Getting Crafty

*You do not want to miss the 4th Get Crafty challenge, do you? Check out all the details here!*

So, one girly card was made for the Challenge #3, and at the last minute, I decided to make a card for my brother, even though I had bought a couple of potential cards.

When you think of a masculine card, what comes to mind? Blue, black and pewter accents came to mind for me. I didn’t have any pewter letters, so I had to settle for these shinier letters.

I got them ages ago because I love the way the letters are formed (I’m especially partial to that ‘g’) but if you look at the back you will see that they have these ghastly, very sharp prongs behind them:

Very very painful!

So before we go any further, I must ask you: how does one manipulate these prongs without getting pricked a million times? Your answers won’t help with this card, but I have many more alphabet letters to somehow adhere to paper, and my fingers would greatly appreciate your insight! After getting sick of being used as a pincushion, I eventually used a pair of scissors to push the prongs in, then adhered them to the card using handy adhesive dots.

I don’t often use stickers but I found one that I thought applied to my brother. Even though he’s only turning 21, he fears that some of the decisions he made a few years ago are irreversible, and I’m hoping this card will help him believe otherwise.

(The pronged round letters spell out his name) It looked a little plain to me, but all the other things I wanted to add seemed too much. I then decided to run to my old standby, ribbon! I never thought I’d put ribbon on a guy’s card, but I think the selection of colour (and the lack of pattern) somehow makes it ok. Perhaps ribbon without a sheen would have been better but that was not in stock in the Jummy stash.

I haven’t given him the card yet (I’m 3 days late!) but I hope he likes it. Even if he thinks the card itself is lame, I hope he takes the words within to heart, and remembers them always.

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If you’d like to see more card-making goodness, you must visit Sherry’s site and see what lovely cards she has for us to behold this week!

*You do not want to miss the 4th Get Crafty challenge, do you? Check out all the details here!*

Big reveal time already? I’m ready!

The first card I made was for a friend whose birthday is on November 6. I am not sure if I’m even going to see her on her birthday (she’s newly engaged and has just recently bought a house with her fiancé so I haven’t seen her since mid-August) so I think I will surprise her by mailing the card to her new house (I know just the person to get her home address from!).

When I first started out the card, I knew what paper I wanted to use. It’s from a new pack of paper I picked up last week at Wal*Mart (I did not need more paper but the sheets in the pack were so tempting! I was unable to resist). My love of symmetry and ribbon is pretty well known from the last two challenges, and I didn’t deviate from that. This is how I started:

I can’t stress enough how handy the dollar store is and has been for little embellishments—the brads, ribbon and the pen are all from the dollar store. The pink pen had a far more neon-y tinge than I was going for (it looks like a dusty rose from the outside) so I chopped it off and tried something different:

Rub-ons are great and I like how they turned out at the top of the card, but they are time consuming to apply. I need to start abbreviating what I want to spell out with them! What I love about the pink paper is it’s reversible: the other side has a slightly lighter shade of pink. I love reversible paper.

That’s card number one. I ended up making another for my brother who just celebrated his 21st birthday. I’ll be putting up the story of that card shortly.

I cannot believe that I’m about the share the final challenge of this quartet of challenges.

Sadly, I never got around to making a button for the Get Crafty challenge. Perhaps if my partner (and inspiration) in crime Sherry is interested, we can start another round of challenges after giving us a rest (and I’ll get my act together and make a button then). Sherry is in the midst of opening up her own etsy shop to share and sell her work so this might not the best time to start a challenge for this busy lady. If any of you are interested in suggesting challenges, please leave them in the comments and I will definitely get back to you about it.

For this final installment of the Ready Set Craft! - The Get Crafty Challenge, please find below the details you need to get started:

Ready Set Craft! - The Get Crafty Challenge
Challenge #4: Crafter’s Choice

The first three challenges focused on holidays and events that are widely celebrated and all the challenges have been to create a card. This challenge, as you may have guessed from the title, is your choice. Sherry had mentioned creating something that is 8 x 10 size-wise, but use that as a suggestion only (I will be attempting to make something that size myself). You know what? It doesn’t even have to be a paper-type craft! If you feel like presenting a knit product for your final craft, or a collage, or something that you refinished or painted, go for it! As Sherry reminded me, the whole point is to get crafty and you are welcome to do that in whatever way you wish! As usual, you are encouraged to use whatever materials you have on hand to make your creation, but you are also welcome to buy any materials you wish.

