Felt Flowers Animation

Also experimenting with how to get the video out easiest. This is uploaded to You Tube, then imported to Blogger. Is this one easier to see?

A Fishy Tale

Of course, it's a fishy tail. ;p
I found clip art of a sun fish of some type, and modified it into my own little fishy. Not much is stitched so far, just the spots on the eye and the, well, spot, and the parts of the tail. Each stripe will get some embroidery on it as well, and it will all get stitched together, with probably some details in the water as well.
I've really been liking using bright colors, imagining colors where they don't normally go, I started that idea with colored pencils and water color a few years ago, and am now bringing it into felt. But I think in the water it would be very cool to try using an almost exact color thread in different embroidery techniques or shapes. Then it would be almost hidden.
I'm thinking of these full sized felt pieces as Felt Painting. I'm not sure if that's the best term or not, but it's a work in progress term for a work in progress work.

On my desk

Thought it was time again to share what's on my desk at work.
I have a nice desk job, where I get to leave right at 5, and not worry about work until I'm back in the morning. (and lucky to be close enough to go home for lunch) I'm very thankful to have a nice desk job, even tho sure, I do sometimes complain about something or another. But hey, who else gets Arbor Day off as a holiday?
Anyway. We also get the standard two 15 minute breaks each day. So I use my time creatively. If it's a full work week, that's a whole two and a half hours of creative work I can get done.
I've mostly been making lots of little felt pieces; pins, magnets, key chains, and different kinds of hair thingies. But I was inspired to try a huge felt piece. I'm thinking to use one felt sheet as the background, the ones I get are just a few smidges bigger than an 8 x 10 sheet of paper, so I'm thinking when it's done, I can crop it to fit a regular picture frame.
So what is it?

Mask

Here is the mask I made for Halloween. It's embroidered felt, with a ribbon tie. The embroidery is completely random. It was fun to make, but a little hard to see out of.

And after being worn a while...

Can you see the wear and tear on these ? This is after being worn for approximately six months. I searched back through my iPhoto, to find a picture taken right after they were finished, just to see when I had started wearing them, and looks like I forgot to take a 'finished' photo.
Typical shells. I take a bazillion pictures during part of the process, and forget to take a 'finished' photo. Silly me.
Anyway, as I mentioned before, I'm using this pair (set?) as a trial, seeing what needs to be changed. I wear them every night (necessity really IS the mother of invention), whereas some folks who might want to buy a pair, might only use them once or twice a week, like The BFF, who's pair has held up very well.
See how the turquoise fleece in the back is kinda scrunching around to the front? I think I might need to cut the fleece a tiny, tiny bit smaller than the felt, to prevent this. It may also depend on the kind of felt, which I will need to pay more attention to.
The elastic part is a child's headband, which I discovered is maybe close to an inch smaller than the adult headbands I have found. That definitely caused the pulling at the temples.

'Night Shades

I guess most people would say sleep mask, but when I started making these, I just could not come up with 'sleep mask', in fact, it took me five minutes right now to come up with that. Eye blinders always popped to mind, I remember answering the fleece-cutting store clerk's question by saying I was making 'eye blinders' and seeing the silent confusion in her eyes. (Doesn't everyone understand what I mean, regardless of what I say??)
So the term Night Shades came to me, as they are kinda shades you wear at night, right? And adding the apostrophe, makes it actually Good-Night Shades. Awwe, how cute.
These are one of the things I'm working on for potential sale. There, I said (wrote) it out loud. I have had a goal for too long now, to get an Etsy store started, and maybe saying it out loud more will help my get my butt in gear. Besides the four that have been pictured here so far, that are for personal use or gifts, I have half a dozen started, with the felt layer, all embroidered and felty (the most time-consuming part) finished.
I'm kinda working through the trial run of the ones I wear, to see if/how I need to tweek the measurements a bit. The fleece inner side and the felt outer side don't seem to wear at the same rate on the ones I wear every night, so I'm thinking I need to cut the fleece a bit less. And the headbands that I have used so far have been ok, but I need to figure out a good supply, not just hope to pick some up at the Dollar Tree.
These two are:
top: (red with flowers) Holiday gift for The BFF's mom, just finished at time of photo.
bottom: (fuchsia with flowers) my own pair, worn every night since creation, worn at least two months before this photo.
Can you tell my pair has been worn?

