End of Year Creations

My last day of 2012 has been, and will continue to be spent creating with some much loved coffee and tea, of course. I pulled out my water colors for the first time in a while this morning and the result is in the photos below!
The rest of the day will consist of some sewing and knitting-- I'll post pictures of those projects soon.
Tonight I will be bringing in the new year with some family friends. Hope everyone has lots of fun tonight &a wonderful end to 2012!

--Emily

Meet My New Friend...

I have a new edition to my studio-- a sewing machine! This little friend has yet to acquire a name, but probably will soon. I am no professional seamstress, but I an having fun learning and I have made some cute, simple projects.

Another little addition is the blogger app I am currently using which will make quick posts like this easy to do more often!

--Emily

Scarves, Beads, and Yarn

Today's post includes a few crafts incorporating beads, scarves and yard, which happen to bring great joy to my crafting. The following were all pre-Christmas projects intended to become gifts, but due to my sometimes short attention span on one craft, and my multitude of pins on my "arts&crafts" Pinterest board, they ended up scattered around my studio. However, a few did make it into gift boxes and to a new home!

T-Shirt Scarf

Materials: 

1 Size XL T-shirt in color of choice

1 Pair of Scissors

The Procedure:

This part is really quite simple. Starting at the bottom of the shirt, cut strips about 1 cm in width.Continue until you reach the sleeves and cannot cut anymore. 

The first strip cut will be the hem of the shirt- place that one aside. You will need it later. 

As I cut my strips, I placed them in a pile...

Once all the strips are cut and placed in said pile, pull out the hem strip. 

Begin wrapping it around one section of the scarf. Be sure to leave a tail sticking out that you can tie a knot with at the end. 

When the entire piece is wrapped around the scarf, use the tail you left at the beginning and the end you have been wrapping to tie a knot. I think I tied mine 3 times, just to be sure. :)

(Excuse the poor lighting in the below photo.)

Now you have a scarf!

Beads & Buttons

This one doesn't require much of a tutorial, it is just something I enjoyed working on. I picked up some 3x3 canvasses at the store the other day because they were just so cute. Therefore, I needed some even cuter ideas to use them for- here is one.

Another little project...

And finally- Pom Poms!

You have probably seen these on Pinterest, if you frequent the site, but I will explain nevertheless. 

Wrap yarn around 3 of your fingers 90 times (or 2 fingers, 45 times for a smaller pompom)

Tie a knot with a separate piece of yarn around the wrapped section. 

If you would like to make your pompom a bookmark, tie a second piece of yarn around. The length is your choice- as long as you would like your bookmark to be!

Now for the cutting fun! 

Clip all the ends and give your pom pom a little (or big) haircut

And there is your pom pom!

Quilling fun with a teeny tiny canvas...

Presents are more fun to unwrap when they have cute gift tags- 

I should've separated this into a couple of posts- but rather, I decided to overwhelm you with several crafts since I have not posted in so very long! 

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! 

Emily

In the Process...

I'm working on a colored pencil piece which is almost complete! The theme of this picture is 'motion.' Just a few more details to go...
Here are some pictures from along the way:

This one is an organized list of the colors I chose to use~

This one is the picture part way done~

Once the picture is finished I'll be uploading a photo of it!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day to all! Above is just a picture of the collection of flowers, cards, and chocolates on our  dining room table! Every year, the day before Valentines Day, my dad stops at a store on his way home from work to get flowers for my mom and I, chocolate for the kids, and cards for all!

These are the cards I made for my family

Adding to my collection of handbags...

A couple weeks ago I was looking through a book of Erte designs and found a handbag that I just loved. it had a tassel at the bottom, and the top was closed with a drawstring that doubled as the handle. I made a sketch of the bag, and during my week with my grandmother I changed the style a bit to make it more like I would want it. We spent my last morning at her house sewing the bag! 

Here is a picture of the fabric we used: 

(We cheated a bit with the handle and bought one that was all ready to go.)

In the process of sewing the top of the bag...

The finished product!

Just brightening my January days...

For the past few days I've been visiting my grandparents. My grandmother shares my love for crafts which always results in lots of creative fun. 

We took a trip to AC Moore with my cousin for wooden things to decoupage. I ended up with a small shadow box. It didn't start out with a particular theme, but a traveling theme developed as i added things to the box. 

Years ago I learned to knit, and recently I pulled out the knitting again. I'm working on a long grey scarf right now that will eventually have ribbons and tassel-like things on the ends. The peach and green are for another project I will start soon... pictures will be up once I've started it!

This is a picture of what resulted from me having free time and being surrounded by craft stuff! This will eventually be a little journal! Some of the pages are decorative, others are plain, and the whole thing will be bound by ribbon!

I must say, one of my favorite things ever is painting pottery. When I come to my grandparents house there's a lovely little place where you can paint your pottery and get it fired. I love to go when I come here! In fact, my grandmother, cousin, and I have gone so many times the shop owner and the girl that works there know us! We've already gone twice, and I'm hoping to sneak in another visit tomorrow!