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I made a Spectacle of myself!
Yesterday the DD and I made some Martha Stewart tulip flowers from crepe paper. They turned out beautiful, and we had many laughs making them. And I do mean many laughs.
On the petal template near the bottom there was a line with arrows on both ends that said Cut here. So after we had our petals neatly cut out I decided that my beautiful Gingher Bianca Embroidery Scissors would be perfect for cutting that tiny slit. We continued on with the flowers, and after they were finished I commented as I had already done several times, that it seemed really dumb to have that slit. We never used it for anything, and it made the petals look a little funny.
As I was tidying up our mess I noticed that the petal template actually said Cup here instead of Cut here. That was the area that you were supposed pull and stretch the crepe paper to make the petals more rounded. Oh my goodness did we laugh! Now where did I put my reading glasses?
Paint Me a New Room Please
There are times when I miss painting. In the house we live in now it's very hard for me to paint. I want to be able to leave everything out, and I just don't have the space here. It really is necessary to leave things out because there needs to be drying times, and stand-back-and-look times. I usually hate what I'm doing at the time I'm doing it, but after a few days the object usually looks much better. As I'm painting my eyes seem to pick every little detail apart, when actually the flaws aren't really noticeable.
As I've mentioned before I really like Donna Dewberry's method. She has come so far and has a ton of Donna Dewberry One Stroke books out now. She even has her on line of One Stroke brushes, and different brushes for different surfaces - like fabric, paper, canvas, and I think a few more. Dang I wish I had invented this method!
A Tisket, A Tasket, A pretty Stamped Basket
What fun we had! I love bonding time with my daughter, and we always bond when we do a craft together. We just finished up some pretty cards using an Anna Griffin Rubber Stamp that I believe was called Basket Motif. It is a pretty tall slender basket brimming with roses. We stamped with a buttery yellow on cream cardstock. Then we used pop dots to attach that piece to to a card made from yellow cardstock. We finished them off with a cream ribbon. They look very elegant, and I think I might use them for Easter cards this year.
Stamped versus Counted
Have you ever tried Stamped Cross Stitch? The fabric comes with the design stamped on with washable ink. Then you can work the design with embroidery floss using mostly cross stitches, and sometimes other embroidery stitches. Some people call it No Count Cross stitch, for obvious reasons.
If you normally do counted cross stitch, Stamped Cross Stitch Kits are a nice change of pace. Sometimes the projects don't come out as "perfect" as counted cross stitch, but usually they aren't pictures to be hung on the wall. So it really doesn't matter as much. I personally like quilts and tablecloths. There are some beautiful Bucilla quilting stamped cross stitch kits. And of course there are dresser scarves, but I don't know if people really use those very often anymore. Maybe on antique furniture, but I'm not sure. Lap Quilts seem to be popular, and I guess that's because they are faster to make than bed quilts. You can use them as a throw, or hang them on the wall as a decoration.
Do you do stamped cross stitch? I would love to hear what projects you have going on.
I knew her when...
When I was selling my painted wooden pieces at craft shows, I was always on the look out for cute patterns. I bought many decorative painting books. I bought one book that had painting on watering cans and metal buckets. I think it was called Wildflowers and watering cans, or something like that. It was a very good book and taught me quicker methods of painting than I had previously used. This same painter had another book out that I think was called Double Loading. I could paint much quicker with her method and I then began to do my pieces with an assembly line strategy. For me time was money. And it worked rather well. Have you guessed who the painter was that wrote the books? It was Donna Dewberry, long before her method was referred to as One Stroke. I think it's cool that I now sell her books and supplies. I have always loved her! So thank you Donna!
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