Creative Busy Hands

Changing My Blog Organization

2009-04-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

After a lot of thinking, and noticing the blogs that I like, I decided to separate this blog into 4 others. The decision is based on what I've noticed in terms of the blogs that I enjoy visiting often: they are focused in one particular thing. Because I have tons of interests (there goes the busy), I better separated the interests into different blogs.

I republish all the articles in the new blogs, according to their categories.

One is dedicated to my needlework crafts. The url is: CreativeBusyHandsNeedle.blogspot.com

The other is dedicated to scrapbooking, usually digital :-) The url is: CreativeBusyHandsScrapbooking.blogspot.com I will be posting the rest of the album in this blog.

Another blog will be dedicated to any cooking recipes that I like to share. The url is: CreativeBusyHandsCooks.blogspot.com

Finally, the other blog is for publishing technical stuff, usually related to Gimp and Ubuntu. The url is CreativeBusyHandsTechie.blogspot.com

I am still setting up the new blogs. However, if you use Firefox you can subscribe to them already in a Reader.

I have to try this organization. If it does not work... I will return to just one blog.

Thanks, -luiza

Album For Teacher - 7

2009-04-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Still working on my mission: build an album for a teacher.

For this layout, I used the Travel Kit Collection from ScrapbooksGoneDigital. Great kit for boy and travel!

To get the effects that I wanted, I used some tricks... The Journal Tag was "rebuilt". I took the journal tag from the kit, desaturated, and used as a template. After that, I created a layer big enough to "hold" the journal tag. Then, used the overlay feature on layers to produce the tag with the colour that I wanted.

The other effect is the left side bar. I used the bar available in the kit, then deleted, using a background color similar to the red paper, each hole. It did not take too much time at all. You only need to make the size of the brush the size of the hole or a little bit bigger.

Now for the "ribbons". They are just the tag elements that were resized to be a reasonable ribbon size.

What do you think?

Album For Teacher - 6

2009-04-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

For this layout, I used the Rider Kit from ScrapbooksGoneDigital. Great kit for boy layouts!

For this layout I used the stitches element available in the kit, and repeat, using duplicate layer, to "stitch" around the frame. The "Happy Birthday" tag was made using the Blank License, also available in the kit, as a template. I shrink one of the paper, only big enough to "fit" the license.

What do you think?

Album For Teacher - 5

2009-04-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

Still in my mission to finish the album for a teacher.

For this layout, I used the Graduation Kit from ScrapbooksGoneDigital. This kit has great colors for boy layouts, I think.
For this layout, I also used name "lkane_temp01". I wish again I had the site to give an accurate credit.

I used the background of the template as an overlay. The overlaid paper is part of the kit mentioned above.

The element behind the photograph is one of the tags in the kit. I oversized and treated as a normal paper. One of the buttons is also an element that I oversized.

What do you think?

Album For Teacher - 4

2009-04-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

For this layout, I used the Rider Kit from ScrapbooksGoneDigital. Great kit for boy layouts!
I used the template bzart_template_0908 (I wish I knew which site I got it, so I could give the credit more accurately).

This time I used the "Wanted" element as my journal tag. I needed to remove the "Wanted". To remove the word, I used the stamp tool in Gimp.

What do you think?

Album for Teacher - 3

2009-04-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

For this layout, I used the Rider Kit from ScrapbooksGoneDigital. Great kit for boy layouts!

This time I used the road element as a ribbon.

What do you think?

Album for Teacher - 2

2009-03-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

For this layout, I used the Rider Kit from ScrapbooksGoneDigital. Great kit for boy layouts!

This time I used the "Wanted" element as a picture frame. I think it adds character to the layout.

What do you think?

Crochet Scarf

2009-03-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

I finished another scarf. It was based on the pattern posted by Sonia Maria from falandodecrochet.blogspot.com. I forgot to keep the label of the yarn... But it is acrylic.
Here it is:

A closer look:

It did turned out very nice, and elegant. It has an "old" feeling to it. I love it! I am still not sure who would I give this scarf to...

What do you think?

Album for Teacher

2009-03-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am in a mission to prepare an album to the teacher of one of my children. It was her birthday, and I celebrated with all the class and the teacher, of course :-)

I will be posting once a day the pages that I am making. The pictures of the boys will be blurred. Also, I had to make some minor changes. The real title of the pages is the name of the child. Each child wrote a message to the teacher. I substitute the message for something more general.

