Under The Willow

Halloween FUN!

2010-10-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

I have been enjoying myself creating Halloween fun.

Halloween overload?

I love making Lollies! Here is a whole bouquet just for Halloween.

The ruffly pumpkin is made from mini cupcake papers. I will be posting a tutorial for these soon. I am entering Plaids Trick Your Pumpkin.

I made this cute witches hat from cardstock, used glitter glue, ribbon, tulle, stickers, glitter, and a big black glittery spider.

I painted a pumpkin from the Dollar Store black and added polkadots. Another black glittery spider on top.

This is my sparkly, bony friend. I found him at the Dollar Store. I gave him a crown and some bling in the eye sockets.

Another Dollar Store pumpkin. I painted it light blue and used super fine white glitter, also from the Dollar Store, to make it sparkle, then added the black crow from (you guessed it) the Dollar Store.

September Mid-month Color Challenge from...

2010-09-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

1. Create a card or project using the 3 colors below
(old olive, pretty in pink, and rose red)

2. Photograph and blog about your creation

3. Post your blog link.

This is my creation

Nothing special, just some pretty paper and some embellishments!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Vases Aren't Just for Flowers:Blog Swap Mommy Creations

2010-09-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to be here on Under the Willow for my first blog swap. My name is Jessica and I normally blog over at Mommy Creations which is where you can find Susan today and the fun project she made. Today I am going to show you a versatile decoration that was inspired by Susan's cake plates I made this vase stand the same way as the cake plates by gluing a candle stick to the bottom of a vase. Simple enough right and get this I found the vase and the candle stick at the dollar store so this is a very cheap decoration and even cheaper if use things you have around your house.

I came up with the idea of the vase stands when I saw these skull heads at the dollar store and needed something to put them in. Add a little moss and some spider webs and you have a nice spooky Halloween decoration for your entry way or mantle (sadly I don't have a mantle, someday, someday).

Here is where it becomes a versatile decoration. Just dump out the skull head and fill it with some pine cones and acorns(collected from outside) add a few fall leaves (also just collect from outside)and for no extra money your table turned from Halloween to fall.

And though it may seem to early to think about Christmas (it will be here before you know it) it can just as easily be converted for Christmas by adding some Christmas ornaments. So there you go for only a few buck and about 5 mins you have a fun decoration to last you all year round.
So now head over to Mommy Creations and checkout what Susan made, you know it will be good she is the one who taught me my crafting ways. While you are there consider sticking around to see my other creations and become a follower.

Linking up to these parties

TAG SWAP

2010-08-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

I was able to be part of a tag swap from CreateScrapbooks.com. Everyone is supposed to stamp 11 shipping tags exactly the same, then send them into Jana and she will send us back 11 different stamped tags to color, embellish and use how ever we want. I do like creating tags. Check here for others I've done. I haven't done a lot of stamping and I don't have a big collection of stamps, so I made my own. I got fun foam sheets from the dollar store and cut some of my favorite shapes using my Cricut.

I attached them to the bottom of an old Altoids tin using double sided tape.

Then I inked it up and started stamping. This pic shows some of my first tries that didn't turn out so well. With a little practice I got better.

The finished project

I decided to do the keyhole for the tag swap so I stamped 11 tags with the keyhole and sent them off. I also included a die cut key to go with each one in case they wanted to use the tag in a layout or just attach the key to the tag like I did.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge week #24

2010-06-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

The last time I did Fab's challenge was week #14. I got busy and wasn't blogging or checking others blogs. I can't believe it's been that long. Anyway I'm back at it. I don't know how well I will do at keeping up this summer since I have two new grandchildren coming this week or next.

This week's theme is stitched ribbons and/or using toppers

I not sure what exactly a topper is, but I did top my stitched ribbon with some scallop punches. I used stickles (you can't really see in the pic) around the edges of the toppers and along the side edge of the card that I boarder punched then added an extra piece of cardstock that was also boarder punched to get a double edge.
I know my color scheme of turquoise and brown isn't exactly Christmas colors, but there were scraps laying out from a Birthday banner I had just made and I thought that using some gold inking along the side and gold alpha stickers then adding the gold ribbon with some blue ribbon stitched in brown tied it all together and made it more Christmasy.

