One last post before the kidnapping....

Hello Readers!

I thought my kidnapping would happen today but it got put off for one day. So the kidnapping will happen tomorrow and I do not know when I will be returned home. 

I've packed a number of things to keep my hands busy while the grandchildren are at school. I'll be the chief cook and bottle washer while I'm at my son's house. Thankfully, there really are no bottles to wash, just have to cook for the younguns, get them off to school and make sure the laundry is kept up. Grandson will be helping with dishes and cooking too. 

I will have a few things to choose from as far as creating goes. I've packed sewing things, embroidery stuff, bookmaking supplies and the wire kit with a few beads in case I decide all that sewing isn't my thing at the moment. And of course I have packed paper, pencil and markers so the children and I can do some arts and crafts together. I might take the felting things with me too....

I really wish I knew how long those kids think I want to be kidnapped! I've really no clue how long they expect to keep me. No one will give me a straight answer!

I've accomplished a few finished things since the last post about a week ago.

This little book is about 3 x 4 inches. I don't remember how many pages it has....100 or so. It's made from a chocolate pudding box, white copy paper pages, holographic gold tape and white crochet cotton thread.

And since the first one turned out so well I made another book out of a box. This one is a Jello box covered in glittered gold tape (that shed glitter everywhere!) I covered the gold tape with clear packing tape to tame the glitter. It has a string and button closure as well. The button is metal and plastic. This one is a bit smaller than the pudding box book above.

I actually made this crocheted jute and plastic rope basket before the last post was posted but I forgot to show it off.

Just a small basket about 4 inches across, 3 inches tall. Here's a picture of the inside. Getting it started was a bit of a bear and the next one I do with the plastic rope I will do somewhat differently. This plastic rope is used for making bows and wreaths and what have you. You can untwist it and it turns into a sheet of plastic about 4 inches wide. I just left it twisted tightly and crocheted the jute twine around it to form the basket. 

I have quite a bit of that plastic rope in lots of different colors. I also have three spools of jute twine. I used less than half a spool crocheting the basket above.

I came across my glass dip pen the other day and decided to play with it a bit last night. 

Nothing special here. Just doodling with the pen and ink.

I will let my grand daughter color this frog.

Not sure what will happen with this face. Maybe some color...paint? markers? collage? I don't know. Maybe nothing at all!

I'll let Annie color this one also.

Embroidered balls will be featuring heavily in future posts. When I get home from my kidnapping I should have a few finished balls to show you all. I spent three days sitting in front of this computer making balls from scratch and sewing the covers on some of them.

These two show what a ball looks like without its cover (the green one) and what one looks like with most of its cover sewn on. I did most of these balls a bit different from the norm. The basket in the following picture was filled with seam waste from cutting up different garments to use the materials for something else. I took all that seam waste and wound it around the bottle caps inside of these balls instead of the usual plastic grocery bags. That eliminated the need for the thick cord layer of the balls. 

As you can see there are seven balls with their covers finished and a boatload (basketful?) of half done balls. I'll be taking all of these with me to my son's house. If memory serves me correctly (that can be quite doubtful some days) there are a grand total of 23 balls I'll take along.

That is a cat paw trying to steal one of the blue balls. That's Murray. She got that ball and ran off with it too. I gave her a different ball to play with and took my ball back from her! 

The grayish blue balls are covered with part of a wool sweater that I cut apart before I started making balls. You'll see more of this blue sweater material on the fish picture later in this post. I honestly did not throw away one bit of this sweater. The seams went inside some of the balls, the buttons are in my button jar and the pockets (which are all wool) are slated to become little pouches of some sort. 

I have a big monster to make while I'm at my son's house. Not sure what day I will be able to go get the sweater my sister has for me to make that monster out of. I can guarantee there will be a few balls done when I get home though. And a monster to show you all as well.

I plan a trip to the craft store while in the big city. Embroidery thread is on my list for sure!

I started a new fish picture yesterday. This is #12. It's 8x8 inches and an inch or so thick. 

I used one of those home decor pictures I told you all about in a previous post not so long ago. This one didn't have a fabric cover because I had already removed it. No clue what color it was or where that piece of cotton fabric wandered off to.  I used wool sweater remnants instead of cotton fabric for the reef. (That blue sweater from the balls.) There's some knotted elastic, bulky yarn, some soft purple yarn, red acrylic yarn and green cotton organza on the reef shelf.

There's also some plastic rope (same stuff the basket above is made from), yellow crewel yarn, folded paper origami units from a failed bucky ball. I painted those orange. There are different sizes and colors of beads tossed in there and some little green paper strips too. It's all glued on with either hot glue or school glue, depending on what I was gluing.

The background was covered with a layer of paper to hide the design that was there. I painted it red and hit it with the heat gun to make it bubble up and get some texture to it. Then I glued on a layer of paper confetti (little tiny strips about a centimeter long and a millimeter wide in all different colors) across the middle of the canvas. I put a thick layer of school glue over it so all those little papers would stay put. After it had dried I dusted the whole thing with some gold resin powder.

I'm working on the fish still. He'll be purple with blue spots with yellow spots. He's drawn on chipboard and painted with fingernail polish. He'll go smack dab in the middle of it all. I'll show this one finished when I get home from my kidnapping.

