Cross stitch nearly finished. The words will be embroidered. Then adding more embroidery and seed beads will be the really fun part.
On my Worktable… continuing teacup cross stitch and embroidery
04 Wednesday Feb 2015
Tag Archives: crafts
2015 – A Year of Finishes
22 Thursday Jan 2015
Tags
crafts, cross stitch, embroidery, New Year, projects, teacups, teatime, time
That’s what my plan is. Over the decades, I’ve accumulated scores of projects. I have most of the supplies to complete them all but never had the time. So this year, I prayed a short & sweet New Year’s Prayer.
“God, you own time. You can hold it back or speed it up. Right now, I’m pretty sure it’s shortened. … You said unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Well, I’m not asking for more time, I’d just like enough time to finish. Please let me have just enough time to finish everything. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
I realize “everything” is quite expansive. And I’m ok if “Everything” might not include all my scores of projects. But I’m confident that this will be the Year of Finishing. Woohoo! Yes!! I want to actually finish things, especially the old things.
The other day I found this cross stitch while rummaging in my closet. It was started around 1994 from a kit by Candamar Designs. It must have been a popular design because Teacup Stack is still being sold.
I made slight changes to the design, including some color changes. One change was a mistake, using a thread much too red to make berries. The teacup looked too much like a Christmas teacup.
Teacups cross stitch – the red was too bright so I cut out all the stitches.
So a couple days ago I cut out the colors I didn’t want and added new. I’m really liking the colors so far.
Teacups cross stitch, with pretty purple berries and a softer bow on the pink teacup.
I’m not sure how I’ll finish it. I probably won’t stitch the pitcher or creamer on top and bottom. The teacups look balanced as they are but the pitcher seems much too unrealistic. I do want to add some words around the border though, something about “my cup runneth over” and maybe a quote about service to others if I can find a good one.
Thank you for your patience while I was away. I’ve missed posting but will catch up. Keeping current with this blog is part of my commitment to Finishing! That’s a happy thought indeed.
Crafts and Tokyo on my mind
20 Monday Oct 2014
Posted in All Sparkled Up, crafts, family, grandkids
Tags
craft, crafts, Japan, princess costume, princess hat, projects, Tokyo
I’m packing today and I’ll see my daughter and her husband soon! In Tokyo!
NC to Japan
Despite all the trip preparation, I still fit in crafting time. My granddaughter had her heart set on a “Princess cone hat” so here is the hat I made for her to wear with her princess costume this year. We worked with the materials on hand… a poster board cone, pink acrylic paint, plastic gems and pearls, and an antique silk handkerchief. The ties are made of a multi-stretch fabric, I can’t remember the name right now. It’s the kind of fabric used for bathing suits and worked beautifully for a comfortable fit.
Princess hat made of poster board, fabric, gems and pearls.
She loved the hat!
Granddaughter in her princess cone hat.
On my worktable – beads
17 Tuesday Jun 2014
Tags
…and a doll, Sarah, with her girl. I made the doll for her three years ago, following a wonderful Indian Dolls pattern by Joan Russell. (Woman’s Day magazine, 1966) Sarah was showing signs of love and needed a new dress.
I wasn’t up to sewing so I sat in the rocking chair and cut out pieces to make a “no sew” doll dress out of non-fraying stretchy, shimmery fabric. We cut a rectangle with a small slit in it big enough to fit the doll head for the bodice and slid it over the doll’s head. I cut narrow “ribbon ties” in the side of the bodice and tied it at the doll’s waist.
The skirt was a long rectangle with tiny slits across the top through which I threaded a long pink fabric sash and tied the skirt around the doll’s waist. Doll dress made from three rectangles and no sewing. That was fun!
But a girl has to have beads, right? So we strung beads together to form a necklace and made loops of beads to put over the skirt sash.