WINNER

2010-05-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

The winner of my GLITTER GIVEAWAY is one of my new followers Ashley Morston. Enjoy the sparkle Ashley!

Happy Mothers Day!

graphic courtesy of www.rufflesandstuff.com

Mothers Day Cards

2010-05-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

This one is for my Mother in law

For Grandma

For my Mom

I made these flowers using paper coasters sprayed with shimmer spray and buttons.

Dollar Store Crafts, Finds, & GLITTER GIVEAWAY

2010-04-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

Check out this cool website Dollar Store Crafts. It has so many great ideas!

Here are some of my latest Dollar Store crafts.

Song Bird

I was inspired by Sudie Alexander, she did an episode of Unkit all about Dollar Store crafting. She did another cute little bird from the dollar store. Here's what mine looked like before I decoupaged him and added chalk to the details of his wing.

A hook and light-switch plate. I was inspired by a similar one I saw on the website.

Here is what it looked like before, I got the copper stickers and plastic hook from the dollar store :)

This one is my favorite, I have been seeing these paper cone wreaths around, made mostly from book pages. I decided to try it using doilies form the Dollar Store.

I love the way it turned out!

Thanks for looking at my crafts, now for my 1st ever GIVEAWAY

I LOVE GLITTER! Especially the super fine stuff, like Martha Stewart or Art Glitter. Well, look what I found @ the dollar store. So many pretty colors! I tried to limit myself to 8 packages. Nope, I went back and bought 8 more.

So I will be sharing 4 of the packages with one lucky winner!

I know it's not that big of a deal, but it is my first giveaway and I am starting small. If you would like to win some glitter leave a comment, Get an extra entry by helping me spread the word and blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post, become a follower of my blog, or add the image below to your sidebar and link it back to my blog http://underthewillowprims.blogspot.com/

Just leave a separate comment for each entry up to 4 entries each. Please include the URL of where you blogged or posted this image. Thanks! I will randomly draw a winner Saturday May 8th.

One more great dollar store find

Grosgrain ribbon, they had it in every color! 4 yards on each spool.

Another Impulse Buy, Somebody Stop Me!

2010-04-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

I love my Cricut! I play with it almost daily. I been thinking I needed to have a new toy to go with it, Have you heard of the Gypsy? I hear it's a must have. You can load all of your cartridges on it and do all kinds of really cool stuff, so off to Ebay. Lots of auctions for the Gypsy. Bid, bid again, bid again, you're the high bidder, auction ended, you've been outbid! after repeating this process 3 or 4 times, Congratulations you won this bid! Oh shoot! I really didn't want to pay that much for it. Now I get to break the news to my DH (turned out to be pretty painless, he always wants me to have whatever I want). 

Well my Gypsy arrived today, oooo kinda excited, open it up, it does look cool, turn it on, that was easy enough. HELP! I have no idea how to use this thing. 1st thing the instructions say "sync your Gypsy" oh my, computer stuff. I'm not good at computer stuff. Put it all back into the box, maybe another day, just like my new Brother computerized sewing machine that is still in the box and probably needs to go back to Costco. I am loving the cute clutch and extra cartridge that came with the Gypsy. I have been wanting the Heritage cartridge so I'm Happy! One of these days I will get on Youtube and watch a video that some wonderful person made just for people like me and learn how to use my new Gypsy :) 

Leave a comment if you have any advice for me. Thanks!

Happy Banner

2010-04-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and noticed from her facebook post that Rhonna Farrer was going to be on Studio 5 (a local morning news program) today, talking about digital banners. She also had a free download for this banner on her blog. I got so excited and inspired, I printed it off right away and started creating. I had my banner done before the show even came on. So I may need to make another one once I see what Rhonna shows us (I'm watching the show right now). Thanks Rhonna for a fun, creative morning! Now go to her blog print off your own banner and get a coupon code for more digital print outs from House of 3.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge week #14

2010-04-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

"The Stockings were Hung" with brads, because the theme this week is Brads and/or Steel Grey color.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge #13

2010-04-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

This week the theme is 'Tone on Tone' and/or Green, but Fab said to use any color that we wanted to. I chose to use black/white and grays. this gave me a chance to use some of my new paper, tags, and stickers from a Best Occasion pad I got at Walmart.

