Preparing for the Holidays

I finished another handmade Christmas gift yesterday. I was very proud of myself! It is SO great to be getting things done so early so that I'll have time to make things for my own family!

I won't say too much else about it. I need to keep all these suprises for everyone! It did involve felt though and sewing sequins. I enjoyed it very much!

I have plans to make our little family of four our own stockings this year!!!! Boy am I excited about it too! The stocking picture I have included is the one I want to make for my daughter! Isn't it to die for cute?!

As soon as I get done with the handmade gifts for the year I will be ordering my 4 stocking kits to make. I wanted to make stockings last year, but it just didn't happen. This year I am absolutely determined to make sure it gets done, especially since we know we are done having kiddos. Once I'm done this year we can have these treasures forever! I will surely feel a lot of pride and joy using them for many years to come!

My Shopping Spree

I don’t know if anyone will find this interesting or not, but I sure loved my recent trip to the craft store, and this is a blog about all my arts and crafts projects, so I thought I’d share!

So, Saturday my husband surprised me by taking me to Jo-ann’s to shop. I jokingly call that store “the happiest place on earth” sort of my equivalent to Disney Land or something. Right away barely stepping foot in the door my husband spots some clearance ribbon sets, oh man they are cute! Marked down from $5.99 to $1.97 a piece makes them hard to resist. I end up with 5 sets.

Next, it’s over to the paper! Oh… paper! *LOL* that is truly a favorite section of mine. He must really be in the mood to go nuts because I show him a paper stack and he says get it, then I show him another paper stack and he says get that too! Oh my goodness I think I’ve hit the jackpot! I’ve selected a sweets themed stack with cupcakes and desserts galore along with a stack of child themed papers, some girlish, and some boyish. I am about to start my daughter’s baby book so these will come in handy. I select some individual papers also. Most of them are for a decopauge project I want to do making wall plaques for my daughter’s room. I was originally going to paint cupcakes on them, now I am looking to use paper and cut them out with my Cricut instead! On that note I head to get some Mod Podge and some spray adhesive for this very purpose. My husband spots some paper holders, I have been looking at the tall, clear ones, these are smaller, but for 12 by 12 paper, which I need, and they have purple. I’m convinced! I don’t necessarily need the huge ones, the stacks do fine elsewhere, I just need something for my individual sheets and this fits the bill.

After that I head to the sewing section. I have just gotten my sewing machine set up, and working properly (poor thing needed cleaning and oiling from sitting so long!) I am very anxious to use it, and have been wanting to make an apron. I grab a couple small and very affordable kits for marking patterns and some pattern paper. My husband shows me all the really nice, higher end sewing scissors at around $50 a pop. I am tempted, but I tell him those really can wait. I won’t be cutting tons of fabric just yet until I get the hang of this sewing business, and I bought a more affordable pair of fabric scissors that looked decent recently I can happily use instead for now. I browse the books and the patterns, and decide all that can wait. I better not bite off more than I can chew!

So… it’s off to fabric! I want to find something divine for my apron. The selection is wonderful, but I am trying to browse quickly and not stop and look at everything they have. I am on a mission to get a single fabric for a single project, and I move quickly. I stop at a small section that seems to be made for me! Ladybug prints that would be perfect for my daughter, PENGUINS, and cupcakes!!!! Now, I absolutely have an obsession with penguins, and I just adore cupcake themed anything. I settle on a gorgeous purple fabric with sparkles and cupcakes! It’s my favorite color, too adorable for words, and perfect for an apron design! My husband helps me pick the perfect thread to match, I get my fabric cut, and then I tell him he had seriously better get me the heck out of there because I had done more than enough damage for one day!

We made it to the register just before a huge rush… lucky us! My husband jokes that if the Powerball ticket we had just purchased was a winner he would just buy me the whole store and get it over with. I smiled, laughed, and said I would probably find things to do with everything in that whole store given the opportunity! So many crafters have their little specialty, needlework, sewing, paper crafts, etc. Me, I want to do it ALL! Seriously, there are so many things I have tried or want to learn, which makes my craft wish list beyond the point of insanity!

We leave the store, I’m beaming! I’m smiling so hard that my face seriously hurts. I could not be more excited about my purchases, and all the fun things I’m going to make. I enjoyed coming home and putting everything away! Finding new homes for my treasures is just relaxing and fun!

First Christmas Gift... DONE!

