Saran Wrap+Napkins=Cards

Yes, you read the title correctly. You did not imagine or hallucinate the words. Saran wrap and napkins. They are not just for the kitchen; you can use them for art as well!

Card making is probably the easiest craft to do and likely the first one you will do. In general, all you need is some markers and paper and wa-la, you have a greeting card for someone special. If it could not get any better, making cards is one of the most inexpensive crafts to do. It is a win-win situation.

I love making cards. I think it is because I love receiving cards in the mail. For me, they are ten times better than presents. Uh...I do not know if I should mention that. Watch, I will never get another present again.

Oh well, I still love cards. There is just something great about getting a card that makes me feel special and loved.

Handmade cards are the best. They are twenty times better than a store bought one. Seriously, they are. Take my word for it.

I am not the only one who thinks cards are fantastic. The Card Club is huge and growing! People love them. Whether someone is five years old or ninety, whether it is two hundred years ago or now or five hundred years in the future, people love getting them. I believe they will always be popular.

Who wouldn't want a card that was unique, one of a kind, specially made for them that came from the heart?

Making cards can be a lot of fun and can take little effort or be highly detailed. There is so many different ways to create them! The sky's the limit!

This past Saturday, Laura, Teresa, Jan and I learned a new process for this craft. Who would have ever thought to use saran wrap, napkins, and an iron to make a greeting card? Certainly none of us. Disclaimer: we did not come up with this invention. Laura found this cool idea from this incredibly gifted person's blog.

Once we figured it out, it was a lot of fun to do. The process is quick, maybe a minute or two. I managed to crank out twelve cards in a few hours (and that was with sharing an iron. With an iron all to yourself, I am sure you could make a hundred a day if you wanted!).

The hardest part for me was the saran wrap. While it is great for sealing food, it is difficult to work with in card making. Of course, to give the Inventors of Saran Wrap credit, I doubt they envisioned their product to be used for greeting cards.

As I am sure everyone knows, saran wrap can be tricky to cut if it is not done just right. If any of the sides touch, they get stuck together worse than glue and it can be very difficult in smoothing it out once again. There is only two outcomes: either it will smooth out or it will not and therefore cannot be used. If you are lucky to have a crinkle-free piece, this project goes by super fast.

As I get older, it seems I continue to meet more and more people and develop relationships with them. With these new people in my life come holidays, birthdays, weddings, and babies. Making cards come in handy for these very occasions and to keep the relationships strong.

For now, I think I have enough cards for the next couple of months....

Iris Folding

This is a technique I use to make cards.  I love it because it is relatively simple to do, and it is incredibly cheap because you are using old magazines and free online patterns.  Here is what you will need:

-scissors

-tape

-paper cutter

-exacto knife

-glass cutting board

            I use this as a hard surface for cutting with the exacto knife.

-glue sticks

            Do not use liquid glue, it will warp your cards!

-Card stock

            I like using these 4 ½” X 6 ½” stacks that you can find at craft stores.

-Old magazines

            I recommend National Geographic, Country, or any other magazine that has lots of pictures that are not covered up with words. 

-Iris folding templates

            The pattern in this tutorial is from this site, but I also find a lot of them here.

1. Cut up pictures from old magazines into 1” strips that look like this.  Then fold them in half so that they are ½” wide strips.

 

2. Pick out the pattern you want to use from the above sites.  I am using this pattern at the bottom of the page.  These are the three shades of blue I am using for my bird, but you will want a wide variety of colors for all your different patterns.  I store mine in plastic sleeves in a thee-ring binder, but this has a big flaw because there is a hole at the top of each sleeve and if you turn the binder the wrong way, all of the pieces of paper fall out!  I haven’t yet figured out a good solution to this…My sister Laura uses zip lock bags, but then you have to fold them and I don’t like that either.  Anyway, you can store a lot of these strips in a small area, I sort them by color.  

3. Once you pick your pattern, you can copy it into Word and make it the size you want it to be in order to fit onto your 4 ¼” X 5 ½” card.  Print two copies of this pattern.  Cut out one to use as a stencil and trace it onto a piece of card stock cut to the above dimensions. You will be laying the card stock over the pattern, so you want the bird (or shape) to be traced in the same position as the pattern page (in other words, do not mirror image the pattern when tracing it).  The card stock I used had a decorative floral design on one side of it that I didn’t want to accidentally cut into, so I held it up to the light and traced where it was on the back.  Once you have traced your pattern, cut out the pattern using an exacto knife.   

