Wise Craft

let the season begin!

The holiday decorating has officially started at the wise craft house. This little vignette is on a built-in shelf above the kid's computer in our family room (I struggle with what should go on this shelf all year, its just not functional and meant to be decorative...at least I think). These are the tomorrowland trees I made last year, instructions are here. If you have some craft felt, beautiful wool felt, or a sweater in a great color ready to felt...any of those would make a quick and lovely set of trees. And don't forget the "Whoville" trees I did for Value Village (which I think also look like dollops of meringue), also a quick and easy project.

a couple things...

- Thank you to everyone who is supporting our chocolates! This is total grassroots and Peter and I are having a lot of fun with it. Shops have been enthusiastic about them and folks have been buying and enjoying them...and that makes us extremely happy. And, we have added a store locator page to the website, and it is updated frequently as our distribution grows, so keep checking in. 

- For you Seattle locals, Ms. Chicken Amy Karol is coming to The Quilting Loft on December 3rd at 7pm. She will be signing her book, Bending The Rules With Fabric and Bend The Rules Sewing, and show some tips. Believe me, you don't want to miss this very funny and sweet lady. 

- I'm currently attempting to control a potentially addictive eggnog latte habit. Love!

- Tell me this is not beautiful!!

- Hope your Thanksgiving was good. Ours was really nice, although at 18 1/2 lbs, Peter bought way more turkey than we needed, so please comment and let me know your favorite turkey leftover recipes. I need ideas!

Enjoy your weekend!

woodland centerpiece for thanksgiving

I won't be spending Thanksgiving with my friend C and her family this year, and I will miss her and well, truth be told, I'll also miss her flowers. I have shown you her amazing floral arrangements before. Always gorgeous and modern. So, as I'm prepping for Thanksgiving here at our house with friends this year, I'm remember a few little tricks that C has taught me (and that I've just kind of picked up along the way). I thought it would be fun to share.

I purchased a bouquet from our local marke, nothing extravagant...a few roses and some green berry, rosehip type sprigs. I used a short, wide-mouthed glass vase- pictured above. You can pick these up at thrift stores for next to nothing. (I used to be afraid of vases with large openings, thinking it would take a lot of flowers to fill them, but it really doesn't.) Fill it with cold water and dump at least a packet of the flower-fresh powder they give you with these bouquets, more if you have it (don't be stingy with it). De-leaf all the flower stems. Using a sharp kitchen steak knife, trim each stem down so that the flower will only come to the top of the vase (really tear off that stem with the knife, to expose plenty of the stem to water, no clean cuts necessary). Do this will all the flowers first, placing them to distribute their color nicely. Like this...

Now work on the green, leafy foliage, cutting down of the stem and dispersing its color. Keep the entire arrangement close and tight to the opening of the vase, with no space showing.

Looking good, no?-

You could leave it like this and it would look great. Or you could wrap any large leaves on the inside of the vase to disguise the stems, which is my C taught me to do. But my favorite part of this arrangement comes next.

 

I have a couple sheets of bark (I got these from C, but you can purchase them online. I did a search for "bark sheets" and found a place here that sells them). These sheets can be cut pretty easily with a good pair of scissors and I only needed to cut it to the height I wanted (and the best part is I have some leftover for another project!)

And there a woodland-y, non-Thanksgiving, and yet Thanksgiving, centerpiece.

Hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving day (or Thursday if Thanksgiving's not your thing). I will be preparing the whole soup-to-nuts feast and am looking forward to it (happy to say I haven't ruined a turkey yet, she says as she knocks on a sheet of bark). Be well! xo

 

just a few announcements

I finally made it to Sarah's new shop, Fabric Crush, over in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. Such a charming place, very warm and full of all the pretty patterns and designer fabrics we're looking for. If you're local you must stop by, its really charming. (And gosh, I think these photos were probably the last time we saw the sun around town. Its been the rainiest I can remember!)

A few other random things:

*Kids Craft Weekly has two great ebooks for holiday crafting with kids that are full of good ideas, Christmas Cards and Christmas Crafts (newly updated with new stuff). So good. (Reminding me that I need to gear up for our crafting/gift making day soon).

*Kathreen posted an interview with me over on Whip Up. Thank you Kathreen! (Remember the Whip Up 2010 Calendars are available now right here.)

