ARTicipate: Tchotchke

This post is a day later than it should be, but I spent the weekend in New Hampshire and by the time I got home yesterday, I was overly exhausted from too much fun with my best friend.

Tchotchke is a really fun word to say, and attempt to spell, but it’s meaning is pretty straightforward. According to the dictionary, it’s an inexpensive souvenir, trinket or ornament. After brainstorming for a bit, and seeing this post, I knew I was going to make an ornamental plate.

A quick trip to Marshalls, and $23 later, (The plate was only $4, but of course, I browsed the shoe section and ended up with a pair of black flats as well), I was looking at a large blank white plate, with no clue what to draw on it.  And then as I was browsing through my sketchbook, I came across this elephant I’d painted a month or so ago, and I remembered that my sister loved him, but wouldn’t display him in her apartment because his trunk isn’t up. So I decided to use him as inspiration and make her a plate to display in her apartment.

I drew one, slightly off-center elephant, then stood looking at him for a while. The “stencil” I’d made and used to draw him was sitting flipped over, overlapping him, and it occurred to me that the only thing better than one elephant, was two! So I added a little friend.   Then I put the plate in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, to cure it.  And called it a day. I’m really happy with the way this little gift turned out, and I’m pretty sure my sister is gonna love it.

Because I’m the only one (I know of) who did a project for Tchotchke, and Rose is taking a (much deserved and needed) blogging break, this is going to be the last ARTicipate post for a while.

ARTicipate: Green Project

I found this round’s prompt, Green, to be a bit too inspiring. I had way too many ideas running through my brain and I ended up doing something completely different from my plan, because I was overly busy and put it off too much. Sometimes that happens for me. My best intentions fade to dust and I end up with something I’m not very proud of, because I didn’t put a lot of work into it.

One of the things I associate with green is youth or naivety. At the last-minute, I decided to make a bracelet like the ones I used to make when I was younger, as an ode to my “greener” days. I used hemp and the most basic bracelet making technique, and I added some beads that I already had on hand from earings I made for someone. The beads are a really pretty combination of green, light blue and brown. They are an oval but flat shape and I like looking at them on my wrist.

This wasn’t an overly ambitious project, taking me a total of about half an hour from picking out my materials through completion, but I actually like the final result. Despite the lack of time spent on it, my bracelet will look nice on my wrist for the remainder of the summer! For the next round of ARTicipate, I hope to dedicate more time to create a bigger project!

On Wednesday, I post a recap of what everyone’s done, so again email me your creations or posts! I’ll also let you know then what the prompt is for the next round!

Have a happy Monday!

Repurposed Jeans: Braided Headband

After my DIY Colored Jeans post, I still had five or six pairs of old jeans that were in need of some love. Unfortunately, not a single pair still fit. I managed to squeeze into them; they just cut off all circulation below my hips while simultaneously causing an “I need to pee now” sensation. But instead of giving them away, I decided to repurpose them, and so this little series was born.

This Week’s Project: First up is this DIY Braided Headband. I love headbands because I am still in the process of growing out my bangs, and headbands make it much easier to keep them in their place.

Additional supplies: Sewing Machine, thread, elastic, and an iron.

How To:

1. Measure your head (around where a headband would go.) Then measure just the length between the backs of your ears.

2. Multiply the length between the backs of your ears by 1.25. Cut three two-inch-wide strips of jean in that length. (For example, the length between my ears was 16. [16 x 1.25 = 20] I cut three 20-inches-long, 2-inches-wide strips, one from three separate pairs of jeans so I’d have three different shaded strips)

3. Fold one strip in half width wise, then iron in the crease. Open it and fold the edges into the center and fold it in half again, and iron it down. It should be 1/4 of the original width, with no rough edges similar to binding. Sew a line down the center of the strip. Repeat for all strips.

4. Pin the ends of one side of all three strips together. Braid the strips. Pin the other ends together.

5. Sew the ends of the braid together. I went back and forth over the line I sewed, several times. The finished braid should be very close to your behind the ears measurement.

6. Subtract your behind your ears measurement, from your total head measurement. Divide the result in half. This is your elastic’s length.(Mine was 22 inches (full head) minus 16 inches (behind ears) equals 6, divided by 2 equals 3.)

7. Cut your elastic. Sew each end of the elastic into the inside of each end of the braid. Make sure it fits, and adjust if necessary. Enjoy your new headband!

