CraftPudding

:)

2009-12-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

I know, silly title. I am just a little bit tired and can't think right now, but wanted to show that I am still here, alive and with lots and lots of work. I guess that is actually very good :). My shop CraftPudding was mentioned at Cool Mom Picks as part of their 2009 Holiday Gift Guide and because of that I am swamped with work right now, thanks guys! Here is just a small part of what I have been doing (I have a mess too).

One of my stamps was featured too inside of the Simply Handmade Magazine. One of my customers was really nice to let me know, and she in fact wanted to order one for herself. This is an awesome magazine by the way and it has a lot of really cool crafty projects.

free hand emboidery

2009-11-09T10:45:00.000-08:00

I made this little embroidery design some time ago. I was just relaxing (oh! those days) and truly enjoyed myself creating this free hand. Hope you find some inspiration on it :). Got to go back to work!

hello again!

2009-11-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

OMG! So much going on this year! I will have to add many other posts letting all of you to know what I have been up to all this time. I have been away from my blog for so many months that I don't know what thing to post first. But in the meantime and because I am very busy with the shop, I am going to post about the new designs for the personalized stamps that I just listed there. I hope everybody is doing well and I have a lot of things to share with you in the coming days, got a new tutorial in mind to show you too, so keep coming back ;)

fabric contest

2009-04-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

WOW! I just got an email from the wonderful people at Spoonflower giving me the heads-up that they are running my fabric design for this week's contest, along with other wonderful designs. I have been waiting for this e-mail for so long! (a little bit of exaggeration here :) Just too excited). OK, here are some images of my fabric design already printed. Many of you ordered a little piece from my shop already and I got nice feedback, thanks! The designs are not up yet but sometime this Friday they will, so go and vote for your favorite fabric at www.spoonflower.com (Hope is mine though, just kidding :)

better

2009-04-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

I just added to the shop this rubber stamp. This stamp is not hand carved but it looks just like my 'little girl' personalized hand carved rubber stamp. These are way better and I love the fact that they look more professional without loosing the hand made feeling, besides, I am more productive this way and I will have more time to come up with more and new designs with the same hand carved look.

blythe

2009-03-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

I am so busy as usual and I am grateful for that, but I could not let my blog without a little post. This time is to show my mom's exquisite crochet. She fell in love with Blythe (more than I did, I think) and started to make beautiful crochet outfits. She made several for my own Blyhte and now she expanded and opened her own etsy shop called Blue Nest Boutique. Here is an etsy mini from her shop for all the Blythe lovers:

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
BlueNestBoutique.etsy.com

And here is her FLICKR gallerie for more beautiful crocheted designs. LINK: Blue Nest Boutique

stamps galore

2009-03-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

This time I just want to show some of the new custom stamps I have been designing, I think they look neat and I could not stay behind so I designed a couple for myself as well. They come really handy when packaging all my orders.

thanks!

2009-03-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

I have to thank all the wonderful people that commented on my post about the baby food jar pincushion tutorial, I am glad you all like it. I too need to thank to the ladies that kept pressuring and asking to post that tutorial because without that I would probably still be avoiding it, no because I am a slacker but because as I have said before I get easily distracted by new projects and I tend to forget. But it needed to be done because I promised it to my blog readers before and because I wanted to share it, and I am happy about the response from all of you.

Elaina from Sew ducky! gave us a very useful tip too. She suggested to fill the pincushion with a steel wool pad sold at the hardware store because fiber fill tends to make the needles dull with time, I think that totally makes sense. Thanks Elaina!

Another thing I wanted to post about is that the reason for me making and sharing this tutorial is because back in July of 2007 I participated in the Fabric Addict Anonymous Swap at flickr and I made this pincushion with a matching fabric sewing tray for that swap and here are a couple photos from that set back in 2007.

After my flickr friends saw it, many asked me to create a tutorial for this pincushion, and after 1 year and 8 months exactly (oops) I finally finished it (YAY).

Thanks again and there will be another tutorial coming soon!

new stuff

2009-03-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, this is just a short post to show my new stamp and fabric! The designs are the same as in my hand carved stamps but they will come on a regular red rubber material, making them more durable and more professional looking, the wood is better too and for a more comfortable grip when stamping. The nice thing is that they will still look hand carved, I can make the font a little shaky too but my daughter wanted a more "clean" looking font.

And here is my new custom printed fabric that I ordered from spoonflower. It is wonderful! And I will have some fat quarters available in the shop.

tutorial - baby food jar pincushion

2009-03-04T12:22:00.000-08:00

Finally! After so many months of procrastination I managed to finish this tutorial and share it. A few of you were begging to hurry up and post this tutorial already, sorry about the delay ladies.

OK, let's go directly to work. For this pincushion your will need...

Any size baby food jar (empty and clean of course. I like the tiny ones), glue gun, thread and needle, poly fill (that is how is called, right?) or fluffy pillow stuff, a piece of fabric cut in a 5" diameter circle and some ribbon (enough to cover around the jar lid).

Make a knot at the end of your thread and needle so it does not come off the fabric. Take needle and tread and sew around your fabric circle over the edge, DO NOT finish off. Use a simple stitch because you will be pulling the thread to close the circle. While you do this your glue gun should be getting hot and ready to use.

Place the handful of fluffy pillow stuffing in the middle of your fabric and gather by pulling your thread with the needle.

Use you hand to squish the fabric and stuffing to give it some shape and to continue sewing around.

Secure with a knot, and finish off. Cut your thread and the top of your pincushion should look like this.

This is how you will place the pincushion over the jar lid (please ignore that pink thread coming out from under the lid).

With your glue gun ready, pour enough glue on top of the lid. Be careful because the lid gets hot (I know, my poor glue gun looks disgusting. I will get a new one, I promise)

Immediately after you put some glue on your lid, place the pincushion on top (stitched part down)and press firmly to glue it to the lid. Keep pressing until the hot glue has cooled down and the pincushion stays on there neatly.

This is how the jar and lid should look after gluing the pincushion part.

To conceal the messy part of the pincushion and lid, we are going to glue some ribbon around the lid. Use a wide enough ribbon so it covers part of the lid and part of the pincushion edge too. Work this part little by little to make a neat finish and be careful with the hot glue.

Glue all the way around the lid, secure and cut the excess ribbon.

Voilà! Our pincushion is finished :)

I hope you enjoy this tutorial. If you have any questions or there are some typing mistakes, please let me know.
Thanks for stopping by!

again

2009-02-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

Well, one of my New year's resolutions was to blog more often, at least 2 times during the week, I told myself. It is just too hard to organize myself and do everything in a more structured manner, I am just so busy trying to catch up with work and the everyday chores. In addition to that, I get easily distracted by ideas and want to try them right away, I am just too impatient at times. Anyway, I am finally catching up with work but I am so behind it won't surprise me to get a few negative feedback comments at the shop (crossing my fingers so it does not happen). I have been sending extra goodies along the orders just to make up for the delay, hope that helps a bit. I am just too perfectionist at times, and concerning work everything has to be perfect and that takes time.

But in another note, I have been very fortunate about custom requests. I love designing and drawing, and that is what I have been doing besides carving stamps. here are a couple ready carved stamps.

This next image is of a soon to be stamp and I designed it too. I can't wait to see how this one turns out! Oh, and I will be making some t-shirts with this image as well, love it!

And last but not least, here are some ceramics I made. I made some Valentine's day heart pins but they did not sell. I think I was too late to add them to the shop, but they are pretty and will stay there until they go.

I will be back with more. I am so impatient to blog some tutorials that I have ready but need to edit them. I need to finish making stamps needed to go to their respective homes and then I promise those tutorials will make it here for me to share with you.

YAY! I won!

2009-01-23T20:48:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I found out that my 'red riding hood' hand carved stamp set had been chosen by Amy Ng from Pikaland as one of her favorite items from DaWanda. At the same time DaWanda started a competition from this Pikaland's collection of favorite items.

Well, yesterday I received an email from DaWanda letting me know that my stamp set won the competition! Thanks to all the people that voted for my stamps! My shop at DaWanda was not the only winner, one of the voters, englishcookies and who has a Shop at DaWanda too won a €35 voucher to spend it in my shop which made the competition even better.

I am so happy! My prize? A free paid showcase spot! Yay for DaWanda and all the people who voted for my stamps!

New stamp and illustrations

2009-01-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

I recently made this 'Ex Libris' bookplate stamp and I just love the way it turned out. I have had a drawing of this stamp for long time on my little sketchbook and decided to give it a try. It came out much better than I had anticipated.

