Thanks Blogland & TED for wise words. And speaking of words, I recently added a new 5×7 print to the shop.
…inspired of course by that crazy quilt.
enJOY it
an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.
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Weeks ago, I mentioned I was trying to think of a way to document this year. I considered a lot of ideas and for awhile thought I was going to go entirely digital with an album or book. But printing all those digital 8.5×11 pages seemed expensive and waiting until the end of the year to have book printed through blurb or somewhere did not appeal to my impatient side. I wanted something I could work on at the end of every month.
I finally decided to go with a Kolo
photo album. The one I chose, has two photo sleeves on each page that are about 4×7.75 and are designed to hold a 4×6 photo. Slipping a 4×6 photo into each sleeve felt a bit too basic (left image above) so I decided to have my photos printed 4×8 (with scrapbookpictures.com) and then at home trim off that extra quarter inch so they would fit in my book (right image above).
At this size, the photos take up the whole half of the page which makes the book seem more full and less like a traditional photo album. I first mapped out how my pages would go then adhered the photos that would be sharing a sleeve back to back. Next, I slipped the photos into the removed page protectors and punched three holes through both photos, using the existing holes in the sleeve as a guide.
I created a few 4×7.75 inch canvases in PSE in order to share multiple photos on one print. On the prints with two images, I sewed a zig-zag stitch with my sewing machine down the dividing line to separate them and add extra detail.
As mentioned in my earlier post, this is my book. It is not about Paul and I, but more about the things I will be doing. Right now, this means the book is about a lot of craft projects. And I am happy with that. I love the idea of having a book full of what I made over the course of the year.
I am planning on doing a monthly "here's what happened" write up in addition to the photo pages. The fonts on this page (and for the months that will follow) are bead chain & optima. And yep – just saw that "workhsop" typo. Oops.
Above are the pages I have completed for January & that last right page is the start of Febraury. You can click any image to enlarge. I have decided to include odds and ends that are appropriate in the photo protectors as well (like the paint chip & fabric samples). I also included the text from the blog for the 40 loaves project. I made canvases in PSE for the bread images so I could include four photos of each loaf.
I'm excited about this so far and hope it is fun to keep up with. I store all my photos in iPhoto and at the end of each month plan on just going through and picking the ones that best represent the big stuff. It's helpful that the 4×8 photos are just $.25 to print. I am trying to limit each month to about four to six page spreads, but that may change.
If you have any questions, please ask in the comments and I will answer them there. And PS – I shared ideas for building a 2011 album on Here's Looking at Me Kid earlier this year if you want to try something like this on a smaller scale.
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I LOVE funfetti cake mix & chocolate frosting.
I LOVE that Paul sends me emails about opening a savings account for our future house.
I LOVE that my valentine gift this year was $10 worth of yellow & white flowers at the farmer's market.
I LOVE neon colors.
I LOVE that I am becoming a runner.
I LOVE getting a full night of sleep.
I LOVE following my parents kichen remodel via email and text messages.
I LOVE valentine's day cards drawn on white computer paper.
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Blerg. I've had a case of the blahs for no good reason for the past few days. Hoping to turn that on it's head starting now. Check back tomorrow for some exciting shop news. And next week I am planning on sharing my 2011 album progress and more info about the blog design workshop.
Cheers to coffee. love, elise.
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Above is a dress that I made based on another favorite dress in my closet. I chose to start with this one because I wear it a lot and it seemed simple enough. Just a front piece, a back piece, a strip of fabric around the collar and two sleeves made from folded rectangles.
Silly me. Obviously, nothing is that simple. I ended up doing and re-doing the same sleeve three times.
But while there were some fails with the construction of this dress, there were also a few wins.
Fails : the sleeves don't quite fit into the sleeve holes which resulted in some bunching under the arms and a bit too much flaring out at the end. The collar piece doesn't lay flat which I think is because I didn't add enough curve when I cut the fabric.
Wins : the dress fits & is wearable. I tried a new seam closure at the shoulders that I thought was called french seams. (But now that I have googled the image, it turns out I made them a bit differently.) I love this finish and was pleased with how it turned out.
I am getting better. I still need a serger
which is a machine that makes stitches that will hold seams tightly and keep the fabric from fraying. (If you turn your sleeve inside out right now, you will probably see serged seams.) So that is next. I also think I need to get some cheap white fabric to practice on. Trials on pretty fabric are much more fun, but also expensive.
Thank you to a few of you who suggested this book
. I think it might help me understand how to measure correctly and avoid some of my problems with the collar and sleeves.
Also thank you for humoring me through this sewing addiction.
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Bread no. 4 : Chocolate Cinnamon Babka from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day
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Adjustments : We were almost out of white flour so this was made with pretty much all wheat flour. I substituted half of the sugar with Splenda. And I melted the chocolate chips on the stove because I didn't want to get the food processor dirty and just spread it out like frosting on the rolled out dough. Worked pretty well.
Notes : I have made this a few times, but in the past have done the swirl shape. I think in the future, I'll stick with the swirl. Much prettier & seems to distribute the chocolate more evenly.
Review : Total favorite. But really, it's a dessert, not a bread.
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When we were little, my brother's favorite question was, "Can I take something apart?" Usually my parents would find a broken electronic for him to go at with screwdrivers. He loved seeing the inter-workings and all the different pieces.
This is exactly what I feel like asking my closet. I'm mentally breaking my favorite dresses and tops into pieces and figuring out how to remake them with new fabric. I have looked at a lot of online patterns (thank you for links) and still have not found designs that really feel like me. Creating something out of shapes and silhouettes I already own seems like a good place to start learning more about pattern making.
I'll let you know how it goes. Could be disasterous so I am starting very simple.
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The second time through this pattern went much quicker. And bonus points for no tears this time.
I love this fabric but wasn't thinking far enough ahead when I picked it out. The backside is very white and looked too unfinished at the top where it opens. So I added an extra strip (called a placket) to the back in addition to the front and am happy with the results. I like the bit of white backside showing through at the edges too.
The top version was sewn with navy thread which was visible on the blue/gray fabric so I had to be super careful with my stitches. I used black thread on this one and was happy to find that if I went a bit off a straight line, it was impossible to tell.
I'm seriously in love with this pattern. I need to find more to try though. Ideally, I would like to support individual designers/small businesses (like wiksten where I bought this pattern) instead of the big brands that are sold at fabric stores. Any suggestions? I know the internet has thousands of patterns, but so few seem to be something I would truly wear.
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So, as mentioned, Quilt Watch 2011 is over. But my sewing machine was super bored with that plan. And since we are out of fabric home decor projects, I moved to the next thing : clothing. I bought this Wiksten top/dress pattern last fall and it sat on my shelf because I was too nervous to tackle it. Luckily, finishing the quilt was enough to get over the nerves & I picked up fabric, re-opened the pattern and got to work.
Sewing clothing is SO different than my random sewing craft/decor projects. I have to say, I was a stickler with the rules this time. I measured things. I yelled at my sewing machine and ripped out stitches (many times). Jenny's patterns are super detailed and very helpful if you read though them (my errors were when I accidentally missed steps) and my top turned out better than I thought it would. And sewing something that you get to wear? Picking fabric for something that hangs in your closet? Totally awesome.
Maybe even my new favorite.
(Such a favorite, that I am working on the dress version today.)
enJOY it 