I have abandoned you, oh craft blog, I apologize.

If you spill glitter, which I often do, over EVERYTHING, take a piece of clear scotch tape and stick it to every single object that the glitter bomb obliterated. It works, over and over, on my clothes, on my other art supplies, and on my wood floors.

I’ll try to do better with this craft blog.

Earlier this evening my mother and I were snuggled up next to each other on the couch, looking through lists of art books on Amazon.com when we stumbled upon a book about encaustic art–or hot wax painting. We were intrigued about it, so we investigated the cover, the descriptions, and reviews. What inspired me to even mention this is the comment I read about the book, it was by some man who made a statement along the lines of, “This book is not about serious art, it for crafters only and should not be read if you are serious about creating artwork.”

Now, that comment left me perturbed. This man, obviously a man from his screename, was arrogant in his assumption that crafts are inferior to ’serious artwork’ or are not considered pieces of art. He’s absolutely wrong. The difference between art and crafts is what you make it out to be. This man obviously had very limited knowledge to creation of ‘crafts’. He obviously does not know how much time, effort, and thought is required to create a single garment or a scrapbook or an altered book. Art is no longer limited to Rembrandt and O’Keefe, to acrylics and canvases. Art has been moved off the easel and into your living room, it’s accessible and just as important as ever.

Arts and crafts, whatever you may consider them, are viable pieces of artwork. They are the hearts and souls of human beings, the emotion and the work, they are the manifestion of dreams, whether they are scrapbooks or knitted booties or collages, they are the Sistine Chapel to those who create them, the apple of their eye.

Who says art is not in the design of a dress, the sewing of a blouse, the journaling in a sketchbook? Who says art is not the picture in your frame, the quilt on your wall, the jewelry on your neck, the clay in your palm? Who says art cannot be a craft, an object made with love and care, by a housewife or a businessman or a child? Who says art is not what you make it?

Today I got out my needles and my scrap fabric and my embroidery floss and started to learn some new stitches I’d been meaning to try. I was doing great, and I decided to test my skills out on a long-sleeved pink shirt I bought last year, but never worn. I ironed on a pattern of a paisley looking design and picked out my colors. After a few minutes of some simple stem stitches I was losing my place and getting the floss tangled and knotted, but I would rectify the situation and go forth stitching away.

Finally an hour and three gaping holes later I was too frustrated to continue.

Here’s my big mistake: DON’T TRY TO EMBROIDER ON STRETCHY MATERIAL. This shirt was 97% cotton and 3% spandex, and that three percent made a big difference. The fabric was puckering and visible holes were easy to make with just the needle. I finally tore out some of my stitched and threw the shirt across the room because it was BAD.

But I learned some lessons and I also learned that my futon makes for a great pin cushion/needle holder. If you use that idea, remember to take the pins and needles out before falling asleep. You don’t want to wake up with an embroidery needle in your ass, trust me.

My mom, Vivian, has been such a great force in my life I thought today she deserved to have her art displayed. I think I want to do something special with her art for her birthday/Christmas. Most of her art is pen and ink and colored pencils and some watercolor pieces.

I’m busy like a bee working on some holiday cards. I’ve made about three or four more since the last post.

All of them are made using clay, scrapbooking papers, cardstock, memory book glue, hot glue, and tissue paper. I like these because of the clay additions. Aside from cooking and baking pies in time for Thanksgiving, I see much more cardmaking and scrapbooking in the near future.

Today was obviously productive because I got this site up and running. I created this background from some scrapbooking paper I have, which I scanned in and changed the color of. I like the design. I made several cards last night (and by several, I mean a few and by a few I mean two) and another today. I wasn’t all too pleased with the one I made today, but I think once I go out and get more supplies I’ll make ones I really like.