Rants from a ADHD Crafter

It has been over two years since I have written on my blog. Life stuffs does that to you. And no, I have not stopped creating. I have been creating so much that I have ran out of time or the attention to write about such activities. Creating, it is my magic, my gift, my counselor, who listens without judgement as I pour out my anxiety and worries into my projects. But crafting is also a conduit of my love, care, and a bit of myself of who I am. And man, do I have severe ADHD of the crafting world!!!!!!!! I LOVE IT ALL!!!! To explain, I had an epiphany while cleaning out and organizing my craft room; at 3 a.m. in the morning. Because I cannot sleep. My rhythm is thwarted by the summer cold virus that has kicked my arse and the rest of my brood. There I go again. Focus! I realized I have crafting ADHD due to all the Crafting S*** I have. Scrapbook paper, card stock, for my "Oh Im gonna scrapbook the crap out of my kids lives" phase. (never-mind the half finished album from my wedding 12 years ago) And there is that fancy Cricut printer I got for Christmas last year, and the piles of vinyl. Cause yah.. I thought I was going to make a Sh**-ton of those cute wooden signs to sell on Etsy! Like those wine cork ornaments I started to make a year so ago. Thinking I was going to sell those too. I ended up giving them to my friends as Christmas Fairy gifts. During that time I had that itch, as they say, "Declutter" and make my creative space thrive. Whatever... that lasted like a day. And the gnomes. If you follow me on Instagram, last Christmas I had a big love affair with Gnomes. Still do really.

Because I have an ever growing mound of fabric (my precious!), my darling yarn stash, crochet and knitting patterns. And my Knit/Crochet Books, my sweet mini crafting library! That my friends, I regret nothing and do not even look cross eyed at them! My In-laws downsized from their house here in Colorado, so I inherited my MIL sewing machine. I cannot complain about that one and I am very, VERY grateful! A few weekends ago, Viking Husband and I were able to move the Murphy bed cabinet into my craft room. Which now holds my jewelry making implements. And.. um.... SHIT TON OF BEADS I HAVE HOARDED! Yep.. I have even tried making jewelry, which really did'nt stick with me. But I love making those bottle cap necklaces!! I LOVE IT ALL! I have no self control when it comes to self expression. And I kinda blame Pinterest. Not kinda.. DAMN YOU PINTEREST!!! All though, its a lot fricken easier and more environmentally friendly keeping after my Pinterest boards. No stepping on beads or fallen needles with my bare feet. Yes, I too like to live dangerously, So to make myself feel better, here I am typing about going through all my crafting stuff. And I realize I am still caught in the endless cycle of "Oh I can make this, with this! Or put this with this! I can sell this!". Not helping Kari. Remember not having enough time? What about your Fortnite and Pokemon Go addiction? Let your imagination run wild about the current state of my house. BAD HOUSE WIFE! BAD BAD! But my kids and viking husband are alive, breathing and are well fed. (just to let you know) I haven't even begun to mention how I am trying to do photography as a paid gig. Volunteering at my kids school,the PTA. (SUGAR WITCH LIVES!) oooooooooo boy. Feeling the heart burn coming on. So one thing I am realizing now how good it feels to blog about my crafting stuff. So I need to start prioritizing, making lists and really think about what is possible in my current state. And donating a lot of my crafting supplies. I think it is time to really think what is possible. Plus it makes me feel so good to know someone is making something awesome with the stuff I gave them. Can I really cut down and get rid of a lot of my crafting stuff? Should I? Anyone else in the Internets have this problem? Solutions? Wine of the month club donation? Tea with Tom Hiddleston? (doesnt hurt to ask!) I should go to bed... HA! Famous last words..... (P.S. I forgot to mention my water color paints, markers, colored pencils, drawing pencils, art pads etc.)

Bitten by the ornament bug

Christmas of 2015 craftwise has been filled with ornaments glaore thanks to pinterest. I have been covered in modge podge, glitter and paper and there seems to be no signs of stopping.

***** Photographs are property of KariBeriCrafty and Kari Strand Photography. Be a nice human and ask for permission to use my photographs. Please do not steal, right click or be sneaky and use my photos as your own. I regualry check for use of my photos and I will get ugly if I find them being used without my permission ****

Artist Trading Cards

Initially I made these for a swap, but I had to back out because I forgot the swap was a "Hand Drawn" only type swap.  I ran out of time and only the cards were partially drawn.  The theme was "Cakes", and I feel they turned out well.

note to self, I need to read directions better!

Still Crafting!

Since my last posting from November of last year, I swear I have been crafting!  Life as we know it, got away from me.  If it was the boys, it was my husband, etc... etc...

I have been lucky to do a few newborn shoots and have my first solo wedding in June!

But here are some of the projects I completed in the last few months:


My Little Pony/Rarity doll for a swap.

Please do not take photos without permission!

Mine craft party favors for "The Beast's" birthday.

An amigurumi tiger in LSU colors for my SIL.

And a baseball newborn cap for a newborn photo shoot.

All rights reserved... Please do not steal my photos!

Paw Patrol -- Marshal Costume

Better late than never eh?  

Here is what I did to make my nephew's Paw Patrol/Marshall costume:

To start off I took apart a red hooded sweatshirt and added a zipper.  If you need a good zipper tutorial there are several that you can search for on YouTube.  For the arms, I traced the sleeves onto the dalmation print fabric and cut them out.  Marshall has a yellow collar so for that I measured a strip that was 3 inches wide and lined it up to fit around the neckline.

To start to put the top together, I made sure to cut the sides open of the sweat shirt.