Another thing I am giving it a try is Adobe Illustrator. It is so much fun and it gives to my illustrations a more clean and nice look. I am pretty new at it but I am working really hard to learn the technical part of it, if you are not familiar with this program it can be a little bit frustrating. Here are some simple and quick drawings I made using Adobe Illustrator.

Banner for Blue Nest Boutique at Etsy

Monkey Button vector using Verlee's blog Tutorial

Happy New year!

2009-01-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday season! I indeed had a nice vacation and enjoyed spending time with my family. But I am finally back, ready to work , energized and creative.

Despite of the cold weather and tons of snow that we are receiving from mother nature, I have been quite busy doing lots of crafty things this month. I have updated my shop and added new stamps, they are all available now and here you can see some pictures.

I have been "baking" like crazy, but not regular baking since I am not very good at cooking and baking :P. I am talking about "baking" little shrink plastic projects such as brooches, hair clips and buttons (some of these are available at my shop).
This is a lot of fun and these are some photos of what I have been making with this wonderful material (I will have a free tutorial on this pretty soon too).

Another project (this came out of an unfortunate situation) is this t-shirt I made for my daughter. Well I did not make the t-shirt but I made the iron-on design shown on it. This came to me after a friend of mine wrote me to tell me that she found a photo of someone else that copied my design to put it on t-shirts. But the problem is that this person never asked for permission and is giving herself credit for the design. I have been reading a lot of stories like this around the Internet; it is very frustrating and disappointing. The picture below is the t-shirt I made using my own design.

In another more happy note, I want to remind you that I will continue posting free tutorials and more embroidery patterns. I have new designs for embroidery that I am very impatient to try and share with you. The next tutorial is coming soon and it will feature the shrink plastic projects.

I leave you for today with some pictures of the snowstorms we received a day before Christmas. Happy New Year!

stamp carving books and tutorials

2008-12-01T20:18:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody! I am sorry I have been away for so long, I am totally swamped with work at my etsy shop and there is just not enough time for blogging more often. Tonight I had to take a break and stop by to say hi to all the wonderful visitors of my blog. I am very thankful for all the nice comments I receive from all of you, that is what keeps me going.

I also have been getting a lot of questions concerning my hand carved stamps. I wish I could answer every e-mail I receive, many of them asking about techniques, material, design and all the process involved in this fun craft. But because I get almost the same questions dozens of times it would be really hard for me to answer each one of them individually, besides there is just not time (sigh). I think I promised (way) long time ago to create and post a stamp carving tutorial for all of those interested in making their own rubber stamps, but after searching the Internet I found so many good ones that I decided to post the links for everybody right here.

I thought too that it would be useful to show you some of the books that I use for inspiration and techniques as well, but the truth is that all what it takes is practice and imagination. After that, you will come up with your own techniques and find the materials and tools that you feel work better for you.

OK, I will start with the books...

This is my small collection of books and you can purchase them at www.yesasia.com which I prefer over all the sites that sell Japanese crafting books (they give you free shipping if you buy more than 25.oo usd in some items)

From left to right and top to bottom: ISBN 9784479920014; ISBN 9784309280400; ISBN 9784529043397
NOTE: just type the ISBN in the search window at yesasia.com to find each book.

A couple more books and from left to right: ISBN 9784834727098; ISBN 9784277430654

The last two from my collection: ISBN 4834723542; ISBN 4391129914 (this last one was a gift from my flickr friend Yvonne)

And a couple shots of the inside pages...

Now some interesting and REALLY good tutorials...

Alma Stoller has a really nice and very original tutorial here at her blog-> LINK

I found this one at Kucachoo Crafts where they use the tools that I started with to carve my first wee stamps.-> LINK

Super talented Holly McGuire from two cheese please has a very good tutorial right here, she uses different tools and materials-> LINK

FranOnTheEdge has a very well illustrated stamp carving tutorial and gives several stamping techniques-> LINK

Junie Moon uses some of the same tools I use right now -> LINK

I love Carolyn Hasenfratz tutorial, this was the tutorial I first found when I just started carving stamps and it was very helpful to me in order to learn how to use the tools. The illustrations, material list, tips and instructions are wonderful -> LINK

RUBBER STAMP CARVING TIPS by Kirbert was one of the first tutorials I used too -> LINK

This Rubber stamp carving tutorial by Vonvonz is super cute and very well illustrated -> LINK

There are many, many more stamp carving tutorials by very talented people. I will keep posting the links and any other nice books. If you have any questions or you find a mistake on this post (ISBN or links) please let me know by adding a comment to this post.

carving fun

2008-10-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

Just a quick stop to say hi! And show you some of the stamps I have been working on for the last weeks.

Love this one

Designed by me

Family stamps

house free embroidery pattern

2008-10-16T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

I have to tell you that I have been terribly sick again. This cold just does not want to go away! These last days I could not even speak, I lost my voice and I was feeling really ill (nausea and everything). I had a lot of stamps to finish and ship and this is the first time I felt with not energy to make stamps, so I had to force myself to take a rest and that is what I did yesterday afternoon.

But because I am an obsessive and compulsive crafter I just could not let go, and my embroidery basket (which has been abandoned by my TV chair) kept "looking" at me in a persuasive way and I could not resist grabbing the basket and seeing what was inside. Well, needles to say, I started (and finish!) a little embroidery design, I even drew the pattern to share it with you. Hope you like it, you can see that the colors that I chose are kind of dull and not very happy, but I guess it was because I was not feeling well.

For directions about how to transfer your pattern visit Floresita’s blog here
click on image to get pattern

they are finished! :)

2008-10-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

My little clay ornaments and mini pinch bowls are finally finished. I will be listing them in my shop tomorrow October 14 at 12:00 central time.

I am happy with the way they turned out, check them up!

vote!...for me

2008-10-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Erin Loechner from Design For Mankind chose CraftPudding as one of her favorite shops from DaWanda (yes, I have a tiny shop in this wonderful site).
I was very honored to be one of Erin's favorite picks and thanks to that my little airstream trailer has been chosen to be in a competition at DaWanda's. In this competition, the artist whose item receives more votes will win a special prize. The competition ends October 20th so there is enough time to vote! :)

I want to thank to those who voted for me already but I want to thank to all my blog visitors and the people that have left me wonderful comments too. So there your know, if you would like to cast your vote for my little stamp just click here to vote.

two months away :)

2008-09-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

This summer is over for me. I had fun but that does not mean that I was not busy, actually It was the busiest summer ever. But I am back to work on my stamps, other projects, and I will be organizing a lot of things because I have a lot of plans in mind.

Something that made me very happy this month is that two of my stamps were featured in the September issue of Canadian Family Magazine. I have not seen the issue because I am still waiting for it, I live in the USA and I don't think it is sold in my town. Hopefully I get one issue soon so I can see it and share the photos with all of you. Hey! But if someone has the magazine, I would really appreciate a small photo of the stamps :)

This summer too, I learned a little bit about making ceramics and I am in the process of finishing some mini bowls and ornaments. I made them using my hand carved rubber stamps and I am crossing my fingers so they turn out OK. I will be making more and will offer them at the shop (clay is so much fun!).

They still need to be glazed.

Anyway, I am very happy to be writing again on my blog and I will be posting more photos of my work. I leave you with some images of my latest rubber stamps and you know there will be more coming soon ;).

Airstream trailer.

New styles for a more grown up look.

Some custom stamps.

Thanks for visiting and hope everybody had a great summer too.

new stuff!

2008-07-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

I know I have been promoting my shop a lot lately (no shame here). But the reason is because I want to stock it of items that I have been working on to then post some crafty stuff here on my blog. I am talking about new projects and some free tutorials.

For this I need the help of my wonderful readers and people who visit and comment on my blog. I have received emails from some visitors asking questions about many of my projects but thanks to my shop and busy schedule I have been unable to answer all of them. So, I would love some input from readers that are interested to know how to make, craft, or sew something (that is why this blog is called craft pudding, isn't it?). Now, start posting some comments!

Now, I know I spend most of my spare time crafting and all of that but I am not expert and obviously I don't know everything. I will limit to my current knowledge to answer your questions as well as make them as illustrated as possible (wow! I just used the check spelling thingy and there were not misspellings! I always post with lots of them, sorry).

OK, back to what I came for..oh yes! Shameless promotion. Here are some new items that I worked on last week and finally added to the shoppe.

