Merry Blogmas!

Who is that on top of the tree?!

Is This Really a Craft?

Answer: I don't care.

So here is the story. For Thanksgiving we got the dogs stuffed snowmen out of the Target dollar bin. Of course, they were quickly defluffed and torn to shreds. Well, these snowmen happened to be wearing hats and scarves. These hats and scarves happened to be just about the right size for the pups. You do the math. I cut the accessories off the now mangled bodies, sewed a little elastic to the hats and voila!

Top secret Milo picture 

Hannah loves the pictures

They look like a cross between pajamas, baker's outfits, and some sort of French outfit. Perhaps a French baker headed to bed? 

Why Don't You Tell Us What You Really Think?

The holiday cards are almost ready to go out! You will recognize the elk/deer from the Gocco post. The snowflakes on the front were done with metallic ink and a stamp. Everything was taped together in true crafting fashion. Now I just have to decide if we are including pictures, address them, and off they will go into a friend or family member's trash can. Check out the cover below.

Front (gold metallic ink is difficult to photograph)

Inside

Close up of the Inside Detail- Super Fun Foam Stickers!

So now for the truth. Despite how jolly my Christmas cards appear, I pretty much hate Christmas. December is the worst. For fun, I decided to make some holiday cards that expressed how I really feel. Please note that these are not amazing works of art, or even amazing works of craft. These are simply concepts. Concepts about how I hate Christmas.

A small warning. Some of the cards pictured below contain questionable subject matter, blasphemy, adult language, but unfortunately no nudity. Enjoy!

Front: Lovely Mistletoe

Inside: So True!

Front: A Nice Card?

Inside: Think Again

Front

Inside: Says it all

Front

Inside

Front

Inside

Front

Inside

Front

Inside

A Card so Good it only needs a Front

Front

Inside

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season! Or not, I don't really care.

All Souls Procession (Way Past Due)

I was reading the fabulous Kelly Rashka's blog when I saw all her amazing pictures of the All Souls Procession way back on November 9th, and I never posted my pictures. Here are some of the better ones. I took almost 300 pictures (holy memory card Batman!) If you decide to compare my pictures to Kelly's, please remember she is a pro and I am a rather lousy photographer. Oh well, enjoy!

p.s.  Click them for massive hugeness.

Nice!

Sweet! Image courtesy of Crafty Gear at http://www.cafepress.com/craftygear.112969988

You All Knew This Would Happen

Anyone who knows me well knows I am a "dog person." I am wayyyyy into my pups. So, here they are, the wool felted dogs!

Hannah can really strike a pose.

Show off.

Milo REALLY hates pictures. Really.

Close up of wool felt Milo.

A better (top secret photo) of Milo.

Unrelated: I have recently learned there are more people reading my blog than I thought. Wow that makes me nervous! I thought Nico, Hellen, and Molly were the only ones that read this damn (!)  thing. Thanks everyone for your interest and support!

Let the Holidays Begin!

I spent the last week in the mountains, and I was inspired. 

It wasn't Arctic cold, but it did snow.

When I think Thanksgiving, I think polar bear.

Nice.

And now for a change of pace...

Did you see that??!!

Who needle felts a yeti?

Stay tuned for more needle felting, holiday cards, and other crafts. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Gocco

For our one year wedding anniversary my husband got me a most excellent gift...

A GOCCO!!!

For those of you who don't already know, a Gocco is a personal printing device from Japan. They used to import them, but now you have to find an individual (or small company) that imports them directly. Read more to find out about the magic.

Above you will see the supplies: A Gocco, flashbulbs, ink, cleaner, masters and directions (mostly in Japanese).

Step One: You make an image. This has to be done with a pen that uses carbon (Gocco makes one). You can also use photocopies! I drew this nice deer. I will use it for a holiday card.

Here is the image in the Gocco before I make the master.

Push down and FLASH. The carbon based image is "burned" into the master. The one downside is that the bulbs are only single use (and apparently are toxic). Minor details!

The next step is to ink the image using the Gocco inks. The kit came with gold, black and red. There are tons of colors you can get.

Squissshhh, you press down on the Gocco and the ink seeps through the burned through image.

Tada! The image is transferred! Not so impressive in pictures, but it is pretty cool. In retrospect, I should have filled in the whole body with ink. Live and learn!

Workin' hard. 

The instructions said you could get between 50-100 prints depending on how much ink you used. Maybe it was because my image was so fine, but I gave up printing somewhere around 75 prints. Judging from clean-up I probably could have gotten 200+ prints!

They Multiplied!!!

The next step is to buy some more masters, bulbs and ink colors. The Gocco is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, and I cannot wait to create more great prints. It is perfect for stationary/invitations, art prints, and so much more. I am a convert.