Hot Ticket Tuesday Presents Erica Bowden, Wreath Conqueror!

This week, Hot Ticket Tuesday brings you the fabulous Erica Bowden. Erica and I met through our husbands, who went to college together and are part of a weekly gaming group. I knew that we would be friends once I learned about Erica's interest in crafts and her love or organizing. When she and Scott, her hubby, moved, Erica color coded her boxes. That blew my mind and made me realize that I needed to get to know her better! As luck would have it, Erica and I ended up moving relatively close to each other (15 minutes), so we get to see each other a bit more often. In today's post, Erica talks about the seasonal wreaths she has been adorning her beautiful home with since Christmastime. Makes me think that perhaps I should get going on a wreath for our door!

Tell me about a craft and/or art project you made.
I've been on a wreath making kick for the front doors of our house. I've never had an exterior front door that was worth decorating before, and when we moved last summer, I knew wanted to add some flair to help make us stand out a bit more.

What inspired you to make it?
My first wreaths I made at Christmas, and they were inspired by things I had seen on Pinterest. I didn't see anything similar in stores with the colors I wanted to match the house, so I thought, I can do this. I purchased a new glue gun and off I went. Pinterest was my muse for Valentine's Day as well but my most recent Spring creations were more of a result of finding silk flowers at the craft store I liked, and then playing around with arranging them.

These looked amazing on Erica's doors. She and Scott also framed their front porch with tiny lights. The effect was  perfect: Just the right amount of flash for the holiday season.

Did you come up with the idea yourself, or did you find a pattern and/or template that you used?
The ornament wreaths I did a lot of internet searching for to try and get a handle on how many I'd need to buy. Same thing for the Valentine's wreath. I used an internet how-to for cutting and folding the felt. The spring flowers were an original, with some help from Scott.

What type of medium did you use?
Oh, the hot glue I've been through. Plastic ornaments and lots of hot glue for Christmas on a foam core wreath. Everything I had read about needing more than I thought I would was true. I used a ton of ornaments. Valentine's Day was felt and flat-head pins, also with a foam core wreath. Once I bought a heavy duty circular cutting tool, this was a breeze to get through. Spring was silk flowers, and a metal wreath core, and a tiny bit of glue to hold the peonies in.

Erica used a snazzy circular cutting tool for the felt. I need to  make a project that uses circular pieces of fabric so that I can use that tool!

What did you enjoy about making this project?
The best part was the satisfaction about finishing them, and being able to display them on the house. It gives me the warm and fuzzies when I get home every day, seeing them on the door.

What did you think about while you were making it?
Depended on the phase of the project!  My thoughts generally started with, "What am I getting myself into?" and progressed to, "Ugh, I have another whole wreath to make!" and finished with, "These are going to look so neat on the door. I'm so glad I did this."

I also think a lot about my grandmother, who was a crafty person in her own right.

Were you doing anything else while you worked on this project? If so, what? (For example, sometimes I watch tv while crocheting.)
I usually either had Netflix going, or at the very least, some music.

Were you pleased with the finished product? What pleased and/or displeased you about it?
Yes! I think the ornaments have been my favorite ones so far. They were such a bold and fun look. I like my spring ones, but I have been second guessing the decision to not add more flowers. I suppose the art of restraint is key, right?

Simple and lovely. Come on spring!

Will you make it again?
I'm not sure about making these exact ones again, but I have already started working on ideas for a summer-themed wreath. I'll definitely re-use my existing ones until they get damaged. Or I get bored with them. Or I find something I like even more on Pinterest.

Lastly, what is your favorite color and glue?
Anything blue. From navy, to sky, to electric.
Double-sided tape. I love wrapping presents with it. (That counts as glue, right?) :)
You think outside the box, my friend, and I embrace that. Double-sided tape is from now on a type of glue.

Last Unicorn Embroidery and World War Z: Oh Yes!

Things have been busy in the Soul Glue craft studio these past few 

weeks. After I finished up with the Tardis quilt, I decided that I wanted to learn how to embroider. I've been curious about embroidery for a long time, having marveled for years at some of the projects my mother created. Many of my mom's pictures decorated our home. On of my favorite designs that she created was a large picture of a sunset. This wasn't just any sunset, though: It was crafted out of orange, yellow, and brown embroidery floss, and it was AMAZING. I think 70s fabulous would be the only way to describe it. My mom created the pictures to the right during college, which I enjoy to an equal amount. The clouds kind of blow my mind, as well as the detail in the tiny boat.

