CraftyMcShannahan

Super Meanie!

I love crafting...I LOVE it.  It encompasses most of my leisure time, and more of my moolah than it should.  I don't discriminate either...I lurve it all: crochet, knitting, embroidery, doll making, soft toy making, painting, working with clay, paper crafts, doodling...the list could go on forever...  Give me some supplies and all the time in the world, and I don't even think you could distract me with food or bathroom time...its both sad and true...although I occasionally stop to eat and I do need the facilities from time to time.

The only downfall to my crafting is that I get a little Type A with it.  I want things to be perfect!  If there is something going on in my giant melon head, it needs to turn out that way...AND THAT WAY ONLY!!!  I mean, having standards is one thing, but I tend to take things to the extreme.  I wonder how many things that I have done over the years have gone the way of undo, redo, or trash completely if I can't salvage it.  I tend to be a super meanie...really high expectations, no mercy.

It used to be like this for other peoples projects too.  Don't get me wrong, I would never look at something done by a beginner with my judging eyes and say poo poo.  No, I would totally encourage and coo and sprinkle it with some love dust or whatever.  But for people who have been at it for a while, who should 'know better'...I had a sharp tongue!  Sometimes I would see things online or at craft fairs and I say to myself "what the what?!?  They could be done so much better than this!"  For instance, I bought a book...that shall remain nameless...off amazon a while ago by a lady who has a nice craft blog that I visit from time to time.  The blog is great, so I bought the book...and I was so annoyed by the whole thing.  Aside from the pictures in the book, which were so awesomely done, it was a total waste of money for me.  The projects in the pictures...crap-ola.  Admittedly, there were one or two projects that used printable fabric, and that is just not my thing.  And on others, some of the ideas were great.  BUT (and that is a big but) the execution, tacky (and when I say tacky in a bad way, it is a mega insult, because usually, I love me some tacky) or just plain badly done. One of them was a embroidered onesy.  But in the book, she did it in such a way that you couldn't even put your kid in the onesy...which is fine if all you want to do is hang it on the wall...but she could have done things minutely differently and voila, kid has a cute outfit...  The one that really buttered my biscuits was for an heirloom growth chart...you are supposed to keep and treasure this thing forever, right?  The author takes a cheapo measuring tape and sews it to the relatively pretty quilted fabric background she had going on.  Ack!  So tacky (in a bad way)!!!  If you are hanging onto this thing forever, already having taken time to sew a pretty background, why not just take the five minutes you would need and embroider your own little measuring increments.  It just made me want to scream. 

But then I thought about it.  And somewhere deep in the back of my scull I thought I heard someone say "someone may really like this book".  And I said "what tiny voice?"  "Somebody made this thing and was so proud of what they had done..."came the reply.  And my tiny voice made me feel guilty. 

Sure, I can look at something and not like it.  I can judge it by my standards.  I can look at it and say it could have been donethis way or that way, or I would have changed such and such...then it would be perfect.  But, you know what, for somebody else, maybe this was perfect.  And here I come with my machine gun judgements, blasting away at all there defenseless proud thoughts with indifference.  And I stand back in triumph over the bodies of innocent happiness, having accomplished nothing but badness. I am a super meanie.

Looking at the previously mentioned book now, I try to have a more rose colored view.  No, maybe I won't do these projects.  But I know for a fact that I have looked at them and been inspired.  I am trying to change my way of thinking from "YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER" (please picture horns and pointy teeth )to "that's nice, now let me see what I can do with it."  (insert rainbows and unicorns here)  Looking at things this way is a better viewpoint creatively.  Its kind of like craft recycling, because you take something useless to you and make something functional for your life.

So anyway, it got me thinking...how much does this same craft judgementalness hold me back?  How many scrapped, redone, or trashed projects could I have looked at later on and said fine, I don't like it, but here's how I can do it differently? 

One of my soft toy design books encourages you to save your early projects...the ones you are tempted to angrily toss in a dumpster somewhere or set on fire or whatever...because they teach you lessons.  I have decided to be like the Thomas Edison who, when asked about his failures said "I didn't fail.  I found 10,000 ways that don't work."  (Another source has this as "I found 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb.)  Maybe on the walls of his workspace, he had kept those 10,000 not-lightbulbs-yet...and that way, he didn't repeat his mistakes, in the effort for that all important 10,001. 

And so I am going to try to keep a not-lightbulbs-yet scrapbook, with pictures of the attempts (lack of space and the fact that I will totally be reusing the ingredients to the projects if I can, hold me back from keeping the actual projects) and a description of what I did wrong (or that I didn't like) and what I think I can do to make it better the next time.  I think this will help me too, because I am sometimes afraid to start something because I'm scared I won't like the end result.  Now I'll have a tool to use where I can say if I mess up, put in in my scrapbook, and start again.  Maybe that way, it won't seem like such a waste.

Wow, that was quite the long rambling speach...now to put it in action...

You, why you're such a doll!

