This will be the last post on Live From The Pit.  Anne (CheckerBeads) passed away peacefully in her sleep last night.  She was an extremely gifted artist and crafter and we're blessed to have been gifted and surrounded by her creations but more importantly, to have countless wonderful memories with her.  Despite a long and difficult battle with lupus, she retained her generosity and witty sense of humor until the end.  She was very intelligent, a great debater, an avid reader, and a patient, compassionate listener.  Though she had no children of her own, she doted on and was a favorite to her nieces, nephews, and godchildren.  It has been an honor to know her in this life and for us to call her a family member and dear friend.  We will miss her immensely.  We love you, Anne.

Sports Tissue Box

This one is for my nephew who loves sports.  I found a book with sports figures as bookends, so I did the figures and made it into a tissue box.  The figures are attached with elastic, I did this so he can take them off and play with them.

Baseball guy.

 

Football guy

 

Hockey Guy

  

soccer guy

 

Have a great week!

Anne

More Tissue Box Covers

Well, I did warn you.   I have been obsessed with tissue box covers!

This is the barn I made for my nephews.  I figured they could play with it after the tissue ran out.

  

This is the apple I made for Jodi.  And a book worm!  :)

 

Hope your month is going well!

Anne

More PC

For some reason, I have been making plastic canvas tissue box covers lately.

This one is for my niece.

I made this cute box for my littlest niece, who loves the American flag.  She looked at it and said "It is empty!"

  

Hope your week is going well,

Anne

Plastic Canvas

These are a couple plastic canvas projects I did in the past week.

First, Dora and Boots magnets for my niece.  I found the patterns online.

 

Next, a horse tissue box cover I also found online.  On note tho- tissue boxes have shrunk since the pattern was written!  I had to take it all apart and cut two rows of each direction.  Also, the pattern only had the horse on one side- but I did ALL of them, of course.  :)  The recipient was quite happy.

   

Have a great week!

Anne

More Angry Hats

Here are the rest of the Angry Birds hats I have made.

First the Bomb Bird for Ethan. *now I have to make TWO MORE for other kids!

  

Here is the Yellow Bird for Olli.

  

Have a great weekend!

Anne

more May Birthdays

These are for my (about to turn) 3 year old niece.

This one is for my mom to give, and also needs a custom envelope.

  

This one is for me.  Once again I forgot and made a regular A2 card, instead of the 5x7 needed to accommodate the (repurposed from a card I was given) music box.

  She loves to sing the National Anthem, and loves "Sensee Lights" as she calls the American Flag.

  

This one is for my almost 6 year old nephew.  I still need one more for him!

   Yep, those are tiny angry bird stamps (all the way from Hong Kong!) made into acrylic embellishments with my Ephipany Crafts shape studio tool.

   

Have a great weekend!

Anne

May birthdays

These are both for my niece who is turning 18.

First, this one is for my Mother to give.  I have to make an envelope to fit the fat flowers!

  

Next is one of my funky background cards for me to give.

  

I am giving a gift card, so I used my Sizzix Bigz XL die that cuts a cool inside to hold the giftcard. 

   

Hope your week is going well!

Anne

more hats!

Continuing the hat binge!

This one is for Julie to give it as a gift.  I originally got the pattern online, but I just call it Julie's Hat now, since she has a million and also has asked for them to give as gifts.

   

This one is a birthday gift for my nephew.  He loves angry birds!  I did a basic hat, then modified some crochet instructions I found to put the features on.  I did NOT realize how crooked the face was until I took the picture.  Oh well.  :)

Hope your week is going well!

Anne

hats

Hats. Hats.  Hats.  I have been pretty sick lately and all I feel like making is hats!

These two are from a book called Weekend Hats.  I got it from the library.

First is a lime green one I made for my sister Laura.

