Great Holiday Indie Shopping around LA

Yikes! The holidays are almost here. Here is a list of great upcoming shows that handmade gifts.

Art & Pottery Market
November 7 & 8
American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona

Annual Art Fair
November 7-9
Creative Arts Group, Sierra Madre

Patchwork Indie Arts & Crafts Festival
November 9
Santa Ana museum district, OC

Xiem Fall Ceramic Art Fair & Studio Sale
November 14th & 15th
Pasadena, CA

Felt Club
November 16
Shrine Auditorium, LA

Holiday Staff Boutique
December 12-14
The San Gabriel Bead Company, Arcadia

Handmade Galleries
Always open, Sherman Oaks

Knitted Valentine Gifts

This year I gave knitted Valentine gifts to the ladies in my family. I knitted up a bunch of Mochimochi Land's Hearts using Lamb's Pride yarn. I only washed them once, so they are only slightly felted.

I had intended to make the hearts into pins with some sort of embroidery or beading on them, but I did not like how they were turning out. So, I used an eye dropper to impregnate them with lavender oil. They turned out to be great sachets.

How to: Paper Water Lilly

I am having a party for my birthday this weekend and wanted few table decorations. I decided not to purchase a bunch of ready-made plastic stuff that would just end up in the landfill. I chose to make paper flowers, which are also perfect for Valentine's Day. The flowers I made look like Water Lilly's. Here is how I did it:

Materials
2 colors of tissue paper
1 color of slightly thicker paper (I used a colored paper bag)
Scissors
String



Directions
Cut four 10"x12" pieces of tissue paper and 1 layer of the thicker paper. Stack the pieces of paper up alternating the colors with the thicker piece of paper on the bottom.

Fold the paper lengthwise into 1" accordion pleats.

Trim the ends into points. Fold the folded strip in half, and cut it along the fold line. Trim these ends into points too.

Cut a notch on both sides of the middle of the shorter strip and tie with string.

Open out the pleats and begin gently lifting each layer of tissue paper. The slightly thicker paper bag paper will become the bottom of the flower.

Enjoy!

Knitting Patterns for Valentine's Day round-up

My family always exchanges token gifts for Valentine's Day. It is a fun way to remind them how much you love them and how important they are. In my attempt to keep up with the Handmade Pledge, I am going to make little gifts for my family.

Here are a few links for quick Valentine knitting patterns that should all take less than a day to make.

Hearts from Mochimochi Blog
Heartfelt from Berroco
Valentine Candy Pillow from Domiknitrix
Heart Sachet by Vicki Sever for Interweave Knits
Love Rocks! Mitred Heart Neck Garland from Vickie Howell
Heart Cloth from Purple Duckie
Crest of the Wave from Baxter Knits
Lace Heart Bookmark from Page by Page
Peruvia Rose from Berroco
Calla Lillies by Heather Broadhurst for Knitty
Flower Corsage by Rachel Henderson for I Love Knitting
Knitted Flower by Strikkelise
Perky Poppy Pins by Nora Rezzatano for Mag Knits
Knitted Rose Pin by Knittingknonsense

More Handmade Holiday Gifts

Every year I make jewelry for one or more of the women on my holiday gift list. It makes me feel like I am giving something really nice and the projects are usually really quick to make. Here are the three pieces that I made this year. All projects were inspired by items I had seen while browsing at etsy.

These pink Sapphire & Sterling earrings were made for one of my cousins.

These pink Swarovski crystal & Sterling earrings were made for another cousin.

This felt and glass bead necklace was made for my step-mom. I really liked how this one turned out, so I think I will make a few more of them.

Handmade Holiday Dessert

I wanted to make a fun dessert for the holiday dinner. When I saw this cute Icebox Peppermint Yule Log Cake posted at Craftzine, I knew this is what I was going to make.

I could not find Peppermint extract at my grocer, so I decreased the amount of sugar and substituted Peppermint Torani syrup.I did not purchase enough whipping cream either, so my "bark" did not come out as pretty as the original. I used Droste cocoa powder in the whipped cream tasted like an outstanding chocolate ice cream.

Handmade Holiday Gifts

This holiday I made a bunch of gifts for my family members. All the women in my family received a wellness bag from me. This is what the kit included:
-eye pillow that was inspired by this project from Sew, Mama, Sew!
-soy wax jar candle, supplies from General Wax.
-a CD of meditations from the Meditation Oasis podcast.
-a bar of felted soap.

Printable Holiday Gift Tags Round-up

I use a lot of gift tags during the holidays. In the past I have purchased them, but was always unsatisfied with how they looked. I have came across a few free downloads for beautiful, non-cheezy gift tags:
Paper Seed
Kitty Genius
Delicious Days
Angry Chicken
Liquid Paper, via
Matthew Mead
Seussville
HGTV Canada
Bella Dia has a printable gift tag round-up too.