Sarah looked lovely in her stylish, beaded ensemble but of course a girl with imagination won’t let a tray of beads go to waste. So a tiny stone was the friend of hundreds of little beads…
…which kept piling on top of her and looking like snow…
Children have exquisite imaginations!
Shelle Hill’s bird
16 Monday Jun 2014
Tags
bird, crafts, decor, Etsy, home decorating, little bird, Shelle Hill
The eggs got put away and I had a little nest with no bird. Then I saw my friend Michelle’s sweet little birdie, all bedecked with a beaded crown. I can almost hear bird song from the tree now!
An adorable little bird from Shelle Hill on Etsy.
The bird was going to perch on one of the library shelves in a different room. So I will have to visit Shelle Hill on Etsy again and get another bird for the library. A bird with words is the perfect bookshelf visitor.
Thank you, Michelle.
100 Lego Perfume Bottles
27 Thursday Mar 2014
Posted in All Sparkled Up, crafts, miniature, photography, sparkling
Tags
crafts, Lego, Lego Perfume Bottles, Legos, miniature perfume bottles, perfume bottle collection, perfume bottles, photography
if Lego made perfume…
Actually, there are over 100.
The Legos were dumped out on the table and the grandkids and I chatted away during many cold winter nights.
While the little ones made houses and trucks and planes, I started making perfume bottles.
Lego Perfume Bottles made of the smallest Lego pieces.
I made more and more.
It became an obsession.
The rules were simple: No pieces could be forced, all the bottles had to be built like normal Lego building and they all had to stick together properly. There is just one bottle out of all of them that isn’t stuck together and the pieces fall apart if you turn it upside down. Can you guess which one?
So much color and sparkle from such a tiny source!
Perfume Nation.
At one point, we counted 124 different Lego perfume bottles.
Then some got disassembled to make different designs.
And then we started naming them.
So I made a poster of 100 of the Lego perfume bottles to be named.
This is a very large image. Click to access the original size in order to see all the detail.
Some of these Lego perfumes don’t have names. Please leave name suggestions in the comments and I’ll add them to the Lego Perfume Bottles poster.
Feel free to copy, save or print the poster. If you post on your website, please link back to allsparkledup.com. Thank you!
Edited to add: I was asked what lighting I used for the photography. The photos were taken in the late afternoon, west sun through half-curtain window. The top of the arch window had plenty of sun streaming through which bounced off my white kitchen cabinets behind me like a giant white board, exactly as I hoped when we redid the kitchen. Camera- Canon 5D2, Lens Canon EF 24-70, hand-held.
On my worktable – artificial flowers
21 Friday Mar 2014
Posted in All Sparkled Up, crafts, family, flowers, home, home decor, Inspirational, On my Worktable, Uncategorized
Tags
artificial flowers, crafts, family, flower arranging, flowers, home decor, On my worktable, spring arrangements
Today my worktable was full of flowers for the spring arrangements. The bins have been in the living room for over a week but I finally had time today. It’s always a pleasure to arrange the flowers, even though they are the same ones I’ve used for years. At the end of a season, I pull all the flowers out of the vases and sort them by color in bins, then they go to the attic. It’s good to start fresh each year so I mix and match the flowers to suit the season and mood.
The arrangement for the foyer. I’ll probably add a little more at the base. It looks a bit too tight but I’m crazy over the color.
The bare brances were in the corner through winter, strung with lights and crystal snowflakes just to add brightness to the room.
The same bare branches now share the space with artificial dogwood and greens. The lights were taken off the branches and placed in the vase for ambience.
I love the new arrangements! They make me happy. =)
Not in the photos: son’s twin size mattress on the floor in the living room because we have to tear out the downstairs bathroom and completely redo it due to a major leak.
Not in the photos: the flat screen tv right in front of the large dogwood arrangement in the corner.
Not in the photos: tears shed because another one of our children moved out last week and we’re all missing him and wishing him well and cheering for him in his new job in another state.
Two of my sons. Noah on the left moved south last weekend. We miss him! Very glad for the job opportunity though.
