So a little more about the sky blue in my last blog post. I tend to go through color phases, and currently it is sky blue. Or maybe you could call it pool blue. It seems to have started with this necklace and bracelet.
Then I found this hand screened paper with goldfish on that I have been using to decoupage little boxes.
The latest is my new suitcase for all the traveling I have been doing. I added the stickers.
Valentine's Day is almost here so time to get cracking on some Valentine's projects. I designed these little Valentine cards for work that you can download and print for yourself. They would be great for tucking into a lunch bag or for the kiddies to give to their classmates. There is a link to the pdf here.
I also designed these lollipop treat templates. There are ones with Valentine messages...
... and a template you can personalize with your own photo. There is a link to the pdf's and how to's here. Nice little treats for handing out to your buddies.
I am slightly obsessed with making jewelry with supplies from fresh jewelry designs. I used the term "making jewelry" loosely because really about all it entails is attaching a ring to a really cute pendant and stringing it on a necklace.
Well I did loop some small charms onto earring loops. Again, not too hard. They turn out so cute because the fresh pieces are so cute!
Here is a necklace I made. I get the fresh jewelry bits at Michaels.
I told Tina I would "make" her a necklace too. This was a little more work since I used wire and crimps but still... Tiffany won't be calling anytime soon.
I used some of my vacation time to finish some crafty projects.
I made this holiday garland by stringing together paper punched snowflakes, red origami stars and little green balls I felted.
I also made a wreath with some grapevines, holly branches and painted walnuts. This went to my grandma. I also made her some felted acorns, but I forgot to take pictures of them.
Tonight I am having a sit down Halloween dinner party, so that required some crafting on my part.
I handmade the party invites. I used pre-cut black cards and added a moon with a stamped branch and a punched out owl.
Was it an excuse to buy the Martha Stewart owl punch at Michaels? Perhaps. Look how cute! It even embosses the eyes!
Aaron cut the moons out of yellow paper for me and then I used a branch rubber stamp to make a tree branch for the owl to sit on. Aaron then wrote the party details on the back with a white pen.
We also made paper mache pumpkins for favors.
The pumpkins were filled with ye olde fashioned candy like Bit-O-Honeys.
The pumpkins weren't hard... we covered balloons with orange crepe paper soaked in Mod Podge mixed with water. After they dried we popped the balloons and pulled them out. Aaron added wire handles and I added black crepe paper jack o'lantern faces.
I was going to make one for each person, but they were more work than I anticipated so we made them larger... one for each couple.
I have always been jealous when I read about craft fairs in other cities like Renegade Craft Fair. But guess what? There is an excellent event planned for Rochester NY called Second Storie and this is it's second year. Second Storie } Indie Market will be held at the Visual Studies Workshop Auditorium on Saturday, Nov 29, 11am to 6pm and Sunday, Nov 30, 11am to 4pm.
I am still tormented because I missed it last year due to the Toronto Film Festival and this year I will be in PA for Thanksgiving. Ah well, someday the stars will align and I will make it there.
If you have a crafty streak, you have til Oct 27 to apply for a table. It sounds like such a good event to participate in... no tents needed, table, chairs, and linens provided and sunday brunch too! Otherwise, if you will be in the area be sure to attend and enjoy it for me!
For more info visit Second Storie or email http://secondstorie.net
I love all the Domo stuff at Target. I wanted to buy all the little Domo's in Halloween costumes, but the thought of our very own Domo sitting at home gave me pause.
Instead of buying a bunch of new Domo's I made a pair of bat wings for our Domo.
All I needed was some black felt, needle and thread to make Domo his own pair of bat wings. Boo!
For Lauren's baby shower, made these seed packets to go with the favors. Since she was born early she had her shower after her birth and got to be featured on her favors.
Looking back at that project gave me an idea.
I designed photo seed packets that can be used for wedding favors or baby birth announcements. The project seems timely because spring always seems to bring lots of weddings and babies.
