Hello beautiful friends! It’s Good Friday and it’s a very special day. Sending you good wishes on this blessed and holy day today. I am very happy that my husband and I will be going to church tonight. I missed it so much last year. It never really felt like Easter since we couldn’t do any activities. I’m so grateful that things are starting to return to normal and we can worship. I’m wishing you and your family a beautiful Easter weekend.
I thought I would share my Easter cross stitch project with you today and a bit of home decor…. I have the stitching piece on our coffee table in the living room along with some other Easter pretties. I finished this piece on Tuesday and ran out to Michael’s and found a frame and some ribbon. It was a quick and easy stitch and I love the pretty images and of course the message.
How cute is that bun bun?? And that teeny beeeee! (You already know how I feel about bees!)
I hand assembled a bow with pretty gingham ribbon and added a button charm from my stash – I used my hot glue gun to attach everything. The frame is from Michael’s.
Here’s an in-progress photo I took while I was working on it…
That’s it for today! Have a wonderful weekend everyone! XOXO
Hi everyone! I almost typed Happy Sunday….but it’s Monday! It really feels like a Sunday – maybe because my husband is off work for President’s Day….or maybe because I made us pancakes for breakfast! LOL. Anyhoo it’s a nice gloomy rainy day and Lucky and I are getting caught up in the studio this afternoon. I hope you are doing well and are healthy and happy. Spring is arriving fast here in Sacramento. Our garden is blooming and we are sneezing… It’s time for a new season, and some hope that we’ll all be out and about soon. Just really been missing my friends lately and our adventures. I am sooooo hoping we can go to church on Easter this year!!
Today I’m sharing an embroidery project! It’s been years (decades) since I have done some hand embroidery! My grandmother taught me how to embroider! (and crochet and cross stitch)… Makes me miss her when I do this type of crafting. She was awesome. And her name was Voila – how perfect is that? So it’s been a really long time for me with the embroidery. I came upon this kit one day at Hobby Lobby and thought – well, let’s give that a try! And I super duper enjoyed stitching this! I used the kit but I switched out the fabric to some pretty natural colored linen. I love the texture of this fabric – and I had it in my cross stitching stash pile. I like the kind of boho, hipster color palette! If you haven’t tried something in a while, or never – I want to encourage you to try something new!!!
I looooove making french knots!!! The texture is so cool!
Here’s a super close up. That mustard colored rose is CHUNKY! I love it!
Here’s a photo of it in process. I traced the pattern from the original fabric onto the linen using my light box and a sharpie.
Here is the back – I finished it off with some natural cotton batting. It’s very soft so it won’t damage the wall if it’s hung. At the top is a pretty bow made with celadon colored crinkle ribbon that I dyed. It also has a ribbon loop for hanging.
That’s it for the embroidery project! For all my snow soaked friends, I thought I would share a few photos from my yard – to encourage you that Spring is definitely coming. Our flowers are going crazy already here!! A bit of hope for us all!! First up, beautiful hot pink camellias…
And soft, delicate daffodils….
A bright white camellia – I love the contrast with those dark green leaves! OOOH LA LA.
This is a tree I came upon in the parking lot at Michael’s last week! The way the light played on it makes the photo look like a painting!
That’s it for today my friends! Florals in stitching and in the garden! Sending you hugs from my craft room. Have a great week! XOXO
HEEYYYYY! Happy Friday crafty people! It’s time for a big blog hop today! We are celebrating the brand new release from Waffle Flower Crafts today! The release is called “Hope” and it’s wonderful. Pretty florals, some faith based stamps (which I absolutely love), more Stitchables….and even more! CLICK HERE to shop the new release – it’s available now. But, be sure to check out the blog hop too! Loads of inspiration and fun and a giveaway. The Waffle Flower release is full of stamps, dies, and stencils that celebrate the hope and joy of Spring! Did you arrive here from TaeEun’s blog? Welcome! I have two projects to share with you today featuring the new stamps and dies.
