So remember that burlap I printed with my linoleum’s last time? Well, this is what I did with them. I made pillows!

I knew I wanted to add some piping to the pillows so they wouldn’t be just plain burlap, and I found this great checked fabric I loved. It wasn’t too country because it had some sheen to it, but it meant I had to make the piping myself. That’s a tutorial for another day. I made a little straight piping for one rooster pillow. For the other I gathered the piping to give it a little more interest.


I made envelope backs on the pillows so I wouldn’t have to deal with sewing in a zipper. I also backed each piece, front and back, with a similar-colored cotton fabric to the burlap so you wouldn’t see the pillow insert through the burlap.

Ever since the Country Living announcement, I’ve been madly trying to finish up some of prints needed to complete several of the series of cards I’ve been working on. I was up until the wee hours of the morning Monday night printing cards of my linoleum prints.

I was so excited to print this farm card — the final in the series (for now). I love how it came out.

And I love my new cow, which completes The Farm series (for now).




Some I’d finished a few weeks ago, like the Wyoming Wildlife Series.There’s more I want to add to this series, but I won’t consider a series ‘complete’ until there are at least 4 prints to it, so this is complete for now.


Then there’s the ‘Hen Series’. That’s ‘complete’ for now too.


And I’ve finally got the “Cowboy/Cowgirl/Western series” complete for now as well. I’m working on a cutting card, but it’s really complicated so I can only work on it a little at a time. I also need to add a team penning card (since that’s my event). All in good time.


I’ve got to do one more before I can call the ‘Rooster Series’ complete. That’s going to be a good one!

It’s my goal to get all of these finished series up on my Etsy shop by the end of the weekend. I hope.

They look pretty how I packaged them.


I got an idea for a project the other day. So I made this linoleum print:

And I printed it on burlap. I wasn’t sure how it was going to come out, but it came out great.


And then I printed a couple of roosters on burlap.



I’m going to keep you in suspense though as to what I’m making with this printed burlap…

I saw this lovely Fall/Thanksgiving wreath on Pinterest a week or so ago made of indian corn. It was a link from Parents.com and it looked pretty easy. Amanda is coming home for Thanksgiving and I’m cooking as usual. Since she’s now 21 and a senior in college I take every holiday as possibly the last…Thanksgiving…Christmas…that we’ll spend together as a family, so of course I want to make everything nice.

Now that I’ve made this wreath it I can tell you a few things:  The person that made this wreath either

• a) lived on an indian corn farm so she had her pick of the most beautiful, universally-sized tiny indian corn on the face of the planet.

or

• b) After I’d made it I was beginning to think it might have been a Martha Stewart wreath because it was so perfectly perfect. I guess the people at Parents.com are as demanding as Martha is.

 

The indian corn I found I thought was pretty nice looking, but they were sold in bunches of 3, and the bunches were held together by a tight rubber band, which, as the corn dried, it dried the stalks in a kind of mashed-up way. I even tried steaming the stalks over boiling water to soften them up and unfold the rubber-band kinks without any luck. And the stalks I had certainly weren’t that beautiful uniform light straw color – mine were darker, and some were discolored even more than others.

Also, unless I wanted to spend a fortune on maybe 100 ears of corn to be able to pick the perfect 25 to put on the wreath, there was just no way to get it to look the way it did in that original photo. And unless you were using really tiny indian corn, there was simply no way to but them right next to each other the way they are on the original wreath either. With the lengths I had, and they were pretty small I thought, you had to leave some space between them or you couldn’t have kept the wreath’s circle shape.

However, I still like the wreath the way it is. It’s much more “me” than that perfect one would have been. Even Jim, who doesn’t dole out compliments freely, said he much preferred mine to the look of this one. And it was pretty simple to make. I bought a foam wreath, foam glue (but I think you could just use hot glue if you wanted), some ribbon to cover the wreath with, (you’ll need 2 9-foot rolls), miniature indian corn, some wire to place a hanger on the back when it’s finished, and a hot glue gun and glue sticks.

Place a line or two of glue on the bottom of the wreath. I did a few inches at a time. I pinned the ribbon in place at the beginning of the roll so I could get a nice, tight roll. Then I just wrapped the ribbon around the wreath tightly, trying not to waste the ribbon by getting as much coverage per turn as possible, gluing as I went along. At the start of the new roll I just pinned the end of the old roll into the wreath with the same pins I used to hold the beginning of the new roll, and kept gluing and rolling until it was all covered.


