Oh Man! It's been a LONG time since I've posted anything on here. I really haven't done any crafting since Nov. 2010 because life kinda started rolling downhill for me for a bit. First I got sick, went to the ER, missed Thanksgiving, found out it was just too much acid in my system causing all my pain. But I have tons of digestive issues and took months to work through had to be on a bland diet for two months! Uck. Then in March I fell and separated my shoulder that took months to heal so finally I'm getting back into some normalcy and crafting Yay! (also lately I've been working on redoing my blog/etsy/prints and website)
This project I'm about to share was completed before all this &*%$ hit the fan LOL!

I found this awesome shirt at Goodwill, didn't like the shirt but loved the pattern! I've done something similar to this before (http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=342528.msg3977471#msg3977471) so when I saw it I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it!












Since there was only so much material the top turned out a little shorter than I wanted but it's great for layering
Another little side note, the necklace and pendants I'm wearing were also made by me. Great thing is the chain is actually a chain from an old beat up vintage purse I also found at Goodwill. It's a snake chain and all I did was change the ends to make it into a necklace. I like to wear it doubled up and sometimes I add pendants and sometimes I don't

Thanks for looking! Looking forward to getting back into the groove of things soon

Some helpful tuts about shirring:
http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2010/02/shirring-tutorial.html
http://pretty-ditty.blogspot.com/2009/04/smockingshirring-tutorial.html
http://www.kukyideas.com/journal/2007/04/shirred-dress-tutorial.html

Okay so awhile back I posted this:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=357250.msg4184450#msg4184450

Which was my practice piece before I did the ones I'm about to show you all!
My MIL and FIL LOVED them! Funny story right when I finished the last doggie portrait I got a txt from my BIL telling me my MIL got another dog! I just couldn't believe it! So when I gave her these I told her she'll have to get me a pic of the new puppy Scout so I can draw him as well. Ever since she met me she's been wanting me to do these portraits and I was super excited when I finished them this summer. It was so hard to wait until Christmas to give them to her and even harder to wait until now to share them with you all!!

Okay so first here are the original photos: The top is Tia the middle is Gus and the bottom is Koda



Now the portraits:

Tia:


Gus:


Koda:


They are done in colored pencil on bristol board.

Thanks for looking!!

Every Christmas for the past few years I make ornaments for friends family and my cleaning clients.

I posted this a while back:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=362043.msg4248535#msg4248535

And I got the idea to use Christmas ribbon and make mini wreaths that could be ornaments or door hangers etc...

I used a small spay paint can lid and wrapped floral wire to create the base then tied and curled ribbon piece by piece. Tied more ribbon to hang and on some added a red bow.

Pictures!








Some of the wreaths were plain ribbon and some were made with fabric scraps.

I also decoated the gift bags. The first year I did I I bought small bags but that can get pricy so I bought a bag of 50 paper lunch bags and decorated them with different colored polka dots. Took awhile because I had only one circle handmade stamp (made using an empty spool of thread and foam) So I could only do one side at a time and one color at a time.





I made over 30 wreaths total

Thanks for looking!

OH man I haven't been here (Craftster) for months! I have so much to catch up on. It's been a crazy few months and I wanted to share these before Christmas but alas I did not. There's just a lot happening in my life but here it goes!

Every year I make ornaments for my Christmas cards, it's a bit of a challenge because they have to be flat. I've done this for 3 or 4 years now and the last few years I've done felt but this year I wanted to do something different.

So this year I found these wooden discs in my stash and thought that they would make really cute ornaments! So I painted them all, drilled holes, cut scrapbook papers into circles, mod podged them on, added ribbon to hang and viola!





I had over 135 Cards this year! That's a lot of ornaments, on top of that I made ornaments for gifts for everyone we would see over the holidays which I will post in a separate topic

OH and funny story I thought these would be flat enough but they were not so all my cards were sent back to me and I had to add 20 cents to each card. So I spent 30 min. in the post office just waiting to buy 10 cent stamps and then had to add two stamps to each card and re-mail them. So I'll find something new for next year

Oh and I did add glitter accents and glitter overlays to a few of them

Thanks!