Some buttons I made

Some linen tape

latests creations

2008-07-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today I am just posting photos of my latests creations. It seems like the creative juices are pouring out of me. I am tired but I wanted to show what I have been up to lately (same stuff, just having fun).

All these items will be available in the shop next week. I still have to photograph more!

Can't say "no"

2008-06-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

Carving stamps over and over it may seem tedious to some people, but let me tell you that this is addictive. I am having a lot fun making the personalized rubber stamps, although I am very busy making them I just can't say no when people at Etsy ask me to make this particular stamp for them. I design them myself, usually using a picture of the child or adult that the stamp will be for and add a name or names.

I have one for my child and it is wonderful to stamp from books, letters to friends, to clothing (I use waterproof ink for fabric).

I make fabric labels and sew them to children's clothing.

hi!

2008-06-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well, has been a month since my last post and to be honest I have been hesitant about stopping by and write something. I have so much work with my shop that my creativity has been very low and a great deal of things have been happening lately. Good things and not so good things, which in effect are keeping me busy and stressed.

But despite the “not so good things” I am happy for various reasons. First, my shop is doing great! I have a lot of work and orders are continuously arriving but I am glad about it, I can not complain. I have to admit that is a little bit overwhelming and I think I underestimated the fact that handmade custom work is quite consuming in terms of time (my house has been a little bit neglected too). I am way behind but people are very understanding and patient, which eases the stress a little bit.

Second, I want to share with you something very important for me and related to my work with the stamps as well. The great INDIE FIXX shop is carrying some of my stamps! I was asked by wonderful Jen to consign with Indie fixx and now I am part of their growing number of talented designers. The blog is wonderful and the shop is filled with great products.

There is something else that makes me very happy but I will wait a little bit to tell all my blog readers and friends about this.

In the meantime I had some spare time the other day to get my new Blythe doll out of the box (yes, I got into that too) and take some pictures.

After seeing all the great mosaics that my flickr friend Yvonne created, I just could not resist and had to have one, maybe more in the future. She has a really nice collection of dolls and adorable accessories too. Oh! And she has a cute Etsy shop as well.
I leave this post sharing a couple photos of my new dolly with all of you.

customs and more customs!

2008-05-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

Hi! I am busy carving stamps and am very flattered that people like them.

I really think I found my niche, although I am dying for sewing some forgotten projects, I am having a lot of fun carving these stamps.

scrapbooks! (no imagination with post titles at all)

2008-05-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hi! I am back! :)
April has been busier than ever, everybody at home got really sick with this nasty flu virus or whatever! Luckily I didn't caught it (yet). But it seems like it is everywhere! So be careful and wash your hands :)

Changing the subject to happy and healthy things, Cathy from Scrapcat sent me a link with wonderful pictures of her adorable scrapbook pages. She is so talented!! You have to see her layouts and portfolio, they are just great! I have never been into scrapbooks but after seeing her work I think I am getting interested ;) (another reason to be even busier and giving up eating and sleeping all together)

You can see here how she used the little girl with bird stamp that I designed. Isn't this layout adorable?

And here is another picture that comes from her portfolio at Scrap In Style (great website)

I just found them adorable! The stamp gives Cathy's beautiful layouts a nice touch.

Thanks to Cathy for letting me show my blog readers and friends her nice work :)

On another note, in the middle of my busy schedule, I managed to list in my shop a few new stamps for sale and a wooden box with that cute bird nest design. I think the box is really pretty.

mmm...yummy pie

welcome spring!

2008-04-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

I am so happy the spring is finally here, even though the nice sunny days come and go. I love winter, but this one has been very cold and long.

I got so inspired by the first signs of spring that I had to carve more stamps. I think I will use them to make some note cards and stationary and I will list them for sale at my etsy when I finish with some custom orders that I have been working on.

This owl stamp is from a series (owls) that I am working on right now. I am behind on these! Hope I finish them soon.

And finally, I am adding some photos that I took and edited with photoshop. It is a lot of fun and I needed some creative time with pictures too.

I know I have not answered many emails from friends and family, sorry about that. We have been very busy with some real life matters and several commitments. Sometimes we are just left with a little bit of time to be together, breathe and create. I promise I will make some time to write to the wonderful friends I have met, and family.
Thanks!

hair clip tutorial

2008-04-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

Felt Hair clip Tutorial now at my shop! :)
Easy to follow and well illustrated with step by step pictures and instructions!

owlies

2008-03-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

I love drawing so I came out with these owl designs that I will be using to make a hand carved collection of owls. These are not the only illustrations I have been working on for stamps, I got many many others, just can't find the time to scan all them. That is my project for next month.

In the meantime I am just selling a limited edition of hand carved stamps on my shop, the next batch will be more affordable since they will be exact reproductions of my stamps but made on red rubber. They will be more affordable and that will allow me to have more time to design new items.

Hope you had nice weekend!

happy easter!

2008-03-21T22:29:00.001-07:00

have a great weekend!

new items

2008-03-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

These stickers and cute wooden boxes are going to the shop tonight.
It is all the crafting I could get done all this weekend; too busy.
I will be listing more custom stamps and I am preparing my next tutorial which is a nice pincushion for all your sewing needs.

Also, check out the lower left side of my blog (blue thingy). I added a cool tool to listen some of my favorite music while you read my blog. It gets me inspired and kind of dancing when I am working :)

help!!!

2008-03-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

Hello, hello! I miss my blog :( Sorry I haven't been very active on my blog lately, but I am working really hard to meet custom orders deadlines and shipping times for my Etsy shop. I received TONS of custom orders in February and I have been unable to finish. On top of that I have "Jury duty" this month which is not making it easy for me. And of course a large amount of other social and community commitments that I have to fulfill. Oh! and I forgot I have a family to take care of. I hope to get back to normal (wait a minute! I say that all the time Don't I?)
I hope I had my mom here to help me but I know she is very busy too because she is opening her own Etsy shop soon as well. How exciting! :)

New Stamps

Anyway, I will stop complaining and post a few pictures of some stamps that I made a while ago and some custom stamps that I made for very nice people that visited my shop.
For my personal collection

I will be back with some tutorials, really!

Custom order
Custom order

new stamps!

2008-02-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

Just a brief post to show just three of my new stamps selling at my Etsy shop Craft Pudding.

I will be adding more new designs this week.

break

2008-02-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Well, I took a little "break" this week. I say "break" because even though I closed my Etsy shop for one week, I have been carving lots of custom stamps. Stamps are doing well on Etsy but it got a little bit overwhelming since I am not used to this kind on Internet attention :)
I guess it was because the return address stamp was featured on Rare Bird Finds? Most likely. But to catch up with orders and other errands I had to take a small break from Etsy this week.

Lil' Bear Stamp at Etsy

I am going to open again this Monday and hopefully get back on track. I am still working really hard trying to finish orders from last week and hopefully they will be ready to be shipped this Monday and Tuesday.

But I did not have time to rest at all! My house (as you can imagine) is kind of messy right now. My family is lucky to have clean clothing because that is ALL I managed to do around the house this week.

Talking about business, well I am happy because Craft Pudding is now the Trademark of a small Corporation!! I am so happy that I am taking my crafts and artwork into the world of business. I have so many projects, ideas and new designs for this project, and my stamp designs and tutorials are finally copyrighted just in case; you have to protect your work.
So basically this week has been about organizing and setting Craft Pudding to be a serious business! It is a lot of work but I think is well worth it.

Monkey Stamp

In another matter I could not be happier too that my Monkey Stamp has been featured in NeatoStuff.com, this is a great website with hundreds of nice goodies and shopping information. I love it!

This month too I forgot that I had to fill my Local Library Display with some of my crafts! So as part of the crazy busy week, I had to do that on Tuesday. It looks pretty and I already got some nice comments from some people I know in town. I included a little bit of everything such as the artist trading cards and items from past swaps, some Japanese books, international craft magazines too and of course some of my favorite sewing projects.

Matchbox I sent to Oh...My bag

Talking about swaps, this month I got two wonderful surprises. I got a beautiful Japanese book from the wonderful Yvonne (moline) . What a great surprise she gave me, I love the book so much that I had to show it in the display case at the library. The book is about hand carved rubber stamps and it has very inspirational photos and designs. Thanks Yvonne!!
Another beautiful surprise was the matchbox swap I received from Diana (Oh...My bag) from Germany, I love everything and to be her first swap it was fantastic! She spoiled me with so many interesting and pretty gifts. She has a shop too and sent some ribbons from it. I don't have picture of it because well, I had to put it in the display too :)

Well, I have to go now because this weekend is busy and I really need my sleep.