Then I just started hot gluing the corn to the wreath. I decided to keep the outside edges of the corn at about the same height, which meant that some were longer than others inside the wreath’s center. See above for why if you didn’t already read that. Space corns as closely as you can while still maintaining the shape of the wreath’s circle.


When it was done I figured out where would make the best top/center of the wreath, and on the back poked two holes into the ribbon so I could glue a hanging wire into the wreath. I had some covered wire that I doubled and bent into a ‘U’ shape. I hot glued this into the holes.


That’s it. You’re done. Pretty easy, even if it doesn’t look as perfect as that one on Parents.com. It’s always so much more satisfying to have made something than to have bought it. It is for me at least. And I think it looks pretty on my front door with my cornstalks and all of the funky pumpkins we bought this year.

I wanted to try and do some more linoleum prints working off of some of my photos. I usually work from drawings, but wanted to see what I could do with a photo. In printing these three cards, for the first time I used an oil-based printing ink, which certainly made clean up of my materials more difficult, but I really thought it printed much cleaner. it’s also permanent, so when I go in to hand-color the cards I don’t have running black ink to worry about. I thought it was well worth the extra effort in the printing process.

I started with one of my favorites of this crested crane that I took at the San Antonio Zoo last March.

I like this card, but it’s not as dramatic as the real photo with his piercing eyes.

Then I tried a photo of mine of an old pickup truck.

And lastly I did a bunny. Not from a photo, just because I liked him. He’ll probably be added to the “farm” series of cards I’m working on.



I really like him.

I’m working on a new one for the “farmhouse” series, and the final one for the “farm” series will (hopefully) be from a photo of Kiki.

Two summers ago I took a quilting class at the little fabric store in Jackson, WY. With the long winters in Wyoming, a lot of women quilt to pass the time I guess. I was a complete novice, but I learned the basics. And, since I guess everybody else in town already knew how to quilt, I was the only one that signed up for the class, so I got private instructions for the whole day!

By far the best thing I took away from that class though was learning about The Big Board ironing board. It’s a large, rectangular ironing board that you stick on top of your current ironing board that makes a much larger surface. Apparently it’s big with quilters, but I’d never seen or heard of such a thing. How brilliant was that?

I’m a bit of an ironing fanatic. I hate my clothing to be wrinkled. Since I normally wear jeans and t-shirts it’s not a huge problem, but I often iron those if they sat in the dryer too long before being folded. I do not like wrinkly clothing. Not on me, not on my kids, and especially not on my sheets. I’m one of those freaks that will iron my sheets if they need it, and I always iron my pillowcases.

So, when I saw this Big Board all I could think of was how much more sheet I could fit on the board at a time, therefore making the entire process take less time. I needed to have one of these. They explained at the fabric store that you could order one directly from Big Board Enterprises for $129.95 complete with pad and cover and shipping, or they had a carpenter that made them locally for a little bit less. Since I needed mine in Connecticut a lot more than I needed one in Wyoming, I measured the one they had and made one at home myself. It was easy and cheaper than buying one. However, I did need to buy the cotton pad and silicone cover still. They had them in the store to purchase, but you can get them off the website. They’ll cost you $76.00 which includes shipping, so the actual board is only costing you about $55. You need to figure if the time and expense of making it yourself is worth it vs. ordering one already assembled.

It’s basically a 22 x 59 piece of high grade plywood with three boards placed under it to keep it from sliding around the ironing board. The Big Board’s inside railings are 16″ wide, which fit any standard ironing board. You cover the plywood with a cotton pad and put the silicone ironing cover over those.


I cut my 1/2″ thick plywood 59-1/2″ long and 22″ wide. I rounded all of the corners and sanded them smooth. I think I have an extra-wide ironing board, but you’ll want to measure the width and length of your current ironing board and install the smaller lengths of board to the underside of the plywood so the board fits within the space with just a little extra room — you don’t want to have to wedge the big board onto the ironing board, nor do you want it too loose. Using boards that measured 1-1/2″ x 3/4″ (does that make it a 1×2?), I cut them to the required lengths, pre-drilled screw holes to prevent splitting, and screwed them onto the plywood. I ended up with a space on each side between the wood and the end of the board of 1″ on each side and 3-1/4″ on top, but as I said, I think I have an extra-wide ironing board.

