For my final Imagine project for July we were challenged to create something with the theme “wet” and I just had to use my Little Mermaid monkey stamps from Waffle Flower. I played up the wet aspect with a generous helping of Shimmer Goosebumps spray and a three-dimensional splash curling around the die cut circle.
Make sure to head over to the Imagine blog to see how this card came together and watch this space, I’ve got a massive card video coming soon!
One week down, 51 to go!
First, I really want to share about the journal I made for this year’s art journal project, and now that it’s been shared over on the Imagine blog, I can!
It’s a fairly simple and straightforward Coptic-stitch book with chipboard covers that I decorated with torn craft paper and an old map page. The full supply list is available on the Imagine blog (Creative Journals for Creative People). Of course, I’d be completely remiss if I didn’t mention that the supplies and directions for a similar book can be found in the Bound & Determined kit from The Crafty Branch.
While I’d love to be able to make time during the week to work on it, I’m realistic enough to know that it’s most likely going to be on weekends, so the first weekend’s page was completed on Sunday, the 8th:
And, even better, I filmed the making of this page and have the edited, voice-overed, and much sped up (it went from an hour of real time to less than 10 minutes in the video) version over on my YouTube channel right now!
Todd helped me set up a new filming rig before I started this page. It still needs some tweaks but I think, overall, it’s going to make the videos look a lot better and make it much easier for me to film process videos of all sorts of projects. If anyone’s curious, let me know and I’ll be happy to post about how we cobbled together an overhead rig for far less than anything that I could find pre-made and that didn’t involve a lot of heavy lifting in the tool department.
I have some leeway in my evening schedule this week, thanks to it being Todd’s turn to cook. Wohoo! Still loving this arrangement we started back when we first moved in together, way back in 2009. I don’t have any projects due in the next week, which means I could actually work on something just for fun. Except for the very large project that is the Yarm Bomb due in November.
But November’s a long ways away, right?
Sure, but there are a lot of pieces going into this project and I need to knit hay while the sun shines. Or something to that effect… (I do have a portion that involves crocheting with hemp, though no hay will be knit for my submission.)
And suddenly I realize that I may not have mentioned this project at all, tumbleweeds on the blog as they were for a while.
So… Thomasville Center for the Arts is doing an Art in the Open competition this fall, to coincide with Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival, and the theme is Furry and Feathered. Teams of up to 3 fiber arts will be yarn bombing the crepe myrtles along W Jackson St with proper cash prizes on the line!
If you guessed that there might be monkeys on the tree I’m decorating you’d have guessed correctly. My original plan includes 3 monkeys, one parrot, several butterflies, some flowering vines, and a hellovalotta banana leaves. Some of the yarn is being provided by the local yarn shop, but it won’t be in for a few more weeks, and that’s what I plan to knit the banana leaves out of, so I’ve been working in the characters.
The parrot is more or less complete, though I feel like he needs a little something, maybe some plumage on top of his head? He’s mostly made of recycled sari silk that I’ve had in my yarn stash for ages. I had to order in the yarn for the monkeys, though, since I was going to need a bunch, and then had a merry time finding the last few skeins of eyelash/fun fur novelty yarn in some shade of dark brown to give the monkeys a bit more interest. Seriously, there’s a shortage of brown fun-fur yarn out there for some reason that I just cannot fathom. My supplier only had one skein to send me, the other supplier had none, the usual online suspects were no help, neither were JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels. Finally, on the bottom shelf at Hobby Lobby, I found three skeins of the stuff on Saturday.
Persistence pays off.
So now my monkeys can live up to their furry expectations.
Meanwhile, I also want to get caught up on the vlogs–I’ve got two weekends to edit and I want to do an August Favorites video, as well. I think that should just about fill up the week and weekend, then, when it’ll be time to start on my next design team project!
What projects do you have going on right now?
Happy Lunar New Year!
In case you missed the memo, according to the Chinese calendar, today begins the year of the monkey, and you know I’m super excited about it! After all, y’all know I have a slight thing for monkeys, right?
