Another Chance to Win!

Another amazing Giveaway!

Lilsweetpea's Place is giving away a huge box of goodies!

Here are a few things I made recently.

This hat was for Tuna, who wanted a hat "with the number S" on it.  I added the felt flower top to keep from being too bored.  :)

This one reminded me of my brother Doug so I wrapped it and gave it from a secret admirer, like everyone wouldn't know I am the only one who knits.

This is the ornament I made as a gift for Jodi.  She lives in a town with these school colors...  HA!

   

Hope your holidays went well!
Still worn  out over here...  :)

Anne

great giveaway!

Usually I don't enter for giveaways if I have to post about them, being mostly too tired to post, but this one is amazing!!
Melissa at Creating From The Heart  is giving away a huge prize!  And she makes super cute cards.  :)

Merry Almost Christmas!

Anne

Catching Up!

It is funny, but I can handle the five incurable diseases just fine, yet if one more thing goes wrong it does me in, mentally speaking.  I realized I have an Incisional Hernia a few weeks ago, and it is almost too much for my brain.  Now I am yet again facing surgery, but I happen to have a cousin who sells hernia surgery supplies and he hooked me up with the best doctor, so it should go well.  I just don't have the mental energy to do things like update the blog!  :)

I also realized I don't have pictures of many of the gifts I made.  Hopefully I will take them AFTER they are opened, since I wrapped all my gifts on Black Friday.

I did get my cards out a few days past Thanksgiving tho!  Here it is... the top of the stocking is fluffy, I used flocking.  Flocking is super easy to apply if you run the cardstock piece through a xyron first! 

  

I also have spent a lot of time making felt flower garlands.  I am on my FOURTH one.  Two for my mother, and two for sisters who needed one after seeing the first.  :)  I have four Bigz Sizzix dies that cut the felt easily, and I just used brads to put them on the ribbon.  I bought five colors of the felt and used them kinda randomly, except there is more red and dark red than the other colors.

   

These wrist warmers were made for my sister-in-law Julie.  Her hands and arms are often cold, so they go way up the arm.  I picked a cable pattern cuz she likes cables.  Simply Soft yarn, of course.

   

Hope you are ready for the holidays!

Have a great week,

Anne

Christmas cards!

I finished Mom's cards finally!  I started with the wreaths over the summer, so it has stretched out, lol.

I was going for the distressed look.  This is so when, in my feeling crappy, I make mistakes, no one will notice.  HA!

I am pleased with how they came out.
    

Happy Holidays!

Anne

random things!

I have been obsessed with the My Favorite Things loopy flower die for a few weeks.  It is 22 bucks tho, and I realized I could (easily) cut it out myself.  I cut a piece of felt 1 and 3/4 by 6 inches, then glued the long edges together.  Cut every 1/4 inch down the fold, then roll up.  It is super cute!

   

A friend asked me to make a hackey sack for her son.  (He had seen the head of a bear I made for his sister and thought it would work.)  I looked online and found an easy pattern, and made extras to put in the advent calenders!

     

This is the card I made for my sister-in-law's birth.  I had trouble with the foil and the swirl die, but I think if I backed it with paper first it would be much easier.  I also got better ideas for matting the label die on SCS for next time...  :)

      

 

Hope your week is going well!

Anne

more mittens!

Happy Monday!

I finished more mittens last week for my niece and nephew.  I put their initials on them just for fun.  (My niece is two and just realized "S is for ME!")

These are his school colors.

    

The white is holiday sparkle!

      

This is for the "S is for ME!" girl.  She will be happy when it arrives!

    

Have a great week!

Anne

cards and mittens

I have been really sick, but I am chipping away slowly at my Christmas gifts, so I will have more posts soon!

This card was made from a card kit sent to me on  a Pay-It-Forward thread on SplitCoast.  I ended up sending it to a friend who got a new job.
   

This one I made with my new dies from My Favorite Things for my Mom to give to my sister for her birthday.  I got both doily dies and the flower die, plus a flourish you will see another day.

   

Here are the mittens I made my sister for her birthday.  They are made with Wool-Ease yarn, and she picked the colors.  I like the "miss matched" look- it is in for socks, so why not mittens?

  

I finally got my new camera, so will post some other projects later this week!

Anne

Crayon Art

I made two AWESOME tutus this week, but my sister has my camera (AGAIN!) so I can't post pics.  I am also almost done with the wolf tail...  :)

This is Crayon Art.  I say examples all over the net, and had to try it.  I had the 10x10 canvas already, so all I had to purchase was two boxes of 24 count crayons.  (They were on super back-to-school sale!)  I glued them (glue dots and with my ATG gun) all along one side of the canvas.  Then I cut out the word "create" from cardstock with repo adhesive on the back and positioned it on the canvas.

