Mixed up media!

Hee hee. I played with paper and paint and mod podge last weekend and made this:

And this:

They were fun to make, but I need a lot of practice. One thing that I have figured out over the years is when it comes to "real" art, I am not so good. I can copy ideas well but those ideas are really the ideas of someone else. I don't come up with my own ideas very well.

Still it was fun. Oh, I did not copy these from anyone in particular. I took the ideas of others and sort of combined them and made my own. Does that make sense?

Valentine's Goodies

Okay, well just cards but they were still fun to make.

My youngest daughter and I have a running "joke" about loving Dora. She used to love Dora but she no longer thinks Dora is cool. She IS 8 you know. Anyway, I had some fun 3D Dora stickers and I had used the big Dora on a layout of her 3rd birthday when she chose Dora as her theme. I had some left over ones and thought I would make her a Valentine's Day card with the rest of the stickers. I took one look at Boots and I knew exactly what the sentiment would be. I went with the rhythm of the kids valentines that you get in the box and they give to their friends. So here is the front:

And here is the back:

Don't you just love the little insect band?? They were always my favorites in the show.

Once I did her card I knew I had to make one for the other two also. My son's was easy also. I had some 3D Hot Wheels stickers that were laying around. I hadn't used them and I doubt I would have on a layout. So here is the front:

And here is the inside:

I love the way it turned out.

So then came time for my middle daughter's card. I didn't have any themed stickers for her unless she wanted Tonka trucks but I knew that she wouldn't appreciate that. So I went with something a bit prettier: butterflies from Wild Saffron. Here is the front:

And here is the inside:

I had decided from the beginning that I wouldn't be using the typical holiday colors of pink and red. I wanted something a bit different. I love how all these cards turned out and I loved their faces when they opened them.

However, there isn't a happy ending to this story as I am pretty sure that at least two of the cards are already in the trash. They weren't treasured for very long. But that is okay as they were really only meant to be savored for just a few minutes and they did their job.

Unfortunately they didn't hold any treasures which was a disappointment to the kids. Now that they are getting older they are beginning to expect a gift card or a gift of some sort for each holiday. They were disappointed this Valentine's Day when all they got was my heart, well, and a homemade card.

Remember #3 ???

From my last post on sewing??? #3 said "Sewing is addictive." Well, it is.

Here is today's sewing experiment. This cute little notecard is simple in lines but warm in sentiment.

Here is some detail.

I Sewed on Paper

I did it. I sewed on paper. I made this notecard as a practice for sewing. It is pretty fun but it takes a long long long time. Or maybe I am just a slow sewer. (ha ha...say that three times fast...slow sewer...slow sewer...slow sewer) Okay, moving on.

I learned a few things.

1. You need to poke a hole the same size as your needle but don't use your needle to do it. You will bend your needle and your pointer finger will get sore from pushing on the top of the needle.

2. When you sew through two layers or more of paper it is harder to push your needle through. There is thicker paper AND the adhesive holding the two pieces of paper together gets on your needle making it even harder to push through. Ugh!

3. Sewing is addictive. I really like the looks of the sewing, particularly the different stitches.

4. The back gets bulky with the string all back there. This makes it hard to adhere to more paper. (But it still works)

5. You really have to plan and poke your holes slowly so your holes all are in the right place as well as straight. If you don't have your holes straight your stitches won't be straight.

I think I will be sewing more often on things.

What do you do when you need a photo album but can't find one for a big boy?

Just change the ones you find!

My son likes to put his photos in little albums. We used to be able to get them that had a pretty generic cover on them, but in the past year or so we haven't been able to find ANY that were big boy appropriate. I don't like to spend too much money on them either. I can usually find them in the dollar range. That is a good price to me.

The other day I was at Walmart and found the albums I wanted but they all looked like this:

They were not big boy appropriate. I couldn't find any with a cover that was even decent for a boy at all. Or an adult for that matter. I was frustrated but looking at them anyway, when I opened the cover and I realized that these you could take the cover out! BINGO! I can use my scraps and make a cover to his liking and not embarrassing to pull out with his friends and show them the big fish he caught or the latest Boy Scout camping trip. Three albums hopped into my cart. They were also on sale for 67 cents a piece. BONUS!

I got home and showed him my find. He of course turned his nose up at them until I told him that we could change the cover. He went with me to my scrapbook paper and we looked through and found some paper that he liked. I went immediately to work as he gathered his photos.

This is what they look like now!

I used a piece of cardstock inside under the patterned paper to give it some stiffness. Inside the cover and the back I placed a journaling card so he could write what the event was and the date.

I also put patterned paper on the back too so it matched the front but not exactly the same as the front.

I was thinking that these would be great little gifts for grandparents, family, friends, etc.

Oh Halloween!

First I need to apologize for neglecting my, oh, two loyal followers of this blog. You know who you are and I am so sorry for leaving you hanging for so long.

I HAVE been busy and I have been creating. I have lots to post and lots to still take photos of so I can post. But I will give you a hint: knitting, scrapbooking, sewing and crafting have all been in my "idle hands" recently. I will post in good time though all the nifty things I have been working on.

Today, though is all about Halloween. And these:

Aren't they so cute??? I got the idea from here who got their idea from here (I loved their blog title, ha ha) and when I saw that post I just had to make some myself. I have Mason jars floating around my house and these are a perfect craft to use them for.

I followed the directions and instead of using ribbon at the top I used Raffia string. I thought it looked a bit more rustic. I put in a flickering tealight that is battery operated so I could leave them on all the time. The person from Not So Idle Hands used a string of Christmas lights in hers.

Also, new in our home are these fun placemats.

I serged the edges and backed them with a quilted white material. They are so quick to make. I bought the Halloween material last year when it was on super clearance sale and I had the quilted material left over from this past spring's Easter placemats. So in all this project was free for me.

Leave me a comment and let me know that you still read and what you did new and crafty for fall or for Halloween.

Box Cushion, oooo la la!!

My lovely box cushion turned out wonderful! I love this cushion. I took the box cushion sewing class from Joann Fabrics for the past two weekends. It is hard for me to take a class when I have no idea what the end product will look like. That is my only real complaint for this class. The instructor was wonderful but she didn't have a sample for us to see prior to us making the object. So while she is giving us directions I was having a hard time picturing what she wanted me to do. She would say things like, "fold the material in 1 1/2 inches to make a pocket on the outside", but I would have no idea why I was doing what I was doing.

Without further adeiu here is the end product.

It will go on the bench we have at our river place. So the colors and material is perfect for that bench. (I have a feeling my mother might want to steal it too for her house.)

See the close up of the piping!!! I am so proud of me.

And just look at that zipper! Doesn't it look professional???

Ha ha. I have been super busy with some other projects too. I will update you on those when I get them done. It shouldn't be long now.

For my two readers, thanks for hanging with me in my blog drought. I promise to post more often. I have been super crafty recently so I will be posting more now.