Downtime is stressful
I haven’t written in so long. I actually have some entries typed up but haven’t gotten around to posting them. Not a lot of craft related things have happened in my life.
Until now that is. I went in for surgery last month and it turns out that the nurse assigned to me was actually working on her 18th annual craft show. She wasn’t even supposed to come in that day. She happened to see my crocheted purse that I made (pattern is here) and she happened to like it. She invited me to join her show.
Now I’m racing to prepare a good inventory to bring. The show is this weekend and I have only a few items made. I still have to get something to display my smaller items and attach tags with my business info. I go in for another surgery in six hours so I’ll bring my stuff to work on.
I’ll post pictures of the things I’ve made later.
After this I’m taking a break from crochet for a little while. It’s hell on my hands and there’s yarn everywhere in my room.
I Blog and Pin
I had heard of Pinterest but I had never really known what it was about. I signed up for a swap on Swap Bot and took the opportunity to sign up for Pinterest. After the weird sign up process (I have to request an invite, seriously?), I added the Pin it button and cruised around on some of my favorite sites. I found a chainmaille pendant that I really wanted to make and so I added it to a board I had created unoriginally labeled ‘Things I want to make.
The next day I receive several emails notifying me that this person liked my pin or that this person “re-pinned” my pin. Most were people I had never met. I then decided to pin some thing I made in a board called “Things I’ve Made.” (again boring but at least you know what it’s about.) Again the same thing happened people were actively looking at my pins. It was so cool. Now I think I’ve got another way to promote my Etsy store. At least when I have something to promote there.
Anyway, you can find me here on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/thezaftiglatina/
Crafters, Assemble!
As you can probably tell from my ATCs, I LOVE superheroes. I don’t own any comic books but I do know the basics to the most popular superheroes. Iron Man and Batman happen to be my favorites. So of course I went to see the Avengers movie. I went with a group of friends and my brother to see it at midnight when it came out. I love super heroes and anything to do with them. I loved Iron Man and all the other Marvel movies that lead up to this super team up. The suspense paid off in my opinion.
This movie was so good that I left the theater thinking about writing this post. My motivation for writing had been dwindling down to nothing in recent years but this movie actually pumped me up to write.
It was funny. I know that’s being obvious but to be honest, it sums it up pretty well. The actors had fun with their characters and it showed. I knew Downey’s Tony Stark was going to make some smart ass comments and one-liners but even Thor and Loki had some funny moments. This was a light-hearted movie meant to be enjoyed.
I loved it. I also love the Avengers cartoon. But of course I wanted to make something to express my love of the Avengers. Sadly there wasn’t a lot to choose from (mostly kids’ stuff).
These are some ideas I found that teach you to express your own Avengers love.
Really Cute And Easy Bookmarks
http://www.neatorama.com/2012/05/12/diy-the-avengers-bookmark-craft-project/
Louie’s Loops: Iron Man Crocheted Fingerless Gloves
http://www.louiesloops.com/2012/05/avengers-assemble.html
Dora from Show Tell Share has an Avengers stenciled T-shirt tutorial
http://showtellshare.blogspot.com/2012/05/avengers-stenciled-shirt-and-how-to.html
From Instructables, A Flying Captain America Shield
http://www.instructables.com/id/Flying-Captain-America-Shield/
Crafty Crafty has links on six different tutorials to make Tony Stark’s mini-Arc Reactor
http://www.craftycrafty.tv/2012/05/crafty_avengers_six_ways_to_ma.html
Artist Trading Cards
My latest obsession is Artist Trading Cards. At 3.5” x 2.5” ATCs, as they are called, are miniature works of art. I’ve never been much of an artist. I like to doodle but sometimes I have no inspiration at all. While researching ATCs, I stumbled upon Swap-Bot.com. There you can join different types of swaps with different types of people from all over the world. I’ve mostly looked at the ATC section and I’ve found plenty of inspiration there. Currently I’m enrolled in eight different ATC swaps. The themes vary from superheroes to Greek mythology. It helps having prompts and I can still put my own twist on things.
Here are some ATCs that I’ve already swapped.
Right now I’m sticking to color pencils but I’m going to experiment with other media.
Reincarnation
If you’re like me then you hate finding a really interesting blog and noticing that the author has not posted in a very long time. Most first-time bloggers do stop writing consistently after awhile. I’m guilty of this myself. This blog has been through so many reincarnations and style changes that I finally decided to scrap the whole thing and start over again. This is a new slate.
So welcome to