Okay so quite awhile back I posted this
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=261981.msg2937361#msg2937361

I attempted to glue it back together:


And then forgot all about it and that piece sat in my closet for several more years.

Well the other day one of my cleaning clients asked if I had anything I could donate to an auction for charity and I thought about that piece and decided to crop it down and here are the final results:

Here is a scan:


Photo:


Close up:


I was actually pretty happy with how it looked all cropped down. I have one fully colored section left that I made into an ATC. I still have to scan it and take pictures of it.

More info on my blog:
http://linzcrafts.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-is-story-of-broken-painting.html


Sadly it didn't sell
Thank You!

Okay so sometimes it's so hard to decide where to put a topic so I hope this is the right place!

I've been on a great mission for a long time now to de-stash my scrap fabric bin, and with as many projects as I've done, it's still full!!!! I've made journals, tissue covers, kanzashi flowers and now these wreaths. They are super easy to do and are a great way to de-stash. I love them so much I plan on making a bunch for Christmas and giving them to family and the smaller size would be perfect for hanging on the tree or wherever else you'd like!

All I did was used floral wire for the base. I created a circle and wrapped wire around until it was sturdy enough. Then I cut fabric into small strips and tied them to the wire frame. After I tied them all I trimmed it up a bit so it was more even and then attached a ribbon to hang it and done! This one I will show you was made using scraps of fleece. This one was about 6inches wide. You can make them bigger or smaller all depending on the size you make the wire frame. More on my blog http://linzcrafts.blogspot.com/2010/10/mini-wreath.html

I live in an apartment so I am not allowed to do any permanent changes but I couldn't not stand the look of the bathroom mirrors any longer!



Eventually I'd like to frame the larger mirror using wood trim, and I know how I can do it without it being permanent I just have to have money for supplies, maybe soon!

I really hate that medicine cabinet. If it were up to me we wouldn't even have one. It's just silly mirrors side by side like that and so plain and boring! So I made a faux frame for it! I used a thick paper (cardstock like) and contact paper. Here is the final result:



Now it looks like I hung a mirror there (kinda sorta) and adds a little whimsy

More in depth post on my blog including a walk thru of my process Was just too many photos to upload onto my photobucket then copy to here and quite a long story.

linzcrafts.blogspot .com

I don't know why it took me so long to do this but I am SOOO happy with the result!!!

I've had these white pants forever! But never wore them because of the visible panty problem. I bought several pairs but nothing quite worked and I was always self conscience that people could see my underwear. Well a couple weeks ago it just hit me, Why don't I dye them! I've always wanted grey pants so I bought black rit dye after reading some reviews that dyeing white turned out dark grey hoping that's what would happen. I was SOOO ecstatic when that's exactly what happened! I LOVE LOVE LOVE them now! And was happily surprised that the buttons dyed too Yay!

Before:


After


So it's not a major craft or anything but this was my first experience dyeing anything and I'm SUPER happy with the outcome!

It's been a long while since I've picked up a pencil but I needed to get some Christmas presents done and I've been really inspired to do some artwork lately. So every time I'm about to do a drawing I like to do a practice piece to get me in the swing of things. I CAN NOT wait to share what I've been working on but I can't until January because it's a surprise Christmas gift and I don't want to risk it So here is my practice piece; It is a  portrait of Emily Browning done in colored pencil.

This is photo of it:


This is a scan of it:


The photo shows the true colors the best, neither are a very good representation of it, it looks way better in person.

Here is the photo I used:


There is more and some in progress shots on my blog
http://linzcrafts.blogspot.com/2010/08/art.html

More Kanzashi's



















Here's the back of one, I use the male side of velcro to help with traction in your hair and no it doesn't get stuck



Tuts Online:
http://curiouslycrafty.wordpress.com/tutorials/

http://kindawonderful.typepad.com/pink_paper_peppermints/2008/05/31-crafty-flo-3.html