Creative Dawn

I will have a few new posts over the next few days.  This is a project that I finished a few weeks ago.  There have been many ideas for can tabs and lampshades have been done before so this isn't a new concept, but my way of assembling it is probably different. This is a larger shade and took me longer than expected to complete, but it turned out great.  The tabs are wired with green floral wire.  The strips of tabs are sideways and there was 16 in each row.  Hope you like my version.

I am such a slacker!  Now that my posts aren't everyday, I tend to get sidetracked and forget to share my creativity.  So, here finally is the second calendar page, it is similar to a post of note cards from August 7, 2011.  So far the theme seems to be animals for the calendar.  We will have to see what other ideas come about and just follow the inspiration, you never know where it will end up. Since my posts have been few and far between this is a second fun project.  These necklaces were made from a kids knit kit.  (say that three times fast)  I bought three of these kits one for me and the others for two of my nieces.  At my work they were on clearance and cost 1.50 each!  The projects on the box are for cute little creatures so the girls will love them, but the critters are not really my taste.  After a while of 'playing' with the kit, creativity kicked in and these two fun necklaces were made.  T...

When is comes to this time of year, my mind goes into creative overdrive.  I realize my posting is much less now that my original goal has been met, but believe me, I am still making stuff.  There are about ten Christmas gifts in the works as well as my calender drawings.  Current projects involve sewing, crafting, drawing and crocheting.  I am proud to say that a good chunk of gifts are already done or close to being done, yeah!  Working in a fabric store has definitely boosted my creativity and some days too many ideas are crowding my mind.  Because funds are still low for us, I have been buying things bit by bit every payday.  It helps to not have to blow an entire paycheck all at once.  This also is good because with my discount on top of sale price, I have gotten some incredible deals. Add caption Today, my post will be the first of my calender pages.  There are two finished so only ten to go!

This morning before I went to work, my mom called and asked if I would want some headbands that she didn't use anymore.  Of course the answer was yes, so she dropped off a bag full of headbands and other miscellaneous hair accessories.  After work, I started to sort through the bag when an idea hit me.  Embellishing a simple headband could be fun and a great blog post.  Using the ever useful felt that is always around, I cut out different shapes to experiment with.  At first felt was going to be the only material used but it needed something more.  In the box o' buttons there is also assorted beads and such.  These beads have different shades that catch the light and look really cool.  The light blue middle is a nice contrast to the darker beads.  Beading is not a hobby that ever appealed to me before this blog.  It was relaxing and fun tonight to just sew them on create something so simple but beautiful.  This could be anothe...

Sorry, had to do it!  Actually when you are a creative person and make many Christmas gifts you need to start early.  I went to Joann Fabrics the other day and they had some letters on clearance.  The popular ones are always gone leaving you with Q, W, Z, X, I, O, etc.  I decided to buy a few of these orphan letters and figure out a project for them.  The first letter was the O, it's round so I figured it would make a good wreath.  After a dark green base coat, other shades were added using a Van Gogh like brush stroke to mimic pine needles.  It really didn't need much to make it look good so I just used a small gold wreath to the middle.  It is simple and it has a modern feel to it.

Hello all!  Tomorrow is Independence Day and usually it is a holiday that I don't decorate for but here is a quick creative idea.  This is made from the cardboard used for bolts of fabric.  Working at a fabric store makes access to these very easy.  Don't worry, you can still go to a fabric store and ask for the cardboard, it just ends up in recycling anyways and an employee will happily give you one or several.  What I did was wrap batting around it first for more thickness and then added the fabric.  There are two patterns here, the main fabric is a miniature flag print and the other was part of an Andy Warhol style soup can fabric.  A bit of ribbon is also added around the stars.  This is so fast to make, everything is hot glued together. There you have it a quick decoration that is appropriate for any patriotic holiday or just because.

Black and white is a favorite combination of mine.  This is a great fabric that I found a while ago at Hancock Fabrics.  It has a girl power decade motif from the 50's to the 2000's.  From the moment I saw it, it was meant to be!  For a few months now, it has resided in my fabric bin until today when this idea came to mind.  The smaller of the two had almonds in it originally and the taller was just an empty canister bought at the Goodwill.  For the smaller one, I covered it in a circle design fabric and then added the decade black and white motif as a pincushion topper.  The tall canister was first covered in a black and white polka dot print and then I cut out the decade motifs and adhered them to that fabric.  At this point in time the taller canister has no specific purpose other than general storage but the smaller one is my new safety pin holder.  I did add a fun black and yellow taste to the one canister for a bit of interes...

