Handmade Thoughtfulness

 The other day my friend Alyssa gave an old crafting book that belonged to her grandmother. I riffled through it, and some papers fell out. Most of them were old magazine articles from the 70s' with various craft tutorials. But there was a letter  I came across. It was a hand-written letter addressed to my Alyssa's grandmother. It appeared to be an old friend catching up talking about the weather.

I thought is was clever to cut up pieces of curved ribbon to look like little birdies. Just think, when was the last time you received a hand-written letter? And it's  heart-warming knowing  that someone put the time and effort to decorate the letter just to show you that they care.

 Alyssa also brought over an extremely thoughtful gift for my daughter Rocky. She fabricated a copper mobile.

She twisted the wire...

...added beads...

... She soldered and hand stamped the metal.

Check out the detail.

 I think the dragonfly is my favorite part.




Such sweet sentiments don't you think? Handmade items say so much more than store-bought ever could.  

 Linked up with...
and...
Sundae Scoop, Tatertots and Jello, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Just a Girl, Singing Three Little Birds, Under the Table Sleeping, Not Just a House Wife, All Things Related, Night Owl Crafting, Someday Crafts, Blue Cricket Design

Image Transfer Coffee Gift Bag

I'm going to show you how to make a charming personalized gift bag to show your friends and family that you care. I'm going to do this using a very simple image transfer technique that is very useful in creating mixed media. This technique works on card stock, wood, canvas, etc. but doesn't work so well on non-porous surfaces like glass. You can transfer images from newsprint, magazines, or print up your own. You can pretty much use any image that isn't glossy.

What you will need:
-Scissors
-Pictures you want to transfer
-Paintbrush
-Gel medium (found in the paint section of arts and crafts stores)
-Bag, Canvas, or wood (item you want to decorate)
-Old credit card

*You may want to get adhesive to glue small objects onto your finished product like dice, playing cards, pennies, coffee beans, lace, etc.

Ok, here we go. First I recommend covering your work surface. Now you are going to paint the surface of the bag with gel medium. Apply the image (inked side down) to the painted surface. If you apply to much gel medium and it oozes out from under the picture simply wipe it away with your fingers. Now take a credit card and scrape it across the images back side for 30 seconds. This presses the ink into the gel medium, so the more you scrape the more the image will transfer. But don't take longer than a minute or the gel will dry completely and you will have a tough time getting the paper off.

Now slowly peel the paper off.You may notice ghostly white spots where the paper came off with the ink. You can gently rub it off or leave it there. If you leave it there you get a more vintage textured look. It really depends on the effect you are going for.

You can layer pictures on top of one another. Just apply more gel medium on top of the desired area and repeat the instructions above.

I decided to grunge up the bag a bit by sloppily applying black paint with a dry paintbrush (remember a little goes a long way). Smear it around, and there ya' go.

I glued coffee beans to the bottom corner.

... and added a twine bow





Voila! The finished product.

Linked up with...
and...
I Heart Naptime, Tatertots and Jello, Naturally Me Creations, The Blackberrry Vine, Just a Girl, It's a Hodgepodge Life, Singing Three Little Birds, Under the Table Sleeping, Not Just a House Wife, All Thingz Related, Night Owl Crafting, Someday Crafts, Hope Studios, Blue Cricket Designs, Homemaker On a Dime

Hi everybody, 
     I'm Heidi and this is my very first blog post. I have been into art my whole life. I started with off with traditional forms of art like drawing and painting. But over the years I experimented with different things like photography and candle making and now I call myself more of a crafter than an artist, though the terms are probably interchangeable. 

How all the Hubbub got started:
     Last holiday season I was short on cash, but I needed to get presents for my family. So I thought I would make them. My mom always told me how handmade gifts were more special than store-bought goods, so I decided to roll with that thought. I started a month in advance and made my whole family gifts. The reactions I got were totally worth all the hard work. Everybody loved their gifts. They said I should make a business out of it, and I thought "yeah right". But then I thought about how fulfilling it was to create really unique items and how awesome the reactions were. So I picked crafting up as past time... who am i kidding it was and is an all-consuming obsession. At the time I was pregnant with my daughter Rocky and I was unsure how I was going to be able to go to work and raise a kid. Naturally crafting came up as a perfect-fit option. I could be doing what I love and stay at home with my daughter Raquel (we call her Rocky for short). So the crafting world is where I decided to build my home. I would like to take my readers along for the ride. So sit back and see what unfolds. 

   

                                       Rocky Sunbathing