Nothing, if not unpredictable

  Another wide gap between posts.

I really, really enjoyed the spur of creativity creating innovative baby hats.

I really, really enjoyed working on some charity blanket projects, which were really big and seemed to never end.

But, now my health has prevented me from knitting more than an hour or two a week. 

Still have the urge to create. Not a lot of talent, but I'm exploring other crafts.

Easter Wreath - made with mesh, pipe cleaners (or I should say chenille stems, as they are called now) a few odds and ends from the craft shop and an inexpensive, stuffed bunny.

Used a video tutorial from Dave's wreaths - #daveswreathsandthings #daveswreaths #howtomakeawreath

Explored some fluid painting. I bought a kit at Michaels when available for 50% off. Mine came with three 10" x 10" stretched canvas frames. 

First two totally bombed because I tried a DIY equivalent for Fluetrol (not recommended).

Then the second attempt was a massive success, and I'm really proud of it.

Next, I really, really wanted to make some bigger items. I made the initial mistake of buying inexpensive canvas that is on cardboard instead of a wooden frame. With this much liquidity - the canvases would warp... (I do not recommend).

I had thought about using them to create simple cut outs and using resin to make them into jewelry... but my resin work isn't great - so when I was trying to clear some space out, they went to the trash.

I will likely take up this type of activity again, I truly enjoy the speed and just need to get a bit better with my color options and investments. 

Another wreath - this time for fall, using a bit more traditional floral items.

Speaking of resin work - I tried using prints and resin to make coasters.

Notice the bubbles? some of these turned out better than others. But for one of my first attempts, I was ok with that. Future work I would try to decoupage the printing onto the actual coasters themselves before adding a clear resin layer. These were printed on clear acetate; which had mediocre results. I tried to ink-over the faded text, which wasn't a very good result. 

I would like to do more resin work - but I'm just a bit vague on what I'd like to make. The molds and chemicals aren't that cheap. And buying a mold for one project doesn't seem very practical. Maybe a few more coasters so that I can feel like I got better use out of this set of molds.

 

We have a lovely nativity set that is quite large - with most figures over 10" tall. I'd been hunting for a scenic background for the set. I'm still a little bit chicken for making the actual manger / shelter. But I played around with all sorts of materials to create some desert scenes... The Kings' path is about 18" wide; the oasis well is only around 8" wide. 

One of these days I hope to get brave enough to try a building with a roof, floor, some straw for the animals, fencing, the works.

Part of me is having a lot of fun trying out new crafts. A lot of the time though, I question if they look like they are made by a small child and I don't have any talent at all. 

I've got a couple of macrame projects waiting in the wings as well as the goal of getting more canvases for fluid painting.  I bought a paper making kit ages upon ages ago - wanting to make paper for paper crafting using flower petals from my own gardens and shredded junk mail... that kit was bought around 10 years ago, but I think I'm finally getting to a point where I'm ready to try it instead of taking the kit from home to home.