Summer Fox Crafts

Hi there! I'm Allyson, a passionate hobby crafter with a love for knitting, cross-stitching, and creating handmade treasures. Join me on my crafting journey as I share my latest projects, tips, and inspirations!

[summerfoxcrafts]

Holiday Craft Planning

I come from a family where Christmas was, without a doubt, the biggest holiday of the year.  Hosting massive cookie parties for everyone we knew, having a different (themed) Christmas tree in every room of the house, driving around with thermoses of cocoa to look at holiday lights.  All of those things were just fond staples of my childhood.

As an adult, I’ve picked up on my family’s love of Christmas.  But as a crafter, that also means planning ahead for Christmas as early as August!

The majority of the gifts that I give each year are handmade.  Could I give everyone a store-bought gift card?  Sure.  But why?  Handmade gifts come with all of the extra attention to detail, personalization, and -most importantly – love that a “Oh, and add a $20 gift card” at the grocery store checkout just feels like it lacks.

The downside is, of course, that crafting takes time and effort.  I can’t just wave a magic wand and complete a cross-stitching project in the same 15 minutes it would take me to run to the store.  To me, the trade-off is totally worth it!  But it does mean that I have to be thinking ahead.

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Sustainable Crafting (The 3 R's)

We all have heard "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" - and that goes for crafts too! I found out that I really like this coconut drink that comes in glass bottles with a shape I just adore. I'm currently working on a craft project turning those bottles into holiday decorations - I'll share as soon as they're done!

[summerfoxcrafts]

Global Crafts: Turkish Woven Rugs

Last week, I posted an informational blog entry about the absolutely gorgeous craft of Jordanian Mosaic Art.  But Jordan wasn’t the only place I was fortunate enough to visit on my trip!  Along with some Jordanian mosaics, I came back with another souvenir from the second part of my trip: a gorgeous Turkish rug.

On my first full day in Istanbul, I decided to slip out of the hotel on my own – my travel companions were all still jetlagged – to go and see some of the famous sights.  As I was approaching the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, a gentleman approached me and offered to escort me.  I know you’re absolutely not supposed to allow this, especially as a female traveler, but I am a bit tragically nonconfrontational.  To his credit, he did end up taking me right to the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and front gate of Topkapi Palace and even up to a restaurant balcony where you can get phenomenal pictures of all of the above!

He then took me to his shop, which included an upstairs area absolutely full of gorgeous Turkish rugs!  There was even a loom set up off to the side where I was able to see a work-in-progress – and didn’t my jaw just drop, as someone who completed their first ever weaving project just a few months back.  As he was showing off rugs of all sizes and colors, he started to tell me a bit more about the tradition and techniques used to make them.

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Global Crafts: Jordanian Mosaic Art

I am very blessed to work in a job where one of the benefits of my position is getting to travel around the world visiting our global office locations.  It has allowed me to see countries – even entire continents – that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise at this point in my life, and I’ve met some of the most amazing people.

I’ve also had the privilege of being the heartland of various fantastic crafting types from various corners of the globe.

Having just gotten back from visits to Amman, Jordan and Istanbul, Turkey, I am excited to break up my usual blog posts with a two-part series on Jordanian mosaics and Turkish rugs.

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[summerfoxcrafts]

Happy to be back!

I just got back from a two-week trip to Amman, Jordan and Istanbul, Turkey and had the most amazing time. I got to see some truly world-class sights (including a New Wonder of the World in Petra), eat delicious local food, *and* explore traditional crafts in each location!

Look forward to two upcoming articles on Jordanian mosaics and Turkish rugs!

[summerfoxcrafts]

The Importance of Taking Breaks

I am currently on a bit of a healthier-me kick – trying to eat better, stay hydrated, and actually get some cardio in despite working a desk-based job.  It’s been easy enough so far (knock on wood!) but one of the things I’ve had to be careful is not to overdo it.  I’ve seen multiple sources say that you need to include at least one rest day a week for a cardio routine – and more if you’re doing strength training.