My first card is made with my favorite thing from the new release – the Hopeful Girl stamp and die set. I used the new Lacy Circles dies to feature the stamps also. The finished card is a white card base custom sized to 5.25″ x 5.25″ square. I used purple because to me that’s a Spring color and I thought the purple gingham was very sweet with these images.
I first stamped and die cut out the flowers spray and the praying girl. I colored the images with my Copic Markers. I used some small yellow gingham to paper piece her blouse. Yellow is such a pretty contrast to purple I think! Don’t you adore this pretty image? I think this would be a great stamp set for a confirmation or a get well/thinking of you card. I’m smitten. It was very quick and easy to color her.
I die cut a small heart for the sentiment and added some of the awesome Waffle Flower Enamel Dots. In this photo you can see the Lacy Layers Dies – the scallop one I die cut in vellum and the inside circle I used white cardstock. I used Distress Ink and my blender brushes to ink light blue behind where I was going to place the images. I also splashed on some white paint. I added a few small pearls for accents.
I covered the card base in the gingham paper. Then I mounted everything onto the card using foam tape for dimension and interest. (My cards are usually thick and juicy! LOL)
Here’s a close up of the pretty floral spray! This is a very versatile floral… You could mount it at the top of a circle or on the side, or put two together to make a wreath.
This next card combines my two crafty loves of card making and cross stitching! Waffle Flower has the coolest line of Stitchables stamps and dies. I love using them, and now there are some new additions to the collection!! This finished card is kraft A2 card base, layered with cream and then layered with yellow gingham. The yellow layer was die cut using the Blanket Stitch Layers Dies.
I die cut the oval stitching die out of cream cardstock. I found the beehive and bee pattern in one of my old cross stitching magazines. It was the perfect size to fit this oval! I used three strands of the floss colors to stitch my design. It’s so bright and cheerful! I die cut the oval embroidery hoop out of woodgrain cardstock to look realistic.
Hi friends! Just a couple more weeks until Cupid pulls back that arrow and shoots ya! I’m loving making all the Valentine things lately! So many cute ideas and projects to make! This year I’m more into it than I normally am so I’ve been decorating with hearts all over our house. LOL. Here’s hoping maybe we can at least go out for a coffee on Valentine’s Day this year. Hope you’re having a good week so far! XO
Today I’m sharing a sweet cross stitching project I finished a week or so ago. It was a fun and quick stitch and was easy work. I love how it came out – so adorable and kinda old fashioned and prim. The pattern is called Holiday Hoopla by Brenda Gervais. It’s part of a series for all the holidays. The finished piece fits into a 4″ embroidery hoop – so it’s small. I think I’ll put it on my dresser! I finished it off in the hoop, with some bright red ribbon and a Tim Holtz heart charm I had laying around. A simple finish but super cute.
The pattern is basically an adorbs cupid surrounded by different color hearts! I loooooove her funny shoes! Ha! The fabric I used is 14 count Aida in Raw. It’s a nice color for vintage looking projects.
Here’s a close up of the bow and heart detail. I tied the bow around the screw on the top of the embroidery hoop.
I finished the back with some pretty soft pink felt. I used hot glue to affix the felt to the back of the hoop/fabric.
Here it is in my hand so you can see the size and scale!
Thanks for popping by today! This finished project is for sale now in my Etsy Shop! I hope I brought a smile to your face with this cutie cupid! What are you working on right now? I hope you are well and happy and healthy my friends. I’ll be back soon with another project! XOXO
Hello lovelies and happy Christmas week! This project I’m sharing today has been delivered to it’s recipient so now I can post it! It’s a festive winter snowman cross stitching project! I always have big plans for lots of Christmas stitching…but alas…this is the only one that got finished and framed this year! I love how it turned out – cheerful and colorful. Who doesn’t love a big ol snowman?! I hope you are doing well and hanging in there. Grace. That’s where I’m at. Gotta slow down the anxiety and show grace. Most of all for ourselves.
