Handmade Archives - Page 4 of 6

Jewelry Making 101

By Christina Lee| July 18th, 2015|Handmade, Jewelry Making, Oh My Crafts!|

It’s unlike me to walk out of Scrapbook Expo without a handful of craft supplies, glue dots, paper stock and maybe even a new hobby. After a ‘Make & Take’ sesh with Craft Fantastic, I left with a bag of goodies to make these beautiful pendants. I see these charming, vintage style pieces in many boutique stores and always wondered how I could make my own. Well, now that I’ve got the supplies and couple sheets of decorative art paper, I’m looking forward to getting crafty and making these to go with a couple of gifts I’ve set aside for some friends.

My starter kit includes an assortment of pendant trays with matching chains, glass cabochons, ephemera paper and Glaze & Glue (aka acrylic goop). It’s super easy to make. You take a glass cab and put a few drops of Glaze & Glue to cover the surface. Then you select an image from your paper stock and press the glass cab over the image. Use a cotton swab to remove the excess glue. Once it is dried, you can use scissors to cut the image down to size to match the shape of the glass cab. Once that’s done, adhere the image and glass cab into the pendant tray and you are done. Put a chain around it to turn it into a necklace or string it to a card or album as a scrapbook embellishment and you’ve got yourself a custom and unique piece. Print your own photos of your family or pet and you’ve got a commemorative piece. It’s that simple!

Here is a butterfly pendant I made for a friend’s daughter. On the back, I customized it with her initial.

If you want to make your own, you can visit Craft Fantastic’s site and get your own starter kit where you can select your own pendant trays, chains and paper stock. They even have supplies to make bracelets and earrings.

Christmas in February

By Christina Lee| February 26th, 2017|Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Yarn Addict|

Well, we finally did it, Cooper. We put the finishing touches on this blanket and now, Susanna can take home her Christmas present even though it’s now February. Way to sit on it for so long, Cooper!

The idea was to plan ahead for once and start this blanket in October, so I can pair this blanket with the one I’m giving Mom and Dad for Christmas and surprise Susanna with her very own. However, I think I was a bit too ambitious finishing up the other blanket, working on two scarves and then starting on this one. The other projects were also a bit more taxing since I had to constantly read the pattern and tally up each row. So, I decided to give myself a little break and work on this Granny Row crochet pattern – a simple combination of double crochets and skipping spaces – one that I can actually do while watching television and sipping on some red wine.

For the next couple of weeks — and months, this blanket and Netflix became my best friend in the evenings. I started the blanket completing rows of two with each color only to realize that A) I still had a lot more rows to complete and B) two rows of a single color wasn’t going to get me very far, so I began differentiating the count and varying the width to three rows, then five rows and back three rows of one color. The most exciting part was switching to the next color, especially the light purple in the middle. And since we’re in nearing winter, the faster I completed a row, the warmer I got to keep my legs — one advantage of working on this blanket during the winter season.

While I didn’t end up finishing it for Christmas, I was about 90 percent of the way there – close enough to wrap it in a box and gift it to Susanna for Christmas. The look on her face was the most gratifying for me especially since she did not expect a blanket for herself after spending nearly a decade on Mom and Dad’s. But here it is, a blanket just for her in the nick of time to keep her warm this wet and rainy, winter season. Merry Christmas, Susanna. Here’s to keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in February.

In a Cable Knitting Frenzy

By Christina Lee| January 7th, 2017|Handmade, Knitting, Work Hard. Play Hard. Knit Harder., Yarn Addict|

Exploring the Bay Area for new coffee shops and finding that warm, cozy niche is my idea of making the most of a wet, wintry weekend. I’m always on the lookout for coffee shops with the right atmosphere — a balance between community tables with enough elbow room, an area to lounge, good coffee and bite-sized snacks, music and the right temperature. That’s not so much to ask for, right?

While the big chains, Starbucks, Peet’s and Philz are at the turn of every block, I’m a big fan of discovering independent coffee houses. There’s something about the warm, wholesome authentic feeling of being at home while sitting at a ‘mom and pop’ coffee shop that just cannot be replicated by the big leagues. But that’s not to say I’ll shy away from the chains, since you know what to expect for the most part.

We ended up making our way to Redwood City to check out the Starbucks Reserve. I’ve heard several good things about Starbucks Reserve — their freshly brewed reserve coffee, limited edition menu, gourmet wine and food selection — and even affogatos (!) on a hidden or soon to be released menu. I helped myself to a Butterscotch Reserve Latte in a hefty black, Reserve mug while picking up a new knitting pattern. Drunken off the creamy whole milk latte, I found myself tightly wound into a cable knitting frenzy as I braided one stitch over the other. This is my first attempt at cable knitting and I have YouTube to thanks for the step-by-step pattern. I’m looking forward to adding more stitches to this ‘brioche’ scarf, then bundling up to it during San Francisco’s cold, wintry season.