Fabs Big Christmas Card Challenge #12

2010-03-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

New challenge this week, word confetti and use a wide boarder. I don't know if you can see it, the dictionary page has "Christmas" on it.

Paper Projects

2010-03-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

Tags, Garland, and a Song Bird

Tags sprayed with shimmer spray and stamped with swirls and other embellishments.

Springtime garland made with doilies and paper flowers sprayed with shimmer spray.

I found this wood plaque at Walmart on clearance, 75cents. I painted and antiqued it. I've been wanting to cut out this birdcage and bird from one of my cricut cartridges. I decided this was the project for it. You guessed it, I used shimmer spray. I think I'm addicted. The top layer of the bird is cut from a page of my old hymnal, to make it a song bird. I made it 3D using some of the bump up tape. and added a tiny paper flower.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge #10 & #11

2010-03-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

So I am trying to get up to date with the Christmas Card Challenge. I was only one week behind.

Week #10 Make a triangular card or/and use stenciling or/and stamping.

Cutting a triangle card wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Once I got that done, I used the only Christmas stamp that I own and colored it in with colored pencils, then inked the edges of the card.

Week #11 Pleated paper and/or use cardstock stickers.

I took a page from an old Hymnal of a Christmas song, The First Noel. First I pleated the page, again not as easy as I thought. Then I aged it with some black and brown shimmer spray and inked the edges. I cut it the same size as the card and glued it on the front. This pic was taken on a black background the card is not black.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2010-03-09T15:46:00.000-08:00

I made a couple of quick, but cute crafts to celebrate St. Patties Day. I got my inspiration for my shamrocks from some 4 leaf clovers I saw on this blog.

I colored some coffee filters with my shimmer spray. I used a mixture of blue and yellow on one, some green in the perfect shade of shamrock on another, and the same green on a brown coffee filter. I folded the filters in half, then in half again, and in half one more time. With pinking shears I rounded the top (the widest open side). Undo the last fold and you have a heart shape. Staple 3 together at the points for a shamrock. I punched circles from scraps of paper for the centers and cut stems from brown cardstock.

I stuck them to the mirror in the entryway.

I made a smaller version for a card using mini cupcake liners and a button.

A bracelet and a brooch

2010-03-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of projects I have made in the last little while.

The first is a bracelet I made with memory wire. It is from my Simply Beads kit of the month. I didn't follow the instructions on what order to put the beads, but I like it this way.

My ribbon flower brooch I made one late night (or early morning). I used wired ribbon and cut the wire off of one side so that it was frayed. I pulled the wire on the other side and gathered it up. It kind of naturally twisted around and made the flower. I sewed a button in the middle to secure it and hot glued on a pin back. I pinned it to my lampshade from an earlier post.

Ruffled Lampshade

2010-03-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

This is one of my entries for the Ruffle Your Stuff and Win contest. I love challenges and contests! Here's what I did.

I found this lampshade at the thrift store a while back (loved the shape of it) pulled it out of the closet.

found the spool of my favorite crinkled brown ribbon and cut strips twice as long as the lampshade is tall.

It was wired ribbon, so I pulled out the wire, then sewed down the middle of each piece with a gather stitch.

Next I pulled out the glue gun and glued the ribbon from top to bottom of the shade. I found it easier to put the glue on the shade and press the ribbon to the glue line along the gathered seam.

I like the way it turned out. Check out some of my other lampshade makeovers here.

The Bandanna Dress

2010-03-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Sweet little Celeste is modeling the dress I sewed up in no time at all using 2 bandannas. I just turn under the top and sewed a pocket for the ribbon on each piece, then sewed up the sides leaving some open at the top for the arm holes, thread your ribbon through and gather. I sewed the ribbon in place on each side so it couldn't come lose. Tie the ribbons at the shoulders and you have a cute summer dress for a little one or top for an older girl.

