Spring Cleaning! What!?

You know how Hawaii doesn't have much of a noticeable season change like the continent? Well growing up, I certainly didn't notice, so spring cleaning didn't mean anything to me back then. But as I got older and started my own family, reading about spring cleaning and getting organized in magazines was a new thing for me because growing up we just cleaned things out as Mom saw fit. Now, if you say 'spring' to me, I'm deciding what things I need to clean and/or discard!
Currently, I'm cleaning my workroom, discarding, giving away, cleaning off plastic container tops etc... I went to PriceBusters and found these collapsible containers and decided to use those instead of the mismatched plastic containers that I have now. I ran into a couple of challenges, one, it's getting costly to change all the containers I want to change, and two, I've had DH driving around the island with me in tow to all the PBs looking for my color choice. It was explained to me by one of the PB clerks that when they get products in, it's shipped as a lot, so they get a whole bunch of colors and styles at once; like opening a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.
Anyway, I'm off to visit my SIL in Vegas, hope I find more collapsibles there. My work will still be here waiting for my return (yuk), so I'm not too worried about the mess. Unless of course House Beautiful or Where Women Create sneaks into my house and takes threatening photos to expose my packrat workroom!
Aloha,

Collage and Assemblage

With magazines from Stampington and Co. like Somerset Studio, Artful Blogging and Somerset Life, I've noticed the collage and assemblage terminologies. These magazines by the way are some of my favorites. The assemblage art in these magazines have a different genre than that of the cardmaking blogs that I follow, yet I like both varieties.

I think that the Victorians were the first to do any type of collage with their crazy quilts, assembling them with the assorted embroidery stitches. Now, this type of quilting have evolved into art quilts and much more have been added to enhance these art quilts, much of which can be seen in Art Quilt magazine. Of course I still love the Victorian crazy quilts and have had the pleasure of taking classes from renown author and crazy quilter Judith Baker Montano and Marion Speers to learn crazy quilting, also known now as insane quilting. I'll try to put up a sample of one of the pieces I'm currently working on. 

Now, about assemblage, that would include all card makers.  How long have we been collecting card stock, fancy papers, ephemera, rubberstamps and other found objects to create our cards. I've attended my share of rubberstamp conferences in Vegas. I remember hosting Stampin' Up parties with Joelle back in the early 90s. Each card is an assemblage and/or collage art.  So, whether we crazy quilt, make cards, or create scrapebook pages, we are all collage, assemblage artists.

Have a great weekend, Aloha.

Puffy flower with K & Company box

Aloha! Wow, I was worried I wouldn't make my monthly for March! I've been busy; started off with cushions for people then curtains which need to be finished for a dear friend. I've also been busy shopping for papercraft supplies.  Following these beautiful blogs and seeing all the wonderful cards and projects that everyone has displayed on their blog just lit a fire to get me using what I have in my crowded workroom to adding something new for my projects.
So, I was at Corie's site last night and decided to make one of her puffy flowers; mahalo Corie for the tute. On my way to Munchkins in Mililani today, I made my flower (don't worry I wasn't driving, DH drove), and attached it to a K & Co box I made a couple of days ago.  I attached the flower to only one side of the top of the box since the top is the opening of the box.o
I hope to get some jewelry projects up soon.   Aloha for now.

                       

Burbies Tutorial

Materials:

1 cloth diaper (the one with the padding down the center)

5/8 yd of fabric

matching thread

basic sewing supplies, sewing machine, iron

• You may want to wash your diaper and fabric to preshrink it before putting it together.
• If you purchase a yard of fabric, you can make a gift set of burbie cloth and the pack and go bag for the disposable diaper and wipes container.

Measure the diaper to determine how big you need to cut your fabric. Cut your fabric 1" larger than the length of your diaper and 5" wider than your diaper. Whether you're making just one burbie or a dozen you'll want to measure each one separately and not assume they're all the same size, trust me they're not.

Mark and draw a line 1-1/2 inches from the edge of the diaper as shown.

These two lines will be the placement lines for the fabric.

Fold under a 1/2" at the top and bottom of your fabric piece; press with the iron.

Pin one raw edge of the fabric to one long side of the diaper, placing the raw edge of the fabric on the line that was drawn in step one. Be sure the raw edge is facing the outside edge of the diaper and that the right side of the fabric is on the diaper. Stitch fabric and diaper together using a 1/2" seam from the edge of the fabric. Do the same for the other edge of the diaper and fabric.

• Because the diaper has a little more give (stretch), stitching with the fabric on the top and the diaper on the bottom will help to stabilize your stitching and prevent the diaper from stretching and distorting your project.

After stitching, turn project right side out. You should have a 2" border of fabric on the sides of your diaper. Press, not iron your piece.

Align your top edges (remember, they're still open) and stitch close to the edge. Do the same to the bottom.

Your burbie is now ready to use.

Aloha and Happy New year! Hard to believe this first month is almost over. I did manage to get some pack and go bags, and feeding capes completed. Getting the package headers took some time, but they look fine for now.
I also played with some cardstock purses and decided to share them with some friends at a tea party. K&Company has books of beautiful double-sided precut purses, flowers and tags. All you do is punch them out, fold on the score lines to form your little box or purse and hold them together with double stick tape or glue. Embellishing them is the fun part. Pre-sticky rhinestones, pearls, ribbons, strings of pearls, tiny colorful brads and eyelets are just a few of the decorative embellishments. Fill them with goodies, I put teabags in mine for the tea party, but treats like candies will do also. These make such unexpected favors for such socials.









Pack and Go for diapers and wipes











K&Company cutout purses