Stay tuned because next post I will be telling how to make tags and I will show some of my new stamp designs! Night night. ZZZZZzzzzzz

nice week

2008-01-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

This week has been interesting, I have been dreaming stamps and strange images of designs and all sorts of things. I have been finding new ways to get inspired and I am in a real need to start some artwork. I have some ideas in mind already I just need to translate them and put on paper. As a self taught artist I sometimes find very hard to put my thoughts and ideas on paper, I need some training I think. I just don't know where to start.

Anyway, I am happy because yesterday one of my stamps got featured on Rare Bird Finds. Love the site, a lot of interesting things to find there and love the bird too.
Custom Return Address Hand carved Stamp

I found out by one person that inquired about my stamps. The featured Stamp on Rare Bird Finds is this Return Address Hand Carved Stamp that I designed, it is custom made and I think is very charming. So it was really nice to know that others find my work interesting, it makes me to want to continue this even further.

Talking about different things, I run a group called Craft Matchbox Swap on Flickr.com. I am getting to know a lot of really nice and interesting people from all over the world there. This group is a SWAP group, we exchange a Matchbox with craft goodies. But is not just any common matchbox that we exchange, the matchbox has to be decorated according to a theme that we choose. This month's swap is Valentine's Day, and it is nice to see all the pictures of the nicely prepare matchbox with all those fun surprises. If any of the readers of my blog is interested, I invite you to join us; it is very interesting and fun.
here is the LINK
Matchbox I decorated for Spring 2007

Well, I have to go back to work and I hope everybody stays warm (or cool). Here in the Midwest of the United States has been extremely cold but life continues ;)

new year, new banner

2008-01-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

I have made plenty of resolutions for this year. Although sometimes I still don't know what path I will be taking in life, I think I am getting to know myself a little bit better. That makes it easy to picture myself in the future.

New Etsy shop Avatar

But in any case, as you can see I have a new banner. Occasionally I need some change to feel renewed from time to time. I have been thinking on a new haircut too, I used to change hair styles very often (and dramatic changes too). I have been longing a cute short hair style for long time... maybe one of these days. But that is who I am; I like change, but the kind of change that is obvious. It gives it a new atmosphere and sensation to the everyday life.

OK, I just wanted to share with all my visitors my new banner and hopefully it gives to my blog a fresh image. I leave you with a LINK that I posted last year (when I had no visitors :() Check it out, it is a very nice Japanese website that shows how you can make nice children bags from old children clothes. Love those sites :)

LINK: Kid's Remake Bag

Happy New Year 2008

2008-01-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

I am here again trying to catch up with my blog. Don't think I am lazy :) because I have truly been very busy and it is taking me very long to come back to normal after the Holidays. But finally, I got a quiet little piece of time to write about all that has been going on in my crazy crafty life :)

Tiny stamps I made

First of all I want to wish every person that reads my blog a very happy and prosperous 2008 year. I received a lot of comments and e-mails wishing me a happy holiday and new year, I thank all of my blog visitors; I truly appreciate the time taken to come and say hi to me. And in gratitude, I want you to know that I am working on a couple new tutorials, but I want to ask you too that if you have any questions or suggestions I would be very happy to create a tutorial about anything (crafty of course) that may interest you. I am not very good at cooking and baking, so don't ask me anything from the culinary arts (unless is Mexican :)) So keep and eye on my blog to see what I am crafting and sharing with you.

Well, talking about crafts, I have been very fortunate (and crazy busy) with the shoppe. Yes, my etsy shop is doing good with the stamps, a lot of people like them and that is good because I can't get enough of it. I love to come up with new designs and ideas, even though my wrist and fingers are sore of so much carving. My husband keeps nagging at me about being careful so I don't "cut an artery", lol. He is so funny! :) But yes, I did cut myself a couple times (no an artery though), so if you want to try this craft just be careful because it hurts!

Valentines

I am showing you here some pictures of the new stamps that I carved. I carved these to make some Valentines for the upcoming Valentine's day. Last year i could not decide on any of those that they sell at the store, there were so many and I bought them in a rush. But this time child and I are going to stamp many Valentines for everybody, which is more fun than buying them.

I am working on many custom stamps as well and here is one that I made for my child. It kind of looks like her a little bit. People are loving this one and I got several orders for similar stamps.

Name stamp

But with the continuing snowstorms around here I am getting a little behind on the shipping part. You see, I have to go to the post office to ship international orders and I am very afraid of driving on snowy roads. Being from a warm place where the only ice you see is the one from the snow cones (and the freezer) I guess that is normal.

Stamped Twill Tape

But anyway, I am dying for doing some sewing too. I miss my sewing machine :( I wanted so bad to sew a coat for my child this fall that I think I will have to wait for the beginning of the spring to sew one. I don't know but I have a thing for homemade winter coats. I always loved winter, even when I lived in Mexico I made several winter coats. And yes, people there thought I was crazy, specially in the afternoon that is when the sun really burns your skin :)
I love sweaters too and I remember my mom saying that how in the world I was wearing sweater in the middle of the summer, and in Mexico! OK, I don't want you to think that I am crazy and don't want to bore anybody here.

Well, thanks a lot for the nice comments received and I wish everybody a very Happy New Year!! :)

Christmas is close!

2007-12-04T07:37:00.000-08:00

I am so excited about Christmas getting close since we will have more family with us this year. I am really looking forward for this season and I have not even started the shopping. Well, I am not worry about it very much since we get things for each other during the year so it is difficult to think about presents by this time of the year.
Anyway, just wanted to show some new stamps for this season and tags that I made. Friends and visitors have been asking about how they can make their own tags, round and square, because they can not find in their area. So I will post a tutorial and tips very soon so you can make your own tags, it is very easy and you only need to invest a little bit of money and time.
OK, here are some pictures and you can find all these goodies at my Etsy Shop

and the winner is...

2007-11-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Vicky E of MIDOHIOKNITTER!! Congratulations Vicky! Thanks for posting and hope that you enjoy those cupcakes (just don't eat them :))
Thanks to everybody for participating and commenting on my blog's birthday post. I am very busy this week working on my stamps, pouches and studying for a test. After all these crazy days I hope everything comes back to normal and start to create again.
I have many, many ideas and designs that I want to share with you. I too will be adding a link that will allow you to sign up for updates on my blog, that way when I post crafty things you will receive an e_mail letting you know so.

Thanks again and see ya! :)

bad internet!

2007-11-25T10:30:00.001-08:00

Sorry everybody!
I had such a bad Internet connection since Wednesday that I was unable to post the winner of the cup cakes giveaway yesterday as promised. It has been fixed (finally)I think.
All these days I was unable to look at the comments all you left on my blog until today, so I will draw the name of the lucky winner today and post the winner tomorrow; be tuned.

I hope all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful holiday and the ones who don't celebrate, I hope you had a great week and weekend too. Thanks for your patience and for all of those kind comments I received.
:)
HUGS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY!!!

2007-11-20T07:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, exactly one year ago my blog was born! I am very happy and grateful for all the kind comments received and the nice people that visited my blog during this first year. I have met wonderful, creative and super talented people this year thanks to this blog.

I want to let you know that I read every single comment I receive. I may answer some questions but because my time is very limited sometimes it is just impossible for me, but I love all your comments and appreciate the time all of you take to visit my blog.
And as a coincidence my Birthday is in November too! (I am just a little bit older than my blog), and I am thinking in celebrating with all of you in some special way. Since I LOVE cupcakes and I know many of you are crafty like me, I am GIVING AWAY TWO of my crocheted cupcake pincushions and an extra little gift too.

To participate in this little GIVE AWAY you will have to leave a comment on any post of my blog and just mention that you want to participate. I will do a draw the name of the participants at the end of the week and I will contact the WINNER during the weekend.(one entry per person only)
I thank everybody for visiting my blog during this first year, I will continue sharing my projects with all of you so keep coming :)
Have a great week everybody!

I am back :)

2007-11-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody!
I am finally back after these couple crazy weeks! Very busy as usual, too much going on with my life but in a good way. It is nice being busy since there is not time left to have bad thoughts :) I mean good bad thoughts (OK, that does not make sense!). What I mean is that being busy is good in so many ways, it makes you realize that there are more important things in life than being bored or getting in trouble just for the heck of it!
It makes you think about how important is to share this life in harmony with your loved ones. Since I am very busy lately, I can not stop thinking about spending time with my family and doing things together.