When you’ve got the boards screwed on you’ll place your pad and cover on your board and you’re done. Place it over your existing ironing board and you’ve got a great, Big Board now. They’re also great to create a quick, large crafting worktop too.


The only time I find that I have to remove the Big Board is if I’m ironing very fitted button-down shirts. The square shape doesn’t work very well with those. Other than that, I find it better for all of my ironing needs than a traditional board.

My ironing board is pretty much a permanent fixture in the corner of the eating area of our kitchen. I do not have the luxury of having a laundry room, so unless I want to iron in the windowless dank laundry room in my basement it’s going to have to stay that way for now. At least with the big board, I’m looking at the board more than I’m standing at it these days. However, when I need to clean up a bit for company, my Big Board cover easily stores behind the door of my pantry along with my regular ironing board.

I don’t know how I lived without my Big Board all of my life.

I really think I’ve found one of my favorite form of art. I just can’t seem to get enough of making these linoleum print cards. I added 3 new ones to the portfolio in the past week or two. For the first time I printed these using an oil-based block printing ink. While it’s a bigger clean-up, I really liked the results and thought it made a ‘cleaner’ print than the water based ink does.

And although it’s time consuming, I love the pop of color the red combs add to the rooster and chicken prints.

I’m working on a new one right now from one of my favorite photographs of a crested crane that will use a salmon colored hand-painted accent color.  We’ll see how that looks.

On Friday I was cruising the CountryLiving.com website and they had an article on ‘Etsy Sellers We Love“. They listed 9 Etsy seller’s that all had cute things, but one made watched out of tape measures. One quick look at her watches and I could have slapped myself in the side of the head. Why didn’t I think of that when I was making vintage ruler and tape measure jewelry a few weeks ago?


I still had tons of the vintage tape measure that I used for the first project, so I dragged Jim to Michael’s Crafts on Saturday night before we went out for a quick dinner. Having spent little to no time in a crafts store before, he was fascinated by all of the stuff you could find there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a small watch face with a ribbon bar, but I did find some grommets that I needed.

I had a really cheap Timex watch that I bought in an emergency once not long ago, and could put that to good use now. I cut the bands off of the watch, and assembled my new one. It really could use a smaller snap, but that was all I had and it was late on Saturday night when I was putting this together.

And while I was at it, I decided to make a tape measure wrap bracelet. I liked the bracelet on it’s own, but I’d bought this black leather studded wrap bracelet at Forever 21 recently when I was hunting for bangle bracelets for my Sweater Covered Bangle Bracelet project, and thought they might look good mixed together. I loved that.

And of course, wanting a whole jewelry ensemble thing going on, I had to make some earrings to go with the watch and bracelet.

Another fun project for an inspired vintage look.

If anybody would like more tutorial style pictures on how to make the watch, just send me a comment or email.

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With Halloween fast approaching, lots of people that don’t normally craft are busy trying to make their kids Halloween costumes. I’m helping India make a jellyfish costume.

I don’t think I ever read this anywhere, but figured it out by watching foam being cut at a foam factory. If you ever need to cut foam rubber, the easiest way to do it is with your electric knife. The fast-moving serrated blades cut through it like butter, giving you nice, clean edges.



If you don’t have an electric knife, maybe your neighbor does? Everyone should own an electric knife though. You don’t know how useful they are until you have one. They’re terrific for getting nice, thin slices of flank steak, and nothing beats one for your Thanksgiving turkey carving.

While being away in the Catskills this weekend with no phone or internet was great and I enjoyed being unplugged, it doesn’t change the fact that I have ADD. I am almost incapable of doing “nothing”. So, while everyone else sat around chatting, or while Lorraine was finishing the dinner preparations, (yes, I did offer to help), or while we sat around the fire that night, I sat there and worked on linoleum prints. I can still participate in conversations, but I can be productive at the same time. I love that.

I came home with a bunch of linoleums ready to be cut, but managed to get 3 finished before coming home.

I have finally started organizing all of the linoleum prints I’ve made over the last year, and have come up with my first set of cards. Chickens, of course.

I’ve wrapped them up with envelopes and tied them with a bow. They’ve were all hand-printed individually by me on 65# folded notecards. I hope to get them up on my Etsy shop next week, and will be adding different sets to the collection of card sets soon.