4. In addition to the three shades of blue, I have a small orange piece for the beak, and a brown piece for the branch.  Tape those on now, making sure that they do not overlap onto the bird section, and that the pattern you want showing on the other side of the card is facing down.  After this is done, tape the card stock onto the pattern paper, but only on one side so that you can life the paper and look at your bird.  

 

5. Cut a piece of your first shade of blue big enough to cover the "1a" section on your bird. Position it over this section and tape down.  Continue in this fashion, following the numbers and changing colors when beginning a new spiral section.  Always position the pieces so that they are laying over the previous pieces, never tuck the piece under the one before it. 

 

When you are finished, the back will look like this, and the front will look like this!

 Glue the cardstock down onto the front of a blank card, and press it in a book as it dries if necessary.  

This may seem overwhelming at first, but trust me, it is super simple, and fun.  Plus, the end result is so impressive! I have had several weddings this summer that I have used a set of varied iris folded cards as gifts, and they are always oohed and awed over.  Some of the brides have even come back saying that they couldn't use them as cards and instead framed them and used them as art! With all the different patterns available, it never gets old.  Good luck! 

Crocheted Prayer Shawls

For my birthday this year my mother-in-law gave me this book on crocheting prayer shawls. I found this pattern inside and adapted it so that it worked for me. I had issues understanding what exactly the pattern in the book was asking me to do, but the finished product looks the same to me! It is a simple "block" stitch. Crocheting 3 double-crochets and then a single crochet followed by 3 more double crochets. By offsetting the stitches it creates this block pattern. :) I bought yarn at Joann's and ended up having enough to make two prayer shawls. I made one with the border pattern in the book and then just made the second one with tassels instead.

Here is the one directly from the book. I plan on giving this one to Reuben's Grandma for her 90th birthday in September.

A close up on the bottom border section:



I liked the pattern so I made a second one. This one doesn't have the extra border portion.




I liked this pattern so much that I will likely be making more of these in the future. They went by really fast and look impressive once finished.

One thing leads to another

A couple of weeks ago we replaced an old worn out couch with a new reclining one with a love seat to match. This led to a domino effect of consequences and work to be done. First we had to get the furniture in the house which was no easy task. Then we had to get rid of the old couch which we gave away. Then we moved all the chairs from the room to make room for the love seat.

By then I realized the curtains didn't match anymore, or the pillows… thus leading to my latest craft project. It is not especially talented or fancy but I made some new curtains which are a simple gathered style from a pretty paisley design. I found some cut fabric left over from a previous quilt and made some matching pillows. Some left over curtain fabric was used for the back of the pillows. I think the end result adds a lot to the look of the room and I was glad that I actually got the project done since I had put it away for awhile thinking I would like to do that “someday”.

Unexpected Delight

My recent project has been a quilt. When I say recent, I mean I just finished the top face this past Monday night at 9pm. Whew! As it is my own creation, I have the right—nay, the duty—to name it. Thus, from henceforth, it shall be known as, “Unexpected Delight.”

Of all the quilts I have made, this is the most unique. Besides being the biggest one I have made so far, it is the first one that I have created outside of my comfort zone. I usually go for the easiest pattern so I do not have to spend an eternity on one project. The quicker it is done, the sooner I can move onto the next one. Makes sense, right?

Feel free to grab some hot chocolate and let me tell you the story of this amazing quilt...

It started in a Saturday Sampler class I took with Jan and Laura. I tend to choose colors that are me such as blues, greens, earth tones, and other laid back colors. In this particular class, there were two options offered (a chic black/red/white one and a loud, bright colored one). I was instantly drawn to the second one with its vivid colors, wanting the fabric and knowing the quilt made would be for me. I daresay my choice surprised my partners as much as it did me, but it could not be helped.

It was fate, written in the stars, God's providence, whatever you want to call it.

After a year, I had 12 blocks. It took until my birthday this June to get complimentary fabric to finish my blanket. With the needed fabric in hand, I eagerly looked through my quilt books for patterns.

As I searched the pages, something peculiar occurred. I did not want to do my usual easy square pattern with two simple outer borders. This quilt was too special for something that ordinary. Thus I decided to challenge myself. Nothing big, of course, but something a little different.