This pattern is called Stylin’ Snowman and it’s by Kogut (Supplies are listed at the end of my post). I stitched on 14 count Aida. I used my own floss colors. They are pretty close to the pattern, but I swapped in lime green instead of the called for yellow. I used some fancy floss for his hat. It’s sort of furry!! I bought that floss to use on a Santa beard but used a touch here too. I framed it myself – I’ll talk more about that later in my post. You’ll see I incorporated some of my card making supplies!
Here’s a close up of the colors and stitching… I adore his sweet grin and pink cheeks!
I dyed my own ribbon with Distress Spray Stains and added shimmer too! I used an old Tim Holtz Token and twine to finish off my pink bow. I love the pink and the aqua of the frame together. Feels a bit vintage and cozy.
I found this frame at Michael’s and it was the perfect color to match the stitching! I splattered some snow onto it with a paint brush! To frame my stitching I used two layers of natural cotton quilt batting under the fabric. This makes it ‘poof’ up a little bit from the frame backing. I like the look of it that way. I use archival tape to hold the stitching fabric around a backing board. It’s quite an easy process actually and very rewarding!
I put him down in the bottom of the frame area so he would look like a family member in a frame!
That’s it for today! I’m not sure what else I will post before Christmas…we’ll all have to wait and see! Pretty sure no more cards, but maybe something else fun. Blessings to you for a great Christmas week! XOXO
Hi there crafty friends!! It’s been raining here in Sacramento and I’ve been nesting and crafting. Oh, and decorating and eating Christmas treats too! LOL. My husband has gone Clark Griswold on me and full on decorated the front of our house and our yard…and the garage! You can probably see our house from space right now! The neighborhood kids love it and it’s bringing cheer to our little street and that’s all good. I haven’t really been stamping a lot lately. But I’ve been stitching and cooking and making yarn stuffs. Kind of trying to check off some crafty things from my long list. When it’s raining I love being in the craft room with Lucky in his bed, just working away.
I have a fun project to share with you today! These little bobble hat gnomes have been popping up a lot in my Instagram feed so of course I wanted to make some. This would be a fun group project or a family/kids project. Few supplies are needed and they were easy and joyful. I’m going to use mine to tie onto gift packages or boxes. They would also make cute ornaments or something to tie on the top of a bottle of wine for Christmas. I saw one person made them into a garland!!
These are my sweet little gnomies!!! I made one with a white ‘beard’ and one with a grey ‘beard!’ You could make these any color for any occasion. Aren’t they sweet??
Here’s the blue one in my hand so you can see how big they are….
Here are my supplies and my supervisor. Everything came from Hobby Lobby or Michaels. The rims for the hats are cut from a toilet paper tube!!
You start by making the bobble hat first. Cut a strip from the toilet paper tube. Next, cut several strips of yarn and wrap them around the tube until it’s all the way filled up. Maybe 35 strips??
Here’s the tube all filled with yarn strips. To make the hat, simply pull all the strings through the middle and out the other side.
Tie the strings together with another piece of yarn – tightly. Then put in some batting or a couple of cotton balls to fill in the hat form. VOILA! A sweet little hat!! Trim the top of the strings into a tiny hat pom pom. Adorbs. To make the ‘beard’ for your gnome, make a pom pom from white or gray yarn. I used the yellow size pom pom maker.
I painted his nose with a bit of craft paint. The wood bead is 10mm size. The last step is to use your hot glue gun to glue the hat onto the pom pom and then glue the nose on!! I decided to also add a jingle bell to the top of the hat for a bit of bling!!
Sweet gnomies!!
