The Christmas Hat and a Christmas Card

We’ve had a couple of cold windy days here in Ontario with more to come with the weekend including a lot of rain. The only good news is I’ve had time to get some much needed quilting done and finished some cards and scrapbook layouts. My girls all requested quilted placemats, table runners and bowl pot holders for the microwave (for heating up soup, buns, etc) for Christmas this year. These bowl-shaped pot holders are wonderful. You sit the bowl in the pot holder and heat and then you can pick up the bowl with the pot holder with no concern about the pot holder slipping. It turns out all these things take as much time to make and quilt as a full size quilt!

One of my faithful readers of this blog, Jinnnxygirl, wanted to see the hat I made for our Christmas Quilt Guild meeting. I had Joe take a picture of me wearing it but it didn’t do it justice…..which I’m using in the most liberal way ever! Here is a close up of the hat.

And an even closer look. Yes it has lights! 

  I wasn't the only crazy person wearing a crazy hat...no wait, I  meant to say, I wasn't the only person wearing a crazy hat...or maybe the first one was right!!! Anyway, one lady had a hat like this but she put a small 12" Christmas tree on hers...but no lights! 

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And now for the card!  I believe you can enter more than one card at the ScrapyLand challenge so that's what I'm going to do: http://www.scrapyland-blog.com/

I found these birds on the Internet doing a free digital stamp search and just loved them. Here’s the first of many cards I made and the others will be posted in the future.

The bird was coloured with pencils; blended with gamsol…as per usual. A sparkly gel pen was used over the snowflakes to give them some shimmer. Spellbinder dies were used to die cut the squares and Stampin’ Up dies were used for the stitched oval dies. The white background was run through a Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. The sentiment was heat embossed in white and then blue ink was sponged over top. The embossing resists the ink. I think this card is going to go to one of my great-nieces. She has an identical twin plus a brother who made up the rest of the triplets plus one older brother…busy household for sure. I have another similar bird for her sister but not sure what I’ll make for the two boys yet.

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards or other items I post to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know so I fix it. Thanks.

Frightful Night House

Something very different to post today! I was doing the blog check the other day and came across a wonderfully talented mixed media artist, www.dianesalter.blogspot.ca, and fell in love with these little wooden houses she made. Well, wouldn't you know it but the very next day my hubby's cousin stopped in for a visit (and brought some squash from his garden for us) and he happens to be a carpenter. I asked him if he had some left over pieces of wood, say 4" by 7" or 10" or 12" etc that he could cut into a point at the top like a house roof and he assured me he did. His wife, bless her soul, piped up and told him it would be even better if he routed the edges instead of leaving them sharp. Now, I kept telling him, scraps of wood, any type but the guy is a carpenter and his scraps were maple. Nice..and yet he didn't charge me much for them...even nicer! He had no idea what I was going to do with them and, like my husband, doesn't ask anymore but he dropped them off Tuesday morning (along with more squash and some cabbages and homemade tomato juice - delish!). I couldn't wait to get at them but I didn't feel well Tuesday so I let them sit...and while I sat, I plotted a course of action!  Once he sees what I did to his beautiful piece of maple he'll probably think "I should have given her plywood!"...which would work too.

By all means, pop over to Diane's site and check out her work. Incredible!! Now, her's are professionally completed and lovely and whimsical with birds and butterflies, etc. but mine is a wee bit different. Here's what I came up with.

Hey, Halloween is fast approaching so I just had to make a fright house. The house is 4" wide and about 12" before the peak starts. This cannot be hung outdoors though because it has a lot of paper on it. I didn't have any wood parts for the peak so its paper too. (I'll have to come up with a plan for this bit for the next house) The paper is all from a Tim Holtz mini pack. After adhering the paper down with Mod Podge I used some paint and ink and stamps and stencils to add some dimension.

The raven, tombstone and owl were die cut and assembled using some Sizzix dies and they have a piece of thin meat tray liner behind them to make them stand out a bit. (I know a meat tray liner in a vegetarian house - my friend gave them to me because it is one thing that never comes into this house) 

The skull and spider webs came from the fabric store and they are actually heat set type but I just glued them down. Lots of shading and bit and pieces added. The strip at the bottom is a piece of transparency that I stamped some skulls on (on the rough side) and then Mod Podged it down.

