Bee Mine Tea Holder

I saw this cute tea bag holder on Lollychops blog and thought it might be fun to make these with my daughter. I found this stamp in the $ section at Michael's and thought it would be easy for my daughter to color for her valentines for her kindergarten class.

Lollychops version had a lot more detail, but I wanted to keep it simple so we could repeat it 25 times.

You can find the pattern and directions over at Lollychops

Blast Off

I recently purchased this awesome Space/Rocket stamp set at Michael's and I think it's by Recollections. The paper is some co-ordinating stuff that they have out right now too.

I stamped some of the stars on the envelope to add a little more fun to it all.
I frayed the edges of the burgundy and the cream colored papers by using my X-Acto knife on the edges.

I stamped the Happy Birthday(I think they are K.I. clear stamps) and then colored it in with colored pencils. I stamped some random stars around on the card for balance and colored them also.

I stamped the rocket and then colored it with colored pencils and added Diamond Glaze to the window and the very tip to make them shine.

Here is the weekend sketch challenge that I based my card upon. It is a pretty literal version of the layout, but I think it will work good for a fun boys birthday card.

Valentine's Heart Craft

Here is an easy & fun craft to do with kids. I found the directions on Martha Stewart's website.

Start with a sheet of waxed paper folded in half the long way and put crayon shavings in the middle of it. We found out after the next step that this was not enough shavings. It works better with thicker shavings and in multiple shades. But be careful not to make too many shavings or they will ooze out the sides.

Then I cut a paper bag in half and put one half under the wax paper and the other on top of it and then ironed on top to melt the crayons underneath of it. They melt pretty quickly so check it often.
This is how one of ours turned out. Then the kids traced hearts on the wax paper and cut them out.

We are going to take down the snowflakes that we made and hang up the new hearts in the window instead. My nephew wants to cover his whole bedroom door with them!

Close up pic.

Part Way Done

Here is the project that I started and still need to "save".

Here is the part that I embroidered for my buddy GoldyLocks. I traced the guitar off of the fabric in a funky matching green color and then I traced her logo font around the guitar and embroidered that.

I could really use a light box, because I held this brown fabric up to my lamp shade and tried to trace it that way...
I want to make this into a pillow with the guitar fabric on the sides, but I cut it a little too small trying to master the Rotary Cutter/Ruler thing. I will try to find some other fabric that matches and make it work. I just hope it doesn't look too county, as she is a total rock chick!

New Phone Holder

I'm not even sure how I came across this tutorial, but when I saw it, I just knew I had to make it.

My husband went out to get me a new phone the other day & it's one of those really nice touch screen phones. I have to say that I really do enjoy having a phone that works, plus has talking GPS, Internet, email, Pandora, Facebook etc... Then he(and other family members) decided that I really needed a Bluetooth for talking and driving. Only now I needed a place to put them both together in one place so that I didn't misplace that crazy small earpiece.

Then I found this tutorial and directions for making a phone/camera holder & decided I needed to make it! I found it over at Sew Mama Sew's website: Sew Mama Sew Tutorial

It is really quite simple and you can even use scraps! The fabric I used(by Alexander Henry) was leftover from the other project I am still working on. I even improvised because I didn't have any batting to use for the lining but I did have a scrap of fleece I found in my "Pile of Scraps That I Will Use One Day".

The photo is turned for some reason but you get the idea. I just sewed along the edge of the fleece instead of trimming it afterwards. Now, I come from an upholstery background and we just make it up as we go & then steam the heck out it at the end :) haha
Here is the final product! I also have an industrial sewing machine that really doesn't do too well on light weight fabrics and it's nearly impossible to sew along the very edge of something because the machine will "eat" the edge. But this is for my own personal use & not to give or sell and I am pleased with how it turned out. My fancy phone peaking out. Perfect fit.

Holly Jolly Towel

This is a sweet towel that I embroidered for my sister-in-law's aunt. She wanted three towels with simple holly patterns and this is what I came up with.

In the Works

This is a sneak peak of something that I am working on for my friend Goldy who sings. It's a part of her Christmas presents that I am sending down to her. She is so busy I am sure she doesn't read this blog so she will still be surprised when she gets it.

I cut a part of it smaller than I wanted to so I will have to see how I can "save" it and then I will show you what it's become.

Christmas Snapshots

Here are a few snaphots from our Christmas celebration this year.

Sophia feeling festive

Sophia giving Grammy & Grampy the gift she picked out for them.

