I heart Martha: Book Reviews

Last year for Christmas I received Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts from my mom. I've always loved Martha and looked up to her as an incredibly successful creative woman, but most of all I just love the "look" she creates. The WonderCraft gals and I have been inspired by several of her projects in the Encyclopedia of Crafts from glass etching to rubber stamp carving. Its by no means an exhaustive text of all crafts under the sun and I was disappointed to not find certain crafts, such as needle felting. As the hallmark of Martha, it is a beautiful book with relatively easy to follow instructions and inspiring projects with gorgeous pictures.


This year I put Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts on my wish list and luckily my Mother-in-law got it for me. Its as beautiful and inspiring as her earlier book and a bit more in-depth in terms of sewing instruction and hand sewing techniques. Its also filled with great projects and I've already done one. I used her instructions and pattern to make a semi-quilted crib bumper (pics of that to come!). As in her previous book, the instructions are meant for people with some crafting experience and the projects may require some trial and error, but again Martha provides some awesome inspiration.
This hefty tome is another Martha item from my wishlist. Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook is filled with detailed instructions and handy tips for "caring for everything in your home". Now to be honest I've only read the laundry section, but its amazing, she even includes a spreadsheet on how best to remove specific stains on specific fabrics and recommends printing out a copy of it to post in the laundry room. I'm excited to consult it further on the myriad of things to care for around the house. Unfortunately its 752 pages are inspiring only in their explanations & detail, all the pictures are in black and white.

Do you love Martha? Have you completed any projects from her books, magazines, or shows? Please share!

A Shrine to Jewelry. Why Not?

You may have read in a previous post that the girls and I are doing a project in conjunction with the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX. We were to select three pieces from the collection and create a craft inspired by those pieces. I selected Joseph Cornell's Soap Bubble Set.

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972)

Soap Bubble Set (Lunar Space Object), ca. 1959 Mixed media

The division of space and use of three dimensional objects in the piece inspired me to create a Shadow Box Jewelry Shrine. From a "crafty" perspective (is there such a thing?) I always disliked the idea that jewelry gets hidden away in a box or drawer when not worn and loved the idea that it could be displayed as a part of a work of art and functionally stored at the same time. So I thought I'd share the "how to" with all you crafty folks out there.

I started with a dollar store frame and disassembled it (destruction is fun!)

 
I then cut a piece of self healing cork to the full size of the back. Cutting to the full size of the frame rather than the size of the glass was important because I wanted the background to sit away from the front of the frame to create a shadow box effect. I had to reinforce the cork with a stiff cardboard, so I cut up a box I had lying around. (Yes, that's a rip in the cork...no I am not Martha Stewart...I hid my boo boo by gluing it to the background. lol)















I glued the cork to the backing.











I then selected an image from a vintage Life magazine. This one happened to be an ad for hair dye...something about washing the grey away.






I then laid the frame upside down over the image, marked the proper placement for the ribbon, and attached the ribbon with both glue and staples.

Finally, I attached the backing to the frame. Broaches can be stuck directly in, the ribbon can be used as an earring hanger, and T-pins can be used to display any other jewelry in any desired configuration. Et Voila!

Fabric Flowers Inspired by Roesen Painting

Severin Roesen (1815 or 1816—after 1872)
Still Life of Flowers and Fruit with a River Landscape in the Distance, 1867
oil on canvas; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Earlier this week Beth A & our fab new assistant, Marley, came over for a make day in preparation of our upcoming demo at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. We were invited to present a few handmade projects inspired by works in the museum's collection as part of their Crafting from the Collection series. We'll be road-tripping up to Ft. Worth for this funtastic event on February 3!

At the Carter Museum, we'll be demonstrating how to make pretty flowers from upcycled t-shirts, as inspired by the abundance of flowers in this gorgeous painting from the collection. We'll have 3 different types to show the museum guests who want to get crafty with us.




One type is made from stacking layers of clover-shaped fabric, resulting in a sweet flower with big, floppy petals. Marley models one she made, showing how cute it would be as an embellishment on her beret.

Another, slightly more involved, type is a really full flower made from circles of fabric that are first folded into wedges & strung together, then fluffed & sewn in place & fluffed some more until you get it just right.
 



The last type of flower we made was a super-simple rolled one. It works great with the hem of a shirt, especially if it has some fancy trim or stitching.



Here's all of our finished little pretties ready to be placed in an arrangement. I'll be attaching them to stems of some sort & arranging in a vase for their big debut in Ft. Worth.

We have two more art-inspired project examples we'll be taking with us to Ft. Worth as well. Stay tuned to see those in future posts!

Handmade Chirstmas Shopping: Blue Genie & Armadillo

On Thursday night Beth H and I went Christmas shopping & loaded up on gifts & artsy inspiration. We started off at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, now held at the Palmer Events Center. We didn't know what to expect since neither of us had ever been before! (a travesty, I know!)

We had heard that it can be a little more of the old fashioned type of craft show, but we what we were surprised by was the amazing fine art & more expensive gifts available. While it was definitely different from the "indie" craft shows we participate in, we both found some great gifts and stuff we loved for ourselves.

