It's all about the Marys...

My crafting ADD has struck again! Although this was premeditated ( I DID mention I would be doing this) I decided last weekend to begin a project from a MaryJane Butters book I found at my library. Yes, this is the same book that lassoed me in to the Farmgirl network and now I'm sending mail art once a month to another "sister..." Way cool. October is a great month for mail art.

But I must stay focused here...

See, every once in a long while, I get this bug where I decide to go through my crafting stuff and snippets of ideas and this and that, and just start cleaning up. I haul a trash can over and wham, bam! It gets filled up with garbage. Like, for example, a knitting pattern of the worst fitting mittens ever. Why would I keep that?? I don't need a pattern to make ill-fitting things! Noooo...completely capable all on my own.

While commencing with the trashing, I came across a small collection of colorful Mary Engelbreit calendars from years past. I actually used these calendars. Because, I was head over heels in love with the art of Mary Engelbreit. I love her story, too. To me, her illustrations represent the way life could be if we all wore clothing of Danish and Scandinavian influence. (It goes back to that Fairisle thing I had going on a month ago..)

I did something at the time I thought meant I was brave and fearless. I threw the calendars in the trash, thus opening up space in my bookshelf and making the trash can about 8 pounds heavier.

About a week or two later, I discover MaryJane Butters' book at the library, see the calendar bags idea and think to myself, "it's time to pick through the trash, girl."

And here is the delightful result of my trash picking...

My first bag, a little rough, but made me giggle with delight!

The first of only two bags I made was a little rough in the sewing. I had no experience sewing with transparent nylon thread, and I had to dig out this thing-a-ma-jigger made out of that clear plastic material you may have experimented with in wood or metal shop back in the day...Anyhow, this thing allows you to sew with larger cones of thread on your regular ol' sewing maching. Except my transparent nylon nightmare thread wasn't in a large cone. It was a small spool. But it was behaving badly loaded in my sewing machine so I sent it to the thing-a-ma-jigger and it all worked out.

Here is what I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE about these bags. They have imagery inside and out. They are more durable than they let on, and they are fairly easy to make. And when you show a finished bag to a friend and tell her it's made from an old calendar, she squeals and suddenly has to pee. Really. I'm not lying about that.

Bag no. 2 was born yesterday. I tried to be a little neater and succeeded thanks to using my brain for eyelet installation instead of more brute force. I like brute force for certain projects, but as it turns out, eyelet installation into paper doesn't really need it.

I just love this particular illustration. Makes me want to knit a hat....

Don't you just love this proverb??

If you are interested in this project, go check out or purchase the book, MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook: For the Farmgirl in All of Us. Here are the supplies you'll need:

10 pages from a calendar

clear contact paper

ruler

craft knife

transparent sewing thread from Hell (that's not a brand name....)

4 large eyelets

a few feet of twisted cord (check out the home furnishings/fabrics portion of your local craft store)

sewing machine

I've been using the first bag for toting around my supplies for the candy corns in the previous post and it's working out great! Plus it's a great converstaion piece. The sad part is, I'm going to run out of Mary Engelbreit calendars sooner than later.