Gift Exchange

Well the Holidays are here and like every year I leave everything to the last minute... If I am honest it is because I am am kinda Bah Hum Bug... I don't like big fancy holidays. I like to stick close to home and do things that I/We love as a family. I am not huge about running all over town, driving here and there and then there is the commercial pressure to buy buy buy.... But the one thing I do enjoy is the gift exchange.

Hubs and I get one name each, but more realistically I get two names.  Jeff is usually paralyzed with fear about getting me a gift (remember how I said I am kinda bah hum bug- doesn't mean I don't like pressies) so it is up to me to do the gift exchange. I usually make something, it's my style, so people either love that they get me or hate it... depends on how crafty they are.

The kids are usually left out of the exchange, everyone wants to buy as many cute things as possible for them so it is generally agreed that my kids and the cousins are off limits.  But mine are getting older so I wanted to include them in a small way. So somewhere in the 12th hour I decided that we needed to print our own fabric using stamps that the kids designed. She did a cat, and he did a evergreen tree... then I decided that we needed pompoms, because I've never sewn with them before.  The end result infinity scarves with a festive twist (don't the pompoms look like snowballs?).

Walking Tree Infinity Scarf

Cat Infinity Scarf

A Reason to Love the Process

One of the reasons I love doing things by hand is because of the results... Because you never know what you are going to get! I work both  digitally and completely by hand. From Silkscreening, Block printing to Hand dying fabric. Every process is something treasure and quite often my finished product is not what I had imagined. Here are my most current experiments with Shibori.

A simple  Running stitched resist, to make long stripes!

I used old scratched Up CD's to make large dots!

This was the most interesting.

 I folded it in half, one side as a triangle and the 2nd

side in a rectangle.

Really only the top runner stitched example was the one that came out most like planned, the Second and third examples were truly experiments though they too came out close to what I thought they may look like, just less striking than my imagined goal...

And Speaking  of Goals! I have been working hard on pattern and surface design, this passion is leading down roads I never knew where possible, my little shop Scrappy Carp Living is growing growing growing and my soft opening goal was to add 30 items! I did that last Friday. To celebrate I am having a soft opening sale. Please go check it out... Give me feed back, tell me what you think, what would you like to see added? and yes Clothing is coming soon.... I will have a Hard Opening at a later date.... Like any good restaurant, there are still kinks to work out, but I will announce that at a later date.

If you are so inclined please check out Scrappy Carp Living, enjoy a 15% off couponcode SOFTOPENING on all purchases over $5 until August 10/14 .... You will find more Shibori, Scarves, Macrame and Block Printed treats.