craftgrrl | New / This first one's a doozy

Hello, all you wonderful crafty ladies (and gents if there are any)! I'm new to this community--just joined last week. I've been enjoying reading everyone's posts and seeing all of your great crafts.

My personal craft calling pulls me to different areas all the time. My current areas of craft worship include: flower pressing, photography, sewing (just got my first machine for Christmas!!), painting, jewelry making, and many other things. I'd be doing work with sculpey/polymer clay if I could just get the hang of it... I always bake it too long and it turns out black. Whoops. I also love woodwork but don't have the tools necessary to make a good piece of art.

I've decided that before I update on any of my new crafty ideas, I'll post pictures of the ones I've made in the past year or so. There's a wide variety of crafts under the cut, so there's something for anyone, really. Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures.

Starting with last year's Christmas gifts--we had no money and had to make everything we gave.
For my brother-in-law, I made a popsicle stick photo frame. At first, I thought the idea would look very much infantile, but in the end, I love it. It reminds me of the beach and the dock. That's the idea, anyway.

and to finish it off, I pasted a picture of him holding my little girl on our vacation to visit TX and added some sand and shells from a previous beach trip.

Next is the doll I made for my daughter last Christmas. Like I said earlier, I JUST got my sewing machine for this Christmas so that means I drew out the design and sewed it all by hand (minus the hat and dress, which were my daughter's when she was born).

I also made several pressed flower pieces for my parents last year. They proudly display them in the kitchen.

(all on the wall together)

a few more that were done

I did this one for myself. It was from my girlfriend's house... I just grabbed it off her tree when we were saying goodbye when I moved and I pressed it as a memento of her.

The next two, unfortunately have lousy pictures and they're already with their new owners.

Done for My mother-in-law after we moved away.
"Love Knows No Distance"
For this one, I also painted a pre-existing frame and distressed it.

The first one I ever did. For my sister's birthday.
"May The Bond Between Us Grow Stronger With Every Changing Season"

I really wish I had better pictures of the last ones... they were really great.

I just made this one for my husband for our anniversary (12/31). I don't love it, but it's not bad.
It's symbolic. I won't go into details. Less text is better with this long post, I think.
The basic idea is that despite all the troubles we've been through, "Love Grows".

Painting Attempts:

I've got a thing for mermaids. They don't ever end up as I plan them to, but I can't bring myself to get rid of them either... this pic is blurry. Sorry.

Living in my MIL's house, I painted a sign for my daughter's door so people going by would know to STFU. (It's about an 8 X 10 board)

this is the front for while she's awake...

this is the back side (my favorite side) for while she's sleeping.

Pinecone painted to look like a Christmas tree. I'm still searching for a pot small enough for it so I can actually display it during the holidays.

Sidewalk stepping stones. My husband is putting in the sidewalk so we don't die while walking the dogs in the muddy runoff from the hill behind me (you can't see it)

For a closeup photo of each of the stones, click here to be taken to my art/craft journal.

headstone painted for my poor, dead kitty.

Valentine's Creations:

oil pastel drawings ala Warhol

small pillow hand-sewn out of a shirt and a nightgown
I don't know why it's reflecting that way. It's a shiny shirt, but that's insane.
The heart is cut into small strips, like a taggy, because my husband has an obsession with tags.

More Random Crafts:

My first attempt at wreath-making. Built onto a pre-existing grapevine wreath from walmart. All other items are natural and found in my yard. Applied with hot glue. (It looks much better in person)

More sewing:

Maggie (Magnum) the bear.

I used a simplicity pattern and modified it. She was created with inspiration from my best friend's old bear (named Trojan). Trojan is long gone but my friend missed him. I made him this for his birthday/Christmas this past year.

I gave her 'tattoos' and a piercing, a fuzzy pink mohawk and put a pocket on the back to hold... well... to hold condoms. After all, her name IS Magnum!

Details in collage form (because this post is image heavy enough as it is)

Inside this cage is QuasiModo (no, I didn't make him--but I raised him from a hatchling)
He's a noisy cockatiel and he squawks and screams if he doesn't get covered at night... Buying a cover for this odd-shaped cage would've been too expensive, so I hand-sewed him a cover for only about 10 bucks for fabric.

Because it's huge, I gave up after a while and started buttoning it.

Now that I've got a machine, I can finally fix this gaping hole that's growing each time I use it.

My first sewing machine attempt: A pillow for my little girl.

It's not the best, but it replicates one that my mom has and she loves.
Made out of old button-up shirts in our garage sale pile
FRONT

BACK

the button and stitch detail. Not great, but not bad for a first time.
Especially since I haven't used a machine since 7th grade home economics class--which I failed.

Finally!!!
The last project: Holiday ornaments.
I guess this applesauce/cinnamon recipe has been floating around for a while, but I never knew about it. I tried it out and loved the results, within limits.

See the entire post with individual shots here... because it's long and image heavy as well.

Thanks for sitting through this massive post. I'm somewhat notorious for being long-winded. Sorry for that. I wasn't sure of what the rules on multiple posts in a row was, otherwise I'd have broken it up in pieces. My next posts won't be nearly as long. I promise!

Any and all critique is welcome. Let me know what you think of my projects. I welcome praise as well as constructive criticism.

Also, if any of you has a journal specifically for your art and crafting, I love adding new friends to my art journal. Let me know.