Finally Fotos (or Phinally Photos?)

Yes, I have been becoming more creative this fall.
Habits changing.
On my breaks at work, I've been working with felt more. Pins, barrettes, puppets, sculptures, and sleep masks. Lots of sleep masks. I have some fun designs already in progress, and even more still in my head, and I am working toward stockpiling a bunch for my (future) etsy store.
The two shown were both finished a couple weeks ago for gifts.
In my not-on-my-breaks-at-work art/craft time, I have started the habit of Studio Time on Friday evenings. Last night was the fifth week in a row I sat down for at least 1 & 1/2 hours to work on poly clay. Organizing my art supply closet a while back was the best thing to get my Studio Time going. I have a dedicated shelf area for all my poly clay paraphernalia and the three totes and one milk crate fit perfectly into the area. So on Friday evening, I can pull everything out, and subsequently clean it all back up, very very easily. Making it easy is important for me since I don't have a 'craft room' right now.
I had already bought the blues for a specific idea, so that was what I've been working on. I just mixed a few different shades of blues and whites, and decided to just go with a polka dot pattern. I love caning with poly clay, but since it's been a while since I've been seriously working with it, I decided to kinda start slow, re-learn some of the basics. The evening that all I did was condition the clay and mix maybe one color was so therapeutic!
Shown are several slices of the long cane I ended up with, before they got more manipulated into something else. I have three finished things so far, and lots more of the cane to use.
And my epiphany of late: I love working with felt for the same reason I love working with poly clay: COLOR!

Marionette

So the marionette has been hanging up on my cube wall at work for about a month now. Hmm, time does keep passing by, doesn't it? I haven't decided if or how to make the puppeting stick, whatever it's called. For now, it's just pinned by it's head and hands. It really is nice just as a hanging piece, so I'm satisfied just leaving it this way.

Marionette: The Head

Finished Marionette: Close Up

Finished Marionette: Close Up (Very)

Pincushions

Pincushions
Originally uploaded by seeshells

There is sooo much cool stuff on Craft Stylish, I'm sure I miss half of it! Luckily, others share when they find something cool! Crafty Pod pointed to an awesome tutorial for tiny pincushions made from bottle tops. They are so simple and quick, I cranked out four on my breaks at work, even on a week that I took one day off!
Of course, I had to add beads, and some sequins, too! If you click back to flickr, you can see each one closer up!
As I was making them, I decided one of these would be for my mom, her birthday being the last day of July. One just seemed to be specifically for her, and when I was working on that one, she happened to call from their vacation! So that clinched it for me. I'll still let her decide which one she likes best, I wonder if she'll pick the one I think she'll pick...(OK Mom, make your pick!)

And knowing me, I can't just make cute little pretties. As I was stitching the top on one, I thought, 'hmm this feels like it could be a brain' and the zombie pincushion below was born! I think he ended up looking a little like Bert, but that wasn't intended. That one is mine, of course!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Four-Leaf Clover Pin
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

My Dear Grandmother has her birthday on St. Patrick's Day, which has always been kinda fun for her. Because of her holiday birthday, she has collected various shamrock paraphernalia over the years.
I made her a lucky four-leaf clover pin with felt and bead embroidery this year. I took it to her the first week in March, so she could wear it all month. Which she has.

Felt Fortune Cookie

Felt Fortune Cookie
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Yes, I am doing more than only crocheting. I do tend to get obsessed when I'm starting something new...
On my breaks at work, I'm still mostly working with felt. Pin production has slowed, as I am experimenting with a whole 'painting' that will end up being mixed media I think, but is starting off with a felt background.
And when Craft Sanity had an interview about a month ago with Hilary Seabolt, who makes the cutest felt food, she was kind enough to give us a free pattern for this little cutie. I stitched it by hand, and almost put beads all around it, too. Next time I think I will.