After a long wait, my niece came over to help me melt the crayons.  (I knew she would want to be in on it!)  Out came the heat gun (couldn't use a blow dryer- mom would kill me if I hurt her blow dryer!) and off we went.

   

The wax did get behind the letters some, but I still think it looks cool.  As I have nowhere to hang it, my niece is putting it over her art desk.

We also used the puddles (MUST do this in a well protected (IE lots of newspaper down) area!) also, melting them again on cardstock.  I will show some cards made with them later.

Hope you like it!

Anne

few projects

Hello!

One of my nephews is having his tonsils out next week, and I wanted to make him a small gift.  I had heard he recently told his kindie teacher that there is "NO PAPER" in his home, so I figured a book of paper would be appreciated.  It was easy to put together... I simply gathered on 8.5x11 piece of cardstock (brown), a piece of cardboard the same size as that for the back, and a piece of red cardstock that I trimmed to 4 and 3/8ths x 11.  I scored the red piece at 2 inches (going the long way) and adhered to to the brown.  Then I scored it at two inches on the opposite side (leaving the 3/8ths for the spine) and adhered the cardboard piece.  I used padding glue on the spine to hold the printer paper so he could easily remove pieces.  Add the name, and it is done.

   

What is padding, you ask? I have been asked many times, so I took a picture of the bottle.  Basically it is the glue that holds notepads together.   You can easily rip off one page at a time.  :)

     

Mom used up the last few sympathy cards this week, so I had to whip out some more.  I still laugh how stunned I was, when I first started stamping, that my friend had a WHOLE SET of sympathy verses.  Now I have several. 

  

Have a good week!

Anne

cacti

These cacti are another christmas gift.  They took a LOT of stuffing!  :)  The flower on the "girl" cactus would make a great headband flower.  You just start with a 6 stitch magic circle and double every row until you like it.  I think it would look cool with a contrasting color for the last row.
  

More christmas gifts to come!

Anne

fall birthday and finishing the advent

My sister's birthday is in november, and my almost sister in october, so I made them matching cards.  The branch and leaves stamps are from SU! and my sister got them for my birthday.  (From a garage sale.  I haven't seen them in the SU! catalog since I started shopping with them.)

   The background leaves are from Close to My Heart.

   

I did some felt die cuts for the front of the calenders.  I had some sticky back felt already, and just ran it thru my big shot with a Bigz die.  It cut very nicely.

   

Have a great week!

Anne

catching up

I have been going to Physical Therapy twice a week all month, and it exhausts me, so sorry I haven't posted more!  Plus a lot of things I have made are repeat items, and I don't want to bore you by posting the third set of mushrooms I crocheted. :)

Here are the things I have done recently.

This is a felted ornament.  I bought all the stuff to make felted ornaments at card club last year but only had one needle tool.  Couldn't figure out how to make THAT work, lol.  However, after finishing this ornament, I realize the base takes all the time. Perhaps I could do the bases ahead of the class and the crafters could add swirls and dots?

  

Only prob with that is my arms ached for a week after an hour of felting.  Not at the time, of course, so I would know to stop.   sigh.

   

This is the latest addition to my Angry Birds group.  Now I have to make one for my friend who is giving a set to her son for his birthday.... 
   

This is one of the Thank You cards I made in anticipation of my birthday.  I made eight... and ran out!  So I did another set today.  I cut various 12x12 papers in 1/2, 3/4 and 1 inch strips, then ran an  8.5 x 11

white cardstock sheet thru my xyron to cover it with adhesive.  Put one strip on the diagonal, then line up the others with it.  Trim the excess paper, then cut into four card fronts.  Cool, huh?  All papers and the stamp and punch are SU!.  The Thank You, however, is from the typewriter set from My Favorite Things.

    

Have a great week!

Anne

catching up!

I made 25 wedding shower cards this week, but couldn't take a picture since my sister hasn't returned my camera yet.  Sigh.  Hopefully I will be able to buy a new one soon.  Anyone have any suggestions for easy cameras that do good indoors and in lower light?

I finished two sets of jewelry for my goddaughter.  Her birthday is in November and then it is Christmas.  I let her pick out which ones she liked.  The first was the criss cross pattern, which I already have posted.  This set has drops.  I didn't have the right size beads, but I found these great ring beads that worked when I doubled them up.
  

Next is a jamma koala with his own stuffed toy for my niece's birthday.  She is December, so I am really getting stuff done!

  

My headaches have been pretty bad, so not much working or posting.  In PT so hopefully I will be back to speed soon!

Have a great week,

Anne

mini animals and fan pulls

My quest for Christmas domination goes on.  Plus I am trying to finish out the rest of the year's birthdays.  :)

These cute little guys are for my Goddaughter's birthday.  I already have her Christmas gift done, a fact I had forgotten until I recently looked into my gift bin. ha!

