I realize I’ve been bad at posting the pics of the swaps I’ve received. So here are some of the latest!
The Amigurumi Food swap, my partner is from Costa Rica! (I hosted on swap-bot!)
The grocery tote bag swap (the bag I made is here)
My partner did such a nice job and I hope to be able to sew as well one day! The inside has 2 pockets. She even included this cute sour cream container pouch.
Tawashi Swap, my partner is from the UK (I haven’t even done mine yet!)
The sewing bug has hit again and I decided to make a tote bag for one of my mother in law’s Christmas presents. I was feeling guilty that I’m such a crafty person but I rarely make more presents than buy. I don’t know what compelled me to try a pattern I never tried before for a present for someone but it didn’t come out too terrible. LOL. It was challenging, that is for sure! If I make it again, I’m sure it won’t be as difficult. I had this fabric for a couple of months. When I saw it, it just screamed my MIL’s name! The pattern for the bag is here.
Skippy posing with the bag (it’s reversible!)
A matching zippered pouch
I also made this grocery tote for a swap-bot tote bag swap. I hope the receipient likes it! The pattern is here. I already received my bag while I was in Jamaica and it’s so nice! I’ll post it when I take a photo of it.
The box is not included! I just put it in there to show the bag filled.
The bottom
Here’s a pillowcase I made for Sienna’s new pillow! The Elmo fabric was leftover from when I made her shopping cart cover. I also made another case with a monkey fabric. I thought I took a photo of it but I guess not!
 
The custom carved stamp that I ordered from Autumn Whispers arrived on Monday! I love it! I know I originally sent her the image from here but it had to be re-worked for sizing and then I decided to delete a line. AW worked extensively with me on this plus we had image viewing problems! The size of it was a lot bigger than I first anticipated but it just came out so cool and I love the organic feel of carved stamps and she did such a wonderful job, how can I not love it? It’s about the size of a trading card or rather ATC:Artist Trading Card (saying trading cards reminds me of my job at Mada Design– not that I didn’t enjoy my time there but I worked with trading cards so much I was dreaming about them.) So perhaps I will be making trading cards again! 😉
While working on this with me, we were convoing back and forth on Etsy. I’ve done some eraser carving in the past but never could do such a clean job as ones I’ve seen. I told her she has inspired me to give it another try and to use the special materials I bought. I usually do my carvings on the Staedler erasers because they were cheap and I didn’t care if I messed it up. The special material is a large, pink Speedball lino block. She gave me some advice and asked me to keep her updated on my finished product. I thought I would first show her the skill level she is dealing with! LOL! Here are the last 2 carvings I’ve done:
In case you can’t read it “A mix by luluvision@earthlink.net” to be used on my mix CDs. Very sloppy as you can see. I changed my e-mail and made another stamp on the other side of the eraser (because I’m all about recycling!):
Instead of mix, I just did “made by” so I could also use it on other things. See how my carving is just so uneven? It’s a bit better than the other side. Here is a side by side comparison to her stamp!
I think the most important trait you need in doing this is PATIENCE. Autumn Whispers, can you teach me patience? 🙂
 
I came across this blog on the swap-bot forums while looking for ways to promote my Mix CD Release Project (more on that in a minute). This thoughtful and creative person will be giving away gifts for 29 days! Go check it out!
Art by Chrysti 29 Days of Giveaways!
My Mix CD Release Project is sorta on the same lines as the 29 days of giveaways but not as nice and I’m doing it to get rid of stuff without throwing it away. If you don’t know, I started organizing a montly gathering to exchange CD mixes originally started via snail mail by Josh Benton after he had a reunion in NYC during the summer of 2004. I was tipsy on alcohol when I announced how much fun it was to do it in person and we should do it on a monthly basis! It was really going strong the first few years with always at least 10 people showing up monthly. That means you were getting at least 10 different mixes a month! The excitement of the group has waned within the last year and while we still get together, it’s not about the mixes anymore but the friendships that developed. Now there might be an occasional physical mix exchanged but more likely mixes uploaded online. And we would be lucky that 10 people can make it! Anyway, I don’t mean to digress. You can imagine how many mixes I have in my binder as I keep every one of them after listening to them. If I like the mix, I put it on my Ipod but I don’t access the actual CD anymore and it’s just collecting dust on my shelf. I thought it would be fun to give them new light again. So, my Mix CD Release Project is about people sending me a stamped, self-addressed bubble wrap envelope and I will fill it with as many CDs as the postage allows and you get back some surprise mixes! It sounds like a good idea to me but I don’t know if people will be willing to go through the effort. What do you think?
Yves gets on my case for not wearing a hat during winter. I only wear one when it’s really, really, really cold out since a hat flattens my hair. I saw this headband in the recent Crochet Today magazine and thought it would be a good solution. (Yes, I look like a dork!)
I realized I wanted to take a photo in front of the tree but my big head is blocking it so here is another one!
And here is the underside of it where I whip stitched some fleece (leftover from Sienna’s shopping cart cover I made) onto it. Midway through I had to undo it because it became uneven.
