Craft Day Archives - Page 2 of 3

Craft Day: All About Finishing

By Christina Lee| September 22nd, 2018|Craft Day, Handmade, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Knitting, Oh My Crafts!, Work Hard. Play Hard. Knit Harder., Yarn Addict|

Today’s Craft Day is all about finishing! Over the last couple of month, I’ve accumulated enough crafting supplies to last me another decade or so. I’ve got skeins of yarn pouring out of boxes, knitting needles of every size and stitch markers between the couch cushions. With all those supplies, it’s hard not to start a new project. In fact, I think I’ve started more projects than I can even count on my two hands and I don’t think I’ve finished even one. Yikes, it’s time to get cracking… starting with picking up this baby.

Sadly, I started this cable knitted scarf in January 2017 and made some good progress as I was learning a new technique. For some reason, this fell by the wayside, and sat and sat, season after season. That reason was probably because it required a fair amount of concentration to relearn how to cable knit, lots of counting and the ability to use a separate hook to do the cable knitting — all of which detracted from the usual knitting and wine drinking regimen on the couch. At least I’m being honest, right?

Nonetheless, I’m glad I picked this project back up. It’s amazing how a cable knitted pattern produces such a rich, woven texture. Paired with a thick wool-like yarn and bright colors, the braided ropes really pop. All it takes is a little bit of patience and some practice. Want to learn how to cable knit? Here is a step-by-step tutorial with visuals on how to knit a cable.

Celebrating 20 Years: I Conquered Scrapbook Expo

By Christina Lee| July 29th, 2017|Craft Day, Learning from the best, Oh My Crafts!, Painting|

I didn’t strike the gong this time around, but I should have because I conquered Scrapbook Expo 2017! I’ve been going with Susanna to Scrapbook Expo for years, more years than I can even count. It must be somewhere in the high single digits if not early double digits. This time around, Susanna and I are celebrating the 20th Anniversary with Keely and her ten year old daughters, so we reserved a table of five. Now it’s time to get our free scrapbook packets and our totes, and off to the expo we go. I guarantee that none of us will come back empty-handed.

While everyone is in a scrapbook frenzy and off to the expo for some shopping, I am holding down the fort. And since I had just gotten back from my trip to Belgium and Holland, I couldn’t help but find a way to relive those iconic scenes from The Netherlands. Cruising up and down the beautifully laced canals, enjoying Dutch cheese, meeting my business partner and admiring the architecture was mesmerizing. As I flip through the photos and memories, I am inspired more than ever to pick up my paint brush, dust off the palette and paint this picturesque view.

So it seems like the gang is not yet ready to begin scrapbooking, so I’ll need to go out for some extra reinforcement. Ample text and photo messages suggest I should go directly to the back of the expo to the Kreative Kreations booth where I can join the others in picking up a new hobby and pouring endless hours into adhering a gazillion diamond dots onto a sticky canvas. Well, Kreative Kreations, I’m sold and can’t wait to begin working on Van Gogh’s “Cafe at Night. “

Pumpkin Carving Galore

By Christina Lee| October 29th, 2016|Craft Day, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!|

It must of been in high school or grammar school when I last carved a pumpkin, so I might be a little rusty. In fact, I think I might need a lesson or two from the kids who seem to be pros at picking out their pumpkins, coming up with a design and digging right in. With over ten kids in the house at a pumpkin per kid, I’d say we have quite a lot of work to do. But with a cup of sangria/fungria, anything is possible this Saturday afternoon.

Miss Kendall was nice enough to let me partner with her. We got our stencil, pumpkin-carving tools, a bowl and some clean hands. She dove right in and carved off the stem like a pro, while I stood to the side with my sleeve up ready to take her cue. Since she did such a good job with hers, she was in high demand with all the other kids to help them remove their stems. I continued to gut the pumpkin and separate the seeds, so we can roast them in the oven later for a tasty treat. Afterwards, she came back to create an imprint of the stencil by poking a series of holes to align with the ghost design. Since we gutted the pumpkin to its core, it made it a lot easier to puncture because the walls weren’t as thick. The kids considered that the fun part.

It took us into the early evening to finish and by nightfall. We ended up with ghosts, black cats, witches, bats and classic jacks. Wow, pumpkin carving is a lot of work. Thank goodness for the kids. Now it’s time to admire all the hard work and sweat, and top them off with a tea candle.

Lights on, lights off. Here is our pumpkin line up for the evening. Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Coffee and Cookie, Anybody?

