Saturday, September 17, 2011

Where'd September go?

Did I ever mention how September looked like it was going to be a crazy busy month?  Well, September is shaping up to be a crazy busy month, indeed.

First things first, now that I know my recipient has received the package, I can post some photos of the project I did for the swap:


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And before the eyeroll about taking photos against barn wood - that's the side of the building outside my apartment. It's wood, and so is the deck, so it's either barnwood, or asphalt.  Or grass, I suppose...

I've finished the bulk of the paper flowers for J's rehearsal dinner bouquet:


Wrapping Paper Roses

Side views

Silver Rose

Brown Floral Rose

As you can see, they're not exactly the traditional wadded up clumps of tissue paper poked through a paper plate, but they were made from wrapping papers from her shower.  I've got plans for these flowers and the leftover ribbons I've been hoarding.

Other than that, not a ton going on over here in Zazz's Craft Factory.  My brother is up visiting from Kansas City, J just visited this week, and my Aunt us up visiting with my adorable new baby cousin; then there's all the fall things to do, like apple picking and pumpkin carving and the Big E, of course!  I'll be diving back in with the clutches just as soon as things calm down a little bit.

And to cap off the post, I'll leave you with photographic evidence that my cat, Zazz, does approve of both my crafting, and my stealing his name for my blog about crafting:


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He looks just so sad that he can't play with the gluegun, too...

Friday, September 2, 2011

Operation: Glitter Shoes

So, I think I've mentioned previously that for the wedding coming up in October, I've been asked to wear shoes that glitter.  It's a fun idea, but if you want something other than silver or gold, your options become limited very quickly.  Even more true if you decide you don't want 5 inch heels or flats.


Glitter shoes!
I figured to myself that it couldn't be very hard to apply some glue and shake some glitter on a pair of heels that I don't wear often.  I always thought they were cute, but the shade of the brown made it them hard to match if you're OCD about that kind of thing like I am.

Front view
All in all, I would say this went pretty smoothly. I'm a little concerned that some of the glitter is not very secure...


Texture shot

...but I do like the texture that using the tinsel glitter gave.  I guess I might dab on a coat of Mod Podge and glitter again just to be sure.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Busy Busy Busy

Between work and running random errands (and, you know, shopping), I've managed to fit a few things in the past week or so.

First up, some progress on the wedding clutches!  I've got a good mockup of the pleats pattern that I'll be using for the bride's clutch, which is great.  To be honest this pattern is the one I decided to tackle first because it's the most intimidating, and the satin doesn't exactly go nicely into diagonal pleats.

Taking a break from wrestling fabric, tonight I decided to take care of the shoes portion of the wedding project agenda.  I'll have some photos when they're finished, but so far Operation: Ugly Brown shoes to Gorgeous Glitter shoes is looking good.  Zazz had fun playing in the glitter, and is now sporting glitter all over himself.

As a project for myself, I've finished collecting the pieces for my Halloween wreath.  I'm just waiting on Erik to spray-paint the grapevine wreath base to get that started.

Since I do want to add something visual here, this little guy showed up in my mailbox this week!

Gnome!

He's what I received for participating in the International Craft Swap, hosted by Zoe over at  A Giraffe in a Scarf.  I sent my package out last Saturday, but unfortunately don't have any way of knowing if it's gotten to its destination or not yet.  Since this is a new blog, I know there's really no-one reading, but I still want to avoid posting any photos til I know the recipient has it.  I will say that it was a really fun project, I got to test myself doing it and I learned quite a bit about what works (and what doesn't) modifying sewing patterns.

I should actually have the weekend off before three consecutive weeks of out-of-town friends and family visiting, fall activities and, of course, the Big E.  I'm hoping I'll be able to use some of that time to get at least one of these clutch patterns finalized...