Birthday Time

I have a group of friends whose lives don't allow us to get together as much as we'd like, or as much as we used to, but we always manage to celebrate birthdays. (Funny thing is that with the seven of us we have two birthdays in January, two in March, one in July, and two in August.)

Tomorrow, we're celebrating the July birthday with lunch at my sister's house.

We've also sworn off gift-giving, for the most part, that is. I, being the only crafty one in the bunch, like to bring something I made; I maintain that's allowable. This year, beginning in January, I've made each birthday girl a set of cards, using quotes by famous people, similar to these from Etched in Time's Etsy shop.

For the first two birthdays, I chose Austen and Einstein quotes. The second set were Lucille Ball and Mae West. This time I used Dolly Parton.

I started with a box and a set of stickers I picked up at Target's dollar section.

The size of the box dictated the size of the card, and the size of the card told me it wanted more than just the typography I used in the earlier ones. So I pulled clipart from the 'net. 

These are Parton quotes I found on the 'net: "Find out who you are, and do it on purpose." "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."  "We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails." "My weakness has always been food and men, in that order." "Storms make trees take deeper roots." "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another."

I don't make envelopes from a template, which is why some look different than others. I like to call it the handmade quality. ;^) Here I used a pack of scrapbooking paper I picked up from the dollar store.

I had to cut the stickers down to fit into the box.

 Tied up--the cards, the stickers, and the envelopes.

 Tucked inside the box.

Tied with ribbon that matches and a boutonniere made of button flowers with a felt leaf.

And with it, another handmade card to wish the birthday girl lots of happiness. (And yes, even I can see that I could have/should have tied more of it together than I did, the reason I didn't being that I had to use what I had on hand. That happens when you live far from decent stores.)

Finally Done!

I'm mailing off the completed bridal bouquet today and wanted to share it.

The completed bouquet: I'm loving the bride's choice of ribbon for the wrapped handle. I think I mentioned that it's a gorgeous vintage silk.

Melissa's been a delight to work with. I've come to admire her greatly, so I included a couple of "gifties" for her. The first is a sachet I made using a photo she posted on her blog.

I used the freezer paper transfer method to print the photo of the happy couple onto linen, then backed the sachet with the same linen, and filled it with dried lavender from my own garden.

The final "giftie" is a boutonniere I made for the groom.

I'm charting new territory here in making both the bouquet and the bout, but I had fun doing it. And as I like to say, That's better'n a sharp stick in the eye. (Of course, I'm usually talking about something unpleasant.)

Birthday Card Knock-off

I'm new to the card-making scene, but I'm totally loving what little I've done so far. Whenever it's time to send a card--if there's time enough--I start looking through the 'net to find ideas. This one I came up with on Pinterest.

Clever, innit? Mine's a very loose interpretation, partly because I didn't have small clothspins, which would have been difficult to send through the mail anyway, and partly because...well, just because.

Here's mine:

Several things are different. 1) I used the font Andy for the primary wording, and a different font for the word Perfect--can't remember offhand which. 2) I used a colored vintage MOP button. I'm thinking I like the white better, and I certainly have a lot of those, but don't feel like changing it. 3) I used crochet thread for the stitching; next time I'll use regular sewing thread. 4) I drew clothespins, cut them out, as ittie-bittie tiny as they are, and glued them down. 5.) My socks are scrapbook paper, not the cool hand-colored ones of the original, and they're stuck onto the card rather than standing out.

Next one I make--and I will make it again--I'll try to get it more like the original with one exception. I think the wording should be: Friends are like socks. We make the perfect pair.

Still, I think it'll be a pretty nice birthday card for a dear, dear friend.

Recycling--Is it always a good thing?

I just finished a project that makes me wonder if recycling is always the best thing to do.

On my last visit to the thrift store, I picked up a valance obviously intended for a child's room. I have no children, therefore no grandchildren, ergo no need for a child's window valance. But it was cute and marked down--making it a buck fifteen--and who can pass that up when the materials are obviously calling out to be something else? Besides, it had obviously been there a while for the price to be cut in half.

As usual, I forgot to take a before photo so in this shot I tried to give you an idea of how I started. The valance was a length of the background check with four animal patches affixed--a horse at each end and a giraffe and elephant in the middle--with a small print border at the bottom and tabs made of each of the colors of the animals.

As the animals were placed too close together to center onto my tea cozy pattern, I added a grass applique onto each, using the tab fabric. The elephant and giraffe I was able to remove from the valance to use in a later project. (So why didn't I simply remove the horse patches and center them? In removing the elephant I left glue behind and I was afraid I'd mess up my background fabric if I tried it with the horses.)

I used the lining of the valance for the cozy lining, simply quilting it with some batting for insulation.

Excepting the last bit of handwork still to be done, here's a shot of the finished cozy. Not too bad for $1.15,  IMHO.

