Sunday, December 23, 2007

One more project down...


...Only a dozen more to go. I've got a day though, right? :D

I wish I could give you a pattern number or something easy but I never make things easy...(its some kind of dysfunction in my brain, if its easy its not worth doing :D ) . I made up the pattern because I couldn't find anything I liked. It took two yards of fabric and two pkges of seam binding if that helps. :D

Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Jammies are done!


I made five pairs of PJ bottoms (bought shirts) because we traditionally open (homemade by Mom) them on Christmas Eve. I was having a hard time getting motivated until I decided to make them out of fleece instead of flannel this year. It was great! No finishing edges, the entire five pairs only took about three hours. (A big contrast to the year I made them all men's style pj's with contrasting piping and buttons-those about four or five hours a pair, and I'm a fast sewer). The word "sewer" always makes me giggle when I see it written because I always think of the place plumbing waste goes to. Right now I'm making an apron for my wonderful Mother in law. She collects them and uses them (which I love because she wears her nice clothes to cook in and always seems polished and put together while still being so down to earth and...just wonderful). I love how its turning out. I designed it so I have to stop now because I didn't gauge how much bias tape I needed very well and I ran out. Oh well DH is playing his violin in church tommorow and so I need to go to bed anyway so I can get everyone ready and out the door on time.

Friday, December 21, 2007

I'm a cover girl! (sort of)


I love the new changes at two Peas in A Bucket and geuss what? They chose my mini album as the icon for their new top ten feature! You can see the home page here: http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/ and the whole album here: http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1268881 or here: http://fromthebottomofmypencilcase.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-love-this-project-i-made-it-for.html In other news I've also been asked to be the March guest designer on another of my favorite sites but I'm not sure if she wants to announce it yet. So I'll keep the name a secret for a bit longer. I'm pretty excited, now I just need to submit to some magazines and I really can call myself a proffessional scrapbooker. :D

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Catching Up




I think I'm a bit behind so here are a couple. The snowman soup in mugs is what we gave to the kids' teachers this year. I drew the card in Adobe Illustrator to match the mugs. The other ones in bags are for the kids' friends. The card is another from the batch of Basic Grey ones I made a week ago. I'm so not prepared for Christmas to be coming this quickly. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post pictures of five finished PJ pants. Not likely but I can hope. :D

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Day 6 Another Snowman



I'm completely addicted to these little guys now. A friend of mine collects snowmen and has a January birthday (and doesn't read blogs) so this guy will probably be for her.A little tip: when painting and altering boxes, if your lid sticks and is hard to get on and off, rub some microglaze (Judikins) on the inside edge of the lid. Its a kind of wax and it works great.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Snowman Bell Ornament



I love how this little guy turned out! I used Sculptamold over a styrofoam ball for his head. (Be sure to coat the ball with glue before you try to stick the moldeling stuff to it :D ). The bottom is a big jingle bell that I've had in my stash for a few years. His hat is a page from an old copy of Les Miserables (I reienforced with cardstock). His ruffle is one layer of wrights red metallic rick rack and one layer of drapery silk cut in a strip, pinked on the edge and gathered. He has micca flakes over his head and glitter over his hat. I'd love to know what you think.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

More Cards





Well I've got to cheat a little, these were already made but I didn't want to skip today. It was busy but I'm close to having all my shopping done. I did just find out that I missed a very good friend of mine's birthday :( . She wanted everyone to forget it but I'm going to have to do something late.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Day 3: the Magic of Christmas



I spent several hours trying to come up with a craft for my sons 5th grade party. It needs to be easy and cheap enough that I could teach it to 25 10 yr olds. Hmmm...Plus it has to appeal to boys and girls. These notebooks were my first idea but were vetoed by ds as being too girlie. So we are going to do pop-up cards instead. To make them I just used the schools die cut machine to cut white paper, two chipboard covers and four pieces of patterned paper, glued the patterned paper to the chipboard, distressed the edges, punched them all with a 1/4 inch hole punch, layered and then bound them with binder rings.

Now about that magic. My kids are getting older and they are challenging Santa's existence. They are also asking for more expensive toys. I've been thinking about when I learned the "truth". Its actually kind of funny in a perverse laugh-at-the-humaness-of-your-parents kind of way. My Mom has her quirks and phases and one of them that began when I was five or six was that christmas should only be religous (I believe the words "Satan Claus" were used). We also had no tree. It was weird, I'm embarrassed ...Sooo whenever I'd go to my Dad's house at Christmas time he would work really hard to convince me that there was indeed a Santa. (They must have been really frustrated with each other). It worked, I was little and I wanted to believe. I also knew that he wasn't actually "real" but that is the fun of being a creative person. I could wholeheartedly believe in something I knew was not "real"

In anycase with my own kids I've wanted to prolong the magic, without losing the true meaning of Christmas, without forcing my kids to believe, without taking away a special and fun part of the season...Basically to find a balance. So when they say "Is Santa really real?" I say "I believe in him". And they let me pretend while they find their own version "believing" in Santa.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Day 2


Okay I know I said cards, but I'm thinking projects now because there is just too much fun stuff to do at this time of year. so these ornaments are from a project I found in the 2007 Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection Holiday Crafts Issue I did a ton of stuff for the first time with these guys: sculpting with instant papier mache, using mica flakes, copying a project almost exactly...:D I wish I could have found more "vintage" looking tinsel pipe cleaners because mine look lame and I need to find some glass glitter (or make it). I do like how they turned out and can't wait to apply the techniques I learned to my own designs.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Merry Christmas!



I'm very inspired by all the "12 days of" things I've been seeing on my favorite blogs. So I'm going to try a 12 cards of christmas myself. This cute guy is my first. He's super easy, made from Basic Grey undressed chipboard and sticker, with a wool felt scarf. Inside the card says "peace". The stamps are actually one unmounted clear stamp from Rubber Soul that I cut apart the words on. :D

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

I love this project! I made it for a friend of mine, her son is in Iraq and this is going to be a little reminder of home. I'm happy to give it up for that but I'm going to have to make another one because I really love it!

Monday, December 3, 2007

Happy News for Me!

Look here http://www.inqueboutique.typepad.com/ ! I'm so excited and I can hardly believe it! The other DT members are so talented and accomplished... I kept expecting Kathleen to call me back and tell it was a mistake. But no mistake, I'm on the Inque Boutique Design Team!