New toy- Loopdeloom Product review and tutorial

I'm a 44 year old woman.
I love fiber toys, gadgets, gizmos... anything that makes neat stuff out of yarn. I love them. Always have. Always will. I don't have a tattoo, but the first one I WILL get has to do with yarn.

So I came across the Loopdeloom. I'm not sure where I saw it, but I saw a video link and went to it, watched, and from that moment on, I wanted it. Needed it. Must. HAVE. YARNY LOOMY GOODNESS!!!!!!

Ahem.

I've done stick weaving, peg loom weaving, inkle weaving, frame and harness weaving. I made a backstrap loom and wove a few belts. I know how to tablet-weave and I adore Weavette looms and such. Each has its own special attraction, depending on what you want to do, but for sheer speed and ease of use?

This loom trumps them all for quick, easy, and fun.

So basically, my review is this: If you love yarn crafting and making scarves, various pouches, blankets in strips, bags, mitts... you get the idea, you will most likely enjoy this loom. You can't use just any yarn for the warp, but the sky's the limit with the weft. :) Chunky, ribbon, sock yarn, eyelash... if you can put it between the pegs, you can have it in your finished product, as far as I can tell. :) 

There's a learning curve, as with any yarn craft. Or any craft, for that matter. Even if you're an experienced weaver, use the practice yarn that comes with the kit. Tension is tricky and I'm still getting the hang of it.

I'm no expert. Far from it. I've woven a few things on the loom now, but I do know I'm going to have fun with it for awhile! :)

One non-expert tip: If you're doing something longer than, say, a tablet pouch, buy more yarn than you think you'll need. This method does eat up the yarn, and since I live in a small town that's half an hour from any decent craft stores, I'll be making sure to buy one or two more balls of the same color than I *think* I need, based on my knowledge of knitting and crocheting. :P

All in all, I give this product five stars and a glass of wine. It's fun, easy, basically mindless, which is key when I'm plotting stories and working out character dialogue before writing. Fiber arts are my zen, my happy place, and this is a wonderful new addition to my addiction. ;) HIGHLY recommend this product!

PS if the makers of Loopdeloom ever see this, you might think about a comb for scrunching down the woven threads while on the pegs. My little hands had trouble doing that, especially once I had more than one loom in play. Just a thought! :)

That's the review... here's the tutorial.
You can also find a few awesome youtube videos on how to use this loom and I urge you to watch them, perhaps several times, before paying with the loom the first time. They are truly helpful! 

Okay, so here's the kit:

The yarn shown here is my yarn, not the stuff that comes with the kit. I found the loom locally at Michael's stores. They're between $34.99 and $40, depending on location, I think. They're also online at various retailers and can be bought directly from the company that makes them.
I used a 40% coupon for mine at Michael's and it was worth every penny! (I would gladly pay full price, and that's saying a LOT, coming from me!)

You can weave from 3-15 pegs on one loom. Add another loom and you've got 30. I now own two of these and plan on getting at least one more when I have a chance. :) Maybe more. I'd love to see how many I can put together and reasonably weave, but for now, I think I'll stick with a max of 5. Besides, I'm not sure I can justify spending that much on these looms, even if they are awesome and I can get them using great coupons. We shall see! ;)

Set-Up
Set-up is easy... you measure however long you want your project to be, double it, and add 12". Cut as many of those from your yarn as you need for the width of the project. This is all in the book that comes with the loom, so I won't tell you every single step, but I took pics, so I'll share those.

* fold the string in half and place it into the peg's 'mouth' until it fits into the groove at the bottom.
 Note that the pegs will alternate front to back, as below. This is very important for creating the fabric, so be careful when placing the pegs in the loom. :)
















* make sure the strings all face away from the loom, so that the knob faces you and the strings lead to the back of the table.

*  You're ready to weave! See? That wasn't so hard, was it? ;)

To weave: 
Pull out a decent length of yarn. Helpful hint: If you have a cat, lock 'em up. They will LOVE this toy as much as you do!

* Pull the string fairly tight and carefully place it so that it lies within the 'valley' created by the slopes on the backs of the pegs.

* Using both hands, pull gently but firmly down on the yarn so that it rests between the pegs. Pull it down as far as you can without being too anal about it.

* Once you've got the first thread in place, flip the knob so that it turns the pegs. The ones with their 'mouths' facing you will now be facing away and the ones that had their backs to you before will now be facing you. You get the idea. It's not rocket surgery. ;)

Once you've flipped the knob, repeat step one... lay the yarn in the valley, pull down using both hands and gentle pressure.