DIY Trellis for Climbing Plants

When it comes to gardening, one of my biggest influences is my nonna (Italian Grandmother). She utilizes all the space that she has, and she doesn’t grant aesthetics any undo importance.  (Her garden is the one place where appearances don’t matter to her.) She has a cucumber plant growing in a mini bed on the plot of grass between the road and the sidewalk and tomatoes and fava beans flourishing in the flower bed beneath her front windows. It doesn’t matter to her that vegetables are traditionally absent from view from the road. She’s taught me to value functionality in gardening above all else.

So when it comes time to give my beans something to grow up, I don’t waste money purchasing a trellis. Instead I create my own, using materials we have on hand. My father and I keep a collection of sticks, that we collect when they fall from trees during storms; these sticks plus some twine make a perfectly functional trellis.

To make the trellis, plant the beans (or other vine/ creeper) in two long rows. Then place a row of sticks on the outside of each row and one row of sticks between the rows. Then weave the twine around the sticks to create a web, on which the beans can grow. Some people might describe my trellis as trashy or cheap, but I adore its old country, rustic appeal. Besides, when the beans begin to take over, the trellis will disappear into one giant bean bush.

How do you feel about store-bought trellises versus DIY? Do you plant vegetables in your flower beds, or other unusual places?

Giving Old Jeans New Life

We all have them- jeans that we don’t wear (even though they fit) because there’s something we don’t like about them. I have quite a few pairs like this- jeans that fit, but weren’t getting worn for one reason or another. I didn’t wear the pair above because the too-light color and the flare-legs bordering on being bell bottoms. Instead of giving them away, and spending money on a new pair, I decided to give this pair new life.

My first goal was to fix the almost-bell-bottom legs. With Deb’s sewing machine and her help, that goal was accomplished in a few simple steps.

1. Undo the bottom hem.   2. Put the Jeans on inside out.   3. Pin them to where you want them, only taking them in on one side.*   4. Draw a vertical straight-as-possible line along the pins.   5. Sew along the line.   6. Cut the excess fabric off.   7. Resew the bottom hem. 8. Repeat for the other leg.   9. Adjust if necessary.

Once I’d achieved the desired skinny jean look, I needed to tackle the too-light color. I like faded jeans, but I have another pair in a nicer shade of blue, so I wanted to do something different with these. Inspired by my recent obsession with colored jeans. I decided to dye these purple. After all, I already had pink, red, green, and yellow.

Dying clothing is such an easy and inexpensive enterprise, thanks to RIT dye. I’ve used RIT dye before, and I figured that with their mostly cotton content, the jeans would take the dye quite nicely.

All you need to dye clothing is RIT dye, hot water, a bucket, salt, and gloves**. Chopsticks are optional. Immediately before I dyed my jeans, I put them through the wash. When they were just out of the wash but still entirely wet, I submerged them in the bucket full of previously prepared dye. To prepare RIT dye, mix the powdered dye, very hot water, and salt in a bucket (this is where I used the chopsticks). Soak your item until it’s your desired color. I made sure to mix the jeans in the dye using the chopsticks for the five minutes they soaked.

I let the jeans hang outside for a bit so they’d really absorb the dye. Then I ran them through another wash cycle by themselves to remove any excess dye. I don’t think I could have been happier when I saw them out of the dryer. I love the bright purple color. These jeans were going to get donated, but it makes me so happy that I was able to breathe new life into them! They make me smile with pride whenever I put them on.

*Note: My nonna (the seamstress) made sure I knew that sometimes you need to take in the seam from both sides when you alter pants. For these, I definitely didn’t need to, but if you decide to try this, make sure your newly sewn pants look good on, before you cut off the excess fabric.

**Note 2: Obviously, RIT dye will stain your clothes. That’s kind of the point, but it also stains skin, and that’s why you need the gloves!

The Wedding Card

When I went to the wedding last weekend, I knew I’d need a card. Even though I felt a little bit silly making a card for what would be such a fancy occasion,  I decided to ignore my apprehensions and do it anyway.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about the card when it was finished. It definitely didn’t turn out exactly as I’d planned and my dad said they looked like pilgrims instead of a bride and groom, but I’d made it for the couple so I decided to give it to them anyway.

I used watercolors, issue paper, some shiny paper, and markers to create their card. I had no idea what the bride’s dress looked like, but it turned out to be similar to my card, which was a fun coincidence. I made it pretty simple, with a basic ombre purple background and simple shapes for the couple. I thought it was cute, but I was overjoyed when the bride left me a Facebook message to let me know how much she loved it, and that it was going into her wedding scrapbook. It just proved to me that I’m my biggest critic; what I think isn’t perfect might make another person smile.  

Have you ever hesitated to give someone something handmade, that they ended up loving? Has anyone else ever given a handmade card to a couple for their wedding? Did you feel silly too?