I still have enough of the background fabric to use as a backing on another tea cozy, still to come, and the elephant and zebra patches. So what do you think? Was recycling a good move here?

Still More Bouquet Photos

If you think this bouquet has taken over my life, you're probably right. I'm dreaming of felt flowers. (Also dreaming of Elizabeth Bennet since my favorite way to do handwork is watching movies made from Jane Austen's novels. I watched the whole set of the BBC movies from thirty or so years ago plus a couple of different Pride and Prejudices, and my latest obsession is BBC's Lost in Austen. I've seen that so many times I know the dialog almost as good as the actors do. But when Elizabeth Bennet starts making felt flowers in my dreams, I'm thinking I've had too much of one or the other.)

Currently I'm working on keeping the turquoise flower from seeming out of place. I may have overdone the turquoise additions in the next few pictures.

We replaced the large turquoise leaves at the bottom with leaves of a darker green so I cut the large turquoise leaves into smaller shapes.One is shown here along with a lily with a turquoise center and the white flower below with a turquoise handmade bead. The turquoise felt just above the leaf is a lily with a green center.

I've wrapped the base with a satin ribbon to give the client an idea of how a wrapped handle looks. She's chosen the vintage ribbon beside it for the finished bouquet.

A different view with another turquoise leaf. You can see the tip of the turquoise flower on the right and a turquoise bead inside a flower just above the leaf.

Yet another view. On the left is one of the darker green leaves I added at the base and there's yet another lily with a turquoise center.

Another view. To the left you see the turquoise lily with green center, which means we've been all around this view of the bouquet.

A view from the top.

And another.

And the last.

I'm thinking the turquoise lily is definitely too much. I'm not sure about all the turquoise leaves. There are three; and I'm thinking I should cut it down at least to two, maybe even to just one. That, along with the original turquoise flower and the turquoise centers to the other flowers may be enough.

Thoughts anyone? It would be much appreciated.

Bouquet Update

My client requested I take a photo of the bouquet I'm making her with someone holding it so she could get an idea of how it would look in situ. As I didn't want to be the one holding it nor did I imagine the hub would either, I captured my niece who was spending Memorial Day weekend with her MIL. Of course, I didn't get over to Sunny's until the afternoon and, her living on the lake, by the time I got there, almost everyone had been in the water. Laura was game anyway. (Isn't she a cutie?)

The client wanted to see the bouquet both with and without the turquoise flower that inspired her. In an attempt to make it not appear out of place amidst all the creams and whites, I added some blue in other places, including a few turquoise leaves.

She's uncertain whether she likes the turquoise leaves, as am I. They look so...new. The flower is made of a fulled sweater, the leaves are new wool felt. Today I tried to make them look not so slick by first soaking them in tea--didn't work--then I put them into a container with a mixture of bleach, water and marbles, then into the dryer. (Don't ask what I was trying to achieve with the marbles; it didn't work. Did you know wool will melt if left too long in pure bleach? That's how I tell if the felt I pick up at thrift stores is wool or synthetic or a blend. If wool, it melts entirely, if synthetic, not at all, if a blend, only the wool melts and the other fibers remain.) I made the bleach mixture weak and didn't leave the leaves in for long before putting them in the dryer. I think the dryer worked best; what came out doesn't appear any less colorful but it's also not as slick as new felt.

This is the bouquet sans turquoise flower and leaves with only the creams and whites and green leaves remaining.

So we're going with the turquoise flower, and I'm adding bits of turquoise to tie it in better, like beads and buttons and wool roving as centers to a few flowers. I should be able to get to the wrapping of the handle this week, one step closer to being done.

Somebody remind me next time that this is a lot more work than I anticipated. You can also remind me that I'm loving every minute of it. Time versus enjoyment; pretty good balance, I'd say.

Bouquet Addendum

I'm stuck inside today. The hub's in the back lot, digging a trench to irrigate a patch of flowers, and I have to wait for a delivery, which means I can't even retreat to my studio in the backyard.

So--I brought in some handwork along with my light box to photograph the new rendition of the bridal bouquet I'm working on. Since the bride-to-be prefers flowers without embroidery or stacked buttons, I've made several new  to replace the ones with those elements. 

Now I'm working on arrangement. In these first few photos, I placed the flowers in a bouquet, then the leaves below that, then the hydrangeas.

Another view, same arrangement. I've strung beads onto wire loops as additional filler.

Yet another view. Though this flower--and one other--has embroidery, she chose to keep these two.

 This is the last photo with that same arrangement.

Next, I stuck the leaves into the central bouquet with only the hydrangeas as the bottom layer. (There's another arrangement I want to try so I didn't tie the ribbon around this bouquet.)

 Different view, same arrangement.

This is the last view of the second arrangement.

There's one last arrangement I want to try for, inspired by this one at A Thousand Screaming Rabbits.

 

The components I've put together--and the color scheme--will make it very different, but I think I'd like to see what I can come up with. Gorgeous, innit?