They are a bunny and a chick.  The bunny was on her list, and I picked the chick to go with it.
   

Two of my nieces recently got a new ceiling fan, and they can't reach the pulls, so they asked me to make them some tassels.  They specified pink and light blue.  I chose to use some of my... cheaper... beads, as I have such large bags I figure they will still be around if I have to fix them.  I did double strand the fringe, and I will warn them to pull the whole tassel, not the fringe, but I figure they will need fixing sooner or later!

   

The tassels are my design made to fit over a wooden bead.  I then glue the bead chain into the center of the bead.  They end up pretty sturdy.

Have a great week!

Anne

Mustache card and Hanes undies

I recently purchased the "manly" stack from DCWV, and when I saw the awesome embossed mustaches, I knew I had to send them to my brother.  As it happens, I sat down to work on the card at the same time as his son was making a card using the kid stamps. (I have a special bin for the kid stamps.)  One of the stamps Ethie pulled out to use was pry my oldest stamp. It is a self-inking stamp my mom brought home over ten years ago from her job at a doctor's office, and is a "vital statistics" form.  I have never used it on an actual project, but as I showed Ethie how to use it, I realized it was PERFECT for my brother's card.

Here is the outside:
  

 

This inside:

    

He recently quit chewing.  :)

______

I have only purchased undies from the plus-size stores for the past ten years or more.  Recently however, I have become increasingly bothered by the high prices and the low quality.  I did not, however, know my "magic undie" number, since they are sold by clothes size in the plus-size world.  One day after I trolled the sites and couldn't find any undies for less then TWELVE dollars a pair, I finally had a good idea- I got the catalog from where I purchased my last pair of pants, looked up the measurements for my size, and found a chart for the "magic undie" number and figured out mine!  Now I was free to shop at regular stores!

A few days later, I went to Wally World and wandered around looking for the undie rows.  Somehow I managed to find that section, and there was my magic number- I was ready to purchase!  I looked over the offerings and settled on Hanes Hi-Cut.  I had seen the "no ride up" ads, but wasn't really impressed.  I just hoped they fit and I liked the style.  Once home, they went straight in the wash since I am allergic to the sizing they use on clothes- mostly I can't even try on clothes before washing them.

Now, you have to understand my nightly ritual to understand this post.  Right before bed, I sit on my bed and do various oils, get my cpap mask ready, get my wrist brace on... this means by the time I lay down, I am too high up on the bed and have to scoot my bum down the bed to line up my head on my pillow.  The scooting always causes my undies to bunch up, so this ALWAYS means I have to lunge around trying to get my undies pulled back into position.   Always.  Until the night I put on the Hanes undies.  They did NOT SLIDE UP!  At all.  I just could lay down and get my eye mask

on and go to sleep.  It was.... stunning!

So yeah, they work. Now if they only had packs with all black.  Or ghost white nude.  :)

Anne

screen door card and monkeying around

My niece is at the age where she can open the house door but not the screen door, so the summer joke was that she "lives between the doors".  When I saw the screen door die from Cheery Lynn I had to purchase it just to make her a card.  I am sure I will get more use out of it- I purchased the extra screens too!  (The screen is real.  I made the door from  a plywood type paper.  I think next time I will try the real wood paper, or maybe a wood background stamp?)

   

Then I made a monkey for Hailey's birthday, before checking my datebook for something and seeing my note that I already gave money towards her gift.  Oh, well.  :)  She requested a monkey.  I thought the arms and tail were crazy long while I was crocheting it, but it came out cute.  The eye circles and muzzle were supposed to be felt, but I HATE putting felt on yarn animals.  If I wanted a felt animal, I would make one.  I want a crocheted animal.  SO I made one.  :)
      

Have a good weekend!

Anne

sneak peek for Christmas

Warning:  If you are my sibling, do not let your children see this post!

I didn't feel like finishing the Christmas cards, but I did complete all the central elements, so I am doing great there.  I decided to start on the Advent Calendars that I purchased at the beginning of the year instead.  I purchased three, one for each of my siblings' families.  I am not sure what I am going to do to the outside yet, but I have all the little boxes finished! 

One side of the box has the countdown numbers. I like this style cuz they can use it year after year, and you can fit nice things inside the boxes.  They are about 2x2. 

I first covered both front and back of the boxes with 2x2 pieces of Christmas paper from a DCWV stack.  I then used an exacto knife to cut the little half circles out.  This lead to a "distressed" look, so I inked the circles to (cover up) add to it.

The boxes came with nice number sheets.  (Well, two did, and I have emailed the company to see about getting the third.)  I punched out 1.25 inch circles and put the numbers on top of them.

   

I wanted to decorate the backs, so when you take the day out, you can put it back in the other way to keep the count going correctly.  I used a punch, some stickers I found, and some die cuts.  I did layering and coloring on some of them.

