Confession

Sometimes I'm super crafty. And I take a whole bunch of really awesome pictures. Then spend a long time editing them. And by the time I sit down to blog about all of my rad accomplishments...

I. 

Am.

Done. 

I've used up all my energy by that point! Does that ever happen to you? If someone would have told me how much work blogging actually was, I might not have started a blog! Ok, that's an exaggeration. But dang, blogging is a lot of work! Sometimes I wonder how all those big name bloggers post crazy things every single day, but then I remember that they probably don't have much of a life plus they have contributors. Then I feel better.

So, um, photo dump?

See? I do stuff! These are all from "trading posts" with Caroline and Meg. We made Christmas bunting, sewed bags, and spent and entire afternoon beading. (This is three separate occasions....ack, see how behind I am??)

Extra super confession: I didn't even take these pictures....thanks Caroline!

Tradings Posts- Fall wreathes

I know, I'm a bit late on this one! It all happened during my bloggy break. You should read {Caroline's post} because she took wayyy more pictures than I did! Actually...now that I'm rereading her post it will totally put my post to shame, so just save yourself some time and hop on over to see all of it. And I only took pictures of the finished product. Fail Amie.

I blame pertussis. Stupid whooping cough.

Anyway! After a long summer hiatus we finally were able to get together to make some wreathes! I honestly can't remember the last time I made a wreath...I'm not really a wreath person. It might be because I don't have a front door on account of living in a basement but that's beside the point.

This is Caroline's. Isn't it GORGEOUS? She used a fabulous braiding technique and threw that beautiful purple in with her fall colors. I helped her turn a lot of those fabric tubes inside out, so I will hereby claim this wreath to be 20% mine. ;)

This one is mine, a yarn wrapped wreath! This took so. much. yarn. Oh my goodness, Caroline and I were twisting and gluing and twisting and gluing and twisting and gluing until our fingers ached! I do like the result though, its so textural and I love all the colors together!

The best part? It's made out of a $1.50 pipe insulator from Home Depot. Yup! Even though I knew we were making wreathes, I somehow blanked on bringing my wreath form. I remembered the yarn and the felt, but not the wreath! So Caroline took me to Home Depot and we picked up the pipe insulator. Add some duct tape, some batting, and a whole lotta yarn, and BAM! A fall wreath!

Have you made any wreathes lately? Leave me a link!

Trading Posts- Gray and Yellow

I know, it's already time for another trading posts? Crazy! Trading posts is when Caroline {from Artfully Caroline} and I get together and spend a day crafting. Usually we have specific crafting themes (like sewing, painting, beading, etc) but this time we didn't go with a crafting theme...we went with a color theme! My favorite color combo, gray and yellow! We dabbled and dabbled all day!

And as you know, a creative mind is rarely tidy...and neither are the houses they live in! {via pinterest.} Teehee.

Our first project was a fantastic trade off. I taught Caroline how to make an {envelope clutch}, and she taught me how to fold {kanzashi flowers!} A pretty sweet trade off, if you ask me. She donated this gorgeous gray and yellow fabric.

And this luscious yellow lining and snap closure. She even added a pocket!

Then we went a little crazy with gray and yellow accessories. I made all of these.

And Caroline made this awesome chunky bling necklace with a ribbon clasp.

And what better way to end a day of crafting with a gigantic personalized cookie? Thanks hubs. :)

Trading Posts round...5? With paint!

Ready for another round of trading posts? In case you are new to KC&A, Trading Posts is when Caroline {of Artfully Caroline} get together and craft and spend all of our husband's money! After blowing a paycheck or two, we busted out the acrylics.

I'm an oil painter, and lemme tell you, acrylics are not oils. Though they are funner, and slightly more forgiving.

Know a chatterbox? Hand her some paints, a brush, and a canvas, it'll shut her up. Caroline and I were so absorbed in our paintings we barely spoke at all! Very unusual for us. This is Caroline's interpretation of the flag, cuz you know, Independence Day is quickly approaching.

And this is mine, with chevron stripes. It crosses painting something AND doing a project with chevron off my list! Hot dang, I'm on a freaking role.

Even Caroline's little Bug joined in the creativity. She calls this Cinderella, she didn't get the memo that we had a fourth of July theme.

Originally I thought of distressing it with stain, but then I got too lazy didn't have the time and decided to frame it instead. I just took an old, glasses frame and painted it black to hang around the canvas.

I'm no decorator {obviously!!} but I think it works. Let freedom ring!

Trading posts, with denim!

Welcome to another addition of Trading Posts! This is where me and my bloggy friend, Caroline of Artfully Caroline, get together and craft. Yeah, bloggy friends turned IRL friends are awesome. If you missed the others, check them out {here}, {here}, and {here} This round ended up being a little short, I had just gotten back from NY and ran straight over to her place to craft and I was exhausted.

(Ugh. I keep posting horrendous pictures of myself. I'm gonna scare you away with my face! Please don't stop reading just because I look awful.) We played with lovely dark washed, light denim. Upcylcing at it's very best! Out of one pair of old jeans we each made a funky belt to add to our spring wardrobes.