I’m not sure how warm it will really keep me but my ears will be covered! And I’m not sure how often I would really wear it since it’s kinda a pain to tie it onto my head. HA. After Yves saw these pictures, I was informed that I was wearing it too low on my head. I suppose I did! HA!
Here are 2 dishcloths I crocheted for a swap on swap-bot. The pattern for the yellow one is here and the pattern the blue one I can’t find right now!
For the ornament swap, we had 3 different partners and you’re supposed to make 3 different ornaments. I had fun making a gingerbread man, reindeer and snowflake. I used fabric paint to decorate the gingerbread man and reindeer. I forgot to take photos of the ornaments I got in return but there were an ball ornament, butterfly and 2 bells with real bells!
Sorry the photos of the ornaments didn’t come out so great. I get so impatient!
On Sunday I met up with Pete and Joy for some chop chop lunch at Big Wing Wong. I haven’t been there in ages and it did not disappoint! Joy ordered for us and got congee, roast pork, roast duck, wonton noodle soup, rice noodle with roast pork and noodles. YUM! Ya can’t beat that for just $10 each! We headed over to Fay Da to get some pastries (which I ended up bringing home) and then to Ten Ren for hot bubble tea.
Pete also gave us the things he got for us from his trip to Japan. I had asked him to just pick me up some crafty magazines that he thought would look cool so I can peruse the pictures and just marvel at their ingenouity, since I can’t read Japanese. He ended bringing me back 4 very cool books! 3 were magic shrubber books- crochet and knitting tawashi (used for dish washing/face washing/any kind of dusting and cleaning, etc.)! I couldn’t believe the luck as the term tawashi just started popping up for me. There was a tawashi article in the latest Craft magazine and a tawashi swap on swap-bot (which I just joined). All the patterns also include charts and I’ve never done crochet via chart before. I’m very excited to give it a try! I found some really cool links to help decipher the codes in the chart but the books all have pictures for each symbol showing you how to do it. I already made a cheat sheet on the symbols, except for a couple I couldn’t figure out (although I’m a graphic artist, I can’t seem to learn visually). I decided to give one a try and picked a super duper easy one, a heart!
The fourth book on the upper right is a pom pom book-make cute creatures out of pom poms. Pete thought it was cute so got that for me too! Aren’t I lucky? Arigato Pete!
Ok, so this might not be very challenging but I figured the edging might be so I figured I’d dip my toe into it with the heart and maybe by the time I got to the edging, I’d get the hang of looking at the chart. This blog entry really helped!
I also made this flower tawashi to use up the rest of this cotton yarn from a dishcloth I made for a swap:
I wanted to make Sienna a new blanket that was square and colorful (as opposed to star shaped and plain) for winter. I got this pattern from Lion Brand and used Homespun yarn. I started it in mid October (I think) and made it halfway through in relatively quick time but then Sienna got sick (something I really don’t want to remember!) and lost my mojo on it. I got it back last week and finished it! Woohoo! The orangey/green yarn in the lower right was some old yarn I had and I liked the color. I went out and bought the blue as an accent color and the other orangey/reddish yarn on the upper left. I thought I was buying the same color but as you can see, it is not. I guess the old one I had was really old and probably discontinued. I had a total of 3 skeins as the pattern said that’s all I needed but I went a little too far across and ran out for the last edging (which is in a burgundy color) and the old yarn was probably not a full skein, which is why I need the blue to finish off the square! What a mish mash but I think Sienna likes it!
I am hoping that Autumn Whisper can capture this image and carve it for me. She does AMAZING work! Having done some eraser carving myself (and not being very good at it!), I am awed by the detail she can get. I’m not sure if she can get the smaller type but I am flexible on that.
Even with everything that was going on with Sienna, I was able to collate all the Gocco swap cards, pack them up and mail them out. I’m glad because that would have been weighing on my mind until they were gone. Most everyone received or will receive their cards any day now so I feel safe to show the 2 I did. I wasn’t terribly happy with the first card I did. It didn’t come out as I had envisioned. I brayed the background with a fall color rainbow pad and I guess the colors I chose to gocco print with got a bit lost on it. I even added some Jacquard Pearl Ex to one of the colors and didn’t notice much of a difference. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t put enough or just chose the wrong color to mix it in since it was similiar. Oh well, at least I tried!
I used an old plate of Sienna’s for mixing the Pearl Ex in the ink.
I knew all along that I wanted to do 2 cards. I like how the 2nd card came out a lot better than the first. I got the image printed out at Staples so was a little disappointed that the size wasn’t exact. My files were 4 x 6 and they were about 1/8 inch off. I don’t know why. I tried to fix one of the swirls with the Riso carbon pen but it didn’t work! I don’t know if maybe I didn’t let it dry long enough before working on it? Hmmmm! I don’t know why I had to be complicated and pick 2 designs that go off the edge!
Check out the flickr group here for everyone else’s cards!
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