New baby hats & booties! And some cards.

A few years ago I started making a baby hat & pair of booties for my teacher friends when they had a baby.  I didn't think our school would have so many!  This year we will welcome the 5th set of twins!  And several more bundles of joy.  I've been very busy crocheting.

Baby hats and booties:

For a little girl.

A baby bear hat and booties with "claws".

Baby bear set for a set of twins.

This is a car seat blanket (my own design) to go with the Chicago Cubs hat & booties for my favorite Cub fans. It took many tries to get that C to look half way decent!



Here are some new cards I've made:

First the baby cards.

A get well soon card:

And Mothers Day cards:

I hope you have enjoyed by bi-annual update!  I really hope to make it monthly soon.  If only life would stop interfering with my crafting!  LOL

Organization - 2011 part 1

I re-organize my supplies OFTEN.  It is just something I feel the need to do.  When I reorganize I cull some items out and donate to the school.  I think I'm getting to the point now where my craft room is almost perfect.  No promises though!

I wanted to organize my drawers so I made my own dividers using foam boards.

I tried a silverware holder I purchased for $1. 

It just seems to take up too much room and not hold things nicely.

Using foam board I was able to make dividers that are specific to what I am storing.

It worked so well I also used it for my small punches. I forgot to take a before picture.

And for my SU! ink spots and cat eye ink pads. Because the spots are so small they have always caused me issues for storing.  I punched a circle, wrote the name of the ink and placed it on the bottom of the spot so I can store them upside down.  For the cat eye pads I swiped the ink on paper, punched out a square and put that on the bottom.  I could still put several layers of something else in this drawer if need be.

I divided a fabric drawer to store pre-cut paper (sized for my small Cricut or Big Shot) and some various shapes pre-cut.

That is all for today.  Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Sympathy Cards

Over the past few months I have had to make several sympathy cards, unfortunately.  I always find these types of cards difficult because it is hard to know what will comfort someone else.  Would a religious comment work?  More spiritual? Neither? So I usually go with trees or flowers on the front.  For the sentiment I pick one of the few sympathy stamps I have.  Usually people are comforted by the simple fact that someone has acknowledged their loss.

Here are some pictures - may they inspire someone else to make one of these difficult cards.

Copic markers used for the sky and grass.  Trees stamped with Distress Ink.

Air brushed with Copic markers (a mask was used for the wording to keep the white of the card), then colorless blender was swept over the whole thing.  The bird was cut with a Cricut from patterned paper.

The subtle flowers were stamped using watermark ink.

Flowers & swirls were stamped with watermark ink.

Border cut with a Cricut.

Well that is it for today.  Hey, I posted twice in one month! LOL  Thanks for stopping by.

Has it really been that long?

I can't believe I haven't posted since January!!  I really must post more.  I've been busy working, taking care of my family - especially my DH who tore his MCL and broke the plateau of his tibia on Mothers Day!  Whew.  But I have made a few new things...

Mother's Day 2011

These are the 2 cards I made for Mother's Day, one for my mom and one for DH's.

Here is the inside:

I've also been crocheting! 

So many babies equals so many things to make!

This is a baby "cocoon" and hat I made for a wonderful band director.  I also made this sweater for her.  With it I gave her the booties and hat I had made & sent to India (see previous posts).  The family in India failed to pick up the package so it got sent back to me - sorry but I wasn't spending another $40 to send it back again.  So it was given to someone who will appreciate it.  

 

This sweater did NOT turn out as it should have.  The pattern was for a 3 month old -- this would fit a 4 year old!  When the pattern says to check your gauge you really should!!

Well I think that is all for today.  I almost have all the reorganizing done in my craft room (again) and hope to post pictures soon.

Thank you for reading!  Happy crafting!!!!

New crochet projects

I can't believe I haven't posted in over 2 months.  Life keeps getting in the way of my fun!  Anyway, here are some pictures of a few crochet projects I've completely recently.

Baby Bear Hat

My first baby bear hat - I decided a winter baby needed a polar bear hat.  I'm still working on booties to go with it.  Hopefully the baby it is meant for will wait a few days for me to finish!

