Location:  Texas

Cast: 

• B - my husband, Benjamin (I hate typing his name and have been typing "B" for years now)
• Sophie - our only child
• Chui - B's peekapoo
• Me - a crazy Yankee with a mixed up accent who happens to be a stay-at-home mother for now but is hoping to be gainfully employed early in the new year.

Favorite Topics:

• Christmas crafts, especially anything that goes on the Christmas tree
• Knitting (with all of my dropped stitches)
• Spinning (I love fiber arts)
  
• Sewing (I will have to control my fabric purchasing since it could become an addiction)
• Paper crafts (includes cards)
  
• Sharing books and links
  
• Buying (and storing) craft supplies 
• Tucking away ideas for when my baby is old enough to craft with me
• Visiting local arts and crafts stores and sharing my finds
• Signing up for classes at the local craft store

Participation:

• Please comment if you see something here you like or if you have suggestions on how I can make my crafts (or my blog) better.  
• Make sure comments are in the original ChaCha blog and not in any RSS feed, please.  I may not see them otherwise.
  
• Share your stories if you've made similar projects.
• Ask how-to questions!  If I don't know the answer, I can probably look it up for you!

This is one big reader participation post.  I'm very seriously asking you for advice and ideas. 

I have decided I am going to order tags or labels to sew onto my bibs and various other items I might make,  I put out a request to one of my many groups and amidst the many suggestions for checking out various craft supply stores or ordering from some company out of the country, one person came back with the suggestion to use Pixel Perfect Designs. 

Admittedly, I was highly impressed.  Not only do they allow small quantity orders (perfect for me for now), but they have excellent prices and the labels are made in the USA.  These are 100% cotton, available in iron on or sew in labels.

I plan to order labels from this company, but I need to decide what I want my labels to say.  To all of you reading this, please, hit me with your suggestions.  I'd like a name (not sure I want to go with sm00bs), possibly a small phrase (would have to be very small), and an idea for a tiny design.

Those of you who subscribe to a feed of this blog, please remember to submit your comments on the actual blog page and not through a feed.  Thanks so much!!

I spent a little time working on the bibs the other day.  I gathered all my little tools (the picture doesn't even show all the items I needed) and readied my workspace (my dining room table).  I used a cutting board (portable and self-healing), iron, ironing board, hammer, sewing machine, and patterns that aren't shown, along with the scissors, rotary cutters, water-soluble pencils, straight pins, snap setter and snaps, and thread all pictured in this photograph.  After the first bib, I realized the water-soluble pencils were unnecessary, but other than that, I used everything else I'd gotten out

I worked with just the orange backed bibs because I didn't want to have to change out bobbins in the middle of my project.  I still have orange material left so I'll probably make a few more bibs (lots of pregnant friends right now and these will make great gifts to have on hand) out of it before moving on to the next color.  I actually made five bibs, but the first one isn't pictured here because of various mistakes I made.  It is now a bib for Sophie's dolly, which she was beyond excited to receive.

To start off the project, I arranged the material wrong side out, pinned the pattern, and traced with the pencil (totally unnecessary step which I changed up later).  I removed the pattern, pinned the fabric again, and cut the bib out using the rotary cutters.  I pretty much followed the directions in the book/article mentioned in this post.  After turning the bib right side out, I pressed the bib and managed to not press the opening quite right, so when that was sewn it was off a bit.  No worries since neither Sophie nor her dolly care in the least.

When starting the second round of bibs, I was determined to find a somewhat more efficient way of making these.  I dropped the pencil and just cut with the rotary scissors around the pattern.  I cut out enough material for four bibs before starting sewing.  While at the machine, I sewed all four (had to refill the bobbin about halfway through), then turned all four, pressed all four, did the top stitch on all four, and then set snaps on all four.  I have to admit, this was much easier. 

During this second round of bibs, I cut two sets each of two different patterns.  I think I like the bib with the side snap a little better than the bib with the back snap.  The area I left open for turning was much easier to close for some reason, and there was only one major curve to deal with instead of the two curves at the back of the other bib.

My sewing skills are improving, but there are still plenty of mistakes.  Take a close enough look at the pictures and my uneven top stitching can be seen, along with the snap mistake I made on one of the bibs.  It's getting there, slowly but surely.

I picked up a sewing book while at Barnes and Noble not too long ago (Bend-the-Rules Sewing: The Essential Guide to a Whole New Way to Sew), and while many of the patterns are interesting, some of them are still above my ability (and to think, most seasoned seamstresses say it's for beginners). I found a cute pattern for bibs in the book, however. Sure, Sophie's a little old for bibs, but who wouldn't love a homemade bib or two for a shower gift?


Sophie and I went to JoAnn the other day in search of material for the bibs. She was such a trooper, helping me pick out fun prints, pointing out little details on the material, and shouting out colors whenever she could. I picked up quite a bit of material, but that's okay since I have quite a few friends who are currently pregnant. I'm going with a 100% cotton front and a cotton flannel back (nothing in between the layers). Sophie and I picked out three different sets of material: a set of greens, a set of oranges, and a set of prints that would work with white on the back.

The cotton prints were all on sale for 30% off, if I'm not mistaken (love to save money!). I picked up a few other items as well, including a self-healing folding cutting board (marked down to $9-ish from $49-ish), snaps, a snap setter, and a few simple to sew patterns for clothing for Sophie. The cutting board and the snaps will be used for the bib project, which will hopefully be underway soon.
 

