To craft or not to

One of the waitresses at our local White Spot is a crafty person. She showed me a bunch of the Christmas cards she made for a Christmas Craft fair this year...

They turned out really good, and got me to thinking... maybe I should make Christmas cards again this year. I have kind of stopped doing that the last couple of years. The demands of my job, along with the commute, have both increased over the years, and I find that I'm just not home a lot anymore. Couple that with the busy holiday season, and I don't seem to have the time to create 20+ cards. Although seeing her creations really got me thinking about it. Maybe I'll start in October next year, and have them done before December rolls around.

Paris Cross Stitch

I haven't picked up my cross stitching in a very long time. Probably longer than two years. About a week ago, I picked up the last thing I was working on. I call it the Paris Cross Stitch. Here is the picture from the CrossStitch magazine...

And here is where I was shortly after I started it (like 4 years ago!)...

I decided to finally finish it off, and try to do so before the end of the year. Well, it turns out that I had done quite a bit of it, and there was only a few days of stitching left to get it done! Here is the finished project...

I still need to try and turn it into a pillow. Although my sewing abilities are not great. So maybe I'll frame it as a picture for my craft room. I haven't quite decided yet. But I am so glad I got it done!

Christmas Cards

Pictures of the cards I made this year.

I used the Cricut to cut out all the shapes including the stars, trees and the background. And it was a great way to use up all those little bits of Christmas paper that I've had left over. But, it took a lot of time to cut and paste all the different parts together.

Fridge Art

When we babysat my niece and nephew over the holidays, they both drew pictures for us. I hated to take the pictures down, so I thought I would take a few pictures so I would remember. Our nephew drew a picture of a Red Power Ranger (top picture) and a Transformer (bottom)

Our niece drew a picture of herself, and made me draw a "Christmas" picture (no laughing!! - I'm obviously not a great artist!)

Christmas Cards

Here's a pic of the item I found on Pinterest that inspired my Christmas card design this year

It's a bit of simple design, specifically chosen to use up some of the paper I had lying around.
Here's a pic of my version...

Christmas Craft

Here is what I've been working on...
I bought some Christmas looking material...

I cut out some shapes to make hats and scarfs...

I sewed up the hats, put a bell on them...

I copied a snowman pattern on the photocopier at work, and wrapped a bunch of Hershey Bars, and then decorated them...

And I made enough of them to give out to the gang at work...

Now hubby wants me to make a "bowl full" to have around the house, so we can give them away during the Christmas season...

I found one of these at a craft fair, and I googled how to do it, and watched a couple of you tube videos. I thought I could make it, but I wasn't sure. So, I'm very proud of myself. I think they look so cute!

new project

I found one of these at a craft fair recently. It's a Hershey bar that has been wrapped in a cute snowman wrapper and all dressed up for Christmas.

A search on Google for "snowman candy bar wrapper" has provided many different versions, templates, and a few "how to" you-tube videos. I think I might have to make them this Christmas.

getting crafty

This was the inspiration found on Pinterest...

This is my version....

The original version used tissue paper cut-outs, but I ended up using leaves cut from card stock with the cricut. The heavier paper made it a bit more difficult to "paste" the leaves on... but Mod Podge is a great thing!

New stuff 2

Another one of the paintings that my mother-in-law gave us was this one...

We like it in the dining room, but my mom-in-law had painted the frame, and the paint matched her paint color, not ours. So, I taped it all off, and painted it one colour today...

I think it looks a lot better now...

cricut creations

I dug out my cricut yesterday and played around for a few hours. I made a sign for one of hubby's co-workers. She's a self-proclaimed witch, so hubby wanted to give her this...

And then I made a sign for one of my co-workers. She recently had to move her office into a smaller, cozier office, and while the office is nice, it's smaller I think she's feeling a little "removed" from the rest of this. I hope this makes her feel better. I still need to glue it all together, but this is basically what it will look like...

It felt good to get a bit creative this weekend. I don't do this often enough because I work so much. I'm going to have to change that.



painted jars

I see these types of photos all the time...

They all look so nice. So, I decided that I have some extra canning jars around the house (more than a few extra really -- I've picked so many up in garage sales over the years). Anyways, taking 4 of the jars, I washed them really good. I took off to Michaels with my 40% off everything coupon, and bought a bunch of paint. Then came home to do this...

They turned out pretty good, I think. The paint was quite a bit thicker than I thought it would be. So, it made "swirling" the paint a little more difficult. The paint was Martha Stewart Satin Acrylic paint for all surfaces. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with they just yet. But, I'm glad I tried.

New project

I found a couple of these "plaques" while spring cleaning. There were two like this...

I was going to give them away, but hubby said I should paint them, and maybe put them in the garden as decorations.
So, I got out the silver spray paint and painted the other one silver. Then, after it dried, I took some black paint, and with a paper towel, I painted parts of it black, then wiped the black paint off. The effect that I was going for was an antique-like silver finish. And, I have to admit, I am quite pleased with the results...