Recently, my niece was at my house with a friend to paint.  I got lots of fun kid stuff at Michael's including this elephant.  Well, I liked it and decided to paint/decorate it myself.  Yesterday, it was bright pink with black designs on it.  Today after looking at it, I changed my mind because for some reason I was dreaming of buttons last night.  It could have to do with the fact that my current job is in a fabric store, hmm... This little guy is paper mache and only a few inches tall.  After gluing on all of the buttons my new friend is definitely heavier and may work as a paper weight.  My other option would be to give him to my aunt, she loves elephants.  The pictures unfortunately didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but you get the idea. 

Today is short and sweet day because I am tired and my head is pounding UGH!  Don't know why there have been no posts with key chains yet, just too busy with other ideas.  I got a package of the chains at a dollar store recently and have been experimenting since.  The number one thought...FELT!  I was just started to cut out animal shapes and these two were the most successful.  First there is a cute little piggy and second an elephant.  I really wanted to make them in different colors, but my bin o' felt is getting low.  There may be a trip to the store for more in the near future.  Happy crafting!

This is the official post for 5/13.  I am glad that blogger only was delayed for a day.  I cannot imagine catching up on a weeks worth of posts if that had happened. I had the idea a while back to put bookmarks randomly at the library and here is my felt version of one.  This will probably be put in a kids book because it is bright and fun.  For a bit more weight to this and to cover up the stitching on the back, there are two pieces of felt sewed together.  It is a simple project and would be good for kids to do as well.  It would work great for church groups or girl scouts.  There's another fun idea, I should find away to teach kids crafts.  I may have to look into that.  Kids can be so much more creative than adults because they are more free in their thinking.  Definitely need to check out my options soon.  

Today I have to create two posts because I was unable to do any yesterday with blogger having issues.  It was a bit frustrating, but things like this happen and are beyond our control.  This post and the one that follows today are involving felt.  Remember, the new book?  I promise that after today the posts will not be about felt for a bit.  This is a fun bright pillowcase/pillow sham.  I don't know if this is something that I would want to sleep on because it is more decorative.  It is so bright and cheery to look at.  Some of the great things about working with felt are that you can do anything with it, cut it in any shape and there are so many colors available.  It even can be purchased by the yard for larger projects such as Christmas tree skirts or wall hangings.  I know, I am a felt nerd what can I say, but it is something that is never boring to work with.  Yes, rambling on, sorry!  Maybe I should right my...

Every creative endeavor is not always successful.  I have had this idea for a while and have been trying to figure out how to do it.  I wanted to make a lampshade with playing cards.  There was finally a lampshade that seemed to be perfect but after I made this, it didn't work out as well as I would have wanted.  My post today was in theory a good idea, but the final product wasn't great.   I used packing tape to hold the cards together and used jewelry jump rings to attach them to the top of the shade.  It doesn't hang right and is a bit odd right now.  What that means is there will at sometime in the future be another post with a successful card lampshade. It's like experimenting in science, you try different combinations and have varying results until you get it right.

On a recent trip to my local Goodwill store, I found a small book on felt crafts for a dollar.  There are some great ideas and it was exciting for me to find it.  Idea number one is a book cover that has a cute kitty on it.  It definitely has a retro feel to it.  Couldn't you picture it on a fifties style skirt?  What I decided to do was to make a book cover for a small photo album that I had.  There is a pattern in the book for the cat, but I just made my own pattern freehand using the picture as a guide.  This would also make a cute pillow, you could make the cats in different colors and backgrounds then sew them together.  Hm...future idea! Look for a few more ideas from my newly found felt book soon!  I cannot wait to make the projects in it.  :)

Since the puzzle piece necklaces are so popular, I decided to try something else.  My collection of can tabs has been growing and figured that they could easily be made into jewelry.  The backs of the tabs can be sharp so I ended up using two of them back to back to avoid scratching your neck.  This was such a fast project it took about 35 minutes to make.  The gold rings are a larger size and are perfect for the openings in the tabs.  I used gold because I didn't have any silver, but the color contrast is really nice.  I love it that now you can mix and match different metals, anything goes!  Along with the cut out designs, jewelry making has become another new thing that I am enjoying working on.  This blog has really inspired me go beyond painting, drawing and crafting.  There are definitely more ideas for jewelry to come, wait and see!