The sides had a coat of white Gesso first and then black acrylic paint that I wiped down while wet so they look streaky and weathered. Not sure what I'll do with the other five houses but stay tuned!



Happy New Year - and What Hat to Wear Wall-Hanging

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy New Year - may it be filled with love and laughter shared with family and friends -  and may you have the strength and courage to face any pitfalls that may crop up!

I saw this on the Internet and thought I'd share it:

The New year is before you, like a spotless tract of snow. Be careful how you tread on it, for every mark will show!             Isn't that the truth!

If you have been following my blog for awhile you will note that I have many hobbies - sometimes too many as I'm quite often torn at which one to work on. In 2010 our quilt guild had a challenge to make a small wall-hanging that depicts us. Well, that was an easy one for me! Here's my entry.

Hubby quite often says to me "So, what hat are wearing today?" So, I went with that theme. I simply downloaded some hats from free clip-art sources, copied them to Steam-a-Seam, and cut out various hats in various colours. I had to hand write the title on each hat because, poor me, I do not have embroidery machine. Then I printed off a picture of me onto fabric and fused one hat on top of another, on top of my head. I added a simple border and echo quilted it. As you can see, I won 2nd prize. Cool!

 

Mixed Media Challenge for August 29, 2011

This is the first of the four mixed media pieces that I have made that I actually, sort of, like. The others are..well, their there sitting in a pile in the corner. Not excited about them. This week's challenge was to use a stamp - easy one, I pretty much always use a stamp. Here it is.

The face of the little girl with the cat on her head was likely from the same site I usually download these from - Clearly Vintage. This week I just quit fuzzing over every little thing and whacked it together as ideas came to me. Probably not the "normal" way mixed media artists work but then again, that's me!

Earthquake in Ontario?? ...and storage dilemma

Wow, the talk around here is the earthquake that was felt in Southern Ontario that originated down in Virginia, U.S.A. Joe and I didn't feel it here at our house but my sister-in-law who lives across town felt it. She lives on the 4th floor and she said it actually moved her computer tower. Hopefully no one was hurt anywhere. This happening just after a F3 tornado touched down in Goderich, ON on Sunday which destroyed the heart of that town and caused one death is a bit too much.

However, life goes on and we must be grateful for every day here on earth - good or bad because it's better then the alternative. When people remark that I handle dealing with two rare brain disorders so well I always tell them "Every day this side of the dirt is a good one"!

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Now on to the storage dilemma. Are any of you thrifters?..you know, those that wander thru thrift stores? I love to go. Never know what you are going to find. On Saturday I went over to Value Village and found a bag of stamps - one large background stamp, one new Making Memories 4 flower stamps and a new package of alphabet stamps and some other things - $4.99! and a brand new, hand made but well made bird house - $2.99 and some of those brand new satin/foam covered hangers...I think I picked up 6 for $3.99 or so. Oh, I'm drifting away from the topic...sorry.

So, I was wandering thru the thrift store one day and found one of those old storage containers that held the very large floppy disks from the 80's. I sort of wondered if it would hold DVD or CD cases so one of the young guys that work there went and got one and it fit fine. Bought it for $1.99 I think. It was pretty plain and marked up so I thought I'd pretty it up some. Phase 1 - covered it with alcohol inks. Here it is:

Better but still rather blah!

Next Phase - Flowers and birds. I cut out dozens of pictures of flowers and birds and glued them on with ModPodge. Here it is:

Better but rather bright now!

So on to Phase Three: I painted watered down brown paint all over it and wiped it off immediately. This toned down the bright colours and made a more pleasing effect. Here are a couple of close-ups of it.

There is just a subtle difference.

So I put all my Spellbinder dies into blank CD cases and put them in. Oh, oh they didn't all fit. It's not as big as I thought it was.

And I couldn't fit the dividers in that I had already labeled. And to make it worse....

.....it doesn't close. Well, most of them fit in but it's not really working for me without the dividers......another Virgo thing. So, any suggestions on how to store those Spellbinder dies? If so, please leave your suggestions on the comment section for others to view too.

My Easter Bonnet

Happy Easter everyone! What a nice weekend - well the last two days anyway. Good Friday was raining but then again, it seems to me almost every Good Friday brings rain regardless of what month it falls on.

