Going Sew Crazy

Hmm..no catchy title...

Well, I was glad to learn this week that Paige is as excited about Christmas as I am. She presented Brice with a fully drawn diagram detailing what Christmas lights she wanted and where she wanted them to go. She then coerced my husband into going to Lowe's to see what they would need. I was quite a proud mommy at that point (especially as she had also talked him into a trip to the local Mexican restaurant too) That one is gonna be trouble. At the age of 5, she can already bend men to her will.

I joined an ornament swap over at Freshly Blended. I think this is the biggest swap I have ever been in. I have 9 ornaments to make. Here's the prototype:

This was made amigurumi style with beads and ribbon. As soon as I write the pattern out I will post it.

The girls and I also made these:

Button ornaments. SO much fun. The girls had a lot of fun picking out the buttons.

Some quick notes:
-I forgot to include Wee Wonderfuls Elves Stitchettes from my tutorial list last week.
-The new Country Living magazine has a very versatile cookie recipie in it. I can't wait to try it.
-Someone buy this already!

Have a great day ya'll!

I may be crazy but....

I can not wait until Christmas! I love Christmas. I am trying to hold myself back from putting up my Christmas stuff for at least another week. It's so hard! Brice and I are both ready to get in the swing of things, but are trying to wait patiently, like 2 little kids on Christmas morning. That's saying a lot for him too. He was the biggest scrooge when we were first married, but I suppose the girls' excitement and my giddiness was infectious. He has been as Christmas-y as me the past couple of years.

Look at this stuff! It's some of my Flickr favorites for Christmas. These will definitely get my creative juices flowing! I can't wait!

I am hoping to make a lot of things for my home this Christmas and I put together a list of tutorials to share with ya'll.

Christmas Tutorials
1. 3D Paper Snowflake
2. Soft Tree Tutorial
3. Embroidered Felt Ornament
4. Pom Pom Garland
5. Gumdrop Wreath
6. Felt Circle Garland
7. Dough Ornaments
8. Scrap Ornament
9. Advent Calendar
10. Various Crochet Ornaments under Free patterns

So far the only things I have finished are these:

Furry Trees

From this tutorial. I think I am going to glue some vintage buttons to them.

and this:

From the pom pom tutorial above. I just added beads.

I also wanted to share some recent Christmas-y thrift scores.

Pyrex Cups

Angel Ornament

Collapsible Wooden Snowman and Santa

Well, look forward to more Christmas stuff and have a great day ya'll!

A dress, some pumpkins, and a garland tutorial...

I had planned on having this up earlier this week, but Brice forgot to bring the laptop home 2 days in a row. I really need to stop being lazy and get my computer fixed, but I have been so productive without it that I almost hate to get it fixed. ALMOST. But anyway, I have a mini tutorial for the Christmas garland I just made for this swap:

I don't really know if you can call it a tutorial, more of a how I did it. I did a lot of beading and I'm not very knowledgeable about that kind of thing so I am sure there is a better way to do it, but oh well, here goes:

This is the finished product:

and here are the supplies I used:

1. Glittery chipboard letters
2. silver craft wire 24 gauge
3. Bead reamer
4. All in one beading tool
5. glass beads in shades of blue
6. Store bought crystal garland-I goth this one in the cake section of Wal-Mart
7. Pretty glittery snowflake ornaments

I got all this at Wal-Mart while browsing one day and it didn't cost very much. The first thing I did was wind all the crystals on the store bought garland around the actual part of the garland. THey were made to hang down and since I was going to hang the letters and the ornaments, I didn't want them hanging down. Ok, numbered directions from here on out....

1. I took a bead reamer and made holes in all the letters. On the m and the y, which had 2 prongs, I made 2 holes:

2. Then I cut a piece of wire with the all in one tool. I didn't really measure, I just made it as long as I wanted it to hang plus some for twisting around the letter and the garland.

3. I inserted the wire from front to back

and then I twisted the extra wire around the hanging part of the wire:

4. I put beads on the wire. I used silver and blue because I love those colors for Christmas. It just looks really cold to me :)

5. Then  taped the store bought garland to the floor and laid everything out to make sure of the placement:

BTW, I wouldn't bead the ornaments, just wire them.

6. I then twisted the extra wire at the top of the letters around the store bough garland:

and VOILA! it was done. Afterwards I found this pretty blue stars garland in my craft area and decided to twist it around the store bought garland. It turned out well I think. I hope the recipient likes it :)

Closeup of blue garland twisted here:

Paige has also needed some dresses for church and I got on that this week. This one is made from baby cord and butter suede and the pattern is from Ottobre 4/06. It went together well and the fit was perfect. I would definitely recommend it.

and modeled:

I also finished an amigurumi panda key chain for a swap-bot swap:

I'm working on an amigurumi Little Red Riding Hood and I can't wait to show it :)

Have a great day ya'll!