Have you hit a creative block? Our Creative Troupe has some really cute, and simple, ideas to help you unblock your creative muse.
© Rose Waterrose
Do you look upon your grandparents’ Christmas tree with adoration and wonder why such care isn’t put into ornaments of today? How’d you like to create something just as wonderful for your own Christmas tree? Rose Waterrose, of Waterrose Designs, shares the cutest take on embroidered Christmas ornaments. And the best part is that if you can draw basic shapes, you can create them, too!
© Lenna Young Andrews
Do you tend to run away screaming when bugs invade your personal space? I don’t scream, but I do tend to jump and move out of their way. So who knew I’d find this collective collage of bugs and insects so adorable!
Lenna Young Andrews, of Creative Lenna, gives you a quick recap of how she created a quick mini-collage in her moleskin journal. What inspired me about this post was her admission of having difficulty getting started with an arts ‘n crafts project and how easily things begin to fall into place once she actually digs in.
Continue Reading…
In some offices, when heads start popping up in cubicles it’s called prairie dogging—you know, those cute little critters that are known for poking their little heads up from their burrows to see what’s going on.
At C&T it’s called Show & Tell. A while back, Editor Liz Aneloski was admiring some items she had received from a manufacturer to photograph for an upcoming book, so of course our heads went poking up from our desks to see what she was admiring. Just another day at work…
I came up with these heart ornaments as thank you gifts for all the wonderful women that helped me make projects for the Super-Simple Creative Costumes book. They were fun, easy to make, and used up some scraps from other book projects I had hanging around. Soon I had more than I needed for my thank you’s so they became Christmas ornaments, gift card holders and even package tags. I hope you have as much fun with them as I did.
Materials
- 2 fat quarters of complimentary fabric
- 18” x 22” piece of fast2fuse fusible interfacing*
- Thread to match
- Sewing machine
- Hot glue gun
- Ribbons, charms or other embellishments
- Template paper or die cut machine with two sizes of heart dies – mine were 41/2” and 2 3/4” h
- Pearle cotton
- Tapestry needle
*in order to use one fast2fuse craft pack (a 15″ x 18″ piece) instead of a 1/2 yard cut off a bolt (18″ x 22″), the sizes of your hearts will need to be slightly adjusted.
Instructions
- Iron and fuse the fabric to each side of the fast2fuse
- With heart template, or die cut machine, cut out two large hearts and two small ones.
- Satin stitch around each heart. Tie off threads to the wrong side and trim away excess.
- Lay two of the large hearts together, wrong sides together. Using a straight stitch, sew hearts together just on the inside of your satin stitching. Make sure to leave a large enough opening at the top to include your gift card.
- With pearle cotton and tapestry needle add a loop so you can hang ornament on a tree or package.
- Glue two small hearts to front and back of ornament.
- Embellish front with ribbons and charms.
You could use about any shape you like—ovals, circles, squares—to create unique ornaments. Some other options are party favors, place cards, thank you note holders, a valentines…With a little fancy cutting, you could even make them into ornament frames and add pictures of family and friends.
I’d love to see what you come up with.
A creative life is filled with challenges and rewards, puzzles and curiosities. This ongoing series of poems attempts to express the “Aha”s and “What if”s, the deep ponderings and casual observations of an inquiring mind trying to make sense of reality. May it serve, for you, as a bit of “Everyday Inspiration” along your own creative path.
Art
Is the reflection
Of a person’s
Interaction
With the world
The felting process for me is like a magic trick. I can put a XXL 100% wool sweater along with a towel and a little soap in the washing machine and presto chango – out comes a thick fuzzy fabric that can be used to make all sorts of wonderful treasures.
The Junk
pile of old sweaters
It all started when I wanted to make a sewing related friendship gift for a friend that just made her first quilt. She did such a great job I wanted to encourage her to keep sewing. I thought she deserved a ribbon for all her hard work and a celebration of her accomplishment was in order.
With my hand crank die-cut machine, I cut out 3 scalloped circles a 4 1/2 inch green a 3 1/4 inch of grey and a 1 3/4 in scalloped circle of red to sew in the center. With a hammer and nail, I made a couple of holes in a vintage aluminum thimble so I would easily be able to attach the thimble to the felt. Before I actually attached the thimble to the felt, I threaded a single piece of waxed linen thread through the nail holes beginning and ending on the inside of the thimble.
To make it pretty and personal, I tied a mini iron charm to one end and some old pearl buttons to the other. Then I attached the thimble to the smaller circle of felted wool with a double strand of thread. I attached the red circle to the grey circle with pearl cotton and used an embroidery stitch I liked. I found a piece of 1 1/2 inch vintage grosgrain that I used for my accent ribbon. Each tail is about 3 inches long, with the ends trimmed at an angle that’s pleasing to the eye. I tacked the ribbons in place on my green wool circle.