You can download the templates here and there are also step by step instructions. It helps if you have photo editing software, so you can add the pictures before you print them out.
in an effort to combine St. Patrick's Day and the looming Easter holiday, I made shamrock Easter eggs. You can read about how I made these photo eggs with decoupage glue and blown eggs on 1000 Words today.
. You can leave me a comment there if you want... it's sadly commentless
I am so lucky that I get to do stuff I enjoy at work. I just designed these Valentine's Day Candy Bar Wrappers for the project center.
Aaron had no idea he was going to be the cover boy for all the candy wrappers.
There are three different wrappers that you can download. They all have funny little sayings on them.
You can either open the pdf's up in a photo editing tool and add your pictures or print them out as is and cut out the hearts and place your picture behind the cutout.
A
few people have asked me about the string I used to tie up my Christmas
packages. It is a large spool of baker's twine I bought online... quite
inexpensively. This spool should last me the rest of my life. I don't
remember the exact place but a google search will turn up several
alternatives.
It was the Little Italy pastry shops that I frequented during our visit to Boston that inspired me to use baker's twine.
I have been collecting plastic deer for a few years now. My mom has
found quite a few for me at yard sales and flea markets. I even decided
that they would play a big role in this years Christmas theme.
So you can imagine how surprised I was when I saw this spread in this
month's Martha Stewart Living.
Little plastic deer everywhere.
Sometimes I feel like she is watching me.
But I am using her Michaels craft stuff for my "Woodland Creatures"
Christmas themed projects so it's all good.
I don't want to push Christmas before it's time, but here is something you will want to start early so you have it ready for the first of December... a Photo Advent Calendar.
I love advent calendars and wanted one that was personalized. So I created this house design in illustrator and the template for placing the photos behind it.
You can download the pdf's to make your own Photo Advent Calendar on 1000 Words and more detailed instructions for making it.
You can open a window for each day in December and see one of your favorite photos!
I also made an Oscar and Stewie back panel so you could have a Pug and Cat Advent Calendar if you don't have time to fill one in with your own pictures. Or maybe you just want a cute Pug and Cat Advent Calendar. You can download this panel at 1000 Words too.
They should. They are projects I did for Christmas 2005 and 2006. And I
just provided them for the Christmas
Crafts magazine that is in stores now. I had to create
samples for the photography and write up the instructions for them. Not
hard... but it was time consuming.
It was pretty exciting to see the magazines in the grocery
store check out line... and so cool to see my stuff inside! I can say
that I am "published" now right?!
Somewhat like my Valentine's
Heart Tree, I made this Halloween
Bat Tree for on my dining room table. Super easy, all you
need a branch, some black craft foam and a few other supplies.
It is driving Stewie crazy... he wants those bats so badly.
Now it must be obvious that I am pretty busy most of the time.
And when you are busy all the time, things fall through the
cracks.
I was reading through the sessions that are going to be at
BlogHer and I noticed that Kathy
Cano Murillo was going to be there. Then it hit me. Over a
year ago Crafty Chica sent me a copy of her book Art de
la Soul so I could read it and blog about what I thought.
Ewwww yeah... never got around to that. Goodness knows what happened...
but how horrible that I forgot.
Anywhooo, I did read it and it is awesome. I even made my
friend Kenn from Mexico City read it and he oohed and ahhed over it. It
made me want to do some sort of crafts that reflect my half Korean
heritage. It's hard not to get excited over her vibrant and colorful
craft ideas.
Now that I am on a roll... here is a shout out to Threadbared. I
read Mary's blog for quite awhile and she sent me a copy of her book
when it came out too. It is hilarious and now I can't throw out any of
the old knitting and sewing magazines I have sitting around.
After several weeks of neglect the Frog
Amigurumi is back on track. We now have a lumpy little
body.