When Todd and I first moved in together we shared a house we called Monkey Creek. Monkey for my current and enduring obsession, and creek for his–now our–last name (which, in Dutch, apparently means “by the creek”). In that house the monkey count was still in the single digits, it was at Monkey Creek II where the most monkeys were acquired.
The Original George. And, yes, he’s a monkey wearing a sock monkey hat and cardigan. Like you do.
You have to understand, though, I was content with a single monkey: The OG–Original George–and wasn’t looking to add more monkeys to the menagerie. But that’s not how these things go, because once you have a favorite something it goes to the top of the list of gift ideas for friends and family. Now our monkey count is hovering around 50 or so (depends on if you only count the plush, or if you count the non-plush figurines; and I’m not going to even try to count the jewelry, pajamas, and other monkey paraphernalia). I thought it would be fun, in light of the Year of the Monkey, to walk you through the monkeys you might find if you were to visit us at Monkey Creek III (aka the Gingerbread Dollhouse).
OG up there hangs out on our coat rack by the front door, keeping watch over the place for us. Let’s see who’s in the living room.
These three (do you see Curious George peeking through my monkey neck pillow?) perch on top of one of the DVD cases.
Look who escaped being packed up with the rest of the Christmas decorations! He tap dances and shrieks a version of Jingle Bells.
Just because these monkeys converged on the armchair doesn’t mean they won’t make room for you, too!
And these guys are still chilling on the mantle from the holidays. The ones on either end are Nick and Joy from Build-a-Bear–why they didn’t stick with the Ns and call her Noel I’ll never know. But we call her Noel.
Naturally I have an assortment in my office (aka The Abyss, which got rearranged and tidied this weekend):
Up on top of the doll shelf, along with Devil Pooh, sit a few of our smaller monkeys.
And we can’t forget this happy dude! He’s a puppet I rescued from the clearance bin at Michael’s. He currently lives on the top of my easel.
Some of the non-plush monkeys are on my mantle–first the blingy three wise monkeys and then the penholder that says ‘Write No Evil’
Chef George, there, was my reward to myself for finishing the cookbook and travels with us to convention appearances as our mascot.
While these three cluster on the antique desk Todd and I restored, together, before the wedding.
Now, we don’t have any plush monkeys in the kitchen, but that doesn’t mean monkeys aren’t represented at all.
We have a number of monkey mugs of various designs.
And this guy keeps a nylon scrubbie close at hand.
And you know that we’ll be enjoying our Year of the Monkey supper on the dishes we picked up on our honeymoon.
The dining room is similarly light on monkeys, but we do have a notable hanger-on.
He likes to keep his eye on the 99 Bananas.
The library is where a lot of the monkeys will live in perpetuity. The plan is for some stellar floor to ceiling built-ins, eventually, to give breathing room for our books as well as the monkeys.
This coconut monkey tagged along home after our first cruise together in 2009.
A cheeky little monkey bank serves as a bookend (or, really, a book middle, separating two subjects on one shelf).
On a temporary shelving unit with some of my paperbacks are this trip of pint sized monkeys.
And these guys are hanging out on one of the benches under the window.
Another shelf holds a beaded monkey we bought at Animal Kingdom and the little monkey figure I painted at Firefly Pottery.
You’d think that more monkeys would hang out upstairs, them liking heights and whatnot. Until last night, though, the guest room was severely lacking in helper monkeys.
But we had some still in storage from the move, so now they’re having a slumber party.
Even Todd’s office has a token monkey.
We call him Voodoo George… doesn’t he just look like he wants to climb a skyscraper or something?
Our bedroom, of course, has a decent complement of plush friends.
A perfect pyramid on the mantle. Some of these guys have been known to hop in the bed while I’m in the shower.
And the travelling trio–two pillow monkeys (the smaller one Todd won out of a claw machine) and my security monkey, Mindy.
Finally, the upstairs bathroom features this cheeky little monkey.
He wasn’t fab at being a toothbrush holder, but he’s great at keeping an eye on the room while we’re away.