Due date: November 5, 2007. Please send a photograph of your creations to jummy.gettingcrafty@gmail.com if you would like it to be featured on this site. Please also post it on your own blog or website if you would like.

On this day, both Sherry and I will reveal our creations on our blogs and also share any of your creations that we have received.
If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments, and I’ll try to address them to the best of my ability.

I’m surprised by how fast time is flying. Wasn’t it Monday just a minute ago? Well now it is Thursday and I have been busy, although not so much on the crafting front.

The dishcloth is coming along nicely though:

It is such a quick knit and I recommend making up dishcloths if you’re looking for a quick and easy craft. If you like a bit more of a challenge with your knitting, and you have a bit of time to knit before Halloween, why not knit up a skully dishcloth for yourself? Barbara over at Knitting Passion was giving two of these away and really I shouldn’t mention it since the contest is over. I recommend you keep check back on her site often though: she makes some lovely things, and you never know when the next giveaway might be.

I went to Michaels yesterday evening because I am in dire need of some chunky yarn. Unfortunately, the yarn I was hankering for (hehe) was sold out at that particular location, so I’ll be running around tomorrow hoping that the other location has managed to save a few skeins for me.

I decided that my brother probably wouldn’t appreciate a homemade card, and to be honest, most of my crafting supplies are rather feminine in nature, so I went and bought his birthday card today! I ended up going with cards (I always buy at least two cards) that aren’t particularly impressive with respect to the art on them (they’re very plain, actually) but the wording was very appropriate. Which leads me to a question: one thing about handmade cards that keeps them from being 100% professional is the writing on them (unless you’re blessed with the ability to produce fonts by hand. If you’re in the habit of making your own cards, how do you handle the writing on the card (on the front and on the inside)? Do you use rub-ons? Try to write in your most legible handwriting? Type something up in a nice font then paste it in the card?

Inquiring Jummys want to know!

I truly do feel like I am in school, and working at the last minute to get in an assignment! I mentioned that I would likely have to pull an all-nighter and the fact that I let the internet distract me meant I didn’t get down and creative until nearly midnight.

At 2:35am, I decided that the two cards I had created would have to do although I had ideas for a few more in my head. Over the next few weeks, I plan to take the time to use all those other supplies I mentioned in here in order to make a pretty card.

You’ll notice that both cards I made relied heavily on the cutting tools that are the bane of my existence. I still haven’t fully gotten into “freestyle” mode, where I cut things freehand with a pair of scissors; instead straight crisp edges rule my creations.

Card #1: Christmas reds and greens:

I first cut the red cardstock to the size I wanted and folded it for the card. I then stuck the striped paper along the bottom of the card. I applied the Christmas message using rub-ons. Rub-ons can add a lovely touch to your cards but they are a pain in the neck to use, not to mention time consuming. Either that or my rubbing technique could use some work. The green brad separating the words was put there to cover up some rub-on mishaps.

At this point, I thought the card was finished, but the card clearly told me that something was missing. It was too red. When I saw that I could cut the green textured (looks like corduroy!) cardstock in the opposite way to make a vertical ribbed effect, I knew that’s what I needed to cover up all the red in the card.

Unfortunately, during the gluing, I had a little mishap which I tried to clean with kleenex, leaving an attractive stain.

The same striped paper, cut the opposite way, was snipped into a small strip and saved the day. Now I think the card wouldn’t have looked quite complete without the top strip.

Card #2: Winter
I knew my second card would be predominantly blue, white and silver because I loved my textured blue cardstock and I had a fair bit of winter themed paper.

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Good morning!

