Block Party

My friend Tasha hosted a block printing get together recently. It was a total blast. She wrote some great posts over on her blog  about how to carve your own stamp and how to print on fabric. Below are some of what I created that day.

Tasha carved this slug stamp which I was more than happy to use on this tea towel. The towels were wrinkled from being straight from the package, but I like the effect.

This bird stamp was hand carved by Tasha's aunt.

This was my first ever hand carved stamp. I love my wonky little triangle. I printed this on a thrifted pillow case I got awhile back. I liked the yellow and blue together.

This stamp was just a scrap piece of wood that was lying about in our back yard as I was really digging the geometric printing.

Find some inspiration here for more block printing ideas courtesy of Martha. I love the potato masher idea.

Happy Friday friends!

October

Homemade pumpkin pie. Matt can't do gluten so he makes this pie crust. We love it.

Still loving my calendar from Sloe Gin Fizz. Can't wait for the 2013 edition. 

Can't let go of the flips yet. Why should I?

Homemade Sriracha. We got this idea over at the Lusa Organics blog. So good.

Knitting again!Fingerless mitts for me. They go with the matching headband which I love even more. Find the patterns here.

I didn't know how hard it is to take a proper photo of yourself modeling a headband. I tried, but gave up after awhile. Here are some of the shots anyway.

You can find me on Ravelry now. I am trying to be less of a lurker there and post my finished projects. It is such an inspiring community there, so why not join the fun?

Have a good October weekend!

Making Stuff. It's fun.

We are pretty big fans of pie in this house. Okay, huge fans. So, when Matt spied some sour cherries growing along his bike route to school, we knew what had to be done. We harvested ourselves a bucket full of goodness and a pie was made that afternoon. Note: I was too busy eating the pie to take a photo of it. Sorry. I told you I was a pie hound.

I have been making goat milk iced lattes on hot afternoons. We are lucky enough to have this espresso machine at home and it fills our lives with endless joy.

I got into my fermenting groove again and made a big batch of kraut. I am pretty much eating it on everything I can, but my favorite would be on top of our homemade pizza. Don't knock it til' you try it.

But, the coolest thing we have made in some time is this bag right here. 

Yes, we made a market tote out of our spent chicken feed bag. I saw something similar on a women at the farmer's market a few weeks ago and knew we could make one ourselves. And make one we did. 

And here is a tutorial, so you can make one too!

Okay, Step 1:
Get yerself a feed bag, some thread and some webbing for straps. It has to be a feed bag that is almost tarp like in material and looks woven up close. The thread should be of the heavy duty variety to save time and look a bit cleaner in the end. We didn't have that on hand so we just went over stuff a few times when sewing. 

Step 2:
Remove the threading at the bottom of the bag. Hose the bag out and let dry before sewing because it will have some residual grain dust on it. You can always do this after the bag is complete if you're lazy like us.

Step 3:
Turn bag inside out. Sew a line across the bottom where you just undid the thread. Cut off excess material. Then fold these edges under and sew again.

Step 4:
Decide how wide you want your bag to be. We chose 8 inches. Mark this on each end like shown in the photo. Sew that line. Cut off excess material and fold edges under and sew again like you did in the previous step. Repeat on other side and the bottom of your bag will look like the last photo.

Step 5:

Decide how tall you want your bag to be. Measure a line across and then cut on the line. Fold the top under and sew across.

Step 6:
Decide how long you want your straps to be and where you want them located on the bag. Matt used clamps to secure the webbing and then measured it over my shoulder. We wanted straps that were long enough to go across our bodies which makes it more comfortable to use when riding a bike. Cut webbing and singe ends with a lighter to prevent fraying.

Step 7:
Sew strap on bag like shown. We wanted to make sure it withstood some abuse so we did some extra stitching. Repeat 3 more times on each strap end to finish.

Step 8:
Turn bag right side out and you're done! 

Craftacular

It's been a bit of a craft frenzy up in our house since my last post. And I am really excited to say that I have started sewing! Hooray!

I hadn't really sewed much since 7th grade Home Economics class where I made a giant stuffed camel (yes, I picked that pattern out myself) and a pair of boxer shorts. So armed with the comfort of knowing my 7th grade self was a sewing champ and having Matt within shouting distance, I set off to make some handmade gifts for my friend's baby showers coming up.

First, I made this great receiving blanket from this tutorial. A really simple project for newbies like me.

And then I busted out some burp cloths loosely following this easy tutorial. Pardon the threads I haven't snipped off yet.

And then I was so psyched on sewing I decided to sew envelopes for the project I wrote about in my last post. I even sewed buttonholes. That's right, buttonholes. Seriously, a whole world opens up when you can sew a damn button. They may not be the prettiest buttonholes ever made, but I'm okay with that.

And with all this sewing happening, I soon realized I needed a pin cushion. And fast. Those cute plush things actually serve a purpose. Having straight pins lying about willy nilly isn't that cool. And so I made one in a few minutes out of an old can of salsa, some stuffing from a dog toy Lou had ripped up and a scrap piece of fabric I got for free.

And in non-sewing crafty news, I finally tried out freezer paper stenciling, which is a cheap and fun way to do your own screen printing. Run a Google search for it and you will find a boatload of tutorials. I screen printed a dinosaur onto a t-shirt I picked up at Goodwill for a 4-year old's birthday.  I would like to screen print some baby onesies in the future like in this tutorial (so cute!) or maybe this totally amazing Tom Selleck onesie.

See, I wasn't kidding about the level of craftiness around here! And that's not even counting all the new soaps I have been working on in preparation for the Farmer's Market this summer. I'll be sharing those soon.

Have a great week!

Send Some Love Today

Hey friends! Perhaps you might remember that one of my goals for 2012 was to write more letters consistently? Well, I have been kicking ass and taking names as far as that goes. I am LOVING it.

I even joined the Letter Writer's Alliance which is a sweet club for other letter geeks like me (and they sell actual carrier pigeons you can send through the USPS!). And I signed up to participate in the Elevated Envelope project. It challenges you to create some art with the common envelope and send it out to strangers across the world.

Yeah, I pretty much have the letter fever and the only cure is more letters.

But anyway...I am still working on my envelope project idea, but I did want to share some fun envelopes I made a few weeks ago with old papers I had lying around the house. Envelopes are easy and fun and you can make a big ol' stack of them in an afternoon. Just peel an old envelope apart that you don't care much about and trace onto your new paper and cut out. Fold and glue and you're done.

Here's one I made with old sheet music I found at a thrift store.

My glue stick had run out and I didn't feel like leaving the house. My sewing machine was right in front of me and inspiration struck. I think I like sewn envelopes even better than glued! No drying time to boot.

This one was made from a picture book of Switzerland I found at a thrift store.

I also made one out of an old map of California, but I sent it off to my brother before I could snap a photo. He loved it!

The ideas are endless for envelopes. Old maps, magazines, paper grocery bags, old wrapping paper all rock. Thrift stores are great hunting grounds for inexpensive materials. As is the back of your closet.

And, in true crafty style, I took the scraps from my envelope making session and made more paper with it!