09.10.11 Random Act of Craft

Like me, Megan is a Rockford girl who married her true love, Bob, on 09.10.11. Well, my true love is Todd, not Bob, and they got married in Washington (state), not Rockford, but you get the picture… Judging by her posts on Facebook, she and Bob are more in love now than they were the day they got married. I made this Wedding Canvas for them to commemorate their special day, and it turned into a Random Acts of Craft since I procrastinated so much that it’s getting to them nearly nine months after they got married – so, kinda like a baby, but without the pain and discomfort!

I really liked the simplicity of the black and white photo Megan sent me, and I carried that theme into the paper and embellishments I chose to enhance the photo. I love making these canvases, and I’ve used different sizes to make “fancy” wall hangings.

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Flea Market Finds at Kane Co. Flea Market

Today Todd and I went to the Kane County Flea Market at the Kane County Fairgrounds. This place is Ahmahzing! My goal for today was to find some kind of display unit for my items I’ll be selling at the Summerfield Zoo gift shop, some vintage linens, and who knows what else. I found what I was looking for, and then some!

1. Five vintage hankies. The seller we got these from had BOXES of them!
Only $1.00 each.

2. I’m going to use this green bowl in my craft room to hold scissors.
It reminds me of pudding cups we had when I was a kid.
Only $1.00!

3. We received a Scentsy burner for our wedding, and these are soy scent warmers for it. We got Lavender Sugar (which is melting right now and smells heavenly) and Mint & Rosemary. They came from Cara’s Home Fragrances.

4, 5, & 6. Are some neat jewelry display pieces. These are what I’ll use for my items at Summerfield Zoo.
We got all three for only $18.00!

Mina’s New Martingale Collar

We also found a neat booth that had dog and cat collars and leashes. We generally use a pinch collar for Mina, but decided to try out a Martingale collar. As you can see, it even has her name embroidered on it.

This flea market was gigantic! We’re not sure how much of it we saw, but we’re not even positive we saw half of it! It’s open the first Sunday and preceding Saturday of every month. We can’t wait to go back, but next time I’ll need to wear my walking shoes! I wore sandals, and it was very rough walking with lots of dirt.

I highly recommend you check this flea market out.

Evolving Vision for Random Acts of Crafting

I’m creating an evolving vision for this blog. I have a lot of creative friends, and I have a lot of friends who are creative but don’t quite know it. I know there are many people out there who are yet to be my friend who would be a real asset to this idea.

Random Acts of Crafting is about giving back, whether that’s by giving a hand crafted gift to someone, or whether that’s teaching other people how to do what you do, or by showcasing great finds on the internet and in your geographical area. I’m thinking Tutorial Tuesdays, Wedding Wednesdays, I Pinned It from Pinterest Mondays…you get the idea. Themed days that people will look forward to reading about, plus Random Acts of Crafting that will not only restore our faith in each other, but also teach us a technique we may not already know.

I’ve gotten a great response from people who want to help me with this blog – it’s great! The response has been so wonderful, that I’ve realized I need to come up with some kind of guidelines. It wouldn’t be too great to have 10 posts on one day, and then none for five days! I’m creating a survey in Google Docs that I’ll send out to whomever is interested in creating on the blog. And anyone who is going to be a part of the blog will need to have a Google/Gmail account since we’ll be utilizing Google Docs to keep the editorial calendar.

So here are some of the crafty areas I’ve identified for us:

• Furniture crafts: refinishing, repurposing, etc
• Home repair and remodeling
• Fashion: makeup, clothing, accessories, etc
• Vintage: finding vintage items, repurposing vintage items, crafting with vintage items, etc
• Beading
• Small business craft owner
• Needle Arts: embroidery, crewel, stump work, cross stitch, etc…
• Trash to Treasure
• Polymer Clay
• Paper Crafts: scrapbooking, card making, etc…
  
• Shrine Making
  
• Resin
• Crochet
• Knitting
• Food: baking, vegan, vegetarian, BBQ, etc…
• Jewelry Making
• Fine Arts: painting, sculptures, etc…
• Printables
• Photography
• Letterpress
• Computer Editing: Photoshop, GIMP, etc…
  
• Other…

And some of the themes I’ve thought up are:

• Everyday Living
• Baby
• Children
• Teens
• Wedding
• Organization
• Holidays
• Gardening
  
• Other…
  

I hope you’re still as excited as I am!
Please comment here or email me at RandomActofCraft {at} gmail {dot} com if you want to join our motley crew! I’ll send you the survey and guidelines for posting.

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A Going Away Random Acts of Crafting

In March my friend Shalonda moved down to New Orleans where she’ll stay for six months while helping open up a new restaurant. Shalonda is a pastry chef par excellance, as witnessed by her skills at helping to create our wedding cake (She baked it, Tracy decorated it) – it was DELICIOUS.

Since she was going to be away from her husband and two kids for so long, I wanted to make something for her that was small-ish, but meaningful. I enlisted her husband Dan to help me by sending me a copy of their family portrait (How cool are the tuxedo t-shirts??). I printed the picture out in 4″x6″ size then mounted it to a blank 5″x7″ canvas to display it with pretty paper and embellishments.

I am going to pretend that Shalonda has it sitting on her bedside table, and she gazes lovingly at it each night before she goes to bed, loving her family, and thinking about what a thoughtful friend she has in me.

Amy & Shalonda

It often happens that I forget to take a nice picture of the things I make…

A Pugly Random Acts of Crafting

When I saw the Pugly hand embroidery pattern from Sublime Stitching, several people came to mind who I knew would love to have this hanging on their walls. But I decided that I’d stitch it up for Tom and Terrie because they work so tirelessly to help animals, especially Pugs, in need. Tom regularly drives 100 miles to pick up an abandoned dog who would otherwise be euthanized. Tom and Terrie have opened their home to a veritable zoo of animals, and my husband, Todd, and I admire them deeply. Someday when we are able to afford our own home (instead of renting), we hope to follow their example.

This was a surprise Random Act of Craft in that I did not let Tom or Terrie know that it was being sent to them. It was hard not to post photos on Facebook or Instagram since it’s so darned cute, but I was strong! I stitched it up, mounted it, sent it out via FedEx, and sat on pins and needles waiting to hear that they had received it. I love doing these kinds of things for people! It’s probably because I like getting surprises so much, too.

Mr. Pugly’s proud new parents ❤

RAC #1 to LJKC

My first Random Act of Crafting went to Laura in early May 2011. She’s one of Todd’s college friends, and has quickly become my friend, too, although we’ve only had interaction via the Internet (she lives in that far away land of Brooklyn with her EP producing husband maticulous).

I was searching for images to make a wedding sampler for Todd and I when I came across Snow White and her Seven Dwarfs. I started to think about how fun it would be to stitch her in a hoop, then use smaller hoops to stitch the guys. I remembered that Laura is as nuts for Snow White as I am for monkeys, and I decided that I would make Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for her.

I was having a particularly hard time coping with living away from my family and long-time friends, and it made me feel really good to be doing something for someone who I knew would genuinely appreciate what I was doing. And she did

This post was originally blogged about on Random Acts of Amy.

All Call for Crafters and Artists!

I’d like to get this blog started as a group effort with crafters and artists from all over the world. My vision for Random Acts of Crafting is to showcase crafts you’ve created for others that are in the spirit of Random Acts of Crafting (Random Acts of Crafting is all about creating crafts and art for people who aren’t expecting it.) AND as a resource for how-to tutorials and instructions.

I think this could be a lot of fun for everyone!

If you’d like to be a part of this movement, leave a comment on this post or email me at ALBHenderson {at} gmail {dot} com.