That’s it for today’s project! I hope you liked something a bit different than a card, or paper!! Cheers to Christmas crafting! Leave me a comment and tell me what you’re working on right now! Hope you are having a blessed and happy week. XOXO
Hi friends!! Happy Humpday!! I’m going to see my crocheting/knitting group tonight AND I’m going to wear a sweater! Yes! It’s finally cool here and it’s time to get out in the fresh air. I hope you’re having a good week so far. I have a cross stitching project to share today. I finished it at 2am on Monday night! I really needed to finish it in time for voting day! SUCH a fun project to make. It has a modern but yet vintage flair to it…
VOTE! Yes, I made a voting pin to wear on my jacket (or bag) for the next few days. The pattern is called Sister Suffragette and it has a large piece and then these small vote buttons (for several countries!). I will stitch the larger piece later, when I have time. I used 18 count Aida to make the piece small -ish. Supplies are linked below if you’re a stitcher and want to make this too!
This will be my voting outfit! (We already voted weeks ago tho)…. As you know I am an Election Officer for my county and have worked the last two elections. I decided to sit this one out for several reasons. I feel very strongly about the privilege to vote, and I love my country.
I stitched the piece and then turned it into a pin. The idea/directions can be found on the Stitched Modern Blog! I changed it up to make it my own project and you know I had to use some paper in there too! I chose the thread colors from my stash…
Here is my finished stitching…
Trimmed stitching, ready for making into a pin… Batting and backing ready…
To pull the stitching around into a circle, do a quick stitch around the edge so you can pull it tight…
The batting goes next to the stitching, then the paper circle underneath. After I pulled the stitching I used the extra threads to go back and forth to make it more sturdy.
I cut several strips of ribbon to wrap around the outside of the pin. I hot glued them to the kraft circle and then hot glued the top onto/over the ribbon. I used a pretty scalloped circle and golden cardstock just under the stitching.
You never know if this might end up in an antique store 50 years from now… So I always date my work!! (I love it when I find stitching or postcards that are dated and with the location!)
And, I’ve been so enjoying my new makeup table! My husband picked the very last of the hydrangeas the other day for me so I could put them on my table… It’s time to prune them down to nothing for winter. So happy to get a few last blooms.
Thanks for popping in today! Any other stitchers out there? I seem to know a lot of paper crafters that also like to cross stitch. I feel like it’s making a comeback. So many cute patterns out now! Remember to get out and vote! Have a great day and I’ll see you soon! XOXO
Hi guys!! Today I’m sharing a crochet project!! I made another Granny Square Blanket!! I think it’s my favorite thing to crochet. It feels kind of vintage/retro, but also modern at the same time. And I love using multiple colors in my crocheting…so it’s the perfect stitch for me. It’s relaxing to work the same stitch over and over and see the blanket come together. You can use any kind of yarn and any color palette. And you can make it as small or large as you like. I love a good granny square!
Today’s blanket is for a sweet mama to be, and her baby boy that will be here soon. I’m so happy I finished it before he arrives!! I made it for the super kind and lovely lady that owns Pretty Pink Posh. Paulina is such a sweet person and I know she’s going to be the best mom!! So excited for her! I used shades of light blues and greens with soft white perfect for a babe. (and for a baby Seattle Seahawks fan!) I found the border pattern on Youtube and it’s a new one for me – but I really like it. Kind of polished fancy.
The yarn is from Hobby Lobby – I think they have the best baby yarn – in the prettiest colors. I linked all the supplies at the end of my post. I used a 4mm Hook size. The finished blanket is about four feet square. I made pom poms for the corners using that minty green yarn. They are tied on with bows so they can be removed for washing. Here are some pictures!! Take care and have a wonderful day!!
