Craft Crazy

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sun, 19 May 2013 08:08:00 +0000

Yey! In a few days I'd be able to catch up with my WIPs. Sure, I'd miss my students for a few weeks but I could use some free time for my life's passions.

For the past few days, I have been spending my coffee and lunch breaks on a tee pattern by Pierrot Yarns. The pattern, Beauty Silk Cotton Tee, can be found in Ravelry and also in Pierrot Yarns' free pattern site. The tee is made up of lacy, daisy-centered motifs. I think this would look better if a thin yarn is used for the project, but of course, would take longer to make.

In the above photo, I used Cannon mercerized cotton crochet thread and an IMIA 4 crochet hook. I still have to work on my tension and gauge though. It's not that neat to look at, uhmmm, not yet! But I'm looking forward to actually finish this project before June. Wish me luck on that, ha ha!

Aside from this, I have been working on coin purses, again. I will share the pics once I put the last stitches on its lining, errr... Soon!

Oh, before I forget, I found some jute strings for garden use ( as the label says), but I think this would be useful in some crochet projects, don't you think? (*wink!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Moms and May

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:45:00 +0000

It has been more than a year since I last checked in here. After my mom's demise, I've been busy both at home and at work. You can say I do miss this --- just as I missed my hooks and yarns.

Oh, it's May! I see my neighbors' children gathering flowers to bring to the chapel for Flores de Mayo (and thankful that my lilies outside our house were spared, as of today). I'd love to catch up with the last days of summer at the beach, and hoping I'd find time to say yes to some fiesta invites. Aside from summer and fiestas, it's Mom's month here in the Philippines. Here's an early greeting from me: Happy Mom's Day to all moms out there!

Speaking of moms, I miss my mom a lot, and my grandma too. I wouldn't have anything to share here if they didn't teach me how to sew and crochet at an early age. I used to sit with my nanay (mom) and lola (grandmom) while they work with their hooks and yarns.

Since the hooks available here in our place are IMIAs, I've learned to work with it up to now. I'm hoping to get better hooks soon. :)

Remembering Nanay and Lola.
Mom always supported my love for crafts. In fact, she painstakingly kept all my beads organized by color, size and shape. And she kept my loose yarns around boards to prevent tangles.

Aside from my IMIAs, my nanay and lola left me with this.

I don't know what it's called but it is a flower-making tool. My Lola used to make motifs for table runners and covers. This comes in sizes too. I have kept this one for more than 20 years now.

This tool is quite easy to use. You simply wrap the yarn or crochet thread around the spokes, and sew around the center.

Then you can press the spring (they remind me of polvoron molds) to release the flower. You can crochet around the flower any way you want to form a motif.

I'm hoping to make a lot of this flower motif before May ends for a project.

Till next my next post!

What's in a Name?

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:44:00 +0000

Hello! I've been gone for long, but hey! Am back. :)

I have a few pics to share. It's been a year since I started these polymer clay nameplates for key chains, bag tags, and mobile phone charms. Some requests for these nameplates were challenging for a beginner like me, having to work with whatever resource I have (my hands, that is). I'm still collecting clay molds, but is having second thoughts about using them.

So here they are... Enjoy!

Music and Mimi

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:35:00 +0000

Finally got the time to share photos of my polymer clay MTOs! It has been quite a while since I last posted.

One of my friends talked me into making this pendant for her. One of my first tries at polymer clay.

And here's another one.

That's a little guitar, alright. I had a hard time shaping those little note charms. Where there's will, there's always a way. Thanks a lot to headpins!

That's the other half of the bracelet. When worn, the bracelet looks like this:

Have a nice day!

Summer Babies

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:43:00 +0000

I haven't been doing a lot of things lately. Been busy bonding with friends and family. But here are a few polyclay chibis I made last summer. These beach babies all sold out. =)

With flowers in their wind-blown hair and colorful surfboards, they are ready to hit the beach!

baby, baby!

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:54:00 +0000

I have been really busy lately. Work tied me up in front of my PC for longer hours a day, and yet I couldn't find one sec to update this blog. I'm glad I still have a few finished projects I haven't shared with you before. These are for the little babes.

Little ballerina shoes for baby. I forgot to draw a diagram for this one.

This headband is knitted. The flower is done in crochet.

I miss my hooks! I wish I could start again after a few weeks. By the way, here's where I have been the past weekend. Relaxing to be away from the busy life for a while.

