My Coolest Handmade Gift Evah!

This year I did not take a whole lot of time to devote to cross stitching, my very first crafting love. So when we went on vacation at the end of September, I treated myself to the cutest little pattern ever by magpienight on Etsy. If you read my blog with any regularity, you know that I love all things Golden Girls. It would stand to reason that a few of my friends do as well. My friend Stacie and I can equate any situation in real life to an episode of the Golden Girls. (Drives our husbands cRaZy!) It made sense that she would be the recipient of this fab handmade Christmas gift. Now don't worry...I've already given her the gift so I'm not ruining any surprises!


The pic above shows magpienight's Little Golden Girls as charted stitched on 28ct. linen over 2 threads and framed in a 5-inch wooden hoop backed with cardboard.
I had to put a personal inscription on the back with one of Stacie's favorite quotes. For all the fans out there, this was actually Dorothy speaking for God.The companion pieces was a creation of my own. I found a fat quarter of a matching fabric, cut a small pieces and backed it with a fusible lightweight interfacing. I then wrote out my phrase on a plain piece of paper in my own handwriting. I taped the plain paper with the phrase to a bright window and taped the fabric over top, tracing the phrase with a water soluble fabric pen. I then used embroidery thread to stitch the phrase and framed it in a 4-inch wooden hoop as well.

Thanks for reading!
Angie

Challenging Custom Order

One of my coworkers' children requested a sock monkey after seeing one of my previous orders. He decided that a drawing would be the best way to show me exactly how he imagined his monkey would look. I have included the drawing and what I came up with based on that. I think I came pretty close. I just hope it meets his expectations. I hear a 10-year-old can be hard to please! ;)

2009 The Year of the Monkey

Last year around this time, I was embarking on a journey to craft two sock monkeys for a coworker by request. Little did I know that one year later, I would have made 21 monkeys for various people at work. Here are some of the monkeys that have been adopted this year!

Fuzzy Candy Canes

I found an awesome tutorial for felted candy canes at the feltcafe blog. I have been wanting to try to make felted items for a while, but just hadn't found quite the right project to inspire me to do so. Everything I saw just looked a little too over my head as far a beginner for felting went. This tutorial looked to be right up my alley ,and the perfect chance to make little package embellishments for the all the wrapping for the holidays.

After some searching on Etsy, I found 2 sellers to purchase small amounts of wool roving from to get started. I purchased my white wool roving from 7 Yaks Designs and a crimson pink roving from Wind Rose Fiber Studio. I was able to pick up all of the supplies needed for a little bit of nothing.

The process was very easy and only took me about 15 minutes to make 3 candy canes. I think if you wanted to produce a ton of them, it would not take very long at all. I've included a few pics, although I admit, they aren't the greatest. I may try a felted heart outline for the upcoming Valentine's holiday using the same materials and technique and tie a ribbon to use as a valentine's ornament. Happy crafting!

Craft Magazine's Blog Rocks!

I have to say that Craftzine is the rockingest website for crafty ideas out there! I actually found it via another great blog that I read, homemade by jill. If I go for a few days without checking it out, I am absolutely flooded by awesome pictures and tons of ideas that I would love to try, like this shaped book tutorial at Cheeky Magpie. There just aren't enough hours in the day to even look at all of the cool crafty things people are doing these days, let alone actually making them! Trick or treat was okay last night. We had about 45 kids come to the house. We actually have some candy left over, which is not what I was hoping for! Ramona was a good sport and wore her pig costume for a brief period. She was a hit with the kids and their parents. She did, however, look totally and utterly humiliated! Her second picture is the most perfect "stink eye" from a dog I've ever seen!

Halloween Craftiness

Granted it may be a little late to be thinking about making Halloween crafts, but I couldn't resist when I saw this because it's so simple. It also led me to another great blog at Skip to My Lou. These adorable pumpkin and ghost votive holders would take virtually no time at all and would be great projects to do with you kids too. They are made using baby food jars, Mod Podge, black construction paper, and crepe and tissue paper. How easy is that? If anyone tries these and wants to post pics, that would be fantastic. I can so picture these sitting along your walk or driveway to light the way for all the little ghouls and princesses coming for your treats on Halloween night!

Etsy Eye Candy

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade 15PiecesofFlair.etsy.com

I could not think of anything profound to post today, and I really need to start feeling my creative side again, so I thought posting some prettys from Etsy might help. These are just some of the things I had saved in my favorites or items from my favorite sellers. I really want to buy the pink dress, but alas, it is too small and would not fit at any point in the near future. I hope that someone loves it and buys it soon, to take away the torture of knowing that it will never be mine. I did actually get out some fabric and start planning my next "from scratch" project. I seem to like those the best, but they take a lot of planning. I find it easy to dream things up and difficult to make them come to life. I'm sure I'm not alone in that habit. I always seem to find that once I get started it doesn't end up being as hard as I had imagined it to be. That initial step is just a doozy!