More On Sadie

Sadie, Sadie, Pencil Lady
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Don'cha love it when your different projects or interests blend together almost as if they were meant to work that way, without you really even doing anything? I do.
I was working on the second project in the Felt Underground kit, a monster pencil case, and I was going to use my own colors for this one, but I wasn't inspired to make it a monster, and wasn't sure about their directions. They started you off with two big rectangles, and one small one for the bottom (they had it standing up). They didn't have a ton of step-by-step photos, and I wasn't sure how they planned to make the one smaller rectangle work as the bottom, but I liked the zipper in the center, so I got started.
Somewhere in the not understanding their instructions, and wondering what I would use this for, it being rather thin, it hit me to put a thin strip all the way 'round, to make it an actual 3D rectangle with the zipper turning into the most beautiful monster mouth as soon as I turned it sideways. ;p
Where she's from, the moles and facial hair are signs of true beauty. And her name just popped into my head as I was sewing her eyelashes on, it's a derivative of the song Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady from the movie Funny Girl.
The most perfect part about how she morphed, is that she is now the perfect place for my Art Journaller supplies, and that's another step closer to my Art Scout button!

Say 'Hi' To Sadie

IMG 5680
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Sadie, Sadie Purple Lady.

Mini Review

Since I mentioned the felt kit that My Guy got me, I thought I should give a little review in case any of ya'll might be interested.
The best part of this kit, is that all the patterns come from crafters across the web-o-verse. The websites of the pattern makers are all listed in the back of the little book. The worst part of the kit is that the book is really stiff and hard to deal with as an instruction book, I had to kinda break the spine, and I still had to use a stickie note to hold the pages open.
I didn't mean to spoil a gift by finding out how much it cost, but when I saw the price when I looked up the link, I thought that it was just about right. There are nice supplies, and the book has some good patterns, and some not-so-good, like any pattern-type book.
This is a super kit for someone who's interested in working with felt and has never tried it. Because of it's inexpensive-ness, and cool patterns collected from web crafters, it's also a great kit for someone who already works with felt.

iPod Case

iPod Case
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Way back in maybe November, my Guy gave me a cool felt kit he picked up at B&N. It had four pieces of felt, a couple zippers, a couple buttons, an instruction book, and a few more little notions. This was a very romantic and sweet gift, beings that he got me something that is of interest to me and not at all to him. A lot of gifts are things that he or I would both like, you know, like electronics, music, board games, stuff like that, so this gift was especially thoughtful.
So I wanted to make him something special from the kit. One of the three things that there were both instructions for and supplies for in the kit, was an iPod case for an 'old school' iPod. Perfect. He has exactly that, the 20 gig, almost 1/2 inch thick, no video, first run iPod. The instructions were good for this project, and the colors were great, his favorite color is dark green, and mine is purple, and both were included. The instructions showed an orange fish design on the front of the case, which wasn't really interesting for him or me, so I found the apple logo, and used my own light green felt for the front decoration.
I was so pleased with how the logo turned out, and was happy to bring it home to him, but he foiled my plans!! Just before I gave him the gift of this wonderful case, he had the idea that we should share his iPod! Talk about selling your hair to buy a watch fob!
No, really, it was wonderful of him to want to share it. I can put so many more crafty podcasts on it than my shuffle, and I can actually SEE which ones I'm listening to!
So this nice case will go mostly unused, but I hope, still appreciated. ;p

Mom's Pin

Mom's Pin
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Feel free to skip this post if you are not from Nebraska and/or don't give two hoots about Nebraska football*


So back in the beginning part of December a new coach was announced for the Nebraska football team. And some very enterprising t-shirt company created a bunch of shirts with 'Bo' slogans (would that be Bo-gans?) on them 'Bo Fence', 'It's Bo Time', 'Just Say Bo', and of course, 'Bo Big Red'.

Mom's Pin
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

In all the excitement, my Mom mentioned that she might add a 'Bo big Red' t-shirt to her gift wish list, being the 'good' Nebraskan that she is. But it was way too late for me to change my list of things to do, so I came up with a new plan.
Since I've been making all sorts of felt pins lately, I decided I would make her a special one. This is one of those times where I was making something that I would normally not ever consider making, I wouldn't make these to sell. I knew it wouldn't be ready in time for the gift exchange, but I got it done not too long after, and mailed it to her. It's always fun to get mail!


*And in the spirit of full disclosure, this would include me as well. I was born here, and have spent most of my life here, but as I say, I'm not a good Nebraskan, I don't like beef and I don't like the 'huskers.

What could this be??

??
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Sometimes I'm a bit cryptic in my posts...and this is one of those times.

This is the back of something that just went in the mail today.

Whatever could it be??