Craft Project! Potato Printing

Hello Crafters
It's been awhile since I posted a craft project but what a great way to get back into the game then with a fun home spud project.

Potatoes are good to eat and fun to craft with so grab a spud and lets get Craftin!

Supplies:
Potato: Buy one that’s a good size for your shape because you will be cutting them in half.
Knife: Kitchen knife works best but you can use any professional stamp cutting tools or an xacto knife
Pencil or Marker Pen
Design
Paint: Acrylic craft paint works well
Paper: For final project and scrap paper for testing

Lets Go:
1. Cut your potato in half
2. Draw your shape onto the flat part of the potato. Keep your design simple. I suggest stars, flowers or presents like the picture above.
3. Cut around the design leaving your shape raised. If you would like to leave a negative image cut your design out of the middle leaving the surrounding surface raised.
4. Squeeze some paint onto a saucer or paper plate. I find that these projects are great if you have extra plates from parties.
5. Stamp excess paint onto a scrap piece of paper. Too much paint will make the potato slide on your selected paper.
6. You can do several stamps before you need more paint. Wash off paint before changing colors or don’t! and see fun colors peek out from each other.
7. Set paper to dry completely before continuing with any additional decoration.

Tips:
1. You can use cookie cutters to create your shape
2. For intricate designs leave the cutter in the potato and use the knife to trim around it
3. Serrated knives leave a fun jagged texture
4. Skewers can poke small holes for dots and eyes for smiley face
5. Don’t let the potato dry out because your shape will become distorted

Happy Craftin! See you next time ☺

Sunshine Cleaning

I watched the movie Sunshine Cleaning last night. I thought it was a wonderful movie. As an Etsy seller the message of life offering opportunities at every corner hits home. Amy Adams character is completely relateable to the female population, even if you're not her completely you at least have experienced something she is going through. Bad dating/sex choices, single mom, a school who doesn't understand your kid, odd dad, odd sister......etc. But out of this she finds a job she loves. This story has been told a number of times in many movies but Sunshine Cleaning is refreshing and up-to-date with modern times. Part of me wished for a super girly ending with Winston but it ends the way it should, Amy Adams finding herself. Too all the DIY-er's keep doing what you love <3 Happy Crafting!

The Art of Multi-Tasking

As I become more excited about LeslieGallery I have to figure out how do work school in to the schedule. Hooray for Multi-Tasking!

• Everything that needs to be dyed has to sit in a dye bath or at least an hour. I have found this to be an excellent time for reading.


• During online guest speakers and recorded lectures is when I paste the paper backing to the fabric to make the book cloth


• Thursday is my TV night. 8pm Big Bang Theory and then from there the NBC comedies such as The Office, Parks and Rec and my fav 30 Rock. Ironing, folding, stitching and anything to prepare fabric to be dyed is when this is the best period of the week.

Yes School should be the main focus but it's nice to have my hand doing something while I read how the Smithosian is making their museum for user friendly.

Happy Crafting :)

An Ode to ALIAS

Oh ALIAS how I miss your butt kicking adventurous story lines. Whenever Sydney was in trouble there was always a fire extinguisher near by to hit someone over the head with. Whenever there was a plan Jack Bristow was always five steps ahead of everyone. You could always rely on Vaughn being there to catch you and kill the person next to you. And Marshall with his wonderful "My Keys..Where are they poem" and his drum proposal which ended up being a mix of weird and rockin.

Sloan the evil bad guy who waffled between being nice and being creepy. Sydney's mom the former KGB agent and her greedy ways.

And all of them out for one mission to save the world from Milo Rambaldi.

Even though the story line halfway through season 4 became odd with tales of vampires and other non-alias type stuff you tried to bring it all back in the fifth season only to be canceled halfway through.

As I dye my fabric and make my book cloth I still have you on DVD to remind myself that girls kick butt and look good doing it too.

So to you the ALIAS fans of the world, don't wake up in Hong Kong after two years with no memory.

Shibori Fabric

I am please to introduce Hand Dyed Shibori Fabric. Oh if my surface textiles teacher could see me now. The colors I used are Procion MX Lemon Yellow, Medium Blue and Bright Scarlet. I used a gathered stitching technique to achieve this look.

PS - Teacher - I still don't wear gloves when I dye. Some day my hands will be every color there is.

The New Changes to LeslieGallery

Hooray! i just got done gluing the paper backing on the first set of Shibori book cloth. It feels great to get back in to fabric dying and book arts. Crazy how you take a couple of electives in college and they end up becoming something you want to do all the time.

The biggest thing I keep thinking about is how to let people know my book cloth is out there. There are so many solid colors. I am excited to offer patterns and alternatives to solid colors.

I was listening to the Etsy Success Symposium today. Today I started a daily list of things to-do to better my shop thanks to the helpful people of the symposium. The tasks for today were making fabric in to book cloth and post on my blog. I even squeezed school work in as well.

Keep checking in cause I'm obviously excited to bring you all the new adventures to LeslieGallery :)

Happy Crafting

New Product Line

Recently I have been disappointed in the selection of Book Cloth and Fabric at the arts and craft stores. One of the electives I took during my undergrad was a Surface Textiles class where you learned to dye and print of fabric using all sorts of techiniques. DING! Lightblub moment! Why not make my own fabric. So I have been busy collecting all the materials; dyes, squeeze bottles, soda ash...etc. I am thrilled to start. I have recently decided to make my own book cloth from printed fabric and sell it on Etsy. I think these business ventures are going to be great.

I'm going to start slow, a couple solid colors before I start mixing an experiementing....Oooooo. My creative juices get going just thinking about it. I am excited to share my creations as soon as possible.