Well, I have been very excited about sharing this with all of you. A very nice friend sent me a wonderful package full of treasures. I feel so proud and happy to have friends not just from my town but from all over the world. In the last weeks i have been very fortunate to meet many sweet ladies.

Anyway, I was saying that my friend Mette (erleperle) from Denmark sent me the most wonderful and sweet box full of treasures! She makes these beautiful matryoshkas soft dolls, pincushions, tissue holders and so many other things. She is very, very talented lady and her knitting is extraordinary. She does not know but I keep admiring all those knitting projects that she makes; very fine work indeed.

Here are some pictures of all the beauties she sent me and links to her flickr photos and blog. She has a very nice and sweet shop too.
Thanks Mette!

Erleperle Blog
Erleperle Shop
Erleperle Flickr

Drawstring pouch

2007-11-03T13:39:00.001-07:00

Drawstring pouch
Originally uploaded by Mac Villiku.

Another finished project

New

2007-11-02T15:45:00.001-07:00

more twill tape
Originally uploaded by Mac Villiku.

twill tape now at my etsy shop

new at my shop

2007-11-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

A few new items listed on my Etsy Shop

Birdie twill tape

Nice Birdcage Greeting Card

Some Cute Printed Tags

technical problems

2007-11-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you noticed but I got a little problem with my blog. The pictures of some of my tutorials are dissapearing. I tought I fixed it yesterday but no, they are still missing.
Anyway, bear with me while I fix the problem and upload the pictures again. I am kind of (very) busy right now, so expect these technical problems to be fixed by tomorrow.
Thanks for visiting anyway :)

patchwork sewing basket tutorial

2007-10-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

OK, so here is the promised tutorial I have been working on for long time. I started this project a while ago and finally I made some time to finish it and take pictures.

I will show step by step how to make a pretty patchwork lid for a basket. You can use it to put your sewing supplies inside, crochet, crafts or whatever you are working on. My Child uses one just like this as a pretend picnic basket.

I got inspired by one of those Japanese zakka style crafty websites that have very weird signs and fonts. I saw a basket similar to this one while surfing those sites and I liked it, so I decided to make one for myself and share the process with you. I hope you enjoy it.

First you will need...
a basket, any type but small. There are different types, with handles or without them . The one I chose has one handle and it works pretty good. I could not decided if I wanted the square one so I thought I will make that for later.

Materials and tools: sewing machine, scraps of fabric, light weight batting, leather cord (or ribbon or jute), trim like rick-rack or lace, one wooden button (plastic or metal if you like too), a piece of heavy cardboard (big enough to make the top of the basket), white poster board, glue gun and glue sticks, scissors, a card box cutter, one upholstery needle or big embroidery needle, pencil, pen and tool pliers.

First place the chosen basket up side down and trace the opening of it on the cardboard. Cut it and use the cardboard shape to trace onto the poster board like in the picture, cut it too.

Place the batting on a flat surface and cut a piece that is slightly larger than the cardboard top.

Now take your fabric scraps and trim and make a pretty patchwork piece. Iron it and place it under your cardboard top. Cut your patchwork around and about 1" (inch) larger than the cardboard piece. You are going to "glue gun upholster" :)

Place the patchwork piece under (wrong side up), the batting and then the cardboard. Glue the fabric around the edges pulling slightly towards the center of the cardboard so it gives it a nice stretch to the fabric (almost like upholstering). Don't worry if it looks messy, we are covering the center in a bit. Just make sure the exposed edge looks neat.

This is how your glue gun upholstered cardboard should look, cute uh?

Now cut a piece of fabric that is larger around the piece of poster board and follow the same process as with the cardboard but just don't use batting here. This is the piece that will conceal the back side of the cardboard top for the basket. Now both pieces are covered and neat looking.

Take both covered pieced and hot glue one with another with the wrong sides together. Now your basket lid is finished.

Here is how it looks. Next, determine where you want to open it from and hand sew a button close to the edge on the patchwork side of the lid.

Cut a piece of leather cord, ribbon or jute and slide the two ends through some of the open spaces of your basket. Just make sure the cord is long enough because this will be the loop to fasten the button. Place the lid on your basket and adjust the cord so it is easy to wrap around the button.

Take the lid off and knot the ends of the cord from the inside of the basket, cut off the ends if is too long.

Place the lid on top of the basket again and with a pencil mark two points, those marks are for the "hinges" of the lid. Use the upholstery or big embroidery needle to pierce a whole throught out the lid and use the same needle to pass a long piece of cord too, use the pliers to pull the needle if it gets difficult. Do the same with the second mark.

The first picture shows how the lid should look with the two long pieces of cord.
Next pass one end of each piece of leather cord through some spaces of the basket like the second picture shows.

Line up the edge of the lid and the edge of the basket and make knots the cord to secure the lid, don't pull the cord too tight, just enough to keep the lid lined with the basket and easy to open and close; cut off any excess.

Close the lid and this is the way the hinges should look.

NOW...

Your basket is done! Now you can put that WIP inside your pretty basket and take it anywhere! My daughter love it and thought that it will make a pretty pretend picnic basket for herself; that is actually a great idea for a little girl too!

I hope you all enjoy this project and show yours if you make one please :)

finally! :)

2007-10-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

Hello to all my blog visitors! I missed very much to post something for you on my blog, I have been really busy lately but I could not wait anymore to show you a preview of my next tutorial. I got all the pictures edited and it is just a matter of adding the directions to the final project. Here are some pictures so you start gathering some scraps of fabric from your stash.

This was a fun project and very fast one too, no complicated at all.

I saw a basket like this one long time ago while sneaking into one of those cozy Japanese craft websites. I liked it so much that the image got well recorded in my brain like a picture :). I think I bookmarked the site but after two computer crashes I lost it, pictures and everything (my hubby is really good recovering data when crashes happen, but that time it was out of his hands) :(

Anyway, I will be posting tonight all the photos and steps that take to make this pretty zakka style sewing basket. Be tuned!

hello!

2007-10-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

WOW! Eight days without posting on my poor and abandoned blog. I know , I know, I have to get that promised tutorial in here. Soon I promise :)
Well, has been a long and busy week, I have been carving stamps like crazy! My child loves them and I making a set for her too. I am having a good time selling them at my etsy shop CRAFTPUDDING too and I am coming up with new designs that I will be listing there. I will add some sets of 4 with different designs so people can mix and match.

Continuing with the stamps, a few days ago I listed on my shop this stamp set which includes a stamp with your etsy shop name, website or any title you want, a stamp with a cute design or your own logo, and a tiny stamp to decorate the rest. I made one set for myself and this is how it looks...I am using this set for my mailings, labels, cards, tags and anything that needs my etsy shop title.

Anyway, enough with the stamps! :) I have so many projects waiting for me to be finished but it is so upsetting that time is short and the days go by so fast. Some of those projects include a couple fall jackets for my child, and a couple uniforms for school (I got a nice dressy fabric for those), a linen patchwork scarf and a set of crochet mittens and winter hat. I want to add some cute bags to my etsy and a sewing pattern (with pictures and everything) *sigh* So much to do and not enough time.
OH! I almost forgot to show these wristlets that I made as a special order. They look really nice in person and I am sure that the person that order them is going to love them. This was a fabric I had left and I love it. Here they are...

OK, I promise next post is about a new tutorial, so keep coming :)
Thanks!

graphics

2007-09-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

Oh boy! What a week! So busy around here, but it is getting better and I am getting the hang of it with the shop, the house, errands and everything else. I guess it takes time to have every little thing under control, specially when when you want to do it all!
Anyway, this post is about showing my visitors one of the other things I like to do (if you have not noticed it), and that is drawing. I am not what you can say "a real artist", I least I don't consider myself that way; I just like to draw when I feel inspired.
I remember when I was in middle school I used to doodle a lot! All kinds of doodles, specially geometric shapes. For some reason I used to draw everything in triangles and I don't know if that meant anything but I remember doing that. Anyway, I am back into my old habits and I have been drawing little things in a more consistent manner. This time my doodles are less abstract and have the shape of what I like now. At this time I am into round shapes and swirls! What a contrast! For some reason I think that has to do with my emotional state, I don't know.