Sugarcane! And a road to the middle of nowhere. =)

my first shrug

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 02:23:00 +0000

i finished this black shrug months ago. this was my first try ever. for this one, i used an unusual stitch i found while browsing the net. for now, i'm still trying to figure out how to crochet and keep my dimensions correct. this shrug, supposedly, should fit me. but it didn't, haha!!!

no front views, though. my niece who modeled it for me is kinda shy. i should get me a mannequin.
happy weekend!

back, again =)

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:09:00 +0000

i'm just glad to be back again. i didn't notice i have been busy for months. i just thought you might want to see what i have "managed" to squeeze in to my otherwise busy life.

i'm back trying to make headbands out of the motifs in one of the books my friend Liz gave me. and, yeah, i am really hoping for more time to catch up with projects i want to make.

for a closer look

and for some color

and one for baby's head

phoenix

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 06:57:00 +0000

my spirit soars,
like a phoenix
     bursting,
     burning,
     dying
          to be alive again...

your kiss
     is like a breath of life.
i awake
     to taste my saving grace.

hold me
     like i'd be gone tomorrow...

feel me
     like blood pulsating through your veins

lure me...
dare me...
excite me...

make me burn!

make me yours!

and i'll be, until...

                                                                                          -28th, Sept. 2006

Love! love! love!

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 09:53:00 +0000

There's so much love around me. Hmmm, and I have much love to give.

Love is the theme of my little niece's art.

Love is the theme of these clay MTOs.

And I love these gifts from Luisa. =) Thanks a lot, Liz!

Ukay!

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 08:59:00 +0000

I have this addiction to preloved items, translated as "ukay" in our Visayan dialect. While going through the PhP 10 pile of preloved shirts and blouses, I found this shirt.

Need I say I bought it? Weeeeee!

stitching xs

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:03:00 +0000

Been quite busy lately. My goal to stitch at least 200 x's wasn't met. To my dismay, I have five WIPs in cross stitch now. And two more WIPs in painting to stitch pattern conversion (too ambitious, LOL!). You see I found a free trial of pic-to-pattern software online, and went gaga for a few days over it trying so hard to squeeze as many floss colors as I can in one pattern. Until my eyes hurt.

I managed to take a picture of one of my stitching WIPs. I bought this pattern from a local craft shop years ago. This is Azalea Path by Leonard Wren.

I do hope my stitches will fill up this week. =)

God Bless!

Crochet Headband

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Wed, 18 May 2011 04:29:00 +0000

Summer heat makes us women and girls alike want to keep our hair off our faces. I personally like headbands. Here's a glimpse of what I have been busy with.

sweet time

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Tue, 10 May 2011 05:44:00 +0000

When I'm not at the shop, not with my hook or my clay, you'll see me in our little kitchen making these sweets. My home-made pastillas is made of butter and milk, and more milk, cooked over slow fire.

Have a nice day!

Boy Meets Girl

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:30:00 +0000

It sure isn't the love month, we do looove to be in love everyday. =)

In celebration of love, I call this clay charm "united colors of the heart". Sometimes I call it sticker heart as the design was copied from an emo sticker pack.

The following clay creations are now part of true love stories.

Love, love, love, everyone!

little shop of happiness

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sun, 01 May 2011 23:18:00 +0000

For the past few months, I have been spending my days inside this little shop. I personally call it my little shop of happiness - a place where i can explore my craft and share it with others.

This is my niece, Fiona, playing with the wind chimes hanging on the entrance. That's my "clutter" table in pink.

These crochet flower strings on my window are so homey to look at.

My first attempt at painting. :)

These are just some of the bead earrings that I have been making.

See you at the store!

3D flipflops

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:13:00 +0000

For quite a while I have been searching for 3D beaded flipflop pattern. When I couldn't find one online, I decided to make my own using right-angle beading.

It was difficult, considering the fact that I am new to the craft. Using 4mm bi-cones and right-angle beading, I had to draw a diagram with each bead I put into it. The first one I made was a square-shaped flipflop, and I didn't like it all. I ended up, doing it again trying to make it more "shapely".

Here's my bi-cone flipflop, barely 2 inches long. This is made up of two soles joined together using seedbeads in still in right angle.

I realized the with slight alteration to the diagram I made, seed beads and round beads can also be used for this.