  

  

Next is a slouchy beanie with one cable.  It is done in the round, using purl stitch almost exclusively. (Not the cable, obviously.)  I like purl stitch.  When I started knitting, all the books and online sources said "We know purling is harder! Keep at it!" but, pry due to the odd way I hold my yarn, purling is even easier than the knit stitch for me.  :)
I am self taught, and didn't realize I hold the yarn oddly until I saw someone else actually knitting.  I figure so what! It works for me.

   Anyways, giving this hat to my SIL Julie, she loves cables!

   

Have a great week!

Anne

April Birthday

I made these for my nephew's April birthday. 

He choose the dolphin. I don't get the big blue eye circles, but that is what the pattern called for!  I thought it was fairly cute in the end.

   

He also asked for more knights.  I don't know how many I have made him- so this time I decided to switch the colors up so they can fight each other.  The sword is from my Pirate sizzix paper doll die.

   

Have a great week!

Anne

rings and rings and cool nails

You won't believe it, but I actually made more rings than this yesterday.  The nieces were over and each had to have two or three....  Even my SIL wanted one!

It is fun to make different combos with the buttons.  And once you decide on the buttons, the ring takes about a minute to make.

  

more rings!

  

Now I purposely left my fingernail in the last shot.  Cool nails, huh?  I bought some Sally Hanson Nail Polish Strips last week, and applied them on Saturday.  Now, normally, I wreck my manicure before I finish it.  The strips are great- once you figure them out- and last way longer than regular polish.   I have had them on for a week, and except for a small wire mishap, they are holding up pretty dang good.  You can see wear at the tips, but usually the support rings I wear on  my thumbs wreck the polish the first day and they haven't budged the strips!  One note:  You should put a coat of clear top coat over them, tho the instructions don't say to- I heard that from the company.

Have a great weekend!

Anne

rings for the ears and fingers... but no toes.

I love the feather in the hair look, but I can't do it to myself since my headgear for my nighttime breathing machine rips the feathers out quickly.  I decided to do the next best thing- feather earrings!  I like the pair I made so much I ordered a bunch more colored feathers off of Etsy.  I also realized I can use my cord ends to connect the feathers and not the hair crimp beads.  :)

   

I went on a shopping adventure with Julie last week and bought the cutest button ring.  It was on clearance, and pink, and even tho I knew I could make them, I had to have it.  I also had to make more when I got home.  :)

This uses on of my fave buttons from my button jar, with engraved flowers.  sweet, huh?
   

This one uses my first choice button- the flower is super sweet.  I couldn't find any buttons even close to these at walmart today.  Will have to go to the button store- would that be a fabric store?  :)

  

Have a great week!

Anne

grad cards

Here are some graduation cards I designed for card class.

This one uses a Sizzix die that you then run thru the Xyron and adhere flocking.

  

This one uses a new sentiment stamp I custom ordered!

  

Have a great week!

Anne

hat and a card

     

This card is for card class.   I got the horse stamp and wanted to use it, lol, so I decided on a baby card.  The heart button is from Epiphany Crafts and I won it the tool in a blog contest.

    

I just wanted to make a hat one day, so I made this out of a library book.  I hate that it curls up.

  

Have a good week!

Anne

new stamps!

  I recently ordered some custom sentiment stamps from Village Impressions that I adore.  They come as a sheet of clear stamps, and you cut them out yourself.  The customer service was OUTSTANDING and they let me make as many changes and additions as I wanted before finalizing the order.  They are clear stamps, and stamp well.

Here are some snarky cards I made with the new stamps.
  

   

  

The last one I am planning on making and handing out for people to send to me.  Receiving that card would make me very happy.  And maybe even feel better.

Have a great weekend,

Anne

May Birthdays

In May it is another nephew's birth.  He wants everything, so I could pick whatever I felt like making.  (He also wants to do a melted crayon art project, so I am getting him supplies for that!)

I liked the other creatures with the dolphin.  Here is the jelly fish.  It was shown in pink, but it is for a boy- so why not bright orange?  He was fun to crochet.

   

This one is a cuttlefish.  Not sure what color they are really, so I picked teal.