As we returned home, Sophie and I stopped at the mailbox to get the stack we had let accumulate over about the course of a week or so (we're awful about picking up our mail) and there was a pile of magazines in the box along with all the bills and credit card junk. I had a chance to flip through the magazines shortly after dinner and the first one I picked up was Crafts n Things. Wouldn't you know it, the pattern for the bibs was actually in the magazine!
 

I spent time today putting the material through the washer in batches, each load with a bit of vinegar in the rinse to set the colors. All the pieces are folded again and in a nice pile, just waiting for me to get started. I probably won't have time to get started on this until next week, when I'll pull out the ironing board and iron, the sewing machine, and clear space on the dining room table. I'm really looking forward to working on these bibs, even if it means I have to slow down a little on the baby blanket.

Reader participation:  Do you have print and color suggestions for the bibs?  Do you have other ideas for sewing simple baby gifts?  Do you have a favorite gift to give (or receive) whenever there's a baby shower?  Feel free to share here. 

For those of you who love to keep it simple, but love to craft (or cook, write, destroy, etc.), there's a project for the month of February called Thing-a-day.  Unfortunately, the deadline for signing up is tonight (Jan 31, 2008)) at midnight (it doesn't say what timezone, so the earlier you sign up, the better).

For a better idea of how the project works, check out the page for 2007.  It looks like quite a few people really got into it.  So far for this year, there are almost 1,200 people signed up!

If you do sign up, please post here so we know to watch!  I won't be signing up this year, but I might next year.

It seems as though the bug that took our house by storm has just about given up the ghost and I'm starting to feel somewhat human again.  B, Sophie, and I had to make an emergency trip to Tennessee to say goodbye to my grandmother.  She left this world January 12, 2008, after 91 years of life.  We brought home the bug as a souvenir.

While on the road, I managed to sneak in a little knitting and am happy to announce I am done with the boats!  I still have plenty of that blanket left to knit, but there will be no more boats!  I've moved onto the cables and have to admit, it's actually fun again!  Of course, pictures will be forthcoming.

I'm working on a much larger entry than this, but I wanted to let people know I'm still here.  Because I love my readers so much, I'm going to do a bit of a link dump.

I was reading a post by Margaret Kerr on the ChaCha blog network when I stumbled upon a very cool link she shared in her Ocean Waves entry.  The link she shared was for FreePatterns.com.  The site requires people register before using the free patterns, but there is no cost.  They also have a good number of eNewsletters for people who like to have those little reminders (but they also make it easy to opt out of those newsletters for those who hate junk mail).  If you sew, quilt, cross-stitch, knit, crochet, or do any sort of crafts at all, stop by and check them out.  Remember, signing up is free.  There is no cost at all!

Along those lines, the link dump here is for free patterns of all types.  Enjoy!

• Knitty- This is an excellent source for quality knitting patterns, all of which are free.  Knitty is a quarterly online magazine that offers articles as well as patterns.
• Knitting Pattern Central - This site actually hosts links to free patterns all over the internet.  Some of the patterns will be in PDF format.  Some have pictures and some don't.
• The Daily Knitter - TDK is similar to KPC in that it hosts links to free patterns all over the place, but TDK seems to host more broken links.  When hunting for free patterns, every little bit helps.
• Crochet Pattern Central - Same as with KPC, this site hosts links to free patterns all over the internet.
• Free Vintage Crochet - The patterns here are also available in PDF format for download.  These patterns are all taken from older books and from what I can tell, most, if not all, of them have pictures.
• Free Quilt Patterns (1) - This site is like the Pattern Central sites listed above, linking to patterns all over the web.  Of course, as with many sites like this, some links will be dead.
• Free Quilt Patterns (2) - This site also links to other sites containing free patterns.
• Savvy Seams - Amazingly enough, this site actually contains original patterns.  There are only a few patterns listed here, but enough to keep a beginner quite busy for some time.
• Sew More for U -  There is a little more here than just links to free patterns.  There are also articles, tips, links to free software, and much more.  I plan to spend a little time here after the boat blanket is completed.
• Free Cross Stitch Pattern - Plenty of graphs here, but most of the patterns are made from clip art.

Reader Participation:  If you have any links for free patterns for any type of craft projects, please feel free to share it here.  If you have experience dealing with any of the sites listed above, please share them here.
 

Debbie Krumpos has an absolutely fabulous website offering many scrapbooking supplies as well as links and various tips. Scrapbooking for Beginners really is an excellent place to start when taking the scrapbooking plunge. I have to be one of the least experienced scrappers around (I'm late to jump on that train), but her site has made it easy for me to find what I need and has given me some great ideas (now just to put those ideas to good use!).

At this site, I found step by step help with techniques and scrapbook layouts (I need all the help I can get!). Debbie also offers FREE downloads for digital scrapbooking as well as layout ideas for many occasions. There is a fantastic collection of supplies available from: Picaboo, Scrapbook Superstore, Scrapbook Max, Paper.com and Scrapjazz. It is the ultimate place to fill all your school-bulletin board, scrapbooking, baby, wedding, vacation, and holiday paper needs.

Debbie is a stay-at-home mother of three young children. She was a registered nurse for 20 years and decided the hectic run around for three active children was just not what she wanted. Because they're so active, she has had many opportunities for taking photos and has been doing a lot of scrapping to keep those photos out of shoe boxes tucked in the back of a closet. Thankfully, she has had plenty of experience with good (and bad) scrapping products and is willing to share that information with anyone interested to help them find the good and avoid the bad. Scrapping can be a pricey hobby, and Debbie's experience makes it all a little less painful.

