I'm not complaining. I like pretty projects. But, other people in my household, ahem... husband, might prefer that I stop dragging random bits of stuff through the house like a manic crow drawn to hobby supplies rather than shiny things, and start doing more normal fall inspired projects. Like, why can't I bake cookies like a normal person when the weather gets a chill to it? Mmmm... cookies. (Hey, my daughter got an ez bake oven for her birthday this year. I'll get her on that right away.) Well, he should have known better when I moved my stuff here in the beginning. The endless haul of arts/crafts supplies, books and a few articles of clothes should have clued him into how our life together was going to evolve. He was warned.
So... my fall frenzy. I've been thinking about the handmade gift movement and love the idea. I don't know if I can qualify for the pledge this year because realistically, I won't buy or make all handmade gifts, but I will do many that way. So I've been gathering ideas for crafts that have caught my eye, trying an idea or two and stumbled on something I love.
I've always loved those little scrabble tile pendants that are everywhere. So I googled how to make them and found this awesome gel product called DG3 (I bought mine on ebay). So I've been playing with this awesome stuff and I can honestly say I haven't had this much fun with a product since I discovered mod podge. And that is saying a lot!
Here's the first pendant I finished with the DG3. It actually started out with an image on it, but silly me didn't realize you had to seal the image first when using an inkjet. Well, that isn't entirely true. I did know, but I was too impatient to wait. But I do like the marbled effect it caused, so win/win with the instant gratification thing. The top picture with the fairies on it is a photo I sealed correctly, btw.
This is such a versatile project because you can pretty much use any type of background and any graphic you'd like, for huge range of potential products and looks. Family photos, vintage graphics, scanned images, etc. I had a bunch of vintage graphics already cropped in circles and such that I bought on a whim from an Etsy seller, piddix. She has awesome graphics. There are also plenty of images that can be found on the internet. Flickr has several free vintage graphics pools, and there are lots of blogs out there too like The Vintage Moth that offer free graphics.
This is the 'bead' I used to mount the (should have been sealed) photo on with glue, then covered with the DG3. I picked up a package of these beads on clearance a long time ago with no clear idea of what I would do with it, and now I am so happy I did. They seem to be made for this type of pendant and already have pre-drilled holes I plan to open up with a pin after the DG3 is totally dry. I think I'll either bead these into a necklace or add a few beads hanging from the bottom and top and string them as an ornament. They'd make amazing gift tags or wine glass ornaments too. Sigh... I love this stuff.
Oh, and I'm still doing the little paintings. And knitting... But the knitting is, well let's just say it is not really blog worthy. To say I have no talent for knitting is putting it kindly. But I try. Goodness knows, I try.
Now I think I have to go bake some cookies. Because, I said the word 'cookies' and now that is all I can think of. My husband will be so happy! I wish it worked the same way for washing winter blankets and coats. See? I said that, but absolutely no nagging desire overcame me to perform that duty. Nope. Cookies. Heck, yeah - I already started the oven. Blankets/coats... Crickets... Hey, I'll take what I can get, and distract my husband with cookies.