Minimalist #3

 

I'm not convinced this photo is successful. Good to experiment, though.

Flying High

I found one of the most interesting puzzles I've ever put together at a thrift store! It's this beautiful image of hot air balloons.

It came in this very innocuous box. Very plain. No idea what the puzzle looks like. It's only a vivid color-blocked box top with a hard-to-read title.

But the side of the box said this: Dynamic Dimensional Depth Puzzle - 3-D Visions. That's when I saw the hot air balloons. 

When I peeked inside, these are the puzzle pieces that surprised me. They are very thick with cardboard layers on the bottom, then a print layer, then a plastic layer on top.

When the pieces fit together, it's a very distinct fit. You can really feel them snap into place. The pieces have this striped effect if you hold them just right in the light. That helped me figure out which direction the pieces belonged which was very helpful since all the pieces are this traditional puzzle shape and very close in size.

On this close up, you can see the "double vision" effect of the balloon shapes. That print, along with the striped plastic top are what give the puzzle the 3-D effect.

I was unable to take a clear photo that showed off the effect in it's best light. The balloons do feel like they are at different distances in the finished puzzle. There was something about this puzzle that made it very difficult for Dale to work on. He puts puzzles together using different strategies than I use, in part due to color blindness and reliance on shape. I use color as my first strategy. As long as I had good lighting, this puzzle was a blast for me.

Because the puzzle pieces are so thick and snapped together so securely, I was able to pick the entire puzzle up in one piece when it was completed. Very satisfying.

Minimalist #2

 

At the neighborhood park

Valentine Wreath

 I made this wreath for my daughter Julie and tucked it into the gift box sent to our granddaughters. Mom's need a little lovin' too.

I started with this small straw wreath form. I think it's only 8 - 10 inches across at the widest point.

The straw was shedding quite a bit, so I decided to cover it completely. Starting at the bottom of the wreath, I wrapped it in festive ribbon.

Unfortunately, my ribbon wasn't quite long enough, so I rewrapped it after deciding where I wanted to put the embellishments. The top right part of the heart needed a little extra love.

As you can (barely) see in this photo, I wrapped the bare spot in the same gingham ribbon that I used for the wreath hanger. I like the proportion of the gingham ribbon with the heart ribbon. 

I had a hard time finding just the right flowers in my stash. After attempting to use a number of fabric flowers, I finally settled on using these paper flower with pearl centers. I adhered them to the wreath after fussing with the polka dot bow. I admit to being quite frustrated with this part of the assembly until it finally came together.

However, I am quite happy with the result.

As part of my 24 Goals in 2024, I'm happy to say that I was able to find all the elements for this wreath in my stash, so I didn't have to buy any additional supplies for this project. 

Minimalist #1

I'm lurking in an online group these days whose scope is minimalist photography. The images are more about shape, texture, form, proportion, color and lighting than about subject matter. It reminds me a lot of macro photography with those similar elements, but instead of close-up pictures, the subjects can be any size. For example, this photo was taken from across a room.

I'm going to play with this concept here and there. This is my first attempt.

Embellishments

As you might guess from my love of cardmaking, I like stationery in general. I've been collecting it since I was a kid writing to pen pals. I have a lot of interesting and varied designs. I even have some from tablets my Mom who died 26 years ago! So when I recently sent a note to my high school "bestie," I decided to part with some of my favorites.

This card is by artist Laurel Birch. I adore her colorful, whimsical style.

However, my friend and I bring out the giggling, silliness of childhood in each other so I decided to embellish the card. On the front, googly eyes and heart gems.

For the enclosed note, I used three sheets of vintage stationery from my Mom's 1970s collection. Silly image, silly saying, silly googly eyes.

On the inside, I cut out one of the characters from the vintage stationery and added puffy heart stickers as balloons.

In return, she sent me a hilarious card of a waffle with googly eyes, holding a heart. Ah! She knows me.

Bestie and I haven't seen each other in about a decade and she's never met Dale. We hope to rectify that within a month. Can't wait!

Peeking Through

Today's Spring beauty

Eugene Park Tour: Wayne Morse Family Farm

On a rare sunny morning about a month ago, after the ice storm, Dale and I headed out on a morning date starting with our favorite waffle place in south Eugene then on to a new-to-us park to find our first geocache of 2024. We found this gem of a park.

We approached the park from a walking entrance at the top of the hill in a wooded area

which opened onto a big grassy field.

As we walked down the wet hill, we found the park entrance with the parking lot. Google Maps didn't help us quite as we had hoped. To get to this entrance, we needed to drive through a neighborhood with narrow, hilly roads.

There is a paved path along one side of the park. With the sun out, there were quite a few folks enjoying the park in the warmer, slightly dryer weather. This sign gives a history of the land and how it became a city park.

At the top of the path is this impressive structure. The covered seating area has enough room for a good-sized family reunion or community group meeting. It also has a kitchen area that you can rent out. 