She was kind enough to send two products for me to test and I have to admit, I absolutely loved them. Both of these products can be used for purposes other than scrapping, too (leave it to me and my active, non-scrapping imagination to come up with other uses, of course).



The first item I opened when I received the box was the Arccivo Scrapbook Page Saver. I have to admit, even though I'm not a scrapper, I am seriously in love with this product. I was so in love with it that I had to show my mother while she was here. If any one single product could make me more interested in scrapping, this would be it. Someone was really thinking when they came up with this idea. A zippered folder with magnetic sheets to cover each side so scrapbook pages stay in place while in progress, even if they're transported, is one of the most intelligent and useful products I have seen for scrappers yet. Sure, all the stickers and papers can lure a person in, but it's products like the Arccivo that will really keep me scrapping. What's really cool is it comes in four different colors!

My mother mentioned the fact that it would be useful for her as a quilter as well. She could see using something like that for all of her quilt blocks. I could also see how this might work for people who make cards (so close to scrapping anyhow). Having a dedicated space (or rather lack of dedicated space) is one of the reasons I have avoided scraping, card making, and quilting. The Arccivo would be an excellent work around for that issue, leaving money as my only issue (other than B getting upset with me for buying more "junk").



The other product I tried was a Xyron 150 (Create-A-Sticker). Talk about fun! Had I really had time and been able to plan a project, I seriously could have gone hog wild with this little item. As it stands, with Christmas right around the corner at the time I received the package, I pulled out the Christmas tree paper punch and all the green wallpaper samples (yes, wallpaper samples... I saved them from college, believe it or not) and went to town. After I had a few trees punched, I put them through the Xyron (so easy), peeled the clear plastic layer off the strip, and then stuck three of them on the little plastic case for my paper punch. What's cool about these little stickers is there are two types of adhesive rolls, a permanent and a temporary or movable adhesive. I love the idea of being able to make my own stickers. What a way to personalize! I'm very tempted to get one of these, although I might get one of the bigger ones since they're not terribly expensive. I suppose I'll wait until I go back to work, though.

Both items can be purchased by going through Debbie's website. For those of you scrappers, seriously, check out her website and these two products in particular. I really had fun with them!

Reader Participation:  Do you enjoy scrapping?  What are some of your favorite scrapping sites?  What's the most used item in your scrapping supplies?  Where do you purchase most of your supplies?  Please share photos of your favorite created pages.

I have done a little work lately on the Boats for Cameron blanket for my niece. It's still nowhere near finished, but it's getting there. I'm almost completely done with the boat panels and then I move on to the cable panels. Once the cables are done, I'll work on the border, and that is pretty much just plain knitting and/or purling per each row, so it will be fairly mindless.

I took progress pictures today, finally. I'm hoping to work on it more this week but I won't do another round of pictures until the cables are done.




If I actually take time to work on the blanket as I should, I will be able to get the boat panels done this week for certain. Of course, that's if nothing else interferes. I'm pretty sure B wants to be able to park in the garage again someday so that means we need to get cracking on the eBay stuff out in the garage which will cut into knitting time, I'm sure. Perhaps I'll knit a bit during Sophie's nap tomorrow and then work on eBay templates tomorrow night. I seriously cannot wait for this blanket to be done. There are so many projects I want to start, but I've vowed to not start another project until this blanket is completed. It's not that I don't want to do it. I'm sure I won't have time to knit anything else I want to knit, either.

Here's holding out hope there will be new progress pictures soon!

For some reason, I get the organizational bug about once a year (sometimes more often than that, but not usually on as large a scale).  Because we just did the swap between the office and the guest room, this seemed the perfect time to make sure both rooms are as organized as possible.  With my parents giving me the sewing machine for Christmas and me going hog wild with the crafts this year for Sophie and my nieces, I decided the guest room closet will be my new supplies closet.  Granted, it houses other items as well, but it's mostly crafting supplies.  

B and I have been in our new house for almost two years now (it will be two years mid-March) and this room swap has really helped us get some serious unpacking done.  I know, we're a bit slow, but we've had a baby to worry about.  We did most of the unpacking when we moved in (right around the time Sophie was born), but there were various boxes of odds and ends scattered about that we pretty much forgot with all the family visiting and furniture assembly and room swapping and diaper changes, etc.

Lucky for me, many of those boxes were filled with fun craft supplies.  I knew about all the yarn (had that all unboxed within the first month or so) but had forgotten so many of the other supplies.  I found plenty of fabric and felt, wooden pieces, candle making supplies, paper items, lots of patterns and instructions, basically a general hodge podge of "junk" (as B likes to call it).  He seems to think I have enough to open my own craft store, but I truly don't.

I proved that to him once I organized the closet where all my craft supplies are stored.  Our guest room has a fairly large closet (double doors) that was literally packed from top to bottom with boxes of stuff.  This room used to be the office, so most of the stuff was office type stuff, but when we did our room swap, *some* of the office stuff came out (not all), but all of the stuff in the garage and the old guest room was moved into the big closet.  I wish I had taken a picture of just how packed this closet was because I have a feeling no one will believe me after seeing the pictures of how it looks now.

I started my organizational project at JoAnn Fabric.  They were having a sale on all of their IRIS storage items (40% off) so I picked up five somewhat large tubs (30 qt, I believe).  I almost bought drawers but am SO glad I didn't.  While I was at JoAnn, B was at the Home Depot looking at storage containers as well.  I wasn't impressed by the drawer system he found there, but was interested in looking at the other containers they had.  We went together to the Home Depot the following day and I picked up a couple sets of smallish tubs (6 qt and 15 qt) while he found the rails, brackets, and shelving needed to turn our mess of a closet into something manageable.  I was beyond excited to get rid of all the huge Dell boxes we had snagged at work for our move before Sophie was born (and all the various other boxes we still had floating around).

