September 15, 2014
by Tammy
12 Comments

September 14, 2014
by Tammy
0 comments

Recent Yarn Acquisition

This weekend my sisters and I made a quick trip to downtown Cocoa Village for some yarn shopping at the Knit and Stitch Boutique. Before I even made it into the shop, however, I saw this in an outside display at the shop next door and HAD to buy it! If any of you follow me on Facebook and know about Little Dude, I don’t need to explain why I had to buy this.

Okay, onto the yarn!

I am planning at some point (probably will have to wait until the next big holiday school break) to make the Loveland Neck Scarf. It requires lace weight yarn and a size D hook, but it looks nice and light and Florida friendly. This little cake is 798 yards/100 grams of Juniper Moon Farm Findley Dappled, 50% merino wool/50% silk. The colorway is Wisteria.

I love Cascade Yarns’ Heritage Paints and Silk Paints collections, and I knew I wanted another skein, similar to one I used to make this shawl, just in a different color. I found this beautiful color called “Isle of Skye,” 75% superwash merino wool/25% nylon, 437 yards/400 meters. I am thinking of making a shawlette with it and may have enough left for wristers.

Finally, I have no idea what I am going to do with these skeins, but they were just $5 each and are soooo soft, even though they are polyester. This is also a Cascade yarn. It’s called Pluscious, and each skein is 148.7 yards/136 meters, 3.5 oz/100 grams. The colorway for these is called Begonia, but they had a ton of fabulous colors. It was very hard to pick.

We had so much fun shopping, and then we all three came back to our parents’ house and sat around and crocheted together. There’s nothing like sharing sister and yarn love at the same time!

September 14, 2014
by Tammy
0 comments

Episode 5 Coming Soon!

I am preparing to record the fifth episode of my Crafty Princess Diaries Podcast. With each episode, I learn a little bit more about this whole process, and I continue to get encouraging feedback from my audience, small as it may be.

If you have missed any or all of the previous four episodes and want to catch up, there are two ways to watch. First, you can stay here on my weblog. Just select the category (listed on the right) for the Crafty Princess Podcast. I have embedded the videos there along with show notes and links related to each episode.

Another option to is to watch directly through my YouTube channel; you just miss out on show notes. However, the cool thing about YouTube is that you can subscribe to my channel and get notifications sent to you when I have uploaded a new video.

Finally, here are links to each show, which I try to keep under 20 minutes each:

September 14, 2014
by Tammy
0 comments

Scrapping Projects, Jewelry Ideas, & Dollar Store Finds

Snap out of it Jean! There’s beading to be done!
Jean reviews the wonderful new book by Jamie Cloud Eakin, Bead Play with Fringe, Techniques, design, and projects.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew does a recap of his recent trip out to Philadelphia for BeadFest.

A Bead A Day
Did someone say Sparkle? Lisa’s come up with a new mantra: sparkle, sparkle, sparkle! Join her as she obsesses over shamballa beads.

Carmi’s Art/Life World
The summer project of creating a dozen crazy cuffs is right on track. Number eleven is elephant themed.

Resin Crafts Blog
Halloween and resin go hand in hand if you shop in dollar stores!

Ornament Prototype
Crafty Princess is planning ahead for the holidays with this super simple sewn felted ornament project.

Is There a Clay Recipe Suitable for an Essential Oil Diffuser Pendant?
A reader was looking for a clay recipe to make essential oil diffusers. Read Eileen’s answer.

Beading Arts
Sometimes you just need to use up some leftovers! Cyndi has a cute earring project to share with you.

Blue Glass Sculpture
Cherie makes a blue glass sculpture for her home.

September 12, 2014
by Tammy
0 comments

Spikey the Stegosaurus Done!

Woot! I finished Spikey the Stegosaurus today! This is one of those amigurumi projects that is not really hard, but there are a lot of fiddly part and piece to it. The pattern is from FreshStitches.com (of course), and the yarn it Knit Pick’s Brava in the orange and cornflower colorways. The white yarn for the eyes is just some leftover white worsted I had around, and I cut out black felt circles and glued those on to the centers. This is going in a box full of goodies for my soon-to-be new momma niece.

Of course, like anything I make I can see a zillion imperfections in this guy, but generally, I’m pretty happy with him.

Now I have to figure out what the next amigurumi project will be!

