Learning to Knit!

I've known how to crochet since I was a kid and really enjoy it when the mood strikes me. As I've been going through my very old stash of yarn, I've found a desire to make something wearable. However, alot of crocheted clothing tends toward the bulky, thick style due to the way yarn is wrapped multiple times around itself for each stitch. You would have to crochet with something almost threadlike yarn to come up with a fine, light weight item.

Knitting however, uses much less yarn per stitch and can result in a much lighter weight, finer textured finished product. But alas... I don't know how to knit. And even being a creative yarn lover, it seems daunting to have 2 sticks instead of one, no hooked end to grab the yarn with and the requirement that both sticks need to move in a coordinating fashion, all while the correct tension is held to the working yarn and many stitches are held open, as opposed to just one at a time. Yikes!

So I decided to take a class... Renaissance Yarns has many classes to choose from but the best for a total newby is of course Knitting 101. The first week you learn to hold the needles, keep the tension and do the knit (garter) stitch while making a lovely scarf from pure Peruvian wool that you can, of course, purchase in their store.

It was a wonderful experience! With an excellent teacher, it turns out an old dog really can learn new tricks and even have fun at it! I found knitting to be instantly addictive, relaxing and therapuetic and can't wait to see what is next...

Winter Hibernation = Time to Play with Yarn

Aside from very occasionally taking a crochet project with me on a road trip, I have done very little crafting with yarn over the last 10 years. It isn't that I never got into it or don't have the skill; just somehow lifes distractions (and maybe the learning curve and excitement of my newer hobbies; quilting and papercrafting?) drew me away from it.

This winter, I've been on a mission to be at home a little more frequently, organize around the house, go through boxes that have never been opened since our move over 4 years ago and finish some of the projects that had been started as long as 15 years ago.

Yes, I am a project starter and I do like to have multiple projects to switch to so that I'm never bored or tired of the one I'm working on. I'm OK with that and don't really consider it a flaw but the problem is, I've now lived long enough to have too many UFO's (unfinished objects).

While going through some tubs in the attic, I came across my yarn and yarn projects, some of them soooo close to completion! I pulled out an afghan, abandon the attic project and went to work on it. Just a couple of hours of work and a few days later, it was done and gorgeous! (And I didn't take a picture before it got away). I was so excited with this and so enjoyed cuddling up with it while I worked on it, I immediately started the next one (and also failed to take a photo of it). The third one was a baby afghan, done in white sport weight yarn with a silky white thread woven in. It is very nice close up but somewhat lacked interest overall or especially from any distance. I went back to organizing and tackled a messy, tangled box of ribbon. Ribbon? Yes! That's what the baby afghan needed. So now it is complete too and this time... I took a photos. :-)

Participating in Mojo Monday Card Challenge

Every Monday, http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/ posts a new card challenge. They provide a sketch on which to base your creation. You create a card, take a photo and upload a link to the photo to post on their blog in order to participate in the contest. It doesn't have to be done that day, posting is allowed until the following Sunday evening. The first week of each month usually involves actual prizes for the top picks. My friend Stephanie has been participating for a while and worked hard to motivate me to join the fun. I'd been on a paper crafting hiatus since the cold weather had me craving cozy yarn projects instead. Finally this week I agreed to participate. Though I have most all of the elements of the sketch, my scale and orientation are quite different. Here is the sketch;

And here is my card; I used CTMH Miracle paper set and stamped the leafy medallion from Stampin' Up!'s Day of Gratitude stamp set. I love the effect of the design extending past the card edge but that does make it tough to mail.

Overall, it was fun and not as daunting a task as I thought to come up with a card from the sketch and I think it has me almost back to my card making groove... Thanks Stephanie!

Quick and Cute Invitations

It's 10pm the night before an event I'm attending where I would like to hand deliver invitations to some of my friends... I hadn't planned what they would look like but knew that I would like them to have at least a little handmade flair. After several attempts and a huge mess made by pulling out all my ribbons, paper, embellishments and stamps, I still had nothing acceptable. 11:30pm and getting desperate, I remembered a boxed set of stationary I had put in my "repurpose" pile a while back. Well, their time had come...

