July 2, 2017

Crafty Catch Up

So by now you probably all think I've dropped off the planet, well I haven't, but I haven't been doing a whole lot of crafty things either (although you won't know that by the number of things I put up here for you to see.

Crafting didn't happen much over summer because I was working nearly every day. Easter holidays I took a break, but most of my crafty endeavours were pretty boring - mending or altering clothes - something I am now able to do since I bought a new sewing machine at the end of last year ... FINALLY!

These are the cards I've made since my last update:







 There were baby cards, flowers, Zentangle, 3D, 2D; one I had done as a Make & Take at a craft show several years ago and I just tweaked it by adding a couple of extra elements; others that used things that had been in my stash for a long time.


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Then there were some other crafty things. Do you remember the letter 'B' that I did as wall decor?
Well, I have now done another letter - this one for a special friend (not the same friend as for the Zentangle style card above).


The vine actually goes around the side of the letter.

Other Zentangle things that I have been doing is making playing card size step-by-step instructions of a lot of different tangles so that I can take them with me when I go places, without having to take multiple heavy books.

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This year I purchased a calendar that needs to be coloured in, so I have progressively been doing that. I think I've coloured up to September, so I'll need to work on that a bit more. Each month has a picture and Bible verse. I have been using coloured fine liner pens to emphasise the verse most months, then used coloured pencils for the pictures. There was one month were I stuck a different picture over the top of what was there because I didn't like it, but otherwise I have been very happy with the calendar.

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I also made a couple more memory books (have a look at this post if you want to see what I've done previously). I was thinking of trying a different approach for these, as I don't always want to have things punched at the sides or tucked in pockets. This led me to try to find out different ways that people have stored/displayed their memories, resulting in me watching a lot of YouTube videos, but still not finding something that works for me. So I've found out about Smash Books, Junk Journals ...

...but I still haven't worked out what I want to do.

In the past I used purchased journals and stuck things in, but the sizes were usually too small and the books bulged and wouldn't close properly (I did learn a secret about this and a possible solution). Even the bound memory books that I have made still bulge, but I can't get bigger Bind-It-All wires (I got the largest size that I could).

So my memory preservation journey continues ...

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The secret project from last year is still a work in progress, but I have changed my mind about it. That's not to say that I won't finish it, but the intended recipient has changed and I am still deciding what I will do with the project once it is finished. I do have a different secret project happening ... which reminds me, I need to get a move on and do some more work on it. You might find out what it is if you have paid careful attention to my side bar ... hint, hint!

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The only other craft-ish thing that I have been doing is having some fun decorating my everyday diary. Mostly with stickers and washi tape. Some stickers from my stash and some that I made myself with printed pictures, little pictures from magazines and even some pictures from packaging (thank you Kikki.K). Last night I went a little overboard with some flower stickers, but I was trying to use them up.