Thanks for stopping by my blog today!! I’ll be back soon sharing something crafty!! XOXO
Hey everyone! Popping in here on this Friday afternoon to share my latest crochet project…. BECAUSE IT’S FINISHED! YEAH!! Go me! This one took me a long time to finish and I was very happy to put the edges on and photograph it last week! It’s another Granny Square Blanket – because I totally love Granny Square Blankets! This one is for our home! It’s made from the nicest yarn I’ve ever worked with so far. It’s super soft Merino Wool. YUM. (Debbie Bliss Rialto DK). I chose a bunch of colors I liked and it came out so nice! I’m really proud of it – it’s the largest thing I’ve made so far. It’s finished at about five feet square. I think I will drape it over a chair in the family room for decoration and color. This is a great project for any level of crocheter. It’s just a giant Granny Square. You start like you’re making a small square, and just keep adding on rows until it’s the size you want. I have carried this thing with me everywhere! I love it already. Here’s some photos!! Have a super weekend! XOXO
To finish this one I did two rows of single crochets. I thought it really needed a simple border this time…and no pom poms. LOL. I ended on a white row and my two single crochet rows are in that same white color so it looks finished.
And here are some photos of it along the way… Like I said… It’s been a minute since I started this one!! This yarn is so dreamy. Like a cloud. My crochet hook size was a G 4.0.
It was about half way done in this photo.
And there’s Lucky – creeping in the background! He really wants to get his little mittens on this!!
Okay friends! Have a wonderful weekend! Be sure to come by on Monday because I’ll be sharing two cards as part of the new release blog hop for Pinkfresh Studio and there are some prizes!! Yeah! Take care and I’ll see you soon! XOXO
Hi everybody! Happy day-after-turkey Day! How are you? How was your holiday? We had a very nice and calm day here at our house. We started decorating the house for Christmas and my husband decorated my car too! YAY! It’s full on pedal to the metal Christmas mode now! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Are you going shopping today? We are! In the past we were those crazy people who got up at 3am and went shopping on Black Friday. But now, we are more reasonable and go out later. Mostly because there isn’t much ‘stuff’ that we want! Now we go to enjoy the spirit of the day and listen to music and drink coffee! Cheers to a nice weekend!
On Tuesday I worked on a project most of the day, and now I’m here to share it with you! I finished a cross stitch sampler maybe two weeks ago. I wanted to frame it myself and make it all fancy. I had the idea in my head. We headed out to Hobby Lobby Monday afternoon and picked out all the stuff. And Tuesday I went for it. And, you know what? It came out just like I wanted! I’m so happy with it! It was really fun to create and craft something different. Paint and glue and ribbon…all the good stuff. A LOT of people followed along on my Instagram Stories as I made it – and that was fun too. I saved the stories in a highlight in case you want to go back and watch the videos.
The pattern is called Snow Sampler and it’s from Country Cottage Needleworks. The fabric I used is Aida 14 in the color Raw. I used all the called for colors of DMC floss, except I made the house red instead of brown. This was a nice easy stitch and it came together quickly. All of the framing supplies are from Hobby Lobby. This is an 11×14 size frame.
I purposely made the little house red because I knew I wanted a red frame for this piece. The bow and greenery are attached to the top of the frame using a zip tie! I used two layers of quilt batting under the stitching to make it ‘puff’ out just a little bit.
Here are a few in-process photos of this project as I was stitching it!
Here are all my framing supplies from Hobby Lobby! The paint color is Country Red from Deco Art’s Americana Collection. The ribbon is wired.
I chose this frame specifically because I love that little bit of scroll work and the uneven edge of the outside of the frame.
Here’s the first layer of paint. I used a sponge brush.
This was after three coats of paint!
I ended up doing FIVE coats of paint before it was finally good and solid!!! I was really surprised at how fast the paint dried. I was able to just keep working without having to let it sit too long.
Now for that giant bow! I was a little intimidated by this part! I have never made a bow like this before. I ended up following this VIDEO TUTORIAL on how to make a wired ribbon bow. Guess what? First time! It was perfect!! I love this!!
I’m pretty proud of this part!!! LOL.
I used a little flat snowflake ornament and some greenery sprigs to finish off the decorations.
In this photo you can see the finished frame. I used some sandpaper and gently sanded away some of the red paint to make it look a bit more vintage or distressed. I am happy with how this looks!! The frame really looks like it came this way. I can’t wait to do more of this kind of project.