OK, getting back to what I wanted to tell you is that I am enjoying drawing! I just love it! And taking advantage of my minimal drawing skills I have designed some graphics for two very nice people.
I have used my skills to design a blog banner for Mette from ERLEPERLE (check her blog because it is really nice)

And a website banner, etsy banner, avatar and ad logo for Kelly from Banana Showcase (she makes great bags!).
I was very glad that they were happy with my work and I just want to say that it was a blast to come up with something that other people appreciate and makes them unique. In addition to that, I have met two very nice ladies and that is what it counts too.
I hope I get more requests to design something for other people, because I am loving it! Thanks! :)

more new stuff at my shop

2007-09-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Here is another picture mosaic with new little things that I added to my etsy shop. I finally added some hand carved stamps that some people were asking for. Take a look! :)

old memories

2007-09-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share this mosaic with my blog visitors just to show you how much I love fabric (and sewing, of course). These pictures are old, of when I got my first digital camera. You will notice that it was not a very good one or maybe I was not very good at taking pictures then, not that I am a pro photographer right now but I think I have improved.

Well, these are some bags that I made long time ago when I found that making handbags was actually a lot of fun. My father in law who was an interior decorator, gave me a lot (I mean A LOT)of fabric samples for crafts. Since I am a stay at home mom and my child was a baby then, I had a lot of time to think about what to do with those samples. They were small and I could not think of anything, besides I was not into craft shows and had no friends to give cute little handmade gifts away. So I had not idea how to employ these small pieces of material.

Then I thought: "I can make coasters for the house!!" :) and I made several sets, after that I start making little pouches, cards, you name it. As you can figure my brain started to get more creative and then I thought that I would try to make a bag, but how? The pieces were to small, and the idea came to me; I could make one out of combining pieces of different fabrics! And that is how everything started.
I continued sewing bag after bag until I had not room where to put them and then I decided to venture into craft shows, and I have to say that I was actually very successful from the beginning and I had a blast!

Anyway, I have not stopped making bags and other accessories ever since and here is this picture mosaic of my first handmade bags.

new addition

2007-09-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

New at my etsy shop

new batch

2007-09-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

This is a new group of stamps that I hand carved. I use erasers because they are inexpensive and a good way to practice.

With this new batch I used some erasers that I got from a swap with Barb (aka craftsty), the are a little crumbly thought but work fine. The white polymer ones work really good.
I am working on a little one (a tree) as a special order that I received from Melissa (Wishes Dreams Love). Yes I make special orders, so if you are interested just send me a message.
But anyway, I make them too on linoleum which is the right material to carve stamps and there are several websites on the Internet that sell this material.
I will post a picture later of the one that I will be making for Melissa.

busy, busy

2007-09-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy these couple weeks but I made some time to fit a couple crafty projects in the last couple days. I have a lot of other things to do but I needed some crafty therapy, so after posting these photos I will do some e-mailing and conclude an illustration commission I have to finish.

These are 2 key chains I was asked to make by an etsy customer. One is for her and the other one is for her hubby.This is the back side. She wanted me to add their initials and here is how the letters look embroidered.
And this is a very quick project I made for a lady that sent me some very needed goodies some time ago.
OK, back to work...

free embroidery pattern

2007-08-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

This time I want to share with all my blog visitors and readers this embroidery pattern. I made this drawing for my Illustration Blog and I thought that this same drawing will make a beautiful embroidery design.

You can use the design for a pillow, a quilt, a dress or whatever comes to your mind. I embroidered this one for the center of a pillow. I will add a border with different fabrics (patchwork) that match the embroidery thread colors.

Here is a tutorial created by Floresita about how to use a transfer pencil. You are going to need Floresita's tutorial in order to trace this free pattern onto your fabric. LINK
Make sure to visit Floresita's blog because she has wonderful ideas, patterns and nice crafty and embroidery articles (she runs a couple more blogs too).

I hope you enjoy this pattern and if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will answer right here.

Click the picture to get the pattern

The pattern is a jpeg file. If you want to make it smaller or bigger, you can reduce or enlarge it on a photocopy machine OR use a picture program like photoshop to resize it.
Another way to enlarge or reduce the pattern is to open your print preview option from your browser window, there you will have a little window on the top that says "shrink to fit" click on the arrow next to it and you will have a series of percentages and even a custom size option. Select the desired percentage and you will be able to see the desired size of your pattern.

zakka style

2007-08-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

This is a brief post just to show a couple new items I listed at my etsy shop. I will be adding more and I am still working on that tutorial OK?

swap softie

2007-08-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

This is actually the 3rd soft toy I made. It is for a swap and it's not perfect but I think I am improving. I want to make some for gifts and in different colors and fabrics; maybe floral. Thanks everybody for visiting. If you are interested in the FAA swaps just click here, it is a lot of fun. If you want to know what FAA stands for, just visit the group's page and you will understand why I am a member :)

close to school days

2007-08-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers.
Well, last couple weeks have been about drawing, photography and a little bit of sewing. I am organizing my sewing items and as you can imagine the mess around does not give me much space to expand and start different sewing projects. My hands and camera are itching to finish that tutorial that is in progress; it is a surprise by the way (nothing special, just keeping it secret).
We have been getting out of the daily routine by taking short trips and visit some small towns up north here in the midwest. We took a ride to Upper Michigan and I loved the scenery of Lake Superior, absolutely love it. I wish we had more time to stop and take more pictures of the old mines and lighthouses, these are the kind of trips I like to take.
I love black and white photography so as a beginner I just wanted to share a few photos that I have been capturing in the last weeks. I am having some fun before going back to normal, before days of school and summer. I am anxious for the fall and to see the beautiful colors on the trees.

illustration greeting and note cards

2007-08-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

Today I start selling my illustrations printed on greeting cards and note cards. The address to get them is: www.cafepress.com/tapazolli. There in cafe press they have a lot of products that can be customized with personal illustration. I really think that is a great idea, I myself got some greeting cards with my own illustrations. I will be adding some apparel and baby stuff too, so keep checking. I am working on some new very beautiful illustrations too and some photography.

I too have been working on some new bags ZAKKA style for my etsy shop, I love all the Japanese style handmade goods so I am working and making some really neat goodies. So as I said before keep checking.

I forgot to mention that I got some special promotion at my ETSY shop too. I am giving free shipping on some items so why don't you go and take a look for more details. OK enough for today. have a great week and thanks to all my readers for such nice comments and for visiting my blog.

P.S. Got a new tutorial in the oven and is coming soon :)

my new illustration blog

2007-08-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

OK, as I commented in the last post I finally started my new Illustration Blog. It's name? Tapazolli, which is a Nahuatl word and it means "bird nest". Nahuatl is the most spoken Indigenous language in Mexico, just in case you don't know what "Nahuatl" means.
I think it will be way more practical for me to keep my illustrations and artwork separated from my crafty posts and pictures since I want to continue adding tutorials and show my latest creations on this blog.
In my illustration blog I will be more concentrated on creating a particular style as well as a way to promote my Illustrations for custom work, banners, headers, logos and so on.
Here is the link, take a look.

coming soon

2007-08-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

In the near future I will be adding a new blog with some of my drawings. It's a project that I have been planing some time ago. I will feature digitalized hand drawn designs and I will be taking custom orders for websites, banners for blogs and ETSY shops, and avatars.
I am planning to feature some aceos, and atc's as well as custom prints for greeting cards, business cards, etc.
I will give more details in the near future. In the meantime if you have something in mind about a design for your banner or blog header, don't hesitate in dropping me a line to my email. I do custom work.

doodling around

2007-08-07T14:41:00.001-07:00

Today I was playing with the pens that my hubby gave me as presents while my daughter was trying to imitate what I was doing. We were waiting for the plumber (the water heater broke)and in the meantime we were doodling around together. I wanted to try photoshop and doodles for long time now. And since I stop sewing for a little bit, I wanted to finally give it a try to photoshop. Here is what my doodles ended up looking like.

I have been looking on the Internet a nice tutorial about photoshop and hand drawings but I could never find anything helpful. I have to admit that I have been afraid of photoshop before. It was to confusing for me to use at times, and I did not want to get frustrated. I do photoshop some pictures and that has been a good way to practice and get to know the program a little bit (I know, I sound sort of photoshop illiterate).
I do have drawing skills and I want to make it more fun with photoshop. lets see what else I come up with...I am getting ideas now (oh no!).

printed labels and card holders

2007-08-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

These are being added to my ETSY shop. Take a look.

