Confessions of a Craft Addict

Thanks to everyone who entered this month’s Scrapapalooza giveaway! I hopped on over to the Integer Generator, input the digits and out came three winners:

5. Olivia C.

13. Dawn

38. Loralie (who did not link to a blog)

Please send me an email (flourishes (at) gmail (dot) com) within the next 48 hours and I’ll get your scraps out to you!

There will not be a December Scrapapalooza but don’t fret because the giveaway next month is better than scraps. Bigger, even. Stop by next week and see for yourself. ^_~

There are going to be a lot of purses under the Christmas trees of the people I know and love this holiday season. They’re lots of fun to make, don’t take a lot of fabric or time, and are easily tailored to each recipient. Plus they’re just about as useful as you can get, so no worrying about giving someone a present she’ll just end up having to dust.

I’ve made two of the black-and-white stripwork purses on the left using Autum’s great tutorial (scroll down on that page). You really can’t tell but there’s a matching key fob hanging ver the front of the bag (it’s the same wallpaper type fabric as on the purse, so it sort of blends). I actually embroidered the recipient’s name on the fabric before I made the fob, which I think makes it just a little more special. Don’t you?

The second purse over is another Melly & Me bag. I’ve waxed poetic about the patterns before, so I’ll spare you today. Just note that some lucky person is getting a little of my Japanese Sleeping Beauty fabric with that gift. It’s definitely very girly. It’s probably one of the smaller purses I’ve made, so it’s not the gift for the friend or family member who carries her entire life in her purse. *cough*cough*my BFF*cough*

The other two purses in the photograph are both from Cassie Barden’s book, The New Handmade. I’m not kidding when I say that I’m really enjoying the book and there definitely will be more of both of these bags coming down the pike. The blue (made with Erin McMorris’s Park Slope fabric) is the Flea Market Purse. I couldn’t find bookboard for the bottom insert, so I used plastic canvas instead. It’s so pretty and I can’t wait to make one for me. The patchwork bag was made with more of Melissa Averinos’s Sugar Snap fabric. This one, I think I’ll make an exact duplicate for me. It’s so soft and pretty! The buttons are actually vintage ones given to me by one of my son’s coworkers. They were a perfect match for the green in the fabric so I just had to use them.

I made eight of these cute little bags as goodie bags for Miss L’s birthday not-party and they were a huge hit. The pattern is the makeup bag from Fig Tree Quilts Easiest Accessory Bags Ever. Even making eight of them, they sewed up fairly quickly (although I did omit the handles) and it was no big deal to personalize each of them with the guests’ names. I actually think the gym bag and laundry bag patterns (included) would make great graduation presents. There’s also a purse option that’s in between the gym bag and makeup bag that I’m dying to make. You know, because a girl can never have too many purses.

Our Thanksgiving this year will be one unlike any other my daughter has experienced in her short life.

I’m cooking.

Now, for most of my adult life, I’ve cooked and served Thanksgiving dinner for our family. There were a few years pre-kids and after the boys were born that we had dinner at this or that grandparent’s home but those mostly ended after we moved to Florida 12-plus years ago.

I love making big dinners, even if it’s just for the four (now five) of us. During our law school years, we’d invite other students who wouldn’t be traveling for the holiday. It was so much fun and we have a lot of great memories from those occasions.

That all changed when Miss L arrived on the scene a month before Thanksgiving 2004. Honey knew I’d have my hands full with caring for a newborn and he didn’t want me to overdo it just weeks after having my third C-section. He insisted we eat Thanksgiving dinner out. At a restaurant.

And it was wonderful. A full buffet of goodies, no dishes to clean, no hot pans to juggle, no leftovers to tempt me into overeating for days after. We enjoyed it so much, in fact, that we decided it would be a new family tradition — which would be continuing this year had the restaurant we’d agreed was perfect not turned into a special events facility. sigh

Not that it would have mattered this year, since we made plans to spend Thanksgiving with my folks at their home in South Carolina. Only … their plans changed because of my stepmom’s health and we found ourselves struggling to find a replacement dinner spot. It took a little work, but I convinced Honey that it would be no big deal for me to cook dinner this year. I had to promise that I wouldn’t go overboard, so no appetizers and only two desserts (and one of those is — gasp! — Sara Lee). Oh, and I have to make his favorite green bean casserole (I won’t tell you what I call it but it includes the word ’slimy’).

Best of all, I have an excuse to make Aunt Marlene’s famous Sweet Potato Casserole. I’m not exaggerating when I say that my family cookbook opens to that page. It’s as much a part of Thanksgiving as turkey and dressing (and I make it every year around this time, along with a pan of Granny’s dressing because it’s just not November without them both). Try it; you’ll be just as addicted as the five of us.

Aunt Marlene’s Sweet Potato Casserole
1/3 cup milk
1 cup sugar
3 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup margarine
2 eggs, beaten
Mix all ingredients and pour into a 9″x12″ baking dish. Then mix ingredients for topping and put on top of casserole. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
Topping
1 cup brown sugar, packed (I like dark brown sugar but that’s my personal preference)
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 stick butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup flour
Mix flour and sugar. Spread over potato mixture. Sprinkle pecans over flour and sugar mixture. Pour melted butter or margarine over all.

