Summer Crafting

David, after MONTHS of you begging me to write a post on TheCollegeCrafter, I am finally doing this for you, and whoever else is weird enough to want to read it! I have been doing quite a bit of crafting over the last few months, so it's difficult to decide what I should actually write about.
Despite the summer weather, I've been crocheting a lot of mittens (I know, it's crazy!). My goal is to try to use up my existing mounds of yarn (it really is A LOT) before buying too much more, so by the end of summer I may have pictures of some very interesting multi-colored and textured mittens... That should be interesting!
I also made a pair of earrings recently that I'm pretty proud of. I've posted them to facebook, so you may have seen a picture there, but if not then here you go!

Using my handy Dremel, I drilled holes in these dice and added some gold wire to finish the look. At first my plan was to spray paint the dice black with white dots, but my sister convinced me not to because she thought the green was cool.  After seeing the final product, I'm glad I left them as is. Since they're pretty old, you can see wearing down and fading on the die, but I think it contrasts really well with the non-tarnishing shine of the gold wiring.  I'm very excited about these upcycled dice, and I definitely think I'll be making more with the rest that I have laying around :)
Thanks for reading TheCollegeCrafter!
-Savvy

'Claire Bears'

Hey guys!

So this post is a little different from normal, and I want to talk about a fundraiser that's coming up at the end of April to raise money for a little girl (named Claire) with cerebral palsy. I will have a craft booth at the fundraising carnival on April 28th, where I will be selling lots of handmade and unique items, including some 'Claire Bears' - I credit my mother with the clever name. This bear below is the first one I've made (hopefully of many!)

Each bear will be unique, slightly different in size and shape, and available in many different colors since I am creating my own patterns as I go!  Each bear will be approximately 7 inches tall when sitting down and have eyes sewn with yarn so there will be no choking hazards for young children if it becomes a play toy! I'm selling the 'Claire Bears' for $15 each, and $5 of that will go straight to Claire's Cause. Claire's parents are fundraising for important items, such as handicap renovations to their house, a handicap van, and a litegait to help her practice walking. Here is a link to the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Claires-Cause/424910807597540

Purchasing a bear means supporting small businesses (aka, a poor college student) and helping a child get support she needs! It could make a great gift, toy, or decoration for a desk or bookshelf.  If you would like to purchase one or have any questions about it, you can message me on Facebook, or email me at savvystitchesnewengland@gmail.com  Not all colors will be available, because I am trying to work from the large amount of yarn I already own in order to save time and money! I am taking orders until the end of April, and will be happy to send the bear anywhere with a small shipping charge.  The bears may take up to a few weeks to ship, depending on how many orders I receive! If you are able to make it to the fundraising event on April 28th, the Happy Spring Carnival, then I can have  your bear set aside for you to pick up there.

I will continue to make 'Claire Bears' and post pictures to Facebook, and possibly here, so if you like one of the ones you see, you can just let me know.

Also, if you choose not to buy a bear, but would still like to make a donation, you can contact me and I will make sure your donation makes it to the right place!!!

Please don't feel like you have to buy anything or make donations, I just wanted to show you what I've been working on lately, and the fundraiser that I'm currently involved in!!  I'll be back with some other crafty blogs soon, including a new sea glass lamp if I can get working on it soon!

Tuft's Police

Well, it feels like it’s been forever since my last post, and I think the time has definitely come for another; I miss writing about crafts!! It’s been pretty busy lately, but now I have lots of crafts to talk about!

I had a hard time deciding which thing I should talk about first, but I’m gonna go with the sea glass mosaics on canvas again.  As I think I mentioned before, I wanted to coat my pictures in resin to give them a little shine and help protect them from the elements (and keep any glass pieces from being able to fall off).

So I bought some polyester resin and attempted it on my first pictures the other day.  The pictures were smaller than some of the other ones I’ve made, about 4 by 5 inches, so I didn’t need very much resin at all- about two tablespoons each.  So I followed the directions and mixed up the resin with the catalyst and poured it on the pictures (which were elevated using empty Gatorade bottles).  I was so impressed with the way they turned out!

But, I had no idea the resin would smell so bad.  I had the windows open and the fan on, but the room still smelled pretty terrible.  After awhile it didn’t seem so bad, and I was doing some pretty intense multitasking (reading/crocheting/watching a show) when the cop and David’s RA came in.  They informed me that the smell was bad all down the hall (whoops) and the RA had called tufts police because he thought I was burning something (which still doesn’t really make sense to me, because it smelled a lot like spray paint). 

I was complemented on my work by the cop, who thought the sea glass picture idea was really cool, but then informed that it would be best to do this outside next time.  Oh well, now I know! And to anyone out there thinking of experimenting with resin for paintings or jewelry, find a nice open space!!

