Tags and a Santa

 Hi There!

Imagine my complete surprise  early this morning to get a phone call from my manager telling me that schools are closed today! A forecasted snowstorm came through overnight, but the totals weren't supposed to be very impressive. I hadn't even turned on my tv because our district very rarely ever calls a snow day.  Usually when I do check the news, it's only to be disappointed. I think there must be 7 inches out there right now. Whoo hooo for a completely unexpected free day! Now I can try to catch up on getting ready for the holiday. I'm now doubly glad that I pushed myself to get the packages I needed to mail out to the post office yesterday. :) 

My assistant manager asked me if I could make some tags for little gifts she is making for some of our co-workers at the school. She is making homemade caramel popcorn and we got to test her first batch yesterday~yummy! I agreed and immediately wanted to make snowglobe tags using Lawn Fawn's Ready Set Snow and Let's Toboggan Together stamp sets. I even splurged and bought the dies to cut the snowglobes and boy am I glad I did. Made creating the globes ever so much easier!

I spent a good chunk of time on Saturday afternoon coloring the images and fussy cutting the critters out. Sunday afternoon was spent creating the tags. 

Here's how they turned out. They are colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. The hat bands and snowballs are "winked" as well. 

Here are close ups for your viewing pleasure (I hope).

I  actually made 2 of each of the designs above!

 I decided to add the ribbon in case the recipients wanted to use them as an ornament. 

They were a bit more work than I anticipated, but so worth the effort in the end. 

Here's the Santa I made. Actually I crocheted two of these and I'm really bummed that the backside photos didn't work for whatever reason. I can't re-take the photos because they are in the mail. 

Anyway, I saw this in the December issue of Crochet World. 

This Santa works as an ornament and as a gift card holder! When you crochet the back side, you create an opening to slip the gift card into place. 

That's it from me for now.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you have a great day and I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs!

Cross Stitch Gift and a Little Zen Doodling

Hi There!

Guess what? The sun is shining. For the moment, anyway! Oh my goodness, we have had a ton of rain here in my neck of the woods. The past three days alone, we've had pretty loud thunderstorms, hail and even some tornadoes touch down about 15 minutes north of where I live. It's a wild and wacky springtime in the Rockies. I haven't been able to plant anything and may not at the rate we are going. 

Hey, guess what else? 

I've got a few things to share! 

Yay!

A very good friend of mine is going to be celebrating a birthday very soon. After I finished the dragon, I started on a counted cross stitch project. Got it done fairly quickly and have been searching the past several days for a frame. Um, and haven't been successful at all. I decided this morning to look for creative ideas to finish cross stitch projects. I came across this idea and thought it would be a neat way to showcase the project. 

Here's how it turned out. 

I tried to take a picture with a little of the side showing so you can see the ribbon and if you look at the very bottom of the block on the right side you can see part of the pin I used for legs. I really liked this fun way to finish the project.

I pinned a few other ideas for creatively finishing cross stitch project for future use. Framing can be hard, especially for odd sized pieces. 

In shopping for frames at the craft stores, I came across a brand new publication called Zen Doodle Workshop. I found it at Joann and also at Barnes and Noble. It's a pretty neat magazine. I liked all the ways you can use your doodling. One of the projects I saw is creating a box with Kraft cardstock. I have a need for a small, 3x3 box, so I decided to give it a go. I really liked the idea of white on Kraft.   

Here's what I came up with. Not great, but not too terrible for a first effort, I don't think. 

I was having some issues with my Signo Gel pen skipping and such. I added a little detail with a black pen. But if I were to do this again, I'd go with a pencil for detail like they said to use in the tutorial. 

Here's a glimpse at the side. 

I really liked the idea of decorating the paper and folding it into a box. Makes it a bit more personal for gift giving. 

That's it from me for now. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a great day.

Jeanne

Baby Granny Blanket

Back again! Yay! First off, I'd like to say a great big thank you to my friends who left me some lovely and encouraging comments on my last post. I really appreciate you stopping by, especially after my long absence. :) And I'm happy to post another project today.

