christmas for alicia

while my blog may have sat silent for the past month, i've been pretty busy getting things made for Christmas. for my niece alicia it was a felt photo album. she loves looking at books, and she loves looking at the family pictures hanging in our kitchen. so now she has her own photo album filled with family photos. yay for family photos!

the pages are made of felt, and there's a sheet of vinyl protecting the photos from possible baby slobber. i left the inside edge of each photo-holder open so they can swap out pictures with something more recent if they want. it holds photos that are approximately 4"x6" ... i had to trim a little off the 4" side to get them to fit. the front holds a 5h" square photo, also left open on one side for updating the family picture.

of course, i used a box that was bigger than i needed to wrap it up. so i filled in the extra space with small strips of leftover felt ... and alicia had a lot more fun playing with the little strips than looking at the album. but that's okay. now that the packing material's been thrown away, she'll just have to enjoy the album instead. :)

larger images at craftster.

happy thanksgiving

this week's creation in jewelry class.

i had to re-string it last night because i had originally made it a little short. plus i added the beads between the center danglies to keep them from bunching up. you may not be able to tell in the photo (turns out i'm not so good with jewelry photography. i think it'd be easier if i had one of those neck form things they display jewelry on at jewelry stores), but the dandlies are little wooden skulls. i love my little skulls. i may wear it for thanksgiving dinner.

speaking of thanksgiving dinner, i'm off to make the peanut butter pie. mmmmm.

bead class

i'm taking a beaded jewelry class with a few friends. last night was our second class and this is what i made. it's actually two separate necklaces, but i plan to wear them together. they looked fantastic with my outfit today. :) and i've got plenty of beads leftover, so i think i'm going to made a multi-strand bracelet to match.

i've got the rest of the week off work. i'm going to spend a lot of time working on Christmas goodies. in fact, i may start right now and just Christmas the whole night through.

or maybe i'll catch up on other folks' blogs and then go to bed...

addition: i also plan to catch up on all my emails during my long weekend. so if you're waiting on an e-mail from me... and don't hear from me in the next 48 hours... you're more than welcome to leave nasty comments about how disappointing i am. :)

record journal

11. go on a homemade t-shirt making binge.

so the truth is, i love t-shirts. anytime i hear something snappy, i want a t-shirt of it. and what better way to do that then to make them yourself, right? but there's got to be a better way than the iron-on sheets you send through your inkjet printer. i mean, they work really well... but they fade & crack so fast it's frustrating. the last set i made (yeah, that's a wooden yacht being paddled by an indian. it's an inside joke for a few of us at work.) printed & transferred beautifully, but the first time i washed it the image came out all cracked. so now it looks "vintage", i suppose, which isn't necessarily bad but it's not what i wanted.

i found a tutorial on fake screen printing using sheer material and modge podge. i may give that a try. it's worth a shot. i can't do a t-shirt binge when i know i'm going to be unhappy with the t-shirts after they're washed the first time. not that the cracking has kept me from wearing the yacht t-shirt, but you know what i mean.

most wanted t-shirts: ban the burst, dropshadow with discretion, my mom rocks, and some sort of pirate rock band shirt (open for suggestions on the name).

glass bead making

yesterday i took a glass bead making class with becca & april. we were all looking for something new & creative to do, and we had a great time. everyone in the class walked away with 5 beads. from left to right...

the plain bead: the first bead we made. mine looks a little more creative than it actually was because of the gray streaking. it was made with just a red glass rod, but the red glass struck to gray as it was heated. so it gave it a cool swirl effect. i did my plain bead with four flat sides. i think she suggested that because i may have put too much pressure on the bead when i rolled it on the marver to smooth it out.

the spotted/striped bead: i had just watched becca do a spotted bead, so i decided i wanted to do a striped one. but i had the process of spotting in my head, so mine ended up as a mixture of the two. the spots/stripes stand out on mine, but i could have kept turning it in the flame & rolled the bead to get the yellow glass to lay flat with the black.

the two color bead: the last bead we made. we took two different rods, taped them together and used them as one rod to make the bead. i had a transparent green and an opaque green. i really like how this one came out, even if the hole isn't exactly centered.

the squished bead with frit: we all did one bead that we pressed in frit (crushed glass) and then squished flat. since my beads were all sort of barrel shaped (instead of spheres) my squished bead is a rectangle instead of a disk. but i like it. the frit was black, which looks neat on the opaque green, i think.

the millefiori bead: millefiori is kinda fun. they're these little glass disks with intricate designs in them. and you make a bead & then press the millefiori into it, then heat and smooth to smash it in there & get rid of the edges. you can still feel the edges around mine a little, but i'm okay with how it came out.

it was a good time. we're thinking we should split the cost of some supplies & have our own bead making saturday some weekend. i don't know what i'll do with the beads, but they're fun to make. a blow torch and molten glass... good times.

sew it's friday

the past couple days at work have been a little long. this weekend will be much appreciated, even if i did bring some work home with me. i'd rather work on it here than at the office. and i plan to spend much, much more time crafting than working. so many ideas!

knifty knitting

if you haven't seen the knitting goodness that can come off of the knifty knitter looms... i'm here to tell you that they rock. i don't knit. i can crochet a bit, but i have no desire to learn knitting. however, these looms have me hooked. a ball or two of yarn, a few hours in front of the tv, and you have a hat. it's ridiculously easy, and i love how they look. i even made one for myself... and i don't wear hats.

the white furry one is my cousin alyssa's, although that's my niece alicia trying it on. the two on the right are laure's and holly's. and you may remember the unhappy emily grace from the Christmas photos a couple days ago. i wonder if she still doesn't like that hat...

birthday bag

my sister's birthday is 5 days before mine. i made her a cute brown corduroy purse lined with a fun turqouise & pink fabric. i was pretty happy with how it came out, and she said one of the gals in her office wanted one, too. while i think it could be fun to sell some of my craftiness, i don't know about there being two 'becca bags in the same office. i mean, how much cute can one little office hold? oh yeah, and that would mean actually offering up some of my handiwork for non-family & friend critique. family & friends are very forgiving of the little inconsistencies that make an item handmade. i have this probably irrational and definitely self-imposed feeling that my goodies need to be ultra-professional before i offer them to the general public. maybe i need to get over that.

let the back-blogging begin

Christmas was handmade this year. there were quilted pillow ornaments with family photos and calendars filled with photos, birthdays & anniversaries for my parents, brothers & sisters. a blue & white quilt with appliqued satin stars for my grandma. mini desk calendars for friends at work. and nifty knit hats for all the Little People. i had a great time creating everything. and i definitely want to stick to this handmade thing for next year. everyone seemed to appreciate what they got, and it's always so much fun to get something handmade. even if emily grace didn't want to wear her hat while she opened the rest of her presents.