I am so excited right now! I have been working on this project since the very beginning of April, and I just finished. I won't be able to say much else about what it is because it's a gift for Christmas after all, so I can't go around blabbing what it is! I am just really proud of myself!

Just this past week I ordered kits to make 2 more gifts for this year! I have 2 other projects besides those that I need to get supplies for. I will be making a total of 5 handmade gifts this year. I already have a project for the following year that I know I want to do as well.

I love the satisfaction of lovingly creating something beautiful to give someone special, but I must be honest... sometimes I hate giving away my gorgeous creations! *LOL* It can be difficult to part with something that took so many hours of work! Oh well... that's why I make sure and take pictures of things.

I just wanted to share my excitement at my progress with everyone! I think when it comes to handmade Christmas gifts.... the earlier they are done.... the better! Especially because we all know how easy it is to get busy and caught up with life or other projects. I don't like feeling miserable towards the holidays crafting to the point it feels a lot more like a chore than a hobby. Spreading it out lets me enjoy the work a lot more, and lets me enjoy the holidays so much more as well! I can just focus on decorating my own house, enjoying local festivities, etc. Heck, I actually like shopping for myself instead of others at the Christmas sales too! I can get great deals on things that time of year!!!! It's a great time to stock up on certain things!

Blingtastic Flip Flops

Well, my daughter's birthday party is over. What a relief! I worked hard planning, preparing, and creating for 4 months and it turned out dreamy, but now I am ready for a little break. Some time to work on quick, easy projects where I get some instant gratification!!! I have Christmas presents to work on and a huge cross stitch in progress I could work on, but I said heck with all that for a day and I enjoyed a fun and easy project!

I really envy this gorgeous pair of Swarofski flip flops my best friend has. They are super fancy. I couldn't afford to buy them at around $75 a pop, and I wasn't sure if I had the talent to make them myself. So, I opted to make a much more simple version of some blingy flip flops and see how that went before investing in better supplies and attempting a pattern with colors.

I got a $1 pair of flip flops, some E6000 adhesive, a pair of tweezers for picking up stones, some assorted brushes and foam pieces to smooth the adhesive on, and 2 packs of 7mm rhinestones. I got the rhinestones on sale and have tons of glue left. Altogether what I actually used cost me less than $5 to do these!!!

I finished them in I'd say about an hour. I wasn't paying super close attention to the time. It wasn't too hard at all. I am pleased with the way they turned out, and am feeling more confident that maybe it would be worthwhile to invest in better flip flops and stones and try something fancier in the future. For now, I am super proud of my cheap and easy blingtastic flip flops! *LOL*

The Garden I Made

Well, it's been a lot of seperate projects that came together to make a beautiful garden wall that was a decoration for my daughter's very first birthday party! I am just THRILLED with the way it turned out.

I took the tissue paper flowers that I made and glued them to 3 poster boards with tacky glue. I drew the stems and leaves with markers. I cut the grass out of green poster board. I used the foam ladybugs I had made earlier as part of the garden.

The sign was made very easily using my Cricut Expressions that my husband bought me for Mother's Day, and some super cute ladybug stickers!

It felt wonderful to see it all come together. I am certainly very proud of what I was able to create! All the hard work certainly paid off and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

My First Adventure in Cake Decorating

Well, I knew the day was coming. I've been wanting to learn to decorate cakes for awhile now. I had purchased this ladybug cake pan several months back in preperation for Tiffy's first birthday, which is tomorrow! So, today was the day to finally try my hand. I think it went pretty darn well overall. My hand is so cramped up I don't know how I'm typing, and the details are a bit crooked, but hey, that gives it "personality" right?!

I'm pretty proud of myself. It feels so good to be doing all this myself and putting that love into something for my daughter, it is so much more personal and special than a store bought cake! I look forward to working on my skills and doing birthday cakes for my kids for many years to come!

It was my husband's idea to add the text to the bottom of the cake box. I thought it was a great idea! I didn't want to write on the cake, so I was thinking of a little sign put in with a toothpick or something, but I liked his idea better!

Tissue Paper Flowers!

This is a wonderful project I did and really enjoyed! I was actually suprised at the cost of tissue paper though! *LOL* I usually buy it on discount at closeout stores and such, and I was a little blown away by the cost, but of course it was well worth it to do such a neat project with!

