Little Sister's Wedding Shower

We hosted little sister's wedding shower on Sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately the lighting wasn't great and only a few photos turned out, but here's some glimpses into the crafty fun of throwing a party.

Making invitations was a party in itself, back in January.  I had fun using my new Cricut.

Purple and silver die cuts and purple ink.  (Can you guess the wedding colours?)

A little jewel and a little humour.  (Since it was in winter, we decided it was a blizzard instead of a shower.)

Gift table decorations.  Since there are few flakes on the ground this February, we added some vintage doilies as snow.  (Can you see the yarn-wrapped J from an earlier post?)

Purple punch.

Powdered donuts get pretty in paper cupcake holders.

Let 'er rip.  Beautiful packaging gets torn to shreds.

I'm looking forward to the next party!  More accurately, I'm looking forward to the next excuse to get crafty with purpose.

Christmas is coming...

I had my first Starbucks Christmas Blend today.  There are officially no other big holidays between now and December 24, so the lead-up is now in full swing.  Christmas crafts are starting for me, too.  My attempt to finish the 2nd Christmas stocking did not go as smoothly as planned.  Although I used the same type of yarn and the exact same hook, the green stuff did not work up as firmly and the result was a much looser, lumpier, ugly thing.  I'll have to pick up another ball and try again; perhaps I'll break with tradition and go for purple this time....

We got some shopping in this weekend, although not really of the holiday variety.  I think it was just to build stamina for the hard core Christmas shopping to come.  There is a really cool store in Shakespeare called That Perfect Piece where I found these two vintage tins.  I'm going to put them in the kitchen and use them to store baking things that only come out on special occasions, like sprinkles, chocolate chips and all that fun stuff.  (I just love the cows one.)

We also hit up two bazaars this weekend.  I'm kind of in love with bazaars at the moment and I'm dreaming of setting up a table for at least one craft sale next year.  We found some really neat stuff, like these hot/cold bean bags.  The brightly-coloured one is a neck roll in a long tube.  Both have soft flannel covers that slip off for washing (smart idea).

We also bought some really cool hand-stitched cards, made by a local crafter, Tammy Merkus   I totally want to try this type of crafting someday.

I also finished a baby blanket this weekend and I'm looking forward to blogging it, but the recipient gets to see it first. ;-)

Socks and box.

Forget Hallowe'en crafts,
they're just not my thing.
Let's move on to Christmas,
with a festive stocking.

Finally!  A type of sock that I can ENJOY crocheting!  It doesn't have to fit anyone and I'm not required to make another one that could pass as being somewhat symmetrical.  I fa la la la love it.  I used a pattern I found on Lionbrand.com and the recommended Homespun yarn.  The only real modification I made was to round out the toe with a few extra sc2togs than the pattern specified.

This is hubby's stocking.  Mine is still just a ball of green yarn waiting to meet its destiny.

In other news,  I attended a bridal shower today for a soon-to-be cousin.  The gift didn't involve any crafting, but I managed to have some fun with the wrapping paper.  Take a peek:

This was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest, so I can't take full credit.  We created a wordsearch using a free web tool.  We made a puzzle based on key words about the Happy Couple (names, places, dates, adjectives).  I wrapped the box in Kraft Paper and stuck on the crossword using double sided tape.  The hearts were punched out of some fun paper I found in the basement and the turquoise ribbon was also secured with double-sided tape.

Inspired by the gift-wrap fun, we even stopped at IKEA on the way home from the shower and I grabbed a few rolls of lovely Christmas wrapping paper.  Grey with snowflakes and tiny white polka dots.  Lovely.  Bring on the holidays!

His&Hers Art (No yarn was harmed in the making of this craft.)

This is by far the quickest craft I have made in a while.  We got a new duvet cover which inspired the following his and hers framed set: king and queen chess pieces.  One sits on my night stand, and one on his.  Here they are against the duvet:

These are simply free clip-art printed onto ivory card stock and slipped into 4x6 frames from the dollar store.

Cost:
$2.00 for the frames
$0.02 for the paper (seriously--precut at the dollar store!)
$? for the ink
==========
Under $2.50 total.

While I type, hubby is busy working on the Monday Makeover.  I can hear the brush strokes!  Here is a preview:

We purchased the paint in the spring with good intentions, so it has been sitting for a good, long while.  This sunny, warm Thanksgiving weekend is the perfect weather for painting, but it definitely needed a good stir after all that waiting...

(He stirred it 500 times, to be precise.  I love that he counted and I love that he's game for painting things purple!)

Looking forward to showing off the finished project.

Just smile, smile, smile.

I'm madly preparing for the beginning of the school year, but I found a few minutes of calm in a 10-minute craft. I couldn't find any notecards I liked to send home as my beginning of the year handwritten notes to parents about their wonderful children, so I picked up some supplies from the bargain bins at Michael's and got to work. All that's involved is a quick stamp on a die-cut card, made special by the tie-dye effect you get from pressing half the stamp into blue ink and half into green. Here are the results:




Something I did not know until I was cleaning up and wanted to do it properly:
-spongy pigment inkpads should be stored upright and tightly sealed
-felt inkpads (traditional inkpads) should be stored upside-down to keep the ink at the inkpad surface.
Now I know.

Cost of the project:
$4.50 for 3 packages of 8 die-cut cards with envelopes
$3.00 for 2 colours of stamp pads
$1.50 for the "smile" stamp
$0.00 for the butterfly stickers - found them in a box of stuff in my office
-------------------
$9.00, or approximately 38 cents per card


To finish it off, I stamped the envelope as well with a rubber stamp from my collection. :) (Once you start stamping things, it's hard to stop.)