The wonderful iSew blog has a great idea on how to make your own labels for your crafts or sewing projects. I really had to give it a try and I was very pleased with the results.
I made a batch of cardholders for my ESTY shop and I love the fact that the labels make the cardholders look nicely finished. I thank iSew for sharing this great idea with others. If you want to know more about how to make your own labels, visit the iSew blog following this LINK. Make sure to visit her online store or Etsy shop because she makes beautiful quilts and wonderful handbags.

another one

2007-08-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

one more for the store

Work In Progress

2007-08-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

Finally I have some extra time to write on my blog. With the sizzling weather and running all over from place to place I ended up without much energy to come and write all this week.
But what's more I have been crafting (very unusual, right?). I have been sewing some of those patchwork wristlets even when tired from the everyday chores because they are so much fun to make.
I love making color and pattern combinations but when the color schemes get crowded in my head I definitely have to write down my ideas, otherwise you usually see me looking at my color wheel. It is a good tool thought, but it gets me confused sometimes.
Here are is a picture of the work in progress:
And here is a picture of one of the wristlets that I finished and I will be adding to my ETSY shop. So if you are interested just check it out

as seen in Cuteable.com

2007-07-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

My key rings have been featured in Cuteable.com! I am very happy there is such a nice place where you can find really cute things.
I am happy too that there is a place that does such a great work in featuring the works of crafters and artists, and I thank them for including me. Please visit Cuteable.com or visit the Cuteable group's photo stream at Flickr.com.
Thanks!

felt key rings

2007-07-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

I will be making more of these and listing them on my Etsy shop pretty soon.
I have so much fun making these little key rings but it takes a while to make them, they are little but time consuming.
I have been sketching some other fun designs but in the meantime if you have not seen how I make these key rings take a look at my tutorial. There I show how to make one of these. Link.

i love fabric, i love recycling

2007-07-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

I enjoy sorting and choosing fabric for my always upcoming projects. In fact I can spend hours trying to decide what fabric I will be using.
But nothing compares to sort little pieces of fabrics like these ones.
These are interior decor fabric samples that I inherited. They come like this:
and I end up organizing and sorting them like this to use them for my sewing and craft projects.
If I don't do that, they would end up in the garbage and I JUST CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN!!(sorry, I got a little bit emotional here).

I just can't bear to imagine what the textile industry does with fabric samples of fabrics that are not longer available (I know , is too much to keep). But if you know , please let me know (or maybe I will search on the net). OH! yes I have seen them at JoAnn's for sale, but if you ask me, those are samples big enough for cushions. Here I am talking about the 4" by 7", like the ones that I have. What do they do with those?

Me? Well, I am always imagining, thinking and finding ways to use those little treasures. Somehow I always come up with something like fabric tags or pouches, bags and little crafts.
And is not like these fabrics are cheap, they can be really expensive (if you buy them by the yard of course). Some pieces are just beautiful, made in places from all over the world. Some others are so astonishing that they deserved to be put in frames.
I feel a little bit better knowing that I can rescue some of this fabric, and lucky too for having the skill to transform something simple and so little into something that can be appreciated.

fabric card holder tutorial

2007-07-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

Click on the photos for bigger view.

Do you want to make this cute card holder? Well here is one of my new tutorials to make it. It is very simple and you don't need a lot of fabric. You can use it to hold your business cards, driver's licence, library card or any other type of card. I use them for my library card or as a present with a gift card inside.
OK, let's start!

You will need
1)heavy fabric for the outside and flaps and a lighter fabric for the lining. 2) A ruler. 3) poster board or heavy paper to trace the pattern. 4) A pen. 5) Pinking shears. 6) Fabric scissors. 7) Velcro (I forgot to put it here for the photo, sorry.)

On the poster board or heavy paper, trace two rectangles. One should measure 4 1/4" by 5 3/4" and the other one will be 4 1/4" by 2 1/4". Cut them and those will be your templates for the cardholder.

Using your the large template trace onto the lining and a piece of the heavy fabric to get two rectangles. With the small template trace two rectangles on other piece of heavy fabric. Don't cut it yet until next step.

Cut your two bigger pieces with the fabric scissors. Cut the smaller pieces too with the regular scissors but use the pinking shears to cut on one of the edges (the wide side)of each small rectangle.
Now you have your 4 pieces of fabric; the lining , the outside and two inside flaps.

Using the pen make two marks on the inside flaps making sure they are in the same spot, like I show in the picture. Cut a piece of Velcro positioning the fuzzy and the rough sides together, that way the two sides of the Velcro are the same size.

Separate the Velcro and position them just above the marks that you made on each side of the flaps.

Position the Velcro in place and sew it. make sure they are centered and that you sew them on the right side of the fabric.

The assembling starts here. Lay your outside fabric face down, lining face up and the two flaps side up like the picture (click the picture to zoom in).

Pin the whole piece making sure that all the pieces of fabric are aligned and in place. Sew the piece around the edges with a 1/4" seam approx.

Your piece should look like this.

With the pinking shears cut around the edges to avoid unraveling of the fabric. Cut very close to the outside edge so you don't cut the stitches.

Fold your card holder in half and press with a warm iron to make a crease in the middle. You can add a little embellishment.
Now you have a nice cardholder for you or to give as a little gift.

Tip: I used a lighter fabric for this one but I ironed some fusible stabilizer to the fabric so it will make it a little bit more stiff and hold it's shape.
Have fun!

New Etsy Shop

2007-07-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Today I opened my new Etsy shop called Craft Pudding, I know is kind of a silly name but i really like it :).
Anyway, I am still working on more items to list on the shop and see how it works. The downside is that I am just accepting Money orders as payment option, and there are so many reasons for that. But I won't talk about that until later.
So if you are curious and want to check out my new e_shop just click here. As I said before I will be listing more handmade goodies very soon. Thanks!

baby food jar pincushion/sewing kit

2007-07-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

I don't have babies anymore but I got a ton of baby food jars that I have saved for the "one day I might need them" or "I can make something out of these!" (I just did not know what at the time).
So, I made a pincushion for the FAA exchange (this stands for Fabric Addicts Anonymous, the right flickr group for me). Anyway, I think is kind of cute, specially because I used the little jars.
Sorry I don't write much about me on my blog; too busy crafting :)

crafting with felt

2007-06-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

I just love how many things I can make with felt. I made a watermelon needlebook and a kitty pouch. Love the vibrant colors of felt too.

fabric covered button tutorial

2007-06-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

You can cover your own buttons without buying the cover buttons kit. Here is how:

You first will need...

1. Scrap of fabric (enough to cover the button that you will be using)
2. A button with a shank. (Button with a loop on the back. No holes)
3. Scisors
4. Embroidery thread (just 3 ends)
5. Fine needle
6. Ruler
7. Ball point pen

With the ruler measure the distance between the shank and the edge of the button.

With the pen and from the edge of the button, mark onto the fabric the distance that you obtained from measuring the inside of the button.

With the button on the fabric and upside down trace around the button the circumference of the piece of fabric needed to cover the button. Put the button aside and cut the circle.

With the needle and the embroidery thread, stitch a running stitch along the edge of the fabric circle. Make sure to leave a tail of thread long enough to make a couple knots.

Place the button up side down right in the middle of the stitched round piece of fabric.

Pull both ends of thread until the fabric snuggles the button.

Make a couple knots making sure the fabric is tight around the shank of the button.

It should look like this.

There should not be any fabric or thread blocking the button's shank so you can sew your button to your projects.

And here they are all ready to use. Have fun!

felt + embroidery card holders

2007-06-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

I made these for boys. I make these cardholders to give with birthday gifts, they are fun to make and kids love them. They can be used for library cards or gift cards.

heart felt + embroidery barrettes

2007-06-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

I made these for a swap. I have been thinking about making a tutorial about how to make these, coming soon :).

bottle cap pincushion

2007-06-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have not been able to tag anybody so far, I'll do that later. But for now I want to show this pincushion. I found some photos on flickr about bottle cap pincushion and I think they are the cutest pincushions I have seen so far. I made this one and was really easy plus the bottle caps are being recycled. I always thought that something could be made out of bottle caps but I could not think what; now I know.

tagged

2007-06-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been tagged. Moline just let me know that she tagged me and to be honest I was afraid it will happen to me :).
It's not that I am so private that I don't want to say anything about me, I am just shy talking about myself. I have seen so many creative people out there sharing their talents and lives that to say the truth I admire such confidence, but me...ouch!
Don't think that I am lazy to write about me or that there is nothing interesting going on in my life (actually I am doing more than I can handle,) but...now that I am thinking about this, I guess that is the problem. I have so much (or maybe too much) on my head that I don't know where to start. My brain is kind of a cluttered house, you know, you don't know were to start to organize the mess. Well, that is me.
Very often I am afraid to open my mouth and express my ideas because I don't want people to think that I am sort of unstable (not in the mentally way) :) but about having a precise objective or goal in life. I know I want to do everything and in reality is just impossible.
OK, I will stop the blah, blah and instead I will let you know 7 things about myself, (this is going to take a while thought)let me see...