Of course the first thing I bought wasn't a gift really... its for the baby! This awesome boston terrier onesie was made by Animated Closet, from a booth shared with our friend Chantell Champlain of Kalei Doscope Aromacare.

These felt flowers were made from old sweaters that had been felted & formed, they really caught our eye & Beth bought some for a gift.

Right next door there was a candle vendor called Lights Out and I loved all the scents! I bought some for gifts & some to keep. My favorite was Chocolate Martini, mmmm.
We both LOVED the letterpress block vendor, The Olde Press Prints of London, who had these amazing letter collages & stamps. You could buy a drawer and fill it with letters & pictures, so awesome. Beth bought a vintage looking elephant stamp.
At one end of the asile was Flim Flam, a guy making these amazing little metal animal sculptures that when you roll them they move all their limbs. This crab's legs moved and pinchers opened & closed, it was really cool.
After The Armadillo, we were on to Blue Genie. Their entrance sign was spectacular! We were impressed with how they really transformed the whole Marchesa into a store, the entry had several displays & central check out.
We loved our pal Brandy Davis' anatomy collages for her shop Pigsey Art.
One lucky person on my list is getting one of these awesome laser cut lanterns, by Curious Customs.

I was absolutely in love with this amazing wall sculpture from Articulture & I bought a smaller item from them for another lucky person on my list.
I absolutely loved this trunk display from Darla Teagarden Photography, not to mention her amazing work!
It was a very successful shopping night, I think I got everyone on my list covered. I'll have to post more later because I didn't want those on my list who read this to see their gifts before I give them!

Event Recap: Mustache Mania

Mustache Mania, our Movember fund-raising party, was a hit! Big thanks to all of you who came out to get crafty & show your support for men's health awareness! We took some fun photos that I wanted to share.

Look closely to see the freshly etched 'stache on the frosty mug above.

Beth A showed guests how to etch their own glassware. It's fun & easy! Guests paid $5 per glass, which turned out to be a great way for us to raise money for the Movember campaign.

In fact, the etching was such a success that we did a similar craft a few weeks later at The Austin Bleet-Up. We etched glass ornaments at that event & people were loving it!











We also did our ever-popular mustaches-on-a-stick craft. We provide the templates, fabric, glitter & other supplies, and the crafters go wild!

"Double mustache! Oh my gosh! What does it mean???? It's almost a triple..."

Lookin' good, ladies!


Our new friends, Austin Personal Bartenders, were there serving up tasty bevvies. Having' a party? Give them a call - they're awesome!




























Beth A with our Miss Movember, who arrived at the event with a penciled-on 'stache she had been wearing out & about all evening. Such dedication!

What a fun evening. See more pics in our Mustache Mania Flickr set.

Hope you'll join us this weekend at Cherrywood Art Fair for more crafty good times!

P.s. That "Marvellous" tee Beth is wearing is from Paired Hearts, her own handmade line, available in our boutique!  : )

Make & Takes for the Season

First up this Friday (tomorrow!) we're setting up at the Austin Bleet-Up on the rooftop terrace of Whole Foods downtown, 7pm-midnight. We'll have a pop-up shop along with this awesome make & take craft:
Glass etched ornaments! You'll be able to design your ornament and etch it, add glitter glue, ribbon and snowflakes. The etching was almost impossible for me to photograph, but if you really look, you can see some snowflakes etched into this one:


Then next weekend at Cherrywood Art Fair we're bringing Stella out to showcase new stuff from Paired Hearts, Beth Hempton Art & Toys, Broken Ear Productions & Lucy Blue Studio!

We'll also be making these easy paper poinsettias for ornaments & gift toppers.
Cherrywood is our best event of the season! You shouldn't miss it, Saturday December 11, 11am-6pm and Sunday December 12, noon-6pm at Maplewood Elementary at 38 1/2 Street and Maplewood Avenue. See you there!

Inspiring Places: Churchmouse Yarns & Teas

On a recent trip to Seattle, I discovered this beautiful shop called Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. As the name would imply, it's a yarn shop, but with the added lovely bonus of being a tea shop as well! How cute is that?!

Churchmouse is located on Bainbridge Island, just a scenic, half-hour ferry ride from Seattle. As is typical, it was an overcast, cold & drizzly day as my husband & I walked the charming main street, so this cheerful, glowing shop was a welcome sight. Near the front door is a cozy work space where you can take a class or simply grab a seat to try out your new yarn. Just beyond that is a magical land of knittiness with yarns of every type & color imaginable, plus all of the knitting books, needles and nifty little extras a knitter or crocheter could want!

One of my favorite things about the shop was the number of finished projects on display. There were so many amazing & beautiful handmade garments - many made from techniques I'd never even seen before!

I also loved all the little bowls of fancy buttons. I'm a sucker for organization, especially when it involves pretty little things like these buttons. Check out those teeny tiger faces! eek!

But perhaps the coolest part of this amazing knitty wonderland is the little tea shop in the back! Tons of teas, by the bag, tin, even loose tea by the pound, await to delight your senses. Of course they had dozens of cute teacups, teapots and all of the other accessories as well. Too bad we had only taken a day trip over to the island; I wanted to curl up with a cup of tea & stay forever!