This is an extremely fast project.  I always have baskets around my home, they make it easy to transport things, are great for storage and are wonderful for gifts.  Throughout the year you can get baskets to suit your holiday needs.  Some have painted on designs and others are shaped for specific holidays but just because it has a theme does not mean that you can't use it year round.  This basket was part of a Christmas gift that I received and it is a great size.  It is actually the perfect size for dinner rolls for a large group.  I used it for Easter this weekend for that purpose.  This basket was very easily transformed into a general design.  The first step was to paint over the snowmen with a cream paint, two coats was perfect to cover them up.  Once it was dry I hot glued the ribbon around the top and there you have it.  You could even add a bit more interest by painting a small design on where you covered the original decoration...

I made a necklace a while ago with pieces of a Peter Maxx puzzle.  That particular post is viewed a lot and every time I wear the necklace, people comment on it.  Because of that, I decided to do another one.  The pieces on this one are a bit smaller so more difficult to work with.  It's a good thing that this puzzle had a lot of pieces because a few of them tore.  Here is a helpful hint, apply a coat of nail polish to the backs, they become more sturdy and also have a smooth texture.  The design was more complex so it took a few hours to complete.  This is one of those puzzles that had a lot of small pictures to make the larger picture.  I really liked the shades of blue it gives it a turquoise like effect. There are so many options with the puzzles that if I perfected the technique they would be marketable.  But for now it is too time consuming to make very many and my hands got sore after making all of the tiny holes for the ju...

Today it actually snowed again! Ugh! I had to put a spring like post to get in a more cheerful mood today. There is a song by Prince called 'Sometimes it snows in April' and it is true, but I don't have to like it!  To combat the grey skies and snow this morning, my post is definitely spring themed. The accent lamp here was $1.50, what a steal!  It isn't meant to give off a lot of light, it just has a small bulb that you use in Christmas decorations.  It was too cute to pass up but I am still not sure were to put it.  The simple lines of this lamp are great but it needed a pop of color.  I got these flowers at Michael's for 1.99 and just removed the stems.  I still cannot decide if I want to keep the flower on the top.  There is a spike that probably had a finial of some sort attached to it.  The pointed end is not very safe, but I like it better without the flower.  I may have to get some sort of heavy duty wire clipper to remove it. ...

Can you believe I got this Halloween decoration at a video store?  It was fifty cents!  The store was going out of business everything was for sale.  You never know what you will find at a sale like this.  It was kind of cute for Halloween, but it's even cuter now for spring.  It was not easy to rip off all of the leaves and raffia they were held on with some sore of super glue and because of this some bits were left behind.  For this reason I decide to add the flowers on top of the chick.  There was also left over glue on what was the front so I used the other side for my project.  It was simple to do, paint on eyes and a beak and flowers.  It took longer for the paint to dry than it did to put it all together.  It will hopefully help to inspire a feeling of spring since tonight we actually have snow predictions.  YUCK!  

Originally I had a different plan for my post today, but the paint didn't dry fast enough to finish it so that will be my post for tomorrow.  This was going to be something for later in the week, but what can you do? For a very long time I have wanted to make an Easter bonnet.  A friend of mine had actually won a contest many years ago and the idea was always in the back of my mind.  Well, since I decided to do this blog it gave me the perfect excuse to make it.  The straw hat practically jumped out at me while shopping in the Goodwill a few weeks ago.  It was 1.49 so I knew it was meant to be.  Initially creativity eluded me until today.  The supplies are a mix of things that I had.  The eggs were a recent purchase for less than a dollar.  I started out by cutting some fabric to the right size and then folded it to cover the rough edges.  The entire thing is put together with hot glue.  What ever did we do before the hot glu...

Right now, I have about five projects partially done, the only thing lacking is the time to finish them.  Sunday is my day off, so hopefully I will be able to go crazy and get a lot done.  Now, for today I have been racking my brain figuring out what to blog about.  Part of my problem is all of the unfinished projects, I want to get them all done, so the work is done simultaneously on all of them.  This is a bad thing when you are searching for just one item to blog about, but it will be good when next week rolls around and there are many items to choose from.  Many times I have posted about the meaning of the gift and putting thought into things rather than spending a ton of money.  Over the past few years as my niece and nephew have gotten older I have opted to give them an afternoon with Auntie.  When I first did this is was because I was unable to get to a birthday party for my niece.  We went and got pedicures together and ch...