Lack of motivation!

I'm not sure if it is because of the hectic summer, the messy craft room, financial problems (both cars broke down within 2 weeks of each other) or general Crafter's Block (like writer's block), but I have been highly unmotivated to create anything. I haven't been sewing, playing with poly clay, making jewelry, creating digital art .... nothing. Well, not nothing, but not really anything to write home about. I glued some ribbon to some D-rings to make a collar for my daughter's stuffed dog. I also created an image for hubby's LARP to iron onto a shirt. I might post that, because it's amusing to me.
I am throwing a birthday party for my 2 little ones this weekend. My son turns 9 tomorrow (OMG!) and my daughter turned 4 on the 3rd. I'll have to clean up the crafty room so the guests don't see that I craft in chaos! My daughter also started preschool this year. I now have 2 hours free on Tues and Thurs! I'm hoping those two things combined will help motivate me to be more crafty. I have patterns I bought months and months ago and never used. I have lots of projects in mind that I would like to make, but lack the motivation to get started. First on the list is a play house made from old bedsheets that fits over a table. I thought I had the inspiration bookmarked, but can't seem to find it. The kids are always making forts out of blankets, so I thought this would be a good solution for them.
After a google search, I found this: http://nothingfancyschmancy.blogspot.com/2008/06/table-playhouse-tent.html It just slips over the table, can be folded up when not in use. I wouldn't make mine so girly (my son will want to use it too, I'm sure), or as coordinated (I'll be using whatever large scraps I can find around the house), but you get the general idea.

Well, that's it from me. Hopefully it won't be so long before I update again. Right now i have to hop in the shower before I bike 2 miles to pick son up from school. It's nice weather and good exercise, but I miss having a working car! It's hard work towing a 4 yr old behind you in a trailer. Hubby is going car shopping tonight - keep your fingers cross we get a good deal!

[CraftFail] Sun Hat

I decided to make some sun hats after being inspired by this post on Craftster.org. I was a little confused about how she made the brim, so I also used these instructions. Well ... I kept them in mind while I cut pattern pieces. I didn't really take the time to fully understand and think about what I was doing and forgot to add seam allowances to half of the pieces. At least that's what I think I did...



Looks cute right? BTW, that's purple check. Purple is hard to photograph, apparently (especially with my phone's camera).
Let's take a closer look...


Yep, that giant fold in the brim is because I had the correct measurements for the brim but not the rest of the hat. How do I know the brim was right and the rest was wrong?



Look how tight this hat is!!


...fail.

My new haircut

I know this isn't really very crafty - at least not for me since I didn't cut it myself.... but I wanted to share :)
Before:





















After:


And just for giggles.... I drove 10 hrs to pick the kids up from their vacation and got driver's sunburm.

Beaded Pendant & Mason Jar Pincusion

No, these projects are not related, but they are both small so I tossed them in the same post instead of doing two separate posts. I was going to make more of the pendants (and probably still will. I just don't have a time frame yet) but for now this is all I have. I actually made this for a contest on deviantART. I should find out how I did by tomorrow (I hope). That's when the contest ends, anyway. Who knows how long judging will take.


Here is my entry. It's pretty big. You can click the thumbnail to see the full size.
I teamed up with phoenixleo. He created the fractal. I printed it out, transferred it to a thin piece of polymer clay and beaded around it. The beading holds it to the felt - no glue needed! I'd like to make more of these so I can practice the peyote stitch. That's what gave me the most trouble, though I hadn't beaded like this in a long time so it took a little time to get the hang of it again.
This is part of our joint entry - my solo entry being the bottlecap jewelry.



I also made a pincushion out of a mason jar (canning jar). It was more difficult than I had anticipated only because adding bulk to the lid makes it hard (or impossible) to shut. I had to fiddle with it quite a bit to get it to fit. The inside of the lid is not as pretty as it could be, but the buttons in the jar make up for it, right? Plus, the lid shuts now, and that's important, ha ha!


I had tried to find these jars at the resale shop, hoping to get a deal on 6 or more of them. Unfortunately, none of the jars I found had lids. I finally found some at Hobby Lobby for $1.25 each. i wonder if they are cheaper to buy from the grocery store in sets of 4-6 or how ever many come in a box. I've been thinking about things that would be cute to sell at a craft faire. I think these would be wonderful. Could even make them into mini sewing kits, or a starter sewing kit, or something.

