All The Pretty Birds

This has absolutely nothing to do with journal making but once I got sidetracked off to crochet, I had to do a few patterns and other little things. I love these birds so much I bought a pattern for them but then I didn't like the pattern so much so I completely rewrote it to work with #10 crochet thread after I made 2 or 3 of them. I could not find the suggested size yarn in the instructions.

And I have to tell you, they look like real birds from a distance just for the shape and colors of them. The original pattern was used for the green bird on the right and then I started nitpicking it to pieces into something I liked much better. My pattern is the blue one on the left. Similar but very different to crochet. I like my wings much better and they take a lot less time to make. I trimmed down the bird and made him longer because I thought it was a little too plump and I made other changes too.

I also changed the size of the thread and needle to give me a smaller bird. I found some very colorful egyptian cotton crochet thread to work with - that I absolutely love at Hobby Lobby. It's their brand called Artiste 100% egyptian cotton size #10 and they have a wider color selection than any other brand I've found. It was on sale for 30% off making it 2 bucks a ball of 400 yds.

I'm working on sculpting a nose and beak out of polymer clay that can be attached with just two knots. I used to raise parakeets aka budgies. I love them so much but I can't have any birds because I have cats. These are about the same size as the real ones.

I changed the feet, the wings, the body, the tail. OK, so I completely rewrote my own pattern. The almost all white ones with light shading on the wings are called lacewings. I've still got some sewing to do on this one to blend the light green into white with crewel embroidery thread.

It's starting to look like a bird factory around here! There are so many different color combinations of yellow, green and blue you can make. I've made about ten of them and I haven't made two birds exactly alike yet. These last ones are waiting for me to get the nose piece sculpted and molded. I have all the feet done. Pretty soon I'm going to have to go outside and cut me a branch for them to perch on.

I can work the pattern and make a complete crocheted bird in under three hours but it takes a little longer to embellish it. Those wire feet have to be wrapped with thread. I used to sculpt dolls with a needle and thread and you really want to know how to hide the knots when you decorate these with thread. The eyes are glass beads. I don't know how many more of them I will make but I do enjoy seeing them come to life!

Why does it feel like somebody is staring at me...

Crocheted Enhancements

You might have noticed a little crochet in the edges of the rooftops of my current journals I'm working on. Well that got me off into crochet land for a while and I've been making all kinds of stuff out of string.

I ran across the cutest little edgings that I can use for my pages but the instructions were not written well and I had to try to follow along from a video. There are several of these videos out there and these little elephants are all done a little different, depending on how you interpret the instructions. But even those are translated really, really bad - I couldn't make heads or tails out of them. Doesn't anyone know how to read and write clear and concise crochet language any more?

I love to crochet little edgings onto paper pages and I can think of a few different ways to put these into a journal, can't you? I crocheted these on the edge of a printed bag but you could also use cards or fabric. I punched my holes about a quarter of an inch apart with a small hole punch. You can also just poke holes for the foundation stitches. Wouldn't a picot stitch be cute on the edge of a page? I can use all my skills and supplies on journal making.

The best I could figure them out and adjust the pattern to my own liking is how I do them. Since people don't want to write out tutorials any more (everybody wants to be a YouTube star), I finally figured them out and took the time to write out a pattern for my version in case anyone else wants to make them and can't quite figure them out.

I'm pretty certain a person new to crochet or even if you're not new you probably want a good readable pattern. So I made a few elephants a couple of different ways and wrote down the one I liked the best. I have to turn everything into a graphic to upload it here. A .pdf is just a graphic too. This one is a .jpg and blogger compresses it but you can still read it. Just click to enlarge it first, right click and save it then print it off. Here it is. Enjoy!

BIRDS IN THE FUTURE

I've also been crocheting little parakeets out of the same string. Ok so I'm on the internet a lot looking for ideas I can use in my projects and when I run across something I really, really like, I want to make it.

The parakeet pattern I got was less than what I really wanted so I wrote my own. I didn't like the feet, so I made my own. I didn't like the wings, so I made my own pattern. I didn't like the shape of the body so I wrote my own version. I'm still working on making a polymer beak and nose but I have to make some molds when I get them shaped just right. Until then I will be sewing them on.

I will show them soon. They are adorable! I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate them into my books. I love the little birds too.

How to Make Beaded Pins

First I had to go get some pins and beads. Yes, I already had a few 2" pins but I needed more. And I already had some pretty beads but... I needed to look at some new pretty beads.

What I found was pins with no coil on the bend so I got some of those. And I wanted some gold pins but all I could find was black and silver. There's always alcohol inks. I also found some all wire decorative pins but I figured out a better way to get pins on those by bending wire and making your own if you are good at that.

Found the prettiest beads at Walmart and they were reasonably priced too. So I got a lot of them. Some are for the dangle on the book spine and some for pins.

There are two ways to get beads on the back side of regular pins with a coil. One way is to take a pair of pliers and straighten out the pin, add beads and then try to bend it all back the way it was so it will close right. That's the hard way.

The easiest way is to pull of the crimped head with pliers, straighten out the wire and put beads on it. Then bend the end a little and put the closure back on with a dab of super glue. Crimp the inside of the curve with pliers to hold it snug and you're done. That's the easy way to do it.

You can also buy no coil pins, straighten them out, add beads and just bend them back into shape very easily but they don't look as mystifying as beads with a coil end for some reason.

Another way is to get some heavy gauge wire and bend your own all wire pin into shape, adding the beads onto the back as you go but that takes a little skill to make it look right.

So - pick a way that's easy for you and make a bunch of beaded pins for your journals and other projects. Don't be afraid to experiment with fabric pieces, dangles and charms on them too. You can make some pretty stuff yourself.