NOTE: BE SURE that the yarn on the ends isn't tight. You don't want it wrapped around the edge pegs tightly at all. It's better to be a little too loose than too tight. Why? Because the edge pegs will start to draw together and your weaving will look more like a trapezoid than an even rectangle. 

*  Pull the second thread as far down as you can without being too rough.

* Repeat these steps for awhile, until you have a few inches of loose weave.

* Every few inches of loose weave, gently ease down toward the bottom so that the threads lie flush and create a dense mat.

* When you've filled the loom as far as you're comfortable with, you'll want to advance the weave. Don't worry, it's not nearly as complicated as it sounds. ;)

I find that it's easiest to end the current weaving on the left side, but whichever side you want to start with, end on that side. You'll see what I mean. 

* CAREFULLY pull the first peg up. This will draw the warp thread up through the weaving, securing it into place. Bring the weaving end (the loose end) to the front and make sure that the first peg goes BEHIND this thread.

* When pulling up the new warp thread, you don't need to pull out a lot. Just pulling the peg all the way out of the weaving will pull up enough warp thread to work your next bit on.

* Make sure that the pegs remain facing in the same direction as when weaving before, and that the warp threads remain behind the work. 

* Continue across to the last peg and finish pulling warp thread up.

*  So now your weaving is off the pegs, on the warp threads, and all you need to do is lay it against the back of the pegs. Tip: the closer you get the first threads of the next section, the better. Your first few pieces might have obvious loops on the sides where the tension wasn't perfect when you advanced the warp. That's okay. You can ease these out when you're done, but to save time, just try to be careful as you go. :)

* You're ready to start weaving again! Flip the knob and let 'er rip! :)

* Shot of the already woven stuff resting against the newly emptied pegs. I like my camera, can you tell?

* Continue in this manner until you either want to change colors or your piece is as long as you want it.

Changing Colors: 
For simple color changes, all you have to do is attach the new color to the old at either side of the weaving and keep going.

* When you're finished weaving, pull the pegs out as before.

Finishing: 
I'll do a quick tutorial on finishes soon. The instruction book says to knot them together and that's fine. You can also loop the warp loops (the ends on the pegs) through each other, chain style. If you're careful about pulling the warp threads taut, you can end up with a very nice, smooth edge. I'll add those pics and instructions here, once I take more pictures. ;)

Using additional looms

You can use two, three, even four of these. They're made to work together, so you carefully snap them into each other and create a larger width for your weaving.
















I'm making a laptop bag for my 17" screen laptop so I used two looms and made the warp threads long enough to go around the laptop at its longest point, then added about two feet for good measure. ;) I'd rather have more than not enough.

This was my cat, trying to 'help' Mommy with this endeavor. He ended up getting squirted a few times. He knows he's not allowed on my computer desk, anyhow, but boy did he love trying to catch the warp strings as I was loading the loom! :P  (His name is Bitty Butt, by the way)

Here's the laptop bag, warped.

First section done. LOVING the colors and the way the yarn is striping. I love self-striping yarn... it's a different project every time, depending on small changes. :)

 

The first several sections woven and advanced. This is the loom from the back. I laid the weaving on top of my laptop, just to be sure it was wide enough for what I'm doing. It is and I was thrilled! :)

The weaving got to be so long and the cat so interested that I had to roll the warp ends up in the finished cloth and then roll the whole thing up to be able to keep weaving on my laptop table.

Off the loom!
By the way, this project took at least 4 balls of the yarn which was a slightly chunky yarn. It's Lion Brand Tweeds in Carribean, if you wanted to know. :)

I was NOT as careful about easing the yarn onto the warp threads as I should have been, so my cloth got all scrunched up in weird areas. This necessitated about an hour of sweating, panting, and basically combing and scrunching, pulling and tugging this piece all over the place. I finally got it to where I want it, and it was worth it, but paying attention to begin with would have been much nicer. Practice with a smaller piece if you intend to do the larger ones, so you know what I'm talking about with this. :p

















The loopy/peg ends.
For this, I took the loop off the leftmost peg and placed it over the next peg. Lifted the loop off that peg, placed it over the next, and so on. I removed the pegs as I went.

What was left is this very loosely chained edging, but I worked that out, as well.

The warp threads, cut ends. Looks intimidating, huh? It's not that bad, I promise.

