Recycling for Christmas

Those of you who make your holiday have already started, right. Since I make holidays for others I started working on our Christmas line back in March. I am prepping aluminum cans to the made into ornaments, earring & bookmarks.

My friends and family save all of their cans, but then I have to cut them down to make space. Usually I don't need thousands of cans but this year I went global and two of my ornaments will be in a VERY BIG CATALOG, which will remain nameless until the print date.

Here is a sneak at the glamorous back side of using recycled cans for creating art:

Once I get them all cut down and washed they head to the basement to be stored or if I still feel like standing for another hour I run them through the accucut. Making 500 items was easy, I think making 3000 may be a huge challenge.

Drink up and save your cans cause I need them to make Some Art.

A "Very" Simple Quilt

Next month my nephew will celebrate his second birthday. Jacob will move from babydom to childhood and he needs a new quilt to go with his new status.

So what other fabrics to use than the wonderful designs of Eric Carle. There are now three fabric lines from Andover Fabrics showcasing this talented artist & children's author. I used fabric from all three to create this "very" simple quilt. This quilt & a kit with all of the precut fabric will be in at our booth in Knoxville next month. When I break down the show the "very" simple quilt & corresponding books will be on it way West to my delightful nephew. I hope he drags it through the dusty roads of his childhood and loves it dearly.


Eric Carle's newest line is called the Very Series and it has images from:

The Very Busy Spider
The Very Lonely Firefly, 1995

Featured in the panel:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, 1969
The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, 1999 
The Very Quiet Cricket, 1990

More Can Can Earrings

New dies came in this week and we have more unique earrings, book marks & necklaces. Each charm is hand cut then attached to an appropriate dangle.



2. Scalloped Heart Can Can Earrings, 4. AeroPlane Can Can Earrings, 5. Alien Head Can Can Earrings, 6. Shamrock Can Can Earrings, , 8. Celtic Clover Can Can Earrings

Sugar Skull Paper Banner

Well it was time!

I wanted to update the family room to celebrate the season: new paper die cut window treatment and a new banner for the mantel.

The window treatment was originally done 2 summers ago and I keep changing out the paper die cuts to fit my mood or the season. This is the original blog entry with instructions.

The mantel banner is a new idea, the sugar skulls are so easy to string horizontally. You just slide the string through the existing decorations in the forehead.

Look like we are almost ready for the wicked.

Many Faces of the Poly Ball

This week I have been looking for and making more Polyhedron Balls out of found recycled materials, Romance Covers, Album Covers & Atlas Books. I love the ones from the paper I made but I don't have time to make another batch of paper (I Keep Saying, maybe I should just go out to the garage and crank up the Critter). So this past week has found me at thrift store and book sales looking for cool new thin cardboard for the ball.


1. Recycled Fabric Paper, 2. Billy Squier Album Poly Ball, 3. Romance Novel Poly Ball, 4. Photo Ball, 5. Recycled Fabric Paper, 6. Atlas Poly Ball

Last night at KraftsWorks these were a huge hit to pick up and marvel, unfortunately I had as many at the end of the night as at the beginning. I did not hang them on a tree but left them in a bowl that truly looked super wonderful, perfect for every hip house on the block.

Many of these balls will only be available at the upcoming local shows since they are very much one of a kind. Keep an eye out for them!

Wonky Wool

Between being sick last week and sitting with my dad at the hospital this week there has been a lot of enforced down time which is the perfect time to get some sewing done.

I love to make plushies, my favorite part is the face so I elimated the body and just did the face as a wool Trivet. I am a bit OCD about trivets right.

Felt Sugar Skulls

Not as super sweet but loads of fun.



Ready for the one of the best celebrations of the year? Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), a two day celebration, that corresponds with All Saints and All Souls Day, November 1 & 2, is a celebration meant to honor loved ones who have passed on. How will you honor the ones you love who have gone on?

How about making a sugar skull. I have never made a real one but I have designed a cute felt bag from the ones we have at the store.

Here is the tutorial.

The bag is cute and small (4.5 x 5.5), just the right size for a change purse or a cell phone. These are made with Kunin Eco Felt which is made by recycling plastic bottles.

Want to put them on a tee shirt or tote bag? A set of 4 (one of each color) with 4 black backs is also available.