Then with right sides together I started to pin the sleeves on on the shoulder portion first, then sewed them in place.  Then after the shoulder portion is sewed on both sides of the sweatshirt, I folded the shirt with right sides of fabric facing each other.  Then I pinned the seams together so when I sewed up the sides the fabric would not slip.  

Next with the shirt un-zipped I lined up the yellow collar fabric along the neck line seam and pinned in place.  After sewing around, I ironed the collar opened, and then folded the other side over to the wrong side of the fabric.  Then I top sewed around the collar using a 1/4 inch seam using the previous seam as a guide around.   (I forgot to take pictures of this process, my apologies!)

With the hood still open, I copied the hood pieces from my Skye costume onto the Dalmatian fabric and cut out the ear pieces as well and attached them to the shirt.   For the pants I took apart a pair of sweat pants where you have a front piece and a back piece.  I gave myself an extra inch at the waist since I was going to use elastic.  With right sides together, I first pinned the outer side of the pants and sewed both sides.  Then sewed the inner seams second.  

For Marshall's badge I "Google Image" searched for a clip art sample.  Starting with the outer piece I traced and cut the badge on white felt, and made a second smaller red felt piece.  Then on the printed photo I cut down to the flame tracing and traced that piece on orange felt and yellow felt.   

I used fusible applique webbing and ironed the pieces together.  Then I hooked a medium sized safety pin on the back of the badge so it could be attached to the zipper handle. 

I am happy on how this costume turned out.  But one thing I hope to find next time is Dalmatian fleece instead of the fake fur material that I found.  I had to pin the heck out of it so it would not slip during the machine sewing process!

Paw Patrol Costume -- Skye

My SIL was having a hard time finding a "family friendly" , costume for her daughter this Halloween.  I can agree with her considering female costumes can be too risque, even for girls!

So I had an idea pop in my head that I could make her a more modest Skye costume.  I went to several Goodwill stores to find a hooded sweatshirt and sweat pants in my nieces size that I could work a pattern off of.   Plus I saved a ton of money using Joann coupons to by my fleece and I had pink sateen fabric already in my stash from a previous project.

My first step was to take apart the sweatpants and shirt.  Once that was done I put the pieces right sides together to cut out for the jacket and sleeves.  When sewing the jacket pieces together I only sewed the shoulders together (right sides together).  You will need to leave the sides of the jacket open, because this will make sewing on the sleeves much easier.

Next, I had to figure out how to make the arms two colors like the character Skye.  I could not figure out how to make a rounded edge on the sleeve so I settled for a more pointed end.

What I did here was that I made two copies of the sleeve in cream fleece and in brown fleece.  I kinda fussy cut the cream color piece into a pentagon and cut it in half.  Then sewed the two pieces to the brown fabric.  Make sure to trim the brown pentagon piece keeping your 3/4 inch seam.  Then I folded the sleeve in half in order to sew along the un-sewn side.  Then I unfolded the piece and pressed it all out with an iron.  Once you are done making the sleeves.  I lined up the shoulders to match the sleeves and with right sides together, sewed along the should piece first leaving the other side of the sleeve open.  To finish off, I started to sew from the cuff of the sleeve all the way down the side of the jacket.  ( When doing this make sure the right side of the fabrics are facing each other)

Once you are finished sewing on the arms and closing up the jacket, I turned the jacket right side out and pressed the jacket with an iron.

Then with the light pink fabric i measured a long strip with it being three inches wide for the collar and the bottom of the shirt.  When adding the light pink to the dark pink top I put the pieces right sides together and sewed around using a 3/4 inch seam.  For the collar I started with right sides together then I folded the fabric over and top sewed it together.  Don't forget to iron it out afterwards.

I then added the zipper to the top.  Here is a link, to a YouTube video that I referenced when I installed the zipper to the jacket.  I used tons of pins because trying to sew a zipper to satin fabric is really tricky!

I made a rough pattern for the ears and tail, making two pieces of each. Sewed the pieces together with right sides facing each other then turned them out and pressed with an iron.  I sewed the hood pieces together and turned it inside out so I could attach the hood to the jacket.  As for the ears I just sewed each ear to each side of the head. 

When making the pants I forgot to take pictures of the step I took.  Basically I took the pair of sweat pants I bought and copied them onto the brown fleece fabric.  

I am pretty happy on how this costume turned out and my niece absolutely loves it. My SIL sent me a video of her unboxing her costume and her squeals and giggles totally made my day! In the next upcoming entry I will show you how I made my nephew's costume, Marshal from Paw Patrol.  

Happy Halloween!

ATC's and Wreath

I have been taking a break from my crocheting due to pain I have been having in my right shoulder.  It usually flares up when I sit down to crochet.  Not sure if its the recliner I am sitting in or my posture.

I am a firm believer that idle hands is the devils playground so I worked on some ATC's for a swap I am participating in.  The swap is called Villains & Monsters and each swap is the next letter in he alphabet.  I missed out on the letter "A" swap, but below is what I came up for my swap partner:

Villains & Monsters - B/ Beetlejuice

C/Cookie Monster

D/Dalek

The letter "E" swap has not been posted yet, and I am looking forward to making the next one.  I am not sure on which villain/monster I will choose.  It depends on who my next partner's tastes are.    

Along with making my ATC's, I was able to make a house warming gift for a friend that bought a new house.  She loves the Fall season so I decided to make a fall wreath for her front door:

I do have a knitting project in my near future which I am looking forward too.  It will be a Halloween themed Rebecca Danger Monster/Critter toy swap.  It will be a combination of two of my favorite things,   knitting Danger toys and Autumn/Halloween themed yarn!