I used a zip tie to hook the two sprigs together and another zip tie to attach the bow in the center. A long zip tie wrapped around the top of the frame to hold it on. Tip: Never use glass with stitching because it needs to ‘breathe’ and will get discolored faster under glass. (I learned this while researching for the project!)
Thank you for popping by my blog today! I have discovered that MANY of you who follow my blog and Instagram are also cross stitchers! I guess I am late to this party! I am totally hooked on stitching now! (Cuz you know I needed another hobby – LOL!) It’s so relaxing and pretty, and kind of old fashioned too. I am completely into it.
Hi crafty people!! How are ya? I’m popping in here on a Sunday to share cross stitch project! Woohoooo! Lately, I have become kind of obsessed with cross stitching! I used to embroider and cross stitch when I was a little girl – with my mom and grandma. But it has been YEARS (like a lot of years) since I picked up a needle and some floss. There are so many fun and fabulous patterns now. I have quickly become entranced by another hobby! LOL. One of the many reasons I love cross stitching is that it’s easy to bring it with me everywhere. Just a few supplies in a small case and you’re ready to craft anywhere. Today I’m sharing the first one I’ve actually finished! LOL. It’s been delivered to its recipient so now I want to show you! Do you cross stitch?? I am loving it!
Here is my piece, mounted and framed (and bowed!)
This adorable pattern is from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. Their stuff is soooooooo cute!!! I used Aida 14 fabric for this one. I finished it with a frame from Hobby Lobby and some fabric from my local quilt store!
I used a bit of quilting batting and a easy press board to mat both the gingham and the cross stitch piece. Just looks a little nicer to me with a bit of puff. I used a hot glue gun to attach the pieces together, and then to the frame. Look at that tiny coffee cup!!! So sweet!!
Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you’re having an awesome weekend! Now I’m off to find something to craft! Love ya! See you soon. XOXO
Hey everybody! I’m here today with a non-paper crafting project! I’m finally getting around to posting my second baby blanket I crocheted! It was given to the recipient some time ago, but I never got around to posting it. I’m already making another blanket! This one is richer colors, for our family room. I think I’m obsessed with granny squares! I started crocheting about a year ago and it’s just a wonderful side hobby for me! I love it because I can crochet in the family room watching tv, or bring a bag with me in the car, and of course attend yarn meetups! I do think that doing granny square blankets is going to by ‘my thing’ for yarn. It’s not too hard, and you don’t have to concentrate or count, so you can keep a conversation going at the same time….
I really love how this blanket came out. Pretty, soft, baby colors…and that pop of citrusy yellow! Yum. I added a border of scallop stitch to complete the look and then I made some big fluffy pom poms to finish it off! There is no set pattern to use. You start making a granny square (I looked it up on Youtube and in my craft books) and just keep making it bigger until you get the size you want! Easy! This finished blanket is about 4′ x 4′. I used two skeins of white, and one skein of all the other colors. My yarn colors are listed in the supply links! This Caron yarn is soft and squishy, and washable. I used an H size crochet hook.
Aren’t these colors delicious??? Ugghhhhh. You can’t go wrong with any color combination!!
Here’s a close up of the scallop stitch border and the pom poms!! I tied them on with strings and bows, so they are easily removable for washing.
Um, yeah, I might have a thing for pom pom makers!!! This is a photo I took with some different yarn than this project!!! I have every size!!! EEK.
I needed to send this blanket away so I made a tag and attached it with a cute little pink pom. I used a manila tag and then wrapped washi tapes around it to make it pretty. Another super easy project.