September 11, 2014
by Tammy
3 Comments

Felt Ornament Prototype

My college craft club has been asking to sew, and honestly, we just don’t have the space and supplies to do any significant sewing. Plus, I probably don’t have the patience to teach it either, especially a group all at the same time. However, I think it is handy for everyone to know some basics when it comes to sewing like how to sew on a button, how to thread a needle, and how to do simple stitches like the running stitch, so I’ve been thinking about how to allow them to do some very basic sewing projects that won’t break our budget or drive me crazy either.

That’s when I came up with the idea of making felt ornaments. Felt is very inexpensive, and we just need some thread, needles, and notions to do this. After I came up with the idea, I checked out YouTube for some help with how to do this. There are (not surprisingly) a fair number of videos over there showing this technique, such as this one.

I gathered some supplies I had on hand to make a prototype, and I think it turned out pretty well considering I whipped it up pretty quickly. I used a cookie cutter and paper to make a template, and then pinned it to the felt and cut out two stars. I stitched a simple button in the center, and then held the two stars together and stitched around them. Before I closed it up, I added some scrap yarn at the top so it can be hung, and then I used extra scrap yarn to stuff it.

I’m sure my club members will come up with much fancier ornaments than this, but at least I have a method to show them. Then they can take it from there and experiment with different stitches. For those who aren’t interested in stitching, glue is also an option.

September 7, 2014
by Tammy
0 comments

Scrapbooks, Canvases, and Necklaces

Carmi’s Art
I have a sweet resin project on Scrapbooking.com’s blog this week. Paper Embellishments with Jewelry Resin featuring vintage postcards.

Mini Canvases
Cherie makes some mini canvases for her office.

A Bead A Day
Ready for a crafty weekend? Lisa just discovered a crafty necklace project that inspires creativity!

Resin Crafts Blog
A good experiment in resin layering results in some one-of-a-kind “cubes of resin.”

Where to Find Cheap Unique Craft Supplies
I bet you have your own sources for inexpensive craft supplies. Here are some of my faves. Do you have any others?

Beading Arts
Cyndi has a review of a fabulous new book by Lark Crafts, called “Beading All-Stars”. All your favorite designers in one gorgeous package!

Guitar String Jewelry
Video podcast episode 4 including some “rockin” jewelry and a little fiber too.

September 2, 2014
by Tammy
0 comments

Teacher Jewelry Set

School started a little over a week or so ago, and the fall semester is always super busy for some reason, much more than spring. There are also a lot of changes that happen in the fall where teachers and other staff at the school will move into different positions and have different tasks asked of them. This is what inspired my “teach” design pictured above. A friend of mine is moving from being part admin/part faculty to going back to being full-on faculty, which she is thrilled with. In fact, that’s the thing about most teachers. We want to teach. Going to meetings and other time-sucks very often get in the way of what our primary purpose is, so this was a gift from me to her in celebration of going back to what she loves to do.

The pendant is ceramic and came from Blu Mudd. The other supplies include copper wire (21-gauge) and findings; 4mm mother of pearl beads (natural, not bleached); size 11 green glass seed beads used as spacer beads; and 6mm rondelle-shaped Chinese crystal beads. I strung it on .015 Soft Flex beading wire and finished the necklace with copper 2x2mm copper crimp beads.

September 1, 2014
by Tammy
0 comments

Beads, Decals, Books, and Plumbing Turns Crafting

A Bead A Day
There’s always room for learning a new beading technique! Lisa’s getting ready to learn kumihimo! Stop by to lend some encouragement

Art Bead Scene
Take a peek inside the studio of Mary Harding, and be in with the chance to win some of her unique handmade beads!

Resin Crafts Blog
Jewelry grab bag to jewelry box top. Isn’t upcycling fabulous? Easily achieved with EasyCast and any items you have…not just for jewelry!

Do You Know How to Melt Lazertran Decal Images into Wood?
How to create large scale decaled wood objects with no decal edges.

Snap out of it, Jean! There’s beading to be done!
Jean reviews the new book by Tammy Powley, The Complete Photo Guide to Jewelry Making, 2nd Edition, and it is great!

Resin Crafts Blog
How to use copper plumbing supplies to create pendants with resin.

August 30, 2014
by Tammy
2 Comments

Episode 4: On Location with a Guest

Here is episode 4 of the Crafty Princess Diaries podcast, entitle “On Location with a Guest.” It was filmed on Aug. 30, 2014 at my folks’ house, which is a little over an hour away from where I live, but we all live in Florida. My sister was down from Louisiana visiting, so I thought it would be fun to have her as a guest on the podcast.

One point we failed to mention is that if you are working with guitar wire as we discuss in the podcast, make sure to you heavy duty cutting shears like those use for memory wire; otherwise, you could damage your good wire cutter.