How do you like my spiffy knitting box? I had a problem with
my balls of yarn rolling off the table and across Starbucks when my
friend Debbie showed me hers. It is an empty jumbo dog treat container
from BJ's with a notch cut in the flip top lid for the yarn to feed
through. It will hold two balls of yarn, a project, a pattern, needles
and some markers. Very handy and portable.
I heard Martha
mention her Michael's
craft line a few weeks ago.
We have lots of Michael's in Rochester so I was pretty excited. When I
went and saw an entire aisle of Martha Crafts I was estatic.
The craft supplies are great and the packaging is amazing. I
had to get a few things, my favorite of which is a bone
folder. She
uses one all the time, but I was never able to find one. I am sure it
is going to make all the difference
for my crafts.
I am looking forward to going to Sit & Knit this week.
Between traveling and concerts I haven't been in awhile.
Since Aaron usually comes with me I like to encourage him to
do something crafty too. He did make a stupid
sock creature a bit ago.
I think he should try knitting too. And I saw just the book
for him. Men
Who Knit & the Dogs Who Love Them. Could that be
anymore perfect? I totally think he and Oscar need matchy matchy
knitted sweaters!
I colored Easter eggs today with Aaron and my sister. I had it in my head that I wanted eggs that looked like real bird eggs. So after I dyed my eggs, I put them in a box and splatter painted them with a toothbrush and paint. I think they look cute. My dad said he has never seen a bird lay an egg like these.
I was admiring the ripple blanket made over on Posie Gets Cozy and then was equally impressed when she jumped right into a granny square blanket when I remembered something...
When I was home for the holidays, my grandma gave me an unfinished granny square blanket she got from my great aunt. Jackpot! One third of the squares are finished, two thirds need the tan edging and then all the squares need stitched together.
The colors might not be exactly what I would have chosen, but having the project kick started for me is so worth it. A lot of work has already been done, yet there is enough work that when I finish it I can still claim that I made (part) of it! I just need to get a square to the store to buy matching tan yarn. Hmmm... maybe I am going to discover why my great aunt stopped in the middle.
I was feeling so good about knitting my mittens that I tried another non-square item... a hat. I used Lion Brand Landscapes wool and a pattern from this card deck.
I was excited to try out my pom pom maker to top off my hat. Stewie is obsessed with my hat's pom pom. Sometimes I let him wear the hat and that makes him feel better.
Here are a few things I made my friends for Valentine's Day. At the top is a chocolate bar cozy (in other words, good for hiding it away so others don't eat it). The hearts are just for hanging.
They are all made of felt because I dislike hemming things. Each heart has a button pinned to it.
Aaron got me a button maker for Christmas and I was itching to use it. I was a little disapointed though as they made sub-standard buttons. I didn't realize the button makers from Michael's or Joann's were so different from the professional quality ones. I am on the lookout for an affordable "real" button maker... any suggestions?
I got this plain red apron at our office store for a couple bucks and wanted to embellish it a bit. I stitched three felt hearts to the front and viola! Seemed like a good idea especially since I never did finish the hearts apron I started last year. *SHAME*
Valentine's Day is getting close and my house is plastered in hearts and cupids.
I put up the heart tree like last year. Only this year I have a kitty whose eyes glaze over with longing when he sees all those dangly hearts swaying to and fro. He has knocked it over once already.
After I saw the super cute fabric Lucky Olive found at Joann's I went to check it out too. Instead of the savory anthropomorphic food, I went with the sweets. I got some to trade for a Hello Dunny and some for me. What to make with it?
I also struck gold in the Joann's $1 bin with these spools of ribbon. This is the kind of ribbon I will hoard and never actually use.
Aaron got me this "Scrap, Paper, Scissors" Mini Organizer and I am enjoying it immensely. I filled it up and carry it with me throughout the house. It appeals to the super organizer side of me.
It came complete with 17 outside pockets, 9 inside pockets and one zippered compartment on bottom of tote. Heaven!