On the vellum pocket, I stamped the adorable sewing machine from http://www.lawnfawn.com/ with VersaMark, sprinkled it with gold embossing tinsel and heat set it. I had no problems with the vellum curling or melting and no problem with stray bits of powder/tinsel sticking where I didn't want it. The vellum was actually the friendliest surface I have heat embossed on so far. Also, this was my first experience with the Lawn Fawn stamps and I was impressed! Very high quality stamp and image!

The little green branch is a punch from Stampin' Up! called Two Step Bird. This has turned out to be a much more versatile punch than I would have thought. For adhering tiny pieces like the stem on this, I use Zig Fine Tip Two Way Glue. Add to the branch a few tiny red glass beads adhered with Aleene's Tacky Glue and done! Once I got going, these went together quickly and they were a hit the next day. The dimension and texture that made these feel extra special is hard to see here but definitely made the difference.

A set of Hand Made Thank You Cards

This set of cards was created as part of a wedding gift. All cards are done in the wedding colors of black, white and silver. The card on the right is my card to the bride and groom. I used an embossing folder from Cuttlebug, an EK Success edge punch on the lower edge of the black mat, a la mode black embossing powder on the corner stamps and the Mr and Mrs (from a Close To My Heart set) and 7/8" black grosgrain ribbon.

These next few cards were inspired by the floral stamp, which I stamped in silver metallic chalk ink. It stays wet quite a while and is easy to smudge so let it dry for a bit or heat set it. More embossing folders from Cuttlebug used on these along with ribbons, rhinestones and brads...

A double layer of ribbon was used on this one along with a little butterfly from a Stampin' Up! embosslit called Beautiful Wings. The sentiment has been stamped on the inside in this case. Also, those are flat backed pearls on this one.

Though hard to see in these photos, the floral stamped piece is raised with a few little pieces of 3M foam tape. Gives a great 3D affect in person and brings the focus to that piece.

Black rhinestones on this one. Also, on the above cards, I enjoyed making an extra narrow border edge by cutting the back piece only 1/8" bigger than the piece on top. Usually I do 1/4" like the below cards but for some reason I was in a narrow mood and really liked the outcome.

This card features the Spellbinders "Labels Three" and is spritzed with Smooch Spritz (which you can't really see in this pic), one of my new favorite things as of this project!

More butterfly's from the Stampin' Up! embosslit. They are cut in solid black and spritzed as well.

Usually when I buy the rhinestone shapes, I just cut them up and use the individual stones but this time, I couldn't bear to ruin that shape so someone gets all those rhinestones on one card! Hope they feel special ;-).

The card (above) and the next few are a bit simpler as far as embellishments go. I used some glitter card stock from a mat stack and tried to do designs that used exactly 1/2 or 1/3 of the mat sized piece so I could completely use the 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" paper and have 2 or 3 cards from it. Turns out these mat stacks are great!! Most of the time I have bought 12x12" paper and that is alto of paper! (Great for using on the full sized Cricut) But these small sized pieces are awesome for card making. Another of my new favorite things!

On this card, I dry embossed just the lower edge of a card.

Also, on these cards, my thrifty streak continued as I used narrow black paper scraps for the band across front.

This card was inspired by my "Little Sister" Rhia (from Big Brothers Big Sisters). She designed one very much like it and it was only her second card ever! On the black scrap band, I stamped the Thanks! which shows up just fine in person. Also, on this card I accentuated one of the argyle diamonds with 4 rhinestones (hard to see).

A quick shout out to my friend Stephanie at http://dawsondesigns.wordpress.com/. She is an inspiration and such a sweetheart! Many of the embossed white and silver papers in these cards were embossed by her and given to me a while back before I had an embossing tool of my own. Thanks Stephanie!