*I am getting a few holiday decorations out, starting with the less Christmasy. As I do every year, I will make some new ornaments for our tree, and I have my eye on a few from Crafty Tree Trimmings, another great ebook available now. (What do you guys think of ebooks. I really like the idea of them myself, but am curious what others are thinking.)

*Did you happen upon Martha's Origami wrap yet?

*I just ordered myself (for the 2nd year in a row, here's last year's) Patricia's customizable calendar. I have wall space in my studio where I hang a calendar and how fitting to have one with some of my favorite fabrics peeking out each month. Just print the pdf files onto cardstock, cut out the letter, glue the fabric of your choosing to the back of each page, and voila! Older kids can do this too, would make a great gift.

*Sew Mama Sew is doing their annual Handmade Holidays list, I've already marked several projects I want to do!

*If you have any trouble at all downloading the pdf instructions to any of the holiday projects I did on the Value Village site, please email me, I can send you a copy of the pdf with the instructions. A few of you commented that when you pulled up the pdf's over on their site, nothing showed up. I have had Value Village look into it and they are stumped. I'm thinking it might be the settings on individual computers (the pdfs did the same thing when I pulled them up on mine, but were normal when I pulled them up on Peter's computer). No worries, just let me know if you have any trouble at all.

*I still have sponsor spots available on the blog during the holiday season. If you are an indie designer, etsy seller, or crafter that would like to promote yourself, email me for rates, I'd love to have you.

*I am going to be making some changes around here over the next couple of months. I need to shake things up a little in this space.The whole world of wise craft is evolving for me and I'm very excited about it. In the meantime, if you read this blog through google reader, bloglines, or some other service, click over and take a look at some of the links I'm adding to the "inspiring me" column. I will continue to update this section and others on a regular basis. There are some great holiday ideas out there.

Thank you all for really getting me thinking about photo file storage on that last post. I am glad to say that I went so far as to move all my photos from the computer to an external hard drive after I read your advice, but now I need to burn DVD's before I'm brave enough to hit delete on my computer (hoping to do that tomorrow). Anybody who is not sure how to store their digital photos, go read the comments from the last post, there's lots of ideas.

value village & savers holiday 09

I recently completed my newest project for the folks at Value Village and Savers. This is holiday set of projects is my favorite so far. For inspiration, I spent an evening at my local Value Village, shopping for supplies. The whole palette of grays and blues with tiny touches of red really came together within a few minutes, through a combination of things easy to find thrift any time...sweaters, plaid fabric remnants, dishes, etc. I came home and got right to work, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This series of projects are easy to do and do not require tons of sewing skills (actually, in some cases, no sewing). You could use these to decorate from now right up until New Years. I'd love to see you guys put your own spin on them with a totally different color palette (what about oranges?) and whatever you find second hand.

 

My absolute favorite project were the miniature terrarium place cards. These are glass votive holders, which I filled with some fake moss and a little tiny deer (I found a bag of them in the kid's toy section). The flag is blue paper glued around a bamboo skewer cut down to size and held in the bottom with a blob of clay. (It would be so cute to add some tiny mushrooms in there too).

 

Every single thing in these photos was bought second hand, for these projects (the transferware dish, the flatware, napkin -made from a men's dress shirt, all of it). No expensive or precious antiques here. Which proves, yet again, that you can pull together a wonderful home decor with all sorts of random things gathered secondhand.

You can find a complete list of the projects on the Value Village and Savers websites, along with downloadable pdf instructions. Go check them out! And, as last time, if you want to see projects like this each season, be sure to let them know to keep them coming! I know firsthand they love to hear from you!

(These wonderful photos were taken by Scott Pitts at Armstrong Photography.)

my styling toolkit

I finished my second photo shoot for Value Village today. I'm so excited about these new projects! This set is all for holiday and will be going up on their site soon, I will let you know when.