It’s not quite time to reveal the results of the second challenge, but in the meantime I thought I should let you know what the next challenge is. For those keeping track at home, this is the third installment of the Ready Set Craft! - The Get Crafty Challenge. Here are the details you need to get started:

Ready Set Craft! - The Get Crafty Challenge
Challenge #3: The Birthday Card
The first two challenges focused on upcoming holidays that are widely celebrated and have specific colours and images associated with them (these challenges had no restrictions though: you were welcome to think outside traditional colour schemes). Birthdays are similar in that there are images traditionally associated with them—cake, balloons, candles, presents—but the best cards that I’ve ever received are ones that speak to me as a person, as Jummy, not just as another person celebrating a birthday. If a friend or family member has a birthday coming up, here is your chance to create a card that evokes just the emotion you want to evoke, and relates to the recipient’s particular likes and dislikes, any inside jokes you may have or the words that you think they need to hear at this point in their life. You can tailor the card to its recipient in all aspects, from the cover image to the words within (or on the outside).

As before, you are encouraged to use whatever materials you have on hand to make this card, but you are also welcome to buy any materials you need to create your card.

It just so happens that it is my brother’s birthday on Friday, so the timing of this challenge couldn’t be better.

Due date: October 29, 2007. Please send a photograph of your creations to jummy.gettingcrafty@gmail.com if you would like it to be featured on this site. Please also post it on your own blog or website if you would like.

On this day, both Sherry and I will reveal our creations on our blogs and also share any of your creations that we have received.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments, and I’ll try to address them to the best of my ability.

In roughly twelve hours I’ll be unveiling my results for the second Ready Set Craft! - The Get Crafty Challenge. This challenge desperately needs a cute little banner and that will be my bonus project for this week. The actual challenge this time around was to create a Christmas card. The timeline for this project was the same as the last, one week.

Last time, I bought the materials I needed soon after (or was it shortly before—the joys of having inside information meant I could get started earlier!) the challenge was announced, then thought about possible ideas without actually doing anything concrete throughout the week. Even so, ideas were welcome to float into my mind and stay a while. By contrast, this week flew by and while I kept reminding myself to make some time to work on the card, my brain was never in a position to do much brainstorming. Instead, not unlike back when I was in university, I will pull an “all-nighter” (which is thankfully much shorter nowadays due to my advanced age and inability to function with little to no sleep) and hope that something worthy comes of it.

I did manage to do one thing constructive towards my challenge yesterday: I gathered up all my Christmas-themed materials that I had at home:

My stash includes the following:

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My knitting date last week was canceled, and I had been counting on it to get me back into a knitting sort of mood. (If you recall, it took me nearly a year to finish what was a very straightforward black scarf, so inspiration is something I could always use).

Last year I had hoped to be able to knit some gifts for friends and family, but I just couldn’t get into it. This time of year always seems like the perfect time to start knitting, even though I know that my schedule and the way I work does not leave me enough time to attempt (and complete!) any grand projects such as a vest or sweater (especially since I have never knit anything more complicated than a hat!). Instead I will stick to stocking stuffer/small gift ideas to knit up.

First on my list is dishcloths. When I was younger, a neighbour knit a set of them for us and they were great! I knew she had knit them but the way they looked led me to believe that they were a complicated thing to create. How wrong I was! About a year ago, I came across this very simple pattern involving increases and decreases, and starting with only four stitches on the needle. The pattern appealed to me because it is exactly what I see in my head when I think of homemade dishcloths.

I’ve only just started (and I don’t have any completed ones to share) so this is how it looks so far:

This will be the perfect stocking stuffer for friends that recently bought a house (the colour even matches their kitchen!). I’m using yarn that I got at Wal*Mart. It’s 100% cotton, just like the dishcloths you buy in the store.

There is one quick stocking stuffer idea; I’m seeking others! Please leave any ideas for quick things to knit below in the comments. I’ll also have a look around online and provide with a list of quick and fast crafts that you can squeeze in before December 25!

