Craft Blog|all things crafty & creative

We’ve been talking quite a bit about blogging and stitching on the message board lately. So much so that we’ve created a special section of the forum for blogging stitchers. And to go along with that we’re starting a blogging stitcher’s blogroll. Come post your url on the forum to be added! You do need to be a message board member to post a message there, so if you haven’t registered already now is good time to get signed up! I promise we aren’t mean to the newcomers -lol- We might try enable your stash buying though.

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If you have hard to shop for teenage nephews like I do or grandparents that live a few hundred miles away then you know that gift giving isn’t always easy. You can give a photo gift card this holiday season with GiftCardLab. It will be a Visa Gift Card, but it will also be customized and made more personal by you. You can upload artwork to inspire your teenage nephew, or a picture of the kids for grandparents that might not see them as often as they’d like to.

So of course I had to test it out. I took a picture of my boys at the park earlier this year and uploaded it into the GiftCardLab with just one click. Here’s my preview screen….

That was easy! It only takes a few seconds, and you can adjust the picture to fit how you want it to fit on the card once you’ve uploaded it. It doesn’t have to be a photograph either, just an image file! You could just as easily upload a digital scrapbook page, or a virtual stitch view of a design! Your imagination is your limit on this one.

GiftCardLab.com doesn’t officially open until the 1st week of the holiday shopping season on Nov 15th, but you can join the fun today by uploading your own unique holiday gift card design ideas into the GiftCardLab Holiday Card Design Competition. $5,000 worth of prizes will be given away to the most popular designers! And I know we’ve got a creative bunch here at Stitching the Night Away so I’d love to see one of you all get some prizes.

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Today after the boy’s karate class we’re headed over to Michael’s Crafts. I am in search of some Superman cake decorations for my son’s birthday this weekend. And I want to pick up some perler beads to finish the magnet set I started earlier this week. Got half way through a magnet and realized I didn’t have any white perler beads, or any light blue ones, or a couple other colors LOL

I will resist the urge to buy other stuff! Good thing the cross stitch section there stinks a little.

Technorati Tags: perler beads, Michael’s Crafts, superman cake

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As promised, although late, here is the flower pot I painted for my daughter’s Montessori school. I got the idea out of a book that I picked up at Michael’s and just put her name on it, so she’d know which one was hers.

I put a sealer on the pot first, so the water wouldn’t damage it. Then I used regular acrylic paint and put SEVERAL coats to cover it. Then, when it was all painted, I put 2 or 3 coats of varnish on, for good measure.

It was very fun to do and I’m thinking I might paint more pots in the future.

Enjoy!!

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Technically this is the second craft club week but I didn’t have anything to post last week. This week I present to you my almost finished skirt made from a recycled pair of my favorite jeans t~ they suffered an unfortunate accident at the hands of a teething puppy, so they were cut up and re-purposed and almost finished …. This is the front of the skirt. Ignore the rumples, I just pulled it out tonight. I haven’t found my fabric yet, but I did find this! And the rest of the fabric to finish it was folded up with it, and I’ve got a spool of thread so I’m all set. Maybe next week I’ll get to post a picture of my wearing it. It may look done in this picture, but there is no behind in it right now so it’s not exactly safe to wear out at the moment. LOL And you can’t see it in the picture but the blue fabric that is used in addition to the denim has a light dandelion print with some glitter to it.

Click the banner above or head over to Cass Knits to see who else has shared a project this week, share one yourself, or to find some need inspiration to start one off!

Technorati Tags: sewing, skirt, handmade skirt, recycled denim, craft projects, online craft club

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I got an Oriental Trading catalog in my mailbox the other day and it ended up in the pile of mail on my desk. I didn’t really get a chance to look at it until last night when Ethan brought it to me and showed me something he wanted to make. It was a spiral beaded project that sort of resembles a wind chime. Then I realized the whole catalog was a beading catalog and I started thumbing through it. Wow, did it get me thinking about projects. Unfortunately beading supplies are not something I have in my crafty stash. I might just have to get some though because I now have tons of ideas for fun jewelry and scissor fobs and all things beaded!

Of course I saved the catalog for reference and I hopped online and went to the website. I was looking for kits mostly, something that could get a person started off. There weren’t too many kits but I spied an earring kit that I liked and some “starter” type bead mixes that were nice. Then there were tools! I didn’t realized there were so many tools involved for bead work. Pliers, tweezers, wire cutters, wire, all sorts of little things to help you with those tiny beads and twisting wire. So, my beading dream was halted until I can buy a nice little tool set along with a selection of beads. In the meantime I’ll have to stick with kids beading kits!!

Technorati Tags: beading, kids beads, oriental trading, bead projects, beading tools

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I want to thank everyone that voted in the magazine ads poll and those that posted comments here and on the message board. It was definitely interesting to see how the results went on that. I was honestly expecting to see more on the no side than on the yes and sometimes. So I was pleasantly surprised!

I think that a magazine ad is definitely something for us to consider to grow the community a little bit. I know the whole stitching world in general right now is in such a slump. I keep wracking my brain trying to figure out what we can do. But, I realize that we’ve been through industry slumps before and always survived and bounced back. Hopefully new designers will continue to break into the field and new styles will keep developing. And hey, I figure if we all keep teaching our kids to stitch everything will be okay!

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Milling or rebatching soap is the process used to turned already made soap into nice more decorative soap. First take your existing soap and shred it up. This can be done easily with a cheese grater. Then put all of your soap shavings into a bag, along with a very small amount of liquid (water, milk, etc.) The bag then goes into a pot of simmering water and is allowed to slowly melt over the course of an hour or two. You may consider double bagging the soap just incase.

Now that it’s melted, you can carefully unzip the bag and add in any other ingredients you may want such as scenting oils, or herbs. Re-zip the bag and using your hands work the additions though the entire soap mixture. You can now pour your soap into decorative molds or whatever container you wish.

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Angel of Morning by L&L ~ The designer was 80% finished with this design when the towers fell on 9-11-01 and then rushed to finish her. She is searching into the heavens for an answer. Her face searches the morning light for relief from her darkness. Her golden wings tipped with the white of morning light and her bluest gown trailing into the night. Her hands uplifted, one hand is empty and open and her right is full receiving the light. A tribute to all our fallen heroes.

This design uses a combination of DMC and Needlepaints, plus mill hill beads and treasures. I’m not normally a fan of all the angel designs but this one just sort of speaks for itself with it’s connection to 9/11. So there you have it. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: 9/11 remembrance, cross stitch angel, angels, angel of morning, L&L

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Just a little something I’m curious about. I was considering placing an advertisement in this area to invite stitchers and crafters to our message board community here. I’ve thought about it several times in the past, but I’ve never actually gone ahead and done the placing of the ad. I know a lot of times there are a lot of junk ads in the back of the mag, business scams, and MLM ads are finding their way into them. So, I am just curious if you take a peek at those ads to see if there are any good freebies or something new and exciting that you want to check out. Also, do you go to any of the websites that you see there? Vote in the poll and leave me a comment with your thoughts about these little ad sections.

Thank you so much for taking the time to vote and let me know what you think. I truly do appreciate it.

Technorati Tags: craft magazine, craft classifieds, stitching magazines

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