Sunday, January 25, 2015

Blue and Gray Happy Birthday Card

Hi There!

Thank you so very much for the lovely comments on Happypotomus. The young lady who I made it for adores it and wrote me the sweetest thank you note. Made my heart happy for sure. Actually her mom threatened to keep it for herself. Ha, ha! Anyway you are very sweet for liking Happy as much as I did(and still do). 

I was in need of a birthday card or two and saw this on Wizard's Hangout. So pretty and I owned the main stamp set she used. Whoo hooo for me! I sat down to try my hand at it and this is the result after it was all said and done. I don't think creating clusters is my forte, so I copied the placement of the images as much as I could. It took me three tries to get the spacing somewhat right. So not my forte. But I tried and this looked okay to me.

I also made one in the yellows/oranges, but didn't get a picture of it. I already sent it off...was on a time crunch, of course. 

The three blue flowers in the center are fussy cut and popped up with foam squares. I added Stickles to the centers to keep this less bumpy.

Stamp sets are CTMH: Lifetime of Happiness (C1589), Curly Greetings for the Happy (old set B1143) and Happy Birthday (C1257, also an older set).

Colors are Heavenly Blue, Whisper, Slate, Lagoon, Pacifica and Black (all Close to My Heart inks)
The Happy is from an old CTMH set called 


Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you are having a great day!
Hugs,
Jeanne



Saturday, January 17, 2015

Happypotamus!

 Hi there!

I've been a busy little bee since I last posted. I have been working on a new project. I had shown my co-workers photos of the giraffe I crocheted for Amy last year. My assistant manager has two daughters. When she saw the giraffe, she told me her younger daughter loves hippos. She mentioned she knew her daughter would love a hippo version of the giraffe. I knew then I would try to make it for her daughter as a surprise as kind of a thank you to my asst. manager for how kind she has been to me since I started working in the kitchen. I had wanted to make it time for Christmas, but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen! So, I started a couple of weeks ago and just finished Happy a little while ago. My assistant manager also said blue was her daughter's favorite color which is why she/he is mostly blue. I found the pattern here. In case the link doesn't work, it's on Ravelry and also in her Etsy shop as well as on Craftsy. Here is the link to her blog. It will always have the direct links, I'm thinking. So, here is my version of Happypotomus. Enjoy!

That is a cute face, right?

Well, hello there!



Oh my, the rump looks a little big from this angle. Sorry! I do think it is a cute shape, too. 

This is the belly side.

Such a cute face!

The doll is crocheted with size 10 cotton thread-Aunt Lydia brand. I used a size 7(1.65mm)crochet hook. It is stuffed with polyester fiberfill. The eyes are 12mm safety eyes. I didn't use the backs to attach them. I used the small holes in the ends of the shaft and the directions in the pattern to attach them. 

I got a lot of this done last weekend during the football playoff games. Bummed that the Broncos didn't pull out a win, but happy to have been able to accomplish so much of the project! 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a great day!
*Ü*
Jeanne

Monday, January 5, 2015

Three More Stitched Ornaments

Hi There!

I have some more Christmas ornaments to share. I got the pattern for these from this book called Cross Stitch Christmas Creations. It's full of designs to be stitched on perforated paper and I have had a great time stitching these patterns. I could probably spend the next year working on the projects from this book alone, but I decided to put it aside for now because there are many projects I'd like to work on. What struck me the most about these ornaments is how shiny they are. I just finished them a little bit ago and Christmas is packed away, so I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling they will look so pretty with the lights on the tree reflecting off the shiny silver paper I stitched on. These designs called for Kreinik #4 braid thread, which helps add shiny texture to the ornaments as well. Wish the camera could pick up on how nice these look in real life. I  thought the color combinations were very striking.  




This is how I finished them so one doesn't have to see the messy backs. I used super sticky double-sided tape to adhere the two sides together. 

That's it from me today. The girls and I had today off for a teacher work day, so we are all back to school/work tomorrow. Who knows when I'll be able to finish my next project to share. Hopefully sooner rather than later. 

Until then, thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day.
Hugs,
Jeanne


Sunday, January 4, 2015

Sending Hugs

Hello and Happy New Year! Hope you had fun celebrating New Year's Eve. Party animal that I am, we played video games for a while and went to bed well before midnight. And then I got woken up by the revelers in the neighborhood who were clanging pots and yelling and the ones who shot off fireworks. Hrm...maybe I should have just tried to stay awake! LOL I managed to fall back asleep before too long though, so it's all good. :) I'm such an early bird that forcing myself to stay awake til midnight doesn't sound appealing at all. Greeting the day at 5am is not a problem though! Ha, ha!

Hey, I have a card to share! Whooo hoooo! Starting 2015 with a crafty bang! How about that?! Actually I have two cards to share. One was completely made by me and the other one got a huge assist from my crafty co-hort, Jessica. I recently picked up some new stampy goodness at a local scrapbook store (and on sale to boot, whooo hooo) and have been itching to play, but didn't find my way into the crafty mode until the other day when I started stamping and die cutting the images. It took another few days before I could sit down to put the card idea I had together. (I know I saw the idea somewhere, but couldn't find it again, so this is from my very hazy memory). Jessica wandered by as I was getting started and asked if she could color, too. :) Sure!
This is my card.

This is the one Jessica worked on.
Looks pretty awesome to me!

A nice side by side. 

I used distress inks (Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves) to sponge the sky.  We used colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits to color. I tried to add some Wink of Stella here and there, but you can't really see it. I also added some Icicle Stickles under the trees for some sparkle. 
Stamp sets are Lawn Fawn: Snow Day and Making Frosty Friends, along with the dies for each set. Sentiment is from another Lawn  Fawn set  called So Much To Say.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 
I hope you have a spectacular day.
*Ü*
Jeanne