The new Star Wars Pajama pants and Lego Shirt from Santa

Sophia & her daddy

The cousins with their new baby cousin(who wasn't in the mood for a group photo)

The Red Velvet cake we made to celebrate Jesus' Birthday. This is the cake that Steve grew up with and is the recipe that his mom made when he was little.

Coffee Please!

I embroidered this towel for a friend of mine who never seems to be seen without a 2 go cup in his hand.

I sort of traced a medium sized cup that I had on hand and then traced the bottom of a cup to make the circle in a size that seemed to work. I had to put the American Red Cross in the middle as a joke because it seems to be his lifeline! haha
He did get a kick out of it and said it now has many uses around the house which is good to hear.

Snowy Trees Towel

We had one side of our family's Christmas celebration yesterday and I wanted to give something to my grandma who just turned 86. She has been cleaning out some of the extra stuff around her house so I wanted to give her something she could actually use and that I made for her.

I came up with this winter tree scene from a vintage pattern I found online. I copied the trees that I liked and moved the deer up to run between them. It just felt cozy to me.
I think she liked it, she said she would put it on display anyway.

Waechtersbach Pattern

My crafty sister-in-law Alyson, has a mother who has commented varies times on my towels recently. I have the feeling that she really wants one, but doesn't know what to get.

I asked Alyson and she thought that a towel made with the tree from the Waechtersbach Dishes she has would look cool. So we found the dishes online, printed one out and then I pinned it to the back of the towel, held it up to a window and traced it. That made my pattern! Really you could do this with anything that you wanted to try to embroider.

The whole point of those dishes are a solid red background with a solid green tree and all of the bulbs, candles and stars are solid white, but this is how I could improvise on a white dish towel. I thought about doing the candles and stars in yellow, but just didn't think that would be true to the pattern.

I like how it turned out & hope it will be a great surprise for Mrs. Bev!

ps. if you know her, don't tell

Here it is up close.

Towels for Aunt Laura

My dad's Aunt Laura was in town this fall and requested that I embroider some towels for her daughters for Christmas. These are a few of them.

She gave me ideas for patterns and colors that would work in their kitchens.
I tried using different stitching techniques for different areas. Mostly I used the Back Stitch, but also tried the Chain Stitch and some Stem Stitching.

Hopefully she will be happy with how they turned out. I went to the post office today and the line was super long, so I tried the automated machine and then the parcel collector was full! I hope they make it there :)

Holiday Botique

These are some of the items I had at the Holiday Boutique I was in last weekend.

My version of Rodolph's Spare noses, I got this idea from Kerry over at Pete and Kerry She has so many great paper crafting ideas and she does a lot of craft sales too.
This year's version of Snowman Soup. I like these much better than last years that I made.
My husband really wanted to make those "Frustration Pencils!" Do you remember them as a kid? I had forgotten all about them until he told my daughter about them. We couldn't find the "fur" at any of our local stores, but when we were in Omaha for Thanksgiving we went to a smaller hobby type shop & bought some there.

This sweet girl around 8 years old(or so) bought most of them to give to her friends for Christmas. My husband was thrilled that he sold so many of them!

A few of the gift card holders that I made this year... More to come...

I have embroidered a bunch of towels for gifts and the holidays so as soon as I get some good photos of them I will get them posted.

Homemade Vanilla Experiment

I have found some recipes online to make your own Homemade Vanilla Extract and decided to try to make my own as holiday gifts.
You need Vodka and Vanilla Beans. I bought Vodka that wasn't too expensive in case it didn't work out! A friend recommended this Vodka and said it didn't leave that bad after taste. I bought a 2 pack of Vanilla Beans as Costco, it was 10 beans for $12 which I thought was a great deal.

You need to split them down the middle for the flavor to come out, but leave the top still attached.

Then I tossed them all in my jug of Vodka. Then I needed to leave them sit for 8-10 weeks and hope for the best.

Now that it has been a few weeks I have put them in individual bottles to "brew" better. I think I will need to add another bean to each bottle to really make it work. I read that you should have 3 beans per 1 cup of Vodka, but I may try it with 2 beans and see how it works. This is something that you should be able to just add more Vodka to your bean bottle when you are getting low and will last for a long time.

Holiday Candy Jars

These are some of the candy jars that I did for the craft sales that I am doing this fall.

I added the little Rhinestones this year & people seemed to like the extra bling!

Gift Tags

I recently participated in a local craft sale. These are the gift tags that I made & sold most of them. They were 12 tags for $3.

I used my scalloped square punch(I think it's the purple one by Marvy Uchida) to punch the Kraft paper and then cut out squares of designer paper and plain white to stamp To & From on.