Check-In Post June 12th 2021

[badly_knitted]

Hello to all members, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


Today's Question: No question today.


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!

Comments

[badly_knitted]

Progress at last! 20 rows. Only another 18 to go, including the shaping rows.

[wiseheart]

Go you! Beat the iron as long as it is hot, as we say in Hungarian. *g*

[badly_knitted]

In England, we say something very similar, Strike while the iron is hot.

Thanks, I'm trying!

[smallhobbit]

Awesome!

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! I'll be glad to finish this sleeve.

Cooking book progress, take one

[wiseheart]

Behold Pages 2 and 3 (Page 1 will be the front cover, but I'll leave that to the end):



On the left side you can see the little felt chef peeking out from behind his window. On the right side, there are some introductions how to prepare for cooking. I thought it would be funny if the paper they're printed on was cut in the shape of a chopping board. *g*

Then come Pages 4 and 5. Well, actually, Page 5 is quite unfinished so far, but this was the best way I could take a photo of the closed flap on Page 4. There will be pockets for recipes on the right side, eventually. At least that's the plan, but we all know that the best laid plans can turn out very differently sometimes.



And finally, the opened flap of Page 4:



Basically, it is an introduction of the kitchen utensils that might be needed. Since my printer is black-and-white, I decided to print on coloured paper; that way it looks better.

Again, partially cross-posted to my LJ, so apologies if you get to see this twice.

Re: Cooking book progress, take one

[badly_knitted]

I love little chef, and the cute teddy picture. Those pages are looking great!

Re: Cooking book progress, take one

[wiseheart]

Thanks. :) As I mentioned over at LJ, one of the childcare organizations Mum and I support sent us a teddy calendar a few years ago. The pictures were so cute I didn't have the heart to throw them out, and now they're coming in handy.

Re: Cooking book progress, take one

[badly_knitted]

It's so great being able to re-use things. Always worth keeping cute pictures in case they'll come in handy for future projects. I keep the pictures from old calendars too.

[smallhobbit]

I've finished the little cross stitch bookmark for The Daughter:

[wiseheart]

Lovely! :)

[smallhobbit]

Thank you!

[badly_knitted]

The bookmark is lovely! I'm sure your daughter will be pleased.

[smallhobbit]

Thank you very much.

[m_findlow]

Thought I’d better post an update before I get distracted. Made a few cards yesterday with my new papers and a couple last weekend. Even though I’ve only been dabbling here and there since my past update, my pile of cards has grown considerably more than I thought when archiving pictures of them.
Other new thing I discovered this week is that I can use my crimp edge scissors for more than just straight lines. They are very handy for making fancy borders on plain circle and oval cut outs. Just when I thought I’d never use them again!

[badly_knitted]

You are just so brilliantly innovative with your cards. I can't imagine how long it must take just to make one, picking out all the elements to use, cutting everything to size and fitting it all together. They look wonderful!

I especially love the last two sets with the red and black, I'm assuming those are some of your new papers. Just gorgeous!

[m_findlow]

Thank you! You're right, usually the first card of the day can take over an hour trying to get it just right. I'm such a fusspot around colours so having a pad of papers that are all printed to match definitely helps. The last two sets are the new papers and each has a plain reverse colour side to coordinate. That they're banksia, bottle brush and wrens just makes them feel a bit special being native flowers and birds.
Composition is the hardest thing. The light blue wren card is my favourite new layout I've tried. I'm always looking for new layouts. I could make two dozen much quicker using the same composition but with different colour schemes and they would all look different, but it feels a bit like cheating. I swear I've looked at every picture on pinterest there is, but they keep coming back with the same images over and over again. I don't use much stamping so the cut and placement have to be the focal points since it's mostly just paper. I'll just keep experimenting.