I have talked before about my love/obsession with the book Wee Wonderfuls-24 Dolls To Sew And Love by Hillary Lang.  At some point, I will make everything in this book!  So far, I am up to 4.  Its a little slow going, but I will do them all, probably quite a few of them more than once...  I have done Evelyn the Inchworm, Pixie, Koji (who I accidentally gave away before I took pictures of...he was made in orange felt in my version...I will get pictures of him to share one day, I swear!), and, most recently, I finished a lovely Patchwork Penny. 

Here is Penny in the Wee Wonderfuls book:
I think this is actually my favorite photo from the book.  I love her tiny sewing machine.  What a sweet image!

Here is my Penny:
I love how the author of Wee Wonderfuls breaks everything down into easy steps.  I really think you could do her dolls with a child, but its still a great book for adults to make lovely soft toys with. 

The one thing I wish I would have done differently is the face layout.  Penny's face in the book is cute, so I am not sure if I fudged the template a little, or if its the light blue button color that makes the face not look as grounded as I would like.  I followed the template for the face that's in the book, but if I would have had more time, (I made this in a rush for my mom over the course of two nights after work) I would have made some alterations to the face.

 
I usually always alter something in the patterns I follow, and if its a soft toy, its often times the face.  Even if I do a repeat pattern, the face is rarely done the same way.  I don't know if its the different colors, or if its the tiny differences between one cutting and another, but I think the toys have something going on that tells you what looks just right verses what's only ok.  So Penny may be my first repeat pattern in the Wee Wonderfuls book...I do have a new niece on the way, so I have some sewing to do anyway.  And Penny is such an happy little doll that I think any kiddo would like her!

I was a little naughty and am currently waiting on three new (or new to me, I should say) books, all about soft toy design.  They should be in before the end of the month, and I am super excited to learn!  The amazing time I am having between the Wee Wonderfuls book and a great blog I recently discovered called whileshenaps.typepad.com, has inspired me to do my own tinkering about with soft toy design.  The blog I just mentioned has a really interesting series of posts concerning soft toy design, and I think it would be a really good starting point for a beginner to see if they would like designing their own creations without spending a lot of money on books and such!  A little thrift never hurt anybody, even a craft acquiring junky like me!

While I sit here in eager anticipation of my recent booky purchases, I am thinking I may need to bid you adieu and start a new little Wee Wonderful named Katie Kitty...

The elephant and the tree...

In between cleaning and working and bathroom wallpapering, I have been engaging in a little embroidery recently.  I have forgotten how fun thread can be.  I am really enjoying needle in-ing and needle outing!  Besides some w-i-p pin cushions, I have actually finished (insert shocked gasp here) two presents for two of my sisters.  Or really, one present each for two of my sisters...

First, I made this for my sister M Jr, the Mistress of artistic awesomeness!  (One day, I hope to meet up with her on the scale of fabulous artistry...)

 

I swiped the saying off a rubber stamp I saw, but didn't write down the name of the person who said it...I am sorry for ripping off without proper attributing!  I think it is a lovely thing to have someone say about you though.  It is extra fitting for M Jr, because she has the greenest thumb of anyone I have ever met!  She is a multi-talented, super smarty pants!

Here are some close ups of the tree piece:

 

 

 

 

I liked doing all the different stitches, but my favorite thing of the whole project is the little grasses.  They are just three straight stitches that meet at a center point.  But so cute!  I love all the little flowers too.  I am pretty proud that this came out of my tiny brain, without a pattern, and without any direction at first.  I just started out knowing I wanted to do a tree, and kept going until I had added all the tree decoration.  Then it reminded me of that pretty quote, so I stitched that on the bottom.  Then the quote looked a little lonely all by itself like that, so I added the grasses and the viney flowers.  And when it was all good and done, I thought "This looks like a present for M Jr"!

When I decided that, I had to make a little card to go with it, and here it is:

 

I am not so much a paper crafter...but I think it is cutesy.  And possibly a new craft road to try to walk in between the rest of the intersecting highways of crafty goodness I cruise. 

I started out with a white card stock and glued on some scraps of paper for the sky and the grass.  Then I made the little pond out of another scrap.  Next, I painstakingly cut out the sun, alligator, turtle, snail,and some of the flowers around the pond and in the tree and added those.  Then I added some cute little bubble stickers (the butterflies, birds, flowers and the topiary tree).  I like how the turtle and little pink bird look like they are either having a conversation or are about to smooch!  We'll know which one if we see turtles with wings or birds with shells...  Its not much, but I think its kind of neat!

Next, I made one for my sister Teddy, who when she saw the thing I made for M Jr said:  "I WANT ONE...WHERE'S MY PRESENT!!!" (In a scary devil voice).  And as she frightens me, and I didn't want to die, I made her this:

 

I did use a pattern for this one, out of Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray.  (I hope I am spelling that right...).  If you are in the market for a starter embroidery book, I highly recommend this one, as it has some good basic stitch instructions, and a large amount of motifs to stitch (hence the title, I guess...duh me).  The motifs are all very cute, with several different theme groupings (aka circus, where I got the elephant pattern, candy shop/baked goodness, baby, asian inspired, woodland and farm animals, etc).  I also have another book by the same author (her first one, also called Doodle Stitching... something, something), but I much prefer the motif collection book.  The motif collection books comes with a cd for your computer with all the motifs from the book so that you can add them together and make custom motifs to print off.  I don't use it, because technology is my enemy, but if you are more advanced than me (aka a 5 year old) I think this is a neat feature.

