Yesterday I attended my first ever etsy craft party. It was such a lovely crafternoon with my sis and mum, and there was some amazing talent in the room. And what a room it was, this is the second crafty event I’ve attended at west elm chapel street and I don’t think it’ll be my last. The theme for the party was ‘Recapture: Bring new meaning to your photographs’ … There was a lot of embroidery of photos and a little collage play with photographs too… I embroidered travel photos. This photo of Monet’s Garden is still in progress… I think… I’m considering what (if anything) I’ll do next. The Bridge is under consideration at the moment. Or not. So indecisive!
What I love the most is the texture and three-dimensional aspect the embroidery gives to the photo. Now I really wanna learn French Knots! (Mum, I’ll need you to show me again how to do French Knots because I tried it last night… and…um… as you can see, there are no french knots above! x)
Luckily for me I’m a craft stash hoarder collector, and happen to have a lovely collection to continue on with my new love of embroidery. I knew I would use this stuff one day! And would you look at that – greens too!
Ittybitty darning needle, a zillion threads… My Kiwi Coast blanket has stalled pace a little. I’m up to darning in the ends and darn it if this doesn’t slow me down every time. There’s some kind of edge that needs to work in with the gentle wavey edge my blanket developed too. As I’m darning in the ends I’m trying and figure out what that’s going to look like. Any suggestions?
This is #mysmileinducer for today… a whole mountain of yarn that was gifted to me by a lovely friend whose sis was cleaning out her stash… one persons stash clean out is another persons stash treasure hey? (Can you spot the Buddha head?)
‘My smile inducers‘ is going to become a regular post that I will try to do on the first Saturday of each month. I would really love you to join in and share your smile inducing things too so there will be a little froggy link in at the end of the post where you can link to your blog or Instagram. Or you could simply pop yours in the comments. And you can instagram a smile inducer anytime you like really, just hashtag #mysmileinducers so I can see it!
Come and have a smile with me, it’ll be fun! I think it’s a great way to focus on the little things in everyday life that put a smile on your dial and make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Wishing you treasure filled times with your loved ones.
bear loves dove 
Darn it. I’m all out of ideas and as a non crafter, my darn edge ideas would be pretty darn useless. But I loved your post! Thanks for sharing. Methinks the Buddha has reached crafty nirvana.
-Rach
teehee crafty nirvana! Love it… thanks Rach, I’ll probably just wing it on the edges 🙂
Love the embroidered photo. Love the crocheted blankie. Love the my smile inducer idea. So much inspiration coming from the BWPers, I think my head will explode with ideas. I’ll try to
remember to #mysmileinducer on Instagram.
Thanks Michelle!
I know – it’s almost inspiration overload… but in a good way
Yay – I look forward to my #mysmileinducers on Instagram…
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
two rows of double crochet then a row of crabstitch(backward DC) should finish it off nicely love your smiley photo tried to put one in but it wouldn’t let me bah
and the yarn oh wow lucky you
oh now that’s a new stitch to me – the crabstitch. I’ve seen it but never tried it… maybe now is the time! Thanks so much for you suggestion 🙂
the embroidered picture is really interesting, what a cool idea!
It’s a great idea isn’t? Not mine of course, but I love it! Such a clever way to highlight something special in the pic or add something you wish was in the photo 🙂
here is the photo for your smiles page that i was unable to load in comments it is a wet rose taken this morning in my garden at cockatoo
Doh! I can’t see you photo Elizabeth 😦
I don’t really know if there’s anything I can do to help in regards to the techy aspect of adding a photo to the comments as I’m not that great at that stuff… Maybe you could email it to me? (there’s a tab at the top with my email address)… I’m thinking if there is a few people that do that maybe I could dedicate a post and include all of your lovely smile inducing photos?
It sounds very smile worthy indeed and I really wanna see it now 🙂 … I imagine it was very wet in the hills this morning!
Found the Buddha! It took effort.
Yay! Twas a bit tricky hey 🙂
i’ve never contemplated embroidering on photos that way – what a fabulous idea – in the past i have just embroidered a heart or balloon on a photo for a birthday card – you’ve given me lots of inspiration as always! flick x
I had never thought of embroidering photo’s like that either! We were so lucky at our Etsy craft party to have the very lovely Laura McKellar there to give us some tips on embroidery – she does some seriously amazing work… definately worth a visit to her website for more inspiration!( http://www.lauramckellar.com/ )
ps I love the idea of adding embroidery embellishments to cards… I intend to do exactly that with more of my paris photos… it’s on the list! 🙂
pps thanks for stopping by and thanks for your kind words x
I like the texture on the embroidery photo. Good work.
thank you 🙂