If an address comes through, I will mail this altered envelope off tomorrow to my January partner in the Envie Group over at AFA (link is up on the sidebar). If no address comes along today, then it will be mailed out as soon as I get the address. This is the front.

This is the back. 

I drew the monsters, colored them with markers and then cut them out. They are done on drawing paper. I made the envelope out of painted newspaper wrapped around a sheet of cardstock. It's all glued together. The back has a coat of sparkly varnish. As soon as the address is added, the front will get a coat of that same sparkly varnish. Painted newspaper isn't the strongest paper. Might not of been such a great idea to choose it for making an envelope. I figured the extra coat of varnish couldn't hurt it. Besides, I like the sparkle! I do hope it survives an international trip through the postal service!

Wish me luck on the kidnapping! I'm sure I'll have a few more gray hairs when I return home! I shall miss my kitties. Fred dog is being kidnapped right along with me! He will be happy to get back home as well. The kids have a puppy and that old dog will be worn out playing with that puppy all the time. Fred THINKS he is still a puppy but, at 14 years old, he is quite far from puppy-hood! I had better not forget his pain meds! He will get a reprieve from stairs while we're away from home and that will be a good thing for his old hide!

I'll be back in a few weeks with something to show. I really don't know how long this kidnapping will last. I'm hoping to be back home before February. 

Thanks for sticking around!

Remember....

be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

831

Here We Go Again! Happy New Year!

Hello Readers!

Happy New Year to everyone! 

As usual, my hands have not been idle! Let's take a look at what Donna's been up to, shall we?

I told you all about the origami books I made at the end of the year and forgot to take a picture of....well here's one of them.

This is the same one as in the picture above. I really did make two of them but damned if I know what became of the other one. It's nowhere to be seen on this desk where I found the one in the pictures. This one has both brown and white paper in it. The other one has only white paper. I made this one out of a 4lb paper sugar bag and a flyer that came with my last order from AS&S. There are two layers of paper to a sugar bag. I thought there would be enough brown paper to make the entire book, but it turned out that wasn't the case. This book is 1.5x1.75 inches with 10 pages. 

It's nothing special really, just a cute little book. I'll find the other one one of these days! Unless one of the felines has carried it off. It was made with the same red flyer as the one pictured but it has copy paper pages instead of paper from a sugar bag. 

I finished the clothespin snowflake ornament. Better late than never, I guess! It needs another coat of glitter and a coat of varnish before I can call it done. This is pretty large; about 7 inches across.

Someone over at the Altered Envie thread on AFA (link is up there on the sidebar) posted the tutorial to make dollar bill hearts. I cut sheet music to the same size and made these four. I still have a few more to fold before I use up all the sheets cut to size. 

I finished a couple of wool balls since the last post.

This is the one I showed you all in the last post. 

I added a lot of thread to it since then.

I didn't completely cover it, but I did hide all those sloppy seams from sewing the wool cover on with embroidery thread.

It turned out great! I'm very pleased with this one.

And I did another one as well.

Just random lines of chain stitch going willy nilly all over the ball.

I still have three naked balls, needing their wool covers and one ready to be embroidered. I've decided I need to make 52 of these things this year. I'm going to visit my eldest son for a couple weeks beginning next and will take enough raw material with me to make more of these balls while I'm there.  So you have fair warning that embroidered balls will feature heavily in the next few posts.

I have no clue what possessed me to sit here in front of this computer for two days cutting maps into circles. This stack is about 3 inches tall. The rounds are 2 5/8 inches. I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet. 

This morning I got up at 6:30, made coffee and was sitting in front of the computer watching Coronation Street and cutting out about three dozen 1.5 inch circles from chipboard. No picture of those. I do know what I'm going to do with those, thankfully. I acquired some more pistachio shells! Stay tuned for that endeavor! It will be a few weeks before I commence with that. Sometime after I get back home from my son's house.

This looks complicated, but it's very easy! A paper origami spiral. Here's the tutorial. I made mine out of colored writing paper. I hung it from the ceiling in my desk room.

I still haven't put the Christmas tree away.

Good thing, too. I got a new ornament today in the mail.

Last month Nanner was my envie partner and sent her a few things in our trade. She felt as though she hadn't sent enough in the trade. I loved the Day of the Dead Skull ornament she sent me. It's hanging from the ceiling in my desk room too! She loved all the goodies I sent her so she made me something else to add to that trade. Isn't it adorable? It's made from a plastic wine glass! The little tree inside has teeny tiny lights on it! I just LOVE it!  

In five days I will be kidnapped. I'm going to my eldest son's house for a few weeks while his wife goes to Alaska to help her friend out after she has surgery. I would love to go to Alaska! She will have the time of her life. I'll be looking after the children; getting them off to school and cooking for them while my son is at work. And while they are at school I will sit in the playroom, ignoring son's Father-in law while I do my own thing. Fred will be kidnapped as well. The cats are on their own while I'm gone. Ma will come down and take care of them and probably give my house a thorough cleaning while I'm away. 

I won't be able to make a post while I'm down at son's house cause I don't know how to do that from the tablet. Not even sure it can be done from the tablet....so might be awhile before I can do so.

Until next time......

Remember.....

be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

831