Note Cards

2010-03-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

I asked my mother-in-law if she had any old books I could use to tear out the pages for my paper crafting. I think she thought I was crazy! She gave me a stack of books, one of which was an old dictionary (score). I have been using the pages for all kinds of projects, as you have probably seen in some of my earlier posts. I decided to make her some note cards as a thank you and so she could see what I was doing with old book pages.

I used black and white cardstock embossed using my cuttlebug, then cut some tags and swirls with my cricut tore up some pages from the dictionary and put it all together. I hope she likes them

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #9

2010-03-03T12:09:00.000-08:00

WOW, I can't believe I have stuck with this for 9 weeks, I have to give myself a little pat on the back for that. The theme for this week the challenge is 'Alternative Techniques' Fab says "whatever you think that's not mainstream just have fun with it". I made a swing card with 2 big tags I cut with my cricut. The little Christmas trees are actually split peas, sparkled with glitter. I wouldn't consider that mainstream ha ha.

What can you make with a shower curtain a pillowcase and some pretty vintage handkerchiefs?

2010-03-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

1st project was a fun little skirt for Addi. I had an old battenburg lace shower curtain. I always thought the valance would make a cute skirt. I also have some vintage handkerchiefs I bought from ebay, so I made an easy layered skirt with a piece of purple fabric, a piece of the shower curtain, and one of the handkerchiefs. When I finished it there wasn't enough room at the bottom for her to be able to run. A mistake that I remedied by adding another handkerchief cut in half as a bustle in the back. I embellished a pre-loved onsie from the thrift store with some flowers and ribbon to make a complete outfit.

Project #2, this time I used a pillow case that I found at a garage sale still in the package of 2. I made one of them into a jumper and added another handkerchief as a little apron. This is also for Addi. My cute little friend Celeste was kind enough to model it for the pictures.

Both of these projects were fun to design and sew. I really like the way they turned out. hopefully I will be getting pics of Addi wearing them soon. I also like the idea of up-cycling. My next sewing project is a summer dress made from bandannas.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #8

2010-02-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

Here's this week's card. The challenge is Vintage and/or Round Focal. I used a page from a vintage dictionary to make a lolly for my round focal point.

Lollies

2010-02-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

UPDATE 3/17/10

Here are a couple of new lollies. The top one I made for my wall I used book pages and a doily, the flowers and the banner are made from a brown paper bag. I made one for the Ruffle Your Stuff contest. I think the pleats in the accordion folded lolly and the ruffly flower in the center, both made from dictionary pages, count as ruffles. I think my favorite one so far is one I made for my niece in the hospital. It was pink, orange, and yellow, it turned out super cute! I made a lolly, flower and banner with her name using pages from an old hymnal and sprayed them with the springy colors. DARN IT I took it to the hospital without taking a picture.

ORIGINAL POSTING
I have been having lots of fun making Lollies. I have made them from old sheet music, pages from an old dictionary, or any old book, printer paper, and scrapbook paper. I use 3 sheets of paper. Fan fold each sheet so you have a strip of folded paper, then fold that in half (looks like a "V") and glue together at center of fold. Glue all 3 together to make the circle. You can use them on banners or garland or attach them to cards. I like to attach them to a dowel and put them in a vase or bottle.

Here are some I made with some inspirational words from a PDF file that Tiffany Windsor from Inspired at Home sent to me. I had my girls pick out their favorite word and made them for their bedrooms. I layered them with some cut outs, glitter and doilies, then embellished them with ribbons, pearls and bling.

This is one I made for a friend's birthday, instead of a card. The fan folded part is pages from an old paperback sprayed with blue shimmer spray. I also sprayed the doily, tag, and cupcake paper flower with pink and purple shimmer spray.

Happy Banner & Coffee Filter Flowers

2010-02-18T17:58:00.000-08:00

"Just a little reminder to "Bee HAPPY"

I got the download for the Happy tags from House of 3 I cut them out and added a crepe paper ruffle to the bottom, then punched holes at the top so I could string them up. I cut the bee out on my cricut and added some glitter to the wings and stamped it with swirls. the flowers on the string are smaller versions of the coffee filter flowers made with mini cupcake papers.