So yeah... This needs some serious work. I want my stripes to be more even instead of curvy, and I want my fabric to lie flat.

It doesn't look as bad from above as it does from the side, but you can see by the wavy lines that it's nowhere close to being even.

 But it's okay... I fixed it.

Here's that nice, clean edge I was talking about.
The way you get this is to start with the leftmost loop and the leftmost bottom threads. You're going to hold the loop as you carefully tug on the bottom threads together, until the loop rests loosely against the top of the work. Ease the next loop through as you go, if you need to, so it doesn't get caught when you tighten the first threads.  Repeat this process with each thread, in order, being careful not to tug too hard on the cut ends, as that will result in a wavy finish.

At the very end of the finished edge, pull the weaving end through the last loop, tighten that loop, then weave in the end. Practice will make the edge more even, but I think it's a decent second try, if I do say so myself.

Much flatter and nicer, and by the time I straightened everything out, the piece was a little wider and a good bit longer, which was perfect. 

If you compare this shot to the one above, you'll notice that the cut ends are a bit shorter than when I started and that the waviness is much more contained. :)

Moment of truth... does it fit??? (because, you know, I'm a total slacker and didn't measure any of this, just kinda eyeballed it.)  Laptop on, cloth folded over...

And there's enough for a flap! SCORE!!! *the crowd goes wild*

 

.
Once this is sewn up, it should be PERFECT.  Right side of bag.

Left side of bag.

Now I just need a strap and I'm good! I THINK I have enough yarn left to make a short one, which is fine, because I'm short. :)

I'll post pics of the final bag once it's sewn up and I've macramed the warp threads, beaded the trailing warp threads of the strap, and loaded it up. :) Hopefully that will happen sooner, rather than later.

Stay tuned! :)

success!!!

yay!!!

Okay, so I finished a number of the pendants/earrings for my eggshell jewelry. Most are just waiting for holes to be drilled and hangers to be fashioned.

For now, I'm putting them all on hemp strands. I can't think of anything better to put them on, honestly. The organic nature of them, the flow of the ink, etc, lends itself to the hemp, I think.

I'm thinking of doing these for a FB store or the farmer's market here in town.
What do you think? $15 for the large (2"x1"), $12 for the medium (1.5"x.75") and $12 for the earrings? (1"x.5")   $35 for the set?

I'm also thinking about a bracelet for the medium-sized one... but that would have added macrame or something, so it would cost more depending on what method I used to finish it. but a basic hemp-cord with sliding closure would probably be about $15, as well, and would have holes in either end for the cord. I'll have to see how that works out. Then I could have a pendant, bracelet, and earrings as a set for maybe the $35 or $40, depending on the complexity of the finishing... I don't know.

Things to think about...

So here are three of the finished products:

Pendant 1:

I really need better lighting. The pics don't do these things justice! 

But this one wanted a curlicue hanger, so I did a bit of wire-work, and here we go.

Again, lighting, but I love the colors in this one.

The hanger is a free-form coil of loops. Hemp necklace.

This one is a medium pendant. It wanted a very funky hanger, so I just lopped off a few pieces of different wire and started forming and wrapping. That was fun! :)

a wee bit better lighting, but still not perfect. Either way, I', happy with how this 'experiment' is turning out! :)


Tomorrow, I hope to get MY favorite set made, so I can wear it with my favorite top and skirt. :) Heck, I might even be moved to wear make-up with it, just to feel pretty. ;)

Pinterest Is EVIL

Truly, truly evil.

So many ideas... I need to stop aging just so I'll have time to do it all... and by the time I get all THAT done, I'll have a whole new list of things to do and try and make and visit and cook and... and...

Okay... wine has been consumed. Calm should follow, right?

So... Pinterest. Have you seen my Pinterest boards? I have A LOT of them.

Here, take a look:
Doni's Pinterest

It's a rabbit warren, really. Once you start clicking and Pinning, you can't stop till you're either blind, you break the internet, or your husband threatens DEEEEVORCE! Yeah, I know he's kidding. And he didn't say it so much as I imagined that it will someday come to that.

A word of advice for those just starting their Pinterest journeys: If, once you've Pinned something, a picture comes up where someone else has pinned the same thing, there might be something even more intriguing on that board. Do yourself a favor: Middle click to open it in a new tab. If you don't have that feature, right click, scroll down to 'open in new tab', then go check it out later. See, leaving the original trail is where you get into trouble. IF you can keep to one board without getting distracted, well, please go to the nearest psychiatrist and report the phenomenon. They'll probably want to study your amazing brain. (You think I'm kidding?? Just ask anyone you know who's been Pinning for awhile...)

