, DRIFTWOOD, and even (yes, I know its crazy!) some religious medals ...

I'm going to try to get the shoe polish out from underneath my fingernails. I'm thinking I'll put this into a box and send it around for an in person viewing -- kinda like what they do with the Stanley cup. Who wants it first?

Happy Birthday!

Nothing says "you're my dearest friend" than posting an unflattering picture from past adventures! I'm sure you attacked the driftwood challenge with the same intensity you're showing contemplating whatever it is you're contemplating on these Swedish steps.

Have a great day E -- and many more years of crafting bantering. I need someone to finish my sentences!

2 Days and Counting!!

A centerpiece for your next dinner party?

3......

More Inspiration!!

Four Days Left!

We are fast approaching October 14th. Are you ready? Here's some inspiration!


Patti 10/10/06 12:00pm

Crafty Bastards and more!

Happy First Day of October! Now can someone tell me exactly where September went????

Unlike Fiber Fest (Patti, your description made me smell wet wool), today was the perfect day for Crafy Bastards--75 and sunny.And it was packed! I'm glad I went early. There were about 100 vendors, about 10-15 of which were really high quality, though many ideas to be had all around. Oddly, there were two booths that were inspired by squid (one was really cute: cleodee.etsy.com). A lot of buttons (like campaign buttons, not clothing buttons), which I hadn't realized were quite so big. Very cool bags with funky construction by pistol (www.pistolstitched.com--love the name!). My big purchase was a bag:

It's all handsewn, fabric and leather. The flap tucks into the black horizontal strap. I'm not sure you can see, but the circly patterns are my color blue. I think this artist was on Daily Candy (www.miyasol.com). I also got a little shirt for Kayla from www.1girl1boy.com:

So I'll go again next year, knowing that there's lots of stuff to be sifted through.

I've made some jewellery the past couple weeks. Here's a necklace I made for my mom's birthday, of tiger's eye, alabaster & silver, with a 3d silver flower pendant.

This one is for my friend Deb's birthday (red tiger's eye, olive & bronze pearls, brown goldstone, silver & a pearl clasp). Let's just talk about how hard it is to scale things down for someone smaller!
I had worked on this one in Santa Fe but was never quite happy with it, so I redid it and made a bracelet to match.
Now here's the one that I want advice on. It's square pearls, silver beads, and jade-like rose things dangling from it. I'm not sure this is the right clasp for this idea, though. The clasp has garnets in it. Thoughts?
Now I'm going to go rip out what I did yesterday on the Challenge. I'm having trouble with the translation from head to product.