On another note, I have some exciting news about the rock tumbler! I had to break down and buy grit, but finally I got some results. It took a little patience, leaving it in for almost a week, but the glass came out smooth around the edges and frosty white.  I found a couple of blue beer bottles in the bushes the other day, so I’m very excited to see how the next batch of glass does in the tumbler :)

If you have any questions about projects that you’re working on now, feel free to ask me below and I’ll see if I can help!

Panda Bear Mittens :)

I know it's probably a little late in the year to be making mittens because *hopefully* winter weather will be subsiding soon, but I can always save them for a fall craft fair!

I'm really excited about how these came out.  I worked on them both at the same time (working a row of one, then the other) so I would finish at the same time and make sure that they were identical in size.  Then I just estimated sizes of ears, eyes, and nose, and tried them out until I found ones I liked (which luckily didn't take too long).

I would have loved to show a picture of someone wearing them, but they're kid sized, and it's a little more difficult to find kids here than at home in Maine, where I could just go get my nieces!

I'm probably going to try a pair of penguins next. If you have an idea about another type (or questions), I would LOVE to hear it, just leave me a comment below :)

Bottle Caps!

Hey Guys!
As a result of my past attempts at rock tumbling bottles to make sea glass, I had a few of the bottle caps lying around, so I decided to give some earrings a try!

It was a fairly cheap project, I bought some spray paint for about $3 and Mod Podge for $5, which are both reusable for many projects. I already had some earrings that I wanted to recycle to make then, so then I just had to print out a picture that I liked that went with the black paint.

My Dremel came in handy for this little project, and it made a hole in the caps so easily.  I put a few coats of spray paint on each side, and after waiting awhile put the picture on and covered it in the Mod Podge. 

They came out pretty well for a first try, but I definitely need some practice! Some places of the paper darkened a little more than I would have liked.  I do have some ideas for bottle cap necklaces and magnets also, and I'm thinking about using my duct tape skills for some of the pictures, instead of using printing paper, to make it more unique. 

Did you notice that picture behind me in the first photo?? I didn't make it, my sister did, but I love it!  I asked her to make me a picture of an octopus hatching from an egg, and she did it! It's pretty much the first thing I see when I walk into my room.

Well I suppose that's it for now! If you have any thoughts or questions, leave me a comment :)

Pendants!

Happy Valentine's Day! (A few days ago...) As the best fiance ever I got David a pack of gum at the check out counter of a craft store...  Go me! Maybe next year I'll even spring for TWO packs, we'll see...
I have a lot of different crafts and ideas in the works right now, which hopefully means lots of posts in the near future! The last projects that I finished were awhile ago (and I've made some in the past). Here they are:

Just a few new wire-wrapped star pendants! So, if you feel so inclined to check them out on etsy, or tell a friend about them, here's a link;)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/123301398/wire-wrapped-sea-glass-star-pendant?ref=v1_other_2

And I'll be putting a few more up on etsy soon!

I love these little pendants because, not only are they one of the only pieces of jewelry I'll wear, but I feel so accomplished when I'm done making them. Almost every time I make one, (no matter how careful I try to be) I drop a tiny pieces of sea glass on the ground and have to spend five minutes feeling the rug until I find it.  To finally get it wrapped up and secured, knowing that I won't have to search the floor (at least for that particular piece) ever again... Well, that's an accomplishment!

My Dremel has come in handy for some of my recent crafts, including my work with bottle caps.  That, it so happens, will be the discussion of my next post, so stay tuned! :)

New Backpack

Guess what everyone!! I finished that backpack I was working on :) Turns out, I didn't have too much to worry about when using the dorm washing machines!

I put it in for two cycles, (but I might want to put it in one more time after I've fixed up a few things).  For one thing, the straps are way too long (as I expected they would be) because I knew it would be way easier to sew them to make them smaller than try to make them bigger!! I also want to sew on a magnetic snap and some buttons at some point.  There were a few places around the bottom of the bag that I wish had sealed up better while felting, but I don't see any reason this won't work as a backpack for me as long as I don't start carrying a hundred pounds of books... I'm very excited to finish it up and wear it to classes for the first time tomorrow, and this gives me hope about felting here in the future! (Though the paying for laundry thing still sucks).

Well, unfortunately I have a ton of reading and studying to do tonight. Despite the storm here in New England keeping me pretty much held up in my dorm, it didn't inspire me to do my homework any earlier. Instead, I did crafts until I ran out of materials, then watched movies! At least Billy Joel tells me that I don't think too much;)

"Should I try to be a straight 'A' student? If you are then you think too much." - It's Still Rock and Roll to Me