Baby Booties

Baby Bonnet

Booties and bonnet for a new baby in India.  Finally I got to work in pink!  Everyone keeps having boys so I actually had to go buy pink yarn. LOL



Slippers for a a special little girl.

 I recently tried making slippers - everyone in the family got a pair.  These are for a dear friend's daughter, I hope they fit.

That's all for now.  I also painted my craft office and rearranged (again) since my last posting.  I will try to get pictures and more organization tips posted soon.

Happy Crafting!

Organization - part 2

I have many Longaberger baskets and prefer my baskets to be "working" and not just decorations. I love using baskets with lids because I can store things in places you wouldn't expect.  For example in my family room a basket holds those odd kitchen gadgets that you only use once in awhile - and no one knows that is what is in there. Love it.

This is a "lunch box" basket.  In here I have my favorite adhesives.  My 2 ATGs (adhesive transfer guns), one is for regular adhesive and the other has acid free tape loaded.  I also have some liquid glues in here for attaching smaller items.  My stamp cleaning pad is also in here - just because it fits. LOL

This is my SU! ribbon - I keep it separate from my other ribbons so I remember what colors they are.  The ribbon holder is off of a crafting table I have from years ago, it just happened to fit on here. Then the larger rolls are in a "catch all" basket.

Another lunch box basket holds my color wheels, ribbon iron, a jar of ribbon scraps and a jar of flowers.  I prefer white or off white fabric or paper flowers so I can dye/color/spray them to match my project.

This "tea basket" holds my stickles, glitter catcher, and small vials of speciality glitter.  If my supplies are special or expensive they get put some place special so my daughter knows not to touch those items. ;)

I can't remember what basket this is but it has my 3 lonely bottles of paper paint (no idea why I purchased these because I've never used them nor do I even know what I'd use them for!), and my Crafty Fluff.  Love using that on baby cards to make little ducks fluffy.



I think this is a "small gathering" basket and it holds my acrylic stamp mounts.  A great thing about using baskets is I can just grab it and bring it to my table.

This tall basket holds all my rulers.  I have pebbles in the bottom of the basket to prevent it from tipping over.

Another tiny basket that holds loose rinestones.

This tiny basket holds my rinestones that are still on sheets.  If they are in here I know I have enough for a project, the other basket then I know I only have a few.

This "address basket" holds my rub-ons and pre-printed sayings.  At some point I found a bunch on clearance and bought them all, and here they sit.  Must learn not to buy stuff just because it is on clearance! LOL

Here are sheets of ABC and misc strips of card stock.

And lastly, the spring basket I made at the Longaberger homestead.  This holds my most used items - pencils, pens, scissors, brushes, blades, etc.  It sits right on my craft table in easy reach.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my uses for baskets in my craft room.  If you have great ideas for storage/organization please share!!!

Organization

I love organizing my craft supplies - sometimes I think I do it so I don't have to be creative.

This is a cart I purchased at Michaels - I can not remember what it was called nor can I find it on line, sorry.

As it comes the top is open - my DH cut a piece of shelving to fit the top so I can sit my Cricut on it.  This way when I want to use the Cricut I can just wheel it over to my desk and not have it sitting on the desk taking up space.

This is the inside of the top.  It comes with pieces of wood to make the storage areas how you want them set up.  I keep my Cricut stuff in here.

The bottom drawer holds my light table -- finally it has a home!  I've never had a nice safe place to put it before due to its size.

I used the extra 2 wood dividers from the top and a piece of foam board to make the sections on the right.  These hold my Gypsy and Cricut manual.  The left side has 2 acrylic boxes.  The top one holds extra pieces I cut out for future projects.  The bottom one has my embossing folders.

This is the last of the fabric drawers.  I made the sections using foam board - I've never worked with this stuff before but now I'm in love!  I could not find a container to hold the 6x12 paper I've precut for use with my Cricut and Big Shot but now I can easily store them here.  I have neutrals, warm and then cool colors.  The right side has 6x6 paper.

On one side of this cart there are 2 rods to store spools of ribbon.  Unfortunately the only ribbon I have on spools is my SU! ribbon and the hole in the center of these spools is to small for the rods.  I've opted to hang towels on them instead.