Below are pictures of me starting out on a new sole, and soles waiting for their to be "sewn" over their "pairs"(errr, am not so familiar with beading terminologies).

Presently, I am still figuring out how to draw the pattern (not by hand) I made so I can freely share it with you.

Have a happy weekend!

P.S.

Have you wondered why I have been posting in large font size? Eye care, bigger font, less eyestrain. =)

Mobile Phone/Coin Purse

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 04:49:00 +0000

Hello again.

I have been making these purses for a while now. These had been keeping me busy lately.

This design was inspired by the crochet blankets that Lola Rose (my brother's mom-in-law who is so good at crochet too!) had been making. Looking at it more closely, it resembles long and short stitches in embroidery. Is there a name for this stitch?

I saw this pattern while surfing the net (I think it was on FB). In fact, it was merely a scanned diagram from a magazine and uploaded on Facebook. I decided to print it out. To my dismay, the diagram wasn't that clear and it was disappointingly so small that I had to use a magnifying glass just to count exactly how many chains and trebles were there. I ended up with a diagram, resembling the one I printed out. Try after try (sigh!), i finally got to finish this purse. =)

This purse has a hand-sewn lining and zip.

For sure, I'll be making more of these. Happy crafting, everyone!

Polymer Clay Donut

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:09:00 +0000

My daughter’s birthday falls on this month. To celebrate it, we made clay donuts for her friends.

I enjoyed making them even without the help of a mold. To get the right color I want for my dough, i had to mix three colors of clay. Faux sprinkles and dessicated coco are also not available in our area, so i had to make them too. Err, yes quite time consuming! The easiest is to buy them online. :)

Beginners (like me) might find this useful. This was how I made my first donuts.

Mix clay until you find the color you want. (I mixed a little brown and lots of yellow and white on this one.)

Form into a small ball. ( Ooops.. sorry for the blurry picture!)

Press it down a bit. Don’t apply too much pressure.

Poke a hole right on the center. If you don’t have tools yet, you can use the other end of your artist’s brush just as i did.

Donuts aren’t that smooth. To create texture, use an old but clean toothbrush around your donut.

After brushing it lightly, your donut should look like this.

Take a another color of clay for the frosting. Form into a small ball and shape into a tiny splatter like this:

You can mix clay with TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) for the frosting if you want. But as I was making these donuts, i do not have TLS with me. Yeah, great... Well, Girl Scouts can always come up with something!

Press the splatter atop and on the sides of your little donut.

Poke, poke, poke. Right on the center, and check out for frosting smudges on the other side of the hole.

Ta-daaaa! Here’s your donut with the frosting on. ;)

On top

On the side

Bake your little donuts according to package instructions. Allow to cool after baking. (Note: Stick headpins on donuts prior to baking, that is, if you wish to make donuts charms.)

Brush the top with glue or gloss, whichever you like. Take note to brush only those parts you wish to put your sprinkles on.

They should look like this.

Sprinkle time! Use faux sprinkles, dessicated coco or sugar crystals.

Shake off excess sprinkles.

Move “stray” sprinkle with a headpin, but don’t let your sprinkles look “unnatural".

Gloss all other parts of your “frosting”. Allow to dry.
Yey, my donuts are ready!

Here’s my daughter’s birthday donuts. :)

butterflies

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 07:22:00 +0000

I was making bead headbands using crystal beads and spacers, when a friend to me that they look like flowers and butterflies.

And so i spent another day trying to figure out how to make little bead butterfly charms, using my little round nose pliers, a spacer and a few headpins. I guess i got lucky after so many tries. =)

At Last!

noreply@blogger.com (craftlover) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 07:41:00 +0000

It’s raining outside, and my coffee sits hot beside me just perfectly. I guess it is about time that I start writing a post on this space I created months ago.

So! What have I been up to for weeks? Projects, lots of it =). With me, ending up wishing I had more hands.

This headband was quite done in a rush, for my niece, Fiona. I was crocheting along with the contour of plastic headband I bought, not knowing how to end it! It was done in a circular pattern, and somehow I managed its end after x tries of decreasing dc’s, yay!

With Fiona, being fond of pink flowers, I tried my best-est to create a beaded crochet rose to put on the headband. As an afterthought, it would have been easier if I looked up a rose pattern on the net. But after an hour, my project looked just fine! It was ambitious on my part, as I was not used to crochet without a pattern in hand.

And did Fiona like it? Yes, she did!