From the results of yesterday’s challenge (see here, here or here), it’s clear that by choosing a theme (such a Halloween), and an item such as a card, you can still come up with a number of very different interpretations, depending on the person creating. That is what makes it so fun: imaginations can still run wild. For someone like me, who finds having too many choices overwhelming, a starting point is a definite help.

How is the second challenge coming along for you? This challenge will be harder I suspect, because for those who celebrate Christmas, Christmas means so many different things: winter activities, hot drinks and a roaring fire, loud family get togethers, with lots of food and laughter. Perhaps Christmas is a more contemplative time, where thoughts of goodwill towards others and peace on earth fill your mind. If you are Christian, Christmas may cause you to think deeply about the special birth that is celebrated during that time. Whatever your interpretation of Christmas time, I hope you enjoy the challenge of trying to capture it in your card. You may find that Christmas means too many different things to you that you have to make a couple of different cards to showcase these things. Don’t hesitate–go for it!

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While I was at the local dollar store a couple of days ago, I came across the following which I may or may not use for challenge number two (details here):

There were also Christmas stocking brads but they were green and I felt I had enough of that colour already. If they had been red I would have grabbed them for sure.

Good morning!

Have you by chance stopped by to see what we came up with for the first ever Ready Set Craft! - The Get Crafty Challenge (details here)? Well I’m happy to say that we didn’t disappoint: procrastination is the name of my game, but knowing that others are expecting me to do my part allowed me to complete the challenge.

Since Halloween isn’t really my thing, I didn’t want to get carried away purchasing materials for the craft. I went to the local dollar store and bought three things:

a package of six halloween brads

some halloween confetti in four shapes (cats, bats, pumpkins and spiders)

a small package of ribbon with writing and halloween images on them

I had some black paper at home, and thought I had seen some orange paper around, so my plan was to make a dramatic card that would be predominantly orange and black.

I ended up making two cards:
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Are you taking part in our challenge? You only have one more day to complete it so get crafting! Whip up a Halloween card (or two) using whatever materials you’d like and please feel free to post a picture of what you came up with on your blog, or send it to me to post (jummy.gettingcrafty[@]gmail.com). I wish I could say that I have been working on a card all week, since last Sunday, but the truth is I spent much of the week thinking about different things I could try, and didn’t actually stick anything together until last night. I still spend too much time thinking rather than doing. Some days I would look at my materials and place things, trying to imagine without actually doing anything permanent. I threw caution to the wind last night and really got into it and while I like what I came up with, I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t think of them all day today at work and either end up adding to it, or starting completely from scratch. But that’s the fun in this creativity thing: exploring your ideas without fear.

Sherry, Emma and I will be revealing our cards tomorrow so stay tuned.

If you just don’t have the time to work on this challenge, don’t worry because I’m here to announce the second challenge! That’s right: no resting is allowed between challenges. We must keep the momentum going at all costs! Like the first challenge, you will have one week to complete it. Looking for details? Here you go:

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As you may recall from a couple of days ago, I need help in the department of adhesives. Who should come to my rescue but the lovely Sherry of Sage and Thyme. (You should go visit her, she’s great. If you can read her blog and your heart doesn’t feel lighter, then you may need to make sure you still have a heart–I mean that in the nicest way, mind you).

Sherry happened to have the July/August issue of a magazine I had never heard of, Cloth Paper Scissors (the table of contents for this issue is here), on hand, and was kind enough to share some of the things she learned from an article on how to make things stick.

Now I don’t want to stop you from getting what seems to be a very interesting magazine, so please don’t hesitate to go and subscribe and read up on all sorts of other things. However, adhesives is the name of this game, and here’s what Sherry was able to get for us:

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Later today I will be having an impromptu knitting session with two of my coworkers. The older coworker has been knitting for over 25 years but the younger coworker is a year younger than I am, yet so much more accomplished. She got married earlier this year, is fit (due to daily runs at lunchtime, and regular visits to the gym), very stylish (she is how I know what is “in” nowadays), extremely intelligent and certainly the best knitter I know around my age, and has even created her own pattern. She made the cutest little booties for a gift basket we prepared for another coworker whose wife had had a baby, and there was genuine admiration that someone could create something so delicate and precious.

