I Felt Like Felting

This is my first attempt at felted beads :) they are really fun to make! i used this tutorial. but my favourite part was the embroidering and thinking of random patterns and chosing the thread colours. i think i'll make these into a bracelet, but i think i'll also make cell phone dingly out of one or two of them. these are addictive <3

I got this roving to make the beads from this cool new yarn store in ottawa called Wabi Sabi. they also hold many knitting, weaving, spinning and felting classes which is really awesome for someone just starting out and not sure where to start. my sister and i signed up for a jewlery felting class in May. can't wait!!

two supervisors looked on.



Chunky Necklace

Made this fabric rosette necklace to wear to a wedding last summer.

Belle was the set design manager for the photoshoot :)

Floral Stuff

I think i'm obsessed with floral print. Here's a couple things i've made that are full of many many flowers. the ipod cozy is pretty old, and a bit beat up from hanging out in the depths of my purse. it used to have an elastic strap across the top that attached to the button to keep it inplace, but over time it wore out and broke off :( it's still good it's still good.

this is a lanyard i made for my camera. i love picking out colour combinations for patchwork stuff :)



Ninja Cat Thingy

Here's something i made for a friend of mine for her birthday. I'm not really sure what it is. I supose it could be key chain or something like that, but it's a ninja cat. he's watching you.

a ninja's life is lonely one.

The beast strikes. Will ninja cat escape?



Wool Dryer Ballzzz

Here's another project I've been working on for xmas presents, wool felted dryer balls! They are an all natural, eco-friendly alternative to dryer sheets (which often contain icky animal fat) or pvc dryer balls. They are made with 100% pure wool and felted twice in the washing machine. There are also several tutorials online for this project, but I found this one to be the most helpful, along with this one. For mine, I actually used 100% wool sweater scraps (I picked up the sweaters from my local second hand store) for the core, and the 100% wool roving and yarn on the outside was made in Canada by a company in NewBrunswick called Briggs and Little, which is nice. You can actually see little bits of hay and grass still in the yarn which tells me it's not over processed and gives it a more 'natural' feel, which I love. It seems to give it character somehow :)

Anyway, these were alot of fun to make and super easy :) I think I will be making some more of these for myself!

The Pleated, Zippered Purse

Here's a cute pleated purse I've been working on for xmas presents :) There are several tutorials/variations of this purse online, but I found the most helpful one to be this one. So far I've made 2 of these bags, but I plan to make morecuz they're so much fun :). My favourite part is picking out the colour schemes! so yummy :) I thought this would make a great make-up bag or evening bag for a special occasion ('cause it's got the removable wristlet strap) ...oh, and ps. sorry for the poor photos, they were taken indoors, at night time which I know is a big no-no, but here in Canada at this time of year, it's dark out when I leave home for work, and dark out again by the time I get home from work! Haha, oh Canada, gotta love it here <3

The Reversible Loop-y Bag

This was my first attempt at the ever-so-cute loop hand bag :) There are countless tutorials and variations of this bag online, so take your pick but I think I first saw it on Martha Stewart of all places. I ended up giving this one to my sister for xmas, but I think i'll make another one for myself!
                                       

Paper Things....

tags and business cards! hand printed with hand made lino bloc stamps :D and yes, for these i broke down and bought an ink pad. i also plan on making some fabric labels with these stamps, and may also attempt to make an acetate stencil for bleach printing on darker fabrics. i'll post pics of those once i finish them. many many ideaaasssss.......

Halloween and HTML...

So i got all 3 Halloween costumes done on time and Halloween was a blast :D I went to 2 separate parties so i had 2 costumes. All 3 costumes we made from scratch, with no patterns (i've always hated patterns ;P). The first pic is of me and my fiance Scott as Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and the second and third pics are of me as a unicorn pooping cupcakes (although you can't really see the cupcakes very well in these pics). These were alot of fun to make! Scott even helped sew the black spots onto his costume! i was very impressed.
Anyway, now that Halloween is over i've also decided to start learning html so that i can design my own website (knowing absolutely NOTHING about coding at ALL), and wow, i finding pretty quickly that it's pretty complicated for a beginner, but i've come across some really great resources by just google-ing tutorials. One that i found extremely helpful was W3Schools.
it's gonna be a lot of work but i have a feeling it'll be really rewarding in the end, not to mention useful!
I'm also gonna get back to work on my custom stamps and, after a bit of researching, have decided to make my own handmade, business cards :) I'm also having fun making some hand-coloured stickers. i'll post some pics of those soon!

Stampy Stamp Time

So i've started making some handmade rubber stamps. Used to do this alot for school when i was in highschool.

I'm using some soft lino block and speed ball, which you can get from most art supply stores (my favs here in Ottawa are Wallack's and De Serres), and i used plain ol' graphite pencil to transfer my image onto the lino.

Next i used the speed ball to carve around the design.

if you're too cheap like me to buy an ink pad, then you can just use some markers that you have around the house to colour on the stamp, and print!

Abe helped :)