Happy Saturday!

My Saturday plans have been thrown out the window by an unexpected visit from sister in law and my sweet baby niece--yay!
So I have made biscuit cinnamon rolls (from Joy the Baker) and a pot of coffee.
Let the baby kissing and good times begin!

Weekend ahoy!

The warm weather is rolling in and with it comes my cat-like desire to sit under the sun.
I'm planning some projects that will encourage some outdoor art-making--at least that's the intention. It's currently very windy.
With all the rain last week our basement flooded, rendering my art space uninhabitable. It threw me off my game this week, but I plan to be back in the art-making mode by Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy yourselves!

Spring blossoms

Spring has arrived!
I think. I'm pretty sure.
Don't quote me on it because this is the Midwest and sometimes it snows in late April.
The flowers are blooming and the birds are nesting.

Mandalas

This week has been very emotionally rough. From Boston, to Texas, to the deluge that flooded my basement. 

I'm all wrapped up in creating mandalas today. They are in my sketchbook, on my windows in dry-erase marker, and in my tutorial over here.

May your weekend be full of love and color.

This week...

Your quote for the week:
Don't let them tame you
--Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) is considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. She believed that emotion and movement were connected and that you could communicate through movement . She drew inspiration from Ancient Greece, both in costuming and in the view that dance was a sacred art.

She was brave and unconventional. She was entirely herself.

In between Wednesday and Friday

Hi! I am crazily trying to get all of my stuff in order before I head out this weekend to Goddess Weekend; where I will be vending and sitting in sunshine. Oh how I love the lovely sunshine. I thought I'd take a quick break from my crazy packing and list-checking to share with you a quick, thrifty, stash-busting, colorful craft.

Wind socks! I know. Crazy is the word of the day. Maybe it's because I live just south of the Windy City and Spring here is more about the wind changing (from the northerly-cold to the southerly-warm) than it is about the rain. Maybe it's because I'm drowning in my fabric stash. Maybe it's because I am addicted to color and shiny things. But, seriously. Look at them:

Colorful, cute, fun. Everything I like about...everything, really. 

Go gather your supplies: 

• An iron and ironing board
• Scissors
• Tacky glue
• Embroidery floss and ribbon
• Assorted fabric
• Mason jar lid ring (pop out the flat middle part)
• Bells
• Fusible webbing (I like WonderUnder because it has a paper backing. And if you are into any kind of fabric craft, go get some RIGHT NOW)
• Clothespins (not pictured) 4 per wind-sock

 First, plug in your iron and set it to HOT. While that warms up you can get out your fabrics.

Decide on what color you want your top to be. Wrap the ring inside the fabric and measure where the ends would meet. Then cut your fabric to that length and TWICE the height of the jar lid. (So if your lid is 1/2 inch tall, and 6 inches around, your fabric would be 6 inches long and 1 inch wide)

Then iron the fusible webbing to the underside of your fabric. (Each brand of webbing has it's own directions on how long this takes. Ask the nice people at the fabric store if you're unsure)

Crease it down the middle and cut two angled slits in your fabric. This will allow the fabric to sit flat when you fold it inside the jar lid. 

Get out your other fabrics and ribbon. Cut strips of  fabric and ribbon in various lengths. You'll want to have enough to overlap onto your top fabric.

Peel the paper backing off of your top fabric and arrange your fabric and ribbon strips onto the half of the fabric that is intact.

If your ribbon is polyester, lay a strip of fabric across the top so you don't melt the ribbon and get it stuck on your iron. Iron the strips onto the top fabric. REMEMBER THAT THE TOP HALF HAS FUSIBLE WEBBING STILL ON IT. Don't stick your iron on there, or you'll be cleaning gunk off of it...if you do get gunk on it, get out 2-3 paper towels and lay them on top of each other. Then rub your iron back and forth vigorously. Fold your paper towels in half and repeat. It takes about 4 fold-and-rubs before your iron will be de-gunked. (Not that I know from experience, or anything...ahem)

Once all of your strips are stuck to the top piece, lay a bead of tacky glue the length of the fabric. (I forgot to take a picture with the original one--haha, oops!)

This is what it looks like rolled up. Have the flat edge of the jar lid in the middle of your fabric...

Because we're going to put a bead of glue on it. And then fold down the fabric to the middle.

And then flip the whole thing over, so you can see the exposed metal rim inside.

Put some glue in there too. Press the fabric down into the glue, and hold the whole thing together with clothespins until the glue dries.

While that's drying, you can go ahead and tie the bells on to the ribbons.

If your knot-tying skills aren't super-awesome, you can put a drop of glue onto the knot.

After all your glue is dry, tie your embroidery floss onto the rim to hang it. I recommend three pieces of floss at 16" each. Tie one end to the rim, and then knot your three loose ends together and hang from that knot.

Have a wonderful sunshine-filled weekend!