Creative Valerina

The Favorite Heart

I was going through my fiber stash the other day to find something suitable for spinning. When I came upon this red roving I knew instantaneously what I would do with it. My thought process went something like this "oooh! etsy hearts..., favorites...., needle felting...., magnets..., right now" And that was that!  Many months ago I had a brief obsession with needle felting these little hearts and the obsession is back again. They're so much fun to make and look so cute and fuzzy on my refrigerator...and my filing cabinet at work...ahem :)  

 

I'll be including one little heart magnet with each VintageValerina purchase and I've also listed a few in my shop.

I'm happy to finally have a start {a teeny tiny start} on being part of the handmade community at Etsy. That's been bugging me.

PS. I stayed up way to late working on my piece for the recycled art show. Sneak peek tomorrow.

Rock Love

Rock Love, originally uploaded by valerina15.

Found a heart shaped rock on our honeymoon in Tennessee. Brought it back and felted it.

Needle Feltroidery

Needle felting + embroidery, needle feltroidery. Try saying that a few times. I had a lot of fun creating these two little doodles. As you know, I particularly enjoy any project that I can start and finish in 1 night and that was sort of my point in creating these. You know that saying "think big"? Yeah, I did the opposite here - think small (and simple and cute!). Finishing a project is so rewarding and thats why these tiny projects are my faves. But what to do with them now, that's the question.

Crafting with Mom

My mom is kind of like me when it comes to having craft ADD. She has hundreds of projects started and continues starting new ones almost every day. Like many crafters she also has a fabric addiction and probably a craft store addiction in general. The cool thing about that is that going home is like going to my own personal craft store, that has everything you could possible want, and its all free :) She has knitting needles and crochet hooks in every size (and color), she has an insane amount of fabric and thread, she has yarn, beads, bead wire, and all beading accessories, embroidery floss, needle punch, paint, tons of stamps and scrapbooking supplies, clay, cross stitch, rug hook, felt, craft books, patterns for everything, kits for everything, 2 embroidery machines, 2 sewing machines, 1 serger and a knitting machine. She has crafts that I don’t even know exist yet. So when I get home on Friday nights its not long before we grab something to work on and start crafting. This weekend we made felt tissues holders. This was my kind of craft - short and sweet, yet totally cute.

Mom made the peach one, I made the purple one. Hers was from a kit and I just grabbed some felt from her stash to make mine. I also took a picture of a felt wall hanging that we started a year ago and she finally finished. We saw the pattern in a book one night (don’t remember what book!), we cut and pinned it in one night, and then it sat there for a year. The original pattern was for some kind of sun pillow, but we decided to make a wall hanging for my sister’s yellow and orange kitchen instead.

In fact, I think this sun was what sparked my interest in felt crafts.

On the needle felting scene, I gave this egg cup pin cushion to my mom for Easter.

I also made one for me. Ohhh, and I did some really special crafting with my grandmother too. I'll tell you about that next time. 

Weekend Recap: the good, the very bad, and the recycled

I guess I'll start with the good. I made it out to two salsa classes this weekend. I started dancing salsa about a year ago and try to go to classes as often as possible, usually once every few weeks. Recently I decided to make an effort to take classes more often and really work on improving with the goal of being able to dance at salsa clubs. So I took a 2 hour class on Friday night and a 2 hour class on Sunday night. I learned a lot of new steps and also met some really cool people. It was super fun and a much needed distraction from...the very bad (and sad).

Saturday morning my cockatiel accidentally escaped out of my front door. My sister opened the door to come in, and in a split second he flew out. We followed him all over the neighborhood as he flew from tree to tree. This went on for hours (in the rain). He simply wouldnt come down to us, even though he knew we were there. He eventually flew completely out of sight and stopped whistling back to me as I called him. I dont really want to talk about it. Its very cold (below freezing) and very windy, and its not likely that he could survive for more than a day or 2 outside. You can see him and hear him here. He was  beautiful and  smart. Im sadder than sad and I miss him.

The recycled. I had originally planned to spend my weekend relaxing and working on 2 purses for a recycled art show at a local library. I managed to still get this done on Saturday night. Im so glad I had something planned to keep me (and my mind) occupied. These 2 projects helped me get through Saturday night.

 

A purse crocheted out of recycled plastic bags. The pin is made from recycled sweaters.