Back at the beginning of May, Jessica came home from her assessment day with a piece of math homework. It was a decoding assignment that had some "breaking news." She had to solve the math problems to figure out the code. By the time she was partway through the assignment, we had a pretty good idea of what the breaking news was. Jessica's teacher is going to have a baby! I thought was a pretty clever way to announce the news to the class. :) I wanted to make her a little something before the year ended, but ran out of time, what with the other gifts I had planned to make. And I felt bad, since I had made gifts for the other teachers the girls have had that had babies. 

So, I decided to work on a small baby blanket last weekend. I had seen the pattern on a list I am on called Hooked on Crochet, from All Free Crochet. (All the patterns are free,  and many I don't care for, but often enough I find one that I really like and want to try). The pattern is called Nana's Favorite Baby Blanket. It's all double crochet stitches (my favorite) and it is small, like a "lovey" so I knew it would work up quickly. I found some great neutral yarn colors in my stash and started the project on Memorial Day. I finished it up Wednesday night. We took it to Jessica's former (!) elementary school and the wonderful ladies in the office assured me they would make sure she got the gift. Happy sigh.

I really like how the colors looked together and wanted to share the project with you. I ended up adding another round of each color to make the blanket just a bit bigger. My thought is that they can use it to tuck around the baby in the car seat or something. I didn't measure it but I think it's about 22 inches square. The color that looks blue in the photo is really a seafoam green color. The lighting around here today isn't that great, I guess. Oh well!

I had thought about making a card to go along with the gift, but I originally planned to take this to the school yesterday and I didn't have time to make one as we had errands to run. So the girls and I picked out a card while we were out that had a teddy bear holding a blanket, which we thought was too cute to pass up. 

I've also made a tatted bracelet for Amy and one for Jessica since I last posted as well. They are the same design that I showed before. This time one is purple and one is pink. 

Now I need to decide what to work on next. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

Jeanne

Oh Happy Day Card

I had some time today to work on a birthday card to hold a gift card and I have to say, I’m very happy with the end result. I started out in a completely different place and wound up with this result. What a happy surprise.

There is a blog I’ve followed for a while written by Kay Miller. She designs digital products and I just love her style. If you look back on some of my digital layouts, you’ll see plenty of Kay Miller Designs in use! Recently Kay has decided to utilize her blog, My Joyful Moments,  to share cards she has been making and what a treat it’s been to see her projects. She is so talented! I think I have starred each of the cards that has shown up on my Google Reader.  Okay, so yesterday Kay posted a card that thought I wanted to kind of CASE.  I haven’t used Linen Closet from DCWV for a while and I thought it’d be a great card. So, I started there, but I really don’t have any of the flourish type of stamps (that stamp well) and I couldn’t find a Cricut cut I liked so I got a little discouraged. In my rummaging around I remembered I recently picked up a new 6x6 pad of Pebbles Family Ties Collection that I’ve been wanting to play with.

I decided to ditch the floral clusters and ended up playing with my new Cricut Artiste cartridge/kit that I got from CTMH.  That’s where the chipboard banner and Oh Happy Day stamp came from. Fun, huh?! The little stickpin is also from CTMH.

On Artiste, there is a cut to hold a gift card and that’s what I decided to make for this card. I wanted to dress up the inside of the card, but didn’t want to use up paper, so I stamped the dots with a Papertrey Ink stamp and Sunflower (CTMH) ink.

The embossing folder used that you can see on the front of the card is from Hobby Lobby. It’s a Paper Studio brand folder. The blue and yellow cardstock is from DCWV’s Spring Cardstock stack.

So, there you have it! A fun way to dress up a gift card for a special someone.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

This Elf Keeps Hoppin'...