[wiseheart]

Your cards are amazingly beautiful. It requires a lot of creativity not to simply copy that which is already there in great quantities. My luck is that I can't get any of the gazillion ready-made little embellishment most of the youTubers use, so I have no other choice than being creative with my design. ;D

[m_findlow]

Thank you!
You can get away with a lot without the fancy central embellishments. They're very expensive considering you only get one card out of them. Sticker sheets with small, unthemed decorations or greetings are best I find, and pages of stick on jewels. I'd rather spend $2 on a sticker sheet I can use on 20 different cards than $5 on one embellishment. I confess I've never watched cardmaking on YouTube so would be interested to see what they're coming up with.

[wiseheart]

There are a few very skilled cardmakers on YouTube. I can highly recommand this woman, for one. I gave her Christmas window card as presented in this tutorial a try. Of course, since I can't get these ready-made frames under the rock where I live, I had to cut out each and every one of them by hand. You can see the difference here - mine are a lot more amateurish, of course. But without the fancy ready-made parts, I'm actually fairly proud of my results.

*Edited because I've messed up the hand-coding. Again.

[badly_knitted]

Thanks for sharing the tutorial! I'll probably watch it all the way through when I have more time.

Your window cards turned out really well! Cutting the windows must have been so hard though.

[wiseheart]

Oh, yes! I had cramps in my hands for days afterwards. The tutorial is very good indeed, and the card a lot easier to make than one would expect.

[badly_knitted]

I can believe it!

[badly_knitted]

You definitely have a talent for it and a good eye for colour and detail. I love that you keep experimenting rather than just settling for what you already know works.

Your wrens are very different to the British kind! Ours are tiny brown birds with short tails that stick up.

I'll go see if I can pick out the light blue wren card from your pics...

[nagi_schwarz]

After ages and ages I knitted today! I am finally good enough at knitting and Korean that I can watch a K-drama with subtitles and knit at the same time. I managed six rows on the baby blanket.

[badly_knitted]

Woohoo! Progress on both the knitting and the Korean! Amazing! (I suck at languages).

[nagi_schwarz]

Thank you! It felt so good to get back to knitting again.

[medievalrosalie]

I'm behind in my reading again, but I have been crafting! Today I pinned a veil and a wimple and have almost finished sewing the veil, which is a semi-circle of gauzy linen. I hemmed a silk veil and wimple for my friend though it was already hemmed on three sides and I only needed to finish of 2 x sides. I fixed another guy from our medieval group's hood (which he spent a lot of money on and it doesn't fit him) and to make up for his disappointment at spending so much money at a recommended retailer, I'm going to make it prettier by cutting daggues into it. Daggues are the decorative shapes which dangle around the edge. This poor guy has bought almost an entire outfit from a certain vendor and almost all his stuff has been substandard and needed substantial fixing. And he paid good money for it. Anyway, going to fix his new hood and make it pretty.

I've still got a lot of sewing to do before the deadline.

[wiseheart]

You are a godsend for the others in your group. Whatever would they do with out you? :)

[badly_knitted]

You do sound very busy! You've managed to get a lot done though.

If a retailer is going to charge high prices they should put out good quality product. Your friend had better buy from somewhere else in future. At least you can fix his hood for him so it looks good.

Good luck in getting done by the deadline!

[m_findlow]

Getting anything "quality" is so hard these days. Lucky they've got you on hand to pimp things up.
Those who can make things are at a definite advantage over buying things off the internet. Or at least buying them and then improving on them.
We had a masquerade party one year and I made my own based on a picture of one I saw online - all silver and black, feathers and French lace. It retailed at $180! I made it out of craft supplies for about $20, including the plush panne lining on the inside and woven ribbon handle. I still have it and wish I had another function I could use it at!

[badly_knitted]

You really should post a picture. It sounds amazing!

[wiseheart]

I second that. Please, share the view. :)

[m_findlow]

I will try and dig it out for a picture on the weekend!

[badly_knitted]

Yay! As long as it's not too much trouble. I know you're very busy.