Potpourri of Projects

Happy Saturday! It's been a good day for working on projects.

I finished my third neckwarmer! (Okay, technically, I finished last night, but I'm sharing today). It's hard to get a good picture of it since it's a dark yarn, but here it is:

Jessica wants to give this one to her teacher. I hope she likes it. I'm now working on another, longer one. Hopefully when it's done it will be the right length to either wrap twice around the neck or pull one loop over the head like a hoodie. We'll see. Speaking of knitting, I went back to the same shops I visited last weekend (the craft and yarn stores), and I found a product that is designed to help keep knitters/crafters from getting sore fingers! It's called Thimble-It and basically it's a clear oval plastic sticker that you put on your working finger. I tried it earlier today and think it's got to be one of the greatest inventive uses for clear plastic stickers EVER! I never would have thought of it in a million years. My pointer finger is thanking me. LOL

As much as I've been knitting/crocheting this week, I felt like I had to give my hands a bit of a rest and worked on a couple of other things.

My friend, Kelly and I (well, more her than me) give each other ornaments for the Christmas tree each year. She also sends one for each of the girls. She finds hers at craft shows/fairs she goes to. I haven't been going to those, so I look for ornaments that reflect their personalities. This year I saw a beaded angel ornament kit at Walmart and they were birthstone colors. I picked one up to make for Kelly. At the time I didn't think to pick up a couple for the girls and regretted it because they have sold out. (But my trip to the craft store this morning was productive because they had the similar kits!) This afternoon, I made the one for Kel. Here's how it turned out:

I think she'll like it. It looks a bit lopsided in the photo, but it isn't in real life. The girls noticed it right away when they got home from an afternoon of shopping and fun with Daddy. I think they will be excited when they see theirs (after I make them).

 

And I stamped a little today! I know! Shocking, isn't it? I saw these gift card holders  on Mish Mash's blog and loved how they looked. I give gift cards to Kelly's boys and they look forward to seeing what I do to "decorate" them. I'm always on the look-out for unique ways to dress them up. Here's what I came up with for the first one:

If you look at Michelle's, you'll see I pretty much followed what she did, but with my own papers. I chose not to sew on mine, though. It's basically a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 piece of cardstock folded in half. I then decided to trim off 1/2 an inch so it looked more like a pocket and rounded the corners. I picked up the bells and pipe cleaners at Walmart. The pattern paper is from Basic Grey's 6x6 paper pack called Wassail. The striped ribbon is actually stamped in Desert Sand using an image from Kitchen Sink Designs stamp set called Plaids Plus-I bought it online a while ago and hadn't used it yet, but I love it to make this striped look. The felt snowflake was found at Joann's by the checkout and I got a little tube of them for a dollar (there are blue ones in the tube as well)! I added the bling myself. The ribbon is American Crafts and I found it at Michaels. The pocket is made with Bamboo cardstock (CTMH). I really like how this one came out and it just sort of evolved. I ran out of time to make any others for now.

So there you have my crafty efforts for today. I will most likely be knitting or crocheting tonight. Miss Over Ambitious here has decided to crochet a poncho like the one I made for Amy (in the fall colors with the fringe) for Amy's best friend~only hers will be in blues. Hattie commented when she saw Amy's that she wished she had a mom who crochets. Both mom and daughter should be surprised at this gift! And the poncho will come together quickly, since I'm faster at crocheting than I am at knitting. LOL

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a wonderful Saturday!

Jeanne