We made it to the last day of school and now are off for 2 weeks and a day. The teachers have a work day on Monday, so the kids don't go back until Tuesday. One thing that will be really nice is not having to get out of the house early in the morning...unless we want to, that is. *Ü*

The choir performance went off without a hitch the other night. Yay! The snow that had been predicted moved farther south, so the skies were clear, but it was cold! I didn't know this, but the kids performed by Santa's house. Santa and an elf came out to listen to the choir perform. How very sweet. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't like night shots, even on the appropriate setting, so all the pictures I took are very, very blurry. Oh well. The kids did a fantastic job and it was wonderful listening to them.

I was very excited yesterday when I took a shot and went by the post office to hopefully get the packages I needed in the mail. I must have hit it at the exact right time, as there were only a few people ahead of me and they added a 3rd clerk. Took me maybe ten minutes max. The line was out the door as I walked out. whew! Getting packages out is always a huge weight off my shoulders. Of course, the Christmas cards aren't out yet, but they will be soon, I hope!

I thought I'd share a few more little gifts I've made this season. Enjoy!

My friend Susi told a month or so ago that she was on the look-out for a chain to hold her glasses. She also asked if I'd keep my eyes opened while I was thrifting. I thought it might be a smidge nicer to make one for her. {wink, wink} Those colors are so Susi colors! 

It's a quick and easy project. Well, quick and easy if you don't drop the strand after you've strung it and before you finish it off. Sigh...don't ask me how I know that. LOL

Another beaded necklace. I really like making these. The beads are fun and you can pick colors to suit the personality of the person you are making it for.

Again, a quick and easy project, in theory! I must have gotten a renegade spool of wire in this gold stuff. It kept tangling up on me and getting kinks. So, what should not have taken very long took about three times longer because I was fighting those issues. It might be wasteful, but I threw the remainder of that spool away because I was so frustrated with it by the time I got done. LOL

But, I'm glad I stuck with it, because I love how it turned out.

I hope you have a wonderful start to your weekend. Don't stress and enjoy the season!

Hugs!

Been A Busy Elf...

Lest you think I dropped off the face of the planet after that string of posting last week to almost none this week, I thought I'd pop in and say a quick hello. I also thought I'd share part of the reason I've been so quiet.

Our swim buddy friends, Heidi, Ray (well, I don't know him as well), Annabelle and Ryan are moving to Oregon right after Christmas. Sniff, sniff. (I'll be good Heidi) While I'm completely excited for them and this new opportunity, selfishly, I wish they'd stay in Colorado for they are a wonderful family and so much fun to spend time with. Since life moves forward, whether you want it to or not, we had a fun playdate yesterday to spend some final time together. I think I talked Heidi's ear off. She's such a good listener. *Ü* You know this means I had to get a little gift together, right? Wanna see? I couldn't post this any earlier because Heidi would look, even if I told her not to. LOL

The patterns for these adorable ornaments arrived in my inbox a few days ago and I couldn't resist making them up for Annabelle and Ryan. The pattern is from the Lily website. They are kind of big for ornaments, I think, but Heidi told me since they are moving right after Christmas the house isn't being decorated, so these will add a little festive atmosphere. Yay!

And for Heidi

I crocheted her a bead necklace. Those colors reminded me of Heidi and I had a wonderful time crocheting and remembering all the fun times we've had together.

I have a mile long list of things left to do, so I'd best get to them. I hope to post again soon.

Wish Amy luck this evening as her choir has a performance scheduled outside in a local shopping center. Last night would have been ideal weather for the event. Today, there is a storm slated to move in and bring the white stuff. We're hoping it holds off until much later this evening. 

Until next time, thanks so much for stopping by!

I do so appreciate your visits and wonderful encouraging comments.

*Ü*

Got To Create Today...Finally!

It's been two weeks since I've been able to wander into my craft space and I'm excited to be able to share these projects with you today.