Breaks are important.  And I think that applies for everything in life.  Most jobs allow “breaks” in the form of maximum hours of work per week and, for some, PTO.  Relationships where you spend time with friends or even just by yourself can be healthier than relationships where you’re always together.  Even parents can get a break from the kiddos by having a sitter while they get out for date night or just some quiet time.

The same thing can even apply for things that you love to do!  (No, I don’t mean that parents don’t love their kiddos.)  I’m an avid reader, and sometimes I just don’t feel like picking up a book that night.  My friend was just talking about taking a break from playing her favorite video games.

As crafters, we may love crafting with all of our hearts.  But there are times when the idea of crafting seems daunting or overwhelming or just not something that you want to do right now.  Despite crafting being a beloved hobby, it’s also something that it’s okay to take a break from!

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Workday "Crafternoon"

My coworker grabbed two of us over our lunch break and taught us how to weave lavender wand!

Now to figure out what to do with the bag of the little lavender bits that fell off!

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Turning a photo into an embroidery. It didn't come out perfectly - I'm still a new embroiderer and encountered some things I didn't expect, but overall I'm reasonably pleased with how it came out and the lessons I learned from trying it.

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Personalizing Your Space Through Crafting

For a large chunk of my teenage years, I kept myself thoroughly entertained with The Sims.  For those unfamiliar, The Sims is a life simulation game where you create a character, buy or build them a house, decorate it, then guide your character – your Sim – through their life.

I admit, though, I sometimes cheated at the game.  Because one of my favorite parts was building and decorating huge, elaborate houses for my Sims.  So I’d pop in a cheat code to give me infinite money and get to work.  I’d build massive houses with kitchens that my excellent cook of a boyfriend would drool over, put in pools in courtyards of U-shaped Mediterranean-style houses, give everyone their own bathrooms attached to their bedrooms, and every single room would have a theme or color scheme.  Hours upon hours would be spent until the homes were perfect before my Sims ever got to simulate life in them.

As an adult decorating my own spaces now, I don’t have access to cheat codes to give me unlimited money.  I can’t delete and redraw a wall to give me extra space.  And I can’t just drop a plant on a side table and it stay plush and green forever (I have what I like to call a “brown thumb” for plants.) 

But what I can do is use the crafting skills I have developed to uplevel and personalize my space into something uniquely mine.  By using the crafting talents available to us, we are able to add a special touch to our homes in one-of-a-kind and meaningful ways.

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[theambitiouswoman]

[summerfoxcrafts]

Crafting Through the Seasons

I love yarn crafts.  Knitting, crocheting, blankets, shawls, scarves – it’s one of the things that I most like to do to relax.  But I live in an apartment building where the HVAC system is controlled not by unit but by the building itself, and in the transition months where it can be 60 one day and 85 the next it can be hard to be a yarn crafter!  I discovered it the sweaty and sticky way when working on a baby blanket before they switched our building over to AC for the summer; it turns out that working on a blanket means having a blanket’s worth of yarn in your lap!

It also feels weird for me to be sitting there when it’s hot and muggy outside knitting on what will end up being a thick, cozy scarf.  Of course I know that the seasons will change and that it will get cold and icy around here soon enough, but there’s a little bit of cognitive dissonance for me thinking about frigid temperatures when I’m wearing shorts to combat the heat.

While you can do any craft that you enjoy any time of the year, it can be extra satisfying to be working on a seasonal craft that fits the time of year that you’re in.

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[summerfoxcrafts]

Starting what will be one of my most ambitious projects as a relatively new embroiderer. There's this awesome picture of my dad playing his standing bass at a bluegrass festival that I've decided I want to embroider for him.

I took a digital copy of the picture and ran it through one of those image simplification programs to get just the "main lines" of the picture. But honestly even those were too many lines.

So I did it the old fashioned way! I printed the simplified picture, taped it to the window, then taped a blank piece of paper on top of it and traced just the actual defining lines that I would use as my design.

I made some tweaks, then removed the printed picture, taped canvas over the traced picture, and used a water-soluble marker to trace the design onto the canvas.