Wedding Program Tutorial

It's time for a little throwback....all the way to Nov. 2010! (I said little!) While cleaning the basement, I found the last handful of our wedding programs. I was so pleased with these that I had to snap a few more photos before I recycled them. I just love the rainbow of colours and assortment of odd items on this funky scrapbook paper. As a final farewell to this last little bit of wedding clutter, I thought I'd write a walk-through of how to assemble them.



Materials Needed:
- double-sized heavy scrapbooking paper (12 x 12 size)
- plain 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock
- laser printer
- Fiskars paper trimmer
- Exacto knife
- metal ruler
- ruled cutting mat
- double-sided tape (the Mainstays brand from Wal-Mart is cheap and wide and made light work of the assembly)
- ribbon

1. The printed pieces are pretty straightforward. We created a template in a word processing program, using the text, font, and clip art we wanted. Print it onto card stock and slice it down to size using the paper trimmer.

2. The main body of the program was a tri-folded piece of double-sided scrapbooking paper. Trim the paper to 12 x 6 size (you can get 2 programs from each piece of scrapbook paper).

3. Scoring the paper to make the folds crisper is the trickiest part. (You definitely need a thicker paper to do this, or you'll just end up slicing it clean through.) Using the cutting mat to measure and the metal ruler as a guide, gently graze the surface of the paper with an exacto knife. Follow this link to hear a lady with a lovely British accent explain it to you.

4. You'll need to score both sides of the paper. Score 4" in from one side, then flip the paper over and score 4" in from the other. This will help you to easily fold your paper in an accordion style.



5. Attach the printed pieces to the background using double-sided tape. (You'll need less than you think. That stuff really does its job!)

6. Cut a piece of ribbon about 20" long. Lay the ribbon over the front of the program, like this:



7. Then, grab the two sides of ribbon and flip the card over so that the ribbon wraps around the back like this:



8. Cross the ribbon over the back side and flip the card back around to the front to tie a bow.



It's best to do these assembly-line style. Things definitely progress much faster that way!


A special shout out to my amazing in-laws and cousin Kelly who helped to do most of the trimming and scoring on this major project!

Crochet Flowers Card

The pattern for the flowers and the idea for this card came from a Spring issue of Crochet Today. Here's my take on it.




(I now have two big balls of crochet thread and these flowers hardly take any materials to make, so I'm looking for some other ideas to help use it up!)

Sheet Music Art

I love the simple graphics and designs on old sheet music. When I came across this particular piece of 1920s schmaltz, titled "Cut Yourself a Piece of Cake and Make Yourself At Home," I was instantly struck with an idea of how to incorporate it into our dining room. (It's hanging right above the piano, of couse!)

The pictures below should make this project pretty simple, if you wanted to try it yourself. Simply cut off the cover (I used my Fiskars paper trimmer) and then slice the actual sheet music into smaller pieces to collage together as a background. I purchased a frame that came with a mat and used double-sided tape to secure everything to the sample picture that came in the frame.



Cost of the project:
$0.50 for the sheet music at the thrift store
$17.99 for the frame (on sale)
-------
$18.49


1. Attach sheet music bits to the sample picture that comes in the frame...
2. Centre the sheet music cover over the collage. Use double-sided tape to secure it in place...
3. Lay the matting over top to make sure you haven't missed covering any visible spots. (No need to tape this part.)

Homemade Baby Shower Gifts

This is the afghan I made for my soon-to-be niece/nephew. The pattern is from Bernat's website, made in Bernat Satin Sport and Bernat Satin yarns. I like these yarns for baby projects since they're soft like baby yarns, but they come in bolder colours than the traditional pastel pinks and blues. (The cashier at Zellers was very excited when I bought the yarn and told her it was for a baby blanket.) Since I used a lighter weight yarn than the pattern calls for, I used a smaller hook as well. I can't remember what size it was, though! Update: It was an H hook. I remember this because it was yellow. Gotta love colour-coded hooks!

The final stages of gifting can be the most fun! The mom-to-be is a sewer, so I wrapped the gift in fabric (which is much more forgiving when wrapping a gift with soft, rounded corners). A couple of metres of grosgrain ribbon from the mill end store and a sparkly butterfly that was actually a Christmas ornament from the dollar store and things are looking good.

There's a little trick to wrapping with fabric that makes sure no raw ends are exposed. Basically, you lay the blanket over the fabric and then fold the fabric and blanket together in towards the middle. Flip in the ends and then fold, square-by-square from either end. Secure with ribbon.

I forgot to pick up a card, so a quick raid of my craft drawer left me with the following idea. Write a cute message on a 4x6 piece of watercolour paper using a permanent marker. Draw in a border, highlights and random lines with Crayola watercolour markers. Blend the marker to look like watercolours using a small wet paintbrush. (Be careful not to use too much water....traveling water droplets can mix random colours together!) Let it dry and mount it with double-sided tape to a plain card. (Don't worry if it curls a bit while the "paint" is drying....the double-sided tape will flatten it out again.)

Heartfelt Thanks

We wanted a special way to say thank you for all of the help, support and generous gifts we received as part of our wedding. These cards did the trick! We purchased packs of plain cards and envelopes from Michaels and then spiffed them up with a 4X6 piece of scrapbooking paper, topped up with a few pieces of cardstock trimmed to size and a heard cut from red felt (heartFELT, get it?) with a border stitched in pretty blue embroidery floss. Add a couple of hearts to the inside (we used a heart-shaped paper punch and the scraps from creating the 4X6 mats) and you've got yourself a lovely card.

A few brand name products that made the project easier:
- my Fiskars paper trimmer (by far my best papercrafting purchase ever)
- my Sharpie pens (for the {heartfelt thanks} lettering--they don't smudge or bleed)
- UHU glue stick (I glued the felt hearts to cardstock with white glue, but used UHU for everything else)