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