Don't sew a lick but love them all the same. Finished pouches can be made to order.

Artistic interpretation by the number 2 child.

Introducing Sloth Craft

Drum Roll Please!

Sloth Craft: the division of Some Art that is all about the crafty things we make.

Last year we designed an ornament to give to friends and family and it was a huge hit. Fueled by the success, I designed a few more and they are ready to go PUBLIC. (Although if you were at the last Kraftworks you got a sneaky peek).


The Sloth Craft elves are ready to get the holiday season started with a beautiful line of repurposed, reclaimed and reseen holiday ornaments that you can feel good about giving and of course keeping for your holiday heirlooms.

Each ornament is made by hand in the USA using a variety of materials with an eye towards unique and creative misuse.

Featured Exclusively at SomeArtFabric.com

Amy Vanderbilt would be so happy!

I was a bit behind the eight ball on my mother's day offering. I pulled through with a great project that saved not only me but about 35 teenagers from certain parental doom and disappointment.

Thursday evening the wonderful UPS man dropped my Accucut order and I was off to the basement to make SOMETHING!.

These flowers are so beautiful and classic they gave life to my Amy Vanderbilt "Complete Book of Etiquette." I am sure she would be proud.

I cut a bazillion flowers and brought them to school on Friday were both of my classes indulged me and made gifts for their maternal units. The kids got really creative and added them to cards and made bouquets.



Kinda interesting my photo kids loved them plain and my younger basic art kids wanted to add color to them. This is one of the projects I will use this summer at camp.

I need to go to the big box and get another wire wreath cause I need one of these to keep for myself.

Family Photo Ball

There was a time....

When I thought that I could sell postcards of my photography work, so I picked 6 of my best images and sent them off to be printed. They were a hit but this was well before Etsy or even online. When I left Nexus (now "The Contemporary") and started having children they got stashed. I pulled them out this past year determined to make something with them.

Sell them (you say), well to be honest, the info on the back is no longer correct and some of them are starting to yellow on the edges. They might still show up at the store but I love what I made with them, this will certainly be up at the store very soon.


Here is one of the images that I used and you can see the rest of them up at our main site.

Plarn Basket

UPS dropped off my newest dies from AccuCut today, I am well pleased. I wanted this die for my summer job as an art teacher at the Mable House, our theme is "the Mean Green Time Machine". We are going back in time and creating art projects that use recycled materials. A tall order. Anywho, this is a proto type for Ancient Civilizations week.





I was thinking about spinning newspaper but I think the plarn will be easier for the kids to make and less likely to rip and there are color choices depending on where you shop.



Have I mentioned that I love my die cutter;-)

Heart Pencil Monster

Good For Girls and Boys!
Our rainy day fun! Blah weather, sick kids but messy craft project for entertainment.



Just finished the instructable.

Heart Garland

Time for a change. Out with the insects in with the hearts.

Birds of Change Exchange

Just mailed off my set of 5 to the Creative Kismet for her Birds of Change Exchange. This are made with recycled pop cans and beads that are really seeds & pits. I scavenged them from a necklace I found in a "classy" thrift shop.

Due to the response the birds are now available for purchase at the shop.
There are more pics up at flickr.

Handmade Holiday Ornament

I started working on a design for this holiday ornament after I saw an older version of it in a picture from my childhood. I made a few by hand but eventually found someone to create a die cut for my Accu Cut so I could cut them out in bulk. The girls and I made some holiday paper during Thanksgiving Break and I am just finishing up the ornaments. I will do a tutorial if there is interest.

From Colleen

Here is a better look at the ornament:

From Some Art Talk

Here is the bmp I used to make the ornament:

Lot o' Monster Backpack Clips

Lot o' Monster Backpack Clips

Hi I posted this as a craftster Holiday Challenge.

Voting starts soon so please vote us in! The girls would love the prizes.

Posted using ShareThis

ICE DIY

Well, we were one of the official sponsors of the ICE DIY tee shirt area this past Saturday and we had FUN! Thanks to all the great volunteers, most of whom stayed all day to help folks fuse die cut shapes onto organic shirts from Alternative Apparel. If you did not make it down you missed out. Mark you calender now for the summer show!

Here we are getting set up. It did not stay so neat after the folks arrived.