I began my embroidery journey by performing some internet research. I looked for what supplies I would need to start and became rather overwhelmed with the options of needles and thread and hoops. I wanted to do this right. While mulling over how to proceed, I took a trip to Barnes and Noble, as I had a gift card to use up. After picking up a copy of World War Z, which is a great book that you should totally read, I wandered through the craft kit section. Among many learn to make origami kits, I found Learn Doodle Stitching. The kit featured a "112-page instruction book, embroidery floss, CD with 400+ doodle designs, 2 handkerchiefs, embroidery needle, wooden hoop." It also had cute woodland creatures and a tree on the front. Sold. 

After bringing the kit home, I practiced a bit on a flower design that I quickly lost interest in. I wanted to make something! Something that hopefully wouldn't look like I just stabbed at it with a needle and thread. I browsed through the images on the CD and located a unicorn and a funky looking tree. An image popped into my head, and I knew what I was destined to create: A Last Unicorn sampler inspired by the busty tree that Schmendrick the Magician gets strapped to and then enchants.

That tree has a pretty great rack.

Unicorn and Magic Tree sans Schmendrick and bustiness.

This project was a very fun way to practice my stitches. The other nice thing about it was that it didn't take long to make--there's something to be said for the instant gratification factor. Since finishing up this little picture, I, naturally, decided to dive into the deep end of the pool and to create something rather large and complicated. It is not zombie embroidery, though now that I type that, I think I may have to make it. That will be another post for another day, though. In the meantime, happy Sunday all! Have fun!

Hot Ticket Tuesdays Presents Adrienne Breslin and the Lovely Rustic Charm of Love

This week's Hot Ticket post features my good friend, Adrienne, who has been busily working on decorations for her wedding in June. Adrienne and I have been friends since middle school, which was about a million years ago. I've always been struck by how different we are: Adrienne is kind of like the Yin to my Yang. She's outgoing, and I'm fairly introverted. The main thing I think we both have in common is silliness. When we get together, we are extremely silly; it's like we're back in high school at play practice.

I've lost touch with a lot of close friends over the  years, but Adrienne and I have always managed to stay in touch. I love that. We got together this weekend, and spent a day crafting like only brides-to-be and former brides can craft. (Someday I will write a post about the horrors of paper flower creation for my wedding.) Adrienne talks about her inspiration for her wedding decorations below. Enjoy!

Tell me about a craft and/or art project you made.
Several things: Burlap picture frames with writing on glass; Our musical “this is where our song begins” sign; Our escort cards; And our rustic crafty mason jars for candles!

What inspired you to make it?
I wanted to find a way to add my own crafty touch to the wedding – our venue is kind of rustic but with a touch of glam. It is all exposed wooden beams, big stone fireplace, but also has these huge copper and crystal chandeliers that give it a glamorous touch. I also wanted to make sure that our interests and personalities came out in our own artistic touches – the wedding has a music theme due to our joint love of music, and I wanted to bring that into our wedding in a classy, but not overbearing way.

Did you come up with the idea yourself, or did you find a pattern and/or template that you used?
A little of column a, a little of column b.

I came up with the picture frame idea on my own. Burlap is the epitome of rustic charm in my mind, and I love the texture it brings, something different than flat paper. I decided to write on the glass, thinking it would add some depth and volume to the look. To be honest, I am rethinking this because I actually find the writing hard to read – I may end up going for a more layered look, using the burlap as a mat instead of a background, bring in an additional layer of matting using my music note paper, and print on cream paper instead.

Adrienne asked our friend, Jojo, to write little poems that tell people where to go for
programs, seats, etc.  She used a chalk pen to write on the glass. I coveted the chalk
pen, but did not tell her. Hint hint.

I got the idea for the sign from Etsy, but wasn’t in the mood to pay money for a wooden lettered sign. The original sign said, “This is where our story begins.” I saw the sign about a year ago and fell in love with the saying and the whimsy of the hand lettering. As our musical theme came about, I started toying with the idea of getting the sign made with the words “This is where our song begins” instead.

The sign was a labor of love that I worked on for several hours this weekend.
Adrienne worked in my wedding flower sweat shop, so I figured that I owed
her big time. 

Mason jars were a total Pinterest find. You can’t log in without finding them. The hardest part of this project for me was actually finding mason jars to begin with!

