In the midst of job-hunting and slaving, I took a lil time (cumulatively approx. 8 hours) to make these papercraft Russian Dolls.
If, like me, you haven't been to Russia or own some authentic wooden ones, you can, like me, make yours from paper.
Download pattern
Download instructions
Just so you know that I'm still alive and kicking, I'm gonna write on some older mini projects that I kept putting off posting about... and by older, I mean more than 2 weeks ago.
Wooden Magnets
The reason why I postponed this is because it's so simple that I'm almost ashamed to call it a craft project. I mean, tell me, how crafty is it to print and cut out nice patterns, paste them onto round wooden blocks, varnish it and stick a magnet behind? Not very.
I'll do better next time around, promise..!
That said, I am all for the concept of beauty in simplicity, and adore these cheery things. No more boring, tacky plastic magnets!
Needed a quick craft fix earlier, so I made this needle matchbox shown in Cut Out + Keep, with some spur-of-the-moment modifications.
Follow all instructions shown, but before gluing the back of the styrofoam to the card, fasten a brad through it without piercing the back cover.
Cut the front flap by about half it's height, tape a loop of ribbon or string into place, and that's it. Now you just need to pop some spare needles in and there you have a handy, pretty pocket needle matchbook!
I don't really need this since I only sew at home, but it was still so fun to make!
I've gone soft and picked up sewing that extended beyond stitching my umbrella spokes back into place.
From this:
To this:
All handstitched from scratch, which was quite an achievement for someone with my level of (im)patience. As you can see, I decided to use a button from my own collection instead. Love Purple.
I must admit, I actually enjoyed it thoroughly! It was just a small, novice project, but I needed the practice before going on to bigger things.
What I've learned from this:
1) Blanket-stitch (learned it in school about 8 years ago, and completely forgotten since then)
2) Boxing corners
More crafts to come, since I hauled back heaps of supplies yesterday, from fabric to metal to wood to paper. Talk about mixed media!