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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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…

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.