I have to admit, my husband really is my hero.  The shelving in the closet makes it so much more user friendly now.  We have shelving in the parts of the closet that are tucked away as well as on part of the back wall.  I didn't want to cover the entire back wall since it IS a guest room and people actually do stay there from time to time.  I would like for them to have a place to hang their clothes still, so we left a little room for that.  After B put up the shelving, he decided he wanted something a bit sturdier so he ran to the Home Depot for braces (and more tubs).

The end result really is wonderful.  All of my craft supplies are organized.  Every clear tub and drawer is labeled with a list of contents (except for the tubs holding the wooden pieces for now - I have to get out the labeler again).  The closet also contains candles and computer bits and pieces, but those tubs are labeled as well, so nothing in my closet is a mystery.  I have a drawer for all of my scissors (I have a lot of scissors - from fancy paper edging scissors to super sharp fabric scissors).  I also have a drawer for all things glue (rubber cement, various glues, glue gun, magnets, velcro, etc.) and one for all things paint (paint, brushes, sponges, etc.).  Because this project has pretty much put the Christmas undecorating on hold, I think I'll make a tub for old Christmas cards as well since I plan to start recycling them into various crafts at some point.

I think the best part of the entire closet is the two 5.5" Moon Lites (by AmerTac) we installed under the top shelf.  It makes it so much easier to see my labels, especially on the bins that are tucked back out of the way.  Needless to say, we both feel rather accomplished.  It's not quite done yet, but it's pretty darn close.  I still have a few empty tubs and will be moving the candles around most likely, but I want to get Christmas down sometime before January is over (and possibly still get cards mailed out, who knows).

The next order of business for my craft supply closet will be a total Martha Stewart step.  B will be making fun of me for years to come, but I don't care.  I want to take the closet door on the right and add some sort of organizational system to the back of it.  I'll have to draw it all out so I can plan it just right, but there will be pegs and rods and all sorts of great fun stuff so I can hang more "junk" on the back of the door.

Now... if I could just figure out a way to get all the other stuff out of that closet...

Reader Participation:  Have you organized your craft supplies?  If so, what is your system?  If not, why not (too few supplies, not enough room, not enough time, etc.)?  Feel free to share photos!  Also, feel free to ask questions if there was something I didn't cover or if you're curious about something you see in my closet.

I love crafts and I love free, so to find a website for All Free Crafts pretty much meant heaven for me.

From what I have seen so far, they have free crocheting, knitting, and sewing patterns, along with free craft ideas for various holidays. There are also free patterns for crafting with the kids.

This site is excellent for beginners or for people wanting to try their hand at a new craft since patterns can be pretty expensive. There are several crochet patterns, including patterns for a crochet baby blanket and a crochet hat. I'll be hitting up the sewing patterns here to practice my sewing since I could really use some practice getting my stitches straight. Perhaps I'll be able to find a good knitted hat pattern for B after the boat blanket is done (worked on that today, by the way... pictures will be taken soon, I promise).

I also really like the All Free Crafts blog. There are lots of ideas for how to recycle old books, magazines, cereal box liners, and wrapping paper (I am on the hunt for how to recycle Christmas cards and plan to post about that fairly soon).

(Probable) Upcoming Posts:

• Ringing in The New Year and Keeping up with Resolutions: Craft Room Organization
• Boats for Cameron Knitted Blanket Progress Pictures
• What to Do with All Those Leftover Christmas Cards

I have a renewed love for the Crafts n Things magazine.  This used to be a favorite magazine of mine, but over the years I lost interest.  The magazine contained projects that were either repeats of old projects or projects my grandmothers wouldn't even be caught dead doing.  Every now and then there would be a good project stuffed in between all the less desirable projects and those good projects made me keep going back, but I finally gave up altogether.

Of course, that is until last month.  I picked up the December issue for ideas for holiday crafts and Christmas ornaments and am so glad I did.  It appears as though every issue contains knit or crochet patterns, jewelry making directions, flower arranging instructions, paper crafting ideas, card making directions, and even a Christmas ornament section (and much more).

I know there are other crafting magazines out there, but I love Crafts n Things so much because it covers all the crafts I love to do, and crafts I have never tried before.  I'm more likely to buy a magazine that covers a wide variety of crafts I do infrequently than one that is specific for a craft I rarely do. 

If you've never checked out Crafts n Things, or if you remember the old issues and fell out of love with them, I highly recommend taking another look.  You won't be sorry!  I'll be signing up for my subscription very soon!

Christmas is over, which means my frantic rush to get all crafts done and out of my house is over as well.  My sisters received the gifts for my nieces and everyone was fond of the decoupage boxes and the knotted blankets (I have borrowed Sophie's knotted blanket several times already!).

The lids of the paper mache boxes were the most fun of all the Christmas crafts I put together.  Decoupaging is so much easier now than it ever has been in the past because there are so many stickers available thanks to all the scrappers and card makers out there (nearly no tiny detail cutting necessary).  In the photo here, I have two different sets of stickers shown, but I did use three different sets of stickers (all purchased at Michael's, a local craft store).  The vintage looking cards shown were cut from wrapping paper found at Hobby Lobby, another local craft store. 