Escort cards were my idea – we used craft paper envelope thingys for our invitations, and I love that rustic look again, so ran with it.

What type of medium did you use?
The picture frames were $3.99 from Christmas Tree Shop, and I bought sheets of burlap (found in the section where they keep all the pretty paper) from Michaels. I googled the best marker for writing on glass and ended up buying mine from Amazon for about $5. I found this nifty spreadsheet that helped me decide which pen to go with.

For our sign, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to stencil on wood and how to make wood look aged and pretty. It turned out that I found a $5 clearance canvas painting at Christmas Tree Shop, which I ended up mod podging our music note paper onto (bought the paper at Michaels – I think it was like 59 cents a page…and I bought 1 million pages). Then together with the craft mistress of SoulGlue notoriety, we stenciled the saying with our names and date of wedding.

My vote goes for the burlap, lace, ribbon ensemble, but I think
they're great overall and will look fabulous with candles inside.

For the mason jars I used….mason jars. Then I am using a bunch of different things to pretty them up – I bought a yard of lace at Joann Fabrics for $5. I also got a mini roll of burlap from Michaels, some pretty ribbons (some was used with my invitations that bring my color sage green into the mix, the other is just a papery white).  I am doing a mix of mod podging lace to them, and also hot gluing the ribbon and burlap to them as well. I think my favorites are the mix of burlap and ribbon, and the one with burlap and lace as well.

Please note necessary crafting supplies of coffee and glue
stick in background.

Escort cards are probably the easiest and most annoying of all of this stuff. They are just craft paper and the music note paper from Michaels, and I am cutting them into the right size – craft paper big enough to fold in half, and then gluing a smaller rectangle of the music paper  to it. For the actual info part (name, table, etc), I am using a textured sticker from Staples that actually has a nice crafty feel to it. I like that they are oval, because it will allow more of the music paper to come through on the edges.

What did you enjoy about making this project? 
I love that I am adding my own time and effort to the wedding decor – the place itself is gorgeous, and I also have a florist making centerpieces and accent floral pieces. But I'm excited that I get to include my own glue, sweat, and tears to our big day.

What did you think about while you were making it?
June 2nd, when I can look back on and enjoy all this planning and crafting.

Were you doing anything else while you worked on this project? If so, what? (For example, sometimes I watch tv while crocheting.) 
Most of the time I listen to music or bug my dog for her thoughts on life.

Were you pleased with the finished product? What pleased and/or displeased you about it? 
Most of the stuff I love…again, the only thing I am not sure about is the frames – I am going to try one “the other way” and decide from there!

Will you make it again?
I can see me using the mason jars around the house for a variety of things! I’d love to plant some herbs in them and keep them on the sill in my kitchen.

Lastly, what is your favorite color and glue?
Favorite color is sage green – my favorite glue is superStik permanent glue stick!

Hot Ticket Tuesdays Presents Alex Seagrave and the Bearable Darkness of Awesome

This week's Hot Ticket is my good friend, Alex Seagrave. To give you a little background, Alex is married to Sarah, who was last week's Hot Ticket. I met Alex one day in September of 2007 when I picked up Sarah to go shopping. It was our first friend date--exciting stuff. I walked up to Sarah's apartment, and she introduced me to her husband. At this point in time, at age 24, the thought of having a husband was crazy pants. Besides that, Alex and Sarah didn't look like married people; they looked like, well, people. Anyway, Alex had this huge beard, which also kind of threw me off. I guess I didn't think that people in their twenties had beards or got married. Six years later, I have a husband, who has a beard. Oh, how times change.

For the past few years Alex has been designing a game entitled Attack the Darkness. Alex has designed the rules, artwork, everything, and it has been quite a fascinating process to watch. Something else you should know: Alex is great. Really, he is. And the game is brilliant. He talks about his trials and tribulations and joy with Attack the Darkness below.

Tell me about a craft and/or art project you made or are making.
The project I’m working on is Attack the Darkness, a complete tabletop role-playing game (think Dungeons and Dragons) mixed with a co-operative board game (think Arkham Horror) mixed with a card game (think Magic The Gathering). I’m doing this because I hate free time.

Your character in the game is your deck of cards; your cards are everything that character is and everything they can do.

Designed to be simple in its components yet complex in its combinations, Attack the Darkness allows for the speed and excitement of a collectible trading card game while granting the tactics and intricacies of a table-top RPG. Designed for 1-8 players, it features 7 unique classes and supports play either with or without a GM.