Here is the first one:

For this layout, I used the Graduation Kit from ScrapbooksGoneDigital. This kit has great colors for boy layouts, I think. I used a template provided by Amy Blaser.

What do you think?

More Hats for Preemies

2009-03-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

I finished two more hats to be given to hospitals. I made one for a girl and one for a boy. The pattern can be found here. I make them with bold colors, instead of the soft pastel colors. Don't get me wrong, I like pastel colors. But I am just in a mood for bold colors.

Here is a picture of the girls hat.

Another picture showing the stem. It is so cute!

Now the flower. I decided to make a few french knots in the middle to bring the purple of the hat to the flower.

Now for the boys. Bold blue, and instead of flower, a leaf. Here is a picture.

Just another view.

These hats will be donated for a hospital in Brazil. It is a small Hospital in Mococa, Sao Paulo. A group is doing a wondeful work there. The hospital is being renovated in small steps. First was the ER, than the last time I went there they renovated the Pediatric part and the Obstetrics part. Really nice work.

What do you think?

Gimp and Picasa

2009-03-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

I can finally have an environment to deal with my Digital Scrapbooking. Before you keep reading, I have to alert you that it kind of techie... But I wanted you to know what I been up to.

As some of you know, I love Digital Scrapbooking. I have lots of material. But I did not have an environment that really help me to get productive, and organized. Something that if I type give me, for instance, all the papers that are blue, and it would display for me all the papers that are blue! Simple concept, but few environments that support the two categories: being a paper, and being blue.

So finally I decided to put all my stuff in Picasa. It is great! It will be a lot of work to get into the shape I want, but I know I can do. Picasa can deal with several file types, including psd's (something that gthumb, fspot do not handle, even after all the hacking I did). Ok, I forgot to mention that I use Ubuntu - a linux distribution.

I use Gimp, as my image manipulation program. I could not get Picasa and Gimp to talk. That was a big road block. I almost gave Picasa up!

For the last 2 days (and I mean full days, probably more than 20 hours of research, test, and investigation), I figure out a way to get these two applications to "talk". Trick stuff, but it is done. Had to:

edit the file /google/picasa/3.0/desktop/picasa-hook-mimehandler.sh.template,
remove the .template and move to a place under my path (I moved to /usr/local/bin)
I added the lines
gimp-2.6 "$@" &
exit 0
remove the exit 1 line from the file.

Worked like a charm! However....

The last bit was Gimp not being able to re-use the opened instance.... even under Linux. After research, I found out that the way Gimp under Linux figures out that has an instance open is through D-Bus. It turns out that the D-Bus library in the Ubuntu distribution did not get recognized by the compiled version of Gimp (I compile it myself). This last bit was solved by downloading the source of D-Bus and compiling myself. As a by-product I got Gimp 2.6.6 up and running too.

I am happy!!! Now, it is time to take some pictures of the projects that I've been working on. I am spending just too much time with the Digital Scrapbooking stuff, including my other blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sandwich for My Kids Lunch box

2009-02-28T20:33:00.000-08:00

I love to cook something that my kids actually like. They are in the age that no much is good, other than lots of junk food. Both of them, however, really like the bread that I bake once in a while for them to take to school.

The bread is quite simple, but tastes very good. It is an egg-based dough. Very nice for sandwiches. So, I first I test the yeast. I bought a long time ago (we are talking years here) a big bad of yeast from Costco. I put it in the fridge since day one. The yeast is still good!

After mixing with the mixer (I use a Kitchen Aid), I let it rise. The time for rising depends on the weather. If it is colder outside, I turn on the oven for a few minutes, turn it off, and put the dough there to rise. It takes aroun 1 to 2 hours to rise.

Then, I divide the dough into small pieces. Here is a picture of the dough after rising, and already divided into small balls.

After, I open each ball, big enough to fill in with whatever I have in the fridge. This time was hot dogs. By being the person that need to try new things, I also fill some of them with cheese. One of my kids said he would try. Here is a picture of the filling:

After filling it, I close it. I use some water to really seal the dough, and put the bread on a baking pan, covered with corn meal. Why corn meal? I don't know :-) but I think it is cool.

After they are all done, I brush with some egg, and "mark" the kind of sandwich: usually I use poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc.

Here is the end result: all baked and the house smelling so good.

I've made these sandwiches with pepperoni, turkey breast and ham. The kids liked.

What do you think?

Crochet Monkey - Henry is born!

