More spools of thread (in more ways than one!)

Hi Friends! Thanks for the tips on dealing with slippery fabric yesterday. They really helped! Both dresses are hemmed and look pretty decent. I did a lot of practice hemming before I touched Lil’s dress as it was more slippery than Maizys and I could tell it would be more challenging to make it look polished. I really had my heart set on mastering a teeny rolled hem with my rolled hem pressure foot but the curve of the hem proved too challenging. I carefully trimmed the excess fabric and practiced on the entire length of the scrap (17 feet!) but I could not keep that darn fabric tucked in the cone of the foot unless it was a straight length of fabric. So I settled for a 1/4″ rolled hem and it looked fine. I’m telling you if I ever decide to make some handkerchiefs or dinner napkins I will use that rolled hem foot and they will be 1/8″ perfection! Speaking of sewing I drew spools for today’s video:

You might remember me showing you this artwork during my Holbein colored pencil review. It was a fairly quick piece (quicker than hemming a prom dress, that’s for sure!) Here is the time-lapse.

Here is the reference photo if you want it. I worked directly from the items but snapped a photo with my phone for you. I would recommend setting up your own still life if you have threads and buttons for the best results.

Supplies (affilate links used)

• Holbein Colored Pencils (36 set)
• Stonehenge drawing paper

Spiking of quicker than prom dress hemming projects I decided to sew a new cover for Penny’s dog bed before I put my sewing machine away. Also I needed a quick win so in 10 minutes I whipped up this with some leftover décor fabric. I think it looks cute and sewing cotton after satin was a freaking breeze!

Penny likes it too. She had made some small holes in the fabric of her bed because the likes to aggressively fluff it up at night and her claws have poked through. I don’t know why companies use such flimsy materials for dog beds. This bed is a nice (expensive) orthopedic one so I really want it to last so I hope this does the trick. Plus I can wash the cover which is nice since I don’t think I could put the bed in the washing machine. I am glad I took my time with the dress projects. We are having a rainy holiday weekend in Maine so it was a good excuse to get it done. It probably wouldn’t have needed to take as long as it did but I was so worried about ruining the dresses which probably would have happened if I waited til last minute and had to rush given my lack of experience with satin. I’ll share photos next week after prom! Til next time happy crafting!

If you wonder why Sat Chat is late, it’s cuz I’ve been hemming dresses all day…

…and seamstresses/tailors deserve every penny they make! Hi friends! I decided I would start the prom dress hemming today. I rarely sew garments and almost never work with silky material so I know this project was going to take longer than I expected. I only got one dress done. It as Maizy’s and it had a stiff plastic interfacing in the hem to keep the dress flared out so I didn’t want to remove it as it seemed important to the structure. I could not find a single tutorial on hemming a gown like that but I was hoping I could just roll it up and stitch it. I ended up using the invisible catch stich from this tutorial and it worked so well. I swear that gown is so full there must have been 20 feet of hemming by hand LOL! It took hours! I thought I’d mention it incase anyone else is hemming prom dresses this weekend and has encountered that weird interfacing. I hemmed the lining on my machine and it’s fine. Well, it’s nothing to write home about but you can’t really see it LOL! I will tackle Lila’s dress tomorrow. I need to take off 2″ and do a rolled hem so I need to take another class on YouTube University on how to use my rolled hem presser foot and practice on some scraps as I think it might be less forgiving than the the hems today. I am not a fan of satin, it is so slippery. If you have any tips please let me know in comments. 🙂

Some of the stuff I mentioned:

• The free class I taught live on Wednesday for Michaels & Derwent is up now
• Craft room organization video
• Rock landscape tutorial
• Cell phone palette
• Funny song parody: Menopause Rhapsody (hilarious and very clever!)
• The nifty travel palette I mentioned with spam cans was made by Bill Kilpatrick

Oh! One more thing, A few of you asked when the Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine would be out in bookstores and a viewer spotted them at Barnes & Noble. It’s issue 216. I was at JoAnn Fabrics 2 weeks ago and they had 215 out so it might be there too by now. That’s all for today. Sewing is very tiring. Til next time happy crafting!

Oh, the crafty hoard… (clean & organize the craft storage room with me!)

Hi friends! I had been feeing a bit uncreative and blah and quite frankly annoyed with the current state of my crafty storage area (AKA the old craft room) so I decided it was time to go through all the drawers of random supplies, reorganize and most importantly label everything. Join me on this journey, will you? You can put this video on while you are cleaning up your craft space too! It’s better to tackle tough chores with a friend don’t you think?

I finished this project last Sunday night and it had been such a relief each day to walk in there and find, or put away supplies. I don’t think it was bad before but it is so much better now! My storage is handmade or castoffs from other parts of the house (or side of the road LOL!) Most of the products I use for organizing are from department stores (back to school time is a great time to shop for selection and price) as well as the Dollar Tree. Below I will list some of my favorite things I’ve used.

• Iris carts are available in lots of different drawer sizes and combinations. I find the shallower drawers the most useful but I use some deep ones too. The casters can be removed for stacking too!
• 9-cube units (I use these for my craft island table legs, you can also find ones with larger openings that will hold scrapbook papers)
• I use hollow-core luan doors as tables, they were salvaged sliding closet doors.
• I also use wire cubes, they can be rearranged infinitely and stored in a small space when not in use. These come in different sizes so check before ordering if you need them to be wider. Mine are i4″x14″ panels I think.
• I also use a lot of recycled boxes and plastic square baskets from the dollar tree. Dollar tree storage is great and I recommend buying a bunch of the same color if you like it as they sell out fast. You can also order online and they will ship it to your local store for free if your store doesn’t have what you want. I just spotted these paper trays that are 12″x12.5″ that I think might be good for scrapbook paper.