A purse made from a recycled felted wool sweater and the flower is needle felted on. I LOVE how this turned out. Its rare that I actually like something I've made, never mind love it. At this point I dont care much if either piece is accepted to the art show, Im just glad that the deadline motivated me to keep crafting and creating.

Craftastic Weekend

I did a lot of crafting this weekend. It was totally craftastic. On Friday night I finished another project using my recycled felted sweater. First, I sewed up a cute little pouch and then I needle felted a heart design on the back. I closed it with velcro and used one of my needle felted hearts as a pin for the front. I made up the pattern by cutting free hand until I was happy with the dimensions and then I start sewing.

On Saturday night I decided to try a wet felting idea that I'd been wanting to try for a while now. You see, about two years ago, I bought a giant bag of roving at my local farmers market. At the time I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with it, I just knew it was beautiful and that I had to have it. I had previously done one needle felting project from a small kit, but this was a big bag of wool, big. It's been sitting in my closet since then, and I occasionally tear off small pieces for projects, but havent used even a fraction of it. So Saturday night I decided to go for it and attempt a wet felted purse (clutch). Now, I have no idea if the following is actually proper technique, but this is what I did. First, I laid out a few pieces vertically.

Then I laid out a few pieces horizontally on top.

I needle felted these 2 layers just a little bit so that they would stay somewhat together. Then I folded up the bottom half and started shaping the clutch. I needle felted the side seams so that they would stay together and I rounded the top flap. The whole piece was still very loose at this point.

Then I wet felted it by using hot soapy water, rinsing it in cold water, and putting it in the dryer for a bit. I made very small one first (in case the whole project was a bust) and after learning a few lessons from that, I made a bigger one. You're waiting for the finished product arent you. Well I didnt take a picture of it. Yet. Dont ask me why. I got wrapped up in making a third one and forgot. I will show you soon, I swear. Im very pleased with how they've turned out.

On to Sunday. Sunday afternoon I went to a friends house for a stampin up cards (and cocktails) party. What fun! We each got to make 5 cards and a mini desk calendar. We had appetizers and cosmopolitans and hoards of stamps and card-making supplies. Two of my favorite cards:

So there you have it. My craftastic weekend.

Picture post

I should change that to read crappy picture post, because I take crappy pictures. I would love to be able to take beautiful, artistic, and stylish pictures, like most people (see anyone listed to the right of this post) but I can't. I don't think my camera helps, but I cant blame it all on the camera. Anyway...

A red bellied wood pecker I saw while hiking with Winston and J. on Saturday morning.

A needle felted rat mouse (that I secretly sculpted at my desk this morning).

The roots of an amaryllis that I planted (also at my desk this morning).

And, two more of the things I created from the recycled felted sweater. Coffee cozies. or beer sweaters as I was calling them on Saturday night. I simply cut the ribbed cuff off of the sweater sleeve and it fit perfectly, by dumb luck of course. These feel SO nice in your hands. and make your cans of beer look SO much prettier.

Felt the love

I've been making hearts.

More needle felting, but this time with roving. You can catch all the action here. Bonus points if you make it to the end of the video.

A crafty post, for real

Ok, so I cant lie, I did have a party alias in college. My fake name was Grace. Yes, Grace, and I used it often. I know...real bad ass, right? Well, thats because I'm not a bad ass, or a bad girl, or a bad ass party girl. I'm more of a good girl with a bad side. See the difference? Of course. Your next bad girl tip is going to have to wait though, because today I actually have pictures of craft projects. A first, I know. So I mentioned that I was needle felting on friday night, right? Well the first thing I did was embellish a needle case that my mom got me for christmas. She mentioned that it cost something like 5 bucks, and was rather plain, but was perfect for needle felting. Here's the before:

And here's the after:

A flower and a V. For this project I used the crappy type of craft felt because I have a ton of it and it works well. I simply cut out a V, cut out petals, and then jabbed them with my felting needle until they were felted completely and smoothly into the fabric of the case. The photograph makes the designs appear to be laying on the fabric, but I assure you they are felted into the fabric. I also mentioned recycled sweater projects didnt I. I've challenged myself to see how many things I can make out of 1 felted sweater. Here are 3 of the things:

Little wooly magnets. I love these! Most of the magnets I own are made of hard plastic, or hard materials, so these soft fibrous magnets are a nice and cozy addition to my fridge. I made lots of them because I had a lot of sweater scraps left over from the other things I was making. Plus, I love the pink and green color combination and just couldn't get enough.