Okay, so yeah. I had a really down day and sat here making with the clicky on lots of Pins and pics. I came across so many up-cycled crafts that my head spun. I think I should get carbon credits just for the things I WANT to do, the number is so vast. But one in particular struck me, since I had almost all the necessary items and it uses eggshells.

We eat a lot of eggs. We have a lot of eggshells. Now I have a purpose for them, besides the obvious garden-related ones. Whoot!

I found a few neat sites and videos that showed how to make eggshell jewelry and I thought, hey, that looks easy.

I started with a small bag of pre-cut wooden rectangles in three sizes (not counting the 7 or so 'extras' that didn't match anything else in the bag.) I had a 40% off coupon, so it cost a whopping $2 for the bag. Score! Since I had enough stuff to make do to start with, I headed home and immediately began playing.

Here are the results of the first efforts:

Friday, June 6, 2014

Gathering the supplies:

Glue, paints, floating medium, a little mixing tray, brushes, Tacky Glue, and egg shells, properly de-membraned.

A note about the paints:
The examples I found used alcohol inks. Me, being me, decided to try it first with what I had on hand. The nearest thing I could think to do was mix the acrylic paint with the floating medium and hope it flowed enough for the effects I was finding on Pinterest.

For the record, it didn't, but hey, it still looked okay. I will do more of that, but will experiment a bit more first.

Also, if you already have some wood shapes, you can use them. I mean, really... it's whatever will hold glue, eggshells, paint/ink, and sealer. Knock yourself out!

Prepare the blanks:
This part is REALLY hard.

Okay, it's not, but it can be messy. But then again, anything crafty worth doing is worth doing messy, right?? I mean, how can it be that much fun if you don't have to pull tye-died glue from your hands at the end?

So yeah: Aleene's Tacky Glue. Spread it on the boards. I recommend doing no more than three at a time, since the glue could dry out as you're cussing at the eggshells and trying to force them to your will.

Ahem. I mean, as you're carefully aligning each little piece of shell perfectly. *cackle* I can't even keep a straight face through that.

These are eggshells. They're going to break, slide, and get stuck to your fingertips, your palm, your t-shirt, and the cat. Just... be patient. Wine is a good patience-inducing coping mechanism for me. Your mileage may vary.

So slather the glue...

This doesn't have to be the neatest job in the world. Just make sure to have enough to help hold the curvy bits of shell to your board. Keep in mind that the larger you want the pieces, the more glue you'll need underneath them, since they'll dome more. It seems like it's perfectly logical, but I like to give instructions as if 'duh' is your favorite word in the whole English language. And it just plain doesn't occur to people who've never worked with curved shells before. Like me. yeah. I learned a lot as I went, here. ;)


Now start laying on the egg shells. I didn't get a pic of this because I only have two hands and I needed four to make this work the first time. That, and I didn't want to get gluey eggshells on my husband's camera. He would be grumpy about that and sigh really hard, I'd feel guilty, he'd play off that just for funsies... it would escalate from there and end up with me not working on anything else for a bit while watching Dexter or something. ;)

Basically, you're going to want to pinch off bits of shell that will lay nicely over the 'board'. When you have your pieces chosen, rest them over the board and then press down gently but firmly with your thumb or whatever. If you want to smoosh the hell out of the shells, use another piece of wood and flatten those sharp little bits down as hard as you can. It will only create a different texture, which you might like. Oh, and it will squeeze excess glue onto the pressing board, which will grab any bits of shell not nailed down, and you'll end up with a rather mangy looking board. Don't try too hard to cover up the holes, if you choose this method. That will only end in tears. And maybe more wine.

Once you have smooshed the shells down, it should look something like this: 

Yeah... looks like art in the making, huh?

The shells that are hanging off the edge will be broken off carefully once the glue has dried a bit.

Here's one with the edges broken off...

Don't worry about the raggedy edges. You'll take care of those later.

This one was my first try and you can see that there are massive holes in the coverage. Now that it's been painted and everything, it's fine, so don't worry too much about it.

If you're using alcohol inks for this, those holes will actually be really cool-looking when the ink pools and the different colors mix. I promise. :)

Here are my first few boards, smooshed and drying: 

Note that the first set, on the left, looks holey and there are more layers of shell here and there. Those were the first efforts.