We all have a choice on what to focus on. I choose to focus on what’s good and bright and beautiful and sparkling in life. You can have brightness if you choose. Sometimes it takes a lot of work, like clearing a garden of weeds. You have to yank out bad thoughts and deliberately hack at unwanted vines. But it’s possible and totally worth it.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Ph 4:8
The arrangement for the living room table. The velvet-petal roses are showing their age but they are still beautiful.
My QR code fabric was a success!
25 Tuesday Feb 2014
Posted in crafts, fabric, On my Worktable, sewing, Uncategorized
QR Code Fabric. The white QR Tale design was printed on silky faille on the left. The gray QR Tale design on the right was printed on Kona cotton.
Yay! Pardon all the exclamation points but how cool is that! Woot!
My QR Code fabric on Spoonflower printed beautifully.
I’m surprised QR code fabric isn’t available by the bolt yet. I’ve searched all the major fabric companies and haven’t found anything. The options for code in fabric are endless and super duper fun.
I had this fabric printed via Spoonflower. I call it “An Unfinished QR Tale” because each block of text contains just a hint of the story. There are over 30 separate phrases in QR code in this fabric. The code squares printed up beautifully in silky faille and cotton. I thought perhaps the fabric grain would interfere with the QR reader but there was no trouble at all reading the code. I don’t have a smart phone so used a QR code app on my tablet.
with nary a moment to spare
Yay!
I had designed another QR code fabric for a ModCloth contest but didn’t win. Here is my entry for the ModCloth contest, a sweet little design featuring code and wings. This design has different text from QR Tale, mostly light and airy phrases.
As soon as the QR Code on Wings proofs, I’ll be able to offer it on Spoonflower.
The first two QR tale fabrics printed perfectly so they can be purchased on Spoonflower now. I plan on making more.
~ Recipes in QR code for making an apron
~ QR Check design for a picnic table cloth
~ Poetry, perhaps haiku or limericks
Imagine wearing a shirt or dress and hearing “May I please read your dress?” haha
Imagine a restaurant with QR code napkins or placemats… Reading the code would make waiting for the meal much more enjoyable…
Ah yes, so many ideas.
Also, I really want to do color. These designs are all black and white or gray scale. The picnic table cloth will be a lot of fun to create and even more fun for picnic guests to use. :)
Pastillage Tea Set decorated cake
28 Tuesday Jan 2014
Posted in cake decorating, crafts, food
Tags
Pastillage (pronounced PAH-stee-YAZH) is a special fondant that can be modeled like clay. It dries very quickly so you have to work fast. The advantage of pastillage over fondant is it can be rolled paper thin and the finished pieces look like porcelain. But just like porcelain, they are fragile and will shatter if dropped. I made these pieces a bit thicker so they could be safely wrapped in bubble wrap for transportation.
I made this tea set for a cake for my sister a couple years ago. The teapot, creamer and sugar dish, cups and saucers, napkins, spoons, flowers and cake stand are all made of pastillage. The finished pieces were a cooperative effort; my other sister painted the delicate flowers with food color and my mom added the gilded trim using vodka and 14k gold powder.
I made the tiny sugar cubes by sawing larger sugar cubes into small pieces with a craft saw and then sanding any rough edges. The top of the cake pedestal was made from a clear plastic yogurt lid.
I was not able to travel to my sister’s party but a friend shared this picture of the finished cake. My mom did a beautiful job covering the cake with a fondant tablecloth.
Snowflake in the window
03 Friday Jan 2014
Posted in All Sparkled Up, art, crafts, nature, photography, sparkling, sunlight, water
Tags
All Sparkled Up, condensation, crafts, drops, paper snowflakes, photography, snow, snowflakes, sparkling, sunlight, water, window
We’re hoping for real snow. But snowflakes cut from rice paper will do for now.
And this is my 200th blog post!
All Sparkled Up 