I love how mine turned out! A simple denim tube turned inside out, with two rectangles to hold them together. Each rectangle had four eyelets added to include the lace up and a simply lace embelishment. This was my first time playing with eyelets, and let's just say that I am very far from perfect and Caroline had to step in and perform many "surgeries" to get out my destroyed outlets and redo them for me!

Caroline was really clever and used the old pockets as embellishments. Then she added a seriously cool buckle and a lace "skirt."

Can you believe that buckle was free? I love how each of our belts turned out.

Quilting Expo

Sorry for the lack of Tutorial Tuesday today. I've been working on a faux chenille baby blanket for the past few days and I keep running into problems, so it's taking a lot more time than I thought it would! Like, all of my free time.

I'm also working on a lot of whoopdwhoop orders. If you haven't signed up yet, do it! It's totally free retail therapy, and there are so many cute things that you can get for FREE.

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On Saturday, I was able to go to a Quilting Expo with Caroline. I'd never been to a Quilting Expo before, but I'm so happy I went. There were so many beautiful quilts, I felt inspired and totally defeated at the same time. There were some seriously AMAZING quilts. Works of art!

I was stupid and didn't take pictures of who made the quilts, so check out Caroline's blog, she has photo credits. I loved a lot of the flower quilts.

 Seriously! This is why I don't quilt, I don't have the patience for this kind of piecing and detail.

 This one only took a few months, can you believe it??

LOVE the little jars filled with goodies. How clever is that?

Sooo cute! Little hedgies!

I loved this shirt quilt. I've been wanting to make a quilt using my grandpa's old shirts, ad this was great inspiration!

I wish I could post all the wonderful quilts I saw, but I know you'd get so bored looking at hundreds of quilts!

There was also a stash to treasure sale, where quilters sold their old fabric for super cheap. See all this fabric? Most of it was from the quilt expo, and that's not even including the grocery bag full of awesome scraps! I spent less than $20 on all of it, and look at the bottom, see that? Yeah, 3 yards of Amy Butler for three bucks. Win. I plan to make a summery dress for me with the yardage above it. Ohh, I'm so excited.

Trading Posts- St. Pattys edition!

On Saturday I was able to meet up with Caroline from Artfully Caroline again! That's one think I love about blogging, you can meet people you never would have otherwise! It's so fun to have a crafty friend close bye. This month we worked on St. Patrick's Day crafts! (How come society never dropped "St." off of "St. Patrick's Day?" We dropped it off of "Valentine's Day!" I've always wondered that.)

We started out playing with Stella, my Silhouette. Caroline wanted to redo a green shirt for St. Pattys Day so I created a pattern in the Silhouette software. I cut it out on some freezer paper.

And Caroline ironed them onto her shirt.

And bleach penned the heck outta it!

 We ended up having a few extra pieces so we were able to add a border to the bottom too!

It was so hard to wait to see how it would turn out.

While we waited I busted out the yarn and twisted and double twisted two different greens together. I think this part took longer than the freezer paper stenciling!

I took a paper shamrock and glue gunned a rows if different shades of green ribbon to it. When I was done, I trimmed the edges and glued my "faux crocheting" around the edges of the shamrock.

And ended up with this! Wanna see what I did with it? You'll have to wait until the lighting in the basement doesn't suck and I can get a good picture of it. :D

While I shamrocked, Caroline updated her versatile tulle wreath for March!

When the shirt came out of the dryer, Caroline added buttons to the bottom. I think it turned out so great! I love crafting!

 I let her sweet little girl take a few pictures and she caught me doing another one of my favorite things! (Cuddling with cats, I swear I'm drawn to them like bees to flowers.)

Turns out she's not half bad as a photographer! Another 10 years and Caroline will have a professional!

Trading Posts- A new scarf for me!

Sorry about being MIA so much! I planned to take off just until Christmas to focus on family and then I caught something NASTY. I was practically dying on Christmas and I'm still getting over whatever it is! I'm so bummed, I planned to use my week off to craft my brains out but I've done next to nothing! Boo. However, I did manage to squeeze in a play date with a fellow craft blogger though! Caroline from Atelier Caroline is practically a neighbor and we were able to meet up for a fun day of crafting!

In the spirit of giving, we decided that it would be fun for us to trade crafting skills. I brought my lovely bead caddy (that the hubby bought me for Christmas) and she let me dip into her fabric stash!

Remember this from the Mine for the making giveaway? Caroline really liked it and so I helped her make one especially for her!

I LOVE how it turned out! It's amazing what teamwork can do huh? We combined some of my supplies and some of her beads to create this fantastic necklace for Caroline! What was my prize?

A few weeks ago, Caroline linked this up to my Holiday Gift Ideas party. I LOVED it and immediately wanted one for myself.

I got it. :) She had just enough of the lovely green chiffon and gold silk to make a scarf for me. Only...mine and RUFFLES. Know how she made them??

THIS beauty! A ruffler foot, pretty much THE most amazing piece of equipment ever invented! I NEED one of these, just attach it to your machine and it makes perfect ruffles. So more pulling on threads!

Do you see those beauties? Love it! I really need one of those!

We had a blast crafting together and intend on doing it again soon! Keep your eyes peeled for a future trading post. :) And stay tuned for tomorrow, I've got my "Top 10 of 2010" post coming up! Happy New Year everyone

(Is it two thousand eleven or twenty eleven?)