   

Have a good day!

Anne

Get Well Card

Julie hasn't been feeling great, so I sent her this card.  I did the background one day when I was just messing around with stuff on my table.  The pink strip was leftover from card class, and the leopard is a ribbon impulse buy. :)  When I decided to make it for Julie I added the toilet because I wanted to use the "hope it all comes out okay" line.

    

Have a great week!

Anne

Two Previous Projects

Here are a couple things I have done in the past month or so.

First, this is a pair of legwarmers I knit my niece.  Fairly simple and quick knitting, and they stay up without having to add elastic.  Whew.

   

Note:  yeah, she picked the colors and was very happy.

  

 
This had was called the Wurm.  I love knitting hats, they are quick and make me feel like I accomplished something with minimum actual effort.  I gave it to my SIL Julie cuz she usually likes the random stuff I make just cuz I feel like it...  :)

    

Have a great weekend,

Anne

card class time again!

So, my evil plan has been revealed.  I host these card classes just so my friends come over and hang out with me.  :)  I have been really sick and not leaving the house much for months, so I admit I haven't been able to visit any of them....

This card class we are doing a project!  I saw this on the Martha Stewart show and loved it.  All you do is draw little dots and lines in a small circle (about a quarter size works well) on a washed plain t-shirt.  (I found the half poly/half cotton Micheal's ones work really well.)  Then stretch it taut and slowly drop rubbing alcohol in the center.  It spreads out and makes fab flowers or fireworks!  Google "tye-die with Sharpies" to learn more. 

My niece did this last night, and agreed to leave it here to be the sample shirt.  She is coming back and finishing the back another day.  When you are done, and it is FULLY dry, you need to iron with a hot iron to set.

   

On to the cards:  This one uses the Sew Ribbon.  Love it!

  

This one uses Coordinations cardstock, it comes pre-embossed and you just sand it to reveal one or all of the words.  The flower is felt.

   

Easter card using my MS fringe scissors.... and the leftover gold embossed paper from last class, colored with spring inks.

  

This one uses the notebook edge die from MFT.  And a notepaper background stamp.

  

Hope you are having a great week!

Anne

boys birthday

A few weeks ago I found a video game stack of DCWV cardstock on clearance at the big Joanns.  I was super happy cuz I knew I could use it for my brothers' birthday cards.  (they are both in feb)

I also used my Epiphany Crafts Studio Shape Round Tool with another sheet of cs from the stack.  I printed off the sentiment.

  

Have a great day,

Anne

scarf and V-day cards

Jodi gave me a fab book on felting, and I had to try out the technique of putting round wood beads tightly in the fabric before felting, holding them in place with mini rubber bands.  I had a feeling I wouldn't actually enjoy a felted scarf tho, so I warned Julie I was pry making a scarf for HER as opposed to me.  She did put it on promptly when I gave it to her, so I hope she likes it.  I didn't have enough of one color to do the scarf quite as long as the pattern called for, or enough to do the flowers in the same color.  I would like to do a cream one with just bubbles all over the ends.. but I have to decide if anyone I know would want it first.  :)
   

Here is my v-day card.  I love the typewriter stamp/die set from My Favorite Things, but I really have trouble getting the typewriter to stamp cleanly.  I have found I need to re-ink the ink pad, then stamp on a foam pad, and stand up to press really really hard to get a good impression.  Not sure if this is normal for the stamp, but it is the only way that works for me. 

    

I had a small problem with this card, and wanted to give a tip in case you do the same thing.  I always score my cards on my Scor-Pal , and there is a small arrow on the 4.25 inch mark.  However, there is a nice star a few notches over, and the star is much more obvious to me, so I sometimes score there by mistake.  I have in the past gotten frustrated and thrown the paper away in anger, but I learned to just pretend I wanted a scored background instead.  On this card I did random scor lines in both directions to cover that up.  I think the stamped hearts look cooler with the scor lines.

   

Have a great day,

Anne