Project Spectrum is back!

This time there will be a few colors available for whatever project you will be planning for two months at a time. For February and March the colors are blue, white and gray. Here is the Flickr group and also the group Flickr discuss page.

I know I am going to make another pair of fingerless gloves for myself and probably a pair for my daughter. I also want to make a couple of blankets for nephews and so blue, white and gray will work perfect for those!

Finally I am posting about the great stuff that Elizabeth sent me!

Check out the picture here at Flickr - the picture has notes.

I love it all! I love notebooks and the purple one is right on top of my desk already being used. I too am a list maker - have been since I was a little girl. This is perfect! (I should probably take a picture of all of my notebooks. LOL)

The bead book is so great! It has projects and my mind is spinning with the great things I can make. And, even better, I think I have beads that would look great. We (the kids and I) have been using the flower paper punch -they love to punch, I made a couple of cards. We’ve been using the wig jig writer to make loopy candy canes and my daughter is itching to help make bracelets with the beads.

Thank you so much Elizabeth!

I have always felt I had an eye for color. Maybe not for picking out my own makeup LOL (I’ve always needed help there!) but for putting color together for a project, beadwork or blanket. I’ve been doing beadwork since I was about 11 years old when my Grandma taught me. She showed me how to use a loom. I fell in love with beadwork and all it entailed - from the actual art of it to the picking out of beads, needles and such. I collected beads for projects I saw in my mind and to this day have a huge collection of seed beads. I’ll use them someday….

But participating in Project Spectrum has brought me back to that time when I was confident in my color choice. I’ve only been a part for a few months now and realize I notice more. At the beginning of each month, I go around my house and look for the specific color, seeing things that have always been there but I never looked at in such a way.

Joining this group has taken me back to a time when I first began crafting. Now I look at an object and think of what I can make or find that will compliment it. Maybe it doens’t need an extra thing next to it, but the idea that one color will automatically make you think of something to make.

I am lucky enough to have a room in our house for my crafts (and my office). I am an avid stamper, sew’er and in general crafter. I found the stencil t-shirts over at angrychicken’s blog. I know I have found other blogs of inspiration, but there are so many.

Another place I find inspiration is listening to podcasts. There are a lot of crafty podcasts out there and they interview other crafters, do a craft during the show and talk about what they are crafting. One thing I am sort of surprised about it how many people knit! When I went looking for craft blogs, at least half (probably more!) were about knitting! Even the woman who thought of PS ColorSwap was knitting in her mother’s womb. I haven’t tried knitting….yet. I keep checking out these craft blogs though and it is oh so tempting. Just last night I said to myself - maybe I’ll start knitting and I’ll only ever make socks. That could be cool. - can you believe that! Trying to add a new addiction!

So about five years ago, we were friends with a couple who had a little girl. She was just a few months old when we met. I decided that I wanted to make the little girl a baby quilt and my Mom offered to send me a pattern, as well as pick up a couple extra fabric pieces as she had a lot to spare. She, being a great Mom, also cut the pieces for me.

Five years later, I am finally making that blanket. Laugh all you want! LOL Sadly, we are no longer friends with the original couple, nor are they a couple. But a good friend is pregnant with her second child, and her first daughter. She is so very excited and since we just moved here, I wanted to send something back to her. I am getting a lot done on it and fast, I’m surprised at how quickly this is going actually!

I will post pictures soon, as when I went to take some I found out my camera battery had died. But my Mom must not have been paying attention while cutting because I had some pieces that were enough for a crib blanket, and others that were only for a lap blanket. So I am making a lap blanket and there will be leftover pieces. No biggie, maybe I can do a doll blanket and send the baby her first doll as well.

I haven’t been on here because for the month of July I am taking part in a 30 Day Challenge. It’s a great thing, I am very focused, but that just means I am sort of ignoring other stuff. Like blogging, crafting, reading fun things, etc. I do have another great swap partner (and Elizabeth, I already received my package! I will blog about it soon!) and the good news about project spectrum is that the baby blanket has lots of purple in it. Or some anyway.

More soon, I am trying to get my schedule back on track! I have been staying up WAY late (like 3AM late) and I can’t be doing that anymore. LOL

Seems as though my crafting has been on the backburner lately! We had family visitors, then I started a new work thing, so I haven’t been able to be creative with my fun crafty items for a bit. I have a plan for the sun paper that my pal Helen sent me, and want to do a few more t-shirts as well. One of my nephews is turning 2 this weekend and there is not time to get him a present - well there is if I do it tomorrow….hhhmmmm, there’s an idea!

I am trading rubber stamped cards with a couple of girls - we are doing halloween cards for July. I used to be so super organized about holidays - I would start buying Christmas gifts in July so it didn’t hit all at once, etc. But these days, sheesh, I am very bad. I do need to get back to being that organized, I am happier when I am.

And it’s July! Which means a new color for Project Spectrum! July is Violet/Purple. I’m excited, I am going to plan out a few projects to get done, Halloween and purple go nicely together so that’s covered for my card swap. I think I have a purple t-shirt to stencil on as well. Okay, it’s midnight and I still have a few things to finish up. That’s what I get for not working while the kids napped this afternoon! Hope your 4th was fun and safe!

Okay I’ve been trying for days to upload this picture and just now sent in a support ticket. For now - check out my swap picture here at Flickr. Yay! Helen sent me great stuff - I’m still planning what items to use for the solar print paper. I remember first playing with that in elementary school and I know I still have it in my box of old stuff.

I love, love, LOVE the pin cushion! Would you believe in all these years of crafting/sewing/etc., I don’t have a pin cushion? The top of my sewing box is a soft, pin cushion’y thing so I usually use that. But I’ve always wanted one and could never find the exact one that I figured I could keep forever. So thank you Helen, for giving me something that I was, for whatever reason, unable to get for myself. I love the color and the bag that it came in.

I love it all actually! Beads, beads, highlight tape (who knew it came in more colors? and why didn’t you tell me!), solar paper, etc. I love getting packages in the mail and I’m glad to have met and befriended Helen.

May has been busy! It is getting hotter and hotter around here and we have been living in the water. Well, what little water we can live in - which means the slip and slide. The kids have been out there every day which is fun, but just shows me how much I “need” a laptop or a way to get my crafts outside with me! We have a great screened in porch and a swing we bought back in WA set up in there, so I hace a nice place to sit while the kids play.

I didn’t do too many green crafts this month - this bracelet was one ~

That uses three clay beads, glass beads with flower designs and a few cats eye beads. I made it for my daughter, she picked out the flower beads.

I also attempted to make leaf beads - for use with my flower beads I made before.

And here are some circle ones that didn’t quite turn out!

May was a good craft/creating month for me. I haven’t played with clay for a couple of weeks now, I’ve been making jewelry instead! I love it, I cleaned up my office and had a huge stack of jewelry magazines. Of course they are half ads, which I don’t like, so I went through and tore the magazines apart. I picked my favorite designs, or ones that I would like to make at some point, and put those pages into a binder. Since doing that I’ve made five or six items - I should have tore them up earlier!

More soon as I want to share the jewelry I made!

ETA: All the pictures I post here will be in my flickr as well - there is a badge over there to the right!