Knitting Dragonflies

OK, it is after the Holidays, and if you are like me, I have an urge to recycle instead of buy anything else! Here are a few idea I found that were interesting! I’ve seen the bags made from disposable plastic bags from stores. Need a tutorial? Tutorial for fusing plastic bags by Natalie Zee Drieu , and some examples of amazing things to do with them. From Etsy Labs another tutorial for fusing bags From Jessica of HowAboutOrange blog, a tutorial on how to make a good looking gift bow from a magazine page Cut Out and Keep.net has a good looking shrug made from a tee shirt, seriously it looks good! From the Vintage Chica  a rag rug tutorial from old tee shirts, and other cast off clothing. Dollar Store Crafts.com has instructions so you can make a tote bag from a coffee bag and duct tape. Recycling is the process of taking a product at the end of its useful life and using all or part of it to make another product.

Yay, the sun is out. We have so many sunless days here in the winter. I feel like when it does come out, I need to go out and really enjoy it! So I’ve been catching up on my “to do” list! 1)Let me see I made 3 Hula Hoops, for Christmas presents, very easy and fun. If you are interested in making one yourself, I have included some info on how to do it: This is the best tutorial I have found for making a hula hoop yourself, watch out, you can’t make only one! He also includes all of the supplies you will need. A taping link, and a hula hoop demo to get you started. Watch out it is addictive and fun, (and burns calories)! 2) Felting gnomes, which turned out to be elves, and Santas! See photo at top, more than one was made but the rest became presents, and this is the only one that got captured in a photo! Felted gnome tutorial here   3) Painting more Sumi-e paintings. Bamboo, Prawn and Iris…. I was amazed that all of my “practice” bamboo paintings were eagerly taken by visi

Therese at Blueberries, Art and Life is my painting mentor. Thanks to her I found a new creative outlet. First a photo, then a sketch with a sharpie marker. After that, I started working on layering the paint on the paper in washes, and letting the colors mix there, instead of mixing them on my palate. I started with my sketch… I then layered cobalt blue, and then alizarin crimson, the areas where these over lapped they made a grey. After this I continued added one color at a time in a dilute wash. Until I was satisfied with the results. This method was fun and I like the results. I’m going to try another similar to this. Layering washes has also helped me in my yarn dyeing process. I now am following suit with my fiber, and applying one color at a time. Although with fiber this has a much longer drying time, but it is worth the time and effort it takes. First successful example I actually listed this hand painted yarn on my Etsy site if you are interested in knitting wit