2009-02-10T18:38:00.001-08:00

I finished the monkey! As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my children requested a Monkey. So, I showed him this picture:

He immediately loved this one. It is a very cute Monkey. I had some leftover brown yarn, and started working right away. This Monkey is from this book: Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful

Here is my version of the Monkey. I introduce Henry (that is how my son decided to call him)

And another picture:

I made a scarf with a pretty cool yarn. The scarf can be detached from Henry. I also embroidered a smile on the face.

I have to confess that it has some minor :-) problems: the face turned out a little smaller than I wanted it to be. It was hard for me to crochet such tiny legs and arms. Sometimes I had to put my glasses (that is called aging :-)

I am glad it is done, and my son likes his Monkey: Henry is born!

What do you think?

He is Mine! Layout

2009-02-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

I just posted this layout in the Scrapbooks Gone Digital Gallery.

The Kit that I used offers so many choices, including the option of creating several pages (8 Quick Pages!) very quickly, using the QP package. For this layout, I used the following kit available in the SgD Club Products:

http://www.scrapbooksgonedigital.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=890

What do you think?

Monkey

2009-02-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

One of my children requested a Monkey. So, I showed him this picture:

He immediately loved this one. It is a very cute Monkey. I had some leftover brown yarn, and started working right away. This Monkey is from this book: Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful

This book has lots of very cute crochet animals, including a key holder: very small animal done in crochet.

I made all the parts. Here are the body and the head:

Here are the legs and arms:

And, finally, the ears, tail and face:

Now, I just need to stuff them and sew them together. I will show later how it did turned out.

What do you think?

Sewing Contest that I found

2009-01-28T17:11:00.000-08:00

For all the people that sews, you might be interested on this contest (I just found it on the Simplicity site.)

If you enter it, please let me know, so I can cheer for you. I wish you luck!

http://www.simplicity.com/index.cfm?page=/section/contests/asg_2007/asg_contest2009.html

Kreativ Blogger (award)

2009-01-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

Paco sent this prize to my Blog. I have no words to thank Paco. Paco is visiting my blog for some time. The first time Paco left a comment here, I just could not believe. As some of you might noticed, I do not receive many comments. The work that Paco does is just amazing to me: perfect construction, beautiful design, and amazing techniques. I sew since I was probably 9 years old. So, I really appreciate the high-level of couture that Paco has.

I visit several blogs in a day, especially because of my other blog. I have the honor to admire the work of several of you. I am very diversified. I love scrapbooking, both digital and traditional. I love sewing, pottery, crochet, knitting, quilting, etc. So, it was hard for me to choose only 7. I literally had to make "hard" decisions. Here they are:

Couture & Tricot - I know that several other blogs/sites gave this award to Tany. But I just love her Blog, and her style. You get another one: You are just excellent!
Scrapbooks Gone Digital - I've been part of Norma's Creative Team for a while now. When Norma make the "call" for her creative team, I remembered answering more on the line: I wish I could give it a try. She got me hooked! So Norma, it is your fault that I am so fascinated with Digital Scrapbooking. Norma has set rules for her creative team and has been following them like no one else I know. If you are a Digital Scrapbooking Designer, take a look at her store: you might want to be part of it. It is being a delight to be part of her team.
NBK - I just love Nicki's (Nicole) style. I been following her Blog since the beginning of last year. As soon as I started my other blog, I put her blog in my list. Her blog was probably one of the first ones to be told about my Freebie Search Engine. She supported that service even before the "real" start (I started sending more comments in mid-December). Thanks Nicole.
Stampin' with Markies's Mom - I just love Faith's style: the dots on the cards is a constant in her cards. I love them all. She got me interested in making cards. I even made some for the Birthday of good friend of son. And, you guessed: I used the dots!
The Frugal Crafter - I love the projects that Lindsay shows in her blog. Thanks so much for sharing them with us.
Feiticeira das Agulhas - I follow this blog for a long time. Samanta has great taste, and is very Brazilian style. Love your stuff. I am amazed how she finds time to crochet so many things. Orbigada Samanta.
Raspberry Road Designs - I follow Susan's blog for a long time. Her work is exquisite. I love her style. In December, I received an email from Susan regarding some not so good thing that was happening to her. I was so upset for her. At that time, the Freebie Search Engine was almost in a good shape to "be announced" to the "rest of the world". Because of her email, I decided that I needed to make a special "place" in my list of sites/blogs to the people that I liked. I made a huge change to the engine, and rewrote a lot of code because of that (The only people that know about this, well... live in my house. This is the first time I tell about it. ) So Susan, thanks for sharing your work and your feelings. I really hope things got better.