I absolutely adore these flowers made from coffee filters, click here for the video tutorial. I sprayed mine with my version of "glimmer mist" that I made myself with some powder dye from my daughters tie dye kit, mixed with some perfect pearls and water. I just put it all into a spray bottle and misted it onto the flowers. I love the way the colors came out and they have a shimmer too. I think I will hang them vertically on a ribbon, maybe glue them onto some dollies. Wow they put me in the mood for spring!

Check out this variation I made using cupcake papers. I hot glued them onto hair clips for the girls.

Birthday Card Challenge

2010-02-18T13:55:00.000-08:00

The latest Birthday card challenge from Mommy Creations is little cards and/or cupcakes. My cupcakes cards are 3" X 3" I love how cute the little cards are, so I made two.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #7

2010-02-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

The theme for this week's challenge is Poinsettia and/or White space. Fab says "use your imagination to create a positioning of elements. Have fun!" I have been having fun creating a new Christmas card each week following the a new theme. I do have a little trouble when I look at the other entries and compare them to mine and thinking mine isn't as professional and looks like a 2nd grader made it. I will just keep it up and hopefully get better. Oh and Thank You Fab for being so encouraging!

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #6

2010-02-13T16:09:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge is use three ribbons and/or a tag/tags.

My 3 ribbons are tied onto a big tag from Santa that was stamped and embellished with some glitter glue, then attached to some card stock. Quick and easy! I like it!

More Valentines!

2010-02-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some more Valentines projects. I got a little carried away, but there are just so many cute paper crafts for Valentines Day. You can check out my other projects I posted a couple of weeks ago here.

Garland, Garland, and more Garland!
The little flags with hearts that say "I love you" was a free download from Andrea Currie crafts. I just printed it out on plain printer paper, cut, and attached to string. *SO* easy and *SO* cute! Only took about 15 min. The larger "LOVE" flags with glitter were also a free download from The Graphic Fairy. I loved the way it turned out! The "XOXO" on the dollies was my own design :) The silver heart was made from a clear plastic ornament that opens up, you can find them in the wedding aisle of the craft store. I coated the inside with glue and glitter. BLING!

Valentines mini albums I made for my girls. I bought the download for the papers from House of 3. It is call Sweetie printable mini book. I had a lot of fun laying out the pages, adding all the cute embellishments that came with the download, with my own ribbons, ruffles and bling.

Some of my favorite pages.

Here are some sweet little envelopes I cut on the cricut and filled with love.

Birthday Card Challenge from Mommy Creations

2010-02-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

I am going to follow this new birthday card challenge from my daughter Jessica! I have been having fun making all the Christmas cards for Fab's challenge and am super excited to try some birthday cards.

This week the theme is primary colors and/or trifold cards. I used my cricut to cut the cardstock , yellow for the flower and red for the ladybug then attached them on the blue trifold card. Primary colors! I printed off the Happy Birthday message on some bright green and glued it down inside the card.

Here are a couple of pics of a little gift box that matches the card. I used my new Love Struck cartridge for the cricut.
Thanks for the challenge and Happy Birthday Jessica!

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #5

2010-02-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

This weeks challenge is punch it and bling it !

I am really trying to use what I have , which isn't a lot. I wish I had some punches, especially those cool boarder ones. Well maybe someday, for now I mostly use my cricut and cuttlebug and my stash of papers. The tags that look like they were punched were cut on my cricut and embossed on my cuttlebug. Joy and the swirl were also cut on the cricut. The brown paper is a piece of wrapping paper. I tore the edges. I used a gold stamp pad to antique everything. Then added the BLING!

Red Hat & Boots

2010-01-31T21:45:00.000-08:00

I knitted this hat and boots for my granddaughter for Christmas 2008, but they turned out much to big as Addi was only 9 mos. old. So they were stashed away in the cedar chest until 2 weeks ago when Addi and her mommy came to visit. I pulled them out to try them on. They fit! YAY! She took them home to Connecticut where Mommy crocheted the cute heart embellishment for the hat. Perfect for Valentines Day. Jessica emailed these pictures last night. Jessica is an amazing photographer. Check out her website here. She really made them look good, even though Addi refused to stand up and strike a pose.