That’s it for today! Happy Monday! Have a fantastic week my friends!! CLICK HERE to see the supply list for today or CLICK the graphic below. My yarn colors are in the supply list. (Affiliate links used). I will see you later in the week with a brand new release from one of our favorite companies!! XOXO
Hi crafty people! Happy weekend! Hope you have some fun things planned! It’s been raining alllll week here. We’re hoping to get in a day trip to Napa this weekend for the Lighted Art Festival. We’ll see if the weather holds out! And there is an eclipse Sunday night with a full moon. I think my hubs is going to go out and photograph it with the photography club! Again, we’ll see if the weather holds out for that too. Geez, Wednesday we had a record rain total. Most rain in one day for the past 40 years! And, of course, that was the day I had meetings and errands to do! I should have used a boat instead of my car! I survived and it’s all good. I have a fun project to share today! It’s something that’s been in my head for a few months and I’m eager to use it now that it’s made! It’s a crochet journal! I intend to write down all my projects and notes about the stitches and type of yarn used… That way if I want to make something again – or if someone has a question – all the information is right there at my fingertips! I’ve been keeping it all in a spiral notebook so far.
Now, funny story… The one great thing about being a craft supplies hoarder is that you can shop at your own house! LOL. I had ALL the supplies needed for this journal in my room. Hahaha. I’ve been saving this beautiful paper pack for a special project. And now I’ve used it. That feels good. The paper collection is called I’d Rather Be Crafting – and it’s from Echo Park! It’s so pretty, and colorful and fun. CLICK HERE to see the entire collection (Paper, stencils, stamps, enamel dots…) I had this perfect sized binder from Simple Stories in my studio too! Yay! I started this project late at night so it was good that I didn’t have to go out shopping.
No stamping in this project. Paper, die cut letters, stickers, twine…. But no stamping! It was a fun project – no stress. I didn’t use wet glue – everything is held together with lots of scor-tape. That makes for a smoother finished look. (I am inept at using the right amount of liquid glue). I hope this will inspire you to create your own journal! Maybe for crafting, but also for notes, or recipes or even a pretty scrapbook!
The journal is approximately 9×8 inches. It really is the perfect size! I started by covering the front of the journal with the scissor/ruler paper. Then I added everything else. The letter dies are from Taylored Expressions and I die cut them from some woodgrain paper in my stash. I used lots of the pretty stickers to decorate everything!
I made this little bouquet by using the flower stickers and the cute banner. I wanted to pop them up on foam tape in a little cluster! So I die cut some circles to frame my bouquet! It came out perfect!
Twine, stickers and enamel dots…
My cute assistant was very helpful in choosing which papers to use! LOL.
Coming along….
This is the back cover!
And the inside of the front cover using the scallop edge stickers…
That’s it for today! Do you like making paper projects like this? I really enjoy being able to customize things for myself and as gifts. It’s so special to have a one of a kind item to use! Best wishes for a happy and blessed weekend! See you soon! XOXO
Hey everyone! How is your weekend going?? We’ve had rain rain rain here the past week or so. I love that! I feel all cozy and feel like reading and drinking coffee and making stuff. Winter is in full swing in Sacramento! Finally. The rain is much needed here and I’m grateful. Last week I had so many fun activities and meet ups. Seems like everything goes on pause during the holidays and then the week after New Years we all want to get back to our normal routine. I was ready – ready for things to get back on track – food, exercise, crafting…all of it!
I finally finished my first big crochet project! I’ve made a few scarves, but only one big thing so far. I’m so happy to share it with you! One of my sweet blogger friends had a baby girl recently! I am so happy for her because she wanted to be a mama so badly, and I know she is going to be amazing as a mom! Her story was one of the ‘good news’ stories of last year. I wanted to make her something special for the nursery. The photos I saw of her nursery had grey and white and pops of bright colors (and pom poms!). I chose some pretty yarn colors in baby soft yarn (Caron Simply Soft – supplies and colors below) and set to work! This is a Granny Square Crochet Blanket!