It was a multi-step process, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I'll be able to get started on the project this week - fingers crossed that it will turn out really really cool!

[summerfoxcrafts]

Crafting Skills for Life

I am proud to say that I’m the go-to person in my family for flat-box furniture construction.  I’ve done a bit of everything, from bedframes that included sliding drawer under-bed storage to coffee tables to TV stands with multiple shelves and cabinets.  As I was putting the TV stand together recently, it occurred to me that some of the skills that I’ve developed as a crafter may actually be helpful in putting this type of furniture together.

That got me thinking about what kinds of skills crafting helps you develop that can be applied to other aspects of your life. 

I am firmly of the belief that no curricular activity or interest is without associated skills, and as crafters – and especially as hobby crafters – we spend our free time developing and fine-tuning a wide array of skills that can carry over into so many other areas.

By identifying the skills and strengths that go hand-in-hand with a crafting passion, we can intentionally exercise those abilities to have a positive impact on many other areas of our lives.

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[summerfoxcrafts]

Me: "Hey Dad. So I finally started picking up quilting after so long of watching grandmother and mom do it. It's always a little hard to get into a new craft, but I'm really enjoying it! Mom and I are talking about working together on a quilt by mail where we mail the pieces back and forth since we live so many states away. It will take a long time, maybe even up to a year, but I'm looking forward to it!"

Dad: "So when are you making me a quilt?"

Me: "Umm. Someday...."

[summerfoxcrafts]

Craft Room Organization

I’ll admit it: I love things.  I am very much a collector-type of person.  I have a row of Amiibos in front of my television representing many of my favorite franchises.  I started a few years ago collecting the Lunar New Year collection of stamps that the US Postal Service is in the middle of issuing.  I have a glass-front cabinet full of souvenirs of all sorts that I or other people in my life have brought back from all over the world.

And, of course, I love collecting anything that I can use for my crafts.

We all know that crafting as a hobby takes up a lot of space – maybe not each item individually, but as a whole.  Just for my own small repertoire of crafts, I have: yarn, multiple sized looms (both circle and square), crochet hooks, knitting needles; soap base, soap dye, soap fragrance, soap molds; candy melt disks, candy molds; thread, aida cloth, water-soluble aida cloth, needles; and random bits and bobs from other crafts I dabble in like scrapbooking and painting.

I’ve written before about ways to cut down on the number of supplies that you might need to be a crafter (sharing, swapping, etc), but it’s very easy to find yourself with a lot of supplies that you need to figure out how to manage.  Organizing your craft supplies can help you maximize your space, make it easier to find things, and even help you reduce the amount of things you need to account for.

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[summerfoxcrafts]

Is it possible that crafters have a secret advantage when it comes to assembling Ikea furniture? 🤔 This weekend, while putting together a TV stand with my partner, I couldn't help but notice how smoothly the process went. I seemed to have a clearer vision of how all the pieces fit together, navigated the picture-only instructions with ease, and had a better grasp on the overall process. It almost felt like I was crafting! Could it be that my crafting skills are my secret weapon in flatbox furniture assembly? 🛠️

[summerfoxcrafts]

The Art of Gift Wrapping

We all know the joke about getting presents for kids, where the parents (or grandparents or aunt/uncle or a family friend) gets the kid a great present and the little one would rather play with the tissue paper or the box.  In fact, there may have been a couple of times when I was knee-high that I was guilty of that exact thing!  Even as a kid, I loved boxes – and that certainly hasn’t changed as a crafty adult.

There’s a reason that wrapped presents are symbols of birthdays and holidays.  And why shops set up displays of wrapping paper and bows during holiday seasons.  And why some retailers even offer giftwrapping services for things you buy from them and intend to give as presents.

Presentation matters!  It’s far from the most important part (I’ll say more about that later in this article), but there’s just something special about the unknown, the anticipation, and the slow discovery of a wrapped present.

As crafters, we have a mind for creativity.  That allows us to think outside the box – pun certainly intended – when it comes to how to present presents.  By giving the presentation of gifts some thought, we can give our gifts in a way that is thoughtful, beautiful, and sustainable.

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