Missed me?

Yep, I have been wandering around above ground for the past couple of months.

In late August we loaded The Wanderer

with a few craft supplies, my easel  and my little Singer Featherweight,

along with gifts for our niece and her husband’s mountain home which is currently under construction.

Handy Randy made the sign in his shop

Freezer paper stencil cut with Silhouette Portrait ironed onto burlap and painted with craft paint

We traveled to Texas via Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. We plan to stay in Texas through the football season.

The Featherweight is set up at my mother-in-law’s home where I have stitched a couple of bags including a phone sleeve to carry to football games. 

Pocket for phone

Pocket for ticket

It complies with the SECrequirements for bags that can be brought into the stadium; depending on the person taking the tickets, it might have to go through the line to be searched. So I stick it in Handy Randy’s pocket until we get in the stadium (wonder why pockets aren’t searched?) The pattern is one I frequently use from  Sher’s Creative Space. (I no longer see the pattern on the web site, but there are a ton of other free patterns listed.)

On the flap of this wristlet is a photo from our visit in Cortona, Italy.

How did I do that? I ironed a piece of heavy cotton fabric onto a piece of freezer paper and printed it on my home printer. I think the image would be brighter had I treated the fabric with digital ground before printing.

Currently I am working on a surprise for the folks with whom we traveled to Italy last May. I would tell you about it, but it is a secret. Perhaps I will share photos after our get together next month.  

Even though I am not in The Underground, I continue to feed my soul with crafting. 

Have Featherweight, Will Travel

And oh how I love this travel companion!

She allows me to continue to make these handy dandy phone sleeves which I carry much more often than a purse. Following Sher Hastings directions, I increased the size to accommodate a larger phone. I can slip a small coin purse, shopping list, coupons, etc. in the pocket. Note the prairie points, my first. I continue to be amazed at all the free online instructions! I found these at PatchworkPosse.

For a friend, my Featherweight and I made this flag. After helping launch Tipsy Tuesday on our patio, my friend is now living in Montana. She wanted a flag with cows and mountains so she could continue the tradition out west. The cows and mountains were created with stencils using freezer paper, my Silhouette Portrait and craft paint.

I think my granddaughter also likes the little Featherweight and the Silhouette. 

She made a purse tissue cover for her friend who, like Camille, is a ballerina. The image is a silhouette of her friend which I created in Photoshop Elements (yes, I am exploring the PSE 14 and I like it! The magic eraser is really great for removing backgrounds.) With assistance Camille created a freezer paper stencil using my Silhouette Portrait. Since both girls had the role of a dragonfly in the recent production of Cinderella, she added a little dragonfly.

Wanting to add a Cinderella photo to my digital picture frame and knowing photos from the Northwest Florida Ballet Company were copyrighted, I got creative.

Camille’s mom took some good photos at the dress rehearsal, but they had an unflattering background.

Once again, PSE 14 to the rescue! Using that marvelous magic eraser I got rid of the background. Using the gradient tool, I created another background on to which I moved both photos.

 Viola!

You can take the crafter out of the studio, but that doesn’t stop her creativity! I will be back in the studio in a couple of weeks.