Well, what do you know? Another Christmas Tree! LOL I actually finished crocheting this a couple of weeks ago and it's been sitting on my end table waiting for me to find something to decorate it. The pattern for this neat tree is from Amy Gaines and you can find it here. I enjoyed crocheting the tree, I just wasn't thrilled about putting felt circles on it. I found these miniature lights on sale at Joann's as well as the star. The star had a wire attached in a spiral so you could use it as a tree topper. The wire spiral didn't look right, so I pulled it out and just hot glued the star to the top of the tree. The tree skirt is attached, so it's all one piece. I really like those tiny lights. *Ü*

These little elves are sure making me smile and giggle. I'm so happy at how they turned out!

The idea for these isn't mine. I saw it in the 2010 Gooseberry Patch Christmas book several weeks ago. I saw the book at Joann's and was thumbing through it trying to decide if it needed to jump in my basket. Overall, I didn't think so as I've picked up two older versions of Gooseberry Patch holiday books at the thrift store,  but when I saw these guys, I made sure to soak in all the details for recreating later. I've been itching to work on them since before Thanksgiving!

In case it's not obvious in the photo, I used wooden thread spools found at Joann's. I picked up some large wooden balls at Michaels (on a different shopping trip) and the rest of the items I had. That's scrapbook paper around the body and a heart punch for feet. I used DMC floss for the hair and green felt, red fleece and green burlap for the hats. They are completely finagled. I just cut a square, heated up the glue gun and winged it to get the square cut down for the shape I wanted.  I liked the idea of ribbon scarves and pom poms on the end of the pipe cleaners. Those sort of "finish" the arms for me (that idea is all mine). I used a micro pen for the eyes and mouth and pink chalk for the cheeks. 

Another project that's kept me busy is this:

What is it, you might be wondering.

Maybe this photo of my cheesy model will make it clear

I originally saw the idea here on MaryJanes and Galoshes and fell in love with the idea.( That blog is pretty awesome, too, I must add. I love that Taylor is taking up crochet! She's shares oodles of great ideas, too. Be sure to take a few minutes to look around).

I'm making the cowls for the girls' teachers. How funny that Amy's top coordinates with her teacher's gift. LOL

You can find the pattern at The Plum Giraffe and it's very reasonably priced too. The pattern is very easy to pick up and it works up pretty quickly. I'm now working on the second one in a dark olive green for Jessica's teacher. 

I was so bummed when my creative time ended today, it flew by. I have more ideas I want to work on. Hopefully tomorrow I can get back at it. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your week is happily busy and productive.

Awwwwww....

Just snapped these photos of Jessica reading out loud to Grandpa...so sweet!

They need to be edited a bit, but just couldn't resist capturing the moment.

Dad and I have been having fun during the day doing some shopping while the girls are in school. Yesterday we also stopped at Gunther Toody's for lunch. After Steve gets home from work tonight, we'll be heading out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Yum!

While the girls were entertaining Grandpa yesterday afternoon, I popped onto the computer to catch up on emails. I started chatting with my good friend Erin and got her advice on something I wanted to do.

This past weekend I found the most beautiful cardigan/sweater that I will give to my friend Kelly for Christmas. 

The detail in the sleeve and at the bottom of the piece thrills me to pieces.

I also picked up a sleeveless top to go with it.

It's hard to see, but there is a striped texture in the black sweater. 

So, I wanted to add to this ensemble by making a necklace. But I couldn't figure out what to do. So, I asked Erin, who has made some really pretty jewelry, what she thought. She immediately came up with beaded crochet, but not the ropes that I have done before. She crochets with beads and wire! She referred me to her blog here and to Auntie's Beads for the how to video. She's so right, it was easy peasy to do! Thanks Erin.

Here's the result of my efforts (after a quick trip to Joann's this morning with my dad)

I still need to add the clasp/closure but I think this goes well with the set.

Thanks again for the inspiration, Erin!

Thank you for stopping by! I hope your week is going well.

*Ü*

One Gift Done...