I am a brand new crocheter and I made this! YEAH! The reason I’m telling you that is because I want to encourage you to do it to! If I can make this, you can! When you are a new crocheter, your best friend is YouTube. There are so many people (kind and generous people) who post instructional videos on how to do everything! I suggest you search for the pattern you want to make and then find one of the You-tubers that ‘speaks’ to you – that you like their voice and pace. That’s what I did to make this – I watched a ton of videos and then started… I belong to two local Crochet/Knit meet ups that have experts – and they were always willing to give me help and a tip along the way. Yarn peeps are just like paper peeps – sweet and helpful (and they just hoard yarn instead of 12×12 patterned paper! LOL).
The pattern for my blanket is a Granny Square. It’s about 40×40 inches finished. But, the good part is you can keep adding rows forever! Make it whatever size you want it to be! I changed yarn color after every round. After I finished the square blanket, I added a shell stitch crochet border in white to polish/finish it off nicely. Then I made some pink pom poms for all the corners using my Clover Pom Pom Maker. I attached the pom poms with a tied bow, so she can remove them if they get in the way – or for washing.
These colors are just like a bowl of candy! And it’s sooooo soft and squishy!
Cutest photo shoot photo-bomber ever! Hee hee. What a helpful guy!!
I’m listing my supplies and colors below. I bought one skein of each color and I used an H hook size. I made the entire blanket, border and pom poms and still had yarn left over. I would say I used about 75% of each skein. So the yarn goes a long way. I’m still learning how to gauge how far the yarn goes and how to read the labels/weight etc.
I’m loving learning something new. I hope you’ve enjoyed my project too! What are you working on right now?? XOXO
Hi everyone! How are you? Hope you’re having a great week! My husband has been away for work all week and it’s been a crafting marathon here! Lucky and I have been staying up very (too) late every night crafting and watching too much tv! I can’t sleep when my husband isn’t home so I end up all wonky. I can’t wait to see him Friday night! The house seems too big and too creaky when I’m here alone. Anyhoo – lots of crafting happening! LOL.
If you follow along with me on Instagram and/or Facebook, then you know I’ve finally learned how to crochet…and I finally finished a project! This quest to crochet started over a year ago. I took some lessons at a local store but it didn’t sink in. Then I took some more classes at Michael’s. But I just never finished anything. I really wanted to, though! As luck would have it, I recently became aware of TWO awesome knit/crochet meet ups right near my house! I vowed to stick with it, and I joined both of the groups! I have met the loveliest and most talented ladies through the meetings! And, they have encouraged me and helped me along. Yay! I think I’m on my way now! I have finished two scarves and started a blanket. It’s so fun now that I know what I’m doing. LOL. I’m doing basic stitches until I get my confidence up. I can’t read a pattern yet. But I’m having a blast. Turns out that yarn people are just like paper people…. Crafty girls are the best.
Since my blog is also my way of documenting my creative journey, I wanted to post about my first project here! I’m sure that a lot of you are also yarn hoarders?! Am I right? I have found that it’s been good for my creative juices to do something different. New ways to look at colors and textures and try something that challenges me. I’m loving it so far. I have oodles of yarn already and projects in my mind. I’m going to start a journal to remember everything. Oh, and of course a Pinterest Board!
Here’s my finished scarf – and styled the way I wore it out the other day. HOW fun to receive compliments and say “I made it!” Love that. It’s simple, really. Just row after row of double crochet stitches until I ran out of yarn. Then I added fringe to the bottom. Well, because, fringe is better!
In progress… I accidentally threw away the label for the yarn! But I did some research and found out the brand and type. It doesn’t have a dye lot system because each skein is hand dyed. It’s called Malabrigo. It’s all my favorite deep rich Fall colors. SO so pretty! One of the cool things about this hobby is that it’s so easy to bring it with you. You just need your project, yarn, hook and scissors and off you go!
I am totally addicted to this type of yarn – that has multiple colors in it. I like watching how the colors match up as you stitch along. And it looks so pretty when it’s finished. I think it’s easier to hide my mistakes too!!
Thanks for stopping by and for sharing something new and different with me! I hope your day is extra fabulous! XOXO