I needed 3 packs of tissue paper, all solid colors, some jewelry wire (I improvised on the instructions) and scissors to complete this project. The basic instructions can be found from Martha Stewart, but I'll tell you what I did differently. http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/tissue-paper-pom-poms-how-to?lnc=bf89cf380e1dd010VgnVCM1000005b09a00aRCRD&pgType=intro&rsc=howTo_tab_intro#menu_container

I cut my sheets 10 by 15 instead. She was making very large hanging things, I just wanted them to go up on the wall flat. By making them this size I was able to get 2 flowers out of each color of tissue paper. As I already mentioned I just used jewelry wire for the center, I had it on hand and it worked fine. Another lady online had mentioned using pipe cleaners instead an I suppose that would work fine also. The other major difference is that I only fluffed mine to one side! I got beautiful, full flowers this way and one side is flat. I will show you what I did with them in the next post, and it is pretty darn neat!

They worked up pretty quickly, but I will say they made a mess with a lot of tissue scraps everywhere! *LOL* It made my hands hurt a bit fluffing them out, but they were well worth the work for the finished result. I did find myself wishing I had a much better pair of scissors also! Maybe sometime I'll try the larger round ones and hang them.

My Little Foam Ladybugs

These adorable little creatures were created a few months back. I had a couple different inspirations. I had seen rocks painted to look like ladybugs, and when I asked for ladybug ideas online one woman shared she'd decorated bowls like ladybugs with googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennas. So, I sort of combined the two ideas into this fun project.

I purchased styrofoam in egg shapes, and then cut them in half. I just used regular craft paint. It was easier to dab the paint on for the initial colors.


The eyes are just adhered with tacky glue, and still holding strong! The antennas were just poked through the foam and have held tightly.


One of the BEST things about making these was that the little imperfections really don't seem to show in a bad way! The spots are all kind of different, the antennas don't match perfectly, etc. Those things actually seemed to help give these little critters more character! I just love projects like that! These were pretty quick to do to! I would think it would be a great project to do with kiddos!



They are really lightweight and I have incoorporated them into a tissue paper flower garden that I created. The others will probably be set up around the food. I would say they wouldn't be a good fit for an outdoor party unless they were secured with something!


I think that next Easter my husband and I may be painting some of these styrofoam eggs and creating decorations out of them. I'm not sure what yet, but this was so fun and easy I can't wait to do something similar again!

Ladybug Invitations

Well, my daughter's first birthday is next Saturday! I have been planning for it and making things for several months. I thought I'd share the ladybug invitations I made several months ago. I didn't have the blog then, so I'll post 'em now!

I used a Martha Stewart punch to make the ladybug design. Premade white cards, red and black cardstock, large black brads, a "You're Invited" stamp, and a couple colors of sticker tape.

It was really a pretty straightforward project. The big challenge was getting everything straight! I assure you, I failed miserably at that! *LOL* I need to get some tools that help me line things up better!

I will be posting a LOT more photos soon of the other wonderful things I've been working on for her party! So... stay tuned!

Some handmade gift goodness!

My best friend just had a birthday. Her main gift was a personalized, engraved compact mirror for her purse. I just thought it was so pretty, and would be somewhat practical too. I also took the time to decorate a gift bag for her, and also handmake her a bookmark and card. She's a huge Eeyore fan, so I went with that theme!

Everything was pretty simple to make. The gift bag was just decorated with stickers, and I used a scrap of paper to create the tag. I think the keys were finding stickers that were an appropriate size and just arranging them carefully. This was super easy, and I recommend trying it next time you have a gift to give! It made it so much more personal, and like I said, it wasn't that hard at all! There are such a great variety of stickers out there you're sure to find something great!!

The card was made using a scrapbook paper with Pooh and friends, some fabric ribbon, and a button. I actually sewed the button to the fabric ribbon, and then adhered the fabric ribbon to the paper. The "Happy Birthday" is stamped on, and I had some blue paper on hand I used to accent it. Boy, I love having things on hand!!! Otherwise there are just too many things to buy at a time to make one item! I love to get large stacks of papers in solid colors just for occasions such as this!

The bookmark was made cutting out individual squares from the paper I bought. Pretty easy! I cut the bookmark, cut the squares, glued them on, and then I laminated the bookmark and trimmed it. I was really glad to have my laminator handy for this project!!! I don't use it all that often, but for things like this it makes them a lot more durable and really seals everything in for you. I don't have to worry that the corners of the images will come up while she using it or anything.