Here is Addi saying cheese for Mommy. We are hoping to get her to model the skirt I designed and sewed while she was visiting Grandma. Coming in a future post.

Lampshades

2010-01-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the lampshades I have altered in some way or another.

The 1st one is a cheap white paper shade I bought at Target. I just wrapped it in some pretty textured yellow ribbon. Just start off tying the ribbon to one of the "spokes" at the top of the lampshade, then just wrap, keeping the ribbon tight, until it's covered. Then tie it off. *SO* simple. Use any ribbon to match your decor :)

2nd, a really cool lampshade I found at a garage sale. It was actually free because it was my friends garage and she let me take what ever I wanted. It started out really ugly, with tattered and stained red velvet. It was missing 1/2 of it's red fringe. It looked like it could have come out of a brothel, but I loved the form of the wire shade, so I ripped off everything and started with the bare form. I cut strips of cream colored tulle and tied them onto the shade, starting from the middle of the form tying some knots at the top and some knots at the bottom. Then just trim the tulle to the same size at the top and bottom. This makes the ruffle. I love the way the old wire form shows through. I added chandelier crystals hanging from the bottom. Very girly! If your shade didn't have a middle wire you could alternate tying the strips one at the top, then one at the bottom, or just have a full ruffle at the bottom or top of the shade.

3rd shade is one I found at the thrift store. I paid $1 for it. Again I loved the form and it was actually in great shape, just a little plain. I decided to "slipcover" it with an old sweater. I found a really nice Pendleton silk sweater for $3 at the thrift store. I pinned the sweater, wrong side out around the shade, then slipped it off and sewed down the pin line. Next I turn it right side out and slipped it back on the shade and trimmed the sweater about an inch above at the top and an inch below at the bottom. Then I folded the sweater under the bottom of the shade and hot glued it to the inside. I did the same thing at the top but I folder it twice before I glued it so it would have a nice finished look. I added cute pom-pom fringed hot glued to the bottom. It made for a warm and cozy look.

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-01-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my projects I have been doing to get ready for Valentines Day.

A candy dish I made from a pretty heart shaped plate and a glass candlestick from the thrift store. Made the same way I make my cake plates.

A heart garland cut from card stock on my Cricut and embossed with my Cuttlebug. I distressed the edges a bit with some brown ink. Then I attached the hearts to a piece of twill tape.

More cards, Valentine cards for my 13 year old daughter to give to her friends.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #4

2010-01-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

The theme for this week is Snowflakes and/or Punches. It's kinda funny that 2 of my previous cards also have snowflakes on them.

I started with a plain white note card, added some pretty blue paper and dots punched from my 1" hole punch and some smaller ones made with a single hole punch. I glued the paper and dots on the card and embossed swirls over the whole card using my Cuttlebug. Then I added a double layered snowflake I cut from velum using my Cricut. I didn't glue it flat, but kept it more dimensional.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #3

2010-01-21T15:58:00.000-08:00

This week challenge is to use a sentiment either printed or written by hand and/or gold. My sentiment, Christmas is Love. I have been making Valentines cards lately and I must have love and hearts on the brain. I also tried to incorporate some gold into the design by dry brushing some gold paint onto the embossed strip of black card stock and heart cut outs. No glitter this week haha.

Cards and Bags

2010-01-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

I know I said my 1st Cricut project would be paper dolls, but I am waiting for my daughter to get here before I start those. So in the mean time I have had fun making cards and gift bags. The set of 6 cards was made from recycled file folders. I used my Cricut for cutting the heart and the pineapple and my new Cuddlebug for embossing the flowers, little bird, swirls, and script. You will need to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see the details of the embossing. I love the way they turned out. The gift bags were cut from card stock using my Cricut. Then embellished.