The second set, on the right, I was much more careful about what I was doing and managed to make it look somewhat more like the ones in the various videos and tutorials I was watching.

Yay!

Next step is to let these thoroughly dry. 
Now's the time to fill in any gaps you think you should.

I don't recall what I did while letting the glue dry. Probably did some gardening or played with my new baby kitten. But I did end up back at it, unable to stay away! I was ready to paint these suckers! :D

First paint: 

I love shades of blue and green. I love shades of purple. I love teal and aqua and pink and lavender and I especially love the colors of the world I write about, Ishira. (Teal, turquoise, purples... those are the colors of the foliage on my world)

So I tried for that at first. It didn't turn out quite like I wanted. Either set. Bummer, but hey, it's just paint. That can be changed quite easily.



The third 'set' of pendants I painted turned out MUCH nicer, in my opinion: 

Carribean Sea in the middle, lilac outside of that, and rose-petal pink on the edges.

 And since this set had the much smoother surface and larger pieces, I think the colors blended a bit better.

The thought here is that the biggest piece will be a pendant, the two smaller ones will become earrings, and the midde-size one will either become another pendant or I'll drill two holes in it and make it into a bracelet. Not really sure yet.


Clear-coat:

For this last step, I used a decoupage sealer. I'm not too thrilled with how it coated, so I'm going to use something different for the final sealing coat.

Yeah, not too happy with this one. It's just too washed-out for my tastes. I know it looks like beach glass in the picture, but in real life, it just looked like dirty beach glass. 

Kinda liked how these turned out, kinda didn't. But I decided to sleep on it while these guys hung out and dried.









Sunday, June 8, 2014

Had a few places we needed to go later in the day, and after sleeping on the colors I wasn't too happy with, I decided to just play and see what I could do to salvage them, if anything.

This time I brought out the big guns: NAIL POLISH!

Yup, if you're going to do sparkly, do it right, huh?



So the green-blue ones turned into this with one thin wash of turquoise nail polish:

It looks like a mermaid's tail. That makes me happy. :)

The washed-out, dirty beach glass one got a complete new paint job and turned into this:

This was with one coat of a purple/teal dimensional polish, then a light wash of the same turquoise as the set above.

To me, it now looks more like beach glass beneath enchanted, sparkling waters.

I think my next book needs to have mermaids in it. I'm apparently leaning in that direction...

Ahem. I digress.

So, thrilled with these two sets and the lone pendant, we headed out for a day of laundry and visiting at Mom's, rapier practice for my husband (for those who don't know, we do medieval re-creation and he's a 16th century German rapier fighter. Yeah, YUM, right???)

Well, practice ended up not happening, so once we were done with laundry and visiting, we headed back home, but stopped at Michael's on the way. I had a 50% off coupon and REALLY wanted to try the alcohol inks, like the ones used in the original videos I watched. I came home with those and an itty-bitty hand drill for making the holes for the jewelry findings, hemp, wire, or whatever else I use to make them into pieces of artsy-fartsy jewelry. :)

And of course, I couldn't wait to get started on other stuff, but alas, it was late and I just wanted to curl up with the kitten, who was a bit perturbed that we left him ALL ALONE, ALL DAY LONG!!! (It was actually only about 5-6 hours, but to a baby kitty, that must be like a MILLION ZILLION years.)

Oh, the horror! 

He ended up chewing on my hand and clawing me to death as my penance, then decided to fall asleep on me, thus redeeming himself for the blood-letting. He's lucky he's cute...

The day was sufficiently trying that once we left Michaels and saw the Krispy Kreme sign on, we had to stop. My dinner was a huge glass of milk and about half a dozen doughnuts. I think I was PMSing. Hard. Hey, don't knock it... I'm a fat woman and the sign was on. How could I just drive past that??? If you're saying 'will power', you've obviously never had a hot, soft Krispy Kreme Original Glazed, fresh off the conveyor, and a tall, ice-cold glass of milk. Will power has nothing to do with that combo. That is a gift from the gods and must be accorded the appropriate homage. It's good for the soul. Proof is that I felt much better after nomming them. :D It's the scientific method, you see. If you don't believe me, I bet I can duplicate the results. I'd be happy to. Anything to further scientific understanding.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Took the hubster to work. It was his last Monday of his first year of teaching high school. Whoot! Tuesday will be the last day with students, then it's all over but the packing of the room and closing it up for the summer. :)

Anyhow, with him at work, I set out on what I thought would be a simple quest: acquire one black ink pad. You know, like they sell in office supply aisles EVERYWHERE. They're like, $1. Well, they are everywhere but at Michael's and my Walmart. Actually, it turned out that Walmart let me down with four different things. I did, however, bring home a set of acrylic paints in colors so bright, they reminded me of the sunrises/sunsets I Pinned to my eggshell crafts board for color inspiration. SCORE!