It’s being published by the same company that prints Cards Against Humanity.

AND you can PreOrder it now here: attackthedarkness.net 

What inspired you to make it?
That is a great question and one I don’t have a concrete answer for. I've been working on the game so long, almost 3 years, that it has evolved a lot and I don’t really remember what specific event triggered it. The going theory among those of us who first started trying it out is that a role-playing game involving dice one night went badly: A lot of people rolling terrible numbers causing everyone to have a bad time. I think I said something like, "It would be great if you didn't need dice for this,” and then my brain started buzzing.

Did you come up with the idea yourself, or did you find a pattern and/or template that you used?
This is all my idea, for better or worse. I honestly didn't know where to begin. Being me and more artist than engineer I jumped right into the middle and just started making cards. Once I had a few cards done, I started play testing with a dozen or so friends. Then I made a thousand or so more cards, made changes, started writing down rules and working on some artwork. Before too long I had a rough plan and had found my Terrible Purpose.

What type of medium did you use?
At first pen and paper, taping printer paper to bicycle playing cards. Then print stickers on cards. Eventually the cards were digitally formatted and printed in little online batches of custom cards. I ran a Kickstarter to raise funds to move from high cost one off printing to commercial printing. Now the game contains plastic tokens, poker size playing cards, mini playing cards, jumbo playing cards, cardboard punch outs, plastic trays, rule books, a two part box…A bunch of things I had never designed or developed before.

All the art started as pencil, watercolor and India ink pen on watercolor paper. In the end though, most all the finished work has been done in Photoshop CS6 with a Wacom Intuos Drawing Tablet.

What did you enjoy about making this project?
Heh. Rough timing for this question--I go to final print in the next few days, so everything about the process looks pretty horrific at the moment. I've had a lot of setbacks, mostly because of me not knowing what the hell I was doing and partly due to kidney problems. I thought game design as a neophyte would be the greatest challenge, turns out that was the easy part. Sourcing and formatting and financing a commercial print run were far harder than I anticipated.  I lost a lot of time and money trying to chase cheap/easy options early on in the process.

I have not answered your question yet, have I?

I really enjoyed making the art. I've never thought of myself as much of a 2D artist, so to be putting out drawings and paintings in a professional capacity was pretty scary, but the reaction has been very positive. It was also fun that so many of my close friends have helped me so much and enjoyed playing the game. That is very rewarding.

What did you think about while you were making it?
I actually thought a lot about my childhood, about what things in art, design, and games really excited me. I also thought about what things I was afraid of creatively and how those areas overlapped. Turns out I have a love of a lot of things specifically because of the feeling of “Oh wow I could never make that”--that sense of wonder or the impossibility of some complex creation. So wanting to make a thing I can’t make is an awkward starting place. For example I originally did not want any of my own art to be in the final game, it was all supposed to be concept art but in the end I couldn't afford an artist. So I've gone forward and given it my best shot, moving past those anxieties was a big part of my thought process.

I have a quote hanging above my computer from Nelsen Mandella: “It always seems impossible until it is done.”

Were you doing anything else while you worked on this project? If so, what? (For example, sometimes I watch tv while crocheting.)
Listened to a boat load of Pandora, until I think I heard everything on Pandora. Then podcasts until they were gone. And always the baby monitor at night, white noise punctuated by crying. Rinse. Repeat.

Were you pleased with the finished product? What pleased and/or displeased you about it?
Well I’m not precisely finished yet. But I have cautious optimism about the final project. I think the quantity of the physical components will be good, as I've said the same company prints Cards Against Humanity, which is a professional looking product.

I will be most pleased to have completed it. It’s a thing (making your own game) a lot of people talk about doing and don’t do. I now know why that is, it’s crazy hard and time consuming and expensive to the point of personal risk but I’m incredibly glad I've taken the leap.

I am displeased by a million little things. The financial, intellectual and medical setbacks have forced me to streamline things and accept things as they are more than I would like. I tend to obsess about getting things “more right” and I haven’t had the time for that. I would have liked more time. And money.

Will you make it again?
I will make a game again, several. I’m certain of that. Not…soon, however. I need to get back to earning regular income and other grown up things for a while. I don’t know if I’ll target something of such ambitious scope and complexity for quite some time.

Lastly, what is your favorite color and glue?
I like the color my brain makes when Orange and Blue are next to each other. It’s not a color you can get paint in, but it exists in my head.
I love tacky glue.