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #1

2010-01-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

I wanted to quickly catch up on the challenge and go back to week #1. The theme is Tall Card or/and Frosty colors. Again I used my cricut and some glitter. I wasn't completely happy with it so I added some embossing and chalking to the edge. Maybe next week I will try something new :)

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challange week #2

2010-01-12T13:56:00.000-08:00

Every week (I am a week behind) Fabrizio posts a new Christmas card and theme for the week. http://networkedblogs.com/p23916094 So at the end of the year you have all of your homemade cards ready to send out to your friends and family. Great idea Fab! I am just a beginner and have never really made cards before. This week's theme is vintage colors and/or stripes. My card is very simple I cut it out on my cricut and embellished it with glitter. No stripes, just the vintage colors.

Create

2009-12-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

I got a Cricut for Christmas!

2009-12-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

Yeah! I am so excited to try out my new Cricut. First project, paper dolls for my granddaughter. I will cut them out of chipboard (because she would destroy paper ones) and I will try cutting the clothes out of stiffened fabric and connect them with Velcro dots. Stay tuned for pics.

My Crochet Projects

2009-12-25T18:14:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of my latest crochet projects.

1st one is a purse/tote a did a couple of months ago. I got the pattern from Favecrafts.com. I modified it a bit. I used peaches n' cream crochet yarn. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take it to the beach this summer.

This pillow is made with Lion suede yarn. It is very soft. The pillow is my own design. Basically I crochet two 18" squares, then crocheted them together over a pillow form and added a shell boarder in a contrasting color. I Love making the easy crocheted roses and added some to the pillow.

This is a headband to keep your ears warm. Again my own design. I used two strands of Simply Soft yarn. The ends of the headband overlap and a big button hole on one end slips over the crocheted rose sewn to the other end.

Doesn't Kenzie look cute in it?

Pismo Beach Sand Dollars & Glitter!

2009-12-18T09:24:00.000-08:00

A couple of trips to CA ago. Me, my husband, and two younger (13 and 16) daughters collected over 100 sand dollars on Pismo Beach one morning. We just couldn't stop picking them up. They weren't alive just the shells, or skeletons that wash up on the beach. I have had them around for over a year. This Christmas I decided to add a little glitter and hang them on the tree. Since I love the beach and I love glitter, I love these ornaments!

Water Bottle Bracelets

2009-12-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

These were fun and easy to make. My teenage daughters love them! I also made some smaller versions for my granddaughter. She loves anything circle. The best part is they don't cost anything! All you need is empty water bottles and some scrap yarn left over from your knitting or crocheting projects. I added some wood beads on one and some flatback marbles on the black one. You can also add old charms or jewels from the jewelry you don't wear any more. My friend Heidi Borchers shows everyone how to do it in her Youtube video. Check it out. Become a fan of Heidi LIVE on Facebook. She has a lot of great eco friendly projects to try.

Christmas Presents

2009-12-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

This is what I made for Christmas presents this year. They are cake plates, display stands, candy dishes, jewelry holders or whatever you want them to be. I shared them on the Inspired at Home Live Pajama Party in November. My daughter also blogged about them on her Mommy Creations blog.
I love plates! I have hundreds and can't seem to keep myself from picking up more every time I go to the thrift store or antique shop. I also seem to pick up brass candlesticks. So I started putting them together. I have to say I loved the results! So now I have an excuse to buy the plates and the candlesticks, to make gifts for everyone. You can use any plate and any candlestick. I even found a Christmas candlestick with holly and the perfect matching plate. It's fun to see which ones go together.

Fried Marbles

2009-11-24T22:22:00.000-08:00

This is a retro/vintage crafting technique that I had never seen before, so when I heard about it I looked on the internet for pictures and instructions on how to do it. They are called fried marbles or fractured marbles. There were several different methods for fracturing the glass marbles. I put them on a pie plate in a 500 degree oven for 20 min. and then straight into a bowl of ice water. This cracks the marbles but only on the inside. It makes them sparkle like crystal. I made earrings and a charm out of them with some silver bead caps, jewelry pins, and earring wires. I attached a lobster claw clasp to the charm with a jump ring. I used Alleen's Jewelry Glue to attach the bead caps to the marbles.