A Handcrafted Christmas.....

Now that all of these gifts have reached their beloved recipients I would like to share with you some of my favorite art and craft gift creations from the 2012 Christmas season.

 

 

The "Fall der All" Festival

Hello everyone!
If we met this past Saturday at the Fall der All festival, I hope you had a wonderful time (and didn't get blown away by the wind, lol). I'm so glad you are visiting my blog.

Please bear with me, it has been a little crazy getting ready for the festival and now re-organizing all of my fun stuff in the studio. I will be posting some new pictures and lots of new things for sale in my Etsy shop tonight and tomorrow.

Hope to help you with your Christmas shopping ideas very soon!

Have a blessed day!
Jackie

*pics of fun stuff from the festival.... (many of these items will be in my Etsy in the next day or so)

A New Tutorial: A Sew Simple Project......From Skirt Lining To Shirt!

 

Click HERE for the Tutorial.

Making Stuff for this Weekend

I'm so excited to be doing a booth with my friend Sandy this weekend at the Arts & Crafts fair in Farmersville! We have both been crazy busy with "making stuff" and getting ready for the event.

Some things I've been working on are:

Art prints of my photography on wood blocks. They can hang from the decorative wire embellishments or sit on their own on a table.

Glass pendants that can be used as necklace charms or keychains.

Precious tiny domino pendants.

Lots of shoe clips for warm weather accessorizing.

New! Vintage style screen printed shirts. I LOVE these wonderful soft, flattering shirts! I found them on a recent shopping trip and bought as many as I could to print on. I may wind up keeping one of each for myself, LOL! :)

Anyway, for those of you who are in the area, come out and see us at the"Farmers & Fleas Market" this Saturday May 5, 2012 from 9-3. More info here  http://www.farmersvilletx.com/index.jsp

Sneak Peak at the things I'm selling......

I Made a Dress Today

It's a lovely long maxi dress in a black and white daisy pattern.

Click here to see the tutorial.

A Treasure Box Full of Fabrics

The treasure box of fabric remnants I received from a very sweet "friend of a friend".

Thank you!!!

And the first project I made from some of the remnants!

See the full tutorial here

Clip on Tie Projects

My sweet friend Jennifer surprised me with a bag full of wonderful vintage things that she said I could have to "make stuff"! Oh boy, I was so excited!

Just look at this pile of wonderful clip on ties! The fabrics, the patterns, the colors... oh my!

So many ideas ran through my head as I gazed at each colorful design. I could put several together and create a kind of peek-a-boo slip that would add a touch of chic to the bottom of a skirt. I could sew several of them together and create a retro purse. Hmmm.... all good possibilities, but I finally decided to sit down and see how many things I could re-purpose out of just one tie.

So I picked this one:

And I cut it into 3 different accessory pieces. (I'm still perfecting the details and may be able to get one more piece out of it so when I do I will post a tutorial).

For now, here's what I made:

A clip-on Phone Case

A Pen and Pencil Holder

A Mini Wallet/Card Carrying Case

Front View

Back View

What would you do with these great clip-on ties?

Christmas Projects Revealed - Part 2

Sewing Project!

One of my best friends commissioned me to do a custom bedding set for her precious daughter who is getting a whole room makeover! I was thrilled to get to do this project and had such fun, especially when we got to go do some serious warehouse fabric shopping!

The complete set included: 1 bedskirt, 1 duvet cover, 1 pillow sham, 5 throw pillows of various shapes and sizes, and one throw blanket, whew!

I love the fabrics on this set and can't wait to see how it all looks in her new big girl room.

Side note: I mimicked the look of a twin bed by putting my living room ottomans together so I could "make the bed" and take a photo.

Hand Crafted Anniversary Gifts

My husband and I celebrated another wonderful anniversary during the Christmas Break.

One thing we promised to do this year was to make our gifts instead of purchasing something and I'm so glad we did.

Here are the gifts

one cut and carved and sanded by him

the other measured and folded and stitched by her

a wooden bread tray....

to use when she cooks and serves her family meals with love

a leather Bible cover....

 to protect God's word as he studies and prays and leads his family with love

A New Tutorial

I just posted a tutorial about how I created this Bible cover.

Check it out here: http://theartgirljackie-tutorials.blogspot.com/2011/11/making-bible-cover.html

Creative Late Nights and a Whole LOT of Caffeine!

Ok, I promise myself that starting today I will disconnect my IV drip of iced coffee and start getting more than 3 hours of sleep a night.... I promise.

But it has been so much fun. I have worked the last week like a mad woman.

I have immersed myslef in screenprinting, sewing and painting and have loved every exhausting minute of it.

Here are a few snapshots of projects that have graced the countertops of my studio, my kitchen, my living room....well, pretty much everywhere.

 I was also very excited to receive my promotional postcards in the mail from vistaprint and have already sent many of them out (be looking for them they have a discount sticker for my etsy shop!)

P.S. If you are not on my mailing list and you would like to be send me an e-mail with your name and mailing address to jackiepatton@excite.com

 I made clothes and accessories for homecoming week, screenprinted shirts, onesies, pillows, sketchbooks and canvases.

I sewed and painted and worked with leather and lace (ooh la,la) 

The only thing is..... all that caffiene and non-sleeping did kinda lead to a teeny-tiny mistake or two.

Do you notice anything different in these two pictures?

Yeah, I didn't notice till Jeremy pointed it out but I did at least go back and fix it before I posted the apron for sale on etsy so people wouldn't think it said something like

"So many Artsy & Crafy (or accidentally think it said crappy) things to Make so little Time" 

pretty funny, it was 1am when Jeremy came in from his football game and pointed out my mistake and I was so hyped up on iced coffee and delerious I couldn't stop laughing.

