Hot New Projects on Craftster

Well, we are half way through the December Holidays and we all made it!! I had an amazing time with my family and I hope you all did as well. I am a huge fan of Craftster.org and I credit the site for getting me creating again! It is a great palce to post your projects and get feedback and encouragement from other creators. It's been a while since I posted any projects on Craftster, so I decided to post something that is near and dear to me. This awesome Craft supply carry-all made from a placemat, ziplock bags, and some ribbon and trim. I was thrilled to be moved over to the Hot New Project side on Craftster. With all the posts I have made over the years, I had never been chosen. Due to popular demand I will be posting a tutorial on Wednseday Jan 7, after this weekends Indie Scaramento Show. So, check back if you want to make one of these super carry-alls.

Making Christmas Gifts

Every year I say, "this year I am going to make all of my Christmas Gifts" and it usually doesn't happen. This year however, is different, I am making a "majority" of the gifts I will be giving. What makes this year different you ask? Well, I am not working 60 hours a week at the restaurant this year, so I have a little time on my hands.

My dilemma is always, what do I make for the men I give gifts to? I think I've figured a few things out. For my son a purple scarf, he's 24 and loves purple (I will buy him something as well) For one of my brothers I came up with this camera case. The grey and orange one is something i made for myself when I purchased my new camera, and I love it. So I made a male version complete with a loop on the back to wear on a belt.


I made these cases out of old wool sweaters that I found at a thrift store, and felted in my washing machine at home.

To felt:
I placed the sweaters in the washing machine, set the temperature to HOT on the longest cycle, and add a little detergent and a pair of jeans or something else that will help in the agitation (It is a good idea to place the sweaters in a zippered pillowcase, your washing machine will thank you) . I have found the most effective detergent to be one with baking soda. The heat will swell up these fibers and the agitation will force the individual wool fibers together. Rinse the items in cold water to encourage shrinking. Dry them in a hot dryer to pull the fibers together even more. Depending on the sweater, you may need to do this process more than once to get nicely felted wool pieces. They were reduced in size by about 50% and should not unravel when cut.

Next I cut three pieces one 4" x 5", one 4" x 10" and one 1 1/2" x 3 1/2.

After you have them all cut use some wool yarn and a large needle and blanket stitch the pieces together. First stitch the belt loop to the back of the larger piece (see diagram View A) Then turn large piece over and stitch the last piece to the large piece, lining up the bottom edges (see diagram View B) Blanket stitch the pieces together and continue the stitch around the top of the case.

After you are all stitched up sew on the button( I like to use vintage buttons) , and cut a corresponding button hole (stitch around the button hole as shown).

Diagram:

Supplies:

For my camera case I crocheted a strip of orange wool yarn and I felted it as well. Felting hand knit items is a slightly different process. You can find a lot of instruction on felting on the net.
I hope you can understand this tutorial. I usually like to do my tutes on video. Please comment with any questions and I will answer them for you-Have fun!!

Indie Sacramento January

I had such a great time at the last one I am doing it again. I hope you all will join me!

My First Craft Show

Hi, it has been a while since I posted, so I thought I would give you a recap on my first craft show. I participated in the Indie Sacramento, the amazingly organizied Craft Fair, and it was a huge success. I was a little nervous, and everything went without a hitch!!! My big sellers were my Crocheted Hand Warmers, the Cool Corseted Coffee Cuffs, and the Pretty Pin Cushions. The Scoodies were very much an attraction, but I only sold One. It seemed like the lower priced items sold most. I had a great time, met some really nice people, bought some cool stuff, and sold quite a bit of my work, I really couldn't ask for more. And guess what? What? you say. If you missed this show, Indie Sac has decided to do monthly shows and I will be participating in the January show. Keep posted for the date, time and location. Thank you all for your support-Julie

Getting ready for Indie Sacramento this Saturday, December 6, 2008

I know I have been neglecting my blog, and I apologize. I am getting ready to show my stuff at my first craft show, Indie Sacramento this Saturday, Dec 6th. I am super excited and nervous and I know it will be a great experience. So if you are in the area on Saturday stop by and say HI.
Here is the link, check it out:
http://www.indiesacramento.com/

How To Make a Tutu Video

So a few months ago I started a YouTube channel to assist in marketing WOWzzy. I made this "How to make a tutu" video and had no idea how popular it would be. In four months I have had over 53,000 views and so many wonderful comments and questions. I feel like I would not be doing justice to my blog if I didn't share it with you all. So here it is, have fun.

Make These Earings!

I promised yesterday the I would show you all how to make these really cute earrings, so here goes.

What you need is:

Flower lace trim (or any other fabric, or lace use your imagination), Fabric stiffener, two jump rings, two eye pins, two earring components, beads of your choice, basic jewelry tools(needle nose pliers, and wire cutter)

Next you want to cut the trim into individual flowers, and apply fabric stiffener.

After the flowers have dried and are hardened, you poke a hole in one of the petals with a pin. Then you will put the jump ring into the hole. The next step is to put the eye pin on to the jump ring. Add your beads to the eye pin, and make a loop with your needle nose pliers.