I wrapped the heffalump (elephant for those not in the know) like this when I gave it to Teddy:

 

If I were keeping an embroidery, I would frame it up and hang it, but I am not a great picture frame picker outer.  I can know someone really well and still not be able to pick the right style for them...this is frustrating to me, as I imagine myself to be a great present picker in general...  The only exception to the rule of non-picture frame picking ability is my Mom...but Mommy's are special, aren't they?  Since that was the case, I just rolled Teddy's heffalump up and wound a scrap of fabric around it (awesome owl fabric, just so you know, even though you can't see any owls in the picture, know they are both there and awesome).  Then pretty ribbon tie.  Hooray for presents!!!

Both M Jr and Teddy really liked their surprises, and I had fun stitching them up!  More embroidery in the near future for me for sure!  But first, I am going to decoupage some shoe boxes with scrapbook paper for cute storage containers.  And clean, sadly clean.  Curse you banality of daily life!  But I don't want to catch scurvy or something, so I better get ta warshin'!

Eventually a book review...

I am starting to believe I have some sort of mental illness.

    Concerning books anyway.  Crafting books specifically.  Curse you Amazon, for your recommendations list has led to many a secret purchase...my husband is convinced my books multiply like tribbles on the original Star Trek...(if Spock was here he'd be all : "Your obsession is highly illogical."  And I'd be like: "Shut up Spock and get your pointy ears outta here!"  Then he'd give me the vulcan death grip for my insolence.  My dying words would be: "This is all your fault, Amazon!") 

    Usually when he (my husband, not Spock) asks me about a certain book, I say "Oh, I've had that for a while"  which is true, as a while is not any specific amount of time...a while can be two years or the five minutes since the ups guy brought the box, I opened and hid the box for later inconspicuous disposal, and started lovingly looking at my book. 

    For those of you who say that is devious, I have no rebuttal...to not tell the whole truth is parallel to lying...I am ashamed for that reason...but you don't understand how the books call to me!  You can't hear their tiny voices: "you need us...you want us...we're colorful...instructional...you desire to feel our pages...to smell our new book smell..." 

    To those of you who say I shouldn't need to justify my  purchases to my husband...that I am a free and independent woman with her own income...that women have equal rights...that ain't nobody gonna turn us around...women's lib and the rest...  I say, in defense of my loving husband, you haven't seen my library...Gertrude Stein would be like "don't blame the man, you have a problem!"  Additionally, I will admit that I tend to just look at the books.  Rarely do I ever make one project from a book I own.  Yet I need to own those glorious books.  And don't try to justify me by saying 'oh, you have them for inspiration'...no, no my friends,  the internet has taken away that means of justification!  Google has rendered it obsolete!  Flickr spits in its eye!  Etsy and Folksy scoff at it from the other room!  No, my friends, to you I admit that I have a problem...but just know that no matter how much I spend on books, a psychiatrist would cost much more.  And so when I finish here, I will leave you all to go feed my addiction...curse you Amazon...curse you...

 

Now then, I said all that to say this:  one of the best books of all the books I have in my possession (and trust me, the list is extensive)  is a book called Wee Wonderfuls -24 Dolls to Sew and Love. 

 
There are so many great things about this book.  The dolls are really cute and different.  The photographs are really crisp and well done.  The instructions are easy to understand and duplicate.  This book is easy to use and enjoyable to look at!  I had seen this book quite a while before I actually bought it (saw it at Barnes and Noble...eventually bought it on Amazon).  But now that I own it, I regret not knocking down old people while running to the checkout to buy it!  I can't say enough good things about it. 

One of the points I really want to stress is the directions are the best.  I have quite a few easy sewing/beginner sewing type books and the directions in this book are honestly much easier to learn from than any of the other books I own.  Plus, there are pictures that accompany most of the directions, so you see exactly what the author means.  Seriously, just go buy this book!

Here are the first two projects in the book. (I am currently working on the third.  This book is so good I am actually going through and making each project in order from beginning to end.  There is not one of the cool dolls I don't want to make!) 

So the first is Evelyn Inchworm.  Here is my Ev looking at her picture in the book:
So cute!  I like that she is made out of felt, as I enjoy felt to an unhealthy extreme.  I use her as a pincushion.  If I had any little girls in my life, I would give her away, but no such luck...this will be especially awkward in the future when I start making more of the dolly dolls...they will just have to look awesome on a shelf or something!

Next is Pixie.  Here is how she looks in the book:

 
And here is my (blurry) version:

 
I gave mine little felt shoes, because my embroidery skills were lacking that day and I could not embroider the shoes like the directions said to...but I like her green shoes!  I think they look extra sprite-ly!  My friend Maria asked if she could have my Pixie and I agreed as I hate to see homeless dolls...Maria sent the doll to her daughter, so Pink Pixie is currently enjoying sunny Mexico! 

I am only mildly jealous that my little creations get to be more well traveled than me.