Its so fun to see everything come together at the shoot and have a professional photograph them. (Armstrong Photography does amazing work and have been so great to work with on these projects.) As a photo stylist for these shoots, I learned quickly how important it is for me to be prepared for anything. The photographer needs to know you've got their back, and that you're on it before they realize that you needed to be on it (well, that's my goal anyway). I realized during the Halloween shoot that in order to be fully prepared, I needed a lot of stuff. This was the real deal. I made a big list, did a little research, and assembled a kit. Which is fantastic, because anybody that knows me knows, I love kit.I thought I'd share this because a have a hunch a few of you out there like kit too, so you would understand my geeky happiness at something like this.

This is a pretty basic photo stylist's kit. There are many versions of a kit like this, depending on what type of shoot its for...clothing, food, etc. Here's what mine contains-

 

a variety of tape (glossy, matte, double stick, gaffer's tape, etc), tape measure, binder clips, tacks, pushpins, and nails, sharpie pens, small needlebook with assortment of handsewing needles and some thread, business cards...

 

several types of scissors (paper, tiny embroidery type, fabric, wire cutters), brushes, safety pins, rubber bands, glue, more tape, matches, fabric tape measure...

(*I love the new fine tip Martha Stewart glue pen. Used it for touch ups several times today and it works great!)

 

foam mounting adhesive squares, adhesive type clay, super glue, lint roller, pins, lint-free cloths, hammer, artists tape, goof off, tacky wax (helps keep round things from rolling around, etc), clear acrylic squares or small things to use as inconspicuous "risers" (to slightly raise items off a table, for ex.) fishing line/monofilament and, my new best friend, a can of compressed air, which absolutely saved me today. There was glitter involved with a couple of the projects I did and, shooting in macro, every single stray piece shows up in the photo. But with compressed air, just zap zap... all gone.

In addition to all this, I bring any paint I for touch ups, the projects themselves and the extra, leftover pieces (because sometimes process shots are needed to help explain how the project is made), any props (candles, plates, food, etc.) For each of these projects I focused around a color palette that I decided on early on, then bought every extra prop with the intention of working within that palette. We are not shooting on location, so if I don't have something, chances are its there in the photography studio somewhere. Shooting on location would require a lot more stuff. But still, my goal is to come prepared.

Everything goes into a tackle-type box with a lift out tray and several compartments to keep things separated. I'm not crazy about my pink box, but I'm also not picky and I figure this will stand out in a mess.

 

This box (like my fabric scissors) is off limits to everyone in our house. Nothing should ever be taken out of it...glue, tape, nothing (Emma!). It gets put away, fully stocked, until the next time I need it.

Making up this box took my back to college, when we were taking our sewing classes and carried our tackle boxes of sewing essentials back and forth to class. Compartmentalized boxes really are great for carrying a lot of smallish things. I was surprised to see many of the folks on Project Runway also carry a tackle box, which made me smile to think that things like that haven't changed much.

back to work wardrobe basics and a new love affair with black

I was a little worried about about putting together a back to work wardrobe. I try to pull myself together every day, but I knew I needed to pull it all together a little better and sharper if I was walking into an office. Even though the office is full of fabric swatches, sample sewers, and garment patterns.

Where to start?

Well, there was something I figured out in my first meeting with my boss, the designer. She likes black. And gray. A LOT. She wears it every day and you know what? She makes it look great. I love black again (well, I always have.) This made it easy for me. In my mind, a few well chosen black or blackish pieces could go a long way. Hello J. Crew cords in dark steel gray. And American Apparel black turtlenecks. And J Crew favorite tees (which we all know are the best colors out there...I chose steel gray, a dark grayish blue, a pale gray heather, and white). I was able to pull together some really workable outfits for not too much money. 

But I like to have a little color somewhere, even if its subtle... a ring, something in my hair, a little something. I fell hard for a J Crew pea green scarf that would have been perfect, but I didn't want to pay $45 for it. I remembered the post Steph did on 3191 about making a scarf and went to Joann's looking for homespun cloth. A lot of the plaids weren't what I was looking for, but this blue/army green/brown one was really pretty, so I bought a yard of it. I cut it in half lengthwise down the middle, sewed the 2 long pieces together on one of the short ends (I did a french seam so there would be no raw edges), then did a small double turned hem on each of the long sides, stopping 1 1/2" from each end. I frayed the edges of each of the short ends about 1 1/2" up.

Done. A scarf for $4.00 (love those Joann's coupons) in less than 30 minutes.