A Peak at the Craft Dungeon/ Cave

When I wrote the post about wanting to tackle my craft space, I had big plans. Of course, when I actually began to see just how bad it was, I wanted to abandon it all together. I ended up mostly just cleaning, reorganizing, and throwing away / recycling excess ( like all the cereal boxes, yogurt containers, and soda bottles I was hoarding).

I am really happy about how organized it is and how I can now easily access anything I need. It’s also very exciting to have so much open space on my desk. I got rid of a lot of the containers I had on there to make room to actually work.

As I was going through all the stuff I had, I came across paintings I’ve done over the years, so I hung some up all around the desk. (I also got rid of a bunch because I couldn’t even look at them, but don’t worry I took pictures  that I’ll share another time.) Above is my favorite of all the older ones. I’m guessing I did it in fourth grade. The background is all water-color paints, while the light house is acrylic paint. It’s funny because now I never mix mediums but when I was younger, I was never hesitant about experimenting. Below is one of my newest paintings and one of the oldest paintings I’ve done. I really like them together. The bottom one is perhaps my favorite painting I’ve ever done. Can you guess which is the most recent? I guess it’s kind of obvious.

Even though I LOVE what I’ve done thus far to the basement, I’m really excited to continue and slowly make a few more changes. I want to do things like add bunting, and cover the desk/ table with some sort of washable cover. Seriously though, I can’t wait to get down there and just create. I’ve been working on my leg warmers and packing and doing laundry to get ready for my trip next week so I haven’t had a chance to work down there. I’m really itching to get down there and paint, which is extremely strange because I haven’t painted (a canvas or other flat surface) in over a year. It will be nice to get back to it. I guess I shouldn’t call it the craft dungeon anymore, as it’s some place I will actually enjoy being, now that it’s clean and organized. I think it will be my craft cave from now on.

Okay, so what do you think? Any suggestions for how to fix the table top? It’s full of gross paint.

 

Steam Fog & More Wrapping Paper

How can I possibly follow yesterday’s post? I remain joyously dumbfounded by being chosen for WordPress’ freshly pressed page and the response it generated. I never spent any time going through the freshly pressed page before and I had not realized that the posts on it are selected for the honor. I always thought it was randomly generated. I was humbled by being chosen and I’m grateful for your kind responses. Thank you! It definitely made my month, and possibly my year. I also would like to welcome new readers. I’m really excited that you’ve joined me in this space.

My drive to work is definitely enviable. It only takes me about 25 minutes to get to and from work each day, and the majority of the drive is on a road that curves alongside a river. Yesterday as I was driving home, there was the most delicate steam fog hovering above the river; it was eerily beautiful. For once,I put my money where my mouth is and actually stopped when I wanted to.  I may not have had my DSLR with me, but I think my little cell phone captured the moment beautifully.

I took a short walk and then went home to craft up some more wrapping paper. I used the same materials and method I described in this post, but this time, I fashioned variously sized circles into overlapping Christmas ornaments . I  only painted a few of the ornaments a deep fuchsia (which looks burgundy in the photos). I really like simple, clean designs but I can never achieve that understated beauty. I tend to over add to my crafts. For this wrapping paper, I was able to control myself and I’m delighted by the result. It’s understated and pretty and I like that when I see it, it gifts me with the childhood urge to find a coloring book.

Has anyone made their own wrapping paper? Do you prefer clean, simple, and understated design or intricate, over-the-top design?

The World’s Greatest Grandma

There was a story read to me as a child, about a grandmother who rides a motorcycle. I was never envious of the little boy in the story, because I knew that he was wrong for thinking his grandma was the coolest grandma in the world. His grandma couldn’t be the coolest grandma in the world because mine was. She has the mouth of a sailor and the dirtiest, funniest, sense of humour. Anyone who has spent any amount of time with her, can’t help but love her. My friend Jessi, upon hearing I was visiting my grandma this weekend, said, ” Doris! Tell her I say Hi and I love her.” My grandma, Doris, just has that type of magic. She is literally one of a kind. 

 

Grandma has always been the most encouraging of me and my crafting, so I couldn’t go visit without a little homemade something. I had picked up this little paper mache elephant at Michael’s a while back, not knowing what he would become, but unable to resist his dollar price tag. When I went downstairs (to my dungeon craft area) to whip up a little something for Grandma, the little elephant practically honked at me. He would easily become the perfect addition to my Grandma’s elephant collection. She has the elephant figurines scattered around her apartment, always facing the door, as per the superstitions that this positioning allows them to protect the home. All of her elephants have trunks pointed upward as well, because if an elephant’s trunk is downward, then all it’s luck scatters away, but an upward trunk stores the luck for the recipient, in this case Grams.

