My Scrappy Steps Afghan!

I finally completed this!

I brought it to photograph in the lobby at work, as the light is much better there.

I also got a few shots of this in the leasing office of the apartments where I live....

OK so that last one isn't as well lit as the others, but it emphasizes the warmth of the colors.

It is a warm and cozy afghan. Yes, there's a pucker in it at the bottom corner, but for the very first real complete afghan I've ever made, it's not bad at all! I like this pattern A LOT.

Road Trip Shawl

I decided to chew up some of this Mexicana yarn I had, and make a larger version of the Road Trip Scarf. So this is the Road Trip Shawl. I have been considering adding long, graceful black fringe to this....but I'm not 100% sure. I used 3 skeins of Red Heart Super Saver in Mexicana colorway for this shawl.

My Road Trip Scarf

OK I just completed this road trip scarf. It is named that because the woman who designed it did so while on a road trip with her husband.

I gotta say this: given the yarn I used (Red Heart Super Saver) and the fact that I did not change hooks as I was supposed to do (oops), it does fit me sort of funny. It's like a big old bib. What I think I'm going to do with the next one I make of this pattern is a big shawl, not a scarf. In fact, I've already started it and I'm using this yarn:

This is Red Heart Super Saver in Mexicana colorway. It's BRIGHT!!! We'll see how this goes!

New Jewelry!

OK so I got to making jewelry this weekend, using some of the paper beads I'd made.

First, my "Miami Fiesta" earrings:

I also have a Miami Fiesta bracelet:

This bracelet also happens to match a pair of earrings I made from a Fanta soda can:

These are my AZ Heat earrings:

And there's my Mermaid Dream bracelet:

I do have earrings to go with it but I haven't photos of them just yet.

I also made some music note earrings, and I have an idea for a matching bracelet:

I think I'm having entirely too much fun with this.

Paper Bead Jewelry

Well, I made some more paper bead jewelry over the weekend. It's fairly simple but nice. Have a look....

First is the bracelet with the "bacon beads." LOL! My friend Shannon thought the hand painted paper beads looked like bacon.

Then there's this blue one...I kinda like the colors on it, and I have to admit I was a bit hesitant about including the little white howlite beads...but maybe it actually works...

Then I took these beads and made cluster earrings with them...I was going to try and do a ladder bracelet with them but I haven't yet worked out how to do that...

And there's this fairly simple monochromatic bracelet...

And of course there's my nice pastel bracelet:

I rather like doing jewelry with paper beads. Especially when you paint your own paper and can choose whatever color you want on the beads.

One thing I learned when putting these together - USE WHAT YOU HAVE. I'm not wealthy and buying things like Beadalon and toggle clasps is a rare thing for me, so I have to improvise and use whatever materials I have on hand to put it all together. And sometimes it works out quite well! Don't be afraid to improvise. As Mike Sellick of the Crochet Crowd put it: "It's YOUR art!" Make it your own - your own look, your own style. There is no other style in the world like it, so let it shine!

Flower Power Valance

I just found THIS and I think I might try to make it. :)

Scrappy Steps Afghan

I'm stealing an idea from Beth in TX again and making a Scrappy Steps afghan. I got the pattern from her site. Here's pics of my afghan so far:

I hope it washes up soft. Some of the yarn I'm using is a bit scratchy so we'll see how that goes. Otherwise, how interesting and odd this will look! Like an explosion in a yarn factory!

CLICK HERE for the pattern.

HAPPY Afghan

OK this is my first attempt at a corner to corner (c2c) afghan. I'm loving these colors and it's making me sing that Happy song in my head as I stitch. I know I'm going to have to get more pink and red yarn for this, but that's ok. It's part of my effort to burn up stash and only buy yarns for projects I've already started, rather than buying random yarn and not knowing what to do with it when I get it home because I had no project in mind for it when I bought it. LOL! I do that entirely too often.

So it's my HAPPY afghan!

Paper Bead Madness, Part Deux

OK I've gone completely paper bead happy.

First, I think I got a better photo of this bracelet here:

Here's some unglazed paper beads I made yesterday, hand-painted in watercolors.

This first batch seems very Arizona or desert to me so I think of them as Arizona Heat:

These look very aquatic to me so I think of them as Mermaid Garden:

These colors remind me of the bright, festive colors of Miami, so I call them Miami Fiesta:

All 3 groups of unglazed beads:

Now, I think I've learned something. It's all well and good to hand paint the paper before cutting and rolling it into beads, but (at least with the watercolors I'm using) the dry paint rubs off onto my fingers. This creates a slight smear when I apply the white glue to fix the wrapped bead in place. 

So I have some plans to avoid this problem. :)

I did make some other aquatic-looking beads and I glazed them last night. I don't have a photo of them yet but I must say this: I was pleasantly surprised to see that when the Mod Podge was applied, the paint didn't blend. The colors remained crisp, exactly as they appeared when I had completed painting the paper and it had dried. I just have to remember not to cut and roll the painted paper. 

I Have...

...an Etsy page!

It's Gingercrafts407. I'm putting some scarves and jewelry and a few other things up there to sell.

I'm a bit nervous about this but I hope this works out. I've run into some real-life situations that are going to cost money, and I need to start selling things I make to get ahead with these things. For example - flat tire on my car this morning! Joe is going to help me with getting the new tire and possibly an alignment, etc, so that's good, but I'll need to pay him back. Plus - my computer is about 10 or 12 years old, can't quite remember, and it's running on a very old OS and upgrades on this computer are just not going to work. So, it's new computer time for me.

So fingers crossed. I hope this works out. I know a lot of my crafts are very simple but maybe someone will like it and want to buy it.