Each lid made was different, but only slightly.  They all had the same ribbon around the edges and the same music paper, but the placement of the stickers and the cards are really the only differences.

Of all of my holiday crafts this year, the ornaments were the simplest, but only because they were small and easy to manage.  The baby blankets took a bit more time but were mindless and could be done without looking once the material was trimmed and the fringe was cut.

I made three ornaments of each design, one set of three different ornaments for each of the girls (click the image for close up view).  I probably could have had them all finished in one night if I hadn't had to deal with a cranky, teething toddler.  All three designs are from the same fabric, which I purchased at Hobby Lobby (the closest local craft store with fabric).  Each design also has a different color ribbon and felt backing.  To finish off the ornaments, I used a hidden stitch.  These stitches allowed me to close up the pillow without anyone being able to see the seam (the best way to close a pillow, but must be done by hand).  It's very simple and for these ornaments was extremely quick work.

There is still one blanket left to complete, but that can be done at a later time since I'm not shipping it.  The two blankets being shipped just have to be wrapped and boxed now.  The fabric for the blankets was purchased at Hancock Fabrics (it was quite a large bag for enough fleece for three blankets!).  The only supplies necessary for this blanket are the fleece, safety pins (or straight pins, but safety pins are named "safety" for a reason), and scissors.  After finishing the blankets, I washed both using the gentle cycle, cold water, a little All Free & Clear, and Downy Vanilla Lavender fabric softener.  Normally I don't use fabric softener for baby items, but there was so much static electricity when making these blankets and since they're going to the Great White North where it is cold and heaters run all the time, I knew it would only get worse.  My sisters can wash the blankets again if they'd prefer there to be no fabric softener (although they smell and feel so wonderful now!).  Besides trying to make sure any and all dog hair had been removed (only important because both of my sisters have dogs), trying to remove a little of the static electricity (Static Guard stinks and I don't know how baby friendly it is), I also washed to remove the green fuzz balls from the fleece.  They are all over my living room and my clothes and my dog as well.  I was a little apprehensive about laying the blanket out on the guest bed for fear I'd have to vacuum the duvet cover in there, but not one green fuzz was found.

It feels so good to have finished objects.  One of these days I'll actually make something to keep, but all of these projects are gifts for my nieces and my daughter.  The baby blanket will probably see the most use, especially since one side has the alphabet on it and they're coming to the age (Sophie has almost learned her entire alphabet now, and she's the oldest of the three) where they love to learn and show what they've learned.  I just wish I could be there to watch them as they open their gifts.

Paper mache has not been appealing to me since I was a child, mainly because of the mess.  Thankfully, my local craft store carries a nice selection of already made paper mache boxes in various shapes and sizes.  I had a difficult time selecting the boxes for this particular Christmas project, but I think the boxes I picked will be perfect.

The purpose these boxes have is to serve as a decorative place for my nieces and my daughter to store the Christmas ornaments I make for them each year.  I know this isn't a gift that will excite three children under the age of two too much this year, but I hope someday they will appreciate it.  Of all my holiday crafts this year, this is by far my favorite.  I'm honestly pretty impressed I remembered how to decoupage since it's been years... and years.

Because these boxes needed to be shipped to a land far, far away, I didn't want them to be terribly enormous.  I also wanted them to fit under the Christmas tree if the girls decided they wanted to leave them out (years down the road when they're on their own, that is).  Because of their purpose, the boxes couldn't be too small, either.  I plan to make lots of ornaments through the years.

Firstly, I must warn all of my readers that decoupage is no laughing matter.  Quite plainly, the goopy white stuff is about as messy as it gets.  Various forms of glue may be messier, but decoupage is really just another type of glue with a fancy name to make it sound important.  Knowing this, I put newspaper on my work surface before doing any decoupaging (I was pretty certain my husband would frown on me decoupaging the dining room table, although given the right supplies, that could actually look pretty cool).  I made sure all my supplies were close at hand, and started measuring at cutting to get ready for the pasting.

A bit about the supplies.  I found two very beautiful Christmas wrapping papers at Hobby Lobby, along with the three paper mache boxes.  One of the papers was a line from a well known Christmas carol printed with the melody.  The other paper was a collection of vintage Christmas cards.  I am currently banned from buying more Christmas paper (we have one of the larger Rubbermaid tubs nearly filled with paper), but this paper had a purpose and was allowed without comment (thankfully - I adore the music paper!),  I also picked up the Mod Podge (decoupaging medium) while at Hobby Lobby.  Other items were purchased at a later time.

After laying out the newspaper, the first order of business was to cut enough of the music paper to fit around the bottoms of the boxes.   I tried decoupaging three different ways.  For the first box, using a tiny piece of tape, I secured the paper to the box, then glued the paper down using a thin line of Sobo craft glue.  I later decoupaged the entire outside of the box, but really only used the decoupage medium and not the actual technique of decoupaging.

The second box was decoupaged in the true sense of the word, but came out with many wrinkles I simply couldn't remove.  I really didn't like the way it turned out so for the third box I decided to paste down the paper with a little bit of the Mod Podge on the starter edge and then not use the paste again until the opposite edge.  Once secured, I then decoupaged over the box and it pretty much turned out the same as the first box.

I selected round boxes for this project, and round is not conducive to wrapping without a little creativity.  The paper I picked up has these marvelous grids on the back that made it extremely easy to do the majority of this project.  I took my little Scotch paper cutter (seriously, this is one of my favorite wrapping tools in the history of convenient tools) and cut strips about an inch wide all the way around the box, top and bottom (click the photo to enlarge).  I then decoupaged each individual strip (two at a time) and pasted them to the box.  On the bottom of the box, they overlapped a bit to create a circle.  After I had these strips pasted down is when I decoupaged the bottom of the box.