I was most impressed with this huge fireplace. It's about six feet square. What a great place for a summer evening picnic!

This park tickled our creative juices. We want to find an excuse to have a gathering here ... perhaps with a challenging game of croquet on the grassy hillside. 

Dale was the one that sussed out the geocache. It's in an excellently camouflaged container that earned a favorite point from me.

Best of all, the morning became warm enough (60 degrees) to put the top down on the convertible for a sunny fresh-air ride home.

Abby's Afghan

I finished Abby's afghan in time for Valentine's Day.

It's a decent size, so she'll be able to use it well into her childhood.

The colors are baby soft. Mary Maxim did a good job putting this kit together.

The pattern remained a challenge for me until the end. Gosh, it is gorgeous, though!

The best part? Snuggling with our babydoll underneath it. She helps my heart get all squishy.

posted with permission from her parents

She'll be six weeks old tomorrow!

3-D Paper Butterflies

This is the first in what I hope is a new series I'll call DIYoutube.  As in ... Do It Yourself - YouTube style. 

For the last several years, I've been saving up crafty ideas I found on YouTube that I thought I might want to try one day. Today's that first day. My hope is that these will be little crafts or techniques that will only take an hour or two to learn and execute. And so I present my 3-D Paper Butterflies.

They use some origami techniques, but also includes some cutting. So this is closer to kirigami:

a variation of origami, the Japanese art of folding paper. In kirigami,

the paper is cut as well as being folded, resulting in a three-dimensional design

that stands away from the page. Kirigami typically does not use glue.

This butterfly does use some hot glue, though, to hold the folds of the wings together and to attach the antenna and body. This yellow-orange print butterfly was my first attempt.

Then I made a plain blue butterfly from slightly thicker paper.

Then a plain pink. I learned it's best to use paper that is the same color/design on both sides. The white side of the paper can be seen in my first attempt.

I'm not sure if or how I'll use these little beauties. They remind me of Spring, though, and the bright colors I chose evoke happiness in me. Perhaps I can use them as ornaments on my lighted Spring tree. Here I've taped it onto my hoodie like a broach.

This is the tutorial I used:

It's fun! Give it a try.

Valentine Roses

My latest counted cross-stitch finish is a small piece I stitched for my eldest. It's called Valentine Roses Mini Cat. It's a free design by Lynn B, found on the Happiness is Cross Stitching blog. She's got a lot of adorable freebies to share there, so check it out.

I worked the entire gift up in two days. The first day I was able to do all the stitching in about 2-1/2 hours. I did the finishing work the next day. There's so much expression in such a tiny kitty design! 

This was another case of trying to use materials already in my stash: 

• A paper copy of the chart was tucked away in my "cat designs" folder.
• I had a scrap of pink 14ct aida on hand. I needed about a 5 inch square.
• I didn't have the red floss called for in the design, so I substituted in a brighter red. 
• I had to piece together the polka dot fabric that covers the foam core since I only had a single long strip. 
• I found a pink satin ribbon in my stash that precisely matches the aida. 
• I made this as a flat piece that uses a plate stand for display. I even had spare plate stands on hand.

I forgot to sign my work in thread this time, but on the back, I left a label.

Perhaps I should mention ... one of my 24 Goals in 2024 is to attempt to not add a lot of new supplies to my studio stash, and to find ways to use what I have on hand. So anytime I can come up with a solution to a supply problem, I get all proud of myself.

New Year Cards

In the last holiday season, Dale and I decided to send New Year cards instead of Christmas cards. That way I had time after the main holidays to handcraft a card. Here it is!

I started by printing a deer shape onto red cardstock. Then using some very sharp scissors, I fussy-cut the design.

The plan was to adhere the deer to the front of the card. So I first printed the greeting onto cardstock and cut it to size with my paper trimmer. After that, I embossed the design.

I used this very cool embossing folder from Sizzix. To me, it looks like a snowstorm at night.

To finish the front of the card, I adhered the deer onto the snowstorm. This photo shows the sparkly red cardstock that the deer was cut from. The combination of glitter paper and embossing made for a very tactile card.

The inside greeting was inspired by a song I used to sing at church:

Finally, I signed the back of each card in my usual way.

I always use Christmas-themed postage stamps for the final touch.

It was pretty fun to make an entire set of 25 cards for a change of pace. However, I still prefer making one-of-a-kind cards most often.

Curly Fungi

Look what I found behind the fence

It's intricate and textural and lovely

(but I still don't like to touch it).

Crocus

Spring comes early in western Oregon!

The first crocus are blooming down at the Bethel Community Park parking lot.

My favorite are the purple striped flowers. They're a sweet reminder of the garden near my front porch in Idaho. 

I'm feeling nostalgic. I don't imagine those blubs will bloom for another month (or two). This photo is from my Idaho garden in mid-March 2018.

And this from April 2012.