Valentine Bulletin Board

I planned on crafting all weekend but it's almost over and I haven't accomplished much although I did manage to organize my work space a bit so I have room to actually work. Last week I created a bulletin board for my 6th grade classroom. Since Valentine's Day is approaching I needed some decorations. I saw a project on the Stampington & Company website and I made it fit my needs. I cut out hearts from scrapbook paper and stitched two together. Before completely closing them I put a bit of fiberfill in them. 

Target had these packs of pretty scrapbook paper that contained eight sheets for only $1. What a deal! The original project I saw used sheet music and vintage Valentines. After filling all the hearts I glued a picture of the kids on the top. Then I attached a tulle ribbon and I hung them at various lengths. The top of the board needed something fluffy. I saw so many cute things made from coffee filters at Christmas so I decided to give that a try. I folded them up, stapled them to the board and fluffed them up. I pulled some of the ribbon ends through to pull in some color. Here is the final product.

  

Collage Club

One of the things I'm playing with these days is collage with vintage papers. Actually they are copies of vintage paper right now because I do not have a big enough collection of old paper to use. I am a member of a collage club put together by artist Mary Green at Green Paper, one of my favorite blogs to visit. It is so relaxing to play with paper and glue. I can and do spend hours just cutting and arranging and glueing. I highly recommend it if you haven't tried it. As a member of the club, you receive a lesson along with some images in an email twice a month. Then once you create your collage, you upload them to flickr and share them with the other club members. There are some really talented artists involved and I hope to learn a lot from them. I'm really enjoying it! I made these two collages this week.

Someting Old, Something Newer

Since my first post I’ve been looking back at things I have made. I recently realized I have a purpose to create and did since I was a very young girl. Unfortunately , I was too insecure to think I had any talent so I didn’t do much to cultivate that purpose.That first picture is of one of my earliest creations. I have no idea how old I was when I made them. Luckily, I saved them. I used to sit and watch my mother sew at her machine in our basement. I loved the scraps that were leftover from whatever she was making. I made them into clothes for my dolls. I even made sure my plastic animals were dressed. Yes, I still have one of those too. Check out the over-sized groovy poncho.

I especially loved taking a rectangle shaped piece of fabric and cutting three armholes into it to make a wrap dress for my dolls. Mom taught my sisters and me how to sew and happily my doll making skills improved.

It’s not that I haven’t made anything in the last long while, it’s just that I didn’t really splurge on creating as I should have. This year and from now on I will splurge.

My First Post

     Hello! My name is Susan and I am writing my first blog post after putting it off for too long. I love to read blogs written by creative people because they inspire me. I hope someday I will be able to inspire someone in the same way.
     I recently read something where a person said they didn’t think they were an artist because they couldn’t draw well. I always thought the same thing. There are so many ways to be an artist though. Anytime you create something with your hands and from your mind, you are being an artist. I wonder how many others have invalidated their talents in this way. I studied fashion design about twenty-five years ago. I could make dresses, skirts, blouses and even coats but because I couldn’t draw well, I decided I wasn’t a designer and didn’t take that goal any further. I have barely even sewn anything in all this time except for curtains and simple things. Why did I waste all that creative time? Because I couldn’t draw? Argh!
     I dusted off my sewing machine last year and took a quilting class. It was so much fun to start creating again. I made a baby quilt for a friend and am now working on a quilt for myself. I really want to start making clothes again but feel as unsure as a beginner. There aren’t any classes locally except for beginner type and I know I’m not really a beginner. I found some sewing blogs that I can follow so plan to start by making a blouse soon.
     I also started doing embroidery which is something I tried when I was young and now love it again.
     My other new love is collage. Well, it’s not really new. I used to do some decoupage boxes and things and I always saved pretty paper and magazine pictures just in case I would make another project. Since I was living under an uncreative rock for so long I never realized there was such a thing as mixed media. Now there are so many new things to try. I can’t wait to do it all.
     I am going to use this blog to show my creative progress and since I don’t want to go too long between posts, hopefully it will also make me keep going and I won't fall back into just reading other blogs and watching the rest of the world create without me.

     This is my most recent project. I made this for my mom for Christmas. The embroidery design is by Charlotte Lyons at House Wren Studio and the fabric is Tweet Tweet by Keiki for Moda.


     Bear with me please while I learn this blogging process also.