Talk To Me Tuesday 5/26 on Wednesday

Mentioned in this video:
- Buttons for sale on Etsy
- Inanimate object stickers


And in other news, the Danger! High Voltage pieces I cross stitched were recently featured on my favorite cross stitch site - http://www.mrxstitch.com/. *happy fangirl squee*

Craft Monday: iQuilt Harry

(note: who knew that today wasn't Monday? Not me. I forgot that the three day weekend would mean that I wouldn't be in to work until Tuesday which threw me off my rhythm. In other news, by Friday I will actually figure out something I will be wanting to post on a regular basis).

Brace yourselves, this is a long one.

Not only a long one, but an important one. As you know, a few years ago I resented the fact that I was not crafty at all. Once I started crafting I couldn't stop, but there was one crafter I admired so very much: Ofenjen. If you've visited her site you know that she is very crafty in many ways, but her favorite craft is quilting. Not only does she quilt awesome paper pieced patterns, but a giant chunk of her patterns are Harry Potter inspired.

I watched the HP_paperpiecing community for a long time before I finally decided that paper piecing was something I needed to try. To those unfamiliar with the term 'paper piecing' it is:

A method of making quilt blocks in which the pieces are sewn to a foundation of paper. This makes it easier to work with odd shapes and angles, as the foundation stabilizes the pieces during construction.

I went to all of the links that Jen had on her website and sucked in all of the information as fast as possible so I could try it out. I started sewing and couldn't stop. A few of my favorite blocks are down below. I haven't done any blocks in a while, but hopefully in the next week I'll finally catch up and get back to one of my favorite crafts.


All patterns are available at Sewhooked.org

I've designed a few patterns myself (but we'll leave that until next week), and I try to enter most of the challenges hosted on the livejournal community. Most recently, I've created a prize for a challenge. It is a design challenge centered around The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and the prize I made is an iQuilt Harry cross stitch.





I'm especially proud of this cross stitch, not only because it turned out kind of pretty, but because the hp_paperpiecing community means so much to me.

Talk to Me Tuesday on Wednesday

Mentioned in this video:

HP_Paperpiecing Challenge

Recent finished crafts on flickr

Craftster Post

Craft Monday: Pedobears and PDFs!

Most of my cross stitches come from patterns I've generated myself, and the Pedobear pattern is no exception. I was brainstorming one day about what to cross stitch, and my brain automatically went to my favorite internet jokes. I decided that Pedobear would make a perfectly fine cross stitch. He definitely did.



After making it, it seemed only right to share the pattern with everyone, so I decided I would learn how to make a PDF file (super handy for this purpose because there were multiple images that needed to be together and easily printable). If you are interested in making a Pedobear all your own, the pattern is here. Or if you'd just like to buy it, you can do so here

Fun Friday: Etsy Pimp

For this Fun Friday (okay, so it is past midnight, but that is only because I was furiously cross stitching) I thought I would pimp my Etsy shop. I've loved Etsy for a long time and have ordered a few things from various sellers. A lot of people have encouraged me to open up a shop and sell what I make, but I've always held to the belief that my creations are pretty crappy or that if I try to make something with the intention of selling it, it wouldn't be fun for me anymore.

As it turns out, I just wasn't doing the right craft.

A lot of my crafting time was spent trying to find people to foist my crafts on; which led to not doing so many crafty things. because of Etsy and cross stitching, I've done pieces that I wanted to do and thought were nifty. Listing them on Etsy takes away a lot of the anxiety of what I'd do with them after. Even if no one buys them and I keep having to re-list them, I still have the satisfaction that they are for someone, I just don't know who yet.

So far I've only got two kinds of things in my Etsy shop: pinback buttons and cross stitch projects. If I manage to try out some more crafts, check my Etsy, they might show up there.

Talk To Me Tuesday on Wednesday

Here is my reply, recorded late last night before going to bed.



A few things I mentioned:

Luigi Largo Cross Stitch

Finished Owl Punch Needle

Pedobear Cross Stitch on Etsy

Craft Monday: Punch Needle!

First off, apologies for missing Friday. I don't know where my head went, but I completely spaced it. It was a busy day (what with skipping the graduation ceremony for my associates degree and all), but I won't promise it won't happen again because I'm forgetful.

Anyway - today I'm going to talk about a relatively new (to me) craft. I've been cross stitching for a few months, and every time I went to buy cross stitch supplies the punch needle supplies caught my eye. I kept telling myself (and anyone who was with me) that I thought punch needle looked interesting and I wanted to try it. Finally a few weeks ago I did pick up punch needle with in the intention of making a birthday gift for a friend. I immediately liked it and got hooked. Unfortunately, I ran out of two of the different colors of the thread, and with the birthday fast approaching, I had to buy a different kit.

The other kit I bought was smaller, and seeing how it was my second punch needle project the finished product was a lot nicer looking. A few days later I did another punch needle, this time I sketched it myself rather than purchased a kit.

This is the first one I made, from the kit "Owl Always Be Your Friend" by Dimensions.
click images to view larger on flickr


The second, better looking punch needle kit was "Better Latte Than Never" also by Dimensions (both kits were supposed to have lettering on them, but I thought it was lame).


And finally, here is the one of my own creation - Captain Hammer's logo! It was really fast and easy, and done in just a few hours. Best of all, I listed it on my Etsy shop and it sold within about 10 minutes (thanks to a certain twitter friend). I'm quite proud of it!


I'm really loving punch needle, and hopefully I can think of some ideas for cool punch needle projects. If you have any fun and simple ideas, feel free to clue me in!

Talk to Me Tuesday (Wednesday)

I made a video last night, and am posting it now. It shows off some of the projects I'm doing.

Craft Monday: "I'm not crafty!"

If I said "I'm not crafty!" everyone would immediately disagree. But that wasn't the case a few years ago.

Let me paint a picture - It was nearing the end of 2006 and the Harry Potter Symposium Phoenix Rising was going to happen in May of 2007. We were sorted into houses depending on a survey that was taken when registering. I wanted to earn house points and show pride for my fictional "house" before the conference. Unfortunately, I was not crafty at all. When I was 10 or so I gave scrapbooking a try and it just didn't work out for me. My older sister Kandi was a scrapbook master, so I knew I couldn't compete with that kind of thing. My other older sister Laci was an awesome clarinet player. I felt like I could never compete with my sisters because they were so awesome at what they did. I was bummed out that I didn't have something that I could just do like they did.

I wanted some freaking house points so I eventually started creating a few things here and there and now I'm not afraid to try anything. I've tried papercrafts, cross stitch, knitting, crochet, quilting, punch needle, t-shirt stenciling, button making, candle making, glass etching, and probably other little things I'm forgetting.

I believe that I can do anything as long as there are some clear directions on how to accomplish it (and if not, I might brainstorm long enough to figure all of it out). How can anyone know if they are good at a craft or not until after they've tried it?

Posting Schedule!

I've had this blog for a long freaking time, and yet I keep forgetting to post here. Instead of telling myself I will post - I am setting a posting schedule so that I will post at least 3 times a week.

Craft Monday - Every Monday I will post a random craft that I've tried/like to do. I'll explain how I got into the craft and what I think of it.

Talk to Me Tuesday (on Wednesday) - Jennifer from Sewhooked is starting something called Talk To Me Tuesday and I'm going to participate. My videos probably won't get posted until Wednesday, so I'll make sure to post them here, too.

Fun Friday - On Fridays I'll post something else. Book recs/funny pictures/favorite videos/Etsy pimpage. Pretty much whatever.

So yes, first Craft Monday post will be going up sometime today, so keep a lookout for it. :D