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you've had a wonderful day with your loved ones and didn't eat so much that you are uncomfortable. Ours was quiet, but nice. The turkey was yummy and the girls are healthy and happy. There's not much more that one can ask for. *Ü*

As my title indicates, I can check off one gift as being done for this holiday season. I have a mom friend whom I hang out with after school (not Susi) who really likes to wear newsboy style caps. I thought it might be fun to make one for her as I really enjoy her company while our kids are playing for a bit before heading home. I tried making a freebie pattern and got it done to the brim part and thought it looked a bit small. I had Jessica try to put it on and it didn't even fit her eight year old head, so I knew it wouldn't fit my friend(kind of frustrating when you know your gauge is right, but it was free, so I can't really complain too much). I decided to go ahead and buy the pattern I had been eyeing for a few days. It's on Ravelry and you need to be a member to access it (although it's free to register). It's called Swirls Cap created by Sophia Kessinger (if you decide to take a peek on Ravelry you can look it up by that information).
Here's how it turned out:

I'm a little worried this one might be a teensy bit big (although it fits my head comfortably, if a bit floppy). If it is, I can always make her another one and adjust the size. This worked up really quickly as it is double crochets (my favorite crochet stitch). The pattern didn't call for a button on the flower, but I thought it would look neat with one. I found the vintage button in my stash and am really pleased with how it looks.

As this Thanksgiving comes to a close, I'd like to thank you all for your visits and comments. I truly appreciate  your time and generosity. If I've managed to make you smile, I'm thrilled. I hope the rest of your holiday weekend is wonderful!

Father's Day Gift Idea

I saw this idea on a blog I read called Someday Crafts here. It's a blog that showcases different craft/home decor projects found on the web. The author saves the ideas to use 'someday.' I believe she has helpers to find stuff. Anyway, I've found lots of great ideas and this is one of them that was easy to create! Thought I'd share it in case it appeals to you to.

Yesterday, the girls chose to wear the sundresses I made them. They looked awfully cute, if I do say so myself. There came a time of the day (after slippin' and slidin') where the sun hid behind the clouds for a little bit. I thought it would be a perfect time to take some pictures.

Here are the shots the girls chose to use:

(I probably could have taken the glass out of the frame for the shots, but I didn't. I think you can get a good idea of how they look anyway)

I didn't print the photos at home. Instead I uploaded them to Sam's Club and picked them up in a couple of hours. 42 cents, with tax.

The letters are from Hobby Lobby and they are 50% off this week. I just got a D and an A. Around $3.00 for the letters.

The frame was found at Joann's, used a 50% off coupon, so it was $4.

I originally thought to have the frame sitting horizontally, but the pictures didn't fit right. I kind of like this better.

So, the present didn't cost much, but

the fun we had getting it together was priceless.

*Ü*

And just because they are cute, here are some shots that didn't make the cut (but maybe should have, LOL)

Impromptu kiss

And the funny face after she snuck it in.

Now to hide it and keep the secret until Sunday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day.

Birthday Gifts for a Friend...

I think I showed you the fingerless gloves around Christmas time, but I decided to hold off giving them to my friend until her birthday, which is today.

I took another picture of them to show you the buttons I finally added this afternoon. (talk about waiting until the last minute~sheesh)

Then recently I came across this post on  Sew Ritzy Titzy and thought it was SO adorable I had to try it. Bonus for me, I had the book that has the pattern already in my stash! Yay! When I looked through my crochet thread, I had the same color, too. Double yay! Here's my version:

It's not very big, not quite two inches square, so it didn't take long at all to crochet. I used a scrap of the fabric I used on the heart I shared earlier to make the "pillow" and I whipstitched the two sides together. I just love that flower!

I wasn't quite sure how she could use this, but after I gave it to her she said she'd love for it to be a pin. So, after she shares it with her family, I told her to give it back to me and I'd add a pin back to it. 

She was thrilled with her little gifts, which tickles me tremendously. 

Jessica is ready to read her book, so I will close for now. Oh, by the way, the "glue" finally fell off yesterday! Yay! Now she can swim again. *Ü*

Thanks for stopping by. I'll get to fixing my sidebar soon. Have a great Thursday!