Came home, ate some breakfast, caffeinated appropriately, then started work.

I got 5 sets of boards glued and shelled,  with two more painted black before I try to do the shelling. I highly recommend pre-painting your pieces, if you know what color you want for them. Trying to paint them after the eggs are on and you have paint all over your hands, shirt, desk, and the cat, is an effort in frustration.

I got them done about the time my hubby called me to come pick him up from work. He's got such good timing! ;)

Once home again, I broke out the nifty new inks and started boldly dripping drops here and there, blending them, watching as some of them turned into murky pools of ick... dabbed those clear and added a few more drops here and there...

IF YOU ARE A CONTROL FREAK, THIS CRAFT MIGHT NOT BE FOR YOU!

You have been warned.

The alcohol inks have incredible color, but the capillary action on the nozzles is... unpredictable. Either it wasn't planned out well or I'm deficient. I don't dismiss the latter possibility. I will be practicing. :P

Here are the results of my adventures tonight, with color (HAH! See what I did there?) commentary:

The final page for today's work... It's messy, but it was fun.

My hands look like a 60s tie-dye fest happened on them. Seriously. It's like a unicorn threw up all over my fingers. If I had glitter on them, it'd be perfect.

The 'mess' up in the right corner is the detritus from sanding the edges and making the pendants generally nice and finished-looking.

I used a metal nail file to sand down the edges and make them taper a bit into the edges of the wood. It was tedious, but mind-numbing enough that I could do facebook at the same time. That gave my hands a break, as well, since sanding stuff that's so little can really cramp your muscles.

Then it was time to play!!!

I know, I'm FINALLY getting to the good stuff, right??

Well, here ya go:
NOTE: these have not been sealed yet, nor were their backs and sides painted at the time of these pics. When I'm done with them and they're in their final form, I'll post those pics. :)

 I call this one Loki's Dream, since it has shades of Loki's outfit from The Avengers. God, I'm such a geek! LOL

This was the first effort with the inks, which is why it's so dark and murky, but once it was almost dry, I went back and added a few extra drops of yellow, which is where that brilliant green popped from.

Second attempt (I think. I really need to number these!)

I was still figuring out the capillary action, so some areas are brilliant while others are murky and deep. Not what I was hoping for, but I like it, so we'll keep it.






Third attempt

Learning control, of sorts. At the very least, I'm learning the spacing of drops so that things blend kinda-sorta where I want them to, rather than running rampant like a herd of kittens after the Red Dot of Doom.

And here...
*happy sigh*
THIS.
This was what I was hoping to see by the end of the evening!
Color was decently controlled, I was able to make each piece similar enough to work as a 'set', and the colors are incredible, IMHO.

Yup. Think this set will be a keeper for me. I even know exactly which outfit I'll wear it with. If I'm feeling froggy when these are done, I'll doll myself up and show ya.


Tomorrow:
Hopefully will see me finishing the painting and sealing, drilling and attaching various bits of jewelry hardware, once I know what I want to do with each piece.

For the record, these pieces measure: 
Large pendant: 2" x 1"
Medium pendant: 1.5" x .75"
Small pendants/earrings: 1" x .5"

Those are approximate measurements. I didn't get out the ruler or anything, just guessed based on the size of my knuckle held up to the boards. I'm not really an 'exact' kinda girl for most things.

There you have it. Yet one more reason Pinterest is evil. I now have more wood blanks (hearts, circles, and letters!) and those bright acrylics to try out.

I'm wondering if I might be able to sell these? Hmm... I guess I'll see how they go, once I've gotten the hang of it all. :)

Okay... going to go work on my writing now. Time to switch 'hats' and do my paying job for a bit. :)

Remember to subscribe for updates! I'm hoping to keep things coming, just not every day unless I'm working on a tutorial or something.

Let me know what you think! I love feedback!! Okay... gonna publish this so I can Pin a few of these to my 'Pinterest success' board. :) Or maybe I should wait till I have actual FINISHED pieces before I do that... rats! LOL

(all images copyright Donya B. Frontauria, 2014)