Next just attach your earring component and voila!, you have these cute and easy to make earrings. You can go wild with this technique, here is an example of some earrings I made with some cute skull fabric. With these I used chain and attached the beads with head pins to the chain.

Have fun making these, and please leave comments or if you have any questions, just ask!

Cheers,

Julie

Best Laid Plans...

I tried to take Darek's pic at breakfast, and this is the best I got! I had planned to pop out of bed this morning, down some coffee and get to work crafting. Well, I popped out of bed and started the coffee, when my husband, Darek, said "let's go out to breakfast". I was like aaaah, I really need to get more pieces done for the craft bazaar I am doing in TWO WEEKS, but I love going out to breakfast. So to breakfast we went, followed by one of our other favorite things to do, a trip to the bookstore.

Going to the bookstore kind of takes my husband and I back to the beginning of building WOWzzy.com , before we had our large office and employees, when this huge part of our lives was just a twinkle in Darek's eye. So while he worked on work that CEO's work on, I crocheted wrist warmers for my business.

I was planning on posting a tute for these really cool earrings I created the other day, so that will have to be saved for tomorrow. So check back, I really think you are going to love this really easy technique.

Some of my Crafty goodness for Indie Sacramento, Sacramento's largest trunk show and craft bazaar. When: December 6, 2008, 10am to 6pm, Where: 2409 J Street, Sacramento, CA indiesacramento.com

Craft Swaps

A Few Pieces I Have Made For Craft Swaps

I have to say that I have my creativity has been rekindled by doing craft swaps. What are craft swaps?, you might ask, well they are simply an organized partnering of crafters and artisans that swap their work usually in a themed swap. I learned about swaps on this awesome forum website http://www.craftster.org/ where artists,crafters, designers or anyone who creates can network.
I stumbled across this site one night when I was surfing the web, and was hooked. I started out as a voyeur, looking at all of the beautiful, interesting, and sometimes bizarre creations that people posted. This sparked my creative spirit, and I began making pieces and posting them for my fellow crafters to give feedback. If you ever need a self esteem boost this works great, as everyone there is so supportive.
I started reading other crafters talking about making an items for swaps, and became curious. I went on the swap board, checked out the swaps, signed up for my first swap and have been hooked ever since. I have received some really cool stuff from these swaps, and the excitement of getting a surprise package in the mail is almost too much.
So if you are thinking of doing a swap just remember, they are addicting, so swap at your own risk.

The Pretty Pink "Kira Clutch"

Since the first time I saw a felted handbag, I have been intrigued. I am a very novice knitter and not real saavy on following knitting patterns. I really need to take some lessons (I am in the process of finding a good instructor) and in the meantime I decided to just make something up. I have to say that this project was really easy and super rewarding.

First off what I did know is that when knitting a piece to be felted you use large needles and that your stitches need not be perfect. With that in mind, I went out and bought some really beautiful 100% wool yarn, some beautiful fabric that I thought would compliment the yarn, and size 15 knitting needles.
Next,I cast on enough stitches to equal 15" or so and knit a rectangle, 15"x23". I then found felting instructions (the easiest I could find) and felted my rectangle. When I figured it was done (when you couldn't see the stitches anymore) I rinsed the piece and rolled it up in a dry towel to get out the excess water. I then blocked the rectangle, on a dry towel using straight pins tokeep it in place while drying.
After the piece was completly dry, I laid the piece on the beautiful fabric and marked the shape of the rectangle plus 1". I then ironed the raw edge of the fabric unber in the shape of the rectangle. Note: the rectangle will not be perfect, that is what gives your clutch charm. I used a magnetic closure and applied it as per the package instructions. Next step is to hand blind stitch the fabric onto the felted piece, this will become your lining. After you finish fold your clutch and stitch the sides with the yarn used to knit the felted piece. You can also add a button or some other cool embellishment to the top of the closure.

I hope this wasn't too hard to follow, I will add illustrations at a later date.

Mindbites Baby Formula Contest

Hi again, I just want to let you all know that I am currently entered in a how to video contest. My video "How to make a princess or ballerina tutu" has over 50,000.00 views on YouTube and has helped many women make tutus for their little girls. I have entered this video in a contest and I need your votes. Here is the link http://www.mindbites.com/tags/the-baby-formula You can vote everyday until Nov 28Th. Thank you!!

Getting ready for the Indie Sacramento Craft Show

O.K., so I signed up to show my creations at the Indie Sacramento, I really wanted to be a part of this show, but I was turned down. I was really bummed and i come from a place that everything happens for a reason, so I graciously put my name on the waiting list. Not more than a few hours later there was a cancellation and I was in. The big challenge is that there is only three weeks to prepare for the show, so needless to say I have been very,very busy. I want to show you my daily progress and would love feedback on my creations. I promise to write everyday, if you promise to look, deal?, deal!

So I started this etsy store, way cool!

I was surfing one day and came across this awesome site etsy.com. I browsed through the site and came to the conclusion that this site is a great way for artists to make a living or some extra income and at the same time get their art out there into the world. I thought I would give it a try with some creations that ii already had in stock, so far I haven't sold anything but I have had a lot of views. This is great we'll see how it goes.

Cheers-Julie