Spring 2012 One of a Kind Show

Tomorrow I am going to the One of a Kind Show at the Exhibition Place in Toronto with one of my dearest friends, Jenn. We have been friends since kindergarten. She has never gone so I am excited for her reaction. If you don't know the One of a Kind show is all about unique arts and crafts made right here in Canada. Check it out at http://oneofakindshow.com/toronto/

I usually go with my friend Alida but she and her husband are moving this weekend. In the past we have day dreamed about starting our own fashion line as we watched a fashion show. We always leave inspired. This year I am on the look out for unique fabric and bags. My last blog post was about my first tote bag.

Speaking of craft shows. Yours truly will be in a craft show coming up at the Peterborough Public Library on May 12th. Check out the website at http://30craftsmarket.webs.com I will have my profile and photos on there soon.

Spring Tote Bag

I recently received a sewing machine from the husband of a very good friend of mine, Nancy Green, who passed away in the summer of 2010. She decided to give the sewing machine to me in part I think because we really bonded over sewing projects. I feel close to her using her sewing machine. Her notes are all over the manual and I feel privileged to receive such a gift.  She was such a joy in my life and her kind words remain with me.

I decided to start out with something rather simple. I love tote bags so I made one. My sister in law Andrea gave me some heavy cotton material to use. I got the pattern for the tote bag from the Purl Bee website, http://www.purlbee.com/the-twenty-minute-tote/. It is a great website for a lot of projects. My sister in laws love it.

I love this little tote bag! I feel pretty satisfied for a first try. I embellished it with some felt leaves and  an orange flower. Orange was Nancy's favorite color so it seems fitting. I will be making lots of these tote bags for my spring craft show at the Peterborough Library on May 12th. More to come about that...

Mad Hatter Tea Party at the AGP

I have been volunteering at the Art Gallery of Peterborough this week for March Break Kid's camp. Today was my favorite day. The kids made really tall hats and then we had a Mad Hatter Tea party. Below is a girl named Tekia who made a fabulous hat. Her mom let me take a picture of her, unfortunately I don't have any other parents permissions so I could only take pictures of their hats. But the kids were super cute.

Here are some hats!!!

Yours truly, borrowing a hat.

Tea party 

Our instructor Rebecca 

All the volunteers and Rebecca

It was a great day today making hats with the kids and enjoying a tea party. 

Encouragement is the best gift

It was my birthday last week and my brother Michael and my sister in law Andrea threw me a surprise party. The kind of tricked me, because I knew I was having dinner at their house, but when I got there there were more than just three place settings. Then I noticed my dear friend Elvira was there and then Liz and Marg came. Then I was really surprised when my dear friend Alida and her hubby Jordan came to the door. What a blessing!

As a gift I got a picture frame and some note cards which people wrote on. They were filled with encouragement and kind words. I reread them later and had a little mist in my eyes. Andrea suggested that I take the cards and picture frame and make something creative with it, so I did. Of course I had to blog about it.

Thanks to Michael and Andrea for such an awesome night!

W is for William

Last night I was inspired to make something for my nephew William. That's William and I above.

I have seen people make letters with buttons on www.pinterest.com. Now if my brother Michael reads this he will make fun of me for talking about Pinterest. I make fun of him about Twitter, so I guess we are even. Below is the finished product, keep reading and I will show you how to make one of your own.

 You will need the following:
- piece of white card stock
- lots of buttons in a variety of colors
- a pencil
- a ruler
- white glue

Then you will need to make the outline of the letter that you are making. I did the letter W but you can do this with any letter. You will have to free hand it with the help of a ruler, unless you have a stencil.

Then you start placing buttons on the letter, gluing them down with white glue. Be creative and use all different sizes and colors. I used green, blue, yellow, red and black buttons. I even put in some Japanese paper under glass.

February Kids craft pictures

A couple of posts ago I showed you a kids craft that I was going to do with kids at my church on February 3rd. It was a PA day for the kids and a couple of young ladies from my church (Living Hope CRC) decided to make it into a fundraiser for their mission trip to Nicaragua. I decided to jump on board and provide the craft. Here are some pictures of the crafts that the kids made.

Here are the final craft projects.

Here are the works in progress

 Thanks Living Hope Kids for doing such a great job!

Valentine's day craft tutorial

I thought I would put together a Valentine's craft. This can be done with kids (with a lot of help from an adult) or if you just want to do one for yourself. I got the idea from www.sugarbeecrafts.com. They have a tutorial on their website but I redid it and used some different materials. Below is the finished product. 

Materials needed

- felt in Valentines colors, you can do different colors than what I have. I choose red and purple because that is what I had. I got the felt from a dollar store in Peterborough called Dollar Giant.  

- A good pair of scissors

- fabric glue ( I used "OK to wash" by Aleene's, I got it from Michaels.)

- A needle

- Thread that matches the felt, I used purple

- a button which matches.

- a pin or hair band to attach it to

Start by cutting the top color into a heart, you will need five of them. You can cut one out and use it as a template for the other ones. Then put the heart on the bottom colored felt and cut it out just a bit bigger. 

Then you need to glue them together. I used a fabric glue called "Ok to wash" by Aleens. I found it at Michaels. 

Now comes the fun part if you like hand sewing or the not so fun part if you don't like hand sewing. If you have a glue gun and want to glue them together I suggest you go to www.sugarbeecrafts.com and look at their tutorial. Otherwise stick with me and we will put this together. 

Now pick up one of the hearts that are glued together and pinch the ends of it to create a petal. Take your thread and sew the end shut. 

Sew all five hearts like this individually. Then cut off the tip of the heart. Then we start sewing them together. Sew the first to the second and the second to the third and so forth. The last heart is the trickiest, you have to sew it to the fourth and first petal.

Now comes the fun part picking a button. I choose a nice red button to go with the red felt that I had. The button is all about individual taste. 

Now you need to decide what you want to attach this to. I decided to make mine a brooch because I am having Valentine's dinner with some friends and I want to wear it with my red sweater. But you may choose to glue it to a headband or attach it to a hat. That my friend is all up to you.