Wielding the Power of Time and Relative Dimension in Space

My good friends, Mike and Miranda, are having a baby in about a month. I started a little tradition, when my friend, Sarah, was pregnant of finding a pixelated image and translating it into a quilt. Sarah had decided that her daughter's name would be Zelda, and so I made a Legend of Zelda quilt. Sadly, I do not have pictures of that quilt, but, basically, it was a giant Link. For Mike and Miranda's baby, I decided to make a Dr. Who inspired quilt, as they like that show a lot. I like that show, too, and, you know, space is cool. Erik did a bit of research for me and found this image. I used graph paper to map out the quilt and count how many squares I would need to make it. It took me about three weeks to cut the squares (started using a rotary cutter and OMG. Bless that tool--bless it!) and sew them all together. I decided to use 2x2inch squares, which made a smallish grown-up blanket, but extra-largish baby blanket. I think it's a good size to throw on the ground for play time or for snuggling on the couch. Now for the pictures...

Look! It's the Tardis!

Mid-section close-up.

I found this awesome space fabric at Joanne Fabrics. It make a perfect background for the Tardis.

Erik and I held up the quilt, as Mike took a picture.  Erik had a special expression on his face.

Hot Ticket Tuesday Presents Sarah Seagrave and the Fabulous Knit Sweater

I'm trying something new to help me get into the habit of regular Soul Glue posting: Hot Ticket Tuesdays. This weekly post will feature a crafty friend's craft project. I love hearing about what other people are creating, and I feel inspired by others’ inspiration. I want to spread that around on my blog like awesome crafty peanut butter. My pal Sarah Seagrave and I have been wonder-twin-soul-sister-besty-friends since we met each other at the whacky orientation for our graduate school program. I've been watching Sarah diligently knit two different projects over the past month, and I thought that she would be an excellent first person to feature as a Hot Ticket. I sent Sarah a list of questions about her recent knitting projects. Here is how she responded: Tell me about a craft and/or art project you made. DO IT. I have knitted a baby blanket and a sweater. Feel my amazing baby warming prowess! (Flexes muscles) What inspired you to make it? Friends having a baby; but that's a little obvious and not quite it. I hadn't knit anything in a long time. I like to knit, but I don't need anything that I can knit. So many scarves, so little time. But I had tried that crazy ruffle yarn because the novelty snuck up on me. Working with that stuff pissed me off SO bad that I needed to do some regular knitting to cleanse my palate. Did you come up with the idea yourself, or did you find a pattern and/or template that you used? Well I bought this big ass ball of baby yarn and there was a pattern on the label - et voila! The blanket! Then I ran out of yarn with literally five rows left and had to buy ANOTHER big ass ball of baby yarn. With my leftover yarn, I made my first sweater. What type of medium did you use? Um, remember the baby yarn? It's a neat weight though- fuzzy but not hairy. Has a nice pastel heft to it.  

What did you enjoy about making this project? It was wicked easy. Made me feel like a knitting badass. Both patterns were quick and looked cool at the end IMO. What did you think about while you were making it? Well mostly I thought about whatever I liked since it required so little concentration, but I   also spent some time remembering the time before my daughter was born and when she was very small. We got a lot of nice gifts from our friends and family, and a lot of help too, so it was nice to think about that. I want to move that energy forward. Plus Mike and Miranda [friends who are having a baby] are awesome. I thought about them too, I guess.

Were you doing anything else while you worked on this project? If so, what? (For example, sometimes I watch tv while crocheting.) I watched tv and played tabletop RPGs mostly. It was a nice gaming project. Were you pleased with the finished product? What pleased and/or displeased you about it? I think it came out ok. The yarn was a little bulky for the sweater so that's really more a coat and I had to re learn how to bind off, but yeah. Plus babies don't care if stuff is perfect. They don't see that well at first. Will you make it again? Yes I would. My mum donates baby hats and blankets and crap to her church fair so maybe I'll get on that. Lastly, what is your favorite color and glue? Favorite color - today, purple. Favorite glue - hot glue. I like it dangerous and thready. Here are some pictures of Sarah's project:

This blanket is super soft and snuggly!

Sarah added pockets and a button on the collar to finish things off. I still cannot  wrap my head around how she made this with two pointy sticks. Knitting is a mystery to me.

This is fabulous Zelda modeling the sweater and blanket.