Crafty - The Makings of a Gift

Wednesday - January 21, 2009

Many of you that know me personally know that I love working on crafts - cross stitch, plastic canvas, crocheting, and most recently working with beads! Out of all these crafts, crocheting and cross stitch have been at the top of my list of favorite things to do for many years. It has always been a question of WHEN to find the time to work on the things I want to make! Since retiring one would think I would have all the time in the world to work on my creativity, but for some reason, I don't!!!! I think I'm still getting use to the idea I don't have to grade all those papers!!!!

Bill has recently taken an interest in painting with the guidance of Bob Ross videos. This is great! The only problem is that it takes the paintings a loooong time to dry, so we are trying to figure out where to put them out of harm's way! Toby sniffs everything out, therefore, putting them on the floor is out of the question! He would love to put his print on each of the paintings! Bill is progressing and feeling more at ease with the painting process. He's not doing bad job if I do say so myself! :)

He has a video to help him while I use patterns! However, most of the time I tend to do my own thing. I have "bunches and bunches" of books with patterns for all the crafts I think I would like to try! I need a big room for all my crafts! Guess we need to win the lottery so we can build me a craft house! :):)

I love making things for my family and friends. I try to pick a color, style, pattern that I think they would like. I know we all don't like the same thing, but I try my best to match what I am making with that special person!

Jeni's birthday was January 6, just a little less than two weeks after Christmas! We had a really nice Christmas with her and David, but we couldn't think of anything "to buy" her this soon after Christmas. So, my mind starts wheeling around, and I came up with the idea of making her something from my bead collection. But what??? I have collected through the years materials from AC Moore and Michael's just to have on hand when I decided I wanted to be creative. When I retired, my retirement gift was a really nice gift card from AC Moores! Boy did I have a field day with that!

Once I had decided what I wanted to do, the next problem was what to choose from my collection to accomplish my goal. I had kits, individual beads of all kinds, shapes, and colors! Once I got past this stage, the making of the present was a breeze - except when working with the small beads - the old eyes (which have cataracts) tended to give me a few problems! Bill graciously came up with giving me more light by putting one of our small lamps on the table for me. This helped tremendously.

The pictures I am going to post will show a portion of what I had to work with and the finished products! My first step was to sort through ALL of my supplies; place them on the table so I can make a decision; make that decision; and then make the jewelry. I had looked at my beading books; downloaded and printed potential patterns I might use; and now I was ready to begin.

Hope you enjoy looking at my technique of how to decide what to use when making a present!

These pictures show the initial supplies I chose from my collection of material.

The tools

The beads

The collection from which to narrow the choices.

The narrowed down collection

The materials I chose not to use this time!

The first set was made with sterling silver and swarovski RED crystals - Jeni's favorite color!

The designing stage - my own and not from my many patterns I've collected!

The finished set - earrings and necklace.

I decided to make two sets - then I could choose which one to send to Jeni. Bill helped me pick out the main beads for this next set.

The materials- I (we) chose a natural stone shaped with turquoise colors, and then I had to decide what other beads would enhance the stone!

The materials and the design

Set # 2 is now completed - it took longer to make because of the smaller spacers and e-beads used!

Both set are now completed. Now the decision was to choose which one Jeni would receive as a "belated" birthday gift! Red is her favorite color, and I thought the colors of the other one would look great on her - sooooo we sent both sets! Hope you enjoy them Jeni! We love you!

I have the stages of a crochet project, but I'm not posting them until the gifts are delivered! :):)