I wear it wrapped several times around my neck, tied it in a double knot. I don't like scarves that hang down because they get in my way and this is not bulky around my neck at all. I am planning to make a white/black/gray one next. I often wear a basic steel gray cotton tunic I made using Simplicity pattern #2725- their website isn't loading for me. (Remember when I was looking for a tunic? This is the one.) Zipper up the back, sleeveless, looks great over every tee I have, and works when I need to pull on my favorite black cardigan over it. Basic, and it works with so many things.

So, I'm getting a handle on my wardrobe. I love that these days you can totally get away with wearing the same great pieces a little more often. Earlier days in the apparel industry, I felt a lot more pressure to constantly update my wardrobe, but not so much now. I'm still struggling to find the perfect pair of wingtip shoes. Black, of course.

I have a purple scarf coming from Martha's new collection. To add to my collection of scarves from her. Soooo easy to wear.

One more thing I also wanted to mention is that my beloved Boomerang audio for kids now has a free downloadable episode on the website. Yes, its free. Really. Go grab it and share it with your kids this weekend. Sit under a quilt and gather round the Ipod. Spend some time listening to it together. We do and I really love these episodes as much as the kids do. We are in the process of tweaking the website and adding some new fun things, so I will let you know when that's done.

Have a lovely weekend!

what i did this summer. i did halloween, so I should have a party

Way back during the summer, I hinted to you about a photo styling project I was working on. Finally I can now reveal the details of that project. I was contacted by Armstrong Studios, an amazing photography studio here in Seattle, to ask if I was like to come up with some Halloween party and home decor ideas using recycled materials for Value Village and help style a photo shoot using the projects. Um, where do I sign? Honestly, I couldn't wait to get started.

 

So, a dozen or so projects using thrifted, recycled, upcycled materials from Value Village. My mind was racing with ideas. I wanted to use items that could be found any time of year at Value Village or other thrift store, not just during the Halloween season, so I resisted buying Halloween things, that just seemed too easy. The other thing I really wanted to do was to create projects that were "low sew" or even "no sew", the idea being that anybody should be able to jump in and do these projects with materials they find for very little money. The second photo above are the cat and ghost stuffed creatures made from cotton t-shirts (sitting on a $6.99 Value Village chair which I spray painted orange). They are more of a flat shape rather than rounded like a stuffed animal, and are meant to be used as pillows on your furniture during the Halloween season (or, if you're like my kids, you should just hug them and sleep with them). Very soft and easy to sew. The pumpkins in the above (3rd) photo are actually round Christmas ornaments that I spray painted orange, with faces drawn on with black Sharpie markers. They are great to to use for table centerpieces or at place settings. The bottles of "poison" is simple black sand from a craft store poured inside, then drawn on with a white paint pen.

The "sinister ceramics" (above) turned out to be my favorite of all the projects. These are just those terrible ceramic tchotkes (or 'sit arounds' as we say it in the South) you always see at thrift stores. Seriously, if people have one of these, they must have had hundreds! They can be so uninteresting at face value, but spray painted black, with red crystals added for eyes (that was actually Emma's idea), and they turned out to be the perfect thing for our Halloween party table centerpiece. What's so great about this project is how these ceramics went from sweet, colorful little parrots and birds turned into ravens and hawks with a coat of spray paint (one cat with ivy around its neck looked more like it had barbed wire on after it was painted black, it was a great surprise!). Spray painting these things is almost instant gratification.

The entire party scene-

 

Decorated glassware-

 

Another favorite project, silhouettes with sinister little details added (I love the girl in the witches' hat). They are all downloadable as PDF's on the Value Village website. These were just printed out on white paper and inserted into frames purchase at V.Village that I'd spray painted black.

Please visit their website for complete instructions to all these and more. There are too many projects to mention in one post. There are even downloadable invitations and placecards for the table (and just look! at what I did to those old Barbies). (Thank you graphic design team of Story Trading for those!) If you do any of the projects, please let me know (and let me know if you run into any problems with the projects too).

I have to say, Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine (I actually dread it), but creating all these projects really got me into the spirit. It was a fun project to learn the ropes of photostyling on (plus we ate a ton of candy that day). Thank you so much to Jane and Scott at Armstrong for a chance to work on a project like this, its the most fun "work" has been in a long time. I love seeing companies like Value Village embracing and showing more of these types of DIY projects on their site. Please let them know if you'd like to see more! Your feedback is important for us to hear.