By Christina Lee| February 28th, 2016|Amigurumi, Craft Day, Crocheting, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

It’s craft day and a gal with a sweet tooth like myself couldn’t resist this amigurumi project, especially since I wake up nearly every morning with a cup of coffee and a cookie. Perhaps waking up to this set in my kitchen will curtail the ‘cookie monster’ craving from within.

As with many amigurumi patterns, this one required quite a bit of counting and sewing to put the pieces together. The pattern itself wasn’t very challenging, though I did have to re-make the handle of the coffee cup twice, since I miscounted. These little guys make me smile and make the perfect gift for a coffee lover.

Scrapbook Expo, Pleasanton

By Christina Lee| February 28th, 2015|Craft Day, Learning from the best, Oh My Crafts!, Scrapbooking|

Signed up for two workshops, Hello Friend and Copic Marker class. Got my wheelie fully equipped with glue dots, card stock, scissors and chipboard. Have my expo and crop night wrist band and my wallet. All set for Scrapbook Expo!!

I’m going to remind you, there is such a thing!! And today’s theme is “Tacky Tourist”, so here is our ‘tacky tourist’ snapshot. Enjoy!

As always, album-making is one of my favorite scrapbooking hobbies and my first workshop of the day is “Hello Friend” featuring products from Pinecone Press and Graphic 45, two of my very favorite vendors. This class focuses on various techniques: how to cover chipboard pages, how to create a distressed paper flower and how to adhere a binder mechanism. I love walking away with a unique, hand-crafted album with decorative ribbons and such fanciful paper. It’s going to make for a really nice gift.

For the second workshop, all three of us indulged in the Copic Marker drawing class. We’re all really excited to learn how to use these markers and blend to make special greeting cards with a bit of pizazz. It’s an alcohol based marker that allows you to blend light to dark and dark to light. Ah, I wished I discovered this sooner. It’s almost like painting with water colors. This will most likely be a new hobby on my website, so look out!

That said, it’s time to crop into the evening, cross our fingers for raffle prizes, sip some wine and buckle down on our scrapbooking projects.

I’m looking forward to the Scrapbook Expo in Santa Clara this coming August! Hope you decide to join in on the fun!

The Lavender Velvet Collection by SEI

By Christina Lee| November 16th, 2014|Craft Day, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Scrapbooking|

For Craft Day, I’m putting the finishing touches on an SEI Album I started at Scrapbook Expo. I love these mini scrapbook kits not only because they’re adorable, but because you get to focus on learning a new technique, applying it to your project and then doing a few customizations to make it your own.

The instructions for this album focuses on creating specialized tags for embellishments and using an exacto knife to carefully make pockets out of the plastic encasing to house the tags and create fold-over flaps to extend the album.

And when you have a vibrant selection of paper stock with an assortment of knitted ribbons, trims and charms, you can easily turn plain album into a timeless piece.

Pretty neat and it’s a great takeaway and useful concept to apply to my next album.

Afternoon Tea In the Comfort of Our Home

By Christina Lee| June 22nd, 2014|Craft Day, In the Kitchen|

One of my favorite pastimes is enjoying afternoon tea at a tea house and catching up on girl talk. It’s relaxing, fun and just a pleasant experience. While it’s fun to go out from time to time, I wanted to try and replicate this experience at the comfort of our own home. We went ahead and shopped for some of our favorite finger food, sliced and diced seasonal fruit, put together a variety of finger sandwiches (egg salad, chicken salad, smoked salmon and cucumber) and visited the local bakery for another helping of sweet treats. By the time the girls rang the doorbell, we were ready for our girls’ date of afternoon tea and crafts.

There’s something about locks and schmear, bite-sized sandwiches and hors d’oeuvres, mararons, and mini desserts – too delicate to eat – that warms the heart and opens up the conversation. Pair this lovely spread with some blooming artisan tea and it’s pure decadence.

Craft Day

By Christina Lee| April 26th, 2014|Craft Day, Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

It’s Craft Day with this crazy bunch. Knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking and sewing… we do it all! This time around, I’ve got my special little helper, Kendall helping me crochet this blanket everyone is sitting on. Yes, that’s how big it really is – 10 people can fit on this thing! I’ve been working on this for the past decade, well I started it five years ago and took a sabbatical, so it feels like a decade. My goal is to finish this before October. It sounds like a long time away, but that’s what I said last October (!)

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