Once all three of the bottoms were done, I started on the tops.  I had to find a circle in my house large enough to act as a template.  I found a Christmas platter that was a bit too large, but better than anything else I found.  All of my pots and pans (even the big stock pots) were just a smidgen too small.  Once the circles were traced, I spread the Mod Podge all over the top surface of the box lid.  I flipped it carefully to place it roughly in the center of the paper I had laid out.  I had to fight the curling (it's possible to see a bit of the curling in the photo, especially once the strips are cut), which made the process a bit of a challenge. 

The grid guidelines were the most helpful when doing the bottom of the box, but I was still able to use them a bit for this portion of the cutting.  I cut the paper into fourths around the edge and then split each of those fourths in half, and so on, until I had fairly even strips (all eyeballed, no measuring for something like this) all the way around.  Going back and forth between sections instead of trying to go around in a circle is pretty much what kept my strips close to even.  Since the platter was just a bit too large for the template, I trimmed the excess from the lid prior to decoupaging with my trusty little Exacto knife after folding the strips into place.  I spread the Mod Podge on two strips at a time, folding each strip carefully over the edge of the box as I went along.  It took a while, but the end result was worth it.  Of course, it wound up being hidden mostly by one of the finishing touches I added later.

Because baking, cleaning, and sleep are all calling my name quite loudly, I must stop here for the night.  Please, stay tuned for the continuation of the decoupaged paper mache boxes.   All three have been completed and all three are slightly different.  There will be plenty of pictures to share.  Also, don't forget to check back for pictures of the finished ornaments as well as the finished no-sew knotted fleece blankets.

I am currently unable to share images but will be posting pictures as soon as this is resolved. 

My holiday crafts are coming right along.  The Christmas ornaments for the girls are completed.  I have one blanket finished and two left to knot.  The paper mache  boxes were started last night and are looking good.  I have to work on the tops today.  Sophie and I picked up some supplies at our local craft store yesterday to add to the tops of the boxes and I can't wait to get them finished. 

In the rest of my Christmas world, the baking is well under way.  I haven't started the cards yet.  I am waiting on one package before sending off my box of gifts (as well as finishing up a blanket and two boxes).  Things are starting to come together but my house is starting to fall apart!  I am leaving B in charge of gifts for his father and brother, so I don't have to worry about that, at least.

Because I am not with my family this Christmas and everyone will be at my parents' house on Christmas Eve, I called the local florist to have a fresh flower arrangement sent to my mother.  I know Linda (she's been our florist for years - my mother used to babysit her daughter, and I tutored her daughter... all years and years ago) will do an excellent job with the arrangement.

Once Christmas is over, I'll be able to work on my knitting and hopefully finish up the baby blanket I started... in January of last year (yes, I feel shame).  It's probably about half done, but if I'm not careful, my niece will be graduated by the time she receives it!  I would like to knit Sophie another scarf since I wound up giving hers away by accident.  I don't remember the pattern I used (I made it up) but I still have the yarn I used (Misty Alpaca, if I recall correctly - very soft and cozy) so I should be able to come up with something.  I might make a hat to match.  I think I'm ready to knit another purse and felt it.  Perhaps I can make a bag big enough to be a diaper bag.  I might even take the time to try my hand at crochet again.  I really just need to master my tension.  However, the baby blanket must be finished first!!

Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as I am able to upload again.  I can't wait to show off the decoupaged paper mache boxes!  For now, back to baking and blanket knotting!!

I really wish I had taken the time to get progress pictures today while making the latest of my Christmas crafts.  First, a little back story:  My family (sisters and parents) has decided to draw names for Christmas this year.  Along with drawing names, each person actually made a wish list that was emailed to everyone because we're keeping the names secret until Christmas.  This pretty much stinks for me since I live so far away and don't get to share in the fun on Christmas Eve when they're all together, but it makes it easier since I just have one set of people for whom to buy gifts (we decided to draw couples and then buy for the family or the individual, buyer's choice).

Some of the choices we all put on our wish lists were gift cards.  Since gift cards travel well, this is what our giftees will be receiving.  One of the cards came in a nifty little box that pops the card out of the opposite side that's being opened.  I didn't want the other recipient to feel left out, so I decided to make a quick gift card holder.  It isn't anything fancy by any stretch of the imagination, but it turned out very well, better than I expected, even.

Today, I sewed my first cuffed mitten without a pattern.  The gift card fits in the mitten perfectly.  I'm still rather amazed I managed to do this without any sort of instructions, to be perfectly honest.  I wish I had taken the time to take notes while making the mitten since I would be able to write my own directions then.  I'm pretty impressed with myself for figuring this out, however, I'm slightly annoyed with myself for second guessing my original design since I think I created extra work for myself.  It's all part of learning, I know.

I think my sewing machine hates me now, though.  I used fuzzy felt and it was pretty thick going through the feeder.  Some of the fuzz wanted to catch every now and then, but for the most part I made it through without too many problems.  What's even more amazing about the entire project is that my seam actually managed to remain even!  Yay, me!  My sewing is improving!  Now I need to remember how to thread the silly thing so I can change the color of the thread.  Thank heavens for the manual!

I really do wish I could be there for the recipient to open this gift.  I think it will be much better received now that there is a little gift card holder made by yours truly, or at least I hope that's the case. 