Here's a slideshow of it all.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

removable quilt design wall

Our slowish week's end continued into the weekend, I'm happy to say. I got a chance to work on the value quilt, which I am also calling my stash quilt, because I've dug through every bit of it for this one. As I was beginning to put the quilt top together, it was clear that I was going to have a tough time making sure I was placing all the squares the correct way. There is no room in my small studio to lay out the squares, and the dining room table would be too temporary, making me feel rushed. I have always wished I had the room for a full sized quilt design wall, but there is no real wall space in our house to make that happen. But necessity being the mother of invention, I came up with the idea to make a temporary design wall, one that can be easily put up when needed, and easily taken down when not. (For those unaware of what a quilt design wall even is, it is essentially a wall of solid flannel or a similar fabric. Quilting fabric sticks to it temporarily. As you complete a quilt square, you can place it up on the design wall, and the flannel just sort of grabs it and hangs on. Its great to piece quilt squares together, move them around, etc. Here's a large one in Denyse Schmidt's studio to give you an idea.)

I bought 4 yards of 45" cream flannel, cut it into four 1yd pieces. I sewed two of the pieces together, selvege to selvege, then did the same with the other 2 yards, then I sewed those 2 larger pieces together length wise, forming a large rectangle of flannel measuring approximately 88" x 72". (These dimensions fit my wall well, if you have the luxury of working with a bigger wall, you may want to add more fabric.) On one of the 72" pieces, I folded and pressed a 1/4" towards the wrong side, then folded and pressed a 2" hem, which I then stitched close to the fold's edge all the way across. I then applied 10 evenly spaced grommets (I used large ones because that's what I had, but you could use a small size, these kits are sold at sewing stores, I'm sure mine came from Joann's). The part to realize is that you will have to hammer in small tacks (could be tiny, because what they are supporting is not heavy) across the very top of the wall you'll plan to hang this from (you could paint them to match your wall color if you wanted to, so that aren't as visible, but if you're planning to use this design wall in a basement or workroom, it wouldn't matter so much). Use the grommets to hang the flannel on the tacks, against the wall, and you're done. Now you have a space to play with your quilt squares, and you won't have to clean the floor or clear table dishes to do it.

 

Things make so much more sense when you can stand back and look at them fully, don't they? Once I had all these squares up, it was easy to see where the color values of the lights and darks were working best and where I needed to move things around. I don't think I could have seen this easily on the floor. Since this picture was taken, the blocks have been all pieced together and my quilt design wall has been taken down, folded, and put away until next time.

I don't know why I chose summer to work on a quilt. Well, I don't think I chose it, I went with being inspired and just decided to do it, not giving much thought to it being summer (and all the steam ironing I would be doing). If you've never made a quilt, but have thought about trying it, I hope you do. There is a "zone" I get into when I'm in the midst of seeing a quilt come together. Each part of the process (picking the fabrics, planning the squares, finding the backing, sandwiching the layers, basting, quilting, binding, etc) brings such an escape for me. As I sew each piece to the other makes it feel more solid, more real. I am planning to machine quilt this one myself, so the next steps are to choose the backing fabric (solid? not solid?), then baste the layers together. My goal is to not let this one sit idle too long. I usually have one quilt in me a year, I'm really hoping this year I have two.

I should get busy.

homespun checkers

The kids are getting older around here, which means the game playing is getting a little easier (fewer tears). I've had so much fun playing the classics with them lately. The other day, when felting my millionth rock, and wondering what to do with all all these felted rocks I'm accumulating (never mind that some would wonder what to do with even one felted rock)?? I had the idea come to me to make a checker set for the kids and I and, of course, the treehouse.

First I pulled out all the floral-y, colorful fabric I have in my stash, but then quickly thought better of it. Something like that could get cutesy looking very quickly around here, sometimes I just need to remind myself that we truly are "barely floral" people- if that makes sense- little bits are all we need (plus Ian would not be caught dead playing with a flowery set of checkers). So I went totally neutral, using what I had on hand (and I have to thank you, goodwill, for that fabulous stash of woolen remnants I found a few weeks ago).

