sewing projects!

Wow, it seems like I haven't posted in forever! Winter break went by pretty fast, but I did manage to fit a few fun projects in.

My sister and I went to visit our grandparents in Florida for about a week, and like always we filled our days with sewing, cooking, and of course our daily strolls on the beach:) My grandma is an amazing quilter (mom learned from the best!) and my sister and I love working on sewing projects with her. This year my sister made a quilt, and I made a few smaller projects . . .

I made this wallet from a pattern my grandma had stashed

now my roomates won't get annoyed with me everytime I have to find something in my wallet, no more ten minute digs, Im organized!

I got to use some really gorgeous vintage buttons my grandma had saved

when I got home from our trip I wanted to prove to myself that I wouldn't forget all my newly learned sewing skills, so I made myself a little sewing kit! complete with mini scissors, thread, pins, and needles . . . basically all the mini sewing tools I could find in my mom's old sewing studio.

So I really hope to continue sewing, (especially since now I've semi-mastered how to thread a bobbin), and use my skills in some of my other projects. I'd really like to use my fused plastic bags to make some simple wallets or even some small zippered bags like my sewing kit. Also, I've been cutting out blocks for a t-shirt quilt I've started. I'm collecting all my old t-shirts that I really don't wear anymore and I'm going to make them into a comfy cozy quilt. Sooo many sewing projects so little time!! Most of them will have to wait till the summer when I'm finished with classes. o well.

Booksale

Every year the UMBC library has at least one book sale where they sell some of their really old books for dirt cheap. My roomate and I always look forward to this sale because some of the books they sell are really beautiful and are great for altered book and collage projects. Heres my book sale booty. . .

this year i only bought 3 books, my roomie went a little crazy and bought 6

i thought this one had really cool illustrations. its written in a different language too

this book has my sister's initials, I love the gold

I think 2 of the books I bought will be really good for collages and chine colle, but I have a special project in mind for the one with my sister's initials. I want to take out the pages and insert new blank pages too make it into a sketch/notebook for my sister. I plan on using some of the existing pages and text to make some interesting dividers and collages within the new pages. I found this really great website that shows you how to convert old books into sketchbooks so I'm pretty excited to get started.

A lot of places sell old books and there are tons of projects you can do with them! Some of my favorite places to snoop around for old books are antique stores and yard sales. Old books are really just too beautiful to go to waste, so don't let them get thrown away! Give them new life through your creativity:)

Circular Painting

I thought this piece was really cool. It's a time lapse, stop motion video filmed on a circular wall in South Africa. The various artists who put this together expressed their interpretations, concerns, and hopes about today's environmental situation on this unusual canvas.

Circular Painting from Fly on the Wall on Vimeo.

Here are the artists who were involved

Bryan Devlin
Luis Tolosana
Warren Lewis
Ree Treweek
Daniel Ting Chong
Mike Morocco
Toyah Moon Humphreys
Paul Ressel
Josh Ginsburg

Dia de los muertos

Last weekend my family had our annual Dia de los Muertos fiesta. "Day of the Dead" is one of our favorite traditions because its a very meaningful and happy way to honor and celebrate the lives of passed loved ones. My family also has a lot of artistic energy and this tradition really is about celebrating life as well as creativity. We don't come from a Mexican heritage, but we have kind of adopted the tradition and we celebrate it every year with friends and family in our own way.

We celebrated this year at my aunt and uncles new house. Everything was really colorful and warm and the alter that they arranged was incredibly beautiful. We all added photos and mementos to the alter as well some sugar skulls we decorated that night.

our beautiful alter

everyones makin sugar skulls!

I made these to bring back home with me

the great halloween lantern parade!

Each year around Halloween, Patterson Park is host to a colorful procession of homemade lanterns. Tons of dressed up Baltimorians show up for the event to witness the parade, or to proudly carry their own lantern. This event is truly a homage to creativity, and imagination during such a corporate holiday. I had never even heard of this event until this year when a friend mentioned it to me. My roomie and I decided to go, and although we missed the beginning of the parade, the festivities afterward were well worth the trip.

beware the jabberwock!

everyone dancing and havin a good ol fashion time

I really want to be in the parade next year. Apparently there is no sign ups or obligations, you just show up and your in!

Here is some info about Patterson Park, where the parade took place and where there are many more fun bmore events.

cuz rives bfk is the best!

Rives bfk is good for me!
(one of my most recent prints on my favorite eco-friendly paper:)

So I'm a print media major and I do a lot of screen printing. I've been screen printing for a few years now and I've found that I really like using a nice sturdy, smooth paper. Rives BFK is my favorite, but I got to wondering, is it eco-friendly? I had never really thought about it before and since I use so much of it, I decided to do a little research. If my search yielded bad results I felt I would have to find a new favorite :( . . .

Luckily for me and the environment Rives BFK as well as the slightly cheaper alternative Arches, are fairly eco-friendly! yeah!

Rives BFK and Arches paper companies proudly bear these three symbols

This symbol means that the paper mill does not use chlorine bleaching when producing their papers.
This symbol means the mill is ISO 14001 certified. I had to look it up to what that means, but basically it means that they comply to high qulaity environmental standards . This certification is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
This symbol means that no trees are used to create the paper, the pulp is made from 100% cotton.

Here are my research sources if you wanna check em out.
Legion Papers
Master Control

i want this!

Crafty Chica has a new awesome book coming out!




So Crafty Chica is kind of a hero of mine. I have one of her books, "Art de la Soul" and it's amazing!! All her crafts are so creative and colorful:) She has a few good recycling crafts (my favorite shows how to make an old book into a purse) and she really shows you how to utilize the materials around you and include some fun found objects. Also, her antecdotes are completely hilarious!

I love mexican culture and my family has recently begun celebrating Dia de los Muertos. We love the idea of getting together with family and celebrating our loved ones lives, not only to honor them since they have passed, but also remembering the happy times and making new happy memories because of our celebration. Her crafts reflect this celebration of life as well as her colorful and sparkly mexican flare. I love it!

Anyways, she has a new book coming out called "Crafty Chica's Artful Guide to Sewing". I cannot wait to buy it!!! I love sewing (even though im not so good with technical aspects such as threading a machine . . .) and I love working with colorful threads and fabrics. I think I'm more of an embellishment sewer and I love stitching by hand. I think the book will be really inspiring and already has got me thinking bout some altered book projects I'd been working on a while ago where I did a lot of decorative stitching and such. Anyways, Feb 17th is it's release date. Thats not too far away right?!?