Christmasy Thoughts

Are you thinking Christmasy thoughts yet?  Well we are ~ Lisa and I have decided to do a local craft show the first weekend in November.  I haven't worked a craft show in years, and never with my daughter, so we should have a blast!  

We'll be taking Quilts and quilted items of course, Infinity Scarves by Lisa...and Christmas items!  So that means among my customer orders I'm working on, and multiple deadlines before heading off to Quilt Market next week, Lisa came up for the weekend and we made Christmas ornaments and gifts.  Here's a little sampling of what we did all weekend...

(These wool trees were cut out with my AccuQuilt GO! cutter Holiday Medley Die and layers were fused to make them sturdy)

Dad cut up some wood for us ~ We're capitalizing on some of that hurricane damage that we sustained back in August :)

We put together some little dittys that I've been planning to make for a long time.

And Lisa brought me this neat idea.  These little post-it holders will make great affordable teacher and co-worker gifts!

We got out the scrapbook papers, ribbons and embellishments (I have a bunch of all of that stuff, because my scrapbooks are yet to be made). 

We made a bunch in different sizes, colors and styles ~ they were actually quite addictive, and we got a little carried away :)

And we didn't forget the Dad's either, they need cool stuff on the desk at work too!

To really make some progress we had to do most of our creating after the little ones went to bed at night.  Then we got out the snacks, turned on the TV and played ~ one night we got carried away and "played"  until after mid-night.  Even if we don't sell a thing at the actual event, I've already enjoyed this craft show...play on :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Is That Duck Tape?

Well it's not "quilty", but it is crafty, and I do love tote bags!  Have you ever seen a Duck Tape purse?

They make Duck Tape in all kinds of fun colors now (you can find them at Joann's, Michaels, Walmart, and other crafty stores).  And it's so easy to work with.  While Aunt Rita and Uncle Gabe were visiting last week, they showed us how to make these Duck Tape creations, and us girls had a blast making them ~ Lisa was a natural at it :)

Uncle Gabe laid out the tape on the cutting mat and cut 24 inch strips.

Aunt Rita guided us through the making of the totes.  Here Lisa is sticking the strips together overlapping by a tiny bit ~ maybe about an eighth of an inch.  The solid color strip is an accent stripe on the bag.

Here the front of the bag is complete, and can be lifted off of the counter all in one piece.

The bag lining is made up of solid strips stuck to the back side of the front bag unit, again overlapping the strips a tiny bit.

Here Rita is showing us how to fold the body of the bag so that the "seam" is centered on the back.  You can't see it, but before folding they added a bag bottom that was made up of a strip of poster board (roughly 1 inch wide, and 10 inches long) covered with the solid colored Duck Tape and taped to the bottom. And the top edge had a half strip of solid colored duck tape folded over the edge (much like binding along the top of a quilted tote bag). 

The seam on the back is connected together with a piece of Duck Tape of course.

Then to make the handles, Lisa laid a full 24 inch piece of Duck Tape sticky side up.  Then centered a same length piece cut in half long-ways (sticky sides together) on the full handle piece, and then she folded the edges over to eliminate any raw edges.

 Little fasteners were poked through to attach the handles to the bag.

We used the kind that you poke through and then bend the tabs outward.  (A little square of Duck Tape can be added to cover up the bent tabs).  Decorative grommets could also be used, just make sure that any fasteners used can hold whatever weight will be carried in the tote bag.

Lisa then used my AccuQuilt Go! to cut some star shapes to accent the bag with solid colored stars.  (We placed the glossy side of Freezer Paper to the sticky side of the Duck Tape to run it through the cutter, and then carefully pealed off the Freezer Paper like a sticker).

They also made this smaller tote for Elsie using the same method but cutting the strips smaller (18 inches in this case), and making the body of the bag one layered strip shorter.  These bags are completely waterproof and I thought this one would make a cute lunch tote :)

For more Duck Tape fun, check out the Duck Tape website for many project ideas from clothes, accessories, and household projects.  Some of these would make great Summertime crafts for the kiddos who are out of school, and if you used those 40% off coupons, they are pretty economical too :)
 
Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn