Canvas Art: Little Teepees and Beyond: July 2012

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Haters

This morning my husband and I started discussing Westboro Baptist Church over our coffee. The members of WBC are fond of protesting (pretty much everything) in highly inappropriate situations. Our discussion took a turn for the sarcastic when we decided to Google "Westboro Baptists Church Fail." The following is a collection from this search that my husband and I found most entertaining.

To Clarify: I do not hate these people. I disagree with their views, values, and the scandalous manner in which they protest. The title Haters refers to the view I feel WBC projects in their protests. I encourage opinions and philosophic discussion in the comments but I do reserve the right to delete comments that are hurtful, threatening, unrelated to the topic, spam, or bashing any group without a point. This is, after all, my blog.

Source

Fred Phelps is the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church...

Source

As for the Pastor's Wife...

Source

One of my favorite directors, Kevin Smith, protesting the protestors.

A great shirt for those who WBC hates... well that's pretty much everyone.

Buy It Here

Normally I would link to the homepage of the party I am talking about but I don't want a link to the God Hates Fags site anywhere on my blog. For those interested in my own opinion it is as simple as this: Love All... or least give it a good try.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Confessions of a Crazy Crafter

     Sometimes I think Springs and Summer are my favorite months. I feel incredibly productive with so many hours of light! One of the things on my plate this summer is leading a charity event for an animal shelter. I chose the Teller County Regional Animal Shelter to help on behalf of Artist's Helping Hands for many reasons.
     - They are a no kill shelter meaning they do not put animals down if they don't find owners.
     - They aided many people that evacuated during the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado.
     - When our dog found his way to their shelter they called to let us know and took such good care of him while he waited for us.

Cassius the Great and my wonderful little man pose for me.

I'm excited to collect donations during the month of July 2012 for them and have already seen a great show of support from the charity group. I hope to hand out treats to some of the animals when I deliver the donations. If I am able to I will make sure to take pictures and post them.

One of my personal projects this month is a cloth book of shapes for my son. Using an old pair of jeans and some colorful fabric scraps I've managed to cut out squares, diamonds, circles, rectangles, ovals, stars, and triangles. I am then sewing these onto large pieces of fabric which will become the pages. I can't wait to see the look on his face when I give it to him. Books are his favorite "toy."

As I face moving in some 45 days I find myself hoping this next home will be a place I can stay for a while. With 3 bedrooms, a greenhouse, and an area inside large enough for me to start making full sized tipis it sounds like heaven to me. The yard is a decent size as well (though it needs a lot of work) and I hope to get permission from the landlord to keep chickens. It's a big move. The house needs a lot of work... cleaning, repairs, TLC, and such. The price is right though and despite all my nervousness I'm really excited to start on such a large project.

grocery bag shopping tote quality canvas sack

As far as Tiny Tipis goes I must say it is well. I recently filed my LLC forms making it an official company. It's the first step in taking things to the next level. I've also been evaluating ways to expand and offer more choices. One way I plan to do this is by offering hand painted bags. These are fairly easy to do, don't take up extra space in my currently small home, and the end result is making my customers very happy. For each new design I keep a stencil that can be traced on the canvas and then paint each one by hand with acrylic paint. I could cut corners and iron on printed designs but I don't want to loose the personal touch the hand painting adds not to mention the higher quality end result. I plan to start a line of more modern ones as well that will feature graffiti style art.

For my own closet I decided to go through it and start recycling and upcycling my old clothes. A work in process is this thin shirt. It had holes at the hip seams that needed fixing and I decided to start giving it a new life. As soon as I finish it I will post a step by step blog on exactly what I did to it. Of course I had to add some lace to it. ;)

I love lace <3 <3 <3

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Thursday, July 5, 2012

Step-by-Step Vintage Hunting Vest Upcycle

I was browsing the items at a yard sale one day when I found this treasure of a hunting vest. The piece had character and had seen many days of love and use but lacked any kind of style that would make me wear it in public. So I decided to redo it! With a little lace and an hour of my time I transformed this beast into a beauty. Here's how:

1) I removed the fabric on the back that just kind of hung there using my seam ripper. This took maybe 10 minutes.

2) I got a bit impatient and added lace around the collar next. To do this I buttoned the vest and marked where the left and right sides came together above the buttons. I don't use pins when I sew so I just folded the lace under and started using a zig-zag stitch to attach it where my first mark was. I didn't cut the lace to length until I was perhaps 2" away from having it fully sewn on the front. Then, I tacked the lace down every so often to keep it from rolling up around the neck while being worn.

3) I used my seam ripper to finish separating the fabric below the arm. I wanted to give the vest a more feminine shape so to accomplish this I measured 1" in on each side at the base of the back. I connected this to the top where the armhole comes together. That's the brown line you see in the photo. I cut the excess off and sewed the seam back together. If you aren't confident in your altering skills you can always pin and try it on before you trim.

4) The last step was to add lace along the back where I took the old fabric panel off. To do this I once again folded my lace under at the edges and used a zig-zag stitch to attach it to the vest. Again, to avoid wasting lace, I always sew first and cut the lace to length when I'm a few inches away from having it completely sewn on. This eliminates concerns about elasticity differences between the vest and the lace.

I left the back of the vest shorter than the front as a style choice. I like the way it causes the fabric to add even more of an hourglass shape around the waste. This can make boobs look bigger, mid sections look slimmer/longer, and hips look more feminine. Below is the end result... it's hard to get good pictures of yourself! This vest can be purchased on my etsy store if you like it as much as I do.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Where Do You Sleep

It's hard to explain being poor to someone who has never wanted for anything. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Priorities change as one gains wealth. Children suffer from poverty silently. They lack the ability to change many things about their life and depend on others for nearly everything. They tend to make the best of every situation because they don't have the life experience to know that there is something better out there. I've slowly been evolving as a person as I see poverty and grief all around, not just in America but everywhere. Today, I share this photo series by James Mollison called Where Children Sleep. Open your eyes for a moment.