I should really be working on my altoid tin for a swap, but I am easily distracted by small side projects. The tin is done, I just need to work on the fillers. I also have 2 more tins half decorated, waiting to be turned into things like candles, sewing kits, first aid kits, etc. I'll get to those eventually, too.

Whoops, almost forgot to add the links.
Inspiration for beaded pendant
Pincushion tutorial

What have you been crafting lately?

I-Spy/Treasure Hunt Bags

I had come across this tutorial on Craftster a while back (pre-Christmas) and decided I needed to make a few. I finally got around to it yesterday. Unfortunately, my internet went down (for over 14 hours, GRR) just as I decided I wanted to make them, so I couldn't use that wonderful tutorial and had to wing it on my own. But I wanted to share the link because it's where I got my inspiration. Here's my results:






Here they are all together







And separately:


Each bag has 27 items in it. Of course I thought of more ideas AFTER I sewed them shut. Hubby thought I should add some kind of opening so the items could be swapped out - but I had horrible visions of rice meeting carpet and vetoed that idea.
I forgot to take a pic of it, but behind the image card is another card with a word list of all items in the bag.
I like the button hole to hold the cards on, but would like to try some other methods. I'll have to find some more friends with kids who would enjoy a toy like this. (Hubby likes them, too.)

And now I am off to play with some polymer clay. Hopefully I can at least finish the altoid tins I have been staring at for days now. I have another craft in mind, but I need to find a good base ... and maybe the right supplies.

One Tiny Thing Swap

My partner (deadbathducky) received her package so I can post pics! For the One Tiny Thing Swap you give your partner a list of 5 themes which they choose from to make you ... one tiny thing. Must be 4" or smaller. One of my partner's themes was a Survival Kit (First Aid Kit).

This is the top. I tried a new caning technique and love how it turned out! I want to cover a tin (or two) for myself now! I actually do have plans to cover 3 more tins - 2 for myself and 1 for another swap. I want to cover my little sewing kit that I keep in a tin and make a candle in a tin. I'm not entirely sure what I am going to do for the other swap yet. I'm still brewing ideas. BUT! Back to this particular swap...





Here is the side. It's black clay textured with a texture sheet and rubbed with silver mica powder. I love how this turned out, too. the bottom has the same texture and was also rubbed with the powder.






And the contents. Band-aids, antibiotic wipes and cream, pain killers, tweezers, etc. The little roll of tape didn't make it in. The bottom and top of the inside were covered in origami paper and there was a little emergency magnet stuck to the top where you can store important numbers to call in case of emergency.





Well, that's it. Now I am just waiting to see what nifty tiny thing my partner made me. I'm so excited! In the mean time I need to get working on some other crafty projects.

Father's Day, Eyeball T-shirts & Windows Vista Gadgets

First of all I want to wish all the dads out there a wonderful, happy Father's Day! I have some fond memories of when I was younger. Making "Chicken McRicks," having "must-gos" for dinner, going on my first roller coaster, getting my first cat, going to the beach and Disney Land, and one of my favorites: him playing the guitar for me.
As I posted earlier, the shirt i made for hubby for Father's day was given to him about a week earlier because 3yr olds don't know the meaning of "keeping a secret." I did manage to hide the shirt the kids made for him though. They gave it to him this morning and he loves it. My mother-in-law bought a kit and sent it out to me.
_{all thumbnail pictures may be clicked for larger view}



I found the wonders of Windows Vista Gadgets. I am posting this from the Blogger gadget. It's a small-ish window I can drag to my desktop to post blogs instead of having to log into the website. I think it would be great if I didn't post pictures in every blog, but it seems to be a little more work to post pictures through the gadget than through the website - especially when needing to re-size them. Plus, my firefox spell check doesn't work, ha ha! I'm betting I will need to go back and edit this post so the pictures are okay.

And finally, the crafty bit! I saw this clip on Martha Stewart about making Eyeball T-shirts. Martha had found them on Creative Kismet's blog, specifically here. They are much faster to make than I thought.
Front of son's shirt:


And the back:


My daughter wearing her shirt (couldn't get son out of PJs, ha ha!)


And the Back


And a close-up of the eyeball:


I think I am going to see if my nephew would like an eyeball shirt. Then I have something fun to bring him when I visit next month.
Well, I think that's all for today. I hope this post turns out okay - we'll see if blogger gadget for Vista is worth it (I don't think the Facebook one is).

Edit: Blogger Gadget failed to post my blog, had to copy/paste everything and log into blogger the old fashioned way. Will play with it more and see if it was operator error.