Continue Reading…
Green Window art quilt made with Ultra-Light Lutradur by Angela Huddart
Our next giveaway is for all of you who can’t wait to do some surface design and fabric painting this summer. Three lucky readers will win a prize pack including:
To be in the running for the Summer Surface Design Giveaway, leave a comment here or on Facebook telling us about a creative project you are working on this summer. Comments will be closed at 9am PST on Monday, July 26th, 2010 and three lucky winners will be announced in the next giveaway post which will go up later that day.
Extra comment entries are available to you if you want to maximize your chances at being the giveaway winner! If you take one or more of the actions listed below, enter an extra comment for each, and in that comment tell us what you did and link to the proof where that’s possible.
- Place one of our blog badges on your personal blog (make sure it includes the html code that links it to our blog)
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
- Subscribe to our Newsletter
- Tweet a link to the giveaway & mention our twitter username @ctpublishing
Fiber art postcards are fun to make for all sorts of reasons. I like the freedom of playing with design, practicing techniques and trying out something new, all on a small scale. But postcards make great gifts, special occasion cards, and the perfect item for donating-to-a-good-cause.
I’m naturally left brained, so I like to work in an organized assembly line process. It saves time, but it also allows me to get into right brain mode and stay there. I start by brainstorming ideas, stacking up potential materials on recycled pieces of paper, along with scribbled notes. As I start making the actual postcards, I keep working in groups through all the stages: quilt tops, fusing the quilt top to fast2fuse®, fusing the preprinted cardstock back, and finally, zigzagging. By grouping postcards with the coordinating thread used for zigzagging, it makes the final step go that much faster.
I love the way the postcards look all stacked up. There must be something to this, because you see this kind of image in advertisements and marketing pitches.
This year, I’m donating a group of 13-signed postcards to the Wish Upon a Card fundraiser for the Wendy’s Wish Foundation in Bend, Oregon, organized by Jean Wells, Ann Richardson and the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. So far almost $30,000 has been raised in postcard sales! For more information:www.wendyswish.org or www.sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org. Continue Reading…
A creative life is filled with challenges and rewards, puzzles and curiosities. This ongoing series of poems attempts to express the “Aha”s and “What if”s, the deep ponderings and casual observations of an inquiring mind trying to make sense of reality. May it serve, for you, as a bit of “Everyday Inspiration” along your own creative path.
An artist’s life
Is not so different
From any other life…
It’s just
That he (she) acts
As a mirror
For the soul.
This month we are celebrating two momentous occasions for our long-time author Jean Wells. On July 15th-17th, Jean will be in Marion, IN to be inducted into The Quilters Hall of Fame. As she travels to Indiana, she will have just finished celebrating her 35th annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Now that is one busy lady!
It’s hard not to be impressed by Jean’s skill and passion when you look at her contribution to quilting over the last three decades. From authoring almost a dozen books with C&T Publishing, to running one of the most successful quilt shops in the country, to creating the world-renowned Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show—there is no question that Jean has made an outstanding contribution to the world of quilting. We asked Jean’s daughter, Valori Wells, to tell us how she feels about her mother’s accomplishments.
I am so excited to see my mom being recognized for all that she has done in the quilting community over the years. She was one of the original quilt shops, authors and quilters out there. The thing about mom is that she is modest and doesn’t take compliments all that well. She has always worked so hard and just watches as others get recognized. That is hard for me because I see her as such a generous person and so talented. She is such an artist and finally I see her believing in herself and finding her strength in her work.
It is amazing to see her first work in the Patchworthy Apparel book, oh so early ’80s, to her contemporary work in her newest book Intuitive Color and Design. I am so very proud to watch her grow as an artist over the years. She is always pushing herself to be better and to try something new. That is a true artist. You can’t help but look up to her and all of her talent and success.
Congratulations to Jean Wells from all of us at C&T Publishing! Becoming a member of The Quilter’s Hall of Fame and celebrating 35 years of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt show all in the same month is no small feat. We are so proud of you and we cherish having been able to work with you on creating innovative and inspiring books all these years.
This tote bag project makes the perfect summer gift for mom or a gal pal. It demonstrates the technique of printing an image onto a sheet of TAP™ Transfer Artist Paper then enhancing the printed image with oil pastels before transferring the image on to the base in the project (in this case a very clean, white tote bag).
Garden Tote
By Lesley Riley
Materials:
- TAP™ Transfer Artist Paper
- Iron
- Plain tote bag from craft store (white or light colors work best)
- Portfolio oil pastels (available at Staples in the children’s section)
- Optional: basket photo (see below)
- Low-tack tape
- 2 sheets of clean copy or parchment paper
Instructions:
1. Print or draw a basket onto a sheet of TAP. To maximize drawing area, place basket on one of the long sides of TAP. If using a photo and photo-editing software, erase areas of the basket for leaves & flowers (See sample).
2. Draw and/or color leaves and flowers directly onto the sheet of TAP.
3. Iron out any fold lines or wrinkles on the tote bag.
4. Insert 1 sheet of copy paper inside the tote.
5. Position prepared TAP face down on tote and tape in place. Note: Oil pastels will smear if moved when in contact with tote.
6. Cover TAP with clean sheet of paper and iron until transfer is complete.