I have lots more blogs/sites that I would send this prize. But these are the 7 that I choose this time.

Thanks again Paco for choosing my Blog. You are very special!
-luiza

Valentines Card and Next Project Cornerstone Reading

2009-01-26T13:32:00.000-08:00

As some of you know, I volunteer in the Project Cornerstone. Every month, we go to a classroom, and read the recommended book. This month the book is When Sophie Gets Angry--Really, Really Angry....

I actually read the book in two classrooms. Tomorrow, I will read in one classroom, and by the end of the week I will read in the other.

With every book, we have a selection of activities to do with the children after the reading. I always do one activity, and I always try to give something to the kids to take home with them. I usually try to make a kit that they can do at home, and is related to the next coming festivity (?) theme. Well, this month is Valentine. It is my way to say thank you for listening to the message: it is my warm fuzzy.

For one of the classrooms, the older kids, I came up with this Valentine card.

A simple card with two pages in the format of a heart. I will give that to the kids, and also a little box for them to put the finished card. Here is a picture of the closed box.

Here are the set of 31 kits to give. I added to the kit a few stickers (children love stickers).

I always have a sample, made by me. I do that only to give some inspiration, but always tell the children that it is up to them to let their creativity fly....

Here is my finished project.

Another view of the closed box:

And a picture of what is inside the box.

And, yes, I just had to sew a little heart.

What do you think?

Booties for the New Baby

2009-01-18T17:38:00.001-08:00

I am about to finish the shoes I am making for my new nephew. He was born less than a week ago. I can't wait to see him personally (he is far away from me).

I got the pattern from Berroco.

I did not make with their yarn though (even though I wish I had it). I had to recalculate the whole pattern. I used this yarn.

Here is what you get, before sewing seams together. (The color in the picture is way off).

Here is the result.

I crochet the lace around the booties. Suede looks very tough, but my experience with the one I use is actually it is not very tough at all. The yarn broke easily. So, I decided to crochet the lace so it is less likely to break. I crochet ch 50.

The fringe was made according to the pattern, and I trimmed later to 1.5 inches. Now, I only need to sew the other side. What do you think?

Teapot Quilt

2009-01-08T15:51:00.001-08:00

While browsing some fabric stores, I found a fabric with the Teapot Theme. My mother-in-law loves teapots. So, I just had to get the fabric, and come up with a quilt to give her for Christmas. Here are the result.

First, I got the fabric for the tea towels. I only had to make the hem. Here are the towels:

Then, the quilt. I decided to make a table runner. Here are the picture of each block. This is the left block:

This is the center block:

And this is the right block:

The table runner put together:

And, finally, the edging. Sewn by machine, and finished by hand:

What do you think?

Reason I changed The URL of my Freebies Search Engine Blog

2009-01-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

I decide to republish this post from my blog digifreebieslist.blogspot.com (with minor rewriting) because I am redirecting the traffic from that blog to the new blog that is offering the freebies search service. The post is dated 12/30/2008

The owner of the url digifree....com has complained/accused that I was pretending to be her by having a url digifreebieslist.blogspot.com. Yes, they do share a prefix, but I have no intention of pretending to be anyone. I call my blog Creative Busy Hands Digital Freebies Search. Here are some comments I left on some blogs where I described the blog as "Creative Busy Hands Digital Freebies Search List", and not someone's else:

"DigiFreebiesList said...

Thank you so much for this Freebie. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in Creative Busy Hands Digital Freebies Search List, under the Elements Only post. ...."

"Digifreebieslist-CreativeBusyHands said...

Thank you so much for this Freebie. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in Creative Busy Hands Digital Freebies Search List, under the Quick Page(s) post. ..."

I certainly did not mean to cause any confusion with the url of the blog. And I thought the comments were very clear. When creating the blog, I picked the first thing that came to my mind without thinking much. And the url that I picked was available.

I am certain that the service I am providing is quite different from other freebies search blogs. The engine for my search was totally written by me. The classification published in my blog is done manually by me (and it takes several hours to go through several blogs). The process is different, the posting is different. I am definitely not using anybody's work.

I hope you are happy with the service I am providing, as this is exactly the way that I save all my digital scrapbooking files. I will be providing a new blinkie, as soon as I get home. However, it is up to you to believe whoever you want. I am only showing my points and some evidence.

