A very special Christmas gift

A dear friend of mine lost her best friend in 2011. I wanted to do something special for her, so we saved some special items of his for a quilt. I wasn't ready to take on this project last year, but this year was the right time. I finished the lap quilt in time for her Christmas gift. As my daughter said, it's a hug from her buddy every time she uses it.

Halloween Wreaths

Thanks to two of my fave crafty ladies for getting together to make these cute yarn-wrapped wreaths. Simple and quick to do, I love how we each put our personal touch on them. Thanks to Eryn for wrapping my second one so I could make one for me and one for my dear darling daughter's house.

 This is what serious creativity looks like - I think it's funny just how serious we seem to be since we joked and laughed all night!

This was a simple craft to do. Get a solid wreath (foam, straw, whatever is cheap). With the help of your handy glue gun wrap the whole wreath with yarn. Add ricrac accent trim. Tie on a ribbon for hanging, and decorate as you see fit. We all did something a little different:

Eryn used grunge fabric (dollar store or Walmart) and a big plastic spider
and her little spider-ette babies.

I added grunge fabric as well, then stick-on felt spiders 

Heather T cut out this cool spider from felt.

For mine, I wanted a crow.

Several dollar stores later my brother found it!

 Happy Crafting!
- Heather

And so it continues...

First photos of the Creative Zone. As is always the case, things are worse before they get better. Right now it's been a bunch of shuffling to make room for rearranging. The left side makes me groan, but the right side of the room is coming along thanks to a burst of energy at midnight last night!

Don't think you need a huge craft room. This room is about 7.5'x10', and set up right it'll be just perfect.

 Ready to be sorted through, piece by piece. What will stay and what will go? And how long with the process take? Will I ever sleep again?

 The desk - well, this is embarrassing. BUT once the sorting and organizing is done I will have all frequently used goodies in the six foot bookshelves flanking it.

 I picked up that three-tier wheeled cart for my Cricut at a thrift store for $3.00. I gave it a good scrub and I'm loving its portability. The dresser contains all my punches and indoor Cricut vinyl.

Paper bins on the dresser, and a home for my printer. The bulletin board is made of a whole bunch of cork trivets from IKEA. It is a bit of a shamble right now, so I will clean it off and change it up.

Small Storage for the Creative Zone

Summer visiting and travelling is done. Now it's Fall and time to get productive. Time to get back to a schedule and get crafty. I've such a long to-do list and I've pinned thousands of items on Pinterest - now to actually DO some of the pins! I think I should start a weekly Pinterest Pin Conquered post. 

First up - I've started changing my creative zone. I tried something new a few months ago and it's just not working the way I hoped. I've rearranged the furniture and now I'm ready to start sorting through all my goodies and make a sell pile and organize the keep pile. I have a few shelves to put up as well. It's important to have items close at hand, and also to have inspiration hanging up. Lots to do, wheels are spinning. 

Here are a few of the ideas I love that will be my inspiration as I get it all sorted.

This is a truly beautiful thing! I love the multitude of jars in the narrow shelving unit. Ribbons, trims, buttons, brads, small stamps, chip board... the possibilities are endless. 

Punching a hole in the top of a small jar makes a great individual yarn or ribbon dispenser like this:

Click on the image for a few more jar organization ideas from Home Made Simple.

I also like this idea of repurposing an old wine rack. I've got one that has an Italian flavour and a verdigris look to it. It would be fun to pop it up a notch by painting it fuchsia or turquoise.

One more - this stunning tin can caddy. This will be fabulous on my desk for the items I use all the time. Love this - 

Hope this inspires me to get it done in a hurry. When my work space is neat and organized I'm so much more productive. 

bacon and eggs

Here's the bacon. And eggs. I just stinkin' adore them!!!!  I kind of winged it to make them but have written it down if you want to play too.

Egg yolk:

1. ch 2, 6sc in 2nd ch, slst tog, ch1
2. 2sc in each stitch, slst tog, ch1
3. *sc, 2sc* around, slst and tie off leaving a long enough tail to sew to egg white

Egg white:

1. ch 2, 6sc in 2nd ch, slst tog, ch 1
2. 2sc in each stitch, slst tog, ch 1 (12)
3. *sc in 2 stitches, 2sc in next stitch* around, slst tog, ch1 (18)
4. *sc in 2 stitches, 2sc in next 2 stitches* around, sc in last 2 stitches, slst tog, ch1 (26)
5. *sc in 2 stitches, 2sc in next stitch* around, sc in last 2 stitches, slst tog, weave in ends (34)

Stuff and sew the yolk to the white.