Yes, we have a lot of monkeys. I’m sure there are more packed away with Christmas and Halloween decorations, but the George-Borg is strong in this house. Why do we have so many monkeys? Why not? And why do we display them throughout the house? Again, why not? They’re fun, they don’t harm anything, and they make me smile. As long as we keep just this side of “My Strange Obsession” levels, I think we’re okay.
Do you collect anything to the degree (or more) that we do, monkeys? Do you wonder why we’re not on a lunar calendar? I mean, really, 13 4-week months makes a heckuva lot more sense to me than the alternating but not really 30/31 system we’re on.
Hello, my name is Jennifer, and I hoard craft supplies.
This is not exactly news, and while it sounds like a confession at a self-help group, I have no intention of reforming this habit any time soon as my stockade of supplies has served me in good stead for many, many years. Today is no exception.
Y’all know I have a considerable fabric stash, right? Back in December I pulled out all my fabric totes and emptied the drawers from the “Bureau of Fabric” so that I could do some organizing.
December 2014 Fabric Hoard
Once I had everything rolled and put on top of, underneath, and beside my ironing board I did some quick calculations and determined that the above represents about 21 cubit feet of fabric. Yeah. And I have another full bolt of silver organza… somewhere.
Tip: A full bolt of fabric is usually 10 yards. To make a quick guesstimate of how many yards are on a partial bolt, count the folded layers wrapped around the cardboard core. Every 2 folded layers is approximately 1 yard.
What does my fabric hoard have to do with current events?
Well, this weekend a sew along began over at So Sew Easy for Deby’s Conference Tote Bag and I hopped on board as it seemed like a really useful and fun project. While I ordered the recommended fusible foam and interfacing (thank you Amazon Prime for speedy delivery), I knew my stash would yield the majority of the needed supplies like zippers and even the purse “feet” that are optional but I had actually picked up on sale who knows how long ago, thinking I’d have a use for them eventually.
Conference Tote Sew-a-Long supplies
But the real question that plagued me over the first few days of the project was which fabric I was going to use?!
I knew I was bound to have several suitable options in the 1-2 yard increments the pattern calls for. Even more if I were willing to use more than 2 prints and patch or piece the various elements together. But nothing was really standing out to me and I flipped through my mental fabric index.
And then, then I remembered… The Fabric.
A couple years ago, while on a trip to JoAnn Fabrics on a wedding-related errand, I happened upon a fabric that was so very perfect for me that I had to have it. Regardless of the fact that I had absolutely no idea what I’d ever make out of it. I carried it around the store as I tracked down what I was really there for. I don’t even think it was on sale.
The fabulous “Laughing Monkey Pink” print
So I bought the whole bolt.
When I remembered I had this gem in my stash, yesterday afternoon, the only thing I really had left to decide was what fabric I’d pair with it–preferably something darker colored and sturdy as it would be on the bottom of the bag, and possibly the lining (depending on how off-script I wanted to go). After pawing through the browns (I color-grouped the rolled fabric after my impromptu inventory in December), I found a narrow-wale corduroy that isn’t much heavier than the printed cottons she recommends for this pattern. (I think you could probably make a version using canvas or cotton duck and skip most of the interfacing steps, but I’ll know more after I make the first one following the instructions.)
Actual sewing didn’t start until Day 3 (so, Wednesday) but I really haven’t had a chance to do any material (hah!) work on the tote so far. I should be able to catch up this weekend. So far the parceled out instructions have been easy to follow (the sew-along components include both written and video tutorials). And, if you decide to join the sew-along today or next week or whenever, you’ll start from the beginning of the 10-day series–so you don’t have to worry about playing catch-up. Oh, and the best thing about the whole thing is that Deby made the whole thing pay-what-you-want, so if you’re strapped for cash you could totally pay nothing for the course, store the info until you can collect your supplies, and sew when you’re ready!
Anyone else going to join me in the sew-along?
(And just in case anyone was wondering, I’m in no way affiliated with So Sew Easy, nor do I get any sort of kick backs for promoting the sew along. I just think it’s a neat project and wanted to share it.)