Christmas Craft Projects I Like on the Web

I've been so busy making things for this weekend's craft fair that I haven't kept up with some other obligations. I have four different church and work related Christmas functions that I need to come up with activities for. The one looming closest is the Christmas fair at our church. We have a lot of young kids come and make all kinds of fun things. I haven't even thought about what I want to do. Last year, we put red, white and green tri-beads on craft wire to make candy cane decorations. The organized people in the committee have already come up with making refrigerator magnets made from walnut halves, a peace dove project, and a wooden ornament project.



While I'm surfing looking for ideas, I thought I'd share some of the ones that I think look interesting in case there are others looking for the same thing.





Craft Stylish has several projects:


The Holiday Button Napkin Ring project ooks quick and easy and I might even try it with pipe cleaners. This frame idea might be fun to try in the two day camp I'm doing the the 22nd and 23rd of this month. I also like this mini wreath idea - love using my fabric scraps and recycling little things I'm only worried about having to cut out lots of cardboard circles. This might work on my Saturday, Dec 13th, holiday ornament workshop at the Southern VT Arts Center.


I've seen many padded hangar projects before, but never have I seen one that uses recycled plastic bags for the padding - a personal favorite material for me. I think this would be a cute gift to make for someone.



These two projects come from Craftideas.

Here's a tissue paper candy cane project that might work for the Church function I also like this folded paper ornament; especially if the kids actually paint the paper ahead of time.


I can always find some fun ideas at Martha Stewart's site.

I like these foil ornaments; it could easily be expanded to other shapes and ideas. I've had kids sit for hours winding yarn around craft sticks making God's Eyes. These yarn ornaments remind me of them. I love these ornaments made from office supplies. It's always fun to use unusual materials; people are always so surprised. This might be too hard to cut out for the kids, but I think this project is great- an angel made from a paper plate- I've been getting into that paper cutting thing (but can't think what it is called)

That's all for today. Let me know if you try any of these projects.

Puzzles and Words

Another favorite activity of mine is puzzles. I don't mean jigsaw puzzles (even though I do like to do them on occasion), I mean word games and as my family and close friends know, I mean saduko, kakuro, killer saduko and all those variations. My husband is always commenting about how much more I could get done in a day if I didn't do my puzzles. -oh well, the cleaning will just have to wait. Our family plays a word game at dinner called "ghost" and we love to listen to the puzzlemaster, Will Shortz, on VPR.

Ok, so I was looking up the term "mirror image" on Google (don't ask why) and came across the term Palindrome. Maybe everyone else knows what that term is, and I'm sure I learned it in high school, but I didn't remember. A palindrome is any word, phrase, number combinations that is the same backwards and forwards. Mom is a palindrome. Dad is a palindrome. 3663 is a palindrome. "Was it a rat I saw?" is a palindrome. Wikipedia has more information and some really amazing historical examples. Here are several other sites about palindromes. This one has a fill in the blank story and this one has a palindrome for the day. I love researching and learning about this kind of stuff. I could literally spend the rest of the day finding out more and more.... but my to do list is getting rather long.

Kinsey's 16th Birthday!!

Today, my little girl turns sweet sixteen. It's a wonderful thing and she is a wonderful person. I am really proud to be her mother.

Here's an early picture of her. Doesn't she have the cutest cheeks? Of course I made the top she is wearing. I also painted roses on the turtleneck collar to match the top - very sweet.

and...

here's a recent picture of me and Kinsey. She and I went to Southern California for a week in August for her 16th birthday present. We had a great time! Not only did we get along fabulously for the whole week, we saw celebrities (and Kinsey got her picture taken with several) , we shopped at trendy boutiques in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, we ate at The Melting Pot, (Hugh Hefner's favorite restaurant), and got cupcakes from Sprinkles, we drove through most of Orange County and visited with a very dear tennis friend of mine in San Diego. It was really nice to have this special mother-daughter time with Kinsey. I feel really lucky that we get along so well (still).

The only problem with an early birthday present is that you keep having to remind the recipient that they already got their present. So, tonight's celebration is going to be a bit low-key.

More Postcards

One of my greatest joys in life is to watch children and adults when they come to the realization that, despite all their doubts and fears, they have actually created something beautiful. The children seem to be able to create easier than many of us adults. We have a hard time getting started, we're think everyone else's is better than ours, we think a mistake is the end of the world and we can't imagine that anyone will find joy in getting "our" postcard. Notice how I said "We". While I am getting better at taking risks and am getting more confidence, these still are tapes that play through my head.

