Words of Wisdom

I was looking through the sprites on www.spriters-resource.com to see if I could find some good ideas for another project, when I saw that there were new sprites added for Spy vs Spy. I checked them out, and as I was looking over them I came up with a great idea for another entry into the Back to School/Life Lessons challenge that I had previously entered the Oregon Trail binder cover for.

I quickly came up with a pattern and ran to the local hobby store to buy a few supplies with the last few dollar I had until payday. This only took me a week to make and it came out pretty awesome. It was made on 18-count Aida with 2 strands of floss.

Here is my progress on day one:

Day Two:

Day Five:

Finished!

Studying with Oregon Trail

My favorite crafty website, www.spritestitch.com, was having an August challenge to come up with a video game craft with the theme of "Back to School". I tried to come up with something along those lines. My mind started going toward school supplies. Originally I was going to make a folder, but I ended up making a cover for a 3-ring binder instead.

Then came the hard part, trying to come up with the theme. Going along with the back to school again, I started thinking of the games that I used to play in school. My favorite was always Oregon Trail. So, I got the sprites that I could, came up with a pattern, and made this: an original Oregon Trail binder cover!

 I think it came out great. I don't like the contrast between the gray and the brown, I wish the words showed up better on the front. This picture really makes it look unreadable, but in person it does look better. Otherwise, I am very pleased with it.

This next part was one of my favorite parts of the game. It was always frustrating to me to only be able to carry back 100 pounds of food, though, even though you had shot 1200 pounds worth. Come on! Like I couldn't have made multiple trips or gotten the rest of the family to help carry some!

To hold everything together, I just took a whole sheet of plastic canvas, cut it to the right height and then just cut it up the middle, then connected each piece to each edge to hold the cover on the notebook. 

On either side of the spine, I double stitched the "hinges" to give it more support and so it won't wear out as quickly. I have a series of in-progress pictures for this that I will add shortly. 

Don't you want one now?

Bubblegum Blanket

I love to visit my local craft stores. So often when browsing through the aisles, I come across inspiration for my next crafting project.  My inspiration for this project came from one of the free pattern fliers seen throughout the store. I thought this blanket was so cute, that I had to have one. I knew that I probably wouldn't be able to talk my mom into making one for me, so I had to make this one myself.

The only crochet item that I had made in the past was a baby blanket made with primary colors from a Vanna White pattern for a friend of mine when his wife had a baby. I knew that this project would be quite a bit bigger and more difficult. I ripped off my own copy of the pattern from the booklet, gathered up the supplies that I needed, and headed home to begin.

Once I got home, I instantly realized that this pattern is for a child-sized blanket. That was not such a big deal, though, since this blanket is made up of individual squares. All I had to do to get a bigger blanket is to make more squares than called for. So, I just had to go back to the craft store for more supplies.

As always happens when I begin a big project, I got bored with it and set it aside. I just got so tired of making all these squares. I'm not even sure how long it took me to finish this blanket. I got to a point where I was so tired of these squares, that I just stopped where I was and left it as it was. It ended up larger than the child's size it was originally supposed to be, but smaller than the full, large adult size that I had originally intended. It ended up being 11 x 8 squares.
As it is, I am quite happy with it. It is an awesome - and bright - blanket.

Here is a link to the pattern online, in case you want to make one for yourself! http://www.purplekittyyarns.com/afghan-patterns/bubblegum

 Enjoy!

My first big project: Monopoly!

Up through high school, whenever I would do crafts it was always small items, nothing very big. One day I when shopping with my mom at a local craft store, and I came across the pattern for a cross-stitch Monopoly board. Instantly, I was hooked and I spent what little money I had (I was a poor college student at the time) to buy the supplies I needed to work on what would be my masterpiece.

OK, I've mentioned it before, but I'll remind you. I have a hard time working on something straight through from start to finish. I worked on this project on and off over the course of over 2 years. When I finished it, though, I was sooo excited. This was my first big project that I not only attempted, but finished as well. I've had it framed and put under glass. Now whenever I want to play Monopoly, all I have to do is take it off the wall!

I don't have any in-progress pictures, as this was completed 12 years ago, but I have several pics of the finished product.  I must note that I did make a few changes from what the pattern had. Instead of putting the Parker Brothers copyright info underneath the Monopoly logo in the middle, I substituted my name and the year that I completed the project.

Enjoy!