Our quilt guild was held last Wed. night and the theme, of course, was Easter. We were to wear our hand-crafted Easter Bonnets. Yours truly had to do this of course. Anything for a laugh. Here's my hat:

Oh yeah, I decided I may as well have a funny Easter vest to go along with it. The eggs hanging off the hat was a big hit. I should have moved them out a bit out of my line of vision. I kept telling people I had the largest eye floaters ever!
Now when I showed this hat to my hubby he said "You are going to leave it at the meeting right?"
Me - "No way! This is my Easter bonnet and I'm wearing it to church on Sunday!"
Him - "Not if you're sitting beside me you're not!!!"

Well, my friend took this picture of me wearing my hat but I was standing and she was sitting so it was not the best angle so I decided to take another picture this morning. I was ready for church before hubby - as usual - so I took the hat out of the spare room closet and he saw me with it. "What are doing with that thing now?"
Me - "It's my Easter bonnet. I'm wearing it to church".
Him - "Then I'm not going!"
Me - "Oh go put your pants on. I'm just kidding."

Mmmmhh. I think I do so many things for a laugh he never knows when I'm kidding or not. But I was kidding. I just wanted to take a better picture of the hat. I figure the quilt guild will likely do this every year so every year I'll just add something new to it. I already have the next two years additions planned!  Here's the hat sitting on a fan.

And the back of the hat:

Yes, there is one flower poked into the very centre of the top of the hat!

Tipped Flower Pots

After spending some time visiting the sister-in-law at the hosptial I decided to make another card for my sister who has colon cancer surgery coming up.  The picture on the front is a photograph of the corner of my backyard. I love my tipped pots! So cool how they look like they are ready to fall over, but won't.

Super Hero Sock Monkey

Yet another crafty project. My newest and sweet grandson has a room decorated with jungle animals...with lots of monkeys. His aunt is a huge monkey fan and she says it is genetic so he has to love monkeys too. So, I decided to make him a sock monkey. A friend of mine gave me the pattern and the authentic, original sock monkey socks...but I recently saw the socks at Hobby Lobby in Port Huron if anyone wants some.  Now my friend makes shirts, pants, dresses, etc for her sock monkeys but I was running out of time and trying to draft patterns for sock monkeys is not easy - so I adjusted a pair of shorts from a doll pattern - besides being an odd size, sock monkeys have tails! - and then decided to make him into a super hero. Capes are much easier to make them shirts for a sock monkey! 
So here is the super hero sock monkey. He is sitting on our porch waiting to go to his new owner.

and at his new home

and with his new owner - and mom

...told you he was a sweetie - the baby that is!

Getting you caught up-to-date

Here are some of the other things I make - just to give you an idea of how I spend my time!

An old milk can I painted for a guy. This is the old Blue Water Bridge from the 60's I think. He did a "body job" on my two old cans in exchange for painting his. I still have mine to do....this winter's project.

South African dolls. These are typically made by mothers for their daughters when they "become of age" (around 13)!!! A friend of mine is from South Africa and she gave me a piece of gift wrap paper with pictures on them and challenged me to make one...so I did. Actually made two as my daughter, Janette, requested one.

Father Christmas! Loved creating this one.

A wizard my daughter requested. Not the best shot but it was before digital!

These are weird I know but I like them. Hubby always sweeps the driveway after cutting the lawn and uses straw brooms. He wears them down on an angle so instead of sending them to a landfill I created broom people out of them.

I love to paint! This is just a Christmas sign I made a few years ago.

Last entry for the day. This is a hand appliqued lighthouse I made for hubby. My first attempt at hand appliqueing - might be last too.

Mixed Media Tree

This is my first post so bear with me! I belong to the Chatham-Kent Quilter's Guild and they had a challenge last year that I participated in. We were given a 6" piece of non-traditional Christmas fabric and told to make something out of it but it had to be: a Christmas themed project and based on a Christmas song. Most of the other quilters made small wall-hangings but I had to do something different. I have enough small wall-hangings from other challenges. So here's my entry - which didn't win of course. I knew it wouldn't when I made it as the wall-hangings always win....but I sure had fun making it!