I hope this inspires you to make the most out of the space you have and til next time happy crafting!

Affiliate links were used in this blog post.

Pastel Macaron Tutorial by Request!

Hi friends! How has your week been going? Mine has been good, the weather has been great too which always lifts my sprits! Today we are going to paint the pastel Macarons I shared the other day in my Derwent Pastel Pan Paint Review.

Watch the video for this easy lesson!

Supplies:

• Derwent pastel watercolors
• Arteza sketchbook
• Creative mark mimik brushes
• Reference

That’s all for today! Happy crafting!

I painted a jar of spools and you can too!

Hi friends! I was inspired to fill a jar of spools after seeing one at a flea market. I thought it would be fun to paint!

You can find a real-time narrated tutorial for this project in Critique Club, and if you are interested in learning how to render glass in watercolor check out my Watercolor Glass Class.

Supplies:

• Paint and brushes are available in my LUKAS signature set through Jerry’s Artatrama
• Strathmore windpower paper

Sadly the affordable Windpower paper has been discontinued by Strathmore. I bought a bunch at Ocean State Job Lot and came across it when I was reorganizing the crafty storage room (organize with me video coming soon!) and I had forgot how much I enjoyed it. The Strathmore 400 series is similar tho. Have a great day and til next time happy crafting!

Sat Chat: Muddy Dogs, Sunny Days & Bad Art Week

Hi friends! How was your week? Anything fun going on this weekend? I hope you are enjoying yourself, getting outside or maybe staying in and creating. Try and spend part of the weekend doing what you want to do.

With the gorgeous weather we had this week I had to get outside. Here are some pics I took while kayaking. *I put the images in a slideshow so if you are reading this via email you might want to click over to my blog for a better experience.

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Stuff I mentioned:

• New Lesson up in Critique Club (spool jar)
• I’m teaching a free live class on Micheals.com next week, sign up here, free traceable included!
• The sketchbook I mentioned was the Stillman & Birn Beta Series Mixed Media
• This looks like the rainbow pencils I bought

That’s all for today! Take care of yourself and til next time happy crafting!

Holbein Colored Pencil Review! (and a supply swap)

Hi friends! A few months ago artist Jane bush on YouTube asked me if I would like to try Holbein pencils as she had an extra set. I thought that would be fun as I had been curious about them but they were hard to find here.

I set to work putting them through their paces and today I have a full review for you!

Be sure to check out my friend Jane’s channel to see the review on the set of pencils I sent her! Affilate links are used in this review.

Today we are reviewing Holbein Artists Colored Pencils. Until recently they have been very difficult to find in America and very expensive if you did manage to score a set on Ebay. Now that Blick is stocking them we have a reliable source of both sets and open stock Holbein pencils.

Pros:

• Highly pigmented Fast laydown of color
• Ability to layer several layers and mix colors
• Good for folks with arthritis as little pressure is needed
• Great color selection (range of 150 colors)
• Really unique range of robust pastel tones
• Lightfast ratings are provided on the pencils with 3 stars being highest.

Cons:

• Price ($3.19 per pencil)
• Availability (only Blick has them in USA and they can be hard to buy outside of Japan)
• Tips wear down quickly

Bottom line: The most unique feature about the Holbein Artist Pencils is the pastel tones. I plan to add a few more of those to my collection where I do not have similar shades in Prismacolor, Coloursoft, or Lightfast. I urge you to try a few open stock pencils before committing to a full set if you are not sure as there is not a huge per pencil savings in the sets and they mix and layer well so I don’t think the full set is necessary to create beautiful art. I recommend these pencils but I do hope the price comes down as they become more popular and available. One more thing, I referenced Arteza colored pencils as a very similar pencil. They have changed the numbering on the pencils so I am not sure if the pencils are still the same quality but they did start offering open stock pencils with the same names of the ones I have but different numbers for anyone who wants to try a couple and see. I have inquired about these new numbered pencils and I will update it here if I find out more.

A Sat Chat AND a Sketchbook Tour (2 videos!)

Hi friends! I hope you are having a nice weekend! It has been a good here. My son went to his Senior prom Friday night and yesterday my daughters went shopping for prom dresses with their friends as they have confirmation that their junior prom will be happening for sure. They came home with lovely gowns which I’m sure I will be spamming you with next month but for now here is a pic of my son with his girlfriend:

Apparently there was a photo shoot on the waterfront that the moms were supposed to be told about. Funny how the girls moms get informed but the boy’s moms do not. Luckily his girlfriend’s mom got lots of photos (she took the one above) and will share them. I took a couple pics before he left though but I can never coax out the big grins his girlfriend brings out LOL! (Plus I’m not a great photographer) anyway, they had a good time and I am so thankful that they could go. What a year amiright?

Sat Chat! Yes, I got one done, I didn’t know how I would feel after the vaccine (2nd dose) so I had already filmed a sketchbook tour to run on Saturday just incase I didn’t feel up to filming but I was fine to, yay! I did crash after this and spend most of the day on the couch watching TV though just in case you thought I was a productive goddess, I am not LOL!

And here is that sketchbook tour, I posted it today for sketchbook Sunday.

There, now you are all caught up. I know you were waiting with bated breath hahaha:) Have a great rest of your weekend and til next time happy crafting!

Sweet Cat Watercolor Tutorial

Hi friends! Today I have a fun tutorial of a sleeping kitten.

Watch the video to see how!

All of the supplies are from this inexpensive pagos watercolor kit. (affiliate link) and here is the reference photo.

I hope you enjoy the project. I am keeping this post short as I had my 2nd covid vaccine yesterday and I am totally wiped out today! I did manage to film a sat chat though so that will be up on YouTube tomorrow:) Have a great weekend! Happy crafting!