Life in Mono...

A little Craftiness...

... on a very hot day. I made these while watching TV the whole afternoon. I am trying my hand at embroidery and also weaving.

I made this baby bib with the patterns I bought from Sublime Stitching. It was fun. The Potholders are woven. I bought the book from Borders the other day. These are addictive.

Baby bib is for one of my best friend who just had a baby on Wednesday. I will have to post it to her though. I am so excited. I am sad that I am not there to see the baby first.

The Potholders are experiments. Hopefully I will improve and maybe stock them in the shop. Its been a while since I last stock up the shop.

Rare Birds...

I manage to squeeze in some time on Monday and Tuesday before going to bed to make these little collage. There are called Rare Birds. I use scrap paper that I had lying around and also stamps that I manage to collect from the Op Shop a while back.

Its my first time trying to do something like these birds. I didn't know what to do.  I want to seal them with something clear, like a varnish or something. Any ideas? Is it a good idea to coat with with something so that they last or do you think that I should just put them into a shadow box?

Christmas WIP II

I was not happy with the result of this WIP to give to people so I started another project.

I haven't touched a paint brush in a long while and it felt good that I already have other projects already lined up. I can't wait. I know what I am going to do for the Family's gift this Christmas.

We will just have to wait until tomorrow to see how this one turns out.

New WIP

A few new projects that I started on Sunday and tonight. I just hope that one of them gets done by Christmas so that I can get them out.

Hangings

These babies are hanging on my wall in the living room now. The vintage fabric wall panels are moved to the bedroom.

I got this little guy from the PICA Car Boot Sale a while back. I just love the simple drawing. Yolanda from OneTrickPony is so funny with her wit. The art is done on Acetate and for the background I used Braille paper that I got from the Conference that I volunteered in September. This one says ... "Its not like I need your friendship. I do after all have a highspeed internet connection" When I first saw this I knew it was made for me. You can find more of her art HERE.

Now I got this gorgeous little boy from a swap I did with Sandy from Aunty Evil. His name is Ringo and my two girls loved him immediately. You can find more art by Sandy HERE.

I got another shadow box from the craft store and lined the back with Braille paper. The orange people are actually paperclips that Papa Nic got for me from his last trip to Sydney (?). I didn't know what to do with them so I decided that another shadow box project was the best thing.

Today I...

...manage to take pictures of the things that I did not manage to sell last weekend. It was such a beautiful day and I did not even have to make my usual light box. It was cool in the studio too so I had Daws0n's Creek playing on Kirk and started snapping away.

You can see most of them in my Flickr album. Now the grueling task is to list them slowly on my Etsy store. I have set myself a goal to list at least 3 items on Etsy every day.  Here is a sneak peak of whats to come.

Jig Clips

I realise that my stock is not well varied and I do not have enough of everything (I don't know why I keep telling myself that when I know I have more then enough), so on Thursday I popped by my favourite op shop, you know the one where she charged me 50 cents for that whole lot of sewing patterns, and bought incomplete jigsaw puzzles. There was not much choice so I just picked something that I liked.

I can't remember where I saw the same design before. If anyone out there knows, please let me know. I found a seller on Etsy selling the same piece. I also bought clear varnish to give it a good coat so that it will last a little bit longer and protect the puzzle piece.

Then I glued it on hair clips. Out of the 100 pieces that I glued on only 20 manage to stick on properly. I tried it on with 3 different types of glue. One glue I bought from the craft shop. Its suppose to glue anything on any surface. That didn't work. The next one I tried is with a glue that I bought from a hardware store. Its white but it will set in clear. I used it in one of my book binding project and glued the legs for my dining chair and it works perfectly but in this case, IT DIDN'T WORK. Then I bought a glue that is suppose to be like a cement glue and it still didn't bloody work. GAH. So now I am in the search for the perfect glue.

I over heard one stall holder sometime ago mentioning that "Glues are the artist's worst enemy". I totally AGREE. She also mentioned she found the perfect glue that works for her but I couldn't hear what she said after that because someone was calling me on my phone.

Any of you guys found the right glue? Let me know.

Done...

Here are some of the stuff that I manage to finish. Pictured here are Obi Belts, Mini Pockets, Button Hair Ties and Tie Belts. I manage to finish this last night. Ok... its Zipper cases day today.

You would think that when you have your week off you would just sit around and watch TV  and also sleeping in late. But Nooo.... not on my day off. I woke up early this morning to let the plumber in the apartment to fix a leaking tap. He was on time too. I called them up late yesterday afternoon to see if I can make an appointment with one of the plumbers. They said that he will be at my house from 8am - 11 am and guess what? He was knocking on my door at 8am!! I love it. GA Perry is the name of the service that I use and they stay true to what they say. "GA Perry. We guarantee we are very on the dot". On the dot indeed.

After talking to Ron the plumber and seeing him off, I made tea, watch a little bit of TV and then it was back to the studio to work on more stuff. I had Gilmore Girls playing on my laptop and enjoyed watching it over and over again. Believe me I have lost count on how many times I've watched it.

I also went to get my supplies for packaging. I bought plastic sleeves and also paper bags from the store. I bought plain paper bags so that I could use the gocco print to print on to the front of it.   

Then its of to my Alma Mater (a term that I learned from the Gilmore Girls) to attend the International Student Council's Annual General Meeting. Now what was I doing there? I was just there to give moral support.

When I come home I went straight to the studio to make more stuff. I asked Nana to help me print the front of the paper bags with my shop name and also address. She did brilliantly.

The Pledge...

So with all this nonsense news about lead paint in our children's toys and the yucky feeling that maybe just maybe the person next to you got the same T-Shirt or Dress that have the same tag that says "Made in China", I decided that this year for Christmas, EVERYONE in my family gets something handmade or I would by something from an Indie designer. Its one of a kind, its cool and it rocks. Ok, so I took the pledge. Maybe you should too. Thank you Mlle A for alerting me to this. Its a wonderful project to partake.

From this....

I love this bag. I got it free when I bought my Mobile phone at the phone shop. Instead of giving you a plastic or paper bag they give you this bag now. I have been using it for a while now and its the perfect size for me to carry my lunch and books. I love how long the handles are and how they fit perfectly under my arm. BUT....its made out of yucky material. Its got a tiny hole at the bottom so I was thinking about what to do with it this afternoon and WAHLAH....I made this...

I used what ever fabric I had in my fabric cupboard and why the lace? because the fabric was not long enough so I had to sew on another panel and added the lace to cover up.

How is that for Upcycling?