She is a blogger too, and on her blog she often showcases beautiful pieces that she’s working on for her family and friends.

Then we have me, whose knitting “expertise” extends to scarves and not much else. I don’t even knit efficiently, as I can never get the needles and yarn to fly through my fingers as fast as others seem to. Needless to say, I am intimidated at the thought of meeting with these ladies and I expressed my trepidation to the younger knitter in an email, saying I would come to the meeting, but just to ooh and aah over their projects.

Her response was to encourage me to bring some yarn and needles, and she expressed an overwhelming desire to share her knowledge and technique with me! I don’t know why it always surprises me that people out there willing to help, but it does. I spend all this time envying those who seem to be able to do things better than I can, often glossing over the fact that it might have taken them some time to master the technique. I figure they are too busy or easily frustrated to teach someone who might not get it at the first try, especially when they are the level of creating patterns. So, I try to learn and master things on my own and when I fail I am so reluctant to reach out a hand for help that I instead settle into the role of cheerleader of other people’s successes.

Thank goodness that some people just see the uncertainty in your eyes, or read the insecurity in your email, and offer to help.

Image courtesy of Missa H

I’m an amateur crafter and as such, it is possible that I just don’t know what the big names in the crafting world are when it comes to supplies. Perhaps for these items that I struggle to find high performing versions of, everybody knows that you should only buy it if it’s BrandName X, while I have been haplessly buying things that have a pleasing combination of high quality, (which I decide based on a)whether I have heard of the brand before and b) the price of the item).

The supplies that are currently the bane of my existence are:

Paper cutters
I have two paper cutters, both by Fiskars and purchased almost two years apart: one is a guillotine, which comfortably cuts paper up to 9 inches wide, and the other is a trimmer intended for sheets of paper up to 12 inches wide. Admittedly, it may be my technique that is amiss, but I can’t seem to cut a sheet of paper and end up a square or rectangle with corners that are at right angles to each other. And when I try to fix one side with a pair of scissors, I end up snipping a bit too much, which I compensate for by snipping a bit more from the other side, and this continues until I’m left with paper that is too small for its original intent (and it’s still not straight!).

Adhesives
I am currently using the following adhesives:

• liquid glue that dries clear (but shows up under any paper or ribbon that is light enough in colour)
• small squares of double sided tape which are an alternative to liquid glue, yet time-consuming to use when gluing larger objects
• the glue that rolls out of a dispenser, much like the dry whiteout dispensers (either I’m applying incorrect pressure, or there is something wrong with the dispensing mechanism).

Every adhesive I find and use never seems appropriate for the occasion. Where can I find a good all purpose adhesive for paper that doesn’t leave me with puckered paper (due to a liquid glue), using up all my adhesive squares, or dealing with a tangled rolling contraption that seems out of my league?

Please help: what cutting tools and adhesives should I be using?

Are you taking part in our challenge? You only have until October 15, 2007 to complete it so get crafting!

Thanks to faithful reader Sherry, we now have a challenge in place for all of you who find yourself in the following situation:

You have enough paper, embellishments and other craft materials to sink a ship, yet you continue to buy more. You’ve lost track of exactly what you have and where it is, and on the rare occasion that you decide to organize things, you invariably discover that you’re the proud owner of five packages of green paper (which you may never use). Not only do you have more crafting supplies than you know what to do with, you haven’t been feeling motivated of late to do anything with it (except collect more of it).

Well stop your needless collecting and fretting because Ready Set Craft! - The Get Crafty Challenge (name subject to change) is here!

The purpose of this challenge is to:

• encourage you to get crafting
• allow you to explore your creativity
• give you a starting point (since many of us have trouble starting because there are just too many choices out there!)
• serve as a catalyst: today you master crafts, tomorrow your junk drawer, next week the world!

Sherry has come up with four challenges for us already! However, if you’re as much of a novice crafter as I am, having too much choice at one time is daunting, so we’ll do them one by one. Ready for your mission?

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