Decorated: Table top Christmas Tree

I wanted to find some type of garland to decorate my table top Christmas trees. I looked in several stores and nothing was inspiring me. I finally found what I was looking for at Michaels. It was a beaded wire with large sequins attached to it that was made for decorating gift packages. Now my dinner table is complete. Yeah!

Where to buy handmade for the holidays

Many of you may have taken the Buy Handmade pledge this year, where you pledge to purchase handmade goods for presents and ask that others do the same for you. Here is a little list of places to shop that can help you keep this promise.

Online
Etsy.com
a few of my favorite etsy shops:
madebymoxie.etsy.com
katiekristin.etsy.com
jennifermorrisbeads.etsy.com
pinkladyjewels.etsy.com

Felt Club Vendors

Indie Fixx

Around the Los Angeles area
Creative Arts Group, Sierra Madre
Handmade Galleries LA, Sherman Oaks
Hollywood Farmer's Market, Hollywood
Eagle Rock area


Be sure to check the ads in the back of magazines for great indie finds too:
Ready Made
Bust
Juxtapoz
Craft

How to: Table top Christmas Tree

I am hosting the family holiday dinner at my house for the first time this year. I do not want to buy a tree, but feel like their needs to be some sort of décor, other than a pretty table. So, I decided to make a set of three small trees that could be arranged on a tabletop and used year after year. I still have to decorate them. I like the idea that, because they have a Styrofoam base, these trees can be re-decorated each year for a different look.

Materials
Styrofoam cones
Felt fabric (I used a wool blend yardage)
Straight pins with a small head
Scissors
Pinking shears
Cardboard tube
White glue
Craft knife
Marker
Ribbon or other decorations

Directions
Cut felt fabric into 2” wide strips.
Trim the bottom edge of the strips with the pinking shears.
Cut the strips of felt into smaller rectangular pieces.
Use straight pins to attach pieces of felt onto the Styrofoam cone. Be sure to start from the bottom and work your way up, overlaping your layers as if you are putting shingles on a roof.
On the next row up, stagger the next row of felt, like you are laying down a wall of
bricks.
Trim the cardboard tube to the length you would like, and use white glue to cover it with felt fabric. This will be the trunk of the tree.
Trace the circumference of the trunk on the base of the tree.
Use a craft knife to cut a channel to fit the trunk of the tree into.
Glue the tree trunk into place.
Decorate the tree with ribbon, mini pom-poms, or whatever you desire.

You can see the trees all decorated here.

DIY Costume Wings Roundup

I was over at the Craftzine blog and saw this amazing video tutorial on making your own wings from Threadbanger. I remembered that I had seen a few other tutorials around the web. So here they are:
Simplicity classroom: How to Make Wings
Instructables: How to Make a Pair of Angel Wings
Squidoo: Make your own Fairy Wings, scroll down a bit
WikiHow: How to Make Fairy Wings
CDHM: How to Make Fantasy Film Fairy Wings, these are small for dolls
Craftgrrl: Fairy Wings
Angry Chicken: Fairy Items
Knitting And: Halloween Fairy Wings
Dicey Home: Fairy Wings
Family Fun: Fancy Fairy Costume
About: How to Make Fairy Wings
Sonic: Make Your Own Fairy Wings

Wonder Woman Accessories

After I created the Leia Wig, I wanted to make more items that represented strong female role models of my childhood. I was a big fan of the Bionic Woman, but she had no iconic costume paraphernalia. Making a bionic ear was a thought, but a little obtuse, and you would not be able to wear it.

The equally best thing was to create something that was wonderfully Wonder Woman. As a young girl I had always coveted those fabulous evil deflecting gold bracelets and fancy gold crown.

And so, I present these Wonder Woman accessories, which are perfect for days when you need a little help feeling like a hero, or just want to play dress-up. They are available in my etsy store.

Knit Pattern: Mr. Hankey Christmas Poo

I decided to add a little humor to my Christmas decorations collection this year. This is what I came up with.

Materials:
Chunky yarn, brown
Worsted yarn, red



The pattern is now available at my etsy store:
ansleybleu.etsy.com

You can view more photos here.

This pattern is copyright by Ansley B. Davies and is intended for personal use only.

Winter Holiday Tree made of wood

Today I went to a coffee shop by work and saw this amazing winter holiday tree.

I usually am not interested in winter holiday ornaments, but this one struck me. I really like that is not completely Christmas oriented. I am going to try to make one. I found some unfinished wood cutouts at Michaels and Woodworks, Ltd.