     

Here is what it looks like closed.  I am not sure what I am going to do to the front of it.  I may put the family name down the spine tho... like it is a book.  The box shuts with 3 snaps, so it should be secure in storage.

  

Have a great week!  If you have any ideas for further decorating, let me know.

Anne

crackle, crackle, crackle

Last week I was talking to my sisters and nieces and found out we are all obsessed with crackle nail polish.  I looked for it when I was on a med run to Walmart, but while they had a nice display, it had yet to be filled.  So the next day when I was on drugstore.com buying soap, and realized if I spend a little more I would get free shipping (always a trick to get you to spend more...) I did a search for crackle polish and found Opi Shatter.   I purchased the silver, and it arrived this very morning.

I started with two coats of my fave nail polish, Sally Hansen Complete Manicure.  I love this polish- two coats and you are done, no top or bottom coat needed!  And it wears great. (I also like the brush- makes it easier to do the dominate hand.)

The left hand I did in Calypso blue, then the silver shatter.

   

The right hand was in fuchsia.

  

Isn't it cool?  Julie wants to try it over black.  I don't have black, but I do have a super dark navy that would look sweet.

One tip- re-dip the brush in between nails when doing the shatter.  It shatters fast, and you want a  nice thick coat on.  :)

have a great week!

Anne

sketch challenge

I made this card for my niece, who confidently told her dad that I would go to her hockey games, when he  teasingly told her that her family would be attending her older brother's games instead.  I used the sketch from My Favorite Things.  The paper is all SU!, so is the flower.  The pom pom trim is from the craft store... I dunno who made it!  The stamp was from My Heart Stamps for You but I am still angry with them because they sent me the wrong stamp once and didn't send the one I ordered like they promised.  I wouldn't have cared except I already had the one they sent...

   

Have a good weekend!

Anne

School and more Angry Pigs

I made some simple cards for the "new to school" kids this fall.

     

I also started another set of Angry Birds at the request of a friend.  I like to make all the pieces first, then do the body and sew them all on before I stuff and finish the body.  I thought the pig sitting in the piles of bird pieces was funny.  

  

Have a great day!

Anne

cards!

Well, I have decided the intense stomach pain I have had for the last month isn't going away, so I will have to live with it.  In this spirit, I started to crochet again today. 

On Saturday, my friend Jodi came over to scrap, and I actually made some cards for the August birthdays.

This says Celebrate if you can't read it.  :)  The ribbon band is sequins.

   

Maybe I should have done the treasure chest black, but I didn't think of adding the gold coins until I had already stamped and assembled the card.  

  


Have a good week.  I am off for some kidney testing tomorrow.  Should be interesting, I haven't done this before.

Anne

more chain maille

Hello!  I am still pretty weak, maybe from the weather, but I did make a few more bracelets.  I got asked to make another set of Angry Birds, so that will pry be my next crochet project.  I am still working on the wreaths for the Christmas cards, and have a few birthdays coming up, so pry will post some cards eventually.... :)
   

This bracelet is fairly simple.  It is called a flower link, because the three pink rings look like flowers.  It is from Beaded chain mail jewelry : timeless techniques with a twist  by Dylon Whyte.  I checked it out of the library and decided to purchase it.

  

This one was called Helm weave, I think.  :)    This is fromChained : create gorgeous chain mail jewelry one ring at a time by Mojica, Rebeca.   I did not decide to purchase it after checking it out because most of the designs were basic but adding colored rings.  Plus she had odd size rings in her patterns- I don't know where to get 17 gauge!

   

Have a great week!

Anne

Another Bracelet

Yes, I am still obsessed with the chain maille.  :)  And since I bought some strange ring sizes, byzantine is the one weave I can make right now...

This one is segmented.  Each piece of byzantine is separated by one of the odd size rings I got.  :)

    For some reason it looks gold in this picture, It is also bright silver aluminum.

  

Here is a close up. 

      

Lucky I love byzantine.  I can't get any more rings until next month!

Have a good week!

Anne

Benj's birthday

It will be my BIL's birthday in a few weeks, so I made his card yesterday.  My sister said his fave colors are black and red, and as I have already moaned, there is not one sheet of red cardstock in my craft room...lol, so I ended up with a black base for the card front.  The card itself it Whipped Cream, but you can't see it.  And I had to make it to cover up the "happy birthday" music box I cut out of a card I gave my mother years ago, before I made cards.  :)  This card is 5x7, which is bigger than usual. 

  

I have trouble with "manly" cards.  I did notice in the SU! mini right now, they brag about having new manly stamp sets.  I only could count one.  And it was nautical. yawn. 
   

Hopefully he will like it.  I don't think he will get to enjoy it very long as his daughter (who is 2) adores music and will surely steal the card and claim it as her own as soon as she hears it.

Have a good weekend!

Anne