I was inspired by a friend's quilt that was set in a diagonal pattern with sashing. That led to the idea of what I was looking for. With the quilting books not giving me inspiration, I sketched a basic pattern and then decided to create my own. Now that is highly unusual for me. Creating my own pattern? With no guidance from a book? Who is this person?

With the blueprints written and the measurements taken, my would-be quilt took a life of its own and took me on a road I have never been on or thought I was ready to go on. Not only was I going to do a diagonal pattern with sashing, but I was going to have fancy sashing with a design within that and square points! In addition, I was going to add another block to do this design! If that was not enough—to add to this madness—I was going to add fancy outer borders instead of using simple solid ones!

This crazy quilt also led me to spend more time on a quilt than I normally would have. I double-checked and triple-checked the blueprints regularly, I took out stitches of perfectly good blocks so I could make them great, and ripped out seams whenever points and squares did not match up perfectly.

All this hard work was well worth it and the final product is stunning. I never thought it would turn out as great as it did. This was the result:

Besides getting a story from this entry, I think you can take away a few moral lessons on the importance of planning, of taking your time on a project, that challenging yourself once in a while can help you grow and produce something far more beautiful than you imagined, and...well, whatever other lessons your mind comes up with.

Incredible Borders and Sashing from scraps

We all have our own unique styles when quilting. My mom's is of the quick and easy variety.  She likes projects she can finish quickly and that look amazing.  I on the other hand am known among our Pack to not only take, but seek out the most complicated patterns and projects.  If it’s too easy or too fast, it’s just not as fun!  I think this is a result of how I learned to quilt.  I started when I was 14 with my Aunt Linda who invited me to a Saturday Sampler.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, most Saturday Sampler’s work from a similar template.  You attend a class once a month and get the fabric and pattern for one block each month. Most stores have you pay say $5 for the first kit, and if you come back the next month with a finished block, you get the next kit for free! At the end of the year you have 12 blocks, and if you kept up with the blocks, you only paid 5 dollars for all of it!   Anyway, back to the point, Saturday samplers are usually a little more complicated than your average first quilt, and I jumped in head first and never looked back! I loved every minute of it, and even though those first quilts were far from perfect, and there was my fair share of seam ripping, tears and frustration, it taught me to always push myself to the next level and never settle for good enough.

The other thing I learned from Saturday Samplers is to hoard every scrap of fabric.  We saved each and every left over bit from those kits, and at the end of the 12 months, we had 12 finished blocks and a stack of scraps to create our borders with coordinating fabrics.  Here is my first Saturday Sampler that I finished when I was 16 (don’t do the math on how many years it took me to actually finish the thing!).  The sashing was very simple on this quilt.  All my energy went into the border, but it was worth it!

 

This is the close up of the borders. Don't look too closely, as I've said, this was my first quilt.

My next quilt was also a Saturday Sampler, from the same place, The Nine Patch, which is closed now.  This is one of my favorite quilts because of the amazing colors! This time, my energy was focused on the sashing.

  I know this is a pattern somewhere, and I have seen it since, but at the time, it was just an idea in my head, and I put it into my quilt without a pattern.

You can see how I sewed the sashing on each block from this selection.

With both of these examples, you can see how much the extra fancy boarder or sashing can really make your quilt pop!  I know that once you finish your blocks the last thing you want to do is think about a complicated border, but trust me, the end result is well worth it! After you put so much effort into the blocks, why not put as much effort and love into the borders to create a unified effect across the whole quilt?  Plus, what else are you going to do with all those scraps?  Well….I have a few ideas for that as well…but that’s for another post.

Crocheted Baby Booties

I have been interested in crocheting socks for a little while now and have been looking online for a pattern that would match my skill level. I thought that baby socks would be good way to start out so I can get used to the pattern and see if I am able to make them. I found a good pattern here that ended up working really well for me. Since I discovered this patter at the end of July I have become obsessed with it! I have found them to be not only easy to make, but also a great activity to take with me while traveling since it doesn't require carrying a lot of yarn. The picture shown below is using an actual sock yarn, but I have also used the same pattern with some of my leftover thinner yarn stash. I attempted to use a slightly thicker yarn, but that increased the size of the sock too much to actually fit a baby. I used a size F crochet hook, which is slightly smaller than the pattern calls for. The site I got the pattern for also has adult socks that I have yet to try. A bigger sock is more intimidating to me. However, it is something that I want to master. :) If I get around to making it work I will be sure and post about it!