Keeping in mind, that a white elephant is the luckiest of all, I decorated the elephant. I used leftover magazine cutouts from this project. I chose shades of blue and turquoise and I modge podged them to the top and around the front. Then I painted the remainder of the elephant white. He was perfect. I knew she would love him and she did. I hope there are more similarly priced animals like this at Michael’s as I’d love to decorate other ones to use as tree ornaments.

 

My visit to grams, was atypical. Some of her magic is veiled by her illness, but I was happy to spend the weekend cleaning and cooking for her. I made her chicken soup, as soup is one of her all time favorite meals, along with chicken cutlets, spinach, and roasted root veggies. I couldn’t tell you how the soup or cutlets tasted, since I still don’t eat meat but as always, she loved everything I made for her, even if she didn’t eat nearly as much as usual. I froze some large portions for her and my grandpa to eat at later dates. I’m sure she appreciated the present & future home-cooked meals even more than the crafted elephant.

While there, I came across several  crafted-by-me things; a relatively recent mermaid painting, a mermaid card, a necklace, and this beautiful hand painted pot. Judging by the crude depiction of her, my grandpa, flowers, and the sun, I made the pot circa 1998 or 1997, when I was eleven or twelve.  And there it was, on her screened in porch, with a plant thriving in it, twelve or thirteen years later. I had to take a picture because it was just so sweet.  On the top, it reads, “World’s Greatest Grandma,” which she was then, still is today, and always will be, even when all the paint has cracked off the pot and I’m a grandma myself.

Recycled Wrapping Paper

Yesterday, I was on the verge of a breakdown. I reread my post, and it accurately describes, just how lost I was feeling. Today I’m feeling a lot better. When I got home last night, I not only booked a flight (for this weekend!) to go visit my Grandmother in Florida, but I did some simple crafting for about an hour, and in using my hands to create, immediately felt better. 

This is the only gift, I’ve finished so far. It’s an orange, knitted hat of my own design and I’m really proud of its look and its perfectly, slightly snug fit.  I just hope the recipient’s head is not too much smaller or bigger than mine! As a side, I’d like to note that the above picture was taken yesterday before I began crafting. See that mean Frank face. Grrr. Later on in the post you’ll see another picture of me in which I look much happier, evidence of the magic of creating.

Part of my evil oath to myself was that I was going to use recycled materials, beautified by me, to wrap my gifts.  When I got home, I figured that finishing one gift entirely, might make me feel a little better, so I wrapped that orange hat.  The biggest annoyance at Christmas time in my house is never having enough boxes or boxes the right size for certain things. Yesterday was no exception, but in my moment of frustration, when I was stuffing my face with cereal (as I often do as an impromptu snack), I looked at the hat and then at the cereal box, and voila a solution.  The hat fit perfectly in the cereal box, and I may or may not be using the many, many cereal boxes I hoard (for other crafts) to wrap all my gifts.

 The pictures explain mostly everything but just in case you like words: Using a sharpie, on the brown paper bag, trace overlapping circles; Paint or color in any or all of the shapes created ( I did the negative space in silver); Use leftover ribbon or yarn to package it; Cut out and paint the shape from excess brown paper bag; Write a message on it and you’re done.

This wrapping paper project, took me all of fifteen minutes, and I was having fun crafting so I decided to try out this tutorial. I had read it earlier in the day and it seemed easy enough, but I’ve always been terrible at making fabric flowers, they just never turn out right. This one is the best I’ve made so far. It’s not perfect, but I didn’t cut straight. Regardless I liked it, and I’m ordering a bunch of felt for creating pretty gifts. I have another mini plan for other gifts too. Instead of gifting the actual crafts, I can gather the materials, and print out a tutorial and put it all together and voila a craft kit gift.

Do you see how much happier I am in this picture than in the top one? Crafting and/or accomplishing tasks really improves my mood. Also, as Rose suggested, it helps to breathe and realize that what gets done, gets done and what doesn’t, doesn’t (Thanks Rose!). I’m trying to focus on that. “Che sarà, sarà.”

To conclude my night, I feasted on a delicious salad with cheddar cheese, avocado, and a hard-boiled egg. While I’m still feeling stressed, and upset about Christmas being different this year, I am feeling a lot better than I did yesterday.  And I get to see my Grandma tomorrow night! Perhaps she and I will do some Holiday crafts and I’ll be able to make her feel better too.

<3 Frankie