Travel Handmade

My best friend Melissa, sent me a link to Travel Handmade.  It looks like a fun "challenge" to make anything travel related, ie duffle bag, cosmetic case, laptop case and so forth.  I thought it would be fun to try a few of the ideas. 

As I type this it appears they are doing some maintenance to the site. 

Just a quick run down of the projects:
Day 1 - duffel bags
Day 2 - carry on bag
Day 3 - cosmetic bag
Day 4 - electronic bag/case
Day 5 - travel purse
Day 6 - refashioned bag
Day 7 - tote bag
Day 8 - travel sewing bag
Day 9 - travel accessories

I made several of these items.  One item was thrown on the floor and never been picked up since.  Yes, it was that much of a pain to make. 

My first item is my coffee cozy.  You know when you go to the coffee shop and they give you those paper cups that are hot to the touch, well now I don't need to worry about burning my hand. 

My second item is my small boxy cosmetic bag.  If you all know me I love black/white and any other color combo.  This bag is perfect in size.  It will hold the basic supplies.

My third project is my Yellow and Black tote bag.  I've had this fabric for a couple of years now and just recently found some fabric that would complement it.  On the front of the bag there are three pockets, which I have never accomplished.  The inside is lined with a yellow print fabric.



My fourth project is my Red/Black/White Hobo bag.  Super simple to make once you understand the pattern/directions, until the above bag.  Let's just say I will never use that pattern again...  Again, back to the Hobo bag.  It is lined with plain red fabric.  I did not put a zipper on the inside since I really don't use them on any of my purses/bags.  Plus, I have my cosmetic bag to carry in. 

I am working on two more of the days and will post when they are finished. 

Thanks for looking.

Catching up

Since my last post of my Bergere chair I haven't really been crafty.  A few things here and there.  So I am going to post everything in this entry.

We went on a much needed vacation.  My husband's nephew got married in Key West this past May.  Ahhh....  what a place to be..  My sister-in-law Kathy asked me to help her with some welcome bags for the guests that made the trip.  I helped with the bookmark bottle wrapper.  The digi image is from Wax Fruit Co..  I added the wording through Adobe Photoshop and then had fun coloring the image.  The final bookmark read Kimberley and  Aaron with the date.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the finished project, but you get the idea.

I am working on my second Bergere chair.  I found this chair and another style chair on Craigs List for $40 for the pair.  I am almost done sanding it and then I can paint it. 

My sister-in-law Kathy asked us if we would like to go up to the mountains one weekend and stay over at her sister-in-law's house.  What a great weekend we all had.  There were eight in total.  We hiked, napped and ate some yummy food.  I had brought a small bottle of homemade Limoncello with us to leave as a thank you gift.  I decided I wanted to hang my thank you card so I created bottle hangar.  I used my Cricut machine to cut a door hangar out of yellow paper.  I printed up my lemon digi image from Wax Fruit Co. and colored. 

Here a card using the same image.

We had our annual barbeque at the beginning of August.  I made several potholder invitations.  I'm so glad I only had to make 10 of them for the people who do not have facebook.  I got my idea from a member on Splitcoast Stampers, whom I can not remember their name.  Once I figure it out I will edit this post.  For the red/white paper I basket wove the strips of paper together, which was time consuming. 

My last set of pictures are of my homemade Tiki torches using recycled wine bottles. 

That is it for "catch up."  Now onto the next project...

Black and White Bergere Chair

My last project was reupholstering a Bergere Chair.  I guess I have been watching too many Nate Berkus shows.  He always talks about thrift store shopping.  I always thought shopping at a thrift store meant welfare.  Sorry if I have offended anyone.  But, watching the Nate Berkus Show I see there is more than clothes in these stores

One day I was all set to go to a local Salvation Army to look for a chair.  I went in with the notion I wouldn't find anything.  I walked past all the clothes and found myself in the furniture areas.  As I looked straight ahead what do I see.  Yes, the exact type of chair I was looking for.  Here she is before the "facelift".