And Finally, It’s Done!

By Christina Lee| November 8th, 2016|Crocheting, Handmade, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

Cooper, I’m glad that you find my crocheted blanket so comfy. Now please scoot over, so I can finally wrap this up. It’s taken me years, well probably a decade with all the breaks I took from making this blanket. This was a my very first crochet project that got me started on scarves, towels, amigurumi and other accessories. I’m especially thankful to the lady who taught me this granny square pattern in my good old days of working for a real estate company. This pattern is rich with a combination of stitches and taught me single, double and treble crochet along with the ‘popcorn’ stitch. I am proud to say I can now do this pattern with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back. A whopping seventy squares later, plus a few extras on the side for practice of course, I am finally done.

All in all, I didn’t mind crocheting the single squares as I did sewing them together and weaving in the loose ends. In reality I think it was the combination of light blue and dark blue that had me dizzy at times. With the help of my cousin, I was able to sew this blanket together. The final test of sturdiness was throwing this baby in the washing machine and praying that it didn’t fall apart.

In the end, it came out the same way it went in, intact and in one piece. However, I did have to mend a few strands, but other than that, it is one big throw that I’m gifting to my parents for Christmas. I honestly can’t track the number of hours spent on this blanket, but it is no comparison to the number of hours, weeks, months and years that my parents have spent on me. I hope they like it.

The Ribbed Diamond Pattern Scarf

By Christina Lee| October 1st, 2016|Handmade, Knitting, Work Hard. Play Hard. Knit Harder., Yarn Addict|

It’s craft day and I’m ready to pick out a new knitting pattern for a scarf. In flipping through my e-reader, I came across the Ribbed Diamond Pattern which caught my attention. This pattern is both reversible and symmetrical, so it’s perfect for a knitted scarf or cowl. I especially like the delicate texture and the flow of the ribbed diamonds as they cascade downwards.

Initially, I wanted to bring this scarf with me on a trip, but found it better to accompany me on my reading chair. There’s plenty of tallying and counting that comes along with the pattern, so my glass of red wine will just need to sit on the side. I’ve been working on it a little bit each week and have made some good progress, but there’s still quite a bit of work that needs to be done aside from the fringes that everybody loves. That said, this scarf is going to a very special Aunt and I’m hoping it will keep her warm in her daily commute to work.

The ‘Manhole’ Scarf

By Christina Lee| September 18th, 2016|Handmade, Knitting, Work Hard. Play Hard. Knit Harder., Yarn Addict|

It’s been a while since I completed a knitting project, and it’s the same feeling of accomplishment that feeds my soul and compels me to start another knitting project.

This pattern is called “The Manhole” and I thought is was rather fitting that I choose more of an olive green to accompany the circular indentations. The rounded texture is very prominent with uniquely positioned diagonal slant. It reminds me of a more pronounced version of the double seeded stitch.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on this pattern, you can get a copy of the Knitting Stitches by Sharon Turner. This visual encyclopedia is composed of over 350 stitch patterns, edgings and more.

Scrapbooking with Maya Road

By Christina Lee| August 6th, 2016|Handmade, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Scrapbooking|

As with every Scrapbook Expo, I’m completely overwhelmed by hundreds and thousands of paper stock, stickers, ink, tape, glue dots, scissors and card-making machines that jump out at you at every direction as you enter the expo. My eyes dart back and forth from one scrapbook vendor to another and I find myself at the mercy of my wallet. If I come to Scrapbook Expo without a project in mind, I’m in trouble. I’ve gone from buying jewelry-making kits to acrylic albums to card stock to those fancy Copic markers. In fact my storage bins are spilling out with all these newfound hobbies that I should actually get moving on the handfuls of projects that I have already started. We all know that completing projects are a lot easier when you have a date appended to them and this time, I do!

Speaking of ‘I do,’ Kari and Richard’s wedding is just months away, I’m on the hook for a bachelorette present, something a little different from all the others. I’ve been intrigued by many of the scrapbook albums I’ve come across. Button Farm and Clear Scraps are a few of my favorites, and recently, Maya Road grabbed my attention.

As I came across Maya Road’s booth, I flipped through their album and was drawn to their mesh flower and needle work ‘make and take’. After a hearty ten minutes with the hot glue gun, I walked away with a solid embellishment to pop into my album. Combining a mesh flower with cardboard cut-out pink letters, needles and a spool of thread gave me a few ideas to stretch my scrapbooking creativity and skills. I was very happy with the embellishment and decided to pick up this Maya Road album kit for Kari’s bachelorette gift. It took quite a few hours to put together and I learned how to combine different textures and layer patterned paper on top of each other. Each page of instruction was a new adventure and a new technique.

The best part of this project was not just putting together the page, but it was inserting photos of the happy couple. I can’t wait to give this to Kari. I hope she likes it!!

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.

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