Thankful: My seam ripper. Grrrr.

I’m a huge fan of giving photos and photo-related presents at Christmas, especially to family members. My parents love to tell me how they need absolutely nothing and not to spend a dime — not the best way to plan my gift list.

My oldest is a senior in high school this year, so I’ll definitely be doing some nice, big prints to give all four sets of grandparents this year. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event, so it’s OK to not have his siblings in the picture. I hope. The storyboard up there is likely what I’ll be framing to give to them, although I’m not 100 percent certain if those are the pictures (and text) I’ll be using. Pink Ink Studios has some great storyboard templates for sale (although you need to be comfortable with Adobe Photoshop and layers to use them), if you want to make some of your own. I like to get mine printed at either MPix or Scrapbook Pictures. To save a little money, I try to make sure I use standard sizes so I can buy a ready-made frame and mat instead of having to spring for custom framing (it’s also a great timesaver, if you are in a hurry).

I love combining cute with useful, so photo calendars are another favorite gift on my list. There are tons of services available that let you plug your photos into ready-made calendars (Snapfish, Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, FedEx Office/fka Kinkos, Zazzle). Or you can buy a digital scrapbooking kit that will let you do the same thing. I prefer the kits, because you have more control over the final product. I’m a huge fan of the calendar kits from Shabby Miss Jenn Designs and the Shabby Princess. I’ve bought from both sites and been delighted with the final product every time. Probably my favorites are the CD-case calendars. They’re compact in size and so useful, sure to be a hit.

Read more…

I’m plugging away on my Christmas gift list still, which is great for my gift pile but not so productive on the blogging front. So look for a slew of Crafty Christmas Countdown posts here in the next few days as I wrap up this year’s blog project in time for you to have all the inspiration you need for your Christmas lists.

I saw the cutest Christmas trees at Starbucks last year but didn’t want to plunk down the money for something I thought I could make. Instead, I picked up a papier mache tree form at Hobby Lobby, three sheets of 12×12 scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, a paintbrush and some white paint, then made my own.

It’s so easy, but a little time consuming in a rather repetitive way. First, I painted the entire tree white. You don’t have to use white; I chose that color because the paper had white snowflakes and also because it coordinates with my decor. While the tree was drying, I cut each sheet of scrapbook paper into .5″x4″ strips.

I swiped a bit of Mod Podge on the top third or so of the back of each strip and adhered it to the tree, starting from the bottom and working around the perimeter of the tree. Each successive row overlaps the row below it slightly (I think I finally realized it worked best to overlap by about a half). I didn’t worry too much if the tree wasn’t covered completely because the cone is painted white.

The tip was the trickiest part but I just worked slowly around it and bent the paper gently so each piece wraps smoothly around the top of the tree.

After everything dried, I used the handle of my paintbrush to gently curl the loose ends of each paper strip. I’m planning to add some silver snowflake buttons to the top of the tree and maybe some glued white glitter to give it that shiny “snowy” appearance.

Not so much a lover of the paper tree? Then maybe you like it’s companion just a bit more. I stopped into the quilt shop one day to check out what was new and immediately fell in love with that little felt tree kit from Artgirlz. Is it not the cutest thing ever? I planned to put it up in my studio but Honey has fallen in love with it, so I think I’ll let him take it to work. It was nice to have something to work on during my Thurday night TV binge last week (Ugly Betty then Grey’s Anatomy — and please don’t get me started on that Izzie storyline. Ugh.) I just sat on the couch and stitched the felt balls and beads around the tree, kind of randomly and without a lot of worry other than trying to make sure I didn’t put two items of the same color right next to each other. It’d also make a nice project to stick in your purse and pull out for those times when you have to just sit and wait.

Thankful: 20. A craft store close enough to my house that I can run out to pick up more elastic when the 300 feet of it I know I own has gone missing.

Remember my string of sewing disasters? This top is actually made with the same dress pattern that went so horribly awry a couple of months ago.

I took a chance that it would work in a woven since it called for a zipper and I’m delighted that I was right. I also sized down, which was again the right choice to make. Whew! I feel so much better about this pattern after sewing it successfully.

The top is made with an Alexander Henry fabric (Kimono Cuties, IIRC) that’s been hanging out in my stash for a while. I’d actually wanted to make a top this style but hadn’t found a pattern I liked (and really was too lazy to draft my own). It’s always gratifying when something turns out like I’d envisioned. Plus it’s just a nice easy-to-sew casual outfit that Miss L can where to school or wherever (including the birthday party that preceded this picture).

The pants are just a basic elastic-waist pant with ruffles. The fabric is a cute corduory polka dot from Joann’s. I wish I’d bought more when I had the chance because neither of the stores near me has it in stock any longer and it’s a nice basic to use instead of a solid cord. (I’m hardly deprived in the cord department; I have a shelf of nothing but corduroy and Sarah has just stocked a bunch of Robert Kaufman cord at the shop*.)