I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Disneyland Layouts

2009-01-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

I just posted this layout in the Scrapbooks Gone Digital Gallery.

I have so many pictures that I took when my family went to Disneyland. It was great to see my kids having so much fun. It reminded me of how much fun I had when I visited Disneyland a few year ago (ok, ok, lots of year ago :-)

I used the kit called Mouse Collection for the layout. Great kit: lots of choices, and lots of QPs. You can make your layout in no time.

For this layout, I used a template that I got at this wonderful Blog. There are lots of fun stuff there. Go check it out.

As usual, I had lots of fun making these layouts.

What do you think?

Pillows Made For My Son's Classroom

2009-01-03T16:41:00.000-08:00

At my son's school, they are introduced to quilt by making a small piece of art. Staff/Volunteers from the San Jose Quilt Museum came to the classroom and introduced the art of quilting to the children. I was not there in the classroom when it happened. However, I could see, from the children's work, that all started with a piece of fabric that each child chose, and came up with a theme from that small piece of fabric. The fabric had a geometric shape.

I was lucky to be in the classroom at the end of that school day, when the work was on a table. Being a quilter, I just loved every single piece of art that the children made. And by being a quilter, I just could not see that art being just left as is. So, I suggested to make a pillow for each child, and do just enough quilting so the geometric piece would stay when the pillow was washed.

All is going well... However, there are 20 children in the class. That means making 20 small mini quilts, cutting 20 pillows, putting together 20 pillows, and attaching 20 mini quilts. Next time, I will think twice :-) (may be 20 times too LOL)

The teacher, not knowing my work, let me take my child's art at home. I made his pillow, and he loved. That was a good start. I took to the school and the teacher also liked. I used organic cotton, thick enough to be a pillow. Here is my son's pillow:

So off I went to make the other 19 pillows. Here is a picture of the pillows just before I could reveal them all.

I rounded the corner of the pillows so they will not have the pillow "ears". Attached the mini quilt to the center. The back of the pillows overlap quite a bit, so buttons are not necessary, but you are still able to put a 14 by 14 pillow form. Here is the result.

What do you think?

Excerpt from the book "Everyday Dress of Rural America"

2009-01-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

I read the book Everyday Dress of Rural America, 1783-1800: With Instructions and Patterns (Dover Books on Costume).

It is very interesting to read some of the details of the clothes for that period. There is one passage, in the beginning of the book, that I really want to share. It just shows how things have changed, in an interesting way (at least for me). I still remember when I cut and sew my first project. My Mom was afraid that I was going to destroy the fabric. As for me, I did not care at all. I usually take chances, and I am always trying new things.

Well, here is the excerpt, from pages 5-6. Here it goes:

" Lest the prospect of making any of the clothes described in this book seems to daunting, consider the experience of young Mary Palmer when visiting her aunt and uncle ...... in the summer of 1792:

“Here, dear, I have brought you linen, it is to make shirts for your uncle; ....”

“I shall like to do them very much', said I, “when will you cut them out?”

“Oh, you must cut them out yourself, I am very busy preparing to move.”

“Oh my dear aunt! I never cut out a shirt in my life. I dare not do it.”

“Fiddle-de-de,” said she, “there must be a first time, and you may as well begin now as ever. A young woman is not fit to be married until she can make a shirt.”

“But I never cut out one, I fear I shall spoil the linen.”

“I'll venture that; cut out one and make it, we shall see.”

“So saying she left the room to my dismay; but I was too proud not to try, and went to work resolutely, and made out bravely, so that, before I left there, I made six shirts, besides all my playing and riding, and had the credit besides of doing them very well”

Please, be Aware when Booking Through Hotwire

2008-12-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

I decided to share this bad experience, so the same thing does not happen to you. I just had a terrible experience booking a hotel through Hotwire.

I have been booking through Hotwire car rental for several years and never had a problem regarding the description of what I am paying for. That is, the bill you pay has everything spelled out.

It turns out that the same clear business does not happen when you are booking a hotel. I wanted to book a hotel close to the rest of my husband's family in Colorado. Well... got the daily rate, taxes information, and whatever fees. I liked the price, and decided to book. After confirming, one of the "info" things "tells" me that I will have to pay $20 more for every night I spend at the hotel. This is after you confirm and cannot cancel your reservation. Called customer support and it was worthless. (Only tells me that it part of the small print in the agreement.)

So, I hope this never happens to you. Be aware when you are booking through them, at least hotels.