Now the bacon! I chained 20, then did three rows of 3sc+inc, 3sc+dec. Then I wove a light thread through the stitches. 

Then serve them up on a plate! Pancakes - needs pancakes...

BLT needs bacon...

I made a couple "sandwiches" to add to Max's playfood. I've done the bread, lettuce and tomato... still need to make the bacon. That'll be on tomorrow's list along with eggs and waffles. Yes, this is too much fun! I hope he likes it all as much as I've enjoyed making it.  The pattern for these came from a book called Yummi 'Gurumi. I modified the bread to make it smaller, starting with 15 stitches instead of 19. Also used two crocheted layers with a layer of Timtex interfacing in between to make my slices thinner for little hands.

Play food play time

My grandson Max will be two at the end of April, and I'm working on a play market for his birthday. I made cupcakes - they are sooo cute, I'm thrilled with them. The tops come out from the cups so he can pretend he's making them. Here is the pattern I used. Lots of fun!

And then, to celebrate my creativity, I gave myself bright red toes

(or "Elmo Toes" as my grandson calls them!)

Beads for a cause

A good friend of mine asked for donations for a silent auction. I made her a beaded lanyard for her work i.d. that she loves, so made a couple of those and other goodies. The one good thing about being a hoarder of all things artsy means you always have supplies to help out in a pinch...

First, a couple hoop  necklaces, nice and simple

Brass and pearl charm bracelet

Lanyard #1 - green and brown

Lanyard #2 - rainbow

Card Buffet for March

Monthly card buffet with my fave Stampin Up Demonstrator Eryn of Sew Much Scrap was, as always, a bunch of fun --- and a bit of productivity. We had a couple new faces this month - friends of mine that were so impressed they said they will definitely be back.

Here's what I accomplished:

 I'm all about butterflies lately and I love this B&W card. It's spring fever I'm sure. this card is a black base, double matted with whisper white and black. I use this Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die a whole lot. Tie ribbon around the black matt before gluing all down, put white pearls down the bodies of the butterflies, and pop up the greeting with Stampin Dimensionals

 Another view just because I love it! <3

 Working on Christmas cards now (one or two a month) means ready for Christmas without the rush. How smart is Eryn adding these to her Card Buffet? The moose is a cutout from my Cricut.

 Another Christmas card - ornaments heat embossed in gold and silver, then punched and popped.

And finally - a shot of my favourite little person.  I love this shot of my grandson playing on the same feltboard that was his Mommy's feltboard at the same age <3

Happy Monday, everyone!

Playing with yarn

I've done very little crocheting this winter. Most of my playing has been with paper and vinyl. So - I decided to pick up the hook and yarn. First, a hooded scarf (or scoodie) for my dear daughter. I used this rose-purple Homespun I've had kicking around for awhile and based it loosely on this pattern. Next I will make one for my mother. She's adjusting to our cold Alberta winters after spending 30+ years in the Okanagan!

Currently I'm working on an order for a pair of textured vertical scarves for a friend of mine. I think over the past few years I've outfitted every female in her family with a scarf! I finished this wonderful soft pink one with a touch of purple, and now I'm working on the blue for my Tuesday deadline.

Since I never seem to work on just one item, here is the start of a project for myself. My friend Eryn loves sewing with reclaimed denim. Purses, wallets, quilts, you name it. This is a spin on that. I'm making a denim striped afghan. Here are the yarns I've got to work with - a number of shades and textures, looking forward to seeing it come together.

 

 

Card Buffet - yes please!

My friend Eryn of Sew Much Scrap - who is also a Stampin Up demo in the Airdrie/Crossfield area - is now hosting monthly Card Buffets. The next one is Tuesday March 13th - let me know if you're interested. Here are a couple of the cards I made last month. 

background = layered red & blue CS on white, then embossed in the Big Shot 

Beautiful sympathy card using the new SU labels framelits dies

Inspired By Nature

I love the cone flower stamp in Stampin Up's Inspired By Nature set. I wanted to play with a technique I saw on the Stamp N Design site here (love everything Lynn Pratt does).

I put a 1/2 inch grid on white CS. On this first card I stamped the cone flowers in black and then used a blending sponge to work in three shades of ink (crumb cake, Cajun craze and chocolate chip). Then I covered the whole piece with Versamark and clear embossing powder to create the tile effect.

I did the same 1/2 inch grid here and inked the cone flowers in black. I used a postcard background stamp and inked the edges in crumb cake ink. I used the same Versamark and clear embossing powder to create the tile effect.