Choice Designs

Gingerbread paper

Yesterday I trolled some of the blogs featured in Artful Blogging. I was zipping through some images at One More Moore (gorgeous blog, by the way) from a trip she took when I had to scroll back, a virtual double take, something caught my eye. Hubby and I were watching a movie but out came my scrap paper and some scissors.

Before I knew it I was searching Google images for Victorian porches: snip, snip, snip and out came some more...

 

And more...

 

 

I wont talk about what was littering the floor after the Karin Scissorhand Frenzy. Love my Dyson, is all I've got to say about that.

I think I feel a new blog header coming on.

a starry tutorial for you (and me too)

I gave myself another assignment -- yesterday was leaves, today flowers. I wanted to employ the little method of making a 5 pointed symmetrical star. Thanks to Betsy Ross we have an easy way to create a perfect little star with a few folds and one snip.

So in honor of the Perseid Meteor Shower, in more magical speak, shooting stars I thought I'd offer this little tutorial for any readers and so I can find it again when I forget the order and proportions needed for this clever little trick.

(I had a star theme for my wedding so we made lots of these little enchanting polygons for decorations. Which are now the background for my tutorial.)

Start with an 8.5" x 10" piece of paper. Yes, you have to trim your standard sheet a bit.

 

Fold it in half.

 

Fold the folded sheet in half vertically and open and then fold it horizontally and open back to the original fold so that it looks like the second picture below.

 

Bring corner A to the right to meet the horizontal center line and crease. Be sure to fold from the vertical crease line. Like so below.

 

Now take point A again and fold it back on itself so the two folded edges are on top of each other like the picture below.

 

Now fold corner B over the top and crease it along the last fold.  The second picture below is a picture of the form from the underside, for reference only.

 

Lastly, fold corner B back and crease it so that the top fold lays along the fold made in the previous step. These directions sound nuts I'd be lost without the photos. 

You should have this nice point where all the folds fall evenly together this is the part that will be your star. All the top points will be cut off. There is a lot of waste.

 

Now the fun part.The one snip that makes all this folding worth it! From corner B cut on an angle down towards the point. Your degree of the angle determines that sharpness of the points on the star.

 

Now unfold...padadadadadadada (that's my drum roll)

 

Magic!

Thanks Betsy!

Now try changing that one straight snip to a curved cut. Flowers! I just love making hand cut snowflakes. Now you can do the same thing to create quaint intricately detailed, five-petaled flowers. Each one a surprise when you unfold it.

 

Leaves of paper

I am trying so hard to get back into the working, making, creating mode. It has not been easy. I have renewed appreciation of mothers. Besides my darling little Truffle needing me I also just want to be with him. He is so much fun! But as much as I want to bask in his glow all day I also need to create. Things were just picking up and becoming steady in my shop and I had a plan for promoting my work when everything went joyously topsy turvy with the surprise addition of the most incredible, beautiful baby boy. So I have spent 6 months getting used to motherhood and integrating him into our home, not too bad since most people have 9 months of preparation before the baby shows up.

Our tiny little house has needed mucho organizing, purging, rearranging. Everything is done in fits and starts as our Truffle summons often. So I have a studio in major need of an organization overhaul and making anything that has been knocking in my brain has been woefully collecting cobwebs on a distant burner somewhere.

I cleared my main work table and gave myself an assignment. Leaves. Using scissors paper an knife I was to cut leaves, simple quick leaves. No planning no drawing. I was to just start and morph my ideas from one to the next for 45 minutes. No pressure to create a finished product, not even one of my many ideas, just something to get me going. Like getting back on a horse after a very long time.

<------  My results.

 My rules included a symmetrical basic leaf shape, rounded with a point. Some morphed as I cut around the shapes I cut out. You can see the progession.

Thank goodness for all the scrap paper my teacher hubby brings home for me from school.

I look forward to tomorrows assignment.

Necessity breeds hurried handmade accessories

It is not the first time I have had an event where I am busily making a necklace or earrings on the way to a wedding or something because I need something "just so". This time the accessory making was for my son. He was being baptized, we received a sweet little cable knit jumper as a gift and since it was from my husband's God Mother it seemed appropriate for my son to wear to his. I loved it and thought it was perfect for a summer event, however; I had no accessories. Shopped for some with no luck. I did come up with an entire suit found at Marshall's in a 6 month size that was on sale. I grabbed it, if for nothing but the hat. The ooutfit was a bit more than I wanted a bit formal and stuffy for a relaxed event in the summer. I say it was stuffy, imagine how my little one felt, check it out. Chef Brockett meets Donald Duck. Poor little guy the pants were cutting off his legs and I couldn't get the top buttons closed and the hat, well I think he would have gotten a headache if I left it on longer. 

I picked up a scrap piece of fabric at the awesome Craft Bits & Pieces that was perfect. So two days before I made booties and a hat, actually I made 3 pairs of booties and half a hat. The day before I finished the hat in a frenzy and I think they turned out great. I think a tutorial is on the horizon. I found several bootie patterns on the internet but none would fit his wee puffy pillow feet despite my adjustments to size. So I made my own pattern and am quite pleased with the results as they stayed on his feet longer than any other bootie or sock that have bedonned his little peds. I made flaps that cross over the opening and velcro to the outside of the foot creating a bit of adjustability and grip. SAKES ALIVE!!

Here is the picture I have for now, more to come with pattern and tutorial.