1.- I was born in Mexico and I am very proud of my very cultural, colorful and ebullient birth place.

2.- I love sewing and crafting like crazy, these two pastimes together are my second love.

3.- I have a lot of dreams and I am determined kind of person, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed and wish I was a nesting bird (a bird that sews and do crafts of course.)

4.- I love my family more than anything in the world and I feel very proud of my life as a mother and wife (and daughter, and daughter-in-law, and sister...well you get the idea.)

5.- I am a Do It Yourself type of person. I am very inquisitive and I try to learn things on my own to consequently do things on my own. Most of the time I wish I knew everything but to say the truth I am comfortable with my current DIY knowledge.

6.- I love rice pudding and guavas. This is not a joke, I can actually eat just rice pudding instead of three balanced meals in one day. I have done that. As for the guavas, after moving from Mexico I have not seen them since. I get the canned ones sometimes.

7.- I love music, the Internet, hearty colors, snowy winters + wool sweaters, other cultures, affectionate people, politics, children, and of course myself.

I hope I did OK. Now I have to find somebody to tag...

my own pattern

2007-06-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

I came up with my own crochet cupcake pincushion after many attempts to modify the patterns that I collected over the time.
First I wanted something simple, not too many adornments. Second, I wanted something small because the other ones were coming up too big for my taste. And Third I wanted to be able to use my favorite yarn wich is 100% cotton. I love the way turned out, I just need to polish some details on the pattern. I will be posting the pattern for my visitors to use.

re-usable fabric tags

2007-06-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

I made these fabric tags for a swap. I think this is a good idea for using small scraps of fabric. They are re-usable too. On the back I put a sticky label and I wrote on it, after use I just peel of the old sticky label and use another one to write again. They can be use as gift tags or labels too.

Baby bib

2007-06-01T23:11:00.001-07:00

I am making a series of bibs for the baby of a friend and wonderful neighbor :). This is just one of them.

handmade crafts

2007-05-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

I made this handmade goodies last week for a swap. I have so many projects waiting to be finished and I am expecting to have some spare time to finish them.

Summer bag

2007-04-26T18:23:00.001-07:00

I made this bag and donated to the Local Woman's Club where I belong. This bag was one of many prizes we had in our annual Luncheon and Fashion Show.

Handmade bag

2007-04-26T18:19:00.001-07:00

I made this one for Christmas. The story is that Santa came home to borrow some of my fabric and took it to the elfs to make this bag.

Fabric Cupcake Attempt

2007-04-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

I am trying to come up with a fabric cupcake. The crochet ones and the felt ones are really cute but it bothers me that they are not my own idea. So I attempted a couple times to make a fabric one and so far this is what I came up with. It is just a rough idea of what I want, I need to polish some details and figure out other issues with it. Some feedback is appreciated.

More Swap Crafting

2007-04-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

I made all this goodies for a swap. It was fun and I was "cupcake-strawberry inspired". Now I feel like baking real cupcakes...This is a felt needdle book. I made it with this little cat because my swap friend loves hello kitty. I will be making more of like this with my own design.

cupcake pincushion

2007-04-17T10:34:00.001-07:00

cupcake pincushion
Originally uploaded by Mac Villiku.

Link to pattern http://members.aol.com/cillcrochets/cupcake.html

Cupcake and strawberrie mini stickers

2007-04-17T10:22:00.001-07:00

Handmade mini stickers
Originally uploaded by Mac Villiku.

Handcarved mini stamps = mini stickers.

Handmade paper

2007-04-06T22:22:00.001-07:00

handmade paper
Originally uploaded by Mac Villiku.

Today I did some watercolor because I want to use my own paper for ATC's.

Crafty weekend

2007-03-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

I spent this weekend crafting with a little person around here. We were sitting together at the little desk and spent hours creating. I carved some stamps using some polymer erasers that I got from a swap from Mexico (I can't find them locally.) And this is what I came with:

And the I made a couple more ATC's. For one of them I wanted something colorful so I had to borrow the markers. The other one was using just paper and my gel pens, and I like how it turned out. They are part of some bird series I want to make. I'm lately with the bird-tree fever, maybe because spring is close. Here they are:

Bird ATC

2007-03-22T08:03:00.001-07:00

Bird atc
Originally uploaded by Mac Villiku.

Another ATC

2007-03-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

When my flickr friends told me that ATC's were addictive, they were not kidding. I have always been interested in paper crafts but Artist Trading Cards are a lot of fun to make. I love the editing photo part which I thought would it be complicated. I thought I was going to have to go through all my photos to find the right one, but after a few days I realized that practically any picture can be used. Once is edited and ready to cut and glue it can be used in many ways.

Hair accessories

2007-03-19T10:06:00.001-07:00

Hair accessories
Originally uploaded by Mac Villiku.

I made many of these but I was unable to get the rest on this picture because someone here at home took them to play. But I don't need all of them since they are all pretty much the same just in different colors. I will make more anyway with other shapes and stitches.
I hot glued a plastic barrette to the back of the finished felt piece and works pretty good.

Artist Trading Cards (ATC's)

2007-03-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

I finally made my first ATC. I was really looking forward to have a little spare time to take all my paper crafting supplies out (and make a mess)and let the creativeness come to me. It is a simple design, did not take a lot of thinking but I think I like the way it turned out. I have so many ideas that sometimes my brain gets cluttered and I don't know where to start, so that is why sometimes I hesitate a little to start a project; I need some planning. Well, here is a photo of my first Artist Trading Card.

New Japanese Patchwork Books

2007-03-01T09:25:00.000-08:00

I got these new Japanese books on the mail; I ordered them a while ago. They are so darling and the projects are really easy and pretty. I can't wait to start some of the projects featured in these books. I bought them from Yesasia.com, they are not expensive and they have a pretty good inventory of these nice books.
This has been my latest obsession and I am contemplating to start a good collection of these. Here are some pics and inside views of these books.

Inspiration

2007-02-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

I was very inspired by this photo. I thought about copying the design for a bigger bag, But then I thought it would be perfect to adorn a t-shirt or jeans. So I copied the design and added some stitching of my own to a girl's shirt (I bought many of these at walmart.) I loved the way it turned out. I added some french knots to simulate flowers and stitched some grass. I used fusible stabilizer on the wrong side of the shirt so the fabric won't stretch when I did the stitching with the sewing machine. Here are some photos of how nice a simple and inexpensive shirt can look with some felt and embroidery thread.

Happy Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

Today is Valentine's Day so I squeezed a little craft project on this day. I made a Valentine hair clip. At the beginning I did not have idea what to make (I knew a wanted to make a hair accessory) but since I love felt I came with the idea of cutting a felt heart with pinking shears. I added a smaller heart shape on top and stitched together with embroidery floss. Then I thought to add a bead or a button on the center, then I looked around and I saw a box with ribbons laying around and inside some little roses I had, so I stitched a little rose instead the bead/button.
Last step was to glue the finished heart to a barrette, I did this using hot glue gun. I think they will be nice as pins too. I will make many of these for next year's Valentine's day and give them as a little Valentine present for friends. Here are a couple photos.

Rings

2007-02-10T11:08:00.000-08:00

Here is an old photo I found on my computer. This are some of the rings I made long time ago. I really love the way these rings look. I have made many of these as gifts for my family and some to sell in craft shows.

I don't know if I still have the page with the instructions to make them, but I will work to find it on the net and post the link in my blog. I know I have a photo with the instructions and there is a book in my local library that has the step by step directions to make some similar to these rings. I will check it out and post it in here soon.

My creation

2007-02-09T22:12:00.001-08:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by Mac Villiku.

Playing with Flickr Toys

Linen Box

2007-02-08T21:49:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about making this box for a long time, so I finally took some time and made it. It was a very quick project and not complicated at all. I could not decide to make it because of the square corners. I just keep thinking about a square bag that I made long time ago and did not go very well. But this time I did my research and I figured how to sew corners (especially when sewing 2 pieces together.)
I have been sewing since I was a little girl but I'm still learning.
I used a floral fabric and linen for the outside with a cotton lace as a detail. For the inside I used heavy canvas to give it some stability.
I am thinking on making a tutorial for this project.