After several hours over the course of 2-3 days, I think I took out hundreds of staples.  Not easy on the hands.  I sanded the chair down several times.  Then I primed the chair with two coats of primer.

Then came the black satin paint.  I loved it as soon I put the first coat on.

After the chair was dried I applied two coats of poly on it.  Let me say this is a project I honestly thought what the hell was I doing.  I had never sewn double-welt cording before.  I remember sitting in the living room with the fabric rolled out thinking how in the world amy I going to make the pattern flow once the chair is completed.  Oiy, my head was spinning.  Then on night it came to me.  I knew how I was going to do it.  I got up the next morning, rolled the fabric back out and got to cutting.  I stared with the pieces that I had to staple down.  How much could I screw that up, I thought.  I bought new foam for the cushions, layed that down and stared stapling.  Once I had the first piece stapled I knew I liked it.  My confidence went from "what the hell was I doing" to "yes, I can do this."  I managed to figure out the double-welts and the piping.  With all that hard work behind me I can honestly say I loved how my chair came out.  I am currently looking for another one.

My modern Black & White Bergere Chair.

Quilting???

The last time I ever tried quilting it was awful.  I am not a quilter, although I do sew my own window valances, bags and a few costumes in the past. 

As I was talking to my best friend Melissa, she mentioned she was getting back into quilting.  She had signed up for some quilt-alongs.  I thought that sounded like fun.  Even thought I didn't sign up for any quilt-alongs I wanted to try something "easy".  I found several free block patterns online and decided on the Disappearing Nine Patch. 

Another thing I wanted to do was use up some of my fabric I had stored away.  The colors I had the most of were black, white and turquoise.  One thing I found not easy was cutting the fabric the traditional quilters way, using the rotary cutter and ruler.  I went with the non-traditional way and made a pattern to reuse.  Hey, that is the way I feel most comfortable doing it. 

The following is a picture of my 9 squares sewn together.  Then you cut then in half horizontally and vertically. 

Next, you take the four squares and turn them until get a pattern you like. Then sew those squares together.

This is my quilt about two-thirds of the way done.

Anyway, this is my quilt (well wall hanging). I will post a picture later.

New Project - Non cardmaking or scrapbooking involved

Lately, I have been trying to stay active and not sitting for too long.  My knees are still a work in progress. I find if I am sitting at the computer or at the desk to craft for too long, my knees tend to get sore.

My husband and I had built a wall shelf for the area above my computer desk.  I decided I needed another one.  This time I cut the wood out, sanded and painted it.  He helped me put it together and up on the wall.  This smaller shelf holds my Cricut Cartridges.  (who knew I had so many). lol  I really like the way it came out.

Happy Valentines Day Honey!!!

For this past Valentines Day, I wanted to give my husband a different kind of card.  You know, the non-typical type you wouldn't find at the store. 

One day I sat down at the computer and logged into my trusty, go-to craft website - aka Splitcoast Stampers.  I found a thread where someone was looking for sexiest valentine images.  BINGO, I thought.  One of the ladies had suggested Kenny K. Downloads.  I knew I had to order a couple of those images.   I decided to use Allure Von D on my card.

Here is my "sexy valentine card for my darling husband.

No Mojo

It seems like it has been forever since I my last card/scrapbook/project. 

My husband bought me a Cricut Expression in Teal for Christmas.  So I had been playing around with the Expression and my Design Studio.  I have been to several Creating Keepsakes Conventions over the past years.  One of the booths in the Vendor Faire had laser cut pages.  They are wonderful pages but I didn't was to pay the $5 per page.  So I looked around the internet and found Scrappin' My Stress Away Blog.  She made exactly what I had been looking for.  After several hours over the course of a few days and a bunch of cheap paper I finally made something I liked and could use.

This is a double page spread I made for a trip to the beach.  All I have to do is take the pictures, add them to the page and do some journaling.