 

To make it, I cut 2 pieces of the dark gray wool 12 1/2" x 12 1/2", cut a piece of medium weight interfacing the same size. I cut the light gray wool into 1 3/4" square (keeping in mind the size of the rocks, which were already made) then hand sewed them to one of the dark gray pieces using cream cotton thread (2 strands) with just a running stitch around the edge, which truly is not straight at all (that's the homespun part). I pulled some threads around the edges to fray them slightly. I see a couple of squares I will probably redo because they look really wonky, which will bother me. Anyway...

 

Once I finished sewing the squares on, I put the 2 dark gray pieces right sides together, and put the interfacing on the back of the solid piece. Leaving a 4-5" opening, I sewed around the edge of all 3 layers together, 1/4" seam allowance. I clipped the corners, then turned inside out and pushed out the corners. To finish, I topstitched all the way around, close to the edge (which closed the opening as well).

I am thinking of making another set as a gift, but I'll probably attach a ribbon so it can be rolled up into a tube for storage. As for the rocks, I'll probably make a drawstring bag to put them in, or maybe some sort of pocket on the back to stow them. These rocks are so soft and tactile, fun to hold.

I have discovered that clearing off family room coffee table and leaving a game like this or a puzzle, or our word tiles, mancala etc out and ready has proven to be a great starter for the kids when they are wandering around. This is easy to set up while they are away at school (which is out on Friday), and they always seem excited to see something new set up. Who knows how long it will last?

Some other things...the newest issue of mixtape is out, a great read as always...Sarah is hosting a Boomerang giveaway, if you want a chance to win a free episode, please hop over and give us some feedback...I can't wait to get my sugar city quarterly...I am thinking the summer series to immerse myself in this year will be The Tudors.

fabric covered moleskines

I love a pretty notebook. Here's one of those projects that time spent is nothing compared to satisfaction gained. Less than 30 minutes, start to finish for a pack of 3 moleskine journal. Its great if you're like me and have the really pretty fabric and have absolutely nowhere to use it in a project at the moment (a large scrap would do one journal).

Do you need instructions? Probably not, but in case-

Materials needed:
a pack of 3 Moleskine journals- I recommend getting the kraft brown covered ones, the other colors might show through the fabric

3 scraps of fabric you love (important!) measuring at least 11" x 9"

1"-1 1/2" wide twill tape to add to the inside front or back cover to hold a pen (I was playing around with this as you can see in the first photo, but decided against it on my set)

double sided fusible webbing, approximately same amount of you have in fabric (I used wonder under because I had it, but there are many kinds.)

iron, ironing board

good music (this project barely requires thought)

How to make:
1. Cut a piece of the fusible webbing slightly larger than the size of your journal when opened and completely flat.
2. Iron the fusible webbing onto your scrap fabric's wrong side, following the package instructions.
3. When cooled, peel the paper backing off the webbing.
4. Center the journal on fabric's wrong side, making sure you have it centered within the area covered by the fusible webbing. Now close the journal, keeping the fabric folded around it.
5. With your iron, hold the journal in your hand, spine up, and carefully iron the spine area to gently adhere the fusible webbing there first.
6. Once you feel that's set, open the journal, cover facing up, and in small sections, begin adhere the fusible webbing to the journal cover. You will see it start to adhere. Be careful not to adhere the fabric to your ironing board! Allow to cool slightly.
7. Trim the fabric completely flush with the edges of the journal cover all around, then iron the corners and edges of your journal again to be sure all are fused together.
8. You're done! Unless you want to add a nameplate, that would be fun. (follow same directions with a small square of fabric, which you can write on, embroidery on, etc, then adhere to the fabric on the outside of the journal. You could also stitch around the outside edges of the cover for decoration.)

My very busy week is coming to an end. I am looking forward to a relaxing, long weekend with the kids. Emma and I have actually been needlefelting together, she's a natural. I'll show you soon.

The Boomerang blog has officially moved to its permanent home here. I hope you will continue to follow as that space evolves. I am so proud of the work we are doing there.

I did a simple how-to over at Nonchalant Mom on simple peg dolls to make with your kids. Another good way to use small scraps of pretty fabric.

Happy weekend to you!