So, whether we have quilted for a long time, whether we sewed or fused, whether we have any art/design training, these postcards are ALL magnificent and, I'm sured, will be treasured by the recipient.

So, on to the pictures--

The first postcard was made by Vicki, utilizing many of my 1" inch squares-yeah- and a inkjet printed image.

The second one was made by Tammy, mother of Charlotte(shown in previous post). She used inkjet images, some discharged fabric I had laying around, and fabric markers.

The postcard on the left was by Linda (mother of Vera and Maya (shown in previous post). She used buttons, foil and made a lace heart - which is on the upper right corner. Kathy rocked. She was new to all this and not quite sure what to do or how to do it. With some foil and fusing, she made a fabulous card.

The postcard on the left was made by my friend, Stacy - another non-sewer who did great by fusing.

Liz did her first attempt at paper-piecing. She's a really quick study and made this great heart postcard.

Kinsey joined us the second day and made this countried postcard. Then Lucinda joined us late in the day and made this great postcard. I wasn't quite sure where it was going when she was working on it, but I just love how it turned out - definitely one of my favorites.

After everyone left, I realized that I was busy being a busybody and hadn't made any cards myself. So, I spent Monday morning making these two cards.

Turn you head 90 degrees to the left. I forgot to rotate this first one. I pieced a whole bunch of red strips I had hanging around, fused on the stripes and heart images, and added some beads and sequins. The second postcard's base is part of a quilt block piece that I'd never use. Added the black and white heart patch that I found in my studio, some words, some organza ribbon, and star sequins. It doesn't really look like something I'd do, but I like it. So, that's the end of my show and tell. T

Click here to find a link for more info. about the heart-2-heart postcard project.

Heart 2 Heart Postcards

We had a total of 15 people come make postcards at my studio last weekend. Saturday was parent/child day and we had 7 kids (aged 11-16) make postcards. Here are some pictures of the cards they made:

Three girls from Jamie's 7th grade class at Long Trail School came. Vera made this pink card, Lara made the white card spelling LOVE and Claire made the red card.

Here we have valentines from Maya, age 11, Kinsey, age 15 and Marlene, age 16, and Charlotte, age 11

The kids did such an amazing job on the designs of their cards and also on the back with their personal notes/greetings to the soldiers. I think it really brought all of them closer to those serving in the war on a personal level.

Heart 2 Heart Project

There is an organized group project in the quilting community to make fabric postcards for the miliary wounded. These postcard will be delivered to patients at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC on Valentines Day. You can find out more details about this at Karey Patterson Bresenhan' home page.

Anyway, I decided it was high time that I get involved in one of these charitable quilting projects. ...;and what a wonder gesture to send something handmade for those who have suffered and sacrificed for us all. I quickly sent our a mass email and am having two groups of people come to my studio this weekend to make postcards-yeah! Satuday is for adults and children and Sunday is for just adults. I am so excited. I love doing this kind of thing. I love seeing people play with all my supplies. I love seeing people try something and realize that they really are creative. I love the banter, the enthusiasm and the idea exchange of getting together. I love the fact that it's forcing me to clean up my studio. I guess you can tell I'm excited.
Last year, I did a similar Valentines Day fabric postcard workshop, but it was for personal use. Here are pics of some that were made then.

These were the ones I made up as class samples. I played with photos on fabric, beading, embroidery, foiling, fusing, hand quilting, free motion quilting, painting among other techniques..





Here are what the workshop participants created...


This was made my Marion who has done quite a bit of quilting and is always receptive for trying new things.






This postcard was done by Liz. She really had fun making this (and is coming again this weekend). She used all the decorative stitches on my machine, she foiled, she attached a heart rock, a wire formed heart, two heart charms, and and even found some of my heart fabric. Liz is an avid knitter, teaches rug hooking and even gets to dye wool yarn for a living.


This was made by Teresa - a total sewing novice. She is my role model and shining example of what you can do when you are willing to try new things. I love it!





Finally, this postcard was made by Kinsey, my 14 (then) year old daughter. Kinsey loves making things and is incredibly creative, but she doesn't really enjoy sewing. So, here is a marvelous example of what you can do with different glues and adhesives. I also personally love the fact that my thoroughly fashion forward up to date daughter created this 1930s retro feeling card. Lace, tulle, and cute little vintage images just don't seem to fit with her hip/hop style. That girl does keep my guessing.