Thankful: 15. Cool craft fairs, catching up with friends and an awesome birthday party celebration. 16.  Lazy Sundays. 17. Sunny afternoons watching my daughter ride her bike in the cul de sac. 18. My texting plan. So much easier to communicate with my teen across a crowded room! 19. The heated mattress pad on our bed during these unseasonably cold mornings.

* Through Nov. 30, readers of my blog can save 20% at IntownQuilters.com! Follow the link and the coupon will automatically be added to your cart. Thanks, Sarah!

This is part of an occasional series of interviews with interesting artists and craftsmen.

Listening to Melissa Averinos talk about escaping into her art as a teenager, it’s easy to imagine her as the quiet girl with paint on her jeans and a sketchbook perpetually in tow.
“I was always doing art, ever since I was little,” she says. “In my early years, it started with just drawing and doodling, then I started doing more paintings.”
She fondly recalls the support her father gave her burgeoning hobby, from buying supplies and books to keeping her work.  “My dad had stacks of my drawings that he kept, and that was great,” she says.
Averinos began exploring fine art painting in high school, including a period of self portraits. She describes those four years as a creative experiment, which also included collages. “It was kind of a form of therapy,” she recalls.
The Cape Cod, Mass., native says her work has always provided an emotional outlet for her, particularly through a medium called visual journaling.
“I would take a blank book and just write some but mostly putting down color, scraps — anything,” she says. “I would spend hours at it a day to keep myself breathing and focused. It was very therapeutic and necessary. It doesn’t always come out pretty but that’s not the point.”
Averinos admits her art journal is not a part of her daily creative life right now but “when times are tough, I know it’s a good tool for me. It’s like a playground, a place where I can just go and be kind of unfettered and not worry whether it’s marketable or it’s pretty.
“It can just be whatever it needs to be.”
For many years, Averinos pursued art solely as a hobby. She describes herself in those days as “an artist on the inside,” while her days were spent operating an embroidery machine, stitching logos and the like on apparel. The solitary nature of her work forced her to take action and admit to her boss that she needed to do something else within the company — or find another job. The move paid off: the company had been considering adding an in-house art department instead of outsourcing its screenprinting and embroidery work. The only problem? The job required working with vector graphics programs on the computer.
“All I knew how to do on a computer was check email and maybe look online a little bit,” she says. “They said, ‘we think you can do this.’ I didn’t know I could learn anything new but they believed in me and I trusted them.”
Averinos’ employer gave her the tools and support to learn Adobe Illustrator, and soon found that she had a new medium for creating artwork. As her skillset grew, so did her confidence — as well as her portfolio.
Her first forays into commercial artwork involved the tabletop industry, and one of her designs was purchased for use on a vase. “It was a lot of work and a lot of pounding doors, and little payoff.”
Averinos struggled to make an income from her design work while she held a string of day jobs. A Craigslist ad seeking a vector artist caught her eye one day and soon led to selling some designs to a print house for use in the apparel industry.
“Victoria’s Secret ended up buying some of my designs and made pajamas out of two prints,” she says.
Each minor success, however, was trumped by other rejections. By early 2007, Averinos admits she began contemplating giving up her artistic dreams.  She decided to take another chance and submit her work to FreeSpirit Fabric.
“I had looked into FreeSpirit when I was looking into tabletop stuff,” she says. “I liked how they promote their artists, liked the other artists with them and I liked that they take chances.”
The gamble paid off and FreeSpirit licensed what now is known as Sugar Snap. Cinnamon, pink, aqua, yellow and cream play together in bold swirls, strips and squiggles. The line debuted at the International Quilt Market in October, which included an appearance by Averinos on the streaming podcast aired from Market by Boutique Cafe.
The line began shipping soon after Market’s close, and Averinos says she’s enjoying seeing how her work inspires others.
“It’s the best!” she says. “Fabric isn’t cheap, so to know that someone saw it and spent money on it is really exciting to me and really gratifying. I take it as a huge compliment.”
Averinos appreciates the chance to become part of someone’s childhood memories, as well.
“I remember stuff my mom made for me when I as little,” she says. “My heart kind of does jumping jacks when I think about it, to think someone who’s a little girl now has my fabric in a jumper her mom made for her is really exciting.”
Read a little more about Melissa Averinos, her artistic inspiration and her sewing endeavors on the Trendy Textiles blog.

If you are in the Atlanta area, you won’t want to miss the Indie Craft Experience Holiday Shopping Spectacular. It’s tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 15) from 11-6 at Ambient+ Photo Studio. There is a $5 admission but the money goes to Handmade Nation and Hagar House. Plus lots of great handmade goods to buy for all your gift-giving needs (because you know you have them!). The delightful Miss L and I plan to attend, so if you see us, be sure to say hi!

Thankful: 13. Candy Cane Oreos. Even the dog agrees. 14. Rain. Not fun for driving but we’ll take what we can get in this severe drought.