Love & Creative wishes to all!

P.S. Don't forget to stop by http://www.artfultrinkets.etsy.com/ to see all the new stuff I have listed.

Senior Jeans

This week is Homecoming week!

One of my former students asked me to make some special "senior jeans" for the occasion and that led to a second former student also wanting a pair. ;)

So once they brought me the jeans I took over the kitchen bar and set up shop.

There was a lot of cutting, ironing, gluing, embellishing and bedazzling going on.

Here are some photos of how they turned out.

 It was a fun project and since they both seemed to like them so much I think I may be "jazzing up" some more t-shirts and stuff in the near future. ;)

5 Days of Art - Part 1: Sewing

Sew.... last week when both my sweet girls were away with grandparents and my husband was at football practice I got to drag art & sewing supplies out all over the house and just create to my hearts content, without a single interruption.

Oh my goodness. Now you guys know, I love my babies and I was truly elated to have them back .....but that quiet "me time" was sooo much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed.

I did mend a few things, hem a dress, and repair a wind suit jacket but the really fun stuff was in altering some of my shirts.

Since shirt style trends are longer these days I've had a few shirts that were cute but too short just taking up space in my closet for a while. I decided to take two of them and see what I could create with some simple changes.

This is what the first shirt looked like before. It's a lovely soft material in a deep eggplant purple with a light lavender camesol attached underneath.

 I have a basket full of old lace and trim pieces that I pull out every once in a while for projects. I decided to use the lace to add length to the shirt and embellish it.

 Layer number one.

 And a second layer, because the first one just didn't feel like enough. ;)

 Then with the same lace, I scrunched and wrapped and stitched until I had a full flower. I cut out a circle from a piece of soft white fabric and sewed on a pin so that the flower could be removed from the shirt for washing. It can also be used separately on a hat or different outfit.

 In one of my jars of buttons (oooh I love buttons!) I found some pearelescent pieces that detached from their gold rings.

 So I took several different sizes and glued them to the center of my flower along with a couple of tiny silver pieces.

 And here you can see it all put together, a lovely longer embellished shirt.

 I also had a green shirt that I did something similar to. I used part of an old skirt for this one, adding a layer to the shirt's length and then using a few strips from the same fabric to create little rosettes of varied sizes. I did sew the rosettes to this shirt instead of making three individual pins.

I always love these kind of wearable art projects.

More to come tomorrow from my 5 Days of Art   .... on to another creative medium.

Upscale Design on a Dime

A while back I was out shopping with family and I came across a gorgeous flowing sheer top on a manequin in an upscale department store. It was that instantaneous love at first sight feeling you get when you see something you just know would surely look as great on you as it does on display. And then I saw the price tag and my heart sank even lower than my jaw dropped. I couldn't spend $169 on one shirt.

But..... I bet I could make one like it.

The crafty wheels started spinning.

I searched through old sewing patterns and found one I could modify to make almost the same kind of shirt I saw in the store. I also came across the perfect fabric at JoAnn's when getting some other supplies (oh, and I used a coupon too)

So I set up my workspace and began sketching, pinning, cutting, and sewing.

 After a couple of hours my labor of love was complete and I was so excited to try it on.

 Here's the final product, dressed up wth a wide belt.

 I sewed a matching button closure on the back.

And there you have it..... upscale design on a dime. Gotta love that.

Shopping Cart Covers

So a while back I decided I wanted to try making one of those fancy reversible shopping cart covers I'd seen in the stores.

Any excuse to shop for artsy crafty supplies!

I went out and got a pattern and grabbed a bunch of different fabrics, thread and other sewing notions and went home to figure it all out. After about 6 to 8 hours of work (not constant of course, way too many distractions going on at my house for a stretch of project work that long!) I completed Zoe's reversible shopping cart cover. It includes a seatbelt, toy strap and toy rings, pocket, comfey plush padding, and an attached stylish matching bag that everything folds up into for easy carrying. Yay!

We have actually put it to good use in many shopping carts and in restaurant high chairs, and the best thing is Zoe loves it; it keeps yucky germs out of her mouth (since she wants to chew on everything); and I can just toss it in the laundry if it gets dirty and it washes up beautifully.

 So, ofcourse I had to make more of them. And I'm getting a little faster at it.  :)

This turquoise and brown one was done for a friend of mine.

This funky floral design was created to be put on display in a super chic baby botique called Posh Little Pig. (Friend them on Facebook)

I participated in a "trunk shower" at Posh Little Pig not too long ago, and the store owner was kind enough to also display some of my silhouette paintings during the event.

Thanks Brina! Your store is gorgeous and the event was so much fun!

As a side note, here are a few snapshots of the shopping cart covers in progress.

 Gotta make them comfey for the little ones with some soft batting sewn inside.

 Here's what they look like before the elastic is added.

Rainy Day Art Post

It's a wonderful cold rainy day here and I really feel like I need to make something in my crock pot and bake something tonight.... mmmm.

Well, I thought I'd post some Art today. I recently rearranged my studio a little bit and I really like the new set-up. Here's what it looks like (while it's all still really clean and I don't have projects and supplies haphazardly strewn all over the place).

I also have been practicing some up-cycling with old clothing lately.

Here is one project I especially enjoyed.

I took a t-shirt that I never wore and did some creative cutting....

Then re-attaching in a new way...... and here's the result.

Ok, well that's all for now. Have a fantastic day. I'm going back to daydreaming of yummy comfort foods to start cooking. I LOVE this cool Fall weather..... now if I could only stay home all day in my jammies and really enjoy it. ;) Here's looking forward to Thanksgiving Break!