Sentiment free

I was thinking maybe I’ll do Project 365 for crafty stuff and photography both.  It would be a huge challenge considering I only got to day 15 with the photography project.  At any rate, I decided to sit down and see what my hands could create again today.  This is what I came up with:

The oval with the cake is a piece of paper from the Sweet Stack that I cut with oval Spellbinders.  The bow was tied using my hideously ugly bow board (I’m telling ya every card maker/bow tier should have one) and the pink brown and white paper is random paper I have in my stash.  Perhaps I’ll return with another creation tomorrow.

Paper Bag Brag

It’s been such a long time since I’ve sat down to create something and had a good time doing it.  Usually it causes anxiety because I can’t find something I want or need and in frustration I often end up destroying what I’m working on instead of creating something beautiful.  Over the last few days, my darling daughter has made it her personal mission to organize my crafty stuff so it didn’t cause anxiety.

This morning I woke up to a beautiful space with a love note from her encouraging me to get my craft on.  She worked so hard, I didn’t want to disappoint and so I tried my hand at a “waterfall” or “cascading” style paper bag album.  The first one I made I gave to her and it felt quite unfinished, but she loves it so that’s what counts.  I decided it was time I dig REALLY deep and see if my “talent” or “mojo” was at all inside me…if not, then I might as well just sell it all right?!?!?

I have just ordered some wallet prints of some of the most important kiddos in my life and thought I could use what I created today to showcase those photos when they come in.  I’ll let you decide if my talent and mojo still exists.

Special thanks go out to my friend Emily Lanham who sent me a template for this style of paper bag album.  I may do a video tutorial of the next one I make.  If not, perhaps I’ll add another post with step-by-step instructions so you can brag paper bag style yourself!

Long time no hear

It’s been some time since I’ve shared any of my crafty goodies.  Sincerest apologies.  Life has gotten the best of me for quite some time now and I haven’t spent much time playing with paper.  I have however, made some significant changes recently that should allow me to start making (and sharing) more things with you front this point on though!  Stay tuned!

Give the girl a hand or two

After the craft project of epic proportions, I could have used two new ones actually!  Recently I discovered I have a pretty fair amount of talent in the world of photography and I’ve decided to build a photography business.  At some point, I will even get my Master’s in the subject.  The problem is, with all the gear and equipment, photography can be insanely expensive and I’m so cheap it’s almost criminal.

One of the things I knew I needed was posing blocks or stools of some kind.  I looked everywhere for them and they aren’t cheap.  Apple crates in varying sizes were about 175 dollars at Amazon for a set and that was relatively cheap compared to all the posing blocks or cushions or whatever that I looked at.  I didn’t have the money for that and I was not about to shell it out even if I did so I began looking for ways to do it myself.  Finally I figured out what I wanted, got the specs for the build created, and went shopping.  My project started with this:

All the wood you see in the car are my cuts for the boxes I decided to make.  The bottom pieces are scrap pieces I’d find a use for eventually and have already become shelves and a chalkboard.  The cuts, when assembled and if assembled correctly, would turn into 6 posing blocks in varying heights.  It was time to get started.  After building the first block, I had to go out and buy a more powerful drill…then things really started moving along.

Here’s the first block I built:

Phew…one down only 5 to go.  It wasn’t so bad, I can do this….and I did it but man was it epic.  Here we are with a few more under my belt:

I wish I could tell you that once they were built I was done but no…silly be still had to paint them all too.  When I got the biggest box built, someone thought it would make a good chair:

By this point, my hands were throbbing and blistered and swollen.  Who knew drilling and sanding could be so intense?  Certainly not this girl that’s for sure.  I raised good children though and seeing my discomfort my son and daughter decided to help with the last two blocks.  She got to offer the counterweight while my son sunk the screws:

FINALLY they were all done….now to fill screw holes and sand and wipe down and paint.  I did the painting.  It was actually pretty fun!

I painted on my kitchen floor with no drop cloth…what the heck why not it is water based paint and the floor mops so…..

Finally here’s what this epic build looks like all stacked together neatly:

I love my blocks, even if it did take my hands weeks to fully recover.  They have multiple uses too.  I can stand on them when I need a higher camera angle, I can sit on them when I’m getting in close with a newborn or other wee one, doing macro work or the like, AND three of them can even be used as a prop.  Check out this sweet baby girl I photographed sitting inside one of my blocks:

I use my blocks on almost every capture I create and am really glad to have them, but I’m no carpenter and don’t want to ever do a massive build like this again!

I yarn to create

I’m learning that my creative talent doesn’t just show itself in paper crafting and photography.  I am the most creative person I know when it comes to money.  I don’t have very much of it at all and so to pay for the things I need and have any chance of having money for the things I want, I have to be creative.  As I’ve worked to set up a photography business I’ve done lots of cheap frugal things.  I had my Dad make me a portable backdrop stand out of PVC pipe, I use fabric for backdrops (instead of seamless paper, muslin, or the like), I built my own posing cubes (boy was that a chore adventure), I check out photography books from the library before deciding to buy them, I make my lens creatures to help when photographing wee ones, and on and on I could go.  One of the things I decided to see if I could do was remember how to crochet well enough to make some props.  It was a rough go at first, took a lot of trial and error (and lots of yarn), tons of YouTube videos and maybe even some hair loss, but I was finally able to do it some of it (I have friends who are better with yarn than me helping me out).  Here’s the hardest yarn project I’ve ever completed:

It was supposed to have a pom-pom on the end, but I kinda like it with the “tassel” instead.  I’ll be making a pink and white one too and maybe a red and white one for Christmas.  You can find the tutorial I used to make this hat FREE right here.  It’s a pattern created by Bobwilson123.   You can find her blog here, or visit her YouTube Channel as well.  I followed the pattern exactly until it came time for the white trim.  For that I just did 4 or 5 rows of single crochet.

Don’t worry, I still paper craft too…I have an awesome album I’ve been working on that I can’t wait to finish and show off.  Sooner than later…I hope!