Sweater madness

Remember my sweater that I turned into a pillow? Click here to see the post...

Well, I've decided to make more. I visited a few thrift stores this week, and have a bundle of sweaters now that I'm going to make into pillows...

Crafty

On Sunday, the weather turned very fall like. And on the weekend, I felt kind of crafty. I had this image pinned on Pinterest for awhile now, and decided to get crafty and make something similar.
This is the inspiration...

 And this is my version....

I chose to use more fall like colours than the original. I had some small wood blocks that my Dad had given me more than a few months ago. And I had the paper and twine in my stash of stuff. I got to use all my toys for this one too. A Martha Stewart punch for the leaves, my cricut for the letters, and my staple gun and glue gun to put it all together. I'm so pleased with the results!

Label maker

It sounds silly, but I've always wanted a label maker. So, last week, when I was wandering through Staples looking for something else, I found a label maker on sale during their back to school specials. The one I found was a Brother, and it was a cute little pink thing that was designed specifically for Scrapbookers. And, it was 50% off. Perfect! But, they only had the demo model left, and no other stock available. So, I came home, went online, and found one at a store close to work. One day, during my lunch break, I took off to the store to buy this cute little pink label maker.
While at the store, I found that they actually had 2 labelers on sale for the same price. I picked up the pink one, and another one, and started to compare the two, wondering what the difference was. While I was debating which one to get, a lady came up to me and said, "Buy that one" as she pointed to the normal-grey-not-so-cute looking one. "Yes, the pink one is cute, but that one does way more, and has a lot more options". We talked for a bit, and I decided... practicality over cuteness. So far, I'm not disappointed.

Scanning insane

So, my Mom and Dad are cleaning out their house. They don't yet have an offer on their house, but in prep for the time when they do move, they are purging 40+ years worth of stuff. A great idea, I think. And it's got me thinking about doing the same here.
One of the things I did last year was to scan all the Christmas Cards I had kept over the years, and threw them in the recycling bin. Then, I put all those scanned images on a USB stick, and plugged the stick into the TV. (My digital frame also works for this). The result? A slide show of Christmas images playing on the TV, while we had company over during the holidays. It was great. And the best part, was that the people I had over, all thought it was a great idea.
So, when Mom said she found 4 boxes of Christmas cards in the house that she was going to throw out, I jumped at the chance to take them. I sorted through them, taking out only the landscaped images (they work the best). And I now have about 2 shoe boxes full to scan. OK.. maybe a little more than 2 shoe boxes full.
Anyways, today I installed the scanner on my laptop to get started. Turns out, the scanner is not compatible with Windows 8. Darn! A few internet searches and a bit of tweaking, and I got it to work. I have to manually crop everything after it scans, but at least it works. And I scanned 3 cards already. And all it took me was... 2 hours!!!?!?!?!?!
OK... that's 2 hours with installation and setup (which I don't have to do again). But, each card has to be scanned (why does this scanner go so slow!), then saved, then opened, and manually cropped, and resaved. With the number of cards I have to scan, I think I'm going to be here until Christmas! Ok, maybe not Christmas. Maybe NEXT Christmas!
Sheesh! What did I get myself into?

table makeover

I decided to get ambitious today, and paint the table from my craft room. It's not the best made table, or the most sturdy, but it does the job. The top had been sanded down already (from when my brother owned this table). I decided it was time to finish the job. So, I dug out some left over paint that I had in the house, and got busy. I sanded down all the legs and gave the rest a good once over...

Then gave it one coat of paint... 



 Then gave it another coat of paint, and another...

And I even took a bit of the leftover paint, and gave the garden window pane a once over...

They are now sitting in the garage, drying, because it's raining outside. It took me all afternoon to do this. But, I'm really happy with the results. Although, I am a little stiff and sore!

Fairy Garden

This was the inspiration...

This is my version...

The container was part of a Christmas gift. It came full of bath products.
The table and chair were made by my hubby with sticks he found in the garden.
The wine glasses and rose were some small knick knacks that I had lying around (and that I've had for years and years).
The plants, soil, bird bath, gazing ball are all new.
I love it. It's likely going to be one of those things that changes with my moods... as I find new items to use, and as the plants grow... but that's ok. And I do need to find a fairy for my fairy garden.

Pillow talk

It started as a sweater...

But turned into a pillow...

I found a way to keep an old sweater that I liked, but didn't look good on me. I love how it turned out. It was a comfy cozy sweater... it just was too short in the bodice, and the arms were too long. So, it looked horrible on me. I think I like it much better as a pillow.

It sure smells good

So, I'm looking through my new Dec 2012 Chatelaine magazine that I just got in the mail this week, and I see this article on how to make your own potpourri with pine cones, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, etc.

 

So, I pull out all the ingredients

And put together this...

And boy, does it smell good!