I can't wait to see what we come up with this weekend!

Handcrafted Christmas Presents

I didn't make that many Christmas presents this year. Here are pictures of some of the things I did make for either personal gifts or for my business, Bogate Designs.

First of all, I had to make Marlene a stocking as they don't hang stockings in Germany. (they put out their shoes on St. Nicholas Day). I hope that she will take this home with her and start a new tradition with her family

I felted red wool fabric for the stocking in the washing machine. It is then embellished with wool felt appliques, gold rick rack, sequins, beads and jingle bells (Marlene loves her jingle bells). I embroidered her name on my machine. I was really happy with how this turned out, but of course, it wasn't until late on Dec. 24th that it was done.



In early December, I bought a book called It's A Wrap: Sewing Fabric Purses, Baskets, and Bowls. These bowls are based on that book. Basically, you wrap strips of fabric around clothesline and then sew the covered clothesline together. You can adjust the shape of the item by the angle you hold it when you sew. I made several before the holidays. They're fun to make, but my arm and wrist definitely hurt after wrapping the clothesline for awhile. I think I would develop some kind of repetitive motion syndrome if I did it for too long.

I made these red and white ones based on the shape of a planter. They looked great with a pointsetta in them -very festive.






Since I really don't market my children's clothing business very well, it is a blessing that so many of my sales are from repeat customers. A number of people called me after not seeing me at a specific holiday craft fair and bought things directly. (I love the sales without the corresponding booth fee). These two fleece tops were made for a set of twins. It is the third year in a row that they have gotten Bogate Designs' tops for Christmas from their aunt Patty in Vermont. This heathered green fleece is reversible so we alternated the main pullover color so that the boys wouldn't be too matchy-matchy. I don't know if it shows up in the pictures, but I also did some handstitching on the truck to define the wheels better. These tops are a first with these applique designs. I like them, but I might try doing reverse applique on the truck's wheels and windows next time - I want really round hubs.

Beaded Quilt Blocks

I've also been making up some beaded quilt blocks in the past month or so. The beaded portion is a 3" square. My current plan is to make a wall hanging with all the squares, but I also think they might be cute individually framed with a wide white mat and a square thin black frame (maybe 9" x 9" total?) . So far, I have absolutely no plan for coordinating either the center fabrics or bead colors.
--but I don't think that will be a problem...

The first one is my favorite so far. But, it's also my favorite fabric!

Bead Embroidered Barrette

Last August I posted a picture of this barrette while I was still working on it. I've had it done now for several months and wear it all the time. It fits a 4" long barrette. I also made another one (even more elaborate) that I will try to post soon.

I'm Back - Winter bead embroidery projects

It's been five months since my last post. So much for keeping a current journal of projects, classes, kid activities and life... It's been quiet on the Bogate front during this time. I only did one craft fair at Christmas time, I haven't taught any classes and I haven't really been making that much. That's not really true, but I consider the things that I've made to be more "playing" rather than working. But then again, I am very lucky to consider most of the work I do as playtime.

For a non-TV watcher, I've been watching a lot of TV this fall and winter. We made the big mistake of renting the DVD of the series called "24" It is so good (and addictive) that we have watched all five of the previous seasons now. Season 6 just began and I know what I'll be doing now on Monday nights.

One thing that I do alot of when watching TV is beading. I just embroidered these three hearts that I'll make into pins for Valentines Day. My favorite is the first. I usually just wing it when I do bead embroidery. I look at it kind of like trying to put a puzzle together. With this heart, I actually first drew a rough sketch. While I didn't really follow it exactly, it is pretty close to my plan. Since I like this first one the best, maybe there is something said for planning ahead.

I like the stripe effect on this one. Interesting when one row is with 8s and the other row is with 11s. It creates a nice texture in addition to the color change.
In this heart, I used a mix of all size 11 beads. The beads are laid out in various circles. The smallest circle is on the top left and is the most obvious. The other areas just show parts of circles and aren't as effective. I think next time I'll have the center of the circle in the middle of the heart and just have one circle radiate out.
(You can see the pencil outline of the arc I drew for the lowest circle segment).

These hearts have been fun. I hope to come up with a variety of samples and techniques. It would make a nice class project.