Specific to me, of course!

 

I have mentioned previously that Christmas ornaments are probably one of my favorite Christmas crafts to make (overall favorite, for that matter - Christmas just happens to be my favorite holiday).  I was thinking about this the other day and realized I've made a lot of different ornaments through the years.

 

Just to list a few:

    * paper bag ornaments (sounds crazy, but very simple)
    * felt shape ornaments
    * felt and fabric ornaments
    * quilted ornament balls
    * fabric shape ornaments
    * wooden and fabric ornaments
    * cinnamon applesauce ornaments
    * photo ornaments
    * recycled Christmas card ornaments
    * painted glass ornaments

 

The list could go on and on.  I think I might have pictures of some of these ornaments somewhere, but if not, I'll have to ask my giftees if they can take pictures for me since I always have given away the nicest of the ornaments.  My sisters were the recipients of the majority of my ornaments, and now I will be making ornaments for my nieces.

 

Because of the ornaments I want to make for the kids, I think I'll try to make an ornament every month or so.  It will be like Christmas all year long!  I have a few ornaments I want to make already, some from the recent issue of Crafts n Things and some from a few books I have here.  I also think I want to attempt knitting some mini stockings and hats, but I'll have to find a pattern first.  I'll have to pace myself or I'll wind up making too many ornaments and there won't be enough room on the Christmas tree for all of them!

 

In any case, here's to getting started early for next year!  Yay for holiday crafts all year long.  :)

I am so glad B comes home tomorrow from his training in New York. I am hoping to get a lot more done with him home, although I'm not entirely certain that will be the case. At least I can take a blanket with me to the airport to knot in the car on the way home.

Speaking of B coming home, instead of working on any Christmas crafts tonight, I worked on cleaning up the house a little and spent a rather lengthy time talking to him on the phone. He talked to the baby on the phone as well and amazingly, she actually rambled on and on. Usually she clams up on the phone, but tonight the child was just out of control. She's so cute right now with all of her new words, and it was very obvious she was excited to talk to her daddy.

B will be frustrated to see many of my craft supplies are sitting in boxes in the guest room, but I don't want to put them in the closet just yet. I really would like to get some sort of storage system going in the closet other than huge boxes, but that will have to wait for a bit. Perhaps after the new year I'll make a trip to the Container Store and get my supplies organized again. I'll probably put the boxes in the closet sometime this weekend, though. I think I am going to try to use the boxes as a gift wrapping surface, but I'm not sure that will work. It's certainly worth a shot.

I worked on the ornaments last night. The blankets are still staring at me, sitting in a pile on my sofa waiting to be knotted. I took advantage of Sophie being asleep last night and sewed up all of the ornaments so they're ready to be stuffed. Out of all the crafts I have ever done, holiday crafts are always my favorite, and out of the holiday crafts, ornaments rank at the top (I seriously wish I had pictures of all the ornaments I've made throughout the years - I should ask my sisters for pictures of all the ornaments I've made for them). That's probably how they managed to get worked on before the paper mache boxes and the blankets, although I don't have sealer for the decoupage yet, so that can wait another day or two.

I sewed three sets of three ornaments each. I'll take pictures of all the ornaments oncethey're finished, but for now I focused on the Christmas tree. These are some of the easiest ornaments I've ever made (usually I use the blanket stitch around the edges or some other hand-sewn detail), and the first ornaments I've ever made with the sewing machine. I wish I'd made them a wee bit larger but I don't think they'd look good on the tree if they were too big. As it is, this ornament was probably my smallest at roughly 1"x3".

I'm not terribly fond of the rickrack I used for the Christmas tree hanger, but what's done is done. Since this is the first time I'd ever sewn anything like this and I wasn't using any sort of pattern, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get the rickrack so it was facing the right direction to work as a hanger when I was done. I took the time to pin down the rickrack and then pin the two fabric pieces together (the green is felt, the Christmas tree is simply cut from some Christmas fabric I purchased at a local craft store). I ran into an issue while sewing with the pins in place and wound up having to remove the pesky ones that were in the way of the presser foot, but that wasn't too often.

I have to admit, while I like sewing with the machine, I don't really care for sewing small items such as this. Not only is it frustrating because of all the stop and go, but the size made the ornaments difficult to turn out once they were all sewn up. I do like, however, the fact that it cut my sewing time by elevntyhundred hours. Had I thought about what I was going to do for my nieces for Christmas earlier in the year, I would have gotten a jump start on the ornaments and probably would have done them all by hand. Oh, who am I kidding. I would have planned it and probably would never have gotten around to it and would have skipped the whole thing altogether had it not been for the sewing machine.

I did remember to leave a bit of a gap so I could turn the ornament, which for me is a small miracle. I was surprised I managed to get all nine ornaments sewn on the machine without mucking up any of them. Of course, I still have a small bit of hand-sewing to do, which leaves plenty of room for mucking about, but the gaps are small, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Once I finished sewing the ornaments, I trimmed off excess material and clipped the corners. I made sure to leave a little extra fabric on the side that needed to be sewn up so I had a little more fabric for playing (or mucking, as the case may be). When turning the ornament, I used my scissors (the deadly-cut-you-so-you-bleed scissors) to poke out the corners, and that's only because I managed to misplace the seam ripper that I used to own years ago. I know this was a bad idea, but thankfully it had no bad results. I told B a seam ripper would make a great stocking stuffer, so hopefully I won't be turning corners with my scissors too much longer.

Once turned, I stuffed the ornaments with a little bit of Polyfil (very little bit) and made sure it was tucked into the corners as well (again with the scissors of death). I then folded the fabric at the gap down into the ornament to be flush with the seam already there and pinned it shut so I would have an easier time sewing the hidden seam. I still have a few ornaments left to stuff and pin and then I will work on the seams after all that is done.

I'm not looking forward to the hand-sewing, mostly because I have a "boo-boo" on my favorite needle pushing finger (middle finger, right hand). It currently qualifies as a boo-boo and not a sore, wound, or crack (or anything else it could be called) since it is wrapped up in a Care Bears bandage as well as a Hello Kitty bandage. it has certainly caught Sophie's attention!

These ornaments should be done by tomorrow night or Sunday at the latest. I will probably take a blanket (or perhaps all three?) with us to B's parents house on Sunday if we go over there to watch the football game. I'm not sure when I'm going to get the decoupage done. I do have a few more gifts coming in the mail that need to be sent to the Great White North in time for Christmas Eve, so I have a little time. I have a feeling I'll have to do an overnight shipping or something with this package, though. I was the one asking around about Christmas gifts and trying to figure out what to get Sophie well before Thanksgiving, and I'm still rushed to get everything done. One of these years I will get organized and be done by Thanksgiving (yeah, right!). Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

I should really be working on the last blanket instead of writing this (or I should be in bed), and yet, here I am.  My mind has been racing with all the holiday crafts ideas floating about and I'm dying to get them all down. 

 

Of course, I'm sure I've forgotten the majority of the ideas, but they'll eventually come to me again.  I have a file box somewhere with ideas from years ago.  I wonder if some of the recent ideas are really old ideas I've forgotten.  That's certainly something I would do.  Unfortunately, hiccups are preventing me from remembering much of anything right about now (or is it lack of sleep?), so I'll have to start jotting down those ideas when they come to me.

 

I considered writing out the instructions for the no-sew blankets but I found a link for the No-Sew Fleece Blanket that works just as well.  It's so easy, even my craft-challenged friends can do this.  Thankfully, it's not necessary to follow the directions exactly.  I am pretty confident that my strips are not all exactly one inch wide nor my corners five inches by five inches. but once it's all together no one will know the difference.

 

These are the two fabrics I selected for all three blankets.  I spent one evening laying them out and trimming them all.  I pinned them with safety pins so they wouldn't come apart when I moved them since I knew there would be no way I would get close to cutting the strips that night.  It takes an amazing amount of time to get these fabrics trimmed, especially times three!  I made one of these for my mother-in-law a couple years ago (used pinking shears that time... never again!) and I vaguely remember it taking me slightly longer than I had expected.  I attribute that to the pinking shears and lack of experience.  This time, I think it's just taking me so long because of the fact that I'm dealing with three blankets here (and I'm slightly less than motivated).

 

I started cutting the strips yesterday during Sophie's nap.  I managed to make it halfway through one of the blankets (wasn't being my most efficient).  I took the time to pin the edges just so my strips would be somewhat even, but I didn't bother to measure.  I have this extremely awful habit of eyeballing measurements and placements, but I'm usually pretty good at being very close, if not dead on.  When pinning this, I pinned one side and then cut (here, the pins shown are all on one side, but folded in half to make it easier to pin the second half - only half the guesswork involved this way!), and then pinned another side and cut.  Tonight, when cutting the remaining strips in that blanket, I actually folded the blanket in half and just used what was already cut as a guideline.  The second blanket I cut tonight was done in a slightly different manner.  I folded the two sides together and then cut them together (talk about saving time!).

 

I put a safety pin in each of the corners to make sure the blanket stayed together enough that I wouldn't have to worry about which way the material goes and now have two blankets ready to knot.  That can easily be done with Sophie around since there are no scissors (I use my deadly-cut-yourself-and-bleed-super-sharp scissors for projects like this, so I don't like to have them out when she's awake) and no pins (again with the deadly - these little glass head straight pins are killer!) involved in knotting.

 

Most likely I will have to spray these again with the Static Guard.  I noticed a bit of static electricity tonight, but not much.  I don't want to have to deal with that at all, though.  I'll spray them tonight before I go to bed and they should be fine for tomorrow.  I will definitely have to vacuum and lint brush when the blankets are completed because the green fabric loves to leave fuzzies behind.  It's rather annoying to see all of my pillows, my sofa, our clothing, and even the dog covered with little green fuzzies.

 

Now, off to attack the last baby blanket and then to bed! 

The fleece for the three no-sew blankets is all trimmed and pinned and ready to be fringed for knotting. It took me a little longer to do it than I expected, but that's okay. The fringe part should be fairly quick, and the knotting is very mindless. I can do the knotting while playing with Sophie if I work it just right. The fringe I'll probably do tomorrow night after I get Sophie to bed. Once the fringe is cut, I think I'll work on decoupaging paper mache boxes. That shouldn't take too long, once I have all the paper cut and placed. I'm not sure if I want any other embellishments on there or not. I might possibly put a little ribbon or raffia or maybe some buttons on there, but we'll see. I just might have time to work on the nativity ornaments for the girls if I'm lucky.

 

The blankets are going to be a serious pain if the weather stays cold and the house is dry. There was much static cling tonight, so bad I had to grab the can of Static Guard. Even after I sprayed (and I can't stand the smell, either), the fleece was still full of static, but